Martial Peak
chapter-5014

Zhu Feng, who had not panicked even when he had been pinned to the ground by the Grand Dragon, instinctively felt a sense of fear rise in him the moment he saw the round bead.

The round bead that was pressing down on him gave off an extremely dangerous feeling, one that was no mere illusion, but a real threat to his life.

Without hesitation, Zhu Feng instantly directed his frenzied attacks at the Grand Dragon’s body to the round bead instead.

In the next moment, something happened that shocked Zhu Feng.

No matter what attacks he threw at the round bead, he could not make it budge in the slightest, let alone stop its descent.

It seemed like an instant, but also like millions of years.

When the round bead landed on Zhu Feng, his chest instantly caved in and a spurt of ink-black blood was forced out of his throat uncontrollably. Violent power rampaged through his limbs and bones, weaving through his body and wreaking havoc within.

At the same time, the Grand Dragon also roared in pain. Its 20,000-metre body suddenly shrank and Yang Kai returned to Human Form, drawing back the round bead into his mouth at the same time with a strong suction force.

Without the Dragon Claw to keep him down, Zhu Feng was free again. Enduring the pain ravaging his body, he suddenly threw out a punch.

Yang Kai, who was still dizzy and unable to stabilize himself was unprepared for this punch and was sent flying, spitting out a mouthful of golden blood as he tumbled through the air, his aura becoming extremely weak.

At this moment, Yang Kai was nearing complete exhaustion, not to mention the fact that he had squeezed every last drop of the heritage out of his Small Universe. As for the round bead that he had spat out earlier, that was his own Dragon Bead.

Back then, in the depths of the Shattered Heaven, in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, when Yang Kai progressed from a mere Dragonkin into a True Grand Dragon, a Dragon Bead was condensed in his body, crystallized from the Dragon bloodline’s essence and his Divine Dragon Source; it was the symbol of a Grand Dragon. Only Grand Dragons were capable of creating a True Dragon Bead.

This bead was the same as the Monster Cores found in Monster Beasts. A Monster Core was the foundation of a Monster Beast, and the Dragon Bead was the foundation of a Dragon. Nonetheless, a Dragon Bead was more concentrated than a Monster Core in terms of both power and purity.

When a Monster Beast encountered a powerful enemy, it would unleash its Monster Core and use it to attack or defend, as could those from the Dragon Clan.

This was a simple attack, but an immensely powerful one. However, it did have its drawbacks. Once done, the user would be taking a huge risk, whether it be for a Monster Core or a Dragon Bead. If it were destroyed, then it would immediately put one’s life in danger, and in the worst-case scenario, directly result in one’s death.

It was for this reason that Yang Kai would never unleash his Dragon Bead no matter what sort of enemy he faced; after all, he was a Master of the Dao of Space, so if he could not beat an enemy, he could always run away.

This time, however, he was truly forced into a desperate situation. The secret of the Purifying Light had already been exposed to Zhu Feng. If possible, Yang Kai naturally had to kill him here to avoid future problems.

The power inside of his Small Universe had dried up, so now the only power he had left to use was that of his Dragon Vein. Faced with a strong foe like Zhu Feng, unleashing his Dragon Bead was the strongest card Yang Kai could play.

Indeed, the Dragon Bead was able to injure Zhu Feng heavily. Even his chest had been caved in. However, Zhu Feng’s flurry of attacks had also left cracks on Yang Kai’s Dragon Bead and almost broke it apart on the spot. What’s more, that was the final trump card Yang Kai had.

With his Dragon Bead damaged, Yang Kai could not even maintain his Dragon Form.

He had exhausted his options and no longer had the power to fight.

In this match, he and Bai Yi were defeated!

Zhu Feng was heavily injured, but he was still not dead. The only thing Yang Kai could do now was hurry and bring Bai Yi away from here. Only, he had no idea whether he would have that opportunity.

Somehow forcing himself to stand, Yang Kai’s vision was blurry and his head was buzzing incessantly. Even as he stood there, he was shaking too much to maintain his stance.

Bai Yi was laying motionless not far away from him.

He stumbled over to Bai Yi, and when he arrived next to her, he could finally hang on no more and fell head-first on top of her.

The weight of his body caused a large amount of blood to spill from Bai Yi’s mouth, and her aura, which was already weak, became even weaker.

Yang Kai grabbed her arm and flipped her over, putting her on her back before struggling to stand up again. Every step he took left a bloody footprint on the ground. Following the direction in his memories, he made for the exit.

However, before he could even walk a few steps, Zhu Feng’s cold voice came from behind, “Where do you think you’re going?”

Yang Kai ignored the voice and was determined to keep going forward with faltering steps.

“Don’t even think you can…” Zhu Feng shouted in a cold voice as his aura quickly neared Yang Kai. He clearly had the intention to stop him from escaping, but before he could even finish speaking, he began coughing violently as a large amount of ink-black blood spilled from his throat.

As the blood came out, his aura rapidly deflated and became incredibly weak, almost disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The coughing sounds became even fiercer as large mouthfuls of blood poured out continuously.

Yang Kai stopped in his tracks and turned back to look. From his blurred vision, he could faintly see Zhu Feng’s miserable appearance.

At this moment, Zhu Feng was down on one knee not far away from them, ink-black face covering his face, almost pooling like a river at his feat. There were even bloody arrows squirting out from the wounds all throughout his body. It was clear that he could no longer suppress his wounds.

“Hah haa…” Yang Kai wanted to laugh, but the sound that came out of his throat was hoarse like a wheeze. He was truly reaching his limit.

He thought that the only thing left for him to do now was escape, but who knew that the situation could change so unpredictably? The roles of predator and prey swapped almost in an instant.

The backlash from Zhu Feng’s Secret Technique had finally manifested in full! This was the moment Yang Kai had been waiting for since he began the fight with Zhu Feng!

In fact, Zhu Feng’s aura had been constantly weakening all this while; otherwise, there was no way that Yang Kai could have held on for so long. Even so, Yang Kai had still paid an immense price to force this stalemate.

At the very last moment, Yang Kai even unleashed his Dragon Bead, but it was damaged and left him powerless to continue fighting. On the other hand, Zhu Feng still had energy remaining. The victor had already been decided, so if he did not leave, he would only be waiting for death.

In fact, Yang Kai did not have much confidence that he could bring Bai Yi out of here alive. He could only try and leave the rest to fate.

At the critical moment though, the Heavens smiled down on him as Zhu Feng finally fell. Perhaps it was not just luck. Bai Yi’s desperate strike, Yang Kai’s desperate attempt to summon his Dragon Bead, all of those compounded and accelerated the onset of the backlash of Zhu Feng’s Secret Technique.

Zhu Feng’s Secret Technique was very powerful, but now it seemed that the backlash he had to endure was just as terrifying.

At this moment, of the three living beings in this Sealed World, Bai Yi’s aura was the weakest. After taking Zhu Feng’s blow for Yang Kai, she was now in a comatose state.

Zhu Feng’s aura was almost non-existent as well, but it was still just slightly stronger than Bai Yi’s. Clearly, he was unable to bear the backlash of the Secret Technique in his current state.

In the end, it was the hobbling Yang Kai with his strength at the brink of being fully drained that had the strongest aura present. Life was truly filled with twists and turns.

Crouching down and gently laying Bai Yi on the ground, Yang Kai approached Zhu Feng step by step, still hobbling and swaying as he moved, almost as if a gust of wind could send him sprawling.

Halfway there, he summoned the Azure Dragon Spear into his hand. As the spear dragged across the ground, a harsh scraping sound could be heard.

Zhu Feng was still coughing up blood, and it seemed like he was going to vomit every last drop from his body. When he heard the scraping noise and looked up though, horror flashed across his eyes.

He stood up with great difficulty and turned around, moving step by step away from Yang Kai while trying to act strong by shouting, “Don’t come any closer!”

There was no way Yang Kai would listen to him of course. When he saw Zhu Feng in this state, power somehow welled up within him, allowing him to speed up as he shouted, “Stop running you coward! One quick spear thrust and it will all be over!”

[As if I’d listen to you!] Zhu Feng cursed in his heart. If he was caught here, then he would surely die; however, even though he wanted to get away from Yang Kai, his extremely weak condition left him moving even slower than a turtle’s crawl.

A noble Territory Lord like himself, being reduced to this state, Zhu Feng was desperate to cry but unable to shed any tears.

Similarly, Yang Kai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; after everything that happened today, nobody would have imagined that the battle would end this way.

A Territory Lord and a Seventh-Order Human were now locked in a ridiculous chase that even ordinary Mortals would find slow and awkward. It was simply disgraceful.

At this point in time though, anyone with any achievement in cultivation would be able to kill both of them.

Fueled by his instinct to survive, Zhu Feng dragged his feet along step by step, leaving bloody footprints behind.

Yang Kai was doing the same.

The backlash from Zhu Feng’s Secret Technique was indeed strong, and after a few moments, Zhu Feng stumbled and fell headlong to the ground. Down on his hands and knees, he was now crawling forward little by little.

During his desperate moment, Zhu Feng heard a loud noise from behind him. Turning his head with great difficulty, he saw that Yang Kai, who was coming to kill him, had also fallen to the ground, crawling just like him.

“Why go through this trouble?” Zhu Feng said with a heavy voice, “Why don’t we both rest first then settle this?”

Yang Kai’s voice was weak, but he still snarled, “In your dreams. Once I’m close enough, I’ll stab you to death with my spear!”

Zhu Feng said, “Bai Yi is on her last breath. Why don’t you go and check on her? Don’t regret it when she dies!”

Yang Kai was unmoved, “Rest assured, if she still has a breath left in her, I will be able to bring her back. It will not be too late if I kill you first.”

Zhu Feng coldly snorted, “We are both in the same state now, we don’t know who’s going to die and who’s going to live yet.”

As they spoke, they continued pushing their bodies forward, but they were moving at a similar speed. The distance between them was neither increasing nor decreasing. From how things were, it seemed unrealistic for Yang Kai to catch up with Zhu Feng.

Realizing this, Yang Kai suddenly stopped and stared ahead.

Zhu Feng’s heart clenched. Even though he had no idea what Yang Kai was up to, he had a bad premonition about this, and the speed at which he crawled increased.

A short moment later, Yang Kai grinned, “I win!”

Saying so, the portal of his Small Universe suddenly opened up in front of him, and in the next instant, a figure instantly rushed out.

It was an elderly man holding a sharp blade in his hand. He was dazed when he first emerged, seemingly a bit dizzy, but soon he found his target and charged at Zhu Feng with sword drawn.

Zhu Feng was stunned. Frankly, even after fighting with the Humans for all these years, he had never met such a weak one before. The Humans on the Black Ink Battlefield were all at least in the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm, but this old man who appeared out of nowhere was not even in the Open Heaven Realm.

[This is… the Emperor Realm?]

As a Territory Lord, Zhu Feng naturally knew much about Humans. He knew that the Open Heaven Realm for the Humans was separated into Nine-Orders, and under the Open Heaven Realm existed many other Realms, the most immediate of them being the Emperor Realm.