Martial Peak
chapter-1061

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Zong Ao’s cultivation had also reached the Origin Returning Realm, but he was not necessarily stronger than Ha Li Ka or Lin Mu Feng. In fact, thanks to him constantly immersing himself in Alchemy, it was quite likely he was much weaker than them, but after one hundred years of providing Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce with an unimaginably massive number of pills without taking any form of compensation had caused his status as an honoured guest to reach the highest level possible. President Ai Ou himself also paid close attention to Zong Ao and had explicitly ordered Ha Li Ka and the other branch leaders to treat Zong Ao as if he were a high-level executive of the Chamber of Commerce.

It was not an exaggeration to say that on Rainfall Star, the one with the highest status was Zong Ao!

As such, these Origin Returning Realm masters had to tread very carefully when facing Zong Ao, none of them daring to act the slightest bit careless or disrespectful.

Even knowing that Zong Ao was going to rob the Profound Yin Sunflower Water right in front of them, they didn’t dare try to stop him forcefully, their only option to beg him to show mercy.

The three branch leaders took turns wearing out their tongues in a desperate attempt to persuade Zong Ao, but all they managed to achieve was to annoy him, with Zong Ao unleashing an anger-filled scolding on them. Facing this tirade of insults and curses, Ha Li Ka and the others had no choice but to stand there and accept it with bitter faces.

After growing tired of scolding the trio, Zong Ao paused and cast a sneer onto them, “Don’t think this old master doesn’t know you don’t dare to report this matter to the Home Star. At the very least, until you can ensure that little girl is no longer in any danger, you will make every effort to conceal what’s happened here. So, even if this old master pockets the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, what do you plan to do? Bite me?”

After hearing these words, Ha Li Ka and the other executives exchanged helpless glances, the bitterness on their faces growing ever stronger, none of them daring to respond.

“Treasures of the world belong to those who have the ability to obtain them,” Zong Ao stated bluntly, “Even if this old master decides to give way here and not seize this Profound Yin Sunflower Water, can any of you collect it? Do you even know how to go about collecting it? If you don’t understand even have such a method, at most you’ll all just be able to sit there drooling over the meat near your mouth, unable to ever eat it!”

“What Grandmaster says is reasonable…” Ha Li Ka no longer argued his case and simply responded despondently.

“Does Grandmaster know how to collect the Profound Yin Sunflower Water?” The middle-aged woman on the other hand read the meaning behind Zong Ao’s words and asked expectantly.

“If this old master didn’t know how to collect it, why would I be standing here now?” Zong Ao snorted and waved, “Make way, after this old masters collects these things we can speak further.”

No longer caring about Ha Li Ka or the others in his way, Zong Ao grabbed Yang Kai and flew into the mine shaft, acting no different from a bandit.

Ha Li Ka and Lin Mu Feng glanced at each other briefly before gritting their teeth and following after him.

Inside the mine, Yang Kai followed behind Zong Ao and showed him the way.

The last time Yang Kai came in alone, he had relied on his ability to tear space to advance deep into the Ancient Ruins with ease, but this time he obviously couldn’t do so.

The hidden arrays and traps inside the ruins were both difficult to avoid and deadly; when Ha Li Ka and Xue Yue first investigated these ruins, they had lost a number of cultivators along the way.

However, Zong Ao was obviously not an ordinary man and as he led the way, he held up a five cornered prism that projected a glittering light in front of the pair, illuminating every inch of the mine tunnel.

Every now and then, the light would illuminate some nearly imperceptible energy fluctuations and Zong Ao would carefully lead Yang Kai to avoid their origins.

This five cornered prism seemed to have some sort of detection function and using it, Zong Ao was able to avoid hidden dangers. Although their pace was slow, it was without any danger so the trip was actually quite relaxed.

The temperature in the air gradually became lower and a thin layer of ice soon appeared on the stone walls of the mine.

Zong Ao’s expression grew excited as he knew that they were drawing closer to the Profound Yin Sunflower Water.

Ha Li Ka’s group was following not far behind Zong Ao and Yang Kai, communicating with one another using their Divine Senses as they walked, discussing how to handle this situation, anxiously trying to come up with some kind of feasible plan.

“Boy, where to now?” Zong Ao stopped at a fork and asked Yang Kai.

“This way!” Yang Kai pointed in a certain direction, his Divine Sense threads having long ago broken through the constraints of space to map the route to the Profound Yin Sunflower Water.

Zong Ao didn’t doubt him and walked straight into the fork.

Continuing forward for a long time, Zong Ao, who was leading the way, suddenly came to a halt, squinting his eyes as he looked up ahead, his body trembling uncontrollably as a frenzied look appeared on his face.

Where he was staring were several dozen drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water, each one strangely suspended in mid-air, still in the exact same state as when Yang Kai had left, just waiting to be collected.

“It really is Profound Yin Sunflower Water!” Zong Ao’s Divine Sense swept over the drops and immediately realized their extraordinariness. Although they were currently floating lightly, each drop was actually as heavy as a mountain and contained a terrifying amount of power.

Besides Profound Yin Sunflower Water, there was no other treasure that possessed such properties in this world.

Sprinting forward, Zong Ao quickly arrived in front of several dozen drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water, his eyes sparkling as he swept his eyes around, a big grin appearing on his face.

Being able to make someone as aloof as Zong Ao react so crassly, made it apparent just how valuable this Profound Yin Sunflower Water was.

Yang Kai remained calm and indifferent, standing to the side without moving, not having any ideas about snatching this Profound Yin Sunflower Water.

He understood the limits of his abilities; let alone Zong Ao, Ha Li Ka and others who were following them.

Footsteps sounded and Ha Li Ka’s group also emerged one after another, standing next to Yang Kai, staring forward bitterly.

The several dozen drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water before them made their eyes all go red.

This was one of the most precious cultivation treasures in existence, and as long as one could safely refine even a drop of it, it would greatly increase their strength. Even if it was an Origin Returning Realm masters such as Ha Li Ka, the improvement in strength would be noticeable.

Having reached their current cultivation, it had become increasingly difficult to make further progress, and even breaking through a Minor Realm could take hundreds, if not thousands of years, and that was only if they encountered enough opportunities.

Refining Profound Yin Sunflower Water, although risky, would return even greater benefits if successful, how could they not be tempted?

Each of the masters present had experienced countless life or death battles and had explored the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao whilst on the edge of death, growing to the current level step by step, so they were clearer than anyone that the greater the danger, the greater the reward.

But now, they were only able to watch from a distance, not daring to step forward.

“When you found the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, was it sealed inside a Space Ring?” Zong Ao asked suddenly.

Yang Kai had given him a brief description of the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, but what Yang Kai knew was limited so he hadn’t explained in detail.

“Yes, Grandmaster,” Ha Li Ka shivered slightly and responded.

“Wasting the Heaven’s precious gifts, wasting the Heaven’s precious gifts…” Zong Ao cursed, “Actually trying to place these things into a Space Ring, that ancient person seems to have been quite ignorant, but thanks to his inane act, this Profound Yin Sunflower Water was preserved. If he hadn’t stored them like this, who knows where they might have sunk to by now.”

The several people listened nearby didn’t have any clue what Zong Ao was talking about.

Lin Mu Feng cupped his fists and asked, “Please enlighten us, Grandmaster.”

Zong Ao grinned, “Each drop of Profound Yin Sunflower Water is as heavy as a mountain, not something that can be held within a Space Ring. After that ancient times person loaded the Profound Yin Sunflower Water into that Space Ring, he must have died without a chance to carry it off, otherwise, it would have exploded long ago.”

Ha Li Ka quickly said, “We were also caught by surprise because the Space Ring exploded at the time, resulting in heavy casualties.”

“That is only natural,” Zong Ao nodded, “On top of that, once these droplets touch any kind of soil, they will continue to sink deeper into the ground. Do you know why Profound Yin Sunflower Water is so rare?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“It is because every drop that is formed sinks to the core of the star and is absorbed by the Star Source, making it extremely difficult to discover. En, the Star Source will absorb not just the Profound Yin Sunflower Water but many other rare treasures as well.”

Everyone was shocked by this remark.

They knew that the Star Source was the root of every Cultivation Star, literally the heart of the star, but none of them knew that Star Sources and Profound Yin Sunflower Water had such a relationship.

“Fortunately, these dozens of drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water haven’t touched the ground yet, otherwise they may have disappeared long ago,” Zong Ao took a deep breath before summoning out a strange looking container from his Space Ring.

This contained was shaped like a small vase, with a wide opening, thin neck, and large body. It was formed by a strange and colourful material that gave of faint flashes of light.

“Five Coloured Meteor Essence!” Ha Li Ka gasped, at a glance realizing what material this contained was made from.

Lin Mu Feng and the middle-aged woman also couldn’t help revealing some shock as well.

Yang Kai did not miss their reactions and immediately understood that this Five Coloured Meteor Essence should be a highly valuable ore, otherwise the three Origin Returning Realm masters wouldn’t have revealed such gaffs.

“Yes, this is made of Five Coloured Meteor Essence,” Zong Ao laughed, “Few people know that Five Coloured Meteor Essence is the nemesis of Profound Yin Sunflower Water. To receive Profound Yin Sunflower Water, you only need to use Five Coloured Meteor Essence to build an appropriate storage container!”

As he laughed, Zong Ao pointed the vessel towards a drop of Profound Yin Sunflower Water then motivated his strength to collect it.

Ha Li Ka and others watched this with ugly expressions, their faces twitching, their moods ugly.

Although Five Coloured Meteor Essence was precious, their Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce still had a supply of it, and despite the small amount, building a vessel to store a few drops of liquid would not be an issue. If they had only known this, they would have already collected the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, then how could Zong Ao have robbed it from them?

Ha Li Ka had even lost an arm just to find this precious cultivation treasure.

Recalling all this, the expressions of the three fluctuated greatly.

Zong Ao on the other hand didn’t pay Ha Li Ka and others any mind, gleefully collecting the drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water by himself and only stopping when ten drops remained, solemnly holding his special container while glancing over at Ha Li Ka, “Don’t say this old master eats meat and chews bones without leaving any soup behind. Young ones, I’ll leave these here. Find a way to collect these last drops of Profound Yin Sunflower Water. Don’t tell me you can’t find Five Coloured Meteor Essence.”