Martial Peak
chapter-2795

Chapter 2795, Shattered Worlds

If a cultivator practicing Secret Arts or Secret Techniques of the Metal Attribute came here, they would be ecstatic about encountering such a cultivation environment! After all, cultivating in a place like this would definitely increase their cultivating efficiency by a hundred-fold.

“So, this is a shattered world in the fourth layer?” Yang Kai murmured thoughtfully, “It certainly is quite distorted.”

Lan Xun once mentioned before that the spaces within the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda were all broken and incomplete, so, even the World Principles became fragmented. Hence, the World Principles in some spaces became extremely distorted over the years. A situation in which one or several different Principle Strengths became incredibly strong while the others grew weak or disappeared altogether might occur. This was the case in this shattered space right now. The Metal Attribute Principles practically dominated the entire world, leaving no space for others to manifest. The distortion in this place was tremendous.

[I entered this place by passing through an entrance emitting golden rays. In other words, the colour of those clouds most likely represented the type of Principles of the shattered world inside. And, those clouds are doorways to the shattered worlds! I can enter the shattered worlds by passing through those colourful clouds, but, how did this happen?] Yang Kai was sure that other Star Soul Palace disciples had not encountered this situation before. If they had, Lan Xun would have told him about it. Since she did not mention this to him, it could only mean that his experience was unique.

This was good news, however, as appearing in that intermediate space meant that he had the ability to make his own choices. Yang Kai could pick which shattered world to enter, provided that he could return to that intermediate space again.

While mulling over those thoughts, he began to take action. Unleashing Space Principles, Yang Kai reached out his hand and tore the space in front of him. It went more smoothly than he expected as he did not encounter any resistance worth mentioning. Pondering for a moment, he realized something that since this world was broken and incomplete, the World Principles were also incomplete, making the World Barriers around it easily breach-able

When the tear in space appeared, Yang Kai dove into it and sure enough, he was back at the intermediate space from before. This time, it was no different from his previous experience; a strange force washed over him and he reflexively used his Space Principles to isolate himself. Then, he immediately stopped in the strange intermediate space, surrounded by clouds in all directions.

“Hah! So, that’s how it is!” Yang Kai laughed heartily. When he first entered this intermediate space, he was clueless as to what had happened, but now that he came here a second time to investigate this place, he finally figured out something.

[It’s the Space Principles!] According to Lan Xun, the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda would automatically place an Emperor Realm Master into one of the shattered worlds in the fourth layer the moment they passed through the entrance of the pagoda. This process undoubtedly involved Space Principles.

As he was proficient in Space Principles though, Yang Kai could interrupt this automatic teleportation by shielding himself with his own Space Principles. Therefore, the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda was unable to place him into any of the shattered worlds and could only leave him in this intermediate space.

“Doesn’t this mean I have free reign here now?” Yang Kai grinned after understanding the entire situation.

When others entered the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, they could only rely on luck to seek opportunities. If they accidentally entered a dead zone, they could only blame themselves for their bad luck; however, Yang Kai had almost absolute control over his movements.

Once he organized his thoughts, he immediately began searching his surroundings. He ignored the pitch-black clouds surrounded by Death Qi as it was obviously a dead world without any World Principles left, fragmented or otherwise. Yang Kai was searching for brightly coloured clouds as he figured that the brighter the colours, the more complete the shattered world would be, and the more useful it was for him.

After a short while, he located a cloud sporting a wash of colours and plunged into it immediately. As expected, the World Principles of the shattered world he entered this time were still fragmented but not distorted. On the contrary, it seemed to be surprisingly rich in World Energy, not inferior to a first-class Sect in the Southern Territory.

However, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling astonished when he released his Divine Sense, muttering out loud, “How small…”

He discovered that this fragmented space was extremely small, seemingly covering only a few dozen kilometres. Its boundaries were a chaotic mess of non-existence, which made him very uncomfortable.

This space was even smaller than Thousand Leaves Sect’s Emperor Heaven Valley, and while it had some plants, there were no living creatures inside. Nothing in this world could be hidden from him when he swept his Divine Sense across this place.

[Oh, well. So, what if it is small? It’s still better than nothing. Besides, I’m curious to learn what changes will occur to the Sealed World Bead after I absorb and refine all the World Principles contained in this broken world. I can just treat this as an experiment.] With such thoughts in mind, Yang Kai summoned the Sealed World Bead, and sat down cross-legged.

In a flash, the boundary of the Sealed World Bead opened, after which Yang Kai sent his consciousness inside while activating a certain Secret Technique in silence. Using his mind, he controlled the Sealed World Bead to devour the World Energy and the broken World Principles in this place. And soon after, a strong wind raged on as the World Energy in the surroundings was continuously swallowed into the Sealed World Bead like water flowing into the sea.

At the same time, a series of extremely profound and mysterious World Principles flowed into the Sealed World Bead through the entrance, flooding the space within.

All of a sudden, lightning flashed and thunder roared. Yang Kai opened his eyes abruptly, sensing a wave of hostility coming at him from all directions. Shocked, he initially thought that he had failed to notice some sort of danger in this place, but upon closer inspection, he realized that the truth was not what he had imagined. There really weren’t any living creatures in this world, but the hostility was clear and distinct. Moreover, it seemed to be everywhere, surrounding him in all directions, making him feel as if he was drifting in a sea of hostility.

“World Force!” His expression became grim, immediately figuring out the reason behind this hostility.

Devouring and refining the World Principles of this world with the Sealed World Bead would naturally cause a rejection reaction from this small world. The Heavenly Way was constant, and there were no exceptions. Even if it was a shattered world, it was still a world.

Amidst the thunder and lightning, several flashes struck from above. Yang Kai was caught unprepared, and his entire body convulsed from the lightning strike. He hurriedly used his Emperor Qi to resist and only then did the pain subside slightly.

At the same time, Yang Kai was secretly astonished. Even a tiny world no more than a few dozen kilometres wide could produce such powerful force. If it were a larger world, how strong would the rejection reaction and hostility be? Fortunately, he had chosen this small shattered world for the purpose of experimentation. If he had rashly chosen a larger world, I might have brought disaster upon himself.

Secretly rejoicing in his heart, Yang Kai distinctly felt a strong repulsive force squeezing him from all directions, as if trying to force him out of this world and prevent him from doing whatever he wanted again. Still, the repulsive force was not that strong so he only needed to resist slightly to overcome it.

The lightning and thunder became more violent as Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the ground expressionless, ignoring the lightning that struck at him from above. It was as if he was a rogue who had broken into an old and defenceless farmhouse to rob everything from it.

“World Force…” The corners of Yang Kai’s mouth curled upwards, revealing a faint smile. He felt no fear. Instead, he was rather exhilarated.

He had witnessed the Heaven shaking battle between two Great Emperors in the Shattered Star Sea a few years ago. At that time, he learned about a kind of strength called World Force. It was the only power stronger than the Principle Strength, one that only a Great Emperor could slightly harness.

[Isn’t this the very same World Force?] Although the World Force in this world was not that powerful, it was native to this world. It was hostile towards him, but could not harm him. Thus, it gave Yang Kai an early opportunity to come into contact with this power and begin comprehending it.

Yang Kai vaguely gained a slight understanding of this power after studying it; however, good times don’t last forever. Less than six hours after he started, the thunder and lightning vanished abruptly. Even the hostility of the world disappeared without a trace. This situation occurred not because the world had accepted him, but because the Sealed World Bead had cleanly devoured the World Principle Fragments of this world. Every single scrap was gone, so this world could no longer take any hostile action against him or reject him.

Yang Kai opened his eyes and smacked his lips, looking as if he still had not enough.

At that moment, the world suddenly shattered. Cracks split across the sky like a broken mirror and the ground rumbled and trembled with ravines appearing everywhere. Void Cracks appeared in the surrounding space and the aura of chaotic nothingness began to flow in.

Yang Kai stood up quickly and, reaching out, tore space. He escaped the world and returned to the intermediate space from before. As soon as he returned to the intermediate space, the cloud in front of him exploded into dust and disappeared. The shattered world vanished just like that.

“Next!” Yang Kai muttered to himself, flickering as he began wandering between the clouds searching for his next target, soon entering another shattered world.

There were countless shattered worlds in this place; however, Yang Kai discovered upon closer inspection that these shattered worlds had distinct traces about them despite their different sizes. He did not dare to touch those larger worlds and only searched for the smaller ones to plunder.

Following the same method, he managed to cleanly devour and utterly destroy more than a dozen Small Worlds with the Sealed World Bead in a span of three days. He distinctly felt a slight change in the world within the Sealed World Bead, with its World Principles undoubtedly becoming closer to perfection even though it was still far from completion. This made Yang Kai very happy.

While Yang Kai was in a wonderful mood during these past three days, on the contrary, the four Third-Order Emperor Realm Elders stood melancholically outside the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda with worried looks on their faces. That was because something strange had occurred after the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda was opened, an unprecedented occurrence.

Six hours after the pagoda was opened, a sudden burst of light emerged from the fourth layer. The four Elders had been meditating to restore themselves near the pagoda at the time, so all of them saw what happened clearly when that strange incident took place.

Shocked, Lei Hong immediately went to investigate but couldn’t figure out the reason behind the incident. Similarly, the three other Elders couldn’t figure out what happened either.