Martial Peak
chapter-2797

Chapter 2797, The Fifth Layer’s Entrance

Two days later, a dragon’s roar rang out across the Nine Heavens. Yang Kai stared forward with wide eyes, his entire body covered in blood, like he had just experienced hundreds of life-and-death battles. Although he had maintained the Dragon Transformation Secret Technique all this time, every part of his body that was not covered by the Great Soaring Black Dragon Armor was covered in countless wounds, big and small. Even the Dragon Horns on his head were partially broken. Nevertheless, his fighting spirit continued to burn brightly despite his weakening aura.

On the other hand, a Giant Golden Sword more than a thousand meters long hung in mid-air in front of him. He was facing off with the terrifying Sword Intent that threatened to split the space apart constantly, and had spent two days fighting desperately against this Metal Attribute Principle filled world. During that period, he had tried every trick up his sleeve and used up countless precious healing pills just to persist until this moment. If not for his strong foundation and excellent physical toughness, he would have long been forced out of this world, dead or alive.

It was cavalier of him to make an enemy of this world; but even so, Yang Kai was at the end of his rope. Likewise, this world was faring no better. Over the past two days, the Sealed World Bead had been devouring the Metal Attribute Principles and World Energy of this place, whittling away at the spirituality of this world. If not for the prolonged battle consuming most of his attention and energy, Yang Kai would have had more than enough time by now to refine this world after it weakened so much. Be that as it may, the battle was about to end.

“Come on! This is the last attack! Let’s see who survives!” Yang Kai laughed loudly, glaring madly at the Giant Golden Sword.

As if responding to his provocation, the Giant Golden Sword thrummed loudly as it struck towards Yang Kai. This attack was the final attack containing all the remaining power the world could muster, the last manifestation of all the hostility from this world. Such a horrendously powerful attack was enough to shake the Earth and split the seas, mighty enough to shatter space itself. A gigantic pitch-black scar appeared in the sky like a wound that would never heal wherever the sword passed.

Yang Kai roared furiously in response, but instead of retreating, he flicked his Dragon Tail and rushed forward like an arrow from the bow. A resounding Dragon Roar rang out, while at the same time, the figure of a gigantic Golden Dragon appeared and enveloped his entire body. The Dragon’s body was thousands of meters long and looked incredibly lifelike. Whenever its head or tail moved, lightning flashed and thunder boomed.

Hong…

An ear-splitting explosion sounded as violent waves of power swept out in all directions, shattering the world itself for hundreds of meters. Then, two dazzling balls of golden light exploded in mid-air, releasing a brilliance so bright that Yang Kai couldn’t keep his eyes open. It was as if the entire world was covered in a sea of golden light.

Kacha…

A cracking sound rang out, and a huge crack appeared above the Giant Golden Sword. Following that, a dense web of cracks soon spread out from that first crack like spiderwebs, covering its entirety.

With a loud crashing sound, the Giant Golden Sword suddenly broke apart like a mirror shattering into pieces, dissipating into tiny particles of light spreading across the entire world.

Yang Kai was thrown back even faster than he had shot forward, streaking like a falling star across the sky. Even the illusory phantom of the gigantic Golden Dragon wrapping around him collapsed in an instant. He immediately tumbled and rolled upon crashing heavily into the ground. Blood spurted out of his mouth, and his aura was as weak as an oil lamp that was about to sputter out. He lay on the ground motionlessly, only the Sealed World Bead continuing to devour the Metal Attribute Principles and World Energy of this place.

A long while later, Yang Kai groaned and moved slightly. His entire body was in pain, and it felt as if all the bones in his body were broken. Taking out a Spirit Pill from his Space Ring, he swallowed it, forcing himself into a cross-legged sitting position as he began to meditate.

After quite some time, Yang Kai managed to stand up, but his complexion was still very pale. The battle from before had completely exhausted him, and it would take a long time before he could completely recover. Unfortunately, he couldn’t stay here any longer as he could distinctly sense that the world was about to collapse. Besides, the surrounding space had become very unstable. Putting away the Sealed World Bead, Yang Kai took one last look at the world around him before returning to the intermediate space.

The next day, he plunged into a cloud emitting a dazzling green light with great vigour and entered a world distorted by Wood Attribute Principles. Inside this world, he ran into an old acquaintance, a Wood Spirit! Moreover, it wasn’t just in one or two, but thousands.

The vitality of a Wood Spirit was extremely powerful. In addition, its seeds had the ability to parasitize a host. Hence, Wood Spirits were existences that were very difficult to kill. It was a pity that it encountered Yang Kai here because Wood Spirits were most afraid of Fire Attribute Techniques. Although Yang Kai’s primary Dao was the Dao of Space, he had begun his cultivation journey by comprehending a Yang Attribute Secret Art and also possessed a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea. It could be said that the Wood Spirits had met their natural enemy.

In this world, what Yang Kai encountered was much easier to deal with compared to what he faced in the world distorted by Metal Attribute Principles. He single-handedly held his ground and remained in place. By covering himself in his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, the Wood Spirits were unable to even get close to him.

It took another two days for the Sealed World Bead to finish devouring all the Principles in this world before Yang Kai returned to the intermediate space and continued his mission without stopping. He was not willing to waste another moment of time as he purposefully searched for worlds distorted by each of the Five Elements.

The world of Water Attribute Principles was covered in an ocean of large waves that tried to cage and drown him while the world of Earth Attribute Principles had stone giants each possessing enough power to smash kingdoms with their fists. Even so, they were all cut down by Yang Kai in the end.

Twenty-five days after entering the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda, Yang Kai stood in a world comprised entirely of Fire Attribute Principles with a solemn look on his face. With a wave of his Myriads Sword, a Sword Wave made from the condensation of all the Emperor Qi he poured into it, slashed into the body of the Ancient Flame Demon before him.

Space Principles surged at the same time as the hidden blade within the Sword Wave transformed into a pitch-black vortex that sucked in the remains of the Ancient Flame Demon. The Ancient Flame Demon let out a blood-curdling howl, seemingly unwilling to accept its fate. Even so, it could not escape being pulled into the Void, eventually vanishing without a trace.

Following that, he breathed a soft sigh of relief. The Ancient Flame Demon he encountered in this world did not have the devastating attack power of the Golden Sword, nor the defensive power of the stone giants, nor the flexibility and fluidity of giant waves or the overwhelming numbers of the Wood Spirits, but it did have a troublesome undying body. No matter how severely Yang Kai damaged it, it would recover completely just by absorbing more Fire Attribute World Energy.

Fortunately, his Spatial Ability could exile it into the endless Void. Otherwise, Yang Kai would have truly been at a loss for how to kill it. After the Ancient Flame Demon was banished, the biggest threat in this world disappeared. Thus, he relaxed and focused on using the Sealed World Bead to devour the Fire Attribute Principles of this world.

According to his previous hypothesis, the reason why the Sealed World Bead could not take the last step in its evolution was due to its Five Elements Principles being incomplete. Since they were incomplete, all he had to do was supplement it with the necessary World Principles.

After devouring the Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Attributes of the Five Elements Principles, the Sealed World Bead shone with a five-coloured brilliance from within. The power of the Five Elements mutually reinforced and restrained each other in an endless loop, seemingly undergoing a mysterious change, allowing Yang Kai to feel more confident in his own conjecture.

One day later, the Fire Attribute Principles in this world had been cleanly devoured, and the world was about to collapse. Yang Kai put away the Sealed World Bead as he didn’t have time to sit and examine the changes it would undergo. However, he did not return to the intermediate space like always, and instead headed in a certain direction. There was a Void Corridor in that direction, one that most likely led to the fifth layer.

Yang Kai had travelled through a few dozen shattered worlds since he entered the pagoda and finally came across an entrance. It was only natural that he couldn’t just let the opportunity slip by him as he was very curious to know what he could find in the fifth layer.

Raising his guard, Yang Kai plunged into the Void Corridor. A sense of weightlessness immediately washed over him, but he quickly became grounded again. Before he could observe the environment he was in though, he suddenly noticed a sharp gaze watching him.

Surprised, Yang Kai instantly pushed his Emperor Qi and lifted his head to look in the direction the gaze came from, exclaiming in astonishment in the next moment, “Brother Lei?”

The person looking at him turned out to be Lei Ting, surprising Yang Kai greatly.

“So, you really came to the fifth layer,” Lei Ting didn’t seem surprised at all. On the contrary, he looked like he had expected this. He grinned and said, “It was worth wasting my time waiting here for you for more than ten days.”

Yang Kai frowned and asked, “You were waiting for me, Brother Lei? Why?”

Lei Ting was furious, “Don’t feign ignorance! You and I have not finished our battle from before! Could it be that you want to back out now?!”

Yang Kai felt surprised and immediately burst out laughing in response, “I thought we finished our fight that night.”

Lei Ting snorted, “There was no clear winner or loser during that fight. How can you say that it is finished?”

“Why do we need to decide who wins?” Yang Kai countered.

Lei Ting replied, “Of course, it’s because…” At this point, he suddenly waved his hand and continued, “Why do you care so much about that? We can talk after we fight.”

The moment he finished speaking, he threw a punch at Yang Kai without any warning. A lightning snake roamed across his fist, giving off a crackling sound, its power horrifying.

In response, Yang Kai calmly stepped forward to take the attack head-on without even batting an eye. Lei Ting’s fist instantly stopped right before him, the lightning running across his fist, making his hair stand on end.

“What are you doing?!” Lei Ting glared at Yang Kai, “If I failed to stop my attack, you would have died!”

It was bad enough that Yang Kai had moved forward instead of retreating when Lei Ting launched his attack just now, but the key point was that Yang Kai had no intention of gathering his strength at all. He simply allowed Lei Ting to attack him without putting up any resistance.

It gave Lei Ting the feeling of releasing a deadly punch only to hit a ball of cotton. Although he was itching to give Yang Kai a severe lesson, what was the point if the other party did not fight back? What he wanted was a proper battle and an upright victory.

Yang Kai replied indifferently, “You are powerful, Brother Lei. I don’t mind letting you win!”

The veins in Lei Ting’s forehead bulged in anger. It felt as if a volcano was stirring in his chest and could erupt at any moment.

However, Yang Kai pretended not to notice this and brushed past Lei Ting as he glanced around. After that, he turned back to ask, “Where is this place? Why is there a corridor here?”

It wasn’t until this moment that he discovered he was standing in a long corridor. There was a Space Array from where he had appeared, but the other end of the corridor was pitch-black, like a beast with its mouth open.

Lei Ting gave a muffled reply, “This is the place between the fourth layer and the fifth layer. You will reach the fifth layer if you pass through this corridor. What you can find there will depend on your luck.”

Yang Kai stroked his chin, thought for a moment, then muttered to himself, “It’s somewhat similar to the fourth layer.”

There had been an intermediate space in the fourth layer too; however, that wasn’t a place just anyone could enter. Even for him, it was only because he had cultivated the Dao of Space and was skilled at manipulating Space Principles that he could enter the intermediate space.