Martial Peak
chapter-1178

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

While the Hundred Mountains Picture was a good artefact overall, it was most suited to mass killing.

The eight huge mountain phantoms look illusory and misty, but each one possessed the weight a mountain should. There was no need to add any additional force to them, simply allowing them to fall from the sky was impactful enough. Being madly stimulated by Yang Kai’s Saint Qi, these giant mountains had already begun to give off traces of Demonic Flame. Soon, the entire mountain valley was shaking from the falling mountain peaks, with countless Fire Spirit Beasts being smashed and dissipating with every breath.

This was the first time Yang Kai has used the Hundred Mountains Picture in battle, and he was quite satisfied with its killing power. At the very least, it was much faster at clearing out these Fire Spirit Beasts than him using Profound Heavenly Swords and Heaven Punishing Spears. Dismissing his Demonic Flame sword, Yang Kai began focusing on releasing the power of the Hundred Mountains Picture.

*Hong Hong Hong…*

Thunderous noises echoed through the mountain valley as the very ground around it trembled.

At the same time, from the direction Yang Kai had come, a group of three people appeared at the mouth of the mountain valley. Two of these three were Third Order Saint Kings while the last was a First Order Saint King. The two Third Order Saint Kings stood in front and behind the First Order Saint King cultivator, seemingly protecting him.

When they came to the mountain valley, the cultivator who was walking in front suddenly stopped, a look of suspicion appearing on his face as he examined the scene in front of him.

With him coming to stop, the two behind him naturally stopped as well, the cultivator in the rear immediately becoming vigilant, but the young man in the centre, who was at least a head shorter than the other two, still wore a loose and aloof expression, as if he wasn’t exploring the dangerous Flowing Flame Sand Field but was instead out for a casual stroll.

After the lead cultivator spent a cup of tea worth of time examining the mountain valley, not showing any intention to continue forward, the short young man couldn’t help shouting in annoyance, “Xie Yong, what are you gawking at, hurry up and move.”

The cultivator called Xie Yong looked back at the young man and said, “Young Master, please wait a moment, there’s something off about this mountain valley.”

Saying so, he beckoned to the other Third Order Saint King and the two of them both went forward to investigate their surroundings more carefully, whispering to each other from time to time.

Even after seeing them acting in such a serious manner, the young man just coldly snorted with dissatisfaction, “Aren’t you two making too much of a fuss over nothing? This entire way we have not encountered anything slightly dangerous. Weren’t all the Fire Spirit Beasts that jumped out easily killed by this Young Master? It seems the rumours about the Flowing Flame Sand Field are all nothing but nonsense, all that talk about it being dangerous instead must have been spread to frighten away those ignorant fools. Hmph, unfortunately those fools can’t scare this Young Master!”

This young man was none other than the Xie Hong Wen who had grievances with Yang Kai. The other two Third Order Saint King cultivators were naturally disciples the Xie Family had sent to protect him.

Qian Tong had previously told Yang Kai specifically that these two cultivators weren’t from Shadow Moon Hall.

After hearing Xie Hong Wen’s words, Xie Yong and the other cultivator looked at each other and shook their heads secretly. They also knew that Xie Hong Wen had been used to riding roughshod, never encountering the slightest inconvenience, so naturally he didn’t understand the dangers of the outside world. On top of that, they truly hadn’t encountered anything too dangerous these past few days, so Xie Hong Wen was now underestimating this place.

Although the two of them had also never entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field before, since this was one of Shadowed Star’s Three Great Forbidden Zones, it was undoubtedly dangerous.

If someone else had said these words, these two wouldn’t even bother to pay attention to them, if because they let their guard down they died, then that would be that. Unfortunately, the two of them were responsible for protecting Xie Hong Wen’s safety, and if he were to die because of his own carelessness, even if they survived and returned to the Xie Family, they would certainly have grim futures.

The other square-faced cultivator felt that it was necessary to explain to Xie Hong Wen and said seriously, “Young Master, this is still the outermost edge of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and we were lucky to have only met some Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beats. With Young Master’s divine might, killing them was naturally easily.”

Listening to this praise, Xie Hong Wen’s look of impatience eased a lot, puffing out his chest and holding his head high as if to say that beneath the Heavens only I am supreme.

The cultivator then continued, “But Young Master, you must not take this place too lightly, it’s still fine if we just encounter Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts, but there are also Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order ones out there…”

After hearing this, Xie Hong Wen narrowed his eyes and stared at the square face cultivator, sneering, “Xie Yun, it is you who is underestimating this Young Master, with all the artefacts on this young master, as well as his exquisite Divine abilities, let alone Seventh -Order or Eighth-Order, who cares if even Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts appear? This Young Master can still easily kill them! This young master is most afraid he will not be able to meet those so call High-Order Fire Spirit Beasts. En, quickly find a few of them for this Young Master so you can bear witness to this Young Master’s might!”

He couldn’t wait to prove himself.

Xie Yong and Xie Yun were calm on the surface, but in their heads they were cursing out Xie Hong Wen with all they could.

The two of them had heard that Xie Hong Wen was an idiot, but it wasn’t until now that they realized the rumors were drastically understating the stupidity of this Young Master.

He was a trivial First Order Saint King, let alone kill a Ninth-Order Fire Spirit Beast, even a Seventh-Order or Eighth-Order could easily kill him, yet he still insisted on so shameless boasting.

There was no way to reason with such a fool, so Xie Yun and Xie Yong stopped even trying. They just wanted to make Xie Hong Wen satisfied, and not hold them accountable for staying here. While nodding repeatedly, “You may rest assured, as long as this Young Master can get his revenge this time, when we return, I will have my father report your great deeds to the Patriarch. The benefits you receive won’t be small.”

Xie Yun and Xie Yong’s eyes brightened as they both nodded.

They had only taken this job because Xie Hong Wen’s father, Xie Li, had promised them a huge reward of three hundred thousand Saint Crystals per person after they succeed. If not for such generous compensation, why would they have accompanied Xie Hong Wen to the Flowing Flame Sand Field?

What’s more, the family wouldn’t ask them to turn over the gains they made in the Flowing Flame Sand Field, as for how much they could harvest, that was up to them.

A few months ago, when the Xie Family first announced this mission, countless Xie Family disciples boiled with enthusiasm with Xie Yong and Xie Yun eventually becoming the ones to win the right to participate.

They also knew that the one Xie Hong Wen wanted to seek revenge upon was just a First Order Saint King cultivator named Yang Kai.

According to Xie Hong Wen, Yang Kai was nothing more than an uncivilized, arrogant, weakling who wasn’t even capable of beating him in a fair fight and had only forced him to withdraw with the help of Elder Qian Tong.

Xie Yong and Xie Yun certainly didn’t believe such nonsense. There was no such thing in this world as a Saint King Xie Hong Wen could defeat, even if it was only one who had just broken through. Defeating trash like Xie Hong Wen for such a person would still be child’s play.

The two of them had learned the truth from Xie Li.

The young man called Yang Kai, despite his low cultivation, was capable of killing Third-Order Saint Kings, a so-called genius cultivator, an elite who could fight and defeat others far above his own realm.

However, Xie Yong and Xie Yun were also elites, among the best disciples in the entire Xie Family. They had absolute confidence in killing cultivators like Yang Kai.

“Are you sure that waste went this way?” Xie Hong Wen suddenly asked, “Why is it that after chasing him for a few days we haven’t seen him? Is this the wrong direction?”

Xie Yong grinned and proudly said, “Young Master need not worry, this is definitely the path he took. No one can escape from my pursuit.”

It was precisely because Xie Yong was good at tracking, along with his high combat abilities, that he was able to stand out from all the other Xie Family disciples and win this assignment.

After determining the location where Yang Kai entered, the three of them had gathered with the help of their communication artefacts and begun tracking Yang Kai’s footsteps.

“Why haven’t we found him yet then?” Xie Hong Wen asked, puzzled.

“Because he entered this mountain valley,” Xie Yong pointed forward.

Xie Hong Wen immediately looked pleased, “Really?”

“I’m certain.”

“What are you waiting for then? Hurry up and follow him, I want him dead!” Xie Hong Wen shouted before quickly shaking his head, “No no, first we need to capture him so this Young Master can torture him well. Simply killing him would be letting him off too easy, I’ll make him experience a life worse than death!”

“Young Master, perhaps there’s no need for us to even act anymore,” Xie Yong said was a strange expression.

“What do you mean?” Xie Hong Wen squinted at him.

Xie Yong smiled faintly, “Since he entered this mountain valley, even if he has ten lives he would still have died! There’s no need for us to follow him any further, he can never walk out of this mountain valley alive. In fact, he’s probably dead already.”

“Why? How do you know?” Xie Hong Wen became even more confused.

Xie Yun also smiled and explained, “Before we came here, the Patriarch gave us some information about the Flowing Flame Sand Field, and this mountain valley was also mentioned. It seems that the last time the Flow Flame Sand Field opened, one of our Xie Family Seniors also arrived here, but less than an hour after entering this mountain valley, he suddenly noticed that there were countless Fire Spirit Beasts gathered inside, surrounding and killing a group of people. That group was completely composed of elite cultivators from a great force and their number was no less than thirty. At that time, the situation was incredibly dangerous, so the Senior of our Xie Family did not want to get involved and quietly exited the mountain valley. Afterwards, when the Flowing Flame Sand Field closed, he asked around and learned that no more than thirty cultivators he saw trapped in this mountain valley survived, none of them even reached the Treasure Area.”

“They all fell in this mountain valley?” Xie Hong Wen’s face changed slightly. Unlike when he was bragging just a moment ago, when he thought about facing countless Fire Spirit Beasts, he couldn’t help going pale.

“It’s true, those cultivators all perished in this mountain valley, and the reason they fell was only known to that Senior of our Xie Family. In other words, besides our Xie Family, no one else has any information about this mountain valley. Since that Yang Kai entered, naturally it is impossible for him to survive. I stopped just now because I had some doubts about this place, and after confirming with Xie Yong, we’ve determined that the terrain here is exactly the same as the information left by our Xie Family Senior. That is to say, this is the exact mountain valley he entered four hundred years ago.”

After hearing this, Xie Hong Wen stomped his foot fiercely and sighed, “Damn it, why did he die like this? This Young Master wanted to capture him alive.”

Being unable to kill Yang Kai personally made him sigh with regret.