Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Raikov

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

The cultivation of this old man was not very high, only Third-Order Origin King, so his aptitude clearly wasn't that good. He had already reached the end of his potential, and he couldn't progress again in his lifetime.

At this moment, with the building on the mountain peak collapsed, no other person could possibly appear but him.

The four Emperors could all sense that the aura from the mark was actually from this man's body.

Feng Ming frowned and instantly realized what happened, cursing, "Just like a golden cicada shedding its skin, he escaped!"

Yang Kai also sighed, "We were careless. It seems like Gong Yue is now in good shape."

The mark he left on Gong Yue's body had been transferred to this elderly man, luring the four of them in the wrong direction. It was impossible for the mark to have transferred on its own though, so the only explanation was Gong Yue had done it intentionally.

And, for him to have done it without Yang Kai noticing, it was clear that Gong Yue was no longer in a muddled state. He had either restored his consciousness, or it was taken over by the Demon Spirit after it fused perfectly with his body, neither of which was what Yang Kai's group hoped to see.

One by one, they put away their artifacts.

The elderly man standing in the ruins was scared out of his wits, and he cried out miserably to them, "This humble old man greets these Seniors. Please… Seniors, please…spare my life!"

He had no idea what Yang Kai and the others had come here to do, but he knew that they were not people he could resist, especially the one who made that strike earlier, the one who called himself the Orthodoxy Temple's Elder Feng Ming.

This old man knew of Orthodoxy Temple as it was one of the top Sects of the Southern Territory. A small Sect like his didn't even have the right to look upon them, but now one of Orthodoxy Temple's Elders had come here personally and even attacked him. If Feng Ming had not dispersed his lethal move at the last moment, this old man would have vanished without even a trace of his bones remaining.

The old man could not understand what he had done to provoke Orthodoxy Temple, and to attract the attention of such a powerful Master. Fear and panic obstructed his ability to think and he could only open his mouth to beg for mercy.

"Do not panic, old man." Yang Kai smiled at the elderly man while using his Divine Sense to apply a kind of calming wave to settle his emotions, "We are not here to make things difficult for you, merely to track down a criminal. We did not expect such a misunderstanding to arise."

"A criminal…" The old man was much more stable after receiving this pacification and was also no longer in a panic like he was earlier.

"Yes." Yang Kai looked solemn. Tapping the tips of his fingers in front of him and circulating his Emperor Qi at the same time, an image appeared in front of him, naturally of Gong Yue's face, "This is the man we're looking for. Have you seen this person recently?"

Since the mark was transferred to this elderly man, that meant that Gong Yue had at least been here before. Now, without the mark, tracking down Gong Yue was going to be a problem, and this old man may be their only clue. Naturally, Yang Kai wouldn't let it go so easily.

"Him?" The elderly man looked shocked after seeing Gong Yue's face.

Yang Kai exclaimed, "You've seen him?"

The old man muttered, "I thought that was just a dream! A few days ago, when this old man was cultivating, I may have seen that man, but when I tried to take a closer look, he was gone. I thought…I thought that it was just…an illusion."

Feng Ming quickly said, "Let me see your memory!"

As soon as he said that, his arm reached out for the elderly man, resulting in the man's yelp. Involuntarily, he was pulled before Feng Ming.

This old man was terrified. Feng Ming's attitude hadn't been particularly friendly when he made that strike at him earlier, so thinking that he was going to meet with some untoward end, he struggled out of panic, but there was nothing an Origin King Realm cultivator like him could do in front of an Emperor Realm Master. He was subdued in an instant and was unable to move even a finger.

Feng Ming pointed a finger at his forehead, quite apparently prying into his memories from yesterday.

Right at that moment, Yang Kai suddenly shouted in alarm, "Elder Feng, watch out!"

Feng Ming was distracted for just a moment when the elderly man he dragged in front of him suddenly swelled up. The power in this old man's body became chaotic and violent. Clearly, the elderly man had no idea what was happening either, as he was panicking with a look of confusion on his face.

With a loud bang, the elderly man burst apart.

And, from inside his exploded body, a small ball of black light quickly rushed at Feng Ming.

Even though Feng Ming was a Second-Order Emperor, he was still caught off guard by the sudden unexpected change in front of him. He was trying to check the memory of the elderly man, but he didn't expect the man to suddenly self-destruct right before his eyes, and for this strange thing to fly out of his body as well.

The black light was not big, but Feng Ming's vision seemed to be filled by it. He could no longer see anything else, and at the same time, there was a faint murmur in his ears that shook his mind, causing him to open the defences of his Knowledge Sea.

"Demon Suppression!"

Yang Kai shouted, and the light of a Shamanic Spell shot off in Feng Ming's direction, just barely making it between Feng Ming and the black light. As soon as the black light touched the Shamanic Spell, it bounced off and shot towards Gao Xue Ting instead.

The Radiant Sun Mirror appeared behind Gao Xue Ting, emitting a dazzling light just like the blazing sun.

With a serious expression, Gao Xue Ting formed seals with her hands.

A beam of light shot out from her Radiant Sun Mirror, covering the black light.

The beam of light seemed to have a very strong binding force, and the black light crashed left and right within its boundary, but was unable to break free for a while. And, under the power of the Radiant Sun Mirror, there even seemed to be traces of it melting as thin wisps of black Qi could be seen diffusing from it.

"Three Thousand Sword Daos Entwine Like Thread!" Chen Wen Hao pointed his Flowing Water Sword at the black light, and thin silk threads shot out, entering the light and turning into a layer of restraint to wrap around the struggling black light.

With the combined strength of Chen Wen Hao and Gao Xue Ting, they finally subdued the black light.

"This…is the Demon Spirit?" Feng Ming wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, his heart still jumping from the event.

If Yang Kai hadn't reacted quickly and helped him block that strike with his strange Secret Technique, then his mind would have been invaded by the Demon Spirit. He had no idea whether he had the ability to resist the Demon Spirit or not, but with Gong Yue as an example, he may not be able to break free if the Demon Spirit was really that strong.

The four of them had come out to hunt Gong Yue, but they had actually been fooled by such a small trick and almost suffered a heavy loss, causing Feng Ming to show a terrible expression.

"This isn't a complete Demon Spirit!" Yang Kai frowned as he carefully observed the imprisoned black light and judged, "It was split from Gong Yue. He knows we're hunting him, so he planted this trap on purpose!"

"The Demon Spirit can split itself?" Feng Ming was shocked.

Chen Wen Hao and Gao Xue Ting also had grave expressions. If that was true, then the problem was much more serious than they anticipated. They thought that all they had to do was find Gong Yue and kill him, but if the Demon Spirit could divide itself, then it wouldn't help even if they eliminated Gong Yue.

Because none of them knew how many parts the Demon Spirit could split into, and where else it was hiding.

Only Yang Kai had been in a direct confrontation with the Demon Spirit, so everyone turned their gazes to him to see what his opinion was.

"From the information we have, it seems the Demon Spirit can indeed divide itself."

Hearing this, the hearts of the other three sank.

"However…" Yang Kai went on, "This ability is likely not unlimited. This is half of the Demon Spirit I saw before, so it's possible it can only divide into two parts, and there must be a cost to do so."

"Even so, this is a tricky situation." Chen Wen Hao frowned.

"Let's eliminate this Demon Spirit first." After eating a loss, Feng Ming was more concerned with this thing than anyone else.

Agreeing, Gao Xue Ting planned to increase the might of her Radiant Sun Mirror. No matter how strange this Demon Spirit was, there had to be a way to eliminate it, and this situation proved it. Gao Xue Ting also felt that she would be able to melt the restrained Demon Spirit completely if she put in thirty percent more power.

"Wait," Yang Kai raised his hand to stop her. "We've already lost Gong Yue's trail. If we want to track him down again, we can only start from this half Demon Spirit. If we destroy it, I'm afraid we may lose him forever."

Feng Ming nodded, "You're right. Gong Yue tried to use this little trick to catch us off guard, and maybe even try to demonise one of us, but he must not have expected to leave a clue behind instead. It seems a wise man can truly be ruined by his own wisdom."

Chen Wen Hao said, "Even so, how are we going to track Gong Yue using this Demon Spirit? Who dares to handle it?"

The Demon Spirit had so many strange tricks that none of these Emperor Realm Masters dared to handle it directly. But if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to track Gong Yue's location.

Yang Kai said, "If you can all trust me, then leave it to me."

Gao Xue Ting was shocked, "You? What will you do with it?"

Yang Kai smiled, "Don't worry, Senior Sister Gao. Since I was able to resist the invasion of the Demon Characters in that cave mansion, I can naturally resist the temptation of this meagre half of a Demon Spirit."

"Can you…truly?"

Gao Xue Ting looked worried. It wasn't that she didn't believe in Yang Kai's strength, but nobody would dare to make any guarantees in this situation. If Yang Kai were to be invaded by the Demon Spirit, then they would be falling right into Gong Yue's plan.

"Are you confident?" Chen Wen Hao also looked seriously at Yang Kai.

Even though Feng Ming did not say anything, he clearly thought the same.

Yang Kai said, "I'm at least seventy percent sure. What's more… Don't I have three Masters standing guard by me?"

Chen Wen Hao nodded, "If there's a seventy percent chance, then this method is feasible!"

Gao Xue Ting glared at him, "If you think it's feasible, then why don't you try it?"

Chen Wen Hao cleared his throat, "I don't have confidence, so I can't try it."

If they wanted to trace Gong Yue through this half of the Demon Spirit, then they would need to have deeper contact with it, and even peer into its inner workings. In doing so, one would be actively opening themselves up to the Demon Spirit, which wasn't something to joke about.

"We should destroy it!" Gao Xue Ting was about to act as soon as she said that. She wasn't willing to watch Yang Kai take this risk. Even if Yang Kai said he was seventy percent sure he could do it, what if they fell into the remaining thirty percent instead?

Instead of having Yang Kai take such a risk, they might as well destroy this Demon Spirit as soon as possible. They may have lost track of Gong Yue, but that didn't mean they wouldn't be able to trace him. If anything, they could use their Sects to mobilize all the cultivators of the Southern Territory to seek him out, then Gong Yue wouldn't be able to hide no matter how hard he tried.