Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

"Yang Kai! Yang Kai, are you still alive!?" Bo Ya's frantic voice came from within the Small Sealed World. She had been in the middle of a conversation with him when the projected image in the sky shattered to pieces without any warning. It was obvious that he had encountered some sort of attack.

She had been trying to contact him all this while, but there had been no response from him; thus, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. [Could he have died? If he died, then won't I be stuck in the Small Sealed World for the rest of my life?] Although the current Small Sealed World isn't too bad, it was simply not as splendid as the world outside.

"I'm not dead yet. Stop screaming," Yang Kai replied shortly.

Naturally, Bo Ya began cursing him furiously, "Why did you ignore me if you're still alive!?" Falling silent for a moment, she anxiously asked, "What happened just now?"

"It's nothing." He gave a perfunctory reply, "I met a rather interesting guy." [He even called me a good person and gave me a precious gift.]

His words stunned her into silence. She had a glimpse of the vast Starry Sky just now, so who could he meet in a place like that? Unfortunately, Yang Kai stopped answering her when she questioned him further. It drove her so mad that she nearly gnashed her teeth to bits.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai turned around and placed the Azure Dragon Spear horizontally across his shoulders. His hands were placed on the head and tail of the spear. Then, his 1,000-metre-tall Half-Dragon Form shrunk rapidly and turned back into his Human form. Following the sudden change in body size, the gigantic Azure Dragon Spear also changed according to his wishes. By the time his figure stabilised again, the Azure Dragon Spear had become no more than 3 metres long.

He took a large stride forward. With a flash of his figure, that one step brought him a thousand kilometres away. He was staring fixedly ahead. That direction was probably where the Star Boundary was located.

Ever since he escaped from the Void Crack, Yang Kai could feel a faint force pulling at him. At the time, he had not had the time to investigate before he was blown away by Ah Da's snoring. Now that he thought about it, the force that was pulling at him and guiding him towards a certain direction could only be the Star Boundary's Will. He had the recognition of the World's Will after all. For him, the Star Boundary was his homeland, so no matter how far he went, his connection with the Star Boundary would never be completely cut off.

…..

An army of millions was gathered in the Southern Territory outside of Star Soul Palace. Both Humans and Demons were at war. The once beautiful mountains and rivers were a terrible mess. The mountains and fields in the surroundings were withered and Demon Qi ran rampant.

Several years ago, the second Two Worlds Great War had erupted with the sudden arrival of the 10 Demon Saints. Afterwards, 108 Two Worlds' Passages appeared all over the Star Boundary. The land around the Two Worlds' Passages turned into Demon Land. Consequently, countless families had been separated and destroyed

In the beginning, the Star Boundary relied on its Space Arrays and the World Beads that Yang Kai refined to gain a significant advantage in mobility. They slew numerous Demons and obliterated 98 of the Demon Strongholds. As such, only the 10 largest Demon Strongholds remained. These 10 Demon Strongholds were also the places where the Demon Saints and Great Emperors had once fought.

The Demon Race placed great importance on these 10 Demon Strongholds. Not only were they heavily fortified, but the Demon Race also spent large amounts of manpower and resources to build unknown Demon Towers at each one.

When construction of these Demon Towers started, nobody had taken notice of these structures. It wasn't until the Demon Towers began to take shape that the Star Boundary realized what their purpose was.

There were 10 Primary Demon Strongholds and 10 Demon Towers, all of which were interconnected with each other and functioned in the same manner as Space Arrays. Hence, the Demon Race armies were able to travel quickly between these 10 Primary Demon Strongholds.

On that note, the Star Boundary's armies lost their advantage in terms of mobility from then onward.

The construction of the Demon Towers never ceased. There were large numbers of Demons bustling up and down each Demon Tower at every moment of the day. Accordingly, the Demon Towers grew higher and higher by the day. At present, they had reached a height of over 10,000 metres.

Nobody knew how these Demon Towers were built, but these towers were incredibly sturdy. Back in Blue Wave City of the Northern Territory, Yang Xiao and Yang Xue once used the Flowing Time Temple to ram into a Demon Tower twice; however, their efforts failed to bear fruit. The Feather Demon Demon Saint, Fu Yu, had teleported to the scene before they could launch a third attempt and knocked the Flowing Time Temple back with a single arrow. Her counterattack caused Yang Xiao and Yang Xue to suffer a terrible loss.

As the Demon Towers continued to grow taller, the area around the 10 Primary Demon Strongholds expanded by more than 10 times their original size. Looking down from above, these 10 Primary Demon Strongholds were like 10 cancerous tumours in the Star Boundary that oozed with puss and rotted the flesh. They corroded away at the surrounding intact lands without pause. For that reason, people couldn't help wondering, would the Star Boundary undergo complete decay and turn into Demon Lands if the Demon Towers continued to grow taller? That was probably what the Demon Race was planning.

With the 10 Primary Demon Strongholds and 10 Demon Towers acting as fortresses, and the protection of the 3 Demon Saints, the rest of the Demon Race had nothing to worry about whatsoever and were simply hiding away inside the Demon Strongholds over the past few years. Although the Star Boundary's armies had attacked on various occasions, they always returned in defeat, suffering heavy casualties despite killing many of the Demon Race members in the process.

In the beginning, everybody had pinned their hopes on Yang Kai. They were hoping that he would locate the missing Great Emperors in the Demon Realm; however, it had been 3 years since he left and there had been no news from him since then. Everybody eventually realised something, the Demon Race must have done something on their end. The likelihood was high that the Great Emperors were not in the Demon Realm; otherwise, why had Yang Kai not sent word after so long?

In the current situation, the Star Boundary could only rely on the two Great Elders of the Dragon Clan to provide support. Unfortunately, there were only two of them against the 3 Demon Saints. Now that both parties had a means of teleportation, there was no chance of carrying out a surprise attack. All they could compete with was their patience, determination, and strength.

The Demon Race had been lying low for a long while. It wasn't until today that the Demon Race finally launched its first offensive; moreover, it was aimed directly at Star Soul Palace. It was not as though the Demon Race's actions were intentional, it was just that one of the 10 Primary Demon Strongholds was located adjacent to Star Soul Palace. There had been some distance between them before the expansion, but the expansion during the recent years had begun to encroach upon the edges of Star Soul Palace.

If it were an ordinary place, it would have been abandoned; however, Star Soul Palace was a symbol of the Southern Territory. Bright Moon Great Emperor had protected the Southern Territory for many millennia when he was still alive, so how could the Star Boundary turn a blind eye to Star Soul Palace's plight now that Bright Moon Great Emperor was gone? Officially, everything the Demon Race did had to be stopped. On a more personal level, Bright Moon Great Emperor had sacrificed himself in the Demon Realm for the sake of the entire Star Boundary, so it could be said that the Star Boundary was indebted to him. Therefore, this battle was an inevitable one.

The 14 armies stationed in the Southern Territory gathered in Star Soul Palace to discuss countermeasures in advance, but even so, what was there to discuss? The Demon Race's attack was imminent, so all they could do in response was defend this place to death.

A huge battle was about to break out. The moment the Demon Land expanded to the edge of the Sect Defending Array of Star Soul Palace, the Demon Race army would charge out and attack. The ones leading the charge were a group of red, short, and rounded Red Demons. These Red Demons had low sentience and were the lowest existences among the Demon Clans. They had always been used as sacrificial pawns, and this time was no exception. Tens of thousands of Red Demons launched suicide attacks on Star Soul Palace's Sect Defending Array while screaming wildly.

As the hegemon Sect of the Southern Territory, Star Soul Palace's Sect Defending Array was refined and reinforced over many, many years. Moreover, it occupied the best Spirit Land in the Southern Territory, so it was only natural that it was absolutely extraordinary. Even the Grand Array of High Heaven Palace was inferior.

Nevertheless, the Grand Array only lasted for less than a day before it began cracking under the relentless self-destruction of hundreds of thousands of Red Demons.

Following right behind the Red Demons, a large wave of the Demon Race army charged forward and attacked the Grand Array.

Needless to say, the armies of the Star Boundary did not stand idly by. They summoned out their artifacts and activated their Secret Techniques to kill and disrupt the Demon's charge.

As the number of dead Demons increased, the Demon Qi in the surroundings became more and more intense. The pitch-black aura seemed to gain a life of its own, slowly crawling towards Star Soul Palace's Sect Defending Array and climbing up the Grand Array. Consequently, the Grand Array that originally resembled seven-coloured stained glass was gradually dyed a pitch-black colour that gave off an ominous vibe.

Three days later, the Grand Array finally collapsed when the curtain of light turned completely black. The Demon Race army then charged forward like a pack of starving wolves, stepping into the pure land that symbolised the pinnacle of the Martial Dao in the Southern Territory.

That was not the only Sect Defending Array of Star Soul Palace. Under the control of the many Elders of Star Soul Palace and the current Palace Master of Star Soul Palace, Lan Xun, the Grand Arrays of each Spirit Peak and various other areas were activated all at once to split the Demon Race army apart. Then, the Star Boundary's armies that had been lying in wait instantly clashed with their enemies in a bloody battle.

Rivers of blood flowed in Star Soul Palace and mountains of corpses began piling up everywhere. Demon Qi escaped from the corpses of the dead Demons constantly, contaminating everything in the surroundings and staining the land with Demon Essence.

If this had only been a simple battle between the two armies, the Demon Race would be no match against the Star Boundary. The Demon Race army might be mighty, but there were 14 of the Star Boundary's armies gathered in this place too. Even with as many as 15 Half-Saints and Pseudo-Great Emperors, they might not be enough to exhaust the strength of the entire Southern Territory.

Unfortunately, the defence line of the Star Boundary's armies tightened little by little with the continuous expansion of the Demon Land and signs of failure gradually began to appear. While these signs were not obvious at first, the difference in momentum between the two armies only became more and more noticeable. Especially after the backlash of the Bloodlust Spell broke out, resulting in a sharp drop in the Star Boundary army's combat power. On the other hand, the Demon Race seemed tireless and blessed by the Heavens as they stood in the Demon Land.

The situation on the battlefield was extremely unfavourable for the Star Boundary.

Three young women stood side by side on the battlefield, pale-facedly facing off against a Half-Saint Master. One of them was Lan Xun. Ten years ago, she had barely broken through to the Second-Order Emperor Realm, so even with her Special Constitution as Bright Moon's daughter, she had no chance of surviving a direct confrontation with a Half-Saint. Even so, she had taken a risk to refine the World Pagoda previously and directly broke through to the Third-Order Emperor Realm in one fell swoop with the help of the Ancient Exotic Artifact.

She might be much weaker compared to a Half-Saint, but she at least had a slight chance in battle. Besides, the power of the World Pagoda was not to be underestimated. Even the Half-Saint was frightened of it, so combined with the help of her allies, Lan Xun somehow managed to hold on until now.

It was unfortunate that she was now an arrow at the end of its flight. Even with an ancient treasure in her possession, the gap in their cultivation could not be overcome so easily. There was a bitter taste in Lan Xun's mouth. She had been determined to revive the power of Star Soul Palace, inherit the legacy of her father, and protect the Southern Territory for the rest of her life; however, Star Soul Palace was about to be eroded and turned into Demon Land. How could she realise this ambition of hers in the future?

Next to Lan Xun stood a young girl with an innocent and cute appearance. She had a big black wok on her head that made her look quite ridiculous. Be that as it may, the Half-Saint's eyes couldn't help twitching at the sight of the black wok. The Half-Saint had underestimated his opponents earlier. Consequently, he was nearly captured by the black wok and almost failed to escape. If it was not for the fact that his cultivation was much higher than his opponent, he would have died after being trapped inside that black wok a long time ago. The chaotic feeling of refining everything in that black wok was still fresh in his memory.