Martial Peak

“What is Young Lady thinking about?” A maidservant standing next to the Saintess saw her listless expression and couldn’t help asking.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything,” The Saintess slowly shook her head, a faint trace of sorrow apparent between her brows.

“Was Young Lady wondering if we would successfully find the next Holy Master this time?” The maidservant, Bei’er, grinned and asked.

“I don’t want to find any nonsense Holy Master!” Saintess sighed slightly exasperatedly.

“But that is Young Lady’s most important responsibility,” Bei’er’s expression dampened noticeably.

“I know, and I am looking, but he has yet to appear, so there’s nothing more I can do.”

“It would be best if he didn’t appear for a lifetime, then Young Lady wouldn’t have anything to worry about.”

“Shh!” The Saintess quickly lifted a jade finger to her mouth before turning her eyes to the room’s door, quietly whispering, “Saying such things to me is fine, but you mustn’t let anyone else hear them, especially not Uncle Qian or there’ll be problems.”

“I know,” Bei’er spat out her tongue playfully, “But Young Lady doesn’t have to worry too much, there are four Saintesses of Nine Heavens Holy Land, perhaps one of the other three who are out searching right now will find an appropriate candidate.”

“It’s no good no matter which of us find him,” The Saintess sighed slightly before standing up suddenly, “Enough sitting around, I’m going out to get some fresh air.”

“En,” Bei’er nodded quickly.

Exiting her cabin and strolling around the deck for a while, the Saintess’ mood improved noticeably. As she walked about, she suddenly recalled the disturbance Yang Kai’s appearance had caused and casually asked one of the nearby disciples about him.

Upon learning that since his arrival, Yang Kai had actually not left his assigned cabin, the Saintess couldn’t help frowning slightly.

Because of some special reasons, she could basically see through other’s true thoughts, so when she first saw Yang Kai she knew he had no hostile or malicious intent, but she also felt that he was a bit strange, as if he was shrouded in a layer of fog that caused even her, who excelled at reading others, to fail to completely understand him.

But learning that he was not causing any fuss and had essentially faded into the background, the Saintess didn’t see any reason to intentionally associate with him, so after strolling around for a while longer, she simply returned to her room.

The days passed by and before Yang Kai knew it, he had been sailing aboard the grand ship for an entire month. All of a sudden, one day, when he was immersed in his meditation, Yang Kai smelt a nostalgic fragrance waft through the air.

Naturally it was the smell of land.

Quickly turning around and looking out his window, he saw some scattered islands appear on the distant horizon.

His spirit rousing, Yang Kai swiftly got up.

Staying in this cramped cabin for the past month had been quite stifling so now that Yang Kai could see land and knew he would finally be able to escape from this place, he inevitably felt happy.

Half a day later, the big ship docked at one of the island’s ports and soon after, Yang Kai heard footsteps outside his door. A moment later, the big man named Cheng Fei pushed his way inside and bluntly said, “Brat, we’ve arrived at our destination, get out!”

Yang Kai nodded lightly and stepped out of his room.

Up on the deck, the disciples of Nine Heavens Holy Land were disembarking in an orderly fashion while down on the docks, some cultivators who seemed to be local big-shots were respectfully welcoming the former, big flattering grins pasted all over their faces.

Yang Kai saw the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess on the deck and after thinking about it for a moment, walked over to her directly.

His movements immediately caught the attention of many of the cultivators around and even Uncle Qian began pushing his True Qi and staring towards Yang Kai with a grim expression.

It seemed like he was preparing to butcher Yang Kai the moment the latter made any kind of inappropriate move.

As if he was completely unaware of the malicious eyes gathered on him, Yang Kai simply walked over to a spot not far away from the Saintess, cupped his fists and said, “Many thanks for rescuing me, Young Lady, I will remember this kindness in my heart. I wish Young Lady good health and longevity!”

The Saintess’ eyes flashed before wearing a quaint smile, Yang Kai’s words and actions were somewhat different from those she had encountered before and surprised her slightly, nodded lightly as she replied, “No need to be so polite, from now on you should be careful not to fall into the sea again.”

“Many thanks for Young Lady’s concern. I’ll take my leave!”

Saying so, Yang Kai turned around and quickly left the ship.

“Glib tongued brat!” Uncle Qian didn’t seem to like Yang Kai very much and couldn’t help muttering under his breath and coldly snorted.

“I actually think he’s quite sincere,” The Saintess stared at Yang Kai’s disappearing back as she pursed her lips and giggled.

Around the ship, all the gathered cultivators, both young and old, were instantly drawn to this smile, many of them becoming absent minded for a while until Uncle Qian snorted heavily, shaking them out of their daze, many of them blushing as the awkwardly went back to their assigned tasks.

After Yang Kai got off the big ship, he leisurely strolled around the island.

There were many cultivators on this island, coming and going in droves, but the World Energy Aura here seemed a bit thin, at least, not nearly as rich as the islands occupied by Water Spirit Temple.

Moreover, there seemed to be no real masters on this island. Among the local leaders who had come to greet the Nine Heavens Holy Land ship at the dock, the strongest was only a Second Order Transcendent, and he was an old man with long snow-white hair.

Evidently, this island chain was not a particularly good piece of land and was only occupied by some small forces, none of which was even in the same league as Water Spirit Temple.

Having observing the crowd, Yang Kai could faintly determine that, unlike at Water Spirit Temple, there seemed to be a lot of outsiders wandering around here.

After walking around the island for a while, Yang Kai strolled into a local inn, chose a seat by the window, sat down and ordered some food and drink from one of the waiters.

The young waiter took his order and, a moment later, returned with an exquisite spread of dishes, but just as he was about to leave, Yang Kai called out to him to stay.

“What orders does honoured customer have?” The waiter asked with a smile.

Yang Kai said nothing and simply placed two Crystal Stones on the table.

The waiter’s eyes lit up and immediately wore a flattering smile as he respectfully said, “Honoured guest, these dishes are hardly worth two Crystal Stone.”

“I want to ask you some things, if your answers satisfy me, whatever is leftover is yours!”

“Whatever honoured guest wishes to know, feel free to ask, this humble one will certainly not conceal anything!”

Yang Kai nodded, pausing for a moment to arrange his thoughts before continuing, “First off, where is this place?”

The waiter directed a stunned look towards Yang Kai for a moment before asking with a smile, “Honoured guest doesn’t even know where here is? Then how did honoured guest come to…”

However, before he could finish, the waiter saw a flash of impatience in Yang Kai’s eyes and quickly explained, “This is Azure Sea Island…”

“What notable forces are established in this region?”

“Around the local island chain there are the Cheng Family, Wang Family, Hai Family…” The waiter listed off several forces one by one.

After listening to his remarks, Yang Kai realized that the nearby islands were essentially controlled by a group known as the Seven Family Alliance.

There were twenty or thirty islands in the nearby chain and these seven families were the strongest forces present. These families weren’t very powerful, and Yang Kai had already seen most of their strongest masters back at the dock. Each of them had at most a Second Order Transcendent as their leader as well as another three to five other Transcendents serving as Elders.

When Yang Kai asked about how far this place was from Water Spirit Temple, the waiters answer stunned him.

It seemed that Water Spirit Temple was in the opposite direction he had gone while aboard the Nine Heavens Holy Land’s great ship and was at least a few ten thousand kilometers away.

Knowing this, Yang Kai could only shake his head helplessly, it seems he had to put aside his plans to return to Water Spirit Temple and thank Shui Ling personally for now.

The closest port on the mainland was also about a month’s distance by boat from this place!

“Is there an Alchemist Guild branch here?” Yang Kai asked.

The waiter shook his head.

[This really is a backwater place!] Yang Kai thought to himself. There wasn’t even an Alchemist Guild branch here, which showed just how remote this Azure Sea Island was.

“Is honoured guest an Alchemist?” The waiter was a sharp person and instantly became aware of something after hearing Yang Kai’s question.

“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai glanced over at him curiously.

“The Seven Family Alliance is aggressively recruiting Alchemists and are offering extremely lucrative rewards. If honoured guest wants to make some money, you may want to try visiting them.”

Yang Kai silently snickered in his heart, obviously not interested in such an idea.

He didn’t care about what kind of rewards he could obtain, he only wanted to improve his Alchemy skills, but from what he had just heard about the Seven Family Alliance, it was obvious they didn’t have a large supply or rare herbs he could use to practice with.

“Right, why are there so many guests around here? Why are they all dressed up and puffing out their chests like they’re trying to show themselves off?” Yang Kai smoothly changed the topic.

Since he came to the island, he had noticed something odd. Essentially, every young man he came across was dressed up in his finest. Not only that, they seemed to be paying great attention to the way they spoke and acted, as if they were trying to appear like noble, educated scholars.

In fact, it wasn’t just the young, even the middle-aged men appeared to be on their best behaviour, as if they were under the scrutiny of an invisible pair of eyes.

This puzzled Yang Kai greatly and made him wonder if this was some kind of strange local custom.

“Doesn’t honoured guest already know?” Listening to Yang Kai’s question, the waiter showed a sly smile, his expression somewhat ambiguous.

“Should I?” Yang Kai glanced over at him unkindly and reached for the two Crystal Stones on the table, he was somewhat annoyed at this waiter speaking so much nonsense.

However, the waiter acted faster, swiftly snapping up the Crystal Stones and offering his thanks before leaning over and whispering into Yang Kai’s ear, “The Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Saintess is supposed to arrive here today, so everyone is deliberately trying to show themselves off.”

Yang Kai frowned upon hearing this, “That Saintess coming here, what the hell does that have to do with them?”

“It has everything to do with them!” Seeing that Yang Kai really was ignorant of the situation, the waiter felt slightly surprised but quickly proceeded to explain, “The Saintess going out is a sign that Nine Heavens Holy Land is seeking its next Holy Master. If someone can catch her Highness the Saintess’ attention, he’ll be able to leap over the dragon gate and soar into the sky in a single bound!”

“You mean them?” Yang Kai swept his eyes around and could only see a crowd of worthless idiots putting on airs and posturing to the point he felt nauseous, smiling disdainfully as he said, “Only if that Saintess is totally blind will she have a liking for any of these fools.”

“Sh…” The waiter quickly gestured to Yang Kai before vigilantly glancing around and whispering, “Honoured guest cannot say such things out loud or you’ll draw public anger. Besides, who the Saintess will ultimately choose, no one can say. Every time the Nine Heavens Holy Land Saintess goes out like this it creates a similar storm. Six months ago, when Nine Heavens Holy Land spread the word that their Saintesses would be going out, the entire world shook and countless young heroes began secretly preparing. Since half a month ago, this Azure Sea Island became incredibly lively because word that the Saintess would be stopping here came out. Otherwise, how could there be so many outsiders here in such a remote place right now?”

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