Martial Peak
chapter-4561

Luan Bai Feng had been active in the Black Territory for many years, and though she could not say that she knew this place like her own backyard, she was still much more familiar with it than Yang Kai.

Under her guidance, their journey progressed without incident.

While following the woman, Yang Kai also brought out his Demon Eye of Annihilation, so he could keep an eye on the situation around them. Sure enough, the Demon Eye of Annihilation was amazing. Yang Kai could obviously see traces of some Arrays around them, but since he was not proficient in the Dao of Spirit Arrays, he could only see them, unlike Luan Bai Feng who could not only see them but could also see the appropriate method in cracking them.

Several times, Luan Bai Feng clearly led him into a Natural Array, but mysteriously, they did not trigger.

After moving forward a while longer, a mysterious aura appeared in the void. Under the guidance of that aura, Yang Kai could feel the World Force inside of his Small Universe leaking out.

Yang Kai made an exclamation of surprise and quickly shut his Small Universe, but it was to no avail as World Force continued spilling out from his body.

“It’s useless.” Clearly, Luan Bai Feng noticed his actions, “The first danger of the Black Prison is the Arrays you can find everywhere, but the second is this strange aura. Once enveloped by this aura, no matter what Order the Open Heaven Realm Master is in, they can’t stop their World Force from flowing out of their bodies. Right now, we are only at the edge of where we come in contact with this aura. The deeper we go, the stronger the aura becomes, and the faster our World Force leaks out. I would advise you to start replenishing yourself now; otherwise, the further we go, the more difficult it will be!”

Saying so, she grabbed a handful of Open Heaven Pills and stuffed them into her mouth, swallowing them down and silently refining them.

Yang Kai nodded lightly, but he did not take her words too seriously. Right now, even though the World Force inside of his body was leaking, it was at a very low rate, so he could ignore it for now. What was more, he also wanted to know what was going on with this aura, and why such changes would happen in his body because of it.

He calmed his mind and tried to search for an answer, but came up empty.

However, he was reminded of his experience in the Shadowless Cave Heaven. There was a formless Astral Wind that he encountered there, the essence of which was a powerful Divine Ability that swept across the entire Shadowless Cave Heaven. Occasionally, it blew through the Shadowless Cave Heaven and entered the Small Universes of Open Heaven Realm Masters inside, wreaking havoc with their World Force and shaving it away.

Unlike the strange aura found in the Black Prison, the formless Astral Wind could be regarded as a gush of a foreign power that entered one’s Small Universe and ground down some of the Small Universe’s heritage. The situation here in the Black Prison was that the heritage of one’s Small Universe would constantly leak away.

In the Shadowless Cave Heaven, Yang Kai relied on his Towering Evergreen to resist the formless Astral Wind, but he had no idea whether this Wood Element Divine Manifestation would have any effect on the situation in the Black Prison.

With this in mind, Yang Kai immediately released his Towering Evergreen, and a vibrant green light emerged, brimming with rich vitality. The ancient tree appeared and its branches hung low, wrapping around both Luan Bai Feng and himself.

As soon as this Secret Technique was used, the strange aura that had been surrounding them in the void was kept at bay, and the leakage of World Force from their Small Universes also stopped.

[It worked!] Yang Kai was overjoyed. As he expected, the Wood Element Power that he condensed from the essence of the Immortal Tree was truly extraordinary. Not only could it stop the encroachment of the formless Astral Wind, but it was also able to keep out the strange aura that filled the void!

However, when he thought about it, the Immortal Tree was a Supreme Treasure of an exceptionally high Order, so it was not strange for it to have such amazing effects. Now, a big problem of theirs was solved.

“What did you do?” Luan Bai Feng looked at Yang Kai, eyes wide in shock. She could clearly feel the change in herself during that instant. The World Force which had been slowly pouring out of her body suddenly stopped escaping. She could not even feel the strange aura anymore, “Isn’t this Divine Manifestation supposed to only heal?”

Previously, Yang Kai had also used the Towering Evergreen to heal her injuries after she had been burned by his Golden Crow’s True Fire. Now, it seemed like this Divine Manifestation may not be as simple as just a mere healing method.

For years, she had been trying to find a solution to the strange aura that was omnipresent in the Black Prison, yet she never found a single clue. She did not expect that she would be able to find such a miracle in Yang Kai on this day.

“Not only can it heal injuries, but it can also be used defensively!” Yang Kai gave a simple explanation.

Luan Bai Feng looked at him with bright eyes, “How long can you hold this Divine Manifestation for? Does it consume a lot of energy?”

Yang Kai chuckled, “If it’s only to cover the two of us, then it does not consume much energy. I should be able to keep it going for a long time!” Right now, as he was in the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm, his heritage was also mighty. Being limited to just a small area, the Towering Evergreen did not consume too much of his strength to maintain, to the point it could even be called negligible. What was more, he had countless Open Heaven Pills inside of his Space Ring, so it was not like he was unable to replenish what he was consuming.

Luan Bai Feng looked at him with complicated eyes. The problem that had been bothering her for hundreds of years was finally resolved today, so naturally, it would not be right to say that she was not ecstatic. Only, once she remembered the current situation she was in, as well as her status, that joy dimmed considerably. After all, even if she could mine the Ore Stars deeper within the Black Territory now, whatever she could find would still belong to someone else and have nothing to do with her.

Her mood suddenly plummeted, and she stayed quiet during their journey, simply using her Eye Secret Technique to check for the Spirit Arrays that surrounded them, continuously leading Yang Kai forward.

Half a day later, Luan Bai Feng said, “Another hour more and we will be reaching the no man’s land. My subordinated ore slaves were unable to stay there for long, so it has been many years since anyone has gone to mine the Ore Stars there.”

Yang Kai nodded, “Is that where all the Sixth-Order and Seventh-Order materials were mined?”

“Most of them are. Of course, a few pieces were found in the outer region. Even though the Ore Stars on the outside are a little lacking in terms of their output, finding Sixth-Order materials is not impossible, just very rare.”

Yang Kai turned to look at her, “I heard that the ore slaves under your subordination are either captives or prisoners of war. In that case, they must not be loyal to you, so how can you ensure that they will not pocket any of the resources they find?”

Luan Bai Feng was frank, “World Force must be consumed in order to mine the Ore Stars. Subsequently, just going deep inside the Black Prison would mean that their World Force is constantly being depleted, so where would they have the spare World Force to dissolve Black Stones once they got there. What’s more, even if they did secretly dissolve some Black Stone, they are still not guaranteed to find anything. Since that’s the case, it’s better for them to exchange for Open Heaven Pills from me using the Black Stone that they’ve mined. If they’re lucky enough and mine enough Black Stone, it’s completely possible for them to exchange enough Open Heaven Pills for their own use.”

It did make sense. The Black Stones may not necessarily contain anything, and the ore slaves would have to spend a lot of effort dissolving even one piece while there was a high chance of getting nothing in return.

For the ore slaves that live here in the Black Prison, every last thread of World Force was extremely precious to them. As for running away… there was little hope of that happening. The Black Territory was surrounded by Natural Arrays. If they were to accidentally trigger one of them, then the chances of surviving were slim to none!

Even compared to the Shattered Heaven, this Black Prison was no less dangerous!

While they spoke, Luan Bai Feng looked up ahead and declared, “We’re here. That Ore Star ahead is the deepest one that my ore slaves have been able to mine so far. No one has ever reached deeper before.”

Looking over, Yang Kai saw a dark Ore Star floating in the void.

This Ore Star was truly not small, even bigger than the Star Boundary itself. Like all the Ore Stars in the Black Territory, it was filled with cracks and pits without any vitality.

Luan Bai Feng led Yang Kai to a certain spot on the Ore Star, and at first glance, he was able to see the traces left behind from a previous mining expedition. Obviously the work of the Sixth-Order ore slaves that were here long ago.

However, even Sixth-Order Open Heaven Masters could not survive long in this environment. In the months and years they spent mining, their World Force never ceased escaping their bodies, weakening the heritage of their Small Universes. In the end, their Small Universe Collapsed, leading to their deaths.

“What are you planning to do now? You’re not planning to mine Black Stone here, are you?” Luan Bai Feng looked askance at Yang Kai.

Yang Kai laughed, “Do you have any other good ideas? If not, then get to work. Don’t tell me that you don’t know how to mine after living here in the Black Prison all these years!”

Luan Bai Feng was furious, “You ran all the way here just so you can mine Black Stone yourself? Are you stupid? Even if you did manage to gain anything out of this, it’s hard to guarantee you’ll be able to get your Sixth-Order Yin-Yang Element materials.”

Yang Kai stroked his chin in thought, “What you say makes sense, but there’s one part where you’re wrong.”

“Where?” Luan Bai Feng frowned.

“You’ll be the one mining Black Stone, not me!” Yang Kai wagged his finger in front of her eyes.

Luan Bai Feng blinked and gawked, “Then what are you going to do?”

Yang Kai said matter-of-factly, “Supervise!”

Luan Bai Feng’s lungs were about to explode from anger, “Keep dreaming! You may kill me, but I won’t allow you to humiliate me!”

“Hurry up and get to it. You know you can’t go against my orders, so why make a fool of yourself?”

Luan Bai Feng glared viciously at him with eyes that seemed like she wanted to eat him alive. It was clear that she was not willing to compromise on this issue.

However, when Yang Kai took out the Loyalty List and gave the order, she had to mine regardless of how reluctant she was. While exerting her Divine Abilities without restraint, sending debris flying everywhere, she cursed through her teeth, feeling extremely aggrieved.

There were a number of ways to mine Black Stone on an Ore Star, and Yang Kai quickly understood after watching for a while.

Since the Black Stone itself can block the probing of one’s Divine Sense, it was easy to see where they were just by spreading out one’s Divine Sense. Wherever the Divine Sense was being blocked, that was where the Black Stone was located. Then, using Secret Techniques, as long as one controlled their strength, they could simply blast apart the surrounding rock to obtain Black Stone.

Luan Bai Feng was a powerful Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, so she was naturally efficient at mining Black Stone.

Even though Yang Kai said he was going to supervise, he wasn’t being serious. After observing and studying what Luan Bai Feng was doing for a while, he also began mining.

Only then did Luan Bai Feng’s anger subside slightly.

Now, with their united strength, it took only a short three days for them to mine 100 pieces of Black Stone. According to Luan Bai Feng, her ore slaves would be lucky to get five or six pieces of Black Stone in a single day in a place like this. Usually, they would only come away with a couple of pieces per trip, or even less.

Out of 100 pieces, at most 30% would contain anything, while most of the Black Stone was empty, so Yang Kai just tossed them aside.

In the end, Yang Kai harvested 27 materials from different Orders.