Martial Peak
chapter-1091

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Yang Kai had been following Ji Peng’s group around for several days and although they had run into a few bumps along the way, they had not encountered too much danger because Ji Peng had the records left behind by his ancestor, allowing them to travel a relatively safe route.

But Di Ji was different. In order to acquire the treasures hidden in this place, his group had run into several dangers which had killed most of them. Now, only Di Ji remained and even he was in poor condition.

He had wanted to sneak up and kill Ji Peng from behind, but he hadn’t expected Yang Kai to suddenly expose him.

Di Ji shot Yang Kai a vicious look, annoyed that he spoiled his good deed.

“How did you find this place?” Ji Peng asked coldly.

Di Ji snorted heavily, “I’m not deaf, did you think I wouldn’t hear so many agonized screams?”

Saying so, his expression became fierce as he stared at Ji Peng and asked, “Is what you just said true? Can this Body Tempering Divine Pond really improve one’s physique? Did your ancestor really cultivate to the Third Order Origin Returning Realm?”

“What of it?” Ji Peng didn’t bother making any denials as Di Ji had obviously been listening in for a while now. Di Ji had absolutely heard what Ji Peng was saying to the others, lying served no purpose now.

“Good, good!” Di Ji was overjoyed, “Half a year ago when we started pursuing you guys, I had no idea what you were up to, only that there must be some huge benefits to be had, but now I understand completely. Ji Peng, you’re not my opponent, if you want to survive, leave obediently. Otherwise, don’t blame me for acting ruthlessly.”

A trace of panic flashed across Ji Peng’s face. He was only a Second-Order Saint King while Di Ji was a Minor Realm higher than him. Ordinarily, he would not be Di Ji’s opponent, but soon after, that panic disappeared and Ji Peng sneered, “Are you sure about that? If you could easily kill me right now, you wouldn’t bother saying anything. The truth is you don’t know which of us would come out on top if we were to fight right now, do you?”

“You saw through me?” Di Ji smiled lightly, without the slightest bit of embarrassment as he nodded, “Since you understand then I won’t waste any more time. There’s just the two of us here now, and neither of us is confident he can beat the other, so why don’t we sit down and talk it out?”

“What do you want?” Ji Peng looked at him angrily.

Although Ji Peng knew that Di Ji had brought people into this place, he hadn’t expected to run into him at the last moment. Ji Peng couldn’t wait to rush out and kill Di Ji, but he didn’t dare act rashly as he wasn’t certain he could win.

“Simple, we share. In any case, this pool is so large that the two of us can both temper our bodies. Both of us gain some benefits while not making things awkward for the other,” Di Ji proposed positively.

“Good, I agree. Since the situation is currently like this, I don’t want there to be any more complications, giving you a few benefits rather than risking everything is fine with me,” Ji Peng nodded happily.

“So it’s settled?” Di Ji chuckled.

Ji Peng nodded again.

The two stared at each other across the several dozen meter gap between them, both seemingly quite satisfied with this quick negotiation.

Suddenly, a dark golden Artifact Armour appeared on Ji Peng and he slashed forward with his hand, sending out a series of sharp Saint Qi blades towards Di Ji.

At the same time, a burst of silver light appeared in Di Ji’s hand and a silver spear appeared. The patterns on the spear seemed to come alive and a heavy Water Attribute aura burst out from it, crashing into Ji Peng’s attack like a tsunami.

A battle had instantly broken out between these two men who had just a moment ago seemingly reached a compromise.

Yang Kai sat in the Divine Pond with a sneer on his face, he knew that from the start these two could not coexist peacefully, because Ji Peng would absolutely not allow Di Ji any time to restore himself. Once Di Ji recovered, Ji Peng would definitely not be his opponent, so he had no choice but to go all out with Di Ji even if he wasn’t confident he could win.

Although Ji Peng’s cultivation was inferior, Di Ji’s condition was poor, so neither side knew who would emerge victoriously.

After spectating for a moment, Yang Kai lost interest in this battle and instead focused all of his attention on his own matters, stopped resisting the force trying to drag him down, and submerged himself into the pond.

He wanted to see what was hidden beneath the surface.

The dark red water churned violently, just like a rolling boil, the strange energy contained within it constantly smelting Yang Kai’s blood.

Yang Kai squinted slightly as he allowed himself to be pulled under. It wasn’t long before his feet touched the bottom of the pond, and when they did, the suction which was restricting his movements disappeared.

Deep in the pond’s depths, it was too dark to see anything, the blood-red water obscuring all light from the surface.

Yang Kai had to take out a luminous stone and hold it in his hand to see around himself. Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai quickly discovered something which appeared to be the source of the strange power flooding the water and assumed it was the Sacrificial Altar Ji Peng had mentioned.

Instead of rushing to the Sacrificial Altar though, Yang Kai began to look around the bottom of the pond.

After a while, Yang Kai found a Space Ring lying quietly on the ground. Retrieving the Space Ring and probing it with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai wore a grin on his face.

Inside this Space Ring was the Thunder Attribute Bird Wood that had been formed after the death of the Tenth-Order Monster Beast Thunder Luan, the carapace of the Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion, countless herbs, and the Monster Cores of several Seventh and Eighth-Order Monster Beasts.

It was Gui Che’s Space Ring!

Yang Kai placed the ring in his sleeve pocket with great satisfaction.

Because Space Rings had their own independent spaces inside them, they could not be stored inside the Demon Mystic Tome. Although Space Rings couldn’t be loaded into the Demon Mystic Tome, the Universe Bags could. Yang Kai didn’t understand the principle behind this but didn’t spend much time thinking about it.

Gui Che’s Space Ring had most of the good things that had been harvested from this little trip, but after finding it, Yang Kai determination did not waver and he continued his search.

The Body Tempering Divine Pond wasn’t very big, only about a hundred meters in diameters, but surprisingly it was more than a thousand meters deep.

It wasn’t difficult to find a few Space Rings in such a place, and soon, the ones that belonged to Gan Ji and Luo Yao were also pocketed by Yang Kai.

Above the pond, blasts of energy filled the air as the shouts of Ji Peng and Di Ji rang out. The two were obviously fighting a fierce battle. Yang Kai paid attention to them for a while but quickly figured the two of them wouldn’t be able to reach a conclusion for quite some time and shifted his attention to the Sacrificial Altar.

A moment later, Yang Kai arrived in front of the strange altar and silently began examining it. There was an extremely profound Spirit Array engraved on this altar and was surrounded by a number of brilliant Saint Crystals that gave off a sensational energy fluctuation.

However, as he examined them closer, Yang Kai soon realized that these weren’t Saint Crystals.

They possessed an even denser and richer concentration than High-Rank Saint Crystals.

Were these things an even higher grade of Saint Crystal? Yang Kai wondered to himself, uncertain of what the call these things.

Atop the altar were visible, densely packed Spirit Array lines that crisscrossed with one another. It was extremely complicated.

This place was obviously not naturally formed, but instead artificially arranged; as for which master had created it, that was unknown.

Countless points of light, like the fireflies in the night sky, floated around this Sacrificial Altar in a beautiful dance. These wisps of light seemed to compose a stream of energy that was constantly pouring into the altar.

Atop this Sacrificial Altar were innumerable rare and precious treasures that Yang Kai couldn’t even begin to identify.

Under the action of this Sacrificial Altar, the effects of these precious treasures were activated, creating the strange energy which tempered Yang Kai’s blood and allowed him to create the purest Demon God Golden Blood!

Yang Kai was ecstatic and immediately sat cross-legged beside the Sacrificial Altar in order to obtain the fiercest tempering.

However, Yang Kai hadn’t imagined though that the moment he sat down, the Sacrificial Altar would begin shaking and the entire Body Tempering Divine Pond would become stimulated. Suddenly, all the blood-red liquid in the Divine Pond began swiftly gathering towards the Sacrificial Altar.

Yang Kai paled, not having anticipated such a development. He tried his best to move away from the Sacrificial Altar, but under the raging torrent of the crimson water, he was unable to even lift a finger.

Releasing his Divine Sense, Yang Kai clearly noticed that the water level of the entire Body Tempering Divine Pond was rapidly decreasing. It wasn’t that the amount of water was reducing, but rather that the liquid itself was being compressed due to the attraction of the Sacrificial Altar.

This anomaly also alarmed Ji Peng and Di Ji, who stopped their life or death battle and turned towards the Body Tempering Divine Pond in shock.

When he discovered that the Divine Pond was rapidly drying up, Ji Peng let out a mad scream and recklessly threw himself towards it to try to stop whatever was happening.

He had worked so hard and schemed against so many people just for the opportunity to temper his body in this pond and was just about to achieve his wish. Although Di Ji had interfered at the last moment, Ji Peng wasn’t about to compromise, but if the Body Tempering Divine Pond disappeared, all his previous efforts would be for nought.

Ji Peng completely ignored Di Ji and crazily tried to stop the water level from falling again, but no matter what he tried, it had no effect.

Di Ji, on the other hand, was dumbfounded and simply stood still.

In less than ten breaths of time, the Body Tempering Divine Pond, which was over a thousand meters deep, had completely dried up, with all the crimson liquid compressing itself down into a small blood-red crystal cocoon.

When Ji Peng arrived at the bottom of the pond, he saw Yang Kai trapped inside the blood-red cocoon while the Sacrificial Altar, which was supposed to be right there, had actually disappeared.

He stood in place, his eyes dull, as if he had lost his soul.

A moment later, Ji Peng let out a crazed shout and began furiously attacking the crystal cocoon, the full force of his Second Order Saint King cultivation bursting out, causing Di Ji, who was standing far away, to be slightly startled.

He couldn’t afford to take on Ji Peng’s desperate outburst.

But weirdly, the blood-red crystal cocoon was seemed to be forged from the hardest steel and forget about destroying it, Ji Peng’s attacks couldn’t even leave a scratch on it.

The ground suddenly trembled and began to split, sending the native Monster Beasts into a panic as they noticed the impending crisis, all of them trying to take shelter or flee for their lives.

Di Ji’s expression also changed greatly and he didn’t dare to remain, swiftly flying off.

Ji Peng also stopped his attacks and after releasing his Divine Sense realized that something was wrong. Finally recovering a bit of his sanity, he made one final effort to break open the crystal cocoon before preparing to leave.

However, he was once again too late. From the blood-red crystal cocoon, an irresistible suction force broke out and all living things in this strange isolate world, from the beasts to the plants, had their vitality drawn out of the bodies, transformed into wisps of glowing light, and sucked into the cocoon.

Ji Peng was forced to watch as his skin dried up and his body withered, his vitality rapidly passing and after a short time, which to him felt like thousands of years, his bones broke down into dust and were scattered to the wind.

Before he died though, he managed to meet eyes with a terrified Di Ji who had also been drawn back.