Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Jon

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Mu Zhu remained silent for a moment before asking, "Master, what kind of Spirit Flower do you want us to nurture?"

"Dragon Blood Flowers. You must have come across them in the medicine garden." As Yang Kai spoke, he strode towards the area where Dragon Blood Flowers were planted, followed by the two Wood Spirits.

When they arrived at the place, Yang Kai took a look as his gaze appeared pleasantly surprised. Then, he exclaimed, "Amazing!"

Hundreds of Dragon Blood Flowers were neatly arranged in this part of the medicine garden as they were surrounded by some kind of purple grass. They also gleamed with a scarlet glow. Just like what he had expected, all the Dragon Blood Flowers had turned from Low-Rank to Mid-Rank.

There were about six hundred or so Dragon Blood Flowers in total!

This was utterly inconceivable. When Yang Kai stole these flowers in the past, he had obtained about a thousand of them. There were two Peak-Rank flowers, thirty High-Rank flowers, two hundred Mid-Rank flowers and the rest were all Low-Rank.

Since he was in a rush at that time, he only refined the Peak-Rank and High-Rank ones into pills to consume, then he swallowed all the Mid-Rank ones raw. With no time to consume the Low-Rank ones, he decided to keep them in the medicine garden.

He had never expected that those Low-Rank flowers would all become Mid-Rank just a decade or so later.

Even more surprising was that the number of flowers had increased. Apart from these six hundred or so Mid-Rank Dragon Blood Flowers, Yang Kai also discovered a lot of immature Dragon Blood Flowers in another area of the medicine garden. They were densely planted, and he estimated that there were more than a thousand of them. Some of the flowers even showed signs that they were about to mature into Low-Rank ones.

"Amazing…" Yang Kai pointed at those Mid-Rank Dragon Blood Flowers, "Were they all cultivated by you two?"

Mu Zhu replied with a faint smile, "Master, this place is very fertile, which is why they've grown well."

"What about those flowers?" Yang Kai pointed at another area of the medicine garden as he appeared doubtful, "Where did you get the seeds of Dragon Blood Flowers?"

Mu Na replied gently, "We don't need any seeds."

"You don't?" Yang Kai looked shocked.

Mu Zhu explained, "We used a stem cutting method to take parts of mature Dragon Blood Flowers and then planted the offshoots over there. Master, you seem to have the blood of the Dragon Clan, so these Dragon Blood Flowers must be useful to you, right?"

"They're not just useful. They're…" Yang Kai was lost for words as he had the urge to hug the two Wood Spirits and kiss them; however, they were too petite and if he really did that, he might scare them off.

After composing himself, Yang Kai got back to the main topic by saying, "The thing is, the way I obtained these Dragon Blood Flowers is a little… illegitimate."

The Wood Spirits gazed at him and waited for him to go on.

An embarrassed Yang Kai said, "I stole them from Dragon Island."

He took a quick glance at them, and upon seeing that they did not appear disapproving, he went on to say, "Now, the Dragon Clan members want me to compensate for their losses, so I have to move these Dragon Blood Flowers out."

"You want to return these flowers?" Upon hearing that, Mu Zhu was displeased.

Wood Spirit Clan members were especially fond of precious plants. It had been a long time since Yang Kai had entrusted them to take care of the medicine garden, so they had already regarded everything in the garden to be their private property. Certainly, if Yang Kai needed something from the garden, they were fine with it; however, if they had to take something out of the garden and give it to outsiders, they were naturally unwilling to do so.

Dragon Blood Flowers were extremely rare plants that were only grown on Dragon Island, so they were even rarer and more precious than ordinary precious Emperor Artifacts.

Yang Kai suddenly said that he had to move these Dragon Blood Flowers out, which gave them a feeling that they had to part with their treasures, so of course they were heartbroken.

Yang Kai said, "I was thinking of moving some while keeping the rest; however, since you two have the ability to grow even more Dragon Blood Flowers, there's nothing much to worry about." Even if he moved out all the Mid-Rank Dragon Blood Flowers, there were still more than a thousand immature Dragon Blood Flowers in the medicine garden. Since Mu Zhu and Mu Na were able to increase the number of the flowers using their Wood Spirit Clan's Secret Techniques, then the supply of the flowers was no longer a concern.

"Must we move them all out?" Mu Na pouted and asked.

Yang Kai sighed, "This is an important matter. I don't want to do it either, but I have no choice."

Upon hearing that, Mu Zhu nodded, "Since that's the case, we'll obey your order."

After they came to an agreement, Yang Kai released the Wood Spirits out of the Small Sealed World. Upon arriving at Dragon Blood Island, Mu Zhu said, "Master, please give Mu Na and me some time to survey this area first."

"Good," Yang Kai nodded and decided to wait as he observed the transformation of the Dragon Blood Flower, which he had dropped a bit of his Golden Blood onto. Meanwhile, Mu Zhu and Mu Na flew off in different directions to survey the island.

A few hours later, they returned consecutively and had a discussion in hushed voices; then, they shook their heads and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Yang Kai's chest tightened when he saw that, silently praying it wasn't bad news.

Mu Zhu replied, "It's no big problem actually, it's just apparent that the Dragon Clan has lost most of the proper techniques when it comes to cultivating Dragon Blood Flowers. If they continue using such methods, the result will always be poor."

In ancient times, some of the Wood Spirit Clan had helped the Dragon Clan to nurture Dragon Blood Flowers, so both sides had amassed a lot of useful experience. However, as time passed, many techniques had apparently been lost. Moreover, only Wood Spirit Clan members were able to bring out the full effects of these techniques. Even if other races got their hands on such techniques, they would be unable to use them properly or even at all.

Yang Kai said with a smile, "You two are the unparalleled experts in this field. Since we've decided to do it, we have to achieve great results and shut the mouths of those in the Dragon Clan."

Mu Zhu nodded, "But before that, I have to ask you what our goal is."

"Our goal?" Yang Kai gave it a thought, "In the past, I had picked about a thousand Dragon Blood Flowers from this place. There were two Peak-Rank, thirty High-Rank, and two hundred Mid-Rank flowers. The rest were all Low-Rank ones. If that's our goal, how long will we take to achieve that?"

Upon hearing that, Mu Zhu replied with a nod, "That's not a lot."

Yang Kai's gaze brightened as her words encouraged him.

Mu Zhu went on to say, "However, it will be quite difficult to cultivate two Peak-Rank Dragon Blood Flowers… If those aren't counted, I estimate that we'll be able to achieve the necessary numbers in half a year."

"Half a year!?" Yang Kai exclaimed, "Can we really do that in such a short period of time?" It wasn't that he doubted their abilities, but half a year was just too short; after all, it had always taken an unbelievably long time for these flowers to mature as far as he knew.

Mu Zhu explained, "The prerequisite is that we have to give these flowers the highest level of treatment. Master, I'm sure you know what's most needed to cultivate Dragon Blood Flowers."

"Dragon Blood!" Yang Kai replied solemnly.

Mu Zhu nodded her head, "That's right. The purer the Dragon Blood, the more useful it will be for growing the flowers. So, we need some Dragon Blood as well."

"My blood seems to work well on these flowers," Yang Kai said with uncertainty.

"Master, you want to use your own blood?" Mu Zhu frowned. She didn't understand why Yang Kai was so eager to complete this task, even to the point of literally bleeding for it.

With a grin, Yang Kai pointed at the Dragon Blood Flower that he had planted earlier, "Look at this one. I only gave it one drop of my regular blood but it seems to have grown a little already."

Upon hearing that, the two Wood Spirits flew over and stood on both sides of the Dragon Blood Flower before they closed their eyes to examine it. Just then, dots of green lights, which looked like fireflies, emitted from their bodies and landed on the Dragon Blood Flower before the petals were soon covered in them.

A moment later, their bodies shook as they opened their eyes in unison and turned to look at Yang Kai in disbelief, "Master, are you a member of the Dragon Clan?"

"Me?" Yang Kai pointed at his own nose and put on a grin, "I'm not, but I obtained the Source of an Ancient Dragon and have cultivated the Dragon Transformation Secret Art to a fairly high level."

"But this Dragon Blood…" Mu Zhu frowned as she appeared hesitant. Eventually, she shook her head.

"Is my blood not usable?" Yang Kai's heart clenched up, "No way! The flower has really grown!"

Mu Na said with a smile, "It's not that it isn't usable. In fact, it's very effective. If this flower can completely absorb your blood and, if we use our Secret Techniques consistently, it will mature into a High-Rank flower in just three months. However, it will take a long time for it to grow to Peak-Rank. Even if we personally nurture it, it will still take us about ten to twenty years."

Upon hearing her explanation, Yang Kai replied, "We don't have to worry about Peak-Rank flowers for now then, we'll just raise High-Rank ones as compensation. I picked about one thousand flowers in the past, so we'll just return more flowers in total to them."

Mu Zhu nodded, "That seems to be the only way."

Since they had the most important ingredient readily available, it wasn't an issue anymore for them to cultivate some Dragon Blood Flowers. After the Wood Spirits discussed the topic for a bit longer, Mu Zhu said, "Master, please take out some of the Purple Soul Grass from the medicine garden."

"The what?" Yang Kai looked puzzledly at them.

Mu Na replied with a faint smile, "The purple grass that grows around the Dragon Blood Flowers."

Upon hearing that, Yang Kai smacked his head, "I see…"

In fact, he had noticed the grass when he entered the medicine garden earlier. In the two plots of the garden, not only were there Dragon Blood Flowers, but there was also a lot of purple grass. The colour of the grass perfectly complemented the scarlet Dragon Blood Flowers. He didn't pay much attention to the grass at that time though, but now that they had mentioned it, he realized it was quite obvious what these two were talking about.

Then, as Yang Kai began pulling some Purple Soul Grass out of the medicine garden, he asked, "What are the uses of this Purple Soul Grass? Why have I never seen it before?" He was an Emperor Rank Alchemist, so there should be very few, if any Spirit Flowers and Grasses in this world that he wasn't aware of.

Mu Zhu replied, "Purple Soul Grass is an extinct species in the Star Boundary as a whole, but we still had some seeds within our Clan. The thing is, this grass has to grow alongside Dragon Blood Flowers; otherwise, it cannot survive. Its presence is beneficial to Dragon Blood Flowers as it can spur the growth of the flowers. All in all, they are meant to be grown together in symbiosis. The grass can shorten the time it takes for Dragon Blood Flowers to mature."

Yang Kai's gaze brightened, "I've never heard of it before."

Mu Zhu nodded her head, "There should have been a lot of Purple Soul Grass on Dragon Island, but for some reason, there isn't any."

As time passed, many species would go extinct, and the Purple Soul Grass was just one of them.