Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Jon

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

The insect fog silently came over Yang Kai and engulfed him. Hurriedly, he surged his Golden Crow's True Fire to burn them. In an instant, crackling sounds were heard as the fog turned into a fire cloud as the insects were burned to ashes.

The road ahead was paved with danger. Besides the lightning attacks that came from the void and the insect cloud's harassment, there were also many unimaginable crises.

All of a sudden, the ground separated and revealed a chasm, only to close again after swallowing a number of cultivators. Many lives had been lost in silence, and a lot of people were not even aware that their companions had disappeared. When they turned around and realised that they were on their own, they were horrified.

It had only been one hour since thousands of cultivators streamed onto the mountain, but twenty to thirty percent of them were already dead. The further they went up the mountain, the more dangerous it became, and the more frequent the crises befell them.

Yang Kai had been struck several times, but his solid heritage saved him from calamity.

On the other hand, the other cultivators were not so lucky. Be it the lightning strike or the insect cloud, it was difficult for them to deal with them.

When they reached the middle of the mountain, only a small number of people were left. The people who had the guts to keep moving forward were either confident of their strength or were not willing to go home empty-handed when they already entered such a treasure trove. They were willing to risk their lives and give it a try.

Xiang Ying and the young man who had obtained Ah Ku were ahead of everyone else while Xu Zhen lagged slightly behind. It wasn't that Xu Zhen was weaker than they were, but everyone had different strengths and weaknesses. The purple bamboo in Xiang Ying's hand was able to save him from all the calamities. By just sticking out the bamboo, he could annihilate the lightning and disperse the insect cloud.

The young man who had obtained Ah Ku was fairly powerful as well. Yang Kai suspected that he was also a Divine Spirit Bearer; however, this person was pretty secretive, so Yang Kai wasn't certain about his background.

These were just the Bearers who had surfaced, so what about the Bearers who remained hidden?

After all, Yang Kai had seen more than fifty Divine Spirits outside. Every Divine Spirit had their own Bearer, so there were over fifty Bearers at the very least.

The short man was still nowhere to be found. Yang Kai wondered where he was. As Yang Kai moved forward, he kept darting his gaze around in an attempt to look for the short man.

All of a sudden, a light appeared in the distance. Initially, the light was extremely weak, but after just a split second, it became as bright as daylight. At the same time, a terrifying aura wafted from that direction. Following a hiss, a lightning snake swirled around the light and expanded rapidly.

Pu Bai Xiong exclaimed, "Watch out!"

Hurriedly, Yang Kai made a grabbing gesture, and as Space Principles undulated, he forcefully lifted his hand.

With a boom, the lightning snake exploded in the sky and engulfed an area of a thousand metres. Within that area, space shattered and formed a huge black hole.

Yang Kai gasped and felt fortunate that as soon as he realised that something was off, he threw the lightning snake up. If it exploded right in front of him, even his Dragon Body wouldn't come out unscathed.

After letting out a breath, he looked up at the peak and became doubtful.

When he was still at the bottom of the mountain earlier, he already realised that a faint aura of World Force permeated this place. As he moved further up the mountain, this feeling became increasingly clearer, which puzzled him.

In the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary, even the powers of the Divine Spirits had been significantly suppressed while the Small Universes in the bodies of Open Heaven Realm Masters were completely sealed. Supposedly, something like World Force shouldn't exist here, but it could be felt in this place. Where was the World Force coming from?

Yang Kai could detect that the source of the World Force was the ancient tree at the mountain peak. What amazed him was that this World Force seemed complicated, as though it was formed by countless types of World Forces.

"Grape, are you sure that's the Innate Fruit Tree?" Yang Kai asked as he ambled forward.

Presently, Pu Bai Xiong was seated on Yang Kai's shoulder. His legs, which were transformed from roots, swung in the air as he replied nonchalantly, "I don't know whether he's innate or not. Since you're looking for a fruit tree, I'm bringing you to where one is."

At that, Yang Kai was rendered speechless.

The distance between the bottom of the mountain and the peak was only three kilometres. Usually, any cultivator would have reached the summit after just one breath's time; however, it had taken them over two hours to do so on this mountain.

The first one to rush to the peak was Xiang Ying. Upon arriving at his destination, he didn't scramble to snatch the spirit fruit though. Instead, he looked up from the bottom of the tree as he fell into a dazed state.

The next person was the young man who had obtained Ah Ku. Seeing him, Xiang Ying secretly widened the gap between them. That was because all the cultivators who had been close to this young man were now dead, which was a sign of misfortune.

The third person to arrive was Xu Zhen.

Yang Kai was the fourth person to reach the peak, followed by Ding Yi and those from Emperor Heaven. Behind them were the battered cultivators who had gone through countless ordeals and finally arrived at this place.

The short man was still nowhere to be found, but Yang Kai could feel that this guy was hiding somewhere nearby; unfortunately, his Divine Sense had been suppressed in this place, so he was unable to look for him.

Presently, all of them were staring dazedly at this fruit tree. The tree crown was so gigantic that it seemed to have covered the entire sky. Spirit fruits were hanging on its branches, each one only the size of a fist, but they were translucent and radiated a beautiful glow.

"These are…" Xu Zhen examined the fruit tree and the spirit fruits in front of him. As though recalling something, he fell into his thoughts.

"It's not the Innate Fruit Tree!" Xiang Ying suddenly said.

Yang Kai nodded in agreement. He couldn't detect it when he was at the bottom of the mountain, but as soon as he saw this fruit tree, he realised that something was off. This wasn't the Innate Fruit Tree. At the very least, this wasn't the tree that these Divine Spirits had been looking for.

That was because they had said that there was only one spirit fruit on the Innate Fruit Tree, so it could only go to one person. The same thing happened every time the Primordial Land opened up. After the spirit fruit was picked, the Innate Fruit Tree would disappear, and the spirit fruit was the key to helping them get out of this cage.

However, the fruit tree in front of them had hundreds if not thousands of spirit fruits.

The spirit fruits hanging on the branches were extremely attractive to the beholder and also exuded a faint World Force.

The source of the World Force Yang Kai felt earlier was these spirit fruits, which was an inconceivable idea.

"Hahaha. With so many spirit fruits around, all of us won't go home empty-handed." Ding Yi guffawed. Although about four thousand to five thousand people had streamed onto the mountain, only several hundred people managed to reach the summit. There were probably two thousand to three thousand spirit fruits on this tree, so even if they were equally divided between these several hundred people, everyone could get a few.

Even though they had no idea what these spirit fruits were for, they knew that these were beneficial by just looking at them. Nevertheless, in front of such a treasure, no one dared to make the first move lest the others attack them.

However, Ding Yi didn't care about this one bit as he pointed at one of his subordinates and ordered, "Go over and pick one for me!"

There was a bitter expression on the person's face, but he had no choice but to walk over and jump onto a branch.

Looking down, he realised that everyone was staring fixedly at him, but no one seemed to have the intention of attacking him. It was then he set his mind at ease.

At that instant, he knew that these people were treating him like a test subject. If no danger befell him after he picked the spirit fruit, all of them would rush over and snatch them.

Then, he secretly prayed and extended his hand towards a spirit fruit. The fruit felt slightly cold, but there didn't seem to be anything unusual about it. Just when he was ready to pluck the fruit though, something unexpected happened. Right in front of everyone's eyes, this person disappeared all of a sudden.

Ding Yi widened his eyes in disbelief and exclaimed, "Where did he go?"

There was a solemn expression on Yang Kai's face. Earlier, he was staring fixedly at that person, but he couldn't see how the latter disappeared, as though they had vanished into thin air, which was eerie.

Seeing this, many heaved a sigh of relief. There was apparently a huge risk associated with picking these spirit fruits. Fortunately, they were not in a rush to snatch these fruits just now; otherwise, the same fate would have befallen them.

Right then, a realisation seemed to have dawned upon Xu Zhen and his gaze appeared fervent as he guffawed, "That's it! This thing really does exist! I always thought it was just a legend!"

Hearing that, all of them turned to look at him.

Xu Zhen was from Divine Cauldron Cave Heaven, so his background was extraordinary. As such, his knowledge and experience were much greater than others of his generation; after all, the inheritance and heritage of a Cave-Heaven stretched tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Many secrets that were unknown to the masses were recorded in the books kept by these top forces.

Previously, Yang Kai had obtained a lot of information regarding the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary from Xu Zhen.

Now, Xu Zhen seemed to recognise this wonderful fruit tree, so he must have seen some related records.

Worried about his subordinate's safety, Ding Yi quickly asked, "Little fatty, what do you know? What the hell is this thing? Where's my man?"

Xu Zhen shot him a glance, but he wasn't mad. He had always been a mild-tempered person, so with a smile, he replied, "Chief Ding, don't worry. Your subordinate isn't in danger for now. It's just that he has been swallowed by the spirit fruit."

The expression of Ding Yi changed, "What do you mean that he's not in danger when he's been eaten by the fruit?"

After a chuckle, Xu Zhen explained, "He's indeed not in a perilous situation, but it depends on his luck whether he can get out. If he can do that, it'll be a huge opportunity for him. If he can't…"

"What if he can't?"

"He'll be trapped inside the fruit forever."

In a grim voice, Ding Yi questioned, "This thing traps people inside?"

"Chief Ding, please do not underestimate these fruits. They're very powerful." Xu Zhen chuckled.

Just then, Ah Ku's owner asked, "Senior Brother, what is this fruit tree? What are these spirit fruits?"

These were the questions everyone was curious about. Faced with such a dangerous treasure trove, they had to find out about its background first. With such a precedent earlier, no one dared to make a move on the spirit fruits for now.

Without the intention to hide it from them, Xu Zhen said solemnly, "If I'm not mistaken, this is the legendary 3,000 Worlds Tree."

"3,000 Worlds Tree?" All of them exclaimed and traded glances.

Other than Xu Zhen, no one else at the scene seemed to have heard of such a tree before.