Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Raikov

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Yang Kai couldn't help but roll his eyes at this arrogant Young Master's words. He had no idea where this guy got his sense of superiority from to even think of trying to make him a house guard. Compared to Xu Zhen, a true Cave-Heaven Disciple, the difference was simply like a person on the ground gazing up at the Heavens.

"Pay him no attention!" Yang Kai waved her off. Chen Yue withdrew respectfully.

News of Yang Kai becoming Scarlet Star's Foreign Elder spread quickly, which shocked many.

They originally thought that this Killing Star would surely start a war with Scarlet Star now that he was back; who could have expected such an ending? They had no idea what sort of price Scarlet Star had to pay that they were not only able to ease Yang Kai's fury, but even borrow his prestige!

There was news that Scarlet Star's Head Manager led the other Managers to visit Yang Kai personally and have a discussion with him, and only then were they able to make him agree to becoming Scarlet Star's Foreign Elder.

With the crisis lifted, Scarlet Star's disciples were all celebrating. They had all been extremely on edge before. If Yang Kai truly wanted to attack Scarlet Star, then how could the eggs remain unbroken when the nest was ruined? They would surely join in the misfortune.

But now, Yang Kai had actually become their Foreign Elder. Not only did they not have to fight this Monster, they had even gained his blessings. With this Killing Star here to stand guard, who would dare come and start trouble?

Anyone who dared come would have Sword Pavilion and Thunder Light's unfortunate ends to refer to.

A few days later, another shocking news spread in the Star City.

Sword Pavilion's Star City was razed to the ground after what appeared to be an intense battle. There was not a single survivor.

The day the news spread, everyone in the city was shocked by Yang Kai's vicious methods. They had no idea what Sword Pavilion's Star City had gone through, and they saw only the results, so they all thought it was Yang Kai's doing.

Scarlet Star made a lot of noise about the matter and created as much momentum as they could. For a while, Yang Kai's fierce reputation spread widely, and was heard by the other cultivator strongholds within a vicinity of more than ten thousand kilometres.

Rumour had it that Yang Kai had three heads and six arms, standing 300 metres tall with a ferocious face. He had a vicious temper and would kill anyone at the slightest dissatisfaction to vent his anger.

Even so, not only did Scarlet Star's Star City not lose popularity, it instead grew even more lively. There were many cultivators coming each day, asking to join Scarlet Star.

Having someone strong to lean on in this Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary and a stable place to settle down increased anyone's sense of security. Practically every cultivator had seen the terrors of the numerous Beast Tides, and many cultivator strongholds had already been destroyed.

Now that Sword Pavilion and Thunder Light had been destroyed, Scarlet Star jumped up to become the largest great force, which naturally attracted more people to rush to them.

There were even some small strongholds of several dozen to hundreds of people flocking over to join.

Scarlet Star's Star City was once again overcrowded. In just a short dozen days of work, more than 100,000 people gathered here, and Scarlet Star's membership had doubled. This was even after the strict screening process done by the Managers; otherwise, who knows how many people they would end up recruiting?

With more people around, the Star City also had to expand. The entire Star City was busy with new buildings being built constantly. The Star City's borders gradually expanded outward. Compared to the beginning, its area had increased by fifty percent and it was still in the midst of growing.

As the population increased, more transactions naturally took place, and so Scarlet Star's income also rose like a boat rising with the tide. Now, renting out a good spot for a shop in the Star City was harder than ever before. The Head Manager had gone back into retreat, so Chen Tian Fei who was in charge of Scarlet Star's operation was grinning from ear to ear every day.

Sometime later, in his residence, Yang Kai took a seat and checked on his gains stored inside the Sealed World Bead with his Divine Sense.

After more than a dozen days of work, the items from the tens of thousands of Space Ring had already been sorted out by Guo Zi Yan and his subordinates.

The Open Heaven Pills alone numbered in the hundreds of millions; after all, this was accumulated from the Space Rings of several tens of thousands of cultivators. Even if they each only had 1,000 Open Heaven Pills, there would still be millions of them. Most Emperor Realm cultivators were not too rich, but there was no helping it. Since their strength was low, the chance to find something good was also pitifully low. And, they also had to buy some cultivation resources for themselves, so they naturally wouldn't be able to save up many Open Heaven Pills.

The rich ones were the Low and Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters.

The Low-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters were slightly better off than the Emperors with wealthy ones having a million or two pills in reserve, but the Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters were a league of their own. Practically every one of them had tens of millions.

But these hundreds of millions of Open Heaven Pills was just a small wealth compared to Sword Pavilion's Pavilion Master's fortune, which was over a billion in itself! A terrifying number!

Yang Kai thought back to how he had to run himself ragged in the old days when he owed the Proprietress 10 million pills, but now 10 million was just a drop in the bucket for him!

Yang Kai did not think of himself as wealthy though. A billion Open Heaven Pills may sound like a lot, but once his friends and family from the Star Boundary entered the Outer Universe, Yang Kai didn't even know if that amount was going to be enough to get them settled.

Aside from the Open Heaven Pills, the other items were naturally a variety of Secret Arts and Techniques, artifacts, and other resources that weren't of much use to him currently. Not only were most of these skills and resources worse than the ones he already possessed, but they would also take time to either cultivate or refine before becoming useful.

The key items were the Yin, Yang, and Five Elements materials.

There was everything from First-Order to Sixth-Order materials.

The ones under Third Order were impossible to count. Meanwhile, the ones in the Fourth and Fifth Orders were much less in comparison. As for Sixth-Order materials, Guo Zi Yan and the group were only able to find three pieces in Zhong Fan's Space Ring. They were probably also harvested from the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary.

These were all the fortunes of the dead, so getting them didn't require any effort at all.

The sound of footsteps emerged from outside the door, and with Guo Zi Yan in lead, a group of men strode in.

"Sir!" Guo Zi Yan stopped and cupped his fist.

Yang Kai nodded lightly and swept a gaze over the group of people, "I asked you to come here today in order to heed this King's command. Those who have not formed a Dao Seal, step forward!"

They had no idea what Yang Kai intended to do, but they still obeyed when they heard his words. With a shuffle, a dozen individuals stepped forward from the crowd. All of them had cultivated to the peak of the Emperor Realm, but they have yet to form their Dao Seal, just like Luo Hai Yi back then.

Yang Kai looked at them and nodded lightly, "Those who have formed a Dao Seal but have not gathered any of their Yin, Yang and the Five Elements, step forward!"

Another dozen stepped forward.

"Have the rest of you already refined at least one Element?" Yang Kai looked at the remaining people.

Other than Guo Zi Yan, who was in the Open Heaven Realm, the rest of the several dozen people were all in the Emperor Realm. Excluding those who have not formed Dao Seals and those who have not cultivated any of the Yin, Yang and the Five Elements, the rest had.

"Yes!" The rest answered in unison.

"What sorts of Powers have you all cultivated, one by one, let's hear it." Yang Kai looked at them with interest.

They all looked at each other, not knowing how they should answer.

Guo Zi Yan couldn't help but shout, "Sir is asking you a question, just answer directly! You there, baldy, you speak first!"

A short man with beady eyes and zero hairs atop his head stepped forward and smiled embarrassedly as he cupped his fists, "Answering Sir, this one is not talented and has only condensed a trivial Second-Order Water Element."

"And you?" Yang Kai looked at the next person.

The man answered, "I have condensed Earth, Metal, and Water Elements. One in the Third Order, and the rest in the Second Order."

There was no need for more urging from Yang Kai as a dozen people reported their statuses one by one.

The lesser ones were like the shaved-headed man who was only able to condense one Element, while those with more Elements condensed were already in the half-step Open Heaven Realm. There were even some who only needed to condense one more Element to make a breakthrough; however, their Orders were uniformly not high. They were all in the Second and Third-Orders without so much as a Fourth-Order Element to be seen among them.

But they could not be blamed for this. They were living at the bottom of the hierarchy to begin with, so being able to cultivate to the Open Heaven Realm was a feat in and of itself, how would they be qualified to pick and choose better resources? Even Meng Hong, the Chief Disciple of Great Moon Province, had only condensed Third-Order Elements back then.

After hearing everyone out, Yang Kai spoke, "Since you have already condensed certain Elements, that means that your foundation has been set. Unless you find Tai Yi Soul Cleansing Water or some other precious treasure to cleanse your Dao Seal and rebuild your foundation, your future achievements will be limited."

The dozen people who had spoken obviously knew about their own situations as well, so they all smiled embarrassedly when they heard this.

"However..." Yang Kai turned the topic around, "Even though your foundations have been established, you can still get stronger. I'm sure you all know the great gap there exists between two cultivators who are similar in the Third-Order Open Heaven Realm."

Guo Zi Yan spoke thoughtfully, "Does Sir mean the Order of one's elements when one enters the Open Heaven Realm?"

Yang Kai nodded, "En. If two cultivators have the same Third-Order foundation, but one has refined all Third-Order Elements, while the other has several Fourth-Order or higher Elements, then the strength they can bring out will be drastically different. So, there's no need to feel sorry for yourselves. This is the path you have chosen, and turning back is impossible; instead, you can only continue down it."

Yang Kai rose from his seat, "Back on the Yuan Magnetic Mountain, this King said that if any of you have any requests for the harvest we've gained, then this King will not be stingy. Whether it be Fifth-Order or Sixth-Order, as long as you have the ability to refine it, you can ask me for it! Now is the time for this King to honour his word."

Looking at the dozen men in front of him, Yang Kai asked, "Which Order do you want? Speak."

The dozen people were instantly excited to hear these words. Even though Yang Kai did in fact promise such a thing back then, none of them believed that he actually planned to fulfil his commitment. Unexpectedly, he was the one who took the initiative to bring up the matter today, which was enough to show his sincerity.

"Does Sir truly mean what he says?" The shaved-headed man spoke with pleasant surprise, "Even if I ask for Sixth-Order materials?"

Guo Zi Yan kicked him and scolded, "You want to refine Sixth-Order materials with your abilities? Better measure your own worth first, you smelly brat! Don't bring your idiotic nonsense here!"

The shaved-headed man was kicked to the ground, but he didn't mind at all. He patted the dust off his bottom and stood up, "Sir said it himself, not me!"

Yang Kai laughed, "If you want Sixth-Order materials, then Sixth-Order is what you will get; however, that is under the premise that you are actually capable of refining it. Otherwise, giving it to you will only harm your life."

Without the right aptitude, forcibly condensing higher Order Elements would overburden one's Dao Seal, which could lead to it being damaged, or in more serious cases, death.

The shaved-headed man laughed, "I don't want Sixth-Order materials. This one's aptitude is poor, how could he even dare refine Sixth-Order materials? Fourth... Uh, Third-Order will be enough for me!" When he saw Guo Zi Yan glaring at him, he quickly changed his tone.

Yang Kai casually threw something out at the man, "Your aptitude is not too outstanding, but it's not dull either. Fourth-Order should be your limit. You can have this Fourth-Order Wood Core. You have only refined your Water Element so far, so the next is Wood. Once you have refined it, you can come back to this King to ask for the Fire Element material."