Martial Peak

Chapter 2076, Surrounded by Demon Qi

Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Maplewood City…

Followed by a deafening sound and quaking of the ground, a colourful screen of light appeared out of nowhere, surrounding the entire city in a dome.

These defensive Arrays were painstakingly created and arranged by the past City Lords and masters of major families living in Maplewood City, to guard against the foreign enemies. However, these defensive Arrays had never been activated.

Because Maplewood City hadn't encountered any powerful enemy invasion so far. Even the cultivators, who had been living in Maplewood City for a long time, had almost forgotten about these defensive Arrays.

But today, all the Spirit Arrays were activated, one after another.

"What is going on? Why are these Spirit Arrays activated?"

"Something big must have happened. A foreign enemy wouldn't happen to be invading, right?"

"Could an Emperor Realm master be attacking?"

For a while, many cultivators in the city were surprised and confused. Everyone broke into lively discussions. Some even looked toward the City Lord's Mansion, wondering what the City Lord's Mansion had to say about it.

At this moment, an anxious shout came from outside the city, "Everyone, quickly enter the city! No delays are allowed!"

This sentence was repeated over and over again. The speaker sounded anxious. Furthermore, the speaker seemed to have imbued his energy into it. His voice was heard throughout Maplewood City.

"It's Vice City Lord Drunkard!"

After some cultivators recognized the owner of the voice, everyone was stunned. They immediately rushed to the city wall and looked around. After a short while, the wall was jam-packed with cultivators.

The next moment, cries of surprise rang everywhere.

"Look, Sir Vice City Lord seems to be being chased by something!"

"Wa-what the hell is that? It's all black!"

"Even Sir Vice City Lord is not its opponent!?"

While everyone was clamouring, Drunkard had already arrived before Maplewood City. Seeing him arrive, the cultivator responsible for controlling the Spirit Array barrier immediately opened a gap in front of him. Drunkard's figure immediately flew inside.

After he entered, the gap was quickly closed again. The barrier looked as good as before.

At the same time, the billowing black Qi that was hot on Drunkard's tails had also reached the walls. It didn't slow down and crashed straight into the screen of light.

*Bang…*

A deafening crash instantly resounded across the city. The brightly glowing screen of light shook a little and dimmed all of a sudden, almost shattering. This couldn't escape from the eyes of the nearby cultivators. Everyone was scared, their faces turning pale as they backed away.

The cultivators maintaining the Array hurriedly mobilized their own energy, pouring more of their energy into the array. Finally, they somehow stabilized the trembling screen of light.

*Swish swish swish…*

Streaks of light immediately shot toward this side from every nook and corner of the city. Obviously, all the cultivators in Maplewood City had noticed the commotion here.

City Lord Duan Yuan Shan was first to appear. The moment he landed on the walls, he stared ahead with a serious look on his face. The corner of his eyelids, twitching.

Several cultivators emanating the aura of Dao Source Realm appeared on either side of him, one by one. And after noticing what was happening before them, everyone's face turned pale.

"City Lord Duan, what are these things?" One of the grey-haired old men asked.

This old man was a First-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator. He was none other than Qin Family's Old Ancestor, Qin Zhao Yang! He was the oldest looking cultivator among the ten Dao Source Realm cultivators present here. He looked as if he didn't have much time left; old age spots could be seen on his face.

This was extremely rare for a Dao Source Realm cultivator. Only those cultivators, whose lifespan was about to reach the limit, would show these signs.

"Yes, City Lord Duan, since you ordered the activation of the defensive Arrays in advance, you should have gotten some news about this, right?" Du Family's Old Ancestor, Du Li Shen also asked.

Other Dao Source Realm masters of other families also looked to Duan Yuan Shan, hoping to get an explanation from him.

"Demon Qi! Pure Demon Qi of an Ancient Great Demon!" Duan Yuan Shan replied with a serious look on his face. "From what I know, it happened to have leaked 2 thousand kilometres away!"

"Ancient Great Demon's pure Demon Qi!?" The crowd of Dao Source Realm masters' expression drastically changed after hearing this.

"This City Lord just got the news. Don't ask me where this Demon Qi came from, this City Lord doesn't have a clue. I only know that if we can't work together, Maplewood City will be destroyed today!"

The crowd of Dao Source Realm masters looked shocked after hearing this.

Duan Yuan Shan looked around. "Everyone, you all are leaders of your respective families. Most of your clansmen are still inside the city. I think you don't want to see them infected by the Demon Qi and lose their sanity, do you?"

"Of course not!" Qin Zhao Yang was the first to express his position, "But how will we defend against it? I ask Sir City Lord to please share!"

"Yeah! This is the first time we have encountered pure Demon Qi of an Ancient Great Demon. We don't know what the best way is to get rid of it," Liang Peng Le of the Liang Family stated with a grim look hanging on his face.

"Well…" Duan Yuan Shan was rendered speechless for a while. Although he was a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master and his cultivation was higher than the others, he was against the pure Demon Qi of an Ancient Great Demon. Just like everyone else, he was encountering it for the first time. How would he have any idea how to get rid of it effectively?

"Brother Duan, we might as well strengthen our defences first. We can slowly research it later!" Drunkard was showing no signs of being drunk. He was wide awake now.

"Exactly!" Duan Yuan Shan's eyes lit up. He added, "Everyone, please take care of a section of the city wall and help others defend the Spirit Array. I will go look for someone, I might get some answers from him!"

While speaking, Duan Yuan Shan gave an eye signal to Drunkard. Drunkard immediately understood and summoned everyone to come forward before they started studying.

After a while, the Dao Source Realm cultivators had settled on their section to defend before quickly dispersing.

Meanwhile, Drunkard's expression momentarily changed as if he recalled something. He hurriedly flew toward the City Lord's Mansion.

The shocking thing happening outside the city had already reached the ears of many cultivators. The word got spread from one to ten, then from ten to a hundred, and so on. Very soon, every cultivator in the entire Maplewood City knew about it. Some hot-blooded cultivators immediately obeyed the call and went to the city wall to assist in the defence.

In a flash, the walls of Maplewood City were jam-packed.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai and Mo Xiao Qi were back at the Spirit Pill Plaza. Yang Kai immediately spread his Divine Sense and knew that Kang Si Ran and the members of the Spirit Pill Plaza were already ready. They had even boarded the ship.

He signalled Mo Xiao Qi before Mo Xiao Qi embarked the ship the next moment.

Just when he was about to enter the ship, he suddenly looked toward a direction, immersed in his thoughts.

In that direction, an unremarkable middle-aged man among the crowd of onlookers was calmly gazing at Yang Kai. When their gazes met, the middle-aged man smiled slightly. His smile appeared quite weird.

Yang Kai couldn't help but furrow his brow.

The middle-aged man was a complete stranger. He was sure that he had never seen this guy. However… to his surprise, this man was a Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator. He found this a little unbelievable.

Masters of this level rarely appeared in Maplewood City. Apart from the Luan Feng's appearance on Clear Jade Mountain last time, which had attracted countless powerful cultivators to investigate, the entire Maplewood City might not have a single Third-Order Dao Source Realm master pass by in a year.

But today, he found one in the crowd. And he seemed to be interested in Yang Kai, which puzzled him.

However, he didn't give it much of a thought. Instead, he quickly embarked on the ship before controlling the ship to fly off.

After the ship left, the middle-aged man coldly smiled as he muttered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, "Wow, it's really a case of wearing the iron shoes in fruitless search only to find it by coincidence. Who would have thought that after finding no clues after half a year, I would see the Young Palace Master's ship here! Since you obtained it, you should know something!"

Surprisingly, this middle-aged man was the master sent by the Flying Saint Palace Master six months ago to investigate who murdered Ning Yuan Cheng!

Following clues, he easily found out that the place where he was seen last time was the auction fair in Maplewood City. So naturally, he rushed all the way to Maplewood City.

However, he didn't find any useful information even after investigating for six months.

By some lucky coincidence, he managed to see Ning Yuan Cheng's ship artifact in the city!

He didn't believe that Yang Kai had the ability to kill Ning Yuan Cheng. After all, Ning Yuan Chen was guarded by a Second-Order Dao Source Realm master, Liu Yi Zhi. And in his opinion, Yang Kai simply didn't have that kind of ability. But he believed that since Yang Kai could get Ning Yuan Cheng's ship, he definitely knew something.

Therefore, he was paying attention to Yang Kai.

There were many eyes in the city. It was inconvenient for him to make a move here. He decided to follow him first.

Yang Kai flew the ship to the city walls. But when he saw the situation outside, his heart immediately hit rock bottom!

Because at this moment, the boundless Ancient Demon Qi had already surrounded the entire Maplewood City, leaving not even the slightest bit of gap. Looking from high above, it looked as if the city walls of Maplewood City were built from pitch-black materials.

The pitch-black city wall kept squirming and moving around several dozen kilometres around Maplewood City. Anyone who rushed into it would be in grave danger.

Even though the ship artifact's grade wasn't low and it also had some defensive barriers, if Yang Kai hastily rushed in, everyone else besides him would definitely be infected.

"Brother Yang…" Kang Si Ran had obviously noticed the situation. He immediately turned pale. "How did this happen?"

"Ah, it's too late!" Mo Xiao Qi nibbled her cherry red lips. She looked frustrated. At the same time, she was cursing Zhuang Pan in her heart.

Had they not wasted so much time on Zhuang Pan, maybe they still had the chance to leave here before the Demon Qi surrounded the city. But now, it was too late.

Inside the ship, everyone turned their gazes to Yang Kai.

At this point, Yang Kai's cultivation was highest, and he had already become everyone's pillar.

Even though there was a grim look on Yang Kai's face, he wasn't in a panic.

Because even if he had nowhere to go, he could send everyone into the Small Sealed World and break through the blockade of Demon Qi alone.

He was eighty percent confident that he could safely escape from it using Space Force.

But this way, he would be unable to hide his big secret, the Sealed World Bead. The members of the Zhang Family were still good. After all, they regarded Yang Kai as their saviour. If Yang Kai asked them to keep the matter about the Sealed World Bead a secret, they would definitely swear an oath and keep a tight lid on it.