Martial Peak
chapter-1200

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Yang Kai didn’t say anything immediately and instead pretended to hesitate, rubbing his chin for as he put on a contemplative look for quite a while. Just as Chen Shi Tao was secretly beginning to worry about Yang Kai refusing, the latter finally said, “I can agree to explore the way, but if there are any benefits down below, how do you plan to distribute them?”

“Little brother can rest assured, we are not overbearing like Heaven Battling Union. However many benefits there are down there, we will divide equally according to our numbers. There are seven of us here in total, so whatever is down there will be divided into seven, is that acceptable?”

This distribution method seemed to favour Clear Sky Sect’s people; after all, there were many more of them, so in the end, they would obtain the bulk of the benefits, but it was actually quite fair!

After all, they were a group of five Second and Third-Order Saint Kings. If they had instead been disciples from Heaven Battling Union, forget about anything, Yang Kai and Chang Qi would only be driven away or killed on the spot. Chen Shi Tao being able to propose such an arrangement was extremely even-handed.

Naturally, those from the Clear Sky Sect didn’t know that if they really dared try to expel Yang Kai and Chang Qi, it would be them that suffered.

“What if whatever’s down there can’t be split into seven?” Yang Kai asked pointedly.

“That’s easy enough to handle. If the benefits can’t be divided into seven parts, then everyone will bid on them, the one who offers the highest price will get it. This way, if you have the money, you can obtain the treasure while everyone else will obtain some Saint Crystals. This is how I always settle such matters when outside the Sect.” Chen Shi Tao had apparently experienced similar situations more than once or twice and immediately came up with a solution that satisfied Yang Kai.

Facing such sincerity, Yang Kai naturally didn’t have any objections and immediately nodded, “Alright, then we’ll follow your plan. I’ll take the lead. I’m young and my body is strong, so I’m not afraid of any danger, so it doesn’t matter if I scout the way for everyone, but Foreign Elder Chang is old so…”

“I’ll bring up the rear. How would this old sir like to walk in front of this Young Lady?” Chen Shi Tao smiled slightly and proposed. She knew what Yang Kai was worried about and took the initiative to take a certain amount of risk upon herself as well.

“Okay.” Yang Kai nodded with satisfaction. He had to admit, this beautiful young woman called Chen Shi Tao truly knew how to handle matters. She was the kind of person who could consider the risks of a situation and the concerns of others around her very well while seeing things from multiple perspectives and making sound proposals that benefited everyone. It was no wonder the other four men and women looked to her as their leader.

This gave Yang Kai a favourable impression of her despite the short time they had interacted with one another.

He also figured that Chen Shi Tao was quite famous in Clear Sky Sect, likely a Core Disciple or character of similar status.

After the negotiations concluded successfully, Yang Kai didn’t waste any time and swiftly leapt down the hole.

This sight made Chen Shi Tao, who had wanted to speak a few words of warning to Yang Kai first, gawk in surprise. Before she could even get a word out, Yang Kai was gone.

“This…” All five of the Clear Sky Sect disciples looked around at each with cramped expressions.

All of them were more and more certain that Yang Kai was a man of great destiny. This guy acted so haphazardly and rashly, actually jumping into an unexplored cave without taking out any kind of defensive artefacts to protect himself. Even if he didn’t use any artefacts, he should have at least used his Saint Qi to protect himself, right?

However, he had simply jumped right in.

If it weren’t for him possessing great destiny, with this kind of behaviour, how could he have survived so long? He should have died many times over by now.

“Ahem, we should follow him.” Chang Qi saw the five people gawking and couldn’t help reminding them. If Yang Kai really encountered some kind of danger down below, them standing around here would not be of any help to him.

“En, follow him…” Chen Shi Tao nodded helplessly. The other four men and women from Clear Sky Sect immediately pushed their Saint Qi and jumped into the hole. After they jumped in, Chang Qi followed, with Chen Shi Tao bringing up the rear.

This hole was very deep, and after Yang Kai jumped in, he kept dropping down for quite some time at a very fast rate. This hole should have been naturally generated, but its walls were actually as smooth as jade.

Although Yang Kai didn’t use any defensive artefacts or push his Saint Qi to protect himself, his Divine Sense was pushed to its limits and if any kind of danger were to pop up, he would instantly be able to defend himself.

To his surprise though, there was no aura of danger from this hole at all. After falling for half an incense stick of time, Yang Kai estimated that he had descended at least a thousand metres or so yet he still felt perfectly safe.

Suddenly, an extremely pure energy rushed up from below, causing Yang Kai spirit to shake as he revealed a look of shock.

The richness of this energy aura was even purer and denser than the one back in the stalactite cave. Anything which could produce such a rich aura was clearly a very precious treasure.

After dropping another few hundred meters, Yang Kai finally landed on the ground and quickly stepped out to make room for the people who were following behind him. Taking out a luminous stone from his Space Ring, he then began looking around.

As soft beams of light filled his surroundings, Yang Kai was able to see he was currently in an underground cavern. There was also a crystal clear underground river flowing nearby.

The area of this cavern wasn’t too large, only a hundred meters or so in diameter, but Yang Kai could see numerous channels around him leading off in every direction.

From each of these channels, and incredibly rich World Energy aura could be felt.

As Yang Kai swept his eyes around, they brightened when they landed on a certain passageway.

From the mouth of this particular passageway, he felt the aura of the little snake-shaped World Spirit Treasure. Although this aura was very faint and was quickly dissipating, there was no doubt about its origin.

That little snake was actually hiding here.

Yang Kai didn’t rush out to find it though and instead stood still and waited.

A few moments later, the five members of Clear Sky Sect and Chang Qi arrived, and after discovering the strangeness of the cavern and the incredibly rich aura contained within it, all of them showed looks of anticipation.

“Senior Sister Chen, what is this place, what kind of good things are there?” Another female cultivator in the team couldn’t hold back her joy and hurriedly asked Chen Shi Tao.

“How am I supposed to know? Little brother, you came down first, did you find anything special?” Chen Shi Tao turned to ask Yang Kai.

“No,” Yang Kai shook his head, “After I arrived here I decided to wait for all of you.”

Chang Qi, on the other hand, frowned, seemingly remembering something, the look on his face going from anticipation to excitement.

Chen Shi Tao didn’t miss this and couldn’t help glancing over to him and asking, “Old sir, did you find something? If you have, please enlighten us.”

Chang Qi chuckled, “Young Lady is too serious. If this old man is correct, this place should be a mineral lode!”

“Mineral lode?” Chen Shi Tao and others were surprised.

“En, a Saint Crystal lode!” Chang Qi said in a solemn tone, his words causing the others present a good deal of shock. He then added, “Moreover, it should be a High-Rank one!”

“Is this place really a Saint Crystal lode?” Chen Shi Tao’s beautiful eyes flashed with deep astonishment, and the expressions of the other four men and women weren’t much better.

“This old man doesn’t dare make any guarantees, but I am at least eighty percent certain,” Chang Qi smiled lightly. “Because this old man once mined some Saint Crystals from a Saint Crystal lode owned by Shadow Moon Hall, this place is a bit familiar. And if we want to confirm my assumptions, all we need to do is head over to that tunnel over there.”

Everyone agreed with this sentiment and immediately decided to investigate. There were many passages leading out from this cavern, so taking the lead once more, Yang Kai picked a tunnel at will and walked into it.

After walking three hundred meters or so, Yang Kai came to a halt and stared at the sight in front of him. Even if he had witnessed great storms before and currently had a net worth of over a hundred million Saint Crystals, the scene before him still shocked him.

In front of him was a massive piece of completely intact Saint Crystal. This Saint Crystal had not yet been cut and was actually as big as a house, completely blocking the way forward. Judging from the colour and amount of impurities contained inside this huge Saint Crystal, plus the aura it gave off, it was easy for Yang Kai to determine this was High-Rank Saint Crystal!

This was just the edge of one tunnel, who knows how many Saint Crystals of such size were present in this place?

The sound of people pounding hearts and gulping came from behind Yang Kai.

On Shadowed Star, Saint Crystal lodes were scarce. One shouldn’t take the behaviour of the great forces at the Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction as normal. Naturally, these Sects had massive accumulations of wealth of countless years, and with the opening of the Flowing Flame Sand Field at that time, all of them hadn’t been distressed about spending more Saint Crystals to buy themselves treasures for their disciples to equip so they could reap even greater benefits from the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

To these great forces, this was an investment; as long as these disciples could effectively make use of the things they bought, the benefits they obtained in the Flowing Flame Sand Field would more than make up for the Saint Crystals spent.

However, no matter how rich they appeared, it was an undeniable truth that Saint Crystals were scarce on the Cultivation Star.

Clear Sky Sect was also a great Sect no worse than Shadow Moon Hall, and Chen Shi Tao had heard that her Sect controlled more than a dozen large and small mineral lodes, but only two of those were High-Rank Saint Crystal lodes while the others were all Mid-Rank or Low-Rank.

Moreover, she knew that those two High-Rank lodes weren’t nearly as rich as the one she was currently standing in.

What was a true High-Rank lode? The Saint Crystal lode in front of her was! Any casually mined Saint Crystal here was High-Rank!

So when she saw this massive High-Rank Saint Crystal lying in front of her, even Chen Shi Tao felt it difficult to contain her excitement.

If they could mine this entire lode, it would definitely allow Clear Sky Sect’s financial resources to improve by several grades.

Why hadn’t anyone ever discovered such an incredible mineral lode hidden in the Flowing Flame Sand Field before?

“Do we need to come up with distribution for this too?” Yang Kai suddenly turned around and asked, pulling Chen Shi Tao out of her daze.

“No need no need! Although we haven’t checked the other channels, their situation is obviously similar to this one. Let’s split up and mine it separately. However much anyone mines, they can keep,” Chen Shi Tao waved her hand hastily.

It had only been a bit more than a month since the Flowing Flame Sand Field opened, which meant there were almost five months before it closed. If they stayed here that long and continued mining these Saint Crystals…