Martial Peak
chapter-404

Huo Xing Chen nodded slightly, “You don’t need to say any more, I’m not angry. In fact, I haven’t been this happy in a long time! These kinds of small fights have really become boring, they can’t satisfy this Young Master’s appetite anymore!”

After a pause, he asked, “Right, how much money do you have on you?”

The two Huo Family masters’ faces both cramped up, shaking their heads slowly, no matter who it was, they would never bring millions of silvers with them when they went out like this.

“It’s not a good feeling owing others money,” Huo Xing Chen held his chin and muttered to himself.

Inside the Bamboo Knot Gang’s hall, Yang Kai sat cross legged on the floor, circulating his True Qi rapidly as he impacted his bottleneck.

After an hour of effort, the shackles which weighed Yang Kai down finally broke and his surging True Qi slowly subsided, his cultivation advancing another step forward.

True Element Boundary Eighth Stage!

At the moment he broke through, Yang Kai seemed to see dazzling lotus softly radiating five colours floating before his eyes.

Five Coloured Soul Warming Lotus!

Since he obtained it, Yang Kai had never seen this miraculous treasure again. Although he knew it existed somewhere in his mind and had constantly been moistening his Divine Sense, since he had still not opened his Knowledge Sea, it had always remained an ethereal existence.

Now, facing such a situation, Yang Kai was obviously delighted, even more anticipating the moment when he could open his Knowledge Sea and truly see the Soul Warming Lotus once more.

Yang Kai only had a general understanding of the strength of his Divine Sense.

He knew that it was no worse than an average Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage master’s, which was basically equivalent to having the Divine Sense intensity of an Immortal Ascension Boundary Ninth Stage master while only having a True Element Boundary cultivation. If he could really break through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary, just how much would his Spiritual Energy be enhanced after his Knowledge Sea formed?

Yang Kai impatiently looked forward to breaking through to the next Great Realm.

The Immortal Ascension Boundary had always been the supreme threshold of this world’s cultivators, only a handful of people would ever reach the Immortal Ascension Boundary and fewer still could rise even higher. The rest of the worlds cultivators could only look up at the Immortal Ascension Boundary for the rest of their lives.

Once one stepped into the Immortal Ascension Boundary, it meant that a cultivator had embarked on the road to the world’s apex, and in order to achieve this goal, countless cultivators had destroyed themselves, seeking for it day and night, pursuing it with single minded devotion.

Some people even chose to seclude themselves deep in the mountains all year round solely to understand the true meaning of strength, to spy on the mysteries of this realm.

However, most cultivators would spend their entire lives in such pursuits yet still never cross the final threshold, dying with great regret.

Even if they were lucky enough to break into the Immortal Ascension, the Immortal Ascension Boundary had nine minor realms, so the cultivator’s journey was by no means over, each advancement bringing them closer to the world’s summit.

After breaking through to the True Element Boundary Eighth Stage, Yang Kai didn’t get up right away.

Instead sitting silently in place, slowly exploring the insights this new stage had brought to him.

After he began using the Myriad Drug Liquid to cleanse his body, every breakthrough Yang Kai achieved would produce some obvious changes; at the very least he would feel significantly stronger than before.

This feeling was inexplicable, if forced to describe it, Yang Kai would only be able to say that his present self had absolute confidence in overcoming his pre-breakthrough self.

One day later, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes, remaining silent for a long time before standing up.

Opening the hall doors, he stepped outside.

Outside the hall, more than a dozen people stood, divided into two columns. Looking up and seeing Yang Kai emerge, all of them hastily cupped their fists, “Subordinate greets the Young Lord!”

Yang Kai swept his eyes over the crowd and couldn’t help but pause.

He found that the group of people standing on the left were several high-ranking members of Bamboo Knot Gang headed by Pang Chi, while on the right, several high-level executives of Profound Light Gang headed by Mu Nan Dou stood. Even Wu Qian who had formerly fought Pang Chi in a life or death struggle was saluting him respectfully.

The people on both sides bowed their heads and greeted him, but Mu Nan Dou’s expression was one of helplessness while in contrast, Pang Chi’s was full of vigor, even containing faint traces of worship.

Yang Kai frowned and looked at Mu Nan Dou suspiciously, “Why are your Profound Light Gang people here?”

Mu Nan Dou hurriedly explained, “Respond to Young Lord’s Kai, from now on, the Profound Light Gang belongs to the Young Lord and will obey any order issued to us!”

“What happened?” Yang Kai asked, even more confused.

“Young Lord, it’s like this…” Pang Chi saw the situation and quickly explained things to Yang Kai.

Apparently, after he had secluded himself in the hall to break through last night, Huo Xing Chen and the two Huo Family masters pulled out all the money they had on them, but that only amounted to several hundred thousand silvers.

Pang Chi saw that Huo Xing Chen’s expression was particularly ugly at that time so he suggested that the rest could be taken as debt and paid back later, but the Young Lord of the Huo Family seemed to despise owing others.

Although he had made the suggestion out of good intentions, Pang Chi hadn’t expected Huo Xing Chen to not say a word and instead turn around and punch him.

After thinking about it for some time, Huo Xing Chen decided to offer the Profound Light Gang as compensation!

After giving Mu Nan Dou an order to serve to Yang Kai from now on, Huo Xing Chen led the two Huo Family masters and swaggered away, leaving behind the Profound Light Gang.

The Profound Light Gang had more than a thousand members and was also known as Huo Xing Chen’s personal force. Usually, they could bluster about using his name, but now they had been traded away like loose change, Mu Nan Dou and the others were naturally depressed.

But even though he was unwilling, Mu Nan Dou didn’t dare to complain. He could only lead a group of people to stand here and wait for Yang Kai to come out.

After Pang Chi finished explaining, Mu Nan Dou’s couldn’t help lifting his head secretly to observe Yang Kai’s reaction, wondering how he would handle them.

What he didn’t expect was that Yang Kai would remain silent, his expression indifferent, completely impossible to read.

Mu Nan Dou trembled lightly as he felt some fear, quickly saying, “In fact, Young Lord Huo doing this isn’t a loss for the Young Lord.”

“Oh? How so?” Yang Kai asked flatly as he glanced at him.

Mu Nan Dou was ecstatic, knowing that this Young Lord was at least open to conversation he hurriedly explained, “The Profound Light Gang has accumulated a lot of wealth in recent years, if you were to collect all of it, it would be more than enough to compensate for last night’s damages.”

“How much exactly?”

“A couple million or so. Right, there are also a number of Precious Treasures Young Lord rewarded us with over the years.”

Yang Kai suddenly thought of something, grinning as he asked, “How does your Profound Light Gang compare with the rest of the Central Capital’s small forces?”

“Somewhere around the middle,” Mu Nan Dou laughed, “Not too big yet not too small.”

“What if you were to unite together with the Bamboo Knot Gang?”

“Definitely amongst the top fifteen forces,” Mu Nan Dou replied confidently.

“Good, from now on there will be no more Profound Light Gang!” Yang Kai looked at Pang Chi as he pointed at Mu Nan Dou, “This man will be your deputy in the future!”

“Yes!” Pang Chi was immediately overjoyed while Mu Nan Dou, though his face was bitter, once again, didn’t dare to complain, only able to laugh helplessly.

Seeing how much wealth the Profound Light Gang had accumulated, Yang Kai suddenly realized he had underestimated these small forces. Not all of them were as poor as the Bamboo Knot Gang.

Grinning fiercely, Yang Kai continued, “I want you to get familiarize yourselves with each other as soon as possible, and then… start nibbling away at the other small forces in the region.”

“Ah!” Pang Chi couldn’t help calling out in surprise while Mu Nan Dou wore a temperate expression.

“This… is this appropriate?” Pang Chi was hesitant. For the past many years, the Bamboo Knot Gang had never made aggressive moves towards its neighbours, only focusing on self-defence, yet not they had suddenly been told to become conquerors, Pang Chi was inevitably hesitant.

“What do you think?” Yang Kai glanced at Mu Nan Dou.

The latter hurriedly said, “There’s nothing wrong with following the law of the jungle. Last night, if Young Lord Kai hadn’t carved open a path with his blade, the Bamboo Knot Gang would have disappeared. In the Central Capital, battle between these small forces isn’t uncommon. Pang Chi, your mentality is too rigid.”

Pang Chi blushed in embarrassment for a while, but said nothing in retort.

“It seems like your Profound Light Gang often does this kind of thing.” Yang Kai looked at Mu Nan Dou meaningfully, the latter smiling back, “We mainly accompanied Young Lord Huo to relieve his boredom. So far, we’ve annexed two forces, but I’ve already inquired about which forces can be eaten around here, we were just waiting for a day when Young Lord Huo was bored again before leading him to watch the fun, haha…”

Now that he had a new owner, Mu Nan Dou naturally intended to perform well so he held nothing back from Yang Kai after learning about his future plans.

Pang Chi immediately realized that the situation wasn’t favourable, if he continued to allow Mu Nan Dou to take the initiative, retaining his position as Sect Master wouldn’t be guaranteed, immediately chiming in, “With Brother Mu’s help, I’m certain we can annex the local forces.”

“Very good,” Yang Kai nodded, “As for the wealth you collect, leave a portion for your own development; the rest should be used to purchase Alchemy and Artifact Refining materials of at least Earth Grade Top-Rank quality.”

“Yes!” Pang Chi and Mu Nan Dou shouted together, glancing at one another knowingly, understanding that Yang Kai was preparing for the Inheritance War.

Not daring to delay, the two former adversaries led their respective people into the hall to discuss their upcoming campaign.

Standing in place for a moment, Yang Kai was amazed; he hadn’t expected Huo Xing Chen to act so decisively.

However, it was true that this wasn’t a loss for him, the number of people he could deploy as henchmen had increased and in the future, it would only continue to snowball.

……

The Fourth Master’s Residence.

When Yang Kai came back, the head servant immediately greeted him, “Young Master, the Master has instructed you to see him in his study upon your return.”

“En, understood.” Yang Kai nodded, walking over to his father’s study, pondering slightly. He couldn’t think of why the Fourth Master suddenly wanted to discuss something with him.

As he came up to the study door, before he could enter, he heard Dong Su Zhu’s voice, “You shouldn’t worry, Kai’er should be back soon.”

Yang Ying Feng suddenly complained, “You’re his mother, how come you didn’t know your son had left the house?”

Dong Su Zhu shot back immediately, “You didn’t know either! How can you suddenly try to blame others? Don’t speak so unreasonably!”

Yang Ying Feng’s face cramped up before drooping helplessly.

Two other voices let out a soft laughter at this familiar sight.

Yang Kai expression immediately changed upon hearing these voices, a smile appearing on his face, pushing the door open and walking in.

Seeing Yang Kai return, Dong Su Zhu quickly stood up and gnashed her teeth in anger, shouting, “Little brat, where did you run off to last night? Actually staying out all night without saying a word to us, do you know how worried your father and I were?”

As she spoke, Dong Su Zhu walked over to her son and gently sniffed him.

“What are you sniffing for?” The Yang Family Fourth Master asked suspiciously.

“To see whether he was out drinking last night!” Dong Su Zhu said seriously, sniffing for a while longer before wearing a relieved expression, “Fortunately there’s no smell of alcohol, or any perfume…”

“Don’t make trouble!” Yang Kai said helplessly, glancing to the side, “We have guests after all.”

“Oh…”