Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

"What did you say?" Luan Feng looked at Yang Kai with a frown.

Yang Kai explained, "When we noticed the emergence of the Demon Qi, Star Soul Palace sent several of its Emperor Realm Masters to warn the top Sects of the Western Territory and to seek reinforcements, but out of those who left, only one came back alive, and the news that man brought back was that all of Pointed Star Sect had been Demonized!"

Loud gasps rang out in the main hall as everyone looked at Yang Kai with a look of incredulity hanging on their faces.

Out of all the people present here, only a few might have been to the Western Territory personally, but that didn't mean they hadn't heard of Pointed Star Sect; after all, it was one of the top Sects of the Western Territory. But now, every member of that Sect had been corrupted by Demon Qi!

Combined with what Yang Kai had just said, everyone immediately understood what he was implying.

Fan Wu asked with an ugly look on his face, "Could it be that all those Sects of the Western Territory have all fallen to the Demon Race's vicious plans?"

Yang Kai replied, "Although this information has not been confirmed, based on what little we do know, there is an eighty to ninety percent chance that is the case. Most of you participated in the matter of the Southern Territory's Orthodoxy Temple and should be able to understand what would have happened if we hadn't acted back then. By now, the entire Southern Territory might have followed in the Western Territory's footsteps, with all the great forces long becoming Demon nests. The Western Territory… wasn't blessed with such luck."

"Then we are plagued by internal troubles and foreign aggression!" Fan Wu bitterly smiled.

Yang Kai loudly proclaimed, "That is the general situation. I am telling you this to let you have an understanding of everything, not to make you fear the Demon Race or their schemes. Although the Demon Race is aggressively invading, our Star Boundary is guarded by the Great Emperors, and even as we speak, cultivators from the other three territories are rallying. As long as everyone works together, what can the trivial Demon Race do? Today is the day for you to make a name for yourselves and go down in history as heroes. You must not miss this rare opportunity." He then fiercely swept a glance over everyone before asking aloud, "Are there any more questions?"

The hall remained completely quiet.

Yang Kai nodded before waving his hand, "Fellow Brothers and Sisters, please orderly marshal your respective disciples at the main Space Array. This King will send you to the Western Territory shortly!"

The crowd dispersed to convene with their respective Sects' disciples.

The Space Array was located just off the main square and was soon surrounded by a dense crowd. At least 100,000 cultivators at the Origin King Realm or above had been gathered and were standing with their respective Sects and families' in groups of varying strength and size. The number of people in each group might be lacking, but all together they formed an impressive army, just like how many grains of sand would eventually pile up to form a mountain.

Of course, this didn't mean that there were only 100,000 cultivators at or above the Origin King Realm in the Northern Territory, far from it in fact, but naturally, it was impossible for the various Sects and families to send out all of their members. All of them had left a large part of their manpower to guard the foundation of their forces.

These 100,000 cultivators were nothing more than a vanguard that could be rapidly assembled, that's all; after all, no one knew the exact extent of the Demon Realm's invasion. If the situation was worse than expected, they could always send more manpower over. In any case, there was a network of Space Arrays across much of the Northern Territory thanks to Yang Kai now, so it was quite convenient to travel vast distances in short order, meaning more forces could be marshalled in short order should they be necessary.

High Heaven Palace itself had over 10,000 disciples qualified to participate in this excursion, but for now, they were only committing about half that number. Of course, this was the single largest contribution of manpower from any Sect or force present.

Before the Space Array, Yang Kai kept urging his Space Principles to send batches of cultivators to the Western Territory. Everything proceeded in an orderly fashion, with no one complaining or making trouble. Fortunately, Yang Kai had the foresight when he had arranged this Array to make it extra large, so it could teleport about a hundred people at once.

Even so, he had to activate the Array a thousand times before all 100,000 people could be teleported.

Two days and two nights later, when Yang Kai finished sending the last batch to the Western Territory, he was thoroughly exhausted. Finally, he had some time to recover. Taking some pills, he sat down cross-legged and began adjusting his breathing.

Yu Ru Meng was naturally standing by his side.

After a while, Yang Kai opened his eyes, and turned to Hua Qing Si, "Sister Hua, I will be leaving the Sect to you."

Hua Qing Si earnestly nodded, "En, leave it to me!"

Finally, Yang Kai, together with Yu Ru Meng, stepped onto the Space Array.

After a bright flash of light, the duo reappeared in the Western Territory.

The place they appeared was jam-packed with the 100,000 Northern Territory cultivators who were sent over before, all of them having remained in the vicinity. Many of them were currently standing high up in the sky, staring into the distance, solemn looks on their faces.

As Yang Kai swept the surroundings with his Divine Sense, he actually found that only the cultivators of the Northern Territory and Ancient Wild Lands were gathered here while he couldn't find any cultivators from the Southern and the Eastern Territory.

This wasn't surprising though as although the Southern Territory and Eastern Territories had Star Soul Palace and Serene Soul Palace respectively managing them, the number of Space Arrays arranged by Yang Kai in the two territories were far fewer, so the speed of gathering cultivators was naturally much slower.

However, it shouldn't be long before the cultivators of the other two territories arrived.

Yang Kai looked around, and after finding Mo Huang standing at the front of the crowd, he immediately flew forward and greeted, cupping his fists, "Senior."

"You're back," Mo Huang lightly nodded to him.

Yang Kai glanced into the distance as he inquired, furrowing his brow, "What's the situation now?"

Mo Huang answered in a heavy voice, "The Demon Qi isn't spreading anymore, but the Demon Race is assembling over there. I went to check things out, and the Demon Race's army is constantly pouring out of that Void Corridor. A million have already gathered."

"A million!" Yang Kai was shocked.

Originally, he believed that he might be able to solve the Western Territory's crisis after the Northern Territory had gathered 100,000 people in such a short time, but how could he have anticipated that such terrible news would be waiting for him the moment he arrived?

A hundred thousand vs a million, that was a ten-fold difference.

Mo Huang glanced at him before explaining, "The size of the Demon Race army might be bigger, but most of them are just paper soldiers, not worth fearing. Although only 100,000 have come from your Northern Territory, all of their cultivations have at least reached the Origin King Realm. If the two sides really fought, the Demon Race might not be their opponents."

Yang Kai felt relieved after hearing this.

In other words, the million figure might be terrifying, but judging by the fact that they had gathered so many in such a short time, most of them were from the weaker subordinate clans among the Demon Races while the real main force was probably still lying in wait.

Mo Huang then added, "But we can't take them lightly either. We don't know the exact situation of the Demon Race, and since their side was able to gather so many people in such a short time, I'm afraid that there will be more arriving soon."

Yang Kai nodded his agreement.

After pondering for a while, Yang Kai asked, "Then what are our plans? Do we wait and see or take the initiative to attack?"

Mo Huang thought for a moment before replying, "We are adopting a defensive stance and observing for now. Right now, delaying is to our advantage as the cultivators from the Southern and Eastern Territory still need to arrive. For now, our priority is to protect the Space Array. When reinforcements from the other two territories gather, it won't be too late to take action."

Yang Kai thought about it and soon agreed, so he didn't raise any objections.

Mo Huang remained silent for a while before continuing, "Night Shadow is a descendant of the Demon Race!"

"What!?" Yang Kai was shocked by this revelation. He had been wondering all this while why Night Shadow Great Emperor, who literally stood at the apex of the Star Boundary, would collude with the Demon Realm. What could the Demon Realm possibly give him that made him not hesitate to betray the Star Boundary and seek refuge with the enemy?"

After Mo Huang revealed this piece of information though, realization finally dawned upon Yang Kai.

It wasn't what the Demon Realm could give him, but rather that Night Shadow himself was related to the Demon Race!

He was actually a descendant of the Demon Race!

"A Shadow Demon?" Yang Kai's expression changed.

Mo Huang looked at him in surprise this time as he asked, "You actually know about the Shadow Demon Clan?"

Yang Kai explained with a nod, "Reporting to Senior, I once fought with the Demon Race inside a certain Sealed World."

Mo Huang was even more shocked when he heard this. With his experience and insight, he still couldn't figure out which Sealed World in this world actually sheltered members of the Demon Race; however, he didn't ask any questions and simply suggested in a deep voice, "It's fine if you know this, but don't publicize it."

Yang Kai earnestly replied, "Junior will keep that in mind."

[No wonder when the three Great Emperors returned from the Demon Realm that day, they kept silent about Night Shadow Great Emperor. It turns out it was because of such a reason. If the cultivators of the Star Boundary came to know that one of the ten Great Emperors actually had the blood of the Demon Race flowing through his veins, it would shake their confidence and faith greatly.]

The Great Emperors had always been the totems of the Star Boundary's Martial Dao, object of worship of hundreds of billions of cultivators across the world. How could such a revered figure be related to the Demon Race?

If any other Emperor Realm Master had asked about this, Mo Huang certainly wouldn't have explained it, but how could Yang Kai's heritage be compared to an ordinary Emperor Realm Master? Mo Huang probably believed that Yang Kai was qualified to know such secrets.

Mo Huang heaved a sigh and added, "The reason why Night Shadow has always acted so mysterious and never interacted with we Great Emperors is probably because of his origins."

Since he was a descendant of the Demon Race, if he really had frequent contact with the other Great Emperors, they might have noticed something off about him. As such, it was only natural that Night Shadow isolated himself from them.

"We also have no idea when he got in touch with the Demon Realm or plotted the Western Territory and Southern Territory incidents, drawing Iron Blood and Bright Moon out and then relying on their strength to shatter that Sealed World, weakening the barriers between the two Great Worlds so that a corridor could be established between them." Mo Huang bitterly smiled, "That world happened to be located right between the Demon Realm and the Star Boundary. It would have been fine if it was intact, but now that it has been shattered, an extremely stable passage has been formed."

Yang Kai stated with a weird look on his face, "So to say, Iron Blood and Bright Moon were used by Night Shadow?"

Mo Huang immediately warned, lowering his voice, "Don't mention this before them, or your end won't be pretty."

Yang Kai involuntarily nodded, "Then take it as if I never asked."

Mo Huang added, "After that, Serene Soul and I entered the Demon Realm through the rift between the two worlds. There, we saw Iron Blood and Bright Moon fighting and immediately stepped in to help them. However, in the end… as you know, Bright Moon fell into the Demon Realm, while we three fled back in embarrassment."

Yang Kai asked with some trepidation, "Four Great Emperors were actually not their opponents?"

Mo Huang explained, "The other side was well prepared. They gathered six Demon Saints! En, Demon Saints are the Demon Realm's equivalent of our Great Emperors." He thought that Yang Kai knew nothing about the division of realms of the Demon Race so he especially explained to him.

"Six!" Yang Kai gasped in shock.

But having said that, the fact that three of them safely returned when they were at such a disadvantage and fighting on someone else's turf was proof in itself of the strength of the Great Emperors. Of course, their successful escape was also largely thanks to the sacrifice of Bright Moon Great Emperor.

Considering all this, Yang Kai couldn't help but feel a profound sense of awe and respect as he anxiously asked, "Senior Bright Moon stayed behind in the Demon Realm. He wouldn't… have any accidents, right?"