Martial Peak
chapter-4453

Chapter 44

Chapter 4453 – Heinous

The Dao Theory Assembly was held in order to choose a Husband for Qu Hua Shang; therefore, all the cultivators who came to participate in this event carried at least a glimmer of hope in their hearts. They dreamed of winning first place and bringing home a beautiful bride. It was for that reason that they rolled up their sleeves and prepared to put their lives on the line.

To their greatest dismay though, Qu Hua Shang took the initiative to embrace one of the participants with a look that seemed to indicate that she was secretly in love with that man right in front of all of them…

That atmosphere instantly became tense. For a time, many people glared at Yang Kai with hatred and rage in their eyes. Even more people decided that what the eyes did not see, the heart did not grieve. They turned around and rushed onto the rainbow bridge and were transported into Prison Star.

“Junior Brother, please be careful!” Qu Hua Shang did not show too much intimacy in her actions and quickly let go. Then, she took two steps backward and winked at him.

Yang Kai nodded lightly. Turning around, he strode towards the Rainbow Bridge.

“Senior Brother Yang, please wait for me!” Lu Jing finally came back to his senses and quickly caught up with Yang Kai’s pace. At the same time, he drew upon his World Force and covered both of them in it.

Yang Kai noticed and did not resist.

When the two of them stepped onto the rainbow bridge together, they felt a swirling sensation washing over them and their vision blurred for a moment. In the next instant, they were in another world.

Overwhelming pressure pressed down on them from above, and Yang Kai involuntarily slumped slightly. It felt as though his Small Universe was being covered by something and his power could not flow properly.

“Please forgive me, Senior Brother Yang. The transfer to the Prison Star is set to a random location. If I had not done that, you and I would have been separated and it would have been difficult to meet up again.” Lu Jing explained his actions just now.

Yang Kai looked surprised, “This place… is a little strange!”

Lu Jing said, “Senior Brother, don’t panic. The Prison Star…”

He was about to explain something when he suddenly heard a piercing scream coming from not far away. Turning to look in that direction, he saw a strong and burly man riding on top of a woman in a bush nearby.

The man was grinning and laughing. His hands were busy ripping apart the clothes on the woman’s body without care, quickly exposing her snow-white skin to the air. It didn’t take long before all she had left were her undergarments that concealed her most private parts. The woman kicked and punched desperately, crying and screaming at the same time; however, her actions only seemed to fuel the man’s excitement, causing him to become more and more aggressive.

“Stop! How dare you do such a despicable thing in broad daylight!?” Lu Jing felt the blood rushing to his head at the sight and roared in their direction. He never imagined that he would be greeted by such an ugly sight the moment he and Yang Kai entered the Prison Star.

Lu Jing’s voice startled the burly man who was about to finish what he started. That man turned to look in this direction, his eyes sweeping over Lu Jing. Then, he grinned savagely, “Where did this baby come from? How dare you ruin my fun? Scram if you don’t want to die!”

Lu Jing snapped angrily, “The people of the Prison Star are heinous indeed! Now that I’ve run into you, I can’t forgive your deeds!”

While speaking, he reached out and summoned a longsword into his hand before pointing it at the man.

The power of Lu Jing’s Small Universe fluctuated, making that burly man’s expression change slightly, “Fourth-Order?”

His expression couldn’t help becoming solemn in response. He was only in the Third-Order Open Heaven Realm, on the other hand, this brat who popped out of nowhere turned out to be in the Fourth-Order. How could he dare to be negligent? He couldn’t care less about the woman pressed underneath him anymore and hastily drew upon his own World Force to confront Lu Jing.

Yang Kai glanced in their direction once then stopped paying attention to them.

One was in the Third-Order while the other was in the Fourth-Order, so there was no doubt about the outcome. Although Lu Jing was nothing compared to Yang Kai in terms of strength, it did not change the fact that a Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was in the Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm. Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters generally commanded a certain level of respect in the 3,000 Worlds.

Instead, Yang Kai lowered his head to look at the jade slip in his hand, immersing his mind into it as he carefully inspected the contents.

This jade slip was something Qu Hua Shang had secretly stuffed into his hand under the guise of hugging him earlier. He did not know what information was recorded within the jade slip, but even so, it had to be important seeing as she did not hesitate to destroy her own reputation by making an appearance at the Dao Theory Assembly just to hand it to him.

On the other side, Lu Jing was caught in a fierce battle with that burly man, but thanks to the difference in their Orders, he still held the absolute advantage.

It didn’t take more than ten breaths of time before the burly man was suppressed to the point where he could not fight back. Sword wave after sword wave flashed out, slicing across the man’s torso, blood flowed freely from those wounds, and in a panic, the man hurriedly begged for mercy.

A hint of hesitation flashed across Lu Jing’s eyes, but he quickly responded firmly, “The death of scum who oppress others and forcefully seize women aren’t worth pitying!”

With a flick of his longsword, Lu Jing created a rain of sword waves that crashed down on the burly man. When the light died down, he gave a soft snort and flicked off the blood staining his blade.

Meanwhile, the burly man remained standing there motionlessly until a soft breeze blew past his body and shattered it like a wooden block that had been sliced apart. Blood flowed out like a river.

Inadvertently or otherwise, Lu Jing glanced at Yang Kai as though to say that he was not completely useless; unfortunately, he turned around only to see Yang Kai looking down at a jade slip. He couldn’t help feeling disappointed as a result.

Following the death of that burly man, a black light escaped from one of the pieces of his corpse and split into two. One part rushed into the golden wristband around Lu Jing’s wrist while the other part rushed towards Yang Kai, who was standing not too far away, and slipped into his golden wristband.

“Oh?” Lu Jing exclaimed in surprise, “Is that how our achievements are recorded?”

They had heard about this from Xu Ling Gong previously. As long as the participants were nearby when the criminals were killed, they would all share a certain amount of achievement. They had not understood how the mechanism of sharing worked at the beginning, but how could he not understand after witnessing the situation just now?

Lu Jing lowered his head to examine his golden wristband and discovered something. The golden wristband that was initially blank had been dyed black at a certain spot. It seemed to be part of a pattern, but the pattern was not fully revealed because the achievements he accrued were too few.

There was no time to think too deeply about this matter though. Putting his longsword away, Lu Jing walked towards the woman and gently asked, “Are you alright?”

The woman’s body and all her womanly charms were on full display. There were only a few torn pieces of cloth left covering her body and her suet-white-jade-like skin shone with a porcelain-like lustre. She was shivering violently and curled up in place. When she saw Lu Jing approaching her, her eyes filled with fear and panic as she kept shaking her head and pleading, “No! No! No, please…”

Her weak and vulnerable appearance made one subconsciously pity her.

His heart moved, Lu Jing tried to comfort her, “Miss, please don’t be scared. I don’t have any ill-intentions.”

Walking over to her, he removed his shirt and draped it over her body to cover up her womanly charms.

Her body continued to shiver violently, and it was obvious that she had been scared witless by what had happened to her. The sight made Lu Jing feel helpless, but just as he was about to reassure her once more, an inexplicable sense of danger flooded his heart and chills spread across his entire body.

Before he could understand what was happening, he noticed that Yang Kai, who had been standing a few paces away earlier, had suddenly appeared before him at some point in time. Yang Kai was squeezing the woman’s neck and the expression on the woman’s face had become even more terrified than before.

“Senior Brother Yang, you…” Lu Jing looked at Yang Kai in puzzlement.

*Kacha…*

Yang Kai exerted some force into his hand and the woman’s head fell forward limply, the vitality in her eyes dissipating quickly. A black light escaped from her wrist and just like before, the light divided into two pieces and disappeared into their wristbands.

Lu Jing was shocked! Be that as it may, he was no fool, so after a moment of hesitation, he lifted the shirt he had draped over the woman’s body and instantly broke out in cold sweat at what he saw.

A dagger glowing with a faint blue light had appeared in the woman’s hands at some point. Moreover, the dagger was clearly aimed at his chest. Just a little further and it would have pierced into his body. Only then did he understand where the sense of crisis had come from just now.

The person he initially thought to be a powerless woman being assaulted turned out to be a poisonous snake that was hiding her fangs! If Yang Kai had not acted decisively, he would either be dead or heavily wounded by now!

“It turns out that everyone in the Prison Star is an extremely vicious person after all! They are all people who deserve to be killed!” Lu Jing wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and cupped his fists, “Many thanks for saving my life, Brother Yang.”

Even a woman they met while she was being assaulted turned out to be so dangerous. It could be perceived what kind of people were locked up in this damned place from this experience alone.

Yang Kai smilingly said, “Brother Lu, don’t forget that indulging in lust is equivalent to hanging a knife above your head. Take care to avoid such mistakes in the future!”

...

Lu Jing blushed furiously, “It’s not what you think! I… I just… Haa...”

There was no way to explain away his mistake. That was because he had truly been fascinated by that woman’s beauty and charm for a time; otherwise, he would not have dropped his guard so easily. What Yang Kai said was not far from the truth.

“This Prison Star is odd indeed,” Yang Kai muttered to himself.

Lu Jing explained, “Brother Yang, you might not know this, but the Prison Star is a place used by Yin-Yang Cave Heaven disciples as a life-and-death training area, so the entire Prison Star is shrouded and suppressed by a powerful Grand Array. All cultivators, regardless of their cultivation, will experience a huge decrease in strength here. Not to mention that the stronger they are, the more intensely they will be suppressed. I’m sure you saw my fight against that man just now.”

Yang Kai nodded, “I noticed.”

He had noticed this phenomenon as soon as he entered the Prison Star. There was some sort of suppressive force that existed everywhere, making him feel as though a mountain was pressing down on him.

Lu Jing was in the Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm while that burly man was in the Third-Order. Even so, their fight had not demonstrated the majesty that a Third-Order and Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master should have. That was clearly due to the suppression of the Grand Array covering the Prison Star.

Logically speaking, it should have been as simple as lifting a finger for a Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master to eliminate one in the Third-Order. Nevertheless, it had taken Lu Jing a whole ten breaths of time to finish his opponent. While Lu Jing’s strength was indeed much greater than the burly man’s, the suppression he faced was also much stronger. Thus, the wide gap in their respective strengths was narrowed greatly.

“Because of the Grand Array, all the people on the Prison Star are unable to exert their real strength. Since you are in the Sixth-Order, Senior Brother Yang, you will also face the greatest suppression among us. That is why you have to be careful when you encounter an enemy. Even a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master might have the power to fight you on equal terms in this place.”

Yang Kai nodded lightly. Looking down at his golden wristband, he murmured thoughtfully, “The way the Dao Theory Assembly records our achievements is quite interesting as well.”

The golden wristband was originally just a blank golden brand; however, a small black mark appeared on one part of the golden wristband after they killed that man and that woman. He examined the golden wristband carefully and said, “It appears to be a pattern of a star.”

...

Similarly, Lu Jing looked at his wrist and compared the pattern on Yang Kai’s wrist with his own. Their situation at the moment was completely identical, “You’re right, Senior Brother Yang. This is most likely a star.”

It was just that the pattern of the star was not completely stained black yet. At most, only 10% of the star had turned black.