Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Fortunately, Yang Kai ruled over everything in the Sealed World Bead. All it took to strip an area out of the third region was a single thought. The hard part was purging the Demon Essence from said land. If the Demon Essence was not removed, the Human Race armies would not be able to stay inside the World Bead for a prolonged period of time.

After several attempts, several failures, and a lot of wasted time, Yang Kai finally found a suitable method.

One month later, the first World Bead separated from the Small Sealed World was born. This World Bead was different from the ones he had made in the past with the largest difference being its size. The space was not big, but fitting fifty thousand people into it wouldn't be a problem.

It wasn't that Yang Kai couldn't refine a World Bead with a larger space but rather that he was taking the Star Boundary's current situation into account. These smaller World Beads were not only more effective but also took less time to refine.

Continent after continent was devoured by Gun-Gun, and every time they came to a new continent, Yang Kai would activate the Space Beacons to try and contact Yu Ru Meng and the seven Great Emperors. Unfortunately, he had not been able to reach any of them so far.

This made him wonder whether the Great Emperors were truly in the Demon Realm. If the Great Emperors weren't here, then where else could they be? There was no trace of them in the Star Boundary after all.

…..

Two rays of light shone dazzlingly inside a bizarre space. One was red while the other was black. Two burly and heavyset figures sat silently inside the light rays. Their auras were deep and profound, they were both casting Secret Techniques; and the power in their bodies surged violently. Following the fluctuations in their power, the black and red lights continued to clash against each other. It was obvious just from looking at those two lights that the red light had the upper hand while the black light seemed to be in a suppressed state.

Neither one of them knew how long this confrontation had lasted. It felt like only an instant had passed, but at the same time like thousands of years had gone by. Be that as it may, it did not matter to them how much time had passed. They were only focused on the enemy in front of them.

All of a sudden, a resounding voice came from the black light, "Iron Blood Great Emperor, your reputation is truly well-deserved!"

Inside the red light, Zhan Wu Hen calmly responded without a change in his expression, "The First Demon Saint isn't much."

Among the Twelve Demon Saints of the Demon Realm, Huang Wu Ji was recognized as the First Demon Saint. In comparison, the ten Great Emperors of the Star Boundary had no rankings, much less an existence known as the First Great Emperor. However, Zhan Wu Hen was undoubtedly the strongest in terms of combat power. That was also a tacit understanding among the Great Emperors. It was just that they no longer cared for titles or rankings anymore, so there was no need to make any kind of distinction between them.

It would seem that Zhan Wu Hen had the edge in the confrontation between the First Demon Saint and the First Great Emperor. If that were not the case, the black light would not be in a suppressed state.

Huang Wu Ji burst out laughing, "So what if you are mighty!? The Star Boundary will never escape the fate of being eroded away. Zhan Wu Hen, you should know what's good for you and admit defeat; otherwise, things will only end in tragedy."

Zhan Wu Hen said lightly, "You want to devour the Star Boundary? Be careful your teeth don't break when you try!"

Huang Wu Ji coldly snorted, "Do you seriously think this King can't defeat you?"

Zhan Wu Hen didn't say much in response, "Do it if you can!"

Huang Wu Ji sneered, "Fine! I'll do just that!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he abruptly stretched out his hand into the void and something suddenly appeared in his palm.

The moment this item appeared, Zhan Wu Hen's expression, which had been as tranquil as an ancient well all this time, changed dramatically. He felt a wave of monstrous hostility hitting him in the face, and the aura coming from that item gave him a sense of dejà vu.

He couldn't help flashing back to the large hand that came out of the Void Crack in the skies above Blue Wave City that day. The hostile feeling he was experiencing at this moment was identical to the one given off back then! He hadn't been able to figure out just where that giant hand had come from, but now he understood.

Focusing his gaze, a bright red light flashed across his eyes to penetrate the layers of obstacles and catch a clear glimpse of what Huang Wu Ji was holding. It was a pale, mummified, severed palm. The severed palm had been cleanly severed at the wrist by some kind of sharp weapon. Zhan Wu Hen didn't know how long it had been since this hand had been separated from its owner, but clearly, it was long ago; even so, a monstrous aura overflowed from it even now.

Zhan Wu Hen was shocked. He could only imagine how powerful the cultivation of the severed palm's Master must have been just from looking at the power of this severed palm. Even Iron Blood Great Emperor, who thought he had already reached the peak of the Martial Dao, felt as though he saw a new door opening in front of him when he laid eyes on this severed palm. For a moment, his mind and emotions churned violently and he couldn't hold himself back, his entire body trembling slightly.

Huang Wu Ji sneered, "Are you scared now? It's not too late to beg for mercy!"

Zhan Wu Hen's body trembled even more as his head was lowered and his hair shaded his eyes, laughing softly to himself as he muttered, "So that's how it is! So that's how it is! It was true after all!"

Huang Wu Ji could see Zhan Wu Hen muttering something under his breath but could not make out the words. Even so, Zhan Wu Hen's manner of not taking him seriously irked him greatly.

Huang Wu Ji roared, "Bastard!"

While speaking, he lifted the severed palm and brought it down in Zhan Wu Hen's direction. A blue light flashed out of the severed palm, which then transformed into a giant green palm that slammed violently into the red light. A brilliant light flared in an instant, causing a huge change in this inexplicable place. It felt as though the space could collapse at any time.

Following that palm strike, the red light that originally had a slight upper hand shuddered erratically and retreated all of a sudden. Meanwhile, the black light immediately took advantage of the situation and seized the initiative.

Inside the red light, Zhan Wu Hen's body was slumped slightly and his complexion was extremely pale. Even so, a formidable fighting spirit erupted out of him as he forcibly straightened his back and let out a furious roar. At the same time, the erratically flashing red light swiftly stabilized.

"Courting death!" Huang Wu Ji was amazed by Zhan Wu Hen's willpower. Holding the severed palm, he swung the severed palm down again.

The red light contracted once more. Three palm strikes later, blood was trickling from Zhan Wu Hen's mouth. The red light that used to hold the upper hand had been suppressed to the point it was clearly at a disadvantage. Iron Blood Great Emperor, who had not been injured for the past ten thousand years, was now terribly wounded just from parrying these three attacks. Nevertheless, he was still smiling extremely happily, almost as if he had seen something novel and interesting after many millennia of monotony.

Huang Wu Ji shouted, "Zhan Wu Hen, this King appreciates talented people. I'll ask you one more time, will you surrender!?"

"Again! Come again!" Zhan Wu Hen shouted.

Huang Wu Ji's eyes widened to the size of copper bells. Furious, he was about to attack again when his expression suddenly changed and he hurriedly put the severed palm away, looking as though he was scared of something dangerous. Lowering his head to look, he saw a bruise the size of a fingernail on the palm of the hand that was holding the severed palm just now.

Zhan Wu Hen waited for a while, but seeing that Huang Wu Ji was not attacking, he became impatient and shouted, "Why aren't you attacking? What are you waiting for?"

Hearing those words incensed Huang Wu Ji. He did not say a word as he changed the Secret Technique he had been casting. Black Qi surged like a tide, crushing down on Zhan Wu Hen, but contrary to his wishes, Zhan Wu Hen immediately countered the attack.

The strongest Great Emperor and a First Demon Saint fought each other to the death inside this bizarre space. Although there were no earth-shaking explosions or overbearing methods used, the slightest bit of carelessness could lead to death.

…..

Nobody was aware of the ongoing battle between the Great Emperors and the Demon Saints. The people in the Star Boundary believed that the Great Emperors had entered the Demon Realm and that was why they could not contact the latter. Who could have known that the Great Emperors were not in the Demon Realm at all?

Yang Kai had a nagging suspicion of the possibility, but he couldn't be certain until he devoured every last continent.

Since Yang Kai's departure, the conflict would arise every single day between the two Races across all four territories of the Star Boundary. In the beginning, the Demon Race suffered great losses. Many of the Demon Lands did not have Half-Saints guarding them while on the other hand, the Star Boundary's armies killed many of the Demon Race while nursing a hatred in their hearts over the invasion and destruction of their homeland. Quite a number of Demon Strongholds were even completely cleaned out. Take the Northern Territory for example where the Sixty-First Army destroyed more than one such stronghold.

Be that as it may, the Demon Race did not simply sit back and wait for death. The locations without the protection of Half-Saints were often evacuated before the Star Boundary's armies arrived. The Demons would consolidate towards the ten Primary Demon Strongholds and little by little, the armies stationed in those ten locations became a mighty force which gave the Star Boundary a huge headache.

One year after Yang Kai entered the Demon Realm, ninety-eight out of the one hundred and eight Demon Strongholds in the Star Boundary had been obliterated. Only the ten Demon Strongholds could not be destroyed.

Each of these ten Demon Strongholds had at least seven or eight Half-Saints assuming command now. With such a powerful force, it was impossible for just one or two armies to defeat them. The only way the Star Boundary could guarantee victory was by gathering at least twenty Pseudo-Great Emperors to attack a Demon Stronghold.

Moreover, even though the Demon Race armies at the various minor Demon Strongholds had either been wiped out or driven away, the Demon Lands never turned back to normal. What's more, with the passage of time and the increasing deaths among the Demon Race army, the Demon Lands in various parts of the Star Boundary had been steadily expanding in size.

Zhu Yan and Fu Zhun, the Great Elder and Second Elder of Dragon Island respectively, had come forward two months after Yang Kai's departure. Many members of the Dragon Clan left Dragon Island too at that time. For the first time in tens of thousands of years, Dragon Island was directly and completely intervening in the Star Boundary's affairs.

True to what Yang Kai had said, the Dragon Clan might not care about what kind of chaos occurred in the Star Boundary, but they understood the principle behind the saying 'without lips, the teeth go cold'. Even if it had been just any other random person and not Yang Xiao who personally requested help, the Dragon Clan would not have ignored the issue. The two Elders mobilized essentially the entire Dragon Clan upon learning that the Star Boundary was in such grave danger.

The people of the Star Boundary originally believed that they would soon quell the war with Zhu Yan and Fu Zhun taking action, but who could have known that a Demon Saint would show up without warning just when the two Dragon Clan Elders charged into one of the Demon Strongholds?

This greatly surprised everyone. The Great Emperors and Demon Saints had gone missing together after all. Now that the Demon Saints had shown themselves, where did the Great Emperors go? Immediately following that incident, it was discovered that not all the Demon Saints were in the Star Boundary. There were only three Demon Saints who appeared specifically to deal with the two Elders of the Dragon Clan. These three were Blood Demon Xue Li, Feather Demon Fu Yu, and Red Demon Huo Bo. Aside from these three, the other Demon Saints remained missing.

Li Wu Yi carefully thought back to the scene on the battlefield of the Western Territory and recalled that the ones who gave chase to these three Demon Saints were Yu Ru Meng, Bei Li Mo, and Chang Tian.

Meanwhile, the opponents pursued by the Great Emperors did not show up. It was impossible to write this off as mere coincidence; thus, it would seem that something had happened for the three Demon Saints, Xue Li, Fu Yu, and Huo Bo, to appear again while Yu Ru Meng, Bei Li Mo, and Chang Tian remained missing. These three Demon Saints had probably returned to the Star Boundary a long time ago, but even so, they had remained hidden so that they could wait for a chance to wipe out the leadership of the Star Boundary in one stroke.

The two Elders of the Dragon Clan struggled desperately in a battle of two against three. In the end, Fu Zhun suffered a serious injury. Fortunately, there were many Dragon Clan members and Pseudo-Great Emperors accompanying them so they managed to retreat safely.