Martial Peak
chapter-5099

Yang Kai couldn’t possibly intervene in the battle between the Old Ancestor and the Royal Lord. What’s more, both of them had been fighting against each other for many years. Be it the Old Ancestor from Yin-Yang Pass or Mu Guang Royal Lord, the two of them knew practically everything about their opponent, so the outcome of the battle was basically predetermined.

It would either come to a draw or be a mutual loss. There wasn’t a third possibility.

Mu Guang had the advantage in that this was her territory, but it wouldn’t be realistic for her to think that she could make the Old Ancestor of Yin-Yang Pass stay behind.

If the Old Ancestor was bent on fleeing, the Royal Lord wouldn’t have a way to stop her. It was just like what happened outside of Blue Sky Pass back then. When the badly injured Royal Lord wanted to flee, the Old Ancestor from Blue Sky Pass was unable to stop him.

The repercussions of the battle spread across the void, and even though Yang Kai had immediately manipulated Space Principles to escape the battlefield, he could still feel the violent impacts behind him.

A sense of longing overwhelmed him as he wondered when he would be able to make it to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm.

With that said, he knew that he was far from that goal; after all, he only directly ascended to the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm back then. Although he had consumed a Mid-Rank World Fruit and made it to the Sixth Order, his limit would be the Eighth Order. In order to ascend to the Ninth Order, he would have to find the Innate Open Heaven Pills formed in the Universe Furnace.

That wouldn’t be easy, for the Universe Furnace was elusive and mysterious. No one knew when it would appear.

Casting his wild thoughts away, Yang Kai dashed toward Yin-Yang Pass.

The Old Ancestor said that the Army had deployed. If he wanted to survive, he had to join up with them and fight against the Black Ink Clan alongside them. However, the road ahead would surely be paved with danger, so Yang Kai wasn’t sure if he would successfully join the Yin-Yang Pass’ Army.

Fortunately, the Old Ancestor was there to deal with Mu Guang. Without the Royal Lord pursuing him, he stood a greater chance of fleeing.

He fished out some Spirit Pills from his Small Universe and stuffed them into his mouth. As he moved forward, he tried to restore his strength.

As he repeatedly manipulated Space Principles, his figure kept flickering across the void.

Whenever he bumped into Black Ink Clansmen, he wouldn’t deal with them. Only when he was left with no choice would he fight.

By doing so, he moved across billions of kilometres in one day. Presently, he was soaked in blood. The blood was his own as well as the Black Ink Clan’s. After escaping for such a long time, he was quite battered, but he was still far from Yin-Yang Pass.

After all, his starting point was basically the Royal City. Even though he had the help of Space Principles, it would still take him a long time to return to Yin-Yang Pass.

Despite being exhausted, Yang Kai didn’t dare to stop and rest. Wherever he went, there would be Black Ink Clansmen waiting for him. With the help of the Black Ink Nests, the Black Ink Clan was able to relay information rapidly. Whatever happened in any given place, the news would be soon spread to all the Black Ink Nests in the region.

Fortunately, he didn’t come across any Territory Lords while escaping, which gave him some room for manoeuvre. If he really bumped into a Territory Lord, he wouldn’t be able to shake them off given the state he was in.

After giving it a thought, Yang Kai realised that this wasn’t so surprising. Just like Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, Territory Lords were rare. Furthermore, the Army had left Yin-Yang Pass, so the Territory Lords had to deal with the enemy. They wouldn’t have time to hunt him down.

Half a day later, Yang Kai flickered and appeared somewhere in the void; however, before he could stabilise himself to scan the surroundings, he felt a gust of wind coming at him as several auras locked onto him.

A shocked Yang Kai knew that he was unlucky as he happened to bump into Black Ink Clansmen who were lying in wait for him here.

Nevertheless, he had encountered similar incidents during his escape, so he wasn’t flustered. He easily dodged the initial attacks and took some distance from his opponent.

Lifting his gaze, Yang Kai realised there were indeed a lot of Black Ink Clansmen who had surrounded him. Many of them looked pleasantly surprised or perplexed. Apparently, his sudden appearance startled them.

Yang Kai silently cursed and thought that he had run out of luck as he was surrounded by so many enemies. He reckoned that he had to fight his way out of here.

“I knew there was something wrong with you from the start, and now it seems I was right!” A stern voice, which sounded familiar to Yang Kai, was heard speaking from the side.

Yang Kai turned his head and saw a Black Ink Disciple with a hunched back who was glowering at him. This person was the one who launched a sneak attack on him just now.

“Liu Zi An!” Yang Kai arched his brow with surprise.

He had never expected to bump into Liu Zi An here. Initially, he thought that after leaving Hei Yuan’s territory, he would never see Liu Zi An again. Who would have thought they would see each other again? After scanning his surroundings, Yang Kai couldn’t help but stare at the Feudal Lord who was apparently in charge. As expected, wherever Liu Zi An was, Gui Liao would also be there; after all, Liu Zi An was Gui Liao’s Black Ink Disciple.

Of the other Black Ink Clansmen, Yang Kai also found another Feudal Lord he was familiar with. It seemed that he had seen him before.

These were obviously the Black Ink Clansmen who were Hei Yuan’s subordinates.

Yang Kai soon figured out what was going on. While he was fleeing in Yin-Yang Pass’ direction, he unknowingly returned to Hei Yuan’s territory.

Hei Yuan wasn’t around as Yang Kai couldn’t detect his aura, which made him feel relieved.

“Surrender now. You can’t escape!” Liu Zi An barked.

Ignoring him, Yang Kai extended his hand and summoned his Azure Dragon Spear.

Liu Zi An snapped, “Since you refuse a toast, you must drink a loss!”

As he spoke, he summoned a sabre and surged his strength. A glint flashed across the blade as he took a step forward and wielded the weapon at Yang Kai.

Gui Liao, who was not far away from them, ordered, “Don’t kill him! We have to capture him alive!”

Upon finishing his words, he circulated his Black Ink Strength and charged towards Yang Kai. At the same time, the Black Ink Clansmen around Yang Kai dashed towards him.

Liu Zi An grinned, “Don’t worry, Master. He’s strong, so I might not be a match for him.”

As soon as he brought his weapon down, he cut Yang Kai in half. However, he didn’t feel ecstatic for killing his opponent; instead, his expression changed drastically. That was because he didn’t feel he had hacked into blood and flesh. It was apparently an afterimage.

He promptly whirled around and brandished his sabre. Although he seemed to have hit something, a horrifying impulse was felt coming at him through the blade, one that forced him to step backwards.

Before he could stabilise himself, the tip of a spear rapidly magnified before his eyes as he was engulfed in a great sense of danger.

A flabbergasted Liu Zi An madly pushed his strength in an attempt to dodge, but the spear seemed to have affected the space around him, which made it impossible for him to evade the attack.

“Master! Save…” Liu Zi An exclaimed in horror, but before he could finish his words, the Azure Dragon Spear pierced right into his eye. The violent force from the spear exploded and turned his head into mist.

Liu Zi An was fully aware of his inferiority. He had fought with Yang Kai back then when the latter’s Small Universe was damaged, and he was defeated in the end. Certainly, he wouldn’t be a match for Yang Kai now as the latter’s Small Universe had healed, and his power had increased.

Therefore, he knew that he couldn’t defeat Yang Kai, nor did he hope that he would deal a heavy blow to him; however, they were in a one-on-one fight back then, but he had many Black Ink Clansmen with him now. Liu Zi An thought that regardless of how powerful Yang Kai was, there had to be a limit; after all, Yang Kai was just a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, so he couldn’t possibly defeat so many Black Ink Clansmen on his own.

Nevertheless, it never crossed Liu Zi An’s mind that he would lose his life after just two exchanges.

His demise astounded the Black Ink Clansmen around him. They couldn’t even clearly see what was going on when the Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple was killed by the enemy.

They had a feeling that Liu Zi An hadn’t stood a chance to even resist in front of Yang Kai.

It wasn’t until this moment that Gui Liao reached Yang Kai and tried to attack him. Liu Zi An’s death shocked him as well, so he was affected despite being determined to capture the opponent. This led to him uncontrollably retracting half of his force to defend himself.

When he summoned Zha Gu back then, the latter told him about what happened before Yang Kai was eventually captured by Hei Yuan. Zha Gu’s descriptions of Yang Kai’s capabilities were vivid, but Gui Liao had a feeling that he was exaggerating.

It wasn’t like he had never dealt with Seventh-Order Humans before, and they were nothing special in his opinion. Although Yang Kai was indeed unusually powerful, he couldn’t possibly be as invincible as Zha Gu described him to be.

Gui Liao figured Zha Gu must have suffered a loss at Yang Kai’s hands, who was then personally corrupted by the Territory Lord and became his Black Ink Disciple. That was the reason Zha Gu overstated Yang Kai’s strength.

Upon seeing that Yang Kai easily killed Liu Zi An though, Gui Liao realised that perhaps Zha Gu wasn’t exaggerating. Yang Kai was just as powerful as Zha Gu’s descriptions of him.

It was no wonder that the Territory Lord decided to personally corrupt him; he was indeed significantly stronger than other Seventh-Order Humans. It was expected that Hei Yuan would be tempted.

Gui Liao could feel that Yang Kai wasn’t at his peak and he seemed to be injured, which wasn’t a surprise since he must have gotten into quite a number of fights as he fled from the Royal City to here.

Despite that, he was still able to showcase such terrifying strength. How formidable would he be if he was in top condition?

Nevertheless, this realisation came too late.

After killing Liu Zi An, an overbearing Yang Kai turned his Azure Dragon Spear into countless phantoms and engulfed Gui Liao with them.

In an instant, Gui Liao felt immensely pressured. He madly pushed his Black Ink Strength and cast several Secret Techniques in an attempt to save his own life.

The Black Ink Clan no longer hesitated to launch their attacks on Yang Kai. As a result, Yang Kai staggered while his blood spurted out of his wounds, but he remained unperturbed.

Gui Liao was feeling both helpless and frustrated at the moment.

He had no idea why Yang Kai only targeted him even though there were many Black Ink Clansmen around. In fact, there were Black Ink Clansmen who were closer to him, but Yang Kai ignored them and seemed determined to kill Gui Liao.

Could it be that Yang Kai still hadn’t gotten over the unfair treatment he had received in the castle? If that was really the case, Gui Liao felt that he was being unfairly blamed.

However, he had no idea that the reason Yang Kai only targeted him was that he was the most powerful and authoritative figure among the Black Ink Clansmen at the scene.

Gui Liao was Hei Yuan’s confidant, so killing Gui Liao would be akin to weakening Hei Yuan’s power. Besides that, Gui Liao was indeed more powerful than other Feudal Lords. As far as Yang Kai was concerned, it wouldn’t be long before Gui Liao would ascend to become a Territory Lord.

When that happened, the Humans would have a new formidable opponent on the battlefield. It would be like nipping a potential problem in the bud by killing Gui Liao here.