Martial Peak

Chapter 1974, Competition

An ordinary man is innocent, but treasures make him guilty. If one really managed to obtain this infant Luan Feng, it would be nothing but trouble. If it was a baby Divine Spirit, then it must have parents. Yang Kai did not want to be chased down and killed by a mature Luan Feng.

This little Luan Feng was a beautiful flower indeed, but one covered in the sharpest of thorns. It was simply ridiculous that so many people here were blinded by the beauty of some imagined future and wanted to take it for themselves.

But facing this naïve, bordering on stupid girl, what was Yang Kai supposed to say?

Trying to reason with her would likely leave Yang Kai coughing up blood from frustration.

While the two were communicating secretly, Old Jiu asked again, “What artifact is this? It seems capable of restraining this juvenile Divine Spirit.”

He was staring at the blue water sphere with scorching eyes, a look of greed covering his face.

The same was true for Chen Shi Qi and Temple Master Luo.

Even though the Luan Feng in front of them was a baby, it had the blood of a Divine Spirit coursing through its veins so no simple artifact could restrain it. This blue water sphere did not seem too eye-catching at first, but if one were even slightly perceptive, they would understand it was a shocking treasure itself.

Even the three Dao Source Realms were unable to identify its exact grade.

“This thing… was brought by that girl.” Xu Qing’s thoughts turned quickly after he heard Old Jiu’s question and he pointed to Mo Xiao Qi with a wicked smile as he spoke.

Yang Kai’s face suddenly became gloomy as he began cursing Xu Qing’s eighteen generations of ancestors.

Xu Qing obviously wanted to murder them with a borrowed knife. He had already offended Mo Xiao Qi and was afraid of being chased down by the power behind her, but was also powerless to deal with her, so he could only take advantage of Old Jiu and the other Dao Source cultivators.

Sure enough, Old Jiu and the others heard this and could not help staring towards Mo Xiao Qi brightly.

Temple Master Luo grinned meaningfully and said, “Little Girl, you’re quite good. Do you want to join my Raging Fire Temple? This Luo can provide you with the best cultivation resources if you agree.”

He directly opened his mouth to recruit Mo Xiao Qi, thinking that as long as he could win her over, the Luan Feng that was imprisoned by Mo Xiao Qi’s artifact would also belong to him.

If it was any normal cultivator, even if they refused, they wouldn’t speak directly, but Mo Xiao Qi obviously had no such qualms and simply shook her head decisively before saying, “Aunty Feng said that forces outside are like weeds, none of them worth mentioning, so I won’t join your Raging Fire Temple.”

On Temple Master Luo’s forehead, blue veins bulged as his eyes suddenly became cold while on the other hand, Old Jiu and Chen Shi Qi laughed out loud, clearly taking pleasure in his misfortune.

Yang Kai’s face went black as he forced the corners of his mouth upwards slightly and cupped his fists, “Temple Master Luo, please don’t mind. This girl has some problems with her head!”

“What did I say wrong?” Mo Xiao Qi looked at Yang Kai blankly.

“You shut up!” Yang Kai snapped.

“Oh.”

“Hmph, you dare to insult my Raging Fire Temple? Little Girl, your courage isn’t small! If you comply with this Luo’s demands today, this Luo will spare your life, but if you refuse…” Why would Temple Master Luo bother with Yang Kai? Mo Xiao Qi’s answer had caused him to lose face, so murderous intent instantly flared from his body. If he had not wanted to use Mo Xiao Qi’s artifact to subdue the Luan Feng, he would already have taken action.

“Temple Master Luo, you must not rush to attack her. This girl is wearing a lot of powerful artifacts, some of which can act independently to protect her! One of my companions simply touched her accidentally and had her Soul destroyed as a result. Even this Junior was almost implicated by her,” Xu Qing yelled in a loud voice, as if he was afraid there would be some here who didn’t hear him.

“An artifact that can independently protect her?” Temple Master Luo heard this and could not help gasping, “Is it an artifact with an Artifact Spirit?”

Artifacts were just dead objects, so in order to act independently to protect their wearer, they needed to have formed an Artifact Spirit. Such artifacts were definitely not low-grade and were extremely valuable.

“Interesting,” Old Jiu also looked at Mo Xiao Qi with bright eyes. Using his Divine Sense, he began scanning her earrings, hairpin, necklace, and bracelets, quickly discerning that almost every piece of jewellery worn by Mo Xiao Qi was of high-grade artifact, just as Xu Qing said!

Chen Shi Qi’s expression flickered as a greedy light flashed across his eyes.

“Xu Qing, you’ll die like a dog for this!” Yang Kai yelled and grabbed Mo Xiao Qi as he shouted, “Run!”

As soon as his voice fell though, Yang Kai shoved Mo Xiao Qi away as he felt a shocking pain run up his arm the moment he touched her.

“Sorry, on my hand there’s…”

“Stop talking, just focus on surviving for now!” Yang Kai was disinclined to listen to her explanation and simply wrapped her up in his Qi before dashing off.

“My Weak Water Bead, my little Luan Feng!” Mo Xiao Qi exclaimed tenderly as she formed a seal with her hands, seemingly wanting to take back the Weak Water Bead and the imprisoned Luan Feng.

But how could the three Dao Source Realms present just watch this happen? Temple Master Luo and the others all waved their hands abruptly to suppress the Weak Water Bead and Luan Feng in place.

“Take back your Weak Water Bead now!” Yang Kai said hurriedly.

Mo Xiao Qi nodded obediently and did not bother with the Luan Feng anymore, instead just focusing on retrieving her Weak Water Bead.

Without the imprisonment of the Weak Water Bead, the infant Luan Feng immediately regained its freedom, spread out its wings, and sent out a barrage of black fireballs in all directions, causing the surrounding cultivators to hurriedly dodge. At the same time, the baby Luan Feng shot up into the sky, attempting to escape.

“Where are you going!?” The three Dao Source Realms all acted together to seal off the retreat of the Luan Feng but none of them dared to get too close; after all, the black flames gave even them an extremely dangerous feeling. Once contaminated with it, it would no doubt be extremely difficult to extinguish.

After stopping the infant Luan Feng, Temple Master Luo turned his attention to Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi, sending a palm out towards them.

“You want to just leave? Naive!” Temple Master Luo coldly snorted.

Even a casual blow from a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master could affect the World Principles around it, causing Yang Kai to feel a deep sense of crisis. Without hesitation, he displayed his Nihility Secret Technique, causing his figure to disappear.

The power of the palm flew over and passed through Yang Kai’s body, hitting empty space before impacting an oval-shaped light shield around Mo Xiao Qi’s body which completely dispersed it, leaving her with no injuries at all.

When Yang Kai’s figure reappeared, he immediately stared at Mo Xiao Qi like she was some kind of monster.

He was able to avoid the attack of Temple Master Luo because of his Space Secret Technique, but Mo Xiao Qi had not even needed to do anything as the artifacts she wore were enough to perfectly protect her.

This girl’s background and heritage were clearly even greater than he imagined.

The speed of the two was extremely fast and in the blink of an eye they had disappeared.

Behind them, Temple Master Luo and the others had fallen into a chaotic battle for the Luan Feng. The light from Secret Techniques and artifact attacks filled the sky as powerful energy fluctuations exploded everywhere. Cultivators fell from the sky one after another, with none of the living having any spare energy to deal with Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi now.

After escaping a couple dozen kilometres, Yang Kai suddenly stopped.

Mo Xiao Qi also stopped and looked at Yang Kai suspiciously, “Why did you stop?”

Yang Kai looked at her coldly and grinned meaningfully.

Mo Xiao Qi’s beautiful face suddenly went pale as she hurried back a few steps before trying to act tough and shouting, “What do you want to do? I’m warning you, I’m quite fierce!”

Yang Kai couldn’t help rolling his eyes, “What do you think I want to do? I just want to observe from here.”

Mo Xiao Qi frowned, thought for a moment, then suddenly said joyfully, “The mantis catches the cicada, while unaware the oriole is behind?”

She looked extremely excited, as if she had found something fun.

“I just want to lie in wait to see if that Xu Qing escapes. Anyone who plots against me won’t have a good end,” Yang Kai declared coldly.

“I’ll help you! He really didn’t seem like a good person,” Mo Xiao Qi volunteered.

[Shouldn’t you have noticed he was not a good person before all of this?] Yang Kai was completely speechless.

And so, the two of them went into hiding, concealing their auras as they waited.

However, Mo Xiao Qi was currently far away from Yang Kai. It was not that Mo Xiao Qi was wary of him, or afraid Yang Kai would try to take advantage of her somehow, but rather that Yang Kai was afraid of her!

This girl was covered with sharp thorns, and just touching her now had drawn blood from Yang Kai’s hand, so who knew what kind of misfortune would befall him if he were to accidentally touch her again.

As such, under Yang Kai’s strong request, Mo Xiao Qi lay in ambush a thousand metres away from him.

At this moment, she seemed to be pursing her lips and muttering something with an uncomfortable look on her face.

Although the battle was occurring nearly thirty kilometres away from where he currently was, with Yang Kai’s powerful Divine Sense, the situation on the other side was easy to observe.

More and more cultivators were rushing over and getting drawn into the battle, some of whom were Dao Source Realm masters.

These cultivators were either in groups ranging from three to eight members in total, causing the battle to become even more heated.

From time to time, someone would fall from the sky, but the flow of blood and cries before death did nothing to calm the situation, instead only further fueling the flames of battle. Almost everyone now had bloodshot eyes as they attacked everyone else mercilessly.

The Dao Source Realm masters were undoubtedly much calmer, and while fighting amongst themselves, they were also blocking the Luan Feng’s escape routes, making it impossible for it to flee.

Yang Kai soon found Xu Qing amongst the crowd. This guy had once again displayed his Beast Soul Symbiosis Secret Technique to assume his Golden Hair Giant Ape form and was trailing behind Old Jiu, killing the stragglers left behind by the old man.

Soon, of the hundreds of cultivators who entered Clear Jade Mountain, at least eighty percent had become involved in the battle, creating rivers of blood and mountains of corpses after just two short hours.

As time passed, even the Dao Source Realm masters began to get hurt. Now, everyone was going all out, not just to snatch the Luan Feng, but also to seek revenge for their grievances.

Almost all of the cultivators present were either from Maplewood City or the surrounding area, so there were many grudges between them and now was as good a time as any to settle them.

More and more cultivators fell as the battle raged on.

The Dao Source Realm masters finally realized that the situation was getting out of hand at some point, and with some unknown party making the proposal, the battle rapidly subsided, but by this point, only half of the cultivators which had gotten involved in this debacle were still alive.

The infant Luan Feng was still surrounded by cultivators and had lost its previous ferocity. Instead, it was collapsed on the ground weakly, its beautiful feathers somewhat bloodied as the once brilliantly burning flames which covered its body had gone dim, like they were on the verge of being extinguished.

This battle seemed to have damaged its very source.