Martial Peak

It was as if Zhang Qing and his group weren’t facing a Second-Order Origin Realm cultivator, but a genuine Origin King…

Around Domain Stone Mountain, all eyes focused towards Yang Kai solemnly.

Everyone realized that this young man was an extremely terrifying opponent!

Many groups closer to Yang Kai retreated backwards, subconsciously distancing themselves from Yang Kai like they were trying to avoid a god of plague.

A mass of purple Thunder Fire floated above Zhang Qing’s corpse. This Thunder Fire not only contained scorching heat but also violent lightning. It was a kind of Secret Technique that Brilliant Flame Sect’s most powerful cultivators could cultivate.

Last time, in the Emperor Garden, the beautiful woman named Tan Ting He from Ice Heart Valley had told Yang Kai that Brilliant Flame Sect had a Heavenly Thunder Fire in their possession that served as the foundation of their Sect and contained astonishing power.

If a cultivator of Brilliant Flame Sect was strong enough, they could use the power of this Heavenly Thunder Fire to cultivate the Heaven Scorching Thunder Fire Secret Technique.

Obviously, Zhang Qing was one such qualified individual.

As soon as this mass of Heaven Scorching Thunder Fire belonging to Zhang Qing appeared, the Firebird Artifact Spirit swooped down as if it smelt a delicious delicacy and swallowed it whole before letting out a satisfied cry.

“Come back,” Yang Kai called out, and the Artifact Spirit immediately turned into a flame that flew into Yang Kai’s body and disappeared.

Turning his head and looking around, Yang Kai found that the crowd had yet to recover from their shock; however, many of them swiftly avoided his gaze when it swept past them, as if they were afraid to meet eyes with him.

Seeing this, Yang Kai just chuckled and shouted loudly, “Rest assured, if others don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them. I just want to occupy a little space here, as for everyone else, you can do whatever you want.”

Hearing what he said, the vigilant cultivators breathed a sigh of relief and their nervous expressions gradually eased.

With the overwhelming strength Yang Kai just displayed, things would definitely not end well if he were to focus on any of their groups. There were six masters in Zhang Qing’s group, but all of them had died without even being able to put up a fight. On the other hand, the strongest team here only had nine people, so no individual group was confident they could survive Yang Kai’s violent attack or resist his powerful Shi!

“Continue your comprehension, I don’t think anyone will bother us from now on,” Yang Kai motioned to Qian Tong and Lin Yu Rao lightly.

The two exchanged a stunned glance and were somewhat at a loss, unable to believe what had just happened.

Just now, they had seen Yang Kai take action and joined in without hesitation, but they had never expected that victory would be so easily achieved. The two of them had thought there would be a bitter battle and perhaps one or all of them would end up falling here.

However, the result was them slaughtering the enemy without any difficulty.

When they killed their opponents, they clearly felt their helplessness.

As a result, once the battle was over, the two of them wound up in a kind of daze.

“Yang Kai, you seem to have grown a lot. Did you make a lot of gains in the Blood Prison already?” Qian Tong looked at him suspiciously.

He had participated in the attack on the three giants of Shadowed Star with Yang Kai, but at that time, Yang Kai had not been this strong. Back then, Qian Tong had felt that Yang Kai had unlimited potential, but had still yet to fully mature and thought that his own strength should be comparable to Yang Kai’s.

But now, it seemed Yang Kai had reached a height he could only look up to.

Yang Kai’s breakthrough in cultivation was only a small part of the reason though, while Yang Kai’s accomplishments in Shi were clearly his strongest capital. Qian Tong vaguely felt that Yang Kai’s trip through the Blood Prison had yielded significant gains.

“Something like that,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, without explaining too much.

Qian Tong gently nodded, calming his mind and no longer thinking about this issue, but just as he was about to sit back down, he suddenly said, “Right, Yang Kai, about Brother Zhao, he…”

“You can decide,” Yang Kai smiled lightly before sitting down cross-legged himself.

Qian Tong nodded, thought about it for a moment, then walked over to a nearby spot where Zhao Tian Ze was standing dumbstruck and talked to the latter in a low voice.

A short time later, Zhao Tian Ze returned with a shameful expression, looked for an open spot, then sat down cross-legged, all the while looking at Yang Kai with a complicated expression.

He was indeed ashamed. Before, he had coveted life and feared death, not daring to remain to share difficulties with Qian Tong and the others, but now that the enemy has been extinguished, he had been allowed to come back and reap benefits without contributing any effort, a situation that made Zhao Tian Ze feel rather embarrassed.

If it were anything else, Zhao Tian Ze would most likely have refused as he still wanted to maintain some of his dignity.

But Domain Stone Mountain’s temptation was simply too great. Even if he felt extremely embarrassed doing so, he still grit his teeth and returned. Now that he was sitting down though, he couldn’t help feeling his old face burning up with shame.

“Brother Zhao, don’t think too much about it, in the situation just now, anyone who didn’t know about Yang Kai’s details would probably have made the same choice. There is nothing for you to apologize for. Brother Zhao, I know your temperament well.” Qian Tong comforted.

Zhao Tian Ze smiled bitterly, glanced over at Yang Kai with dim eyes, but upon seeing the latter just sit motionlessly, not showing any intention to speak, he simply sighed and said sincerely, “This Zhao is deeply grateful!”

He was even embarrassed to speak too many words.

Qian Tong patted him on the shoulder, trying to reassure him that everything was alright.

Around Domain Stone Mountain, hundreds of Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators gathered in large and small groups, each one occupying their own position.

Yang Kai and his group, however, occupied the largest spot, and even though there were only four of them, no one dared to approach. The fresh corpses and blood that still stained the ground were the best evidence of the battle which had happened earlier.

All around Yang Kai’s small group, there was a large open space that no one dared trespass upon.

From time to time, a cultivator who heard about Domain Stone Mountain’s appearance would arrive, and when they saw the open space on both sides of Yang Kai’s group, their eyes always lit up and thoughts of occupying these spots would fill their heads. However, once they saw the broken corpses nearby, their expressions all inevitably darkened and they would eventually give up.

Half a day later, Domain Stone Mountain was surrounded by two full layers with the number of cultivators now reaching as high as two hundred. What’s more, there were still other cultivators constantly arriving from afar.

Conflict inevitably occurred as more people came.

Teams with larger numbers always wanted to seize better positions while the groups that arrived here earlier naturally didn’t want to give up their spot, and if the two sides couldn’t work out some kind of agreement, a fight would naturally break out.

From time to time, dying cries would ring out.

The area around Domain Stone Mountain quickly transformed into a burial ground for Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters. Each of the fallen here was a famous character from a major Cultivation Star, making for an extremely intense scene.

However, no matter how intense the fighting became, Yang Kai’s group of four didn’t encounter any kind of provocation again.

Yang Kai’s group occupying such a good position, with no one around them for quite some distance, was a telling sign. Anyone with a little bit of intelligence would understand that this small group was not to be trifled with and naturally wouldn’t go test their luck.

Qian Tong, Lin Yu Rao, and Zhao Tian Ze seemed to have become completely immersed in the wondrous aura being emitted from Domain Stone Mountain.

Yang Kai, however, didn’t enter a meditative state, instead just sitting cross-legged on the ground, supposedly guarding his group against anyone who dared make trouble for them, but the entire time, there was a strange grin that never left his face as he stared towards Domain Stone Mountain.

It was as if he was staring at something that was already in his pocket!

A day later, many cultivators who were cultivating faintly discovered something wrong.

As more time passed, the miraculous aura emanating from Domain Stone Mountain seemed to be diminishing. In the beginning, everyone felt they were just over-thinking things, but after a closer inspection, they found that this decrease in aura was really happening.

Domain Stone Mountain was slowly losing its effect!

This discovery left everyone at a loss as they wondered why Domain Stone Mountain, which had existed for thousands of years, had suddenly undergone such a change.

After two days, more and more cultivators discovered this phenomenon and soon, everyone became aware.

Whispers sounded one after another.

“What happened? It’s only been a few days, how come Domain Stone Mountain’s aura has weakened so greatly?”

“You noticed as well? I thought I was just imagining things.”

“Could it be that there are too many people here so all the power from Domain Stone Mountain is being absorbed?”

“Nonsense! When has the appearance of Domain Stone Mountain not attracted so many people? In the past, even more people had come to cultivate here but there had never been any kind of problem. Why is it happening this time?

“Could it be that Domain Stone Mountain is losing its function?”

“Stop speculating and take advantage of what little effect is left! If Domain Stone Mountain loses its aura entirely, it will become completely useless.”

The strange change in Domain Stone Mountain made every cultivator who came here feel a sense of crisis and everyone went all out to try to comprehend whatever mysteries from it they could in order to gain the most benefits in the little time they had.

By the third day, the cultivators in the outer periphery of Domain Stone Mountain actually couldn’t feel any kind of aura at all. Only those cultivators who occupied a spot in the inner layer could still gain something.

By the fourth day, however, it became difficult for even those in the inner circle to comprehend anything.

The effect of Domain Stone Mountain seemed to have reduced to a bare minimum. This was something which had never happened before. Domain Stone Mountain was the treasure of the Blood Prison and had existed for over ten thousand years, so no one was able to understand what was happening here.

Only Yang Kai continued to grin wider and wider as time passed.

Suddenly, a soft cracking sound came from a certain position.

Although the noise was extremely slight, it attracted the attention of many people.

Focusing on the source of this sound, in an instant, many cultivators’ eyes bulged in surprise.

“A crack!? There’s a crack in Domain Stone Mountain!” Someone exclaimed, as if something extraordinary had been discovered.

“What? There’s a crack in Domain Stone Mountain? Impossible!” Some people refused to believe it.

What was Domain Stone Mountain? In essence, it was a single, massive Domain Stone, one that had remained undamaged for millennia, so how could it possibly crack all of a sudden?

However, just as some were trying to refuse this claim, more cracks appeared on Domain Stone Mountain. These tiny cracks soon spread out like a spider’s web, leaving a dense, criss-crossing pattern across the mountain’s surface.

*Kacha…*

“Not good, Domain Stone Mountain is going to be destroyed!”

“Is it really going to break apart? Hahaha, such good fortune! Father here was worried he wouldn’t be able to gain anything from this place but now it’s actually going to break apart! The Heavens are helping me.”

All kinds of shouts rang out at that instant as all the cultivators got up one after another, either with solemn or excited expressions as they focused all their attention on Domain Stone Mountain, each of them having different ideas in their hearts.

A tense atmosphere suddenly spread as the many cultivators who had been living in peace with one another now began eyeing everyone around them as if they were enemies.

Everyone was thinking about how to gain the most from ​​Domain Stone Mountain’s collapse.

“Yang Kai, we…” Qian Tong gulped hard as he stared at Domain Stone Mountain with fiery eyes.

But Yang Kai just frowned as he released his Divine Sense all around, his face suddenly changing a moment later as he called out in alarm, “Get back!”