Martial Peak

A thousand metres down in the Ice Cliff, extremely obvious Space Force fluctuations began to burst forth from a certain cave mansion, forming a warped space that encompassed the surrounding region.

With cracking sounds, the space around Yang Kai began to destabilize.

One after another, tiny Void Cracks began to take shape and briefly swam through the air like dexterous fish before they were repaired by the ambient World Principles, only to reappear moments later in a seemingly endless cycle.

As time passed, the tiny Void Cracks began to connect, forming extremely terrifying rifts. It was as if the surrounding space was a piece of cloth that had been sliced through with a million sharp swords. Countless scars extended in all directions and the turbulent, chaotic Space Force sent chunks of rock and ice flying all around the small cave mansion.

At the same time, dazzling starlight suddenly burst forth from Yang Kai’s body.

Wisps of starlight began to flit about like fireflies.

These wisps were the same ones that Yang Kai had previously absorbed in the Starlight Corridor but had failed to integrate into his physique so far and were instead stored in his Knowledge Sea.

Stimulated by Yang Kai’s breakthrough, these starlight wisps emerged on their own and began to rapidly catalyze the transformation of his Saint Qi into Source Qi.

If anyone else was present at this moment, they would easily be able to identify Yang Kai as a Star Master; after all, his current appearance was so obvious that it would be hard for someone to not recognize his status.

A rushing force, like a magnificent tsunami, erupted from Yang Kai’s body, but he remained completely unaware as he continued to immerse himself in his comprehension of the Dao of Space.

Big and small tears in space continued to form and be erased around him, which were manifestations of Yang Kai’s Secret Technique: Exile.

A series of pitch-black crescent-shaped blades also shot out in all directions, obviously related to his Moon Blade Secret Technique.

Regarding Space Force, these two Secret Techniques were Yang Kai’s own creations, so it was only natural for them to appear at this time and place.

The sound of metal striking metal seemed to ring out from his lower abdomen as a certain something began to take shape here. This was the condensation of Yang Kai’s perceptions and comprehensions of the Dao of Space.

His Origin Essence Crystal had taken shape!

At the same time, the aura from Yang Kai’s body rapidly inflated.

*Pa pa pa pa…*

All the Source Crystals he had laid out in advance were suddenly lifted by a mysterious force and burst into pieces. Rich World Energy flooded the small cave mansion as Yang Kai’s body seemed to transform into a bottomless pit that began swallowing this aura madly.

The shackles that kept him in the Second-Order Origin King Realm were instantly broken, allowing Yang Kai’s cultivation to advance to the next level in a single, smooth leap.

Things had not ended yet though as Yang Kai continued to absorb the rich, pure energy from the exploded Source Crystals, allowing him to stabilize his cultivation and build a solid foundation.

As for Yang Kai himself, he did not pay any attention to the change in his realm as all his focus was still immersed in his insights into the Dao of Space.

He suddenly discovered that he had a new understanding of the complexities of Space Force.

Another brand-new Secret Technique faintly came to mind.

Ecstatic, Yang Kai remained perfectly calm outwards and focused himself even further as he tried to break through the bottlenecks which were hindering his comprehension so he could bring this new Secret Technique into existence.

Time flew by, and a month and a half soon passed.

During this time, Yang Kai hadn’t even moved, and the thirty thousand Source Crystals that he had taken out had long been used up. His cultivation had stabilized at the Third-Order Origin King Realm, and although the Saint Qi in his body had yet to completely transform into Source Qi, that was not a process that was supposed to take such a short period of time anyway.

However, when he opened his eyes again after all this time, Yang Kai seemed slightly different from before.

From his eyes, a piercing light seemed to shine forth, one that could cause space to shift with just a glance.

“Is this my new Secret Technique?” Yang Kai muttered to himself as his thoughts flashed and his figure suddenly disappeared.

This was not the same as his instantaneous movement Secret Technique, because Yang Kai had actually not moved at all and was still just sitting cross-legged in place, but if one were to sweep the area with their Divine Sense, no trace of his existence could be found. Even as just a Third-Order Origin King, Yang Kai would be able to completely conceal himself from an ordinary Dao Source cultivator with this Secret Technique.

However, if one were to look with their naked eyes, they would still be able to see a vague transparent figure that was sitting there motionlessly, like a reflected image in a ripple filled pond.

This was an extremely profound concealment Secret Technique.

Yang Kai’s new Secret Technique partially merged his body with the Void, making it almost impossible to detect him.

After pondering for a moment, Yang Kai grinned, “I’ll name it Nihility!”

Unlike Exile and Moon Blade, Nihility was not a Secret Technique for combat, but rather for concealment. To a certain extent, it was more precious than Exile or Moon Blade because it could save his life in a pinch. Only by surviving could one continue to fight.

However, Yang Kai vaguely felt that Nihility did not just have utility as a concealment art, but also had another important effect.

Whether this was true or not required testing though.

After a month and a half of retreat, Yang Kai had achieved all his goals, which naturally lifted his spirits. Closing his eyes, he began to thoroughly inspect his current condition.

Sending his Divine Sense into his dantian, Yang Kai soon discovered that there was now a hexagonal crystal silently floating there. It was his newly condensed Origin Essence Crystal, the condensation of his comprehension of Space Force.

Putting it bluntly, if someone were to obtain this Origin Essence Crystal and then comprehend all the mysteries contained inside it, they would obtain all of Yang Kai’s insights into the Dao of Space and would be able to use all of Space Secret Techniques.

This was no doubt Yang Kai’s most valuable treasure.

It was not the first time he had seen an Origin Essence Crystal. He found an Origin Essence Crystal in the Flowing Flame Sand Field many years ago and was ignorant of what it was at the time. Later, he confirmed it was the Origin Essence Crystal of the Insect Emperor. That particular Origin Essence Crystal was swallowed by Yang Kai’s Soul Warming Lotus, allowing it to evolve into its seven-coloured form. Later, Yang Kai had obtained the Origin Essence Crystal of Mad Crocodile Monster King from the Blood Prison. He had also obtained an Origin Essence Crystal at an auction on Purple Star.

The appearance of all Origin Essence Crystals seemed to be similar, a multi-sided crystal, but the colours varied quite a bit.

Regardless of the colour of other people’s Origin Essence Crystal, Yang Kai’s Origin Essence Crystal was pitch black, to the point where it seemed to be able to swallow all light and darkness!

This colour matched with his Space Force, satisfying Yang Kai greatly. The more he observed it, the more he liked it.

Withdrawing his consciousness, Yang Kai began inspecting his cultivation and the conversion ratio of his Source Qi.

There was not much to say about his cultivation: After condensing his Origin Essence Crystal, it was already obvious Yang Kai had successfully broken through to the Third-Order Origin King Realm.

But regarding the transformation of his Saint Qi, Yang Kai felt quite dissatisfied!

It was only half complete! Although he had been immersed in condensing his Origin Essence Crystal for the past month and a half, he was still well aware of his situation. He knew that the starlight wisps had voluntarily gushed out of his Knowledge Sea and begun transforming his Saint Qi for him.

But now, the starlight in his Knowledge Sea had almost been consumed clean but only half his Saint Qi had been converted to Source Qi, a depressing reality.

The reason he felt like this was that he did not know much about the Star Boundary.

If he knew that it would normally take several years for him to completely transform his Saint Qi into Source Qi despite being a Star Master and absorbing a lot of starlight from the Starlight Corridor, he might have been more appreciative of his progress.

For example, Yin Le Sheng had taken almost five years inside the Starlight Corridor to transform all his Saint Qi into Source Qi.

He too was a Star Master!

Ai Ou was also a Star Master, but if nothing unexpected happened, it would take him a minimum of five or six years to complete this transformation.

Cultivators who came from the lower Star Fields and were not Star Masters were even more miserable, needing at least ten years to convert their Saint Qi to Source Qi. This was the normal timespan. Even twenty or thirty years was also possible, while spending fifty years wasn’t that unusual either.

A few dozen years, however, was nothing to an Origin King Realm cultivator.

The transformation of Saint Qi into Source Qi increased a cultivator’s power noticeably, so even if one’s realm did not change, the strength they could display would still gradually increase.

However, Yang Kai took less than three months to transform half of his Saint Qi into Source Qi, an incredible achievement in record time!

The current Yang Kai was more than twice as powerful as he was a month and a half ago; after all, his cultivation had risen by a Minor Realm, and the percentage of his Saint Qi which had been converted to Source Qi had also increased significantly.

“There’s not much starlight left in my Knowledge Sea. How am I supposed to continue forming Source Qi in the future? Hmm… Some time ago, I overheard some people mention Source Condensing Pills that seem to have the same function as starlight. Should I try to refine those Source Condensing Pills?” Yang Kai stroked his chin as he muttered to himself.

Source Condensing Pills, as the name suggested, were specially used to transform Saint Qi in a cultivator’s body to Source Qi. They were only taken by Origin Kings and were an Origin King Grade High-Rank Spirit Pill. Although not comparable to the starlight wisps, these pills were the most commonly used auxiliary Spirit Pill for Origin King Realm cultivators.

However, Yang Kai had only heard the name of this Spirit Pill and did not have its recipe, so he was unable to search for the right ingredients to refine them himself.

Yang Kai secretly decided that he would go to the shopping district to find out if he could acquire new pill recipes after his confinement was over, including the one for the Source Condensing Pill. The Star Boundary had far more pill recipes than the Star Field, so now would be a good time to begin collecting them as they might come in handy later on.

However, purchasing pill recipes required a large amount of Source Crystals. Thinking of his now empty Space Ring, Yang Kai felt a big headache.

He did not expect that he, who was extremely wealthy in the Star Field, would suddenly find himself broke in the Star Boundary.

Putting aside these depressing thoughts, Yang Kai stood up.

As he got up, the layer of frost which had covered his body fell off. Yang Kai casually patted himself off before suddenly frowning, only to smile a moment later.

He found that his ability to withstand the severe cold around him had greatly increased.

When he had first entered seclusion here, he had done so because he was just barely able to withstand the harsh environment.

But now, he found that the severe cold in his surroundings had almost no effect on him. Obviously, this was because his strength had experienced a massive increase, allowing him to easily resist this harsh environment.