Martial Peak
chapter-4161-30041322

Chapter 4161 – I’ve Been Waiting for You

The 3,000 Worlds was boundless, and there were countless cultivators living in it. Although Lu Xue had wandered for over 100 years, and she could be considered an experienced person, she couldn’t possibly recognise a person that had nothing to do with her.

As for Guo Zi Yan, he was just a Second-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, and his experience and knowledge were rather limited.

“Sir, I reckon that man is in the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm,” Lu Xue said in a grim voice.

Although the middle-aged man never released any aura, which made it impossible for anyone to tell his exact cultivation, Lu Xue still felt pressured in his presence. She was in the Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm, thus any person who could make her feel pressured must be at least in the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm.

Solemnly, Yang Kai nodded his head. Facing a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, Lu Xue and Guo Zi Yan would be powerless. If that person really had some ill intentions, things would be troublesome.

However, that was just their most conservative estimate. If that man was in the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm, things would become even more thorny.

“I don’t think he’ll harm us, but we can’t lower our guard.” After giving it a thought, Yang Kai secretly spoke to Lu Xue and Guo Zi Yan. Then, they nodded and left the place.

Half a month later, Lu Xue retrieved her windmill artifact, but they were not in a rush to continue their journey. Only two months later did they leave the inn and set off.

A few days later, a gigantic Territory Gate came into their sight. The windmill shot into it and disappeared.

An incense stick after Yang Kai and the others passed through the Territory Gate, a ray of light suddenly shot forward from afar and landed in front of the swirling portal before a figure revealed himself.

He was none other than the stern-looking middle-aged man Yang Kai had come across in the Universe Temple. Staring at the Territory Gate, he muttered, “Have they entered it? Hmph! They’ll not shake me off so easily.”

Upon finishing his words, he plunged into the Territory Gate as his World Force turned into a layer of defence, which helped him resist the pressure coming from the Void.

There was a risk associated with passing through a Territory Gate. Normally, only cultivators in the Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm could move through one without needing any external protection. For people below the Mid-Rank, if they didn’t have some kind of special artifact or Secret Technique to assist them, they would be crushed inside by the horrible pressure.

Despite the fact that the man was in the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he still felt his Soul shaking and was a little dizzy when moving through the Territory Gate.

Nevertheless, he had experienced this countless times, so he wasn’t flustered. In order not to alert anyone, he didn’t use an artifact as that would be far more conspicuous. Soon, as the world around him spun around, he found that he had arrived at a different Great Territory.

Before he even stabilised himself though, he felt a piercing sword light coming at him from the side.

Horrified, the middle-aged man immediately realised that he had been ambushed, and the person making a move was just as powerful as he was, but just who would ambush him in such a place?

There was no time for him to further ponder on it as he hurriedly flew backwards; however, the sword light relentlessly pursued him.

Usually, given his heritage, he could easily ward off such an attack; after all, he was fairly strong. Nevertheless, he had just passed through a Territory Gate, which shook his Soul and Small Universe slightly, temporarily reducing his strength by about 30%.

Then, the sword light directly broke through his layer of protection and slashed across his body.

His clothes fell apart and his blood spurted out of his wound. There was a forearm length cut on his chest now that was bone deep.

At that moment, he was reeling from the shock. If he hadn’t flown backwards and stalled for time to use a defensive Secret Technique, the sword light would have critically injured him.

With that said, he was still feeling awful at this moment. He could feel Sword Intent penetrating his wound so he had to divert some of his energy and focus to suppress it to prevent his wound from worsening.

Right then, another figure came at him from the side. With a shield engraved with a Dragon pattern, he crashed into the unsuspecting middle-aged man, who lost his balance and was swept away by the immense force. At the same time, he sprayed out a mouthful of blood.

Just then, he saw a sword light flashing through his eyes as countless sword shadows engulfed him. Every one of them seemed intent on killing him on the spot.

It was at this moment that the middle-aged man finally collected himself. With a great roar, he raised his hand and summoned an artifact that looked like a shovel. Upon surging his World Force, he wielded the shovel and shattered the sword lights.

In the end, he was still a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master who had remained in this realm for quite some time. He was slightly injured due to the ambush, but after pulling himself together, he was able to display his powerful heritage.

The attacker with the Dragon-patterned shield dashed towards him as he raised the shield and brought it down.

The middle-aged man bellowed, “How dare a Third-Order insect dare act so impudent in front of this King!”

Although he couldn’t make out the people ambushing him, as his Divine Sense permeated the surroundings, he could sense that the people fighting against him were respectively in the Fifth-Order and the Third-Order Open Heaven Realm.

Naturally, he was wary of the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master as he was in the same Realm, but he couldn’t believe that a mere Third-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivator had the guts to fight him, which infuriated him.

Then, he extended his hand into the void and grabbed an artifact that looked like a whip. The sound of a weltering river was heard coming from the whip as pure Water Element Power erupted. This artifact seemed to have been refined from a real river.

Hei He wielded the whip and lashed the huge shield. The loud clanging sound suggested that the shield was unable to withstand the attack and cracks started appearing on its face. On the other hand, the shield’s owner was sent flying away like a sack. His figure kept spinning around in the void as he sprayed out a mouthful of blood.

It was extremely difficult for a Third-Order Open Heaven Realm Master to withstand the blow of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, and if it weren’t because the shield was an excellent defensive artifact, he would have been killed after that one strike.

Although he wasn’t at risk of losing his life at the moment, his Small Universe was trembling violently from the impact, making it impossible for him to keep fighting.

Nevertheless, his sacrifice wasn’t in vain. It had allowed the shattered sword lights to condense again and slash across the middle-aged man countless times.

As blood spurted out of his wounds, Hei He was horrified.

A single mistake at the outset of the battle had forced him into an almost impossible position. The ambush outside the Territory Gate made him lose the initiative, and put him at a complete disadvantage.

[Who are these people ambushing me?] Blood slid down his forehead and blurred his vision as he looked around and soon saw a person gazing at him in silence from a nearby place.

His pupils contracted as he exclaimed, “It’s you!”

That person was none other than Yang Kai.

Presently, Yang Kai was standing there with a dispassionate expression, his lips curled up as he sneered, “Hei He, this King has been waiting for you.”

Seeing as the other person directly called out his name, the middle-aged man was furious and roared, “How did you find out this King’s background?”

Yang Kai scoffed, “It’s not like no one in the Universe Temple knows who you are. I just had to ask around to find out your identity.”

After they returned from the accessories shop on that day, he told Lu Xue and Guo Zi Yan to ask around. Both of them were seasoned people, so it wasn’t difficult for them to secretly gather some information.

Upon learning the truth, Yang Kai was astounded, for the person who wanted to treat him to a meal was Hei He Heavenly Monarch!

He had never met or heard of Hei He Heavenly Monarch before, but the name ‘Hei He’ made him put his guard up.

If Yang Kai wasn’t mistaken, he might have some grudges with Hei He and the origin of this dispute was Fang Tai, who was taken to Fire Spirit Land with Yang Kai in Seven Wonders Land in the past.

Fang Tai was a Worker in Fire Spirit Land, and just like Yang Kai, was coerced into joining Seven Wonders Land by Duan Hai. He claimed that he was from Black River World, and he possessed a Faith Token left behind by his ancestors.

(TL note: Hei He = Black River)

After leaping out of his Universe World, Fang Tai arrived in the 3,000 Worlds. Naturally, he wanted to use his Faith Token to look for his Seniors and seek their protection; unfortunately, he was brought to Seven Wonders Land and became little more than a slave.

Apparently, Duan Hai was also aware of Hei Hei Heavenly Monarch’s existence and knew if word got out that he had made his Junior a slave, Hei He would not let him off. To save himself from any potential trouble, Duan Hai set up Fang Tai by letting him flee from Seven Wonders Land, then branding him a traitor and having Yang Kai hunt him down.

Yang Kai still remembered that he was accompanied by two Low-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters at that time. They found Fang Tai and Yang Kai fought him one-on-one, eventually killing him with his spear.

It was also during that time when Yang Kai came across Xu Huang, which led to the turmoil in Seven Wonders Land.

Xu Huang was a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, and when Yang Kai was killing Fang Tai, he was observing the battle in the dark and realised that something was off. At that time, he told Yang Kai that there was a restriction in Fang Tai’s body that would mark whoever killed him with a Brand. Unless Yang Kai could ascend to the Open Heaven Realm, he would never be able to get rid of this Brand.

The biggest use of the Brand was to point out the murderer, and if Yang Kai bumped into the Brand’s owner, the latter would immediately notice it.

For the longest time, Yang Kai had never cared about this; after all, the Outer Universe was vast, so it was unlikely that he would chance upon the Brand’s owner.

However, it just so happened that he came into contact with that person. Upon hearing the title ‘Hei He Heavenly Monarch’, Yang Kai immediately realised what was going on.

Fang Tai was from Black River World, and this Hei He was probably the one who had left a Brand in Fang Tai’s body.

In that case, the fact that Yang Kai had killed Fang Tai must have been exposed. Hei He made it look like he happened to have his eyes on the same accessory as Yang Kai, but in fact, he deliberately approached the latter to find out the extent of his strength.

Upon that realization, Yang Kai became vigilant.

Initially, he intended to leave the Universe Temple after half a month and continued his journey, but in the end, he stayed there for an additional two months because he had to make preparations.

His preparation yielded excellent results as the ambush resulted in Hei He being seriously injured.

Unlike how calm and collected Yang Kai was, presently, Hei He was both furious and shocked. He was furious because he regarded himself as an intelligent person, so he had never expected that he would be set up by this brat. On the other hand, he was shocked because the auras of the two Open Heaven Realm Masters with this boy were vastly different from what he had sensed previously.

When he met this trio earlier, he secretly inspected the cultivation of the two Open Heaven Realm Masters. The woman was in the Fourth-Order while the man was in the Second-Order at that time. As for Yang Kai, he was just an Emperor Realm Junior, so Hei He paid him no regard at all.

However, after trading moves with these people, he realised that he was very wrong. The man was in the Third-Order instead of Second-Order, but that didn’t really matter. The crux of the problem was that the sword-wielding woman was in the Fifth-Order!