Martial Peak
chapter-1203

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Although the Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree was exceptionally precious, priceless even, it didn’t have much use to Yang Kai personally, so when he discovered it, he had only been slightly excited and soon regained his calm.

However, the thought of the long bone in front of him possibly being a dragon bone belonging to a legendary ancient dragon made it impossible for Yang Kai to suppress the excitement he felt deep inside.

Dragons and phoenixes were two of the strongest beings in existence, born alongside the universe, the natural rulers of the Monster Race; however, whether it was in Tong Xuan Realm or the Star Field, they only existed in legend.

No one had met or even seen a living dragon or phoenix; however, there were many bloodline descendants of these two supreme creatures in this world that proved they once existed.

For example, in the Tong Xuan Realm, the Monster Race’s Thunder Dragon Great Senior had a trace of ancient dragon blood flowing through his veins, and the Tenth-Order Thunder Luan Monster Beast whose corpse, Monster Core, and Spiritual Essence had produced the Thunder Attribute Bird Wood Yang Kai had found in that strange isolated world was a descendant of an ancient phoenix.

The Thunder Attribute Bird Wood was still lying in Yang Kai’s Black Book Space. It had not been used by him yet because it was very precious. Yang Kai wasn’t willing to give it to Yang Yan for Artifact Refining just yet.

The Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress Inheritance obtained by Yang Kai and Su Yan were also related to these two ancient beasts, which was why Thunder Dragon Great Senior had previously said that Yang Kai gave off traces of a Monster Emperor’s aura.

These two supreme existences were immortal and indestructible!

However, the long bone in front of Yang Kai was very similar to the dragon bones of legend, making Yang Kai quite confused, not knowing if his conjecture was correct. Since True Dragons and Phoenixes were immortal, where had this dragon bone come from?

If he was correct, was this pigeon egg-sized crystal a Dragon Bead? And was the little snake which was swimming in this Dragon Bead a remnant of a dragon’s soul?

Whatever the case, collecting them came first; there would be plenty of time for him to study them after he went back. Making up his mind, Yang Kai took a deep breath and reached out to pick up the round bead in front of him.

But before he could grasp the bead, the little snake inside it actually opened its mouth and sent out a blue mist, one that directly penetrated the bead and covered Yang Kai’s hand.

Yang Kai didn’t feel any kind of pain, but his face still changed dramatically.

Because after the blue mist enveloped his hand, Yang Kai found that he had lost all sensation in it and a somewhat grainy texture appeared on his skin, as if his hand was being transformed into a piece of wood.

This phenomenon continued to spread along his hand, seemingly wanting to turn his entire body into a wooden statue.

Yang Kai was shocked and quickly retracted his hand as he pushed his Demonic Flame.

Yang Kai wanted to dispel this weird energy using his Demonic Flame, but what made him panic even more, was that even with the strange and terrifying power of his black flames, he was unable to scatter the blue mist and was only able to stop it from spreading.

The loss of sensation in his hand became even more pronounced, causing Yang Kai’s expression to grow dim. Now, even his Saint Qi was being blocked.

Fortunately, the Demonic Flame was also an unusual existence, incomparable to ordinary cultivator’s Saint Qi. For a time, the black Demonic Flame and the cyan mist fought one another at Yang Kai’s wrist. The cyan mist couldn’t advance but the Demonic Flame was unable to dispel it, leading to a kind of stalemate.

After observing for a while, Yang Kai breathed a sigh of relief. As long as his Demonic Flame could block this blue mist he could find a solution.

However, after this incident, not only was he not angry or frightened but instead became even more certain his guess was correct.

This little snake’s soul was broken and incomparably weak, otherwise it wouldn’t have been trapped here. The previous chase had also turned it into an arrow at the end of its flight, yet it was still able to wield such great power. If it was in its heyday, Yang Kai estimated it would only need a single breath to reduce him to ash.

This was definitely a remnant soul of an ancient dragon, otherwise, it could not possibly possess such immense power.

After spurting that spray of blue mist, the already weak little snake became even more dispirited, its head drooping as its body became translucent, as if it might dissipate at any time.

Yang Kai saw this and no longer hesitated, quickly picking up the round bead and that bone next to it and threw them into his Black Book Space.

Yang Kai lost all remaining interest he had in mining Saint Crystals. This underground adventure had not only yielded an unparalleled treasure like the Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree, but also what he suspected were a True Dragon’s Dragon Bead and bone. The harvest of this trip was unimaginable.

Sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai began to deal with the cyan energy that had invaded his body in earnest.

Pushing his Saint Qi, Yang Kai condensed even more Demonic Flame onto his hand, the raging black fire immediately becoming more intense, burning fiercely enough to warp the surrounding space.

The cyan mist had formerly been able to resist the Demonic Flame but now it was clearly losing ground. Although progress was still slow, there was no doubt it was being forced out of Yang Kai’s body.

Drop after drop of cyan liquid dripped from Yang Kai’s fingertips onto the ground below, creating a slight plopping sound each time.

Two days later, Yang Kai stood up, waved his hand, and found that there were no problems, gently nodding in relief.

Turning his head to look at the Saint Crystal lode that he had been mining, Yang Kai began excavating the ten meters in front of him to avoid leaving any traces of what had transpired here.

After digging up these ten meters worth of raw Saint Crystal, Yang Kai turned around and left decisively.

When he came to another channel, Chang Qi was still earnestly mining. Seemingly feeling that a breakthrough was now no longer impossible, and with such massive wealth in front of him, Chang Qi’s face was practically glowing with glee.

Seeing Yang Kai come in, Chang Qi couldn’t help asking, “Why aren’t you mining Saint Crystals?”

“I’m not interested in mining anymore. Foreign Elder Chang, do you want to stay here?” Yang Kai asked.

“Of course I want to remain here!” Chang Qi nodded without hesitation. “There are so many Saint Crystals here, I’m afraid they can’t all be mined before the Flowing Flame Sand Field closes. Yang Kai, are you leaving?”

“Yeah, I still have some things I need to do so I can’t stay any longer,” Yang Kai replied, but did not try to persuade Chang Qi to lease as well; after all, these Saint Crystals were indeed a huge wealth to him. Yang Kai had only been mining for a few days but had already collected the equivalent of about four million Saint Crystals. Even if Chang Qi was working much slower than him, he should have been able to collect at least half that amount.

Such an amount of wealth was something Chang Qi never even imagined he would one day posses.

After he broke through to the Origin Returning Realm, Chang Qi would need to purchase more powerful artefacts for himself, so naturally, he wanted to store up some capital while he had the opportunity.

Although the Treasure Area was no doubt filled with other opportunities, there was an equal amount of danger present. Not only was there a threat of Monster Beasts, but there was also the threat of other cultivators. If someone was unlucky and encountered people like Qu Chang Feng or Meng Hong Liang, being killed and robbed was possible. By comparison, staying here while slowly collecting wealth was both easier and safer.

Both Chang Qi and Yang Kai knew this so neither of them spoke to persuade the other.

After thinking about it, Yang Kai said, “Take this sword. Using it to collect these Saint Crystals will be much faster.”

Saying so, Yang Kai handed over the short sword formed from his drop of Golden Blood. This extremely sharp weapon was the main reason why Yang Kai was able to mine ore here so much faster than others.

Chang Qi accepted the golden sword and gently wiped its blade with a thoughtful expression on his face, chuckling a moment later, “Last time, in the Starry Sky, when our Starship was surrounded by Black Rock Beasts, it was you who broke their siege, right?”

The first time Yang Kai came over a few days ago, Chang Qi had taken note of the golden sword in his hand because it was exuding an incredibly strong vitality. It looked like a sword, but also resembled a living creature; however, at the time, with his focus on the Nine Branch Jade Crystal Tree, Chang Qi didn’t ask much.

Now that Yang Kai handed him this golden sword and he was able to examine its aura more closely, Chang Qi naturally was able to make some connections.

Chang Qi had felt this strange aura back in the Starry Sky. He still remembered vividly when the Hai Ke Family Starship was in danger of being destroyed, a great golden spear had suddenly appeared and swept away the entire Black Rock Beast pack, saving dozens of cultivators from a brutal death.

The aura emitted by that golden spear was exactly the same as the one given off by this golden sword.

At that time, he and Wu Yi had thought it was some powerful master who happened to be passing by that had helped them, but now Chang Qi understood that there was no such master and it had all been Yang Kai’s doing.

At that time, he was only a Third-Order Saint… Chang Qi thought of this point and couldn’t help feeling shocked, even more feeling that Yang Kai wasn’t ordinary.

After hearing this question, Yang Kai just smiled, silently acknowledging the truth before changing the subject, “Although this golden sword will lose energy every time it’s used, it shouldn’t have any trouble lasting three or four months. With its help, you should be able to collect far more of these Saint Crystals. As for that Chen Shi Tao and the others here… you don’t have to worry about her, she’s not a bad person and shouldn’t have any malicious ideas about you. Even if you decide to leave ahead of time, she won’t try to do anything to you unless she’s willing to face my revenge.”

“I know, you can feel relieved and leave. After the Flowing Flame Sand Field closes, I’ll go to Dragon Cave Mountain with Old Hao to find you,” Chang Qi nodded.

“Good.”

After saying goodbye to Chang Qi, Yang Kai returned to the exit tunnel.

Although the passage was as smooth as jade, it wasn’t a problem for Yang Kai to climb and with a little effort, he was soon back on the surface.

Standing on the weed-filled plain, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense and confirmed that there was no one nearby before concealing the entrance to the underground tunnel so that no one would find it again.

He then took out his Yuan Magnetic Compass, confirmed the direction of the third layer of the Flowing Flame Sand Field, then began walking.

This plain was very large, and it took Yang Kai two whole days before he was able to leave.

Along the way, he didn’t meet anyone, nor did he find a single spirit grass or spirit medicine to collect.

Yang Kai’s had put all his hopes on the third-layer Flame Area, so his pace was quick.

Wei Gu Chang had said before that nobody could enter the third layer Flame Area and that everyone who had tried since ancient times had died, causing Qian Tong to warn them sternly to not even try to enter it before they entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

Yang Kai didn’t know what kind of danger there was, but in order to refine the Profound Yin Sunflower Water, he needed an extremely hot environment. The first layer could not meet his requirements, so he could only go to the third layer to try his luck.

If the third layer was really too dangerous, Yang Kai could only try to find another solution.