Martial Peak
chapter-5734

Liao Zheng was visibly overwhelmed at being shown such respect. He could not bring himself to address Yang Kai as Senior Brother Yang.

Yang Kai wrapped Liao Zheng up in Space Principles and said, “This isn’t a good place to talk. Come with me.”

A few moments later, Yang Kai and Liao Zheng reappeared beside the great river. Liao Zheng fell into a daze when he saw the magnificent river. He exclaimed, “So, this is the Infinite River! It’s endless indeed!”

“Do you know about this river?” Yang Kai quipped puzzledly.

“Before we came in, we received information about what it was like inside the Universe Furnace,” Liao Zheng replied, “Senior Brother Blood Crow also shared some information with us, which included records of the Infinite River.”

Yang Kai’s eyes lit up, “How much do all of you know about the Universe Furnace?”

[Blood Crow was indeed someone who entered the Universe Furnace before. He must’ve gotten the Open Heaven Pills that were stolen and stored in Blood Monster Cave Heaven from the Universe Furnace.]

It would not be hard for the Humans to gather information about the Universe Furnace when they had Blood Crow who had firsthand experience.

This information was what Yang Kai urgently needed. Although the Universe Furnace sucked him in much earlier than everyone else, he barely knew anything about the situation here.

Liao Zheng quickly took out an empty jade slip, “Please give me a moment, Senior Brother. I will record everything that I know. Before we came in, Senior Brother Mi told us that if any of us runs into you, Senior Brother Yang, we must give you the information about the Universe Furnace right away.”

Yang Kai nodded and waited.

With a surge of Divine Sense, Liao Zheng soon added all the information he had into the jade slip before passing it to Yang Kai.

Yang Kai took the jade slip and began examining the information…

True enough, he saw the records of the Infinite River. He noted that the Humans intended to use this river as a means of regrouping. They knew beforehand that they would be separated upon entering the Universe Furnace and that it would be challenging for them to gather once more because the world inside the Universe Furnace was boundless. Even though they brought things that would aid them in communication, it would still be difficult to locate each other in such a vast, open space.

Though, if they were physically connected in some way, such as holding hands, before they entered the Universe Furnace, then they would be transported to the same place instead of getting separated. Apart from that, nothing else would work, not even if they used aura or a Secret Technique to maintain a connection.

However, the battle had been incredibly intense throughout all the Great Territory Battlefields, save for the three that the Black Ink Clan gave up on from the start. Liao Zheng had come from the Wolf Fang Territory Battlefield where the Black Ink Clan had the upper hand, so the Human Masters had to force their way past the Black Ink Clan’s defence lines to enter the Universe Furnace. Although they acted together, it was difficult for all of them to maintain physical contact with each other, so Liao Zheng entered the Universe Furnace alone.

Many Human Masters managed to enter in small groups of three to five, which meant that their safety was less of a concern. After learning this, Yang Kai heaved a small sigh of relief. He had been worried that the Eighth-Order Masters would suffer if they ran into any Pseudo-Royal Lords, but based on what he knew now, the situation would not be as bad as he thought. Groups of three to five Eighth-Order Masters could form Battle Formations that gave them a fighting chance against a Pseudo-Royal Lord.

For Masters who entered the Universe Furnace separately because they could not maintain physical contact with anyone else, Blood Crow suggested that they locate the Infinite River as soon as they arrived and follow it. That way, they would eventually run into allies no matter which direction they travelled. This was a way to meet up with other Human Race Masters who had been separated.

That was the reason why Yang Kai, who was also following the Infinite River as he had no better idea, picked up on the fight between Liao Zheng and the Territory Lord. Liao Zheng had been searching for the Infinite River to regroup with the others.

Yang Kai continued checking the information and saw some regarding the Open Heaven Pills created inside the Universe Furnace. It was just as he deduced. There were different grades of Open Heaven Pills. Based on the way Blood Crow categorised them, the nine best Open Heaven Pills were considered Supreme Grade while the rest were Ordinary Grade.

Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills could help the Human Eighth-Order Masters become Ninth-Order Masters, but these Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills were extremely valuable too. Consuming them would help a Master break through their bottlenecks and save time by forgoing many years of cultivating in seclusion.

However, Yang Kai began frowning at another piece of information. He looked up and asked, “The Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills might help a Territory Lord become a Royal Lord? Did Blood Crow explain why?”

All along, Yang Kai assumed that the Open Heaven Pills from the Universe Furnace were opportunities that belonged to the Human Race. Even if the Black Ink Clan Masters entered this place, they only did so to stop the Humans from gaining these opportunities. However, the information he now had stated that the Black Ink Clan could also benefit from these opportunities!

Yang Kai did not understand this. [Why is it that a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill can help a Territory Lord become a Royal Lord?]

Liao Zheng explained, “Senior Brother Xiang asked about this too, and Senior Brother Blood Crow couldn’t explain exactly why that might be the case. He speculated that this is due to the mysterious nature of the Open Heaven Pills. Anyone, regardless of whether they’re a Human or a Black Ink Clansman, would be able to break through their barriers if they consumed a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill.”

Yang Kai frowned as this was troubling news. The Black Ink Clan’s goal was to stop the Humans from gaining these opportunities, but this information meant that they had every reason to seize these opportunities for themselves too. [If a Territory Lord found one of the nine Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills and became a Royal Lord, then the Humans would not only lose a chance to gain a Ninth-Order Master, but would also gain a formidable opponent.

A gain for one meant a loss for the other. It would be a terrible loss for the Humans.

The good news was the fact that the Black Ink Clan barely knew anything about the Universe Furnace and even less about the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills. They probably had no idea that the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills were beneficial to them yet.

However, this would easily be discovered once a Black Ink Clan Master managed to get a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill. There was no way of hiding this information.

Yang Kai was even more concerned by the fact that the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills did not only work on the Humans and the Black Ink Clan, but even the native monsters would benefit greatly from them.

The information inside the jade slip included records of the strange monsters inside the Universe Furnace. They were called Chaos Entities, and these were the ones Yang Kai encountered in the Infinite River and at the mountain range.

Blood Crow did have a solid understanding of the situation inside the Universe Furnace, as expected of someone who had firsthand experience in the search for opportunities.

There were different types of Chaos Entities. The ones made up of chaotic Shattered Dao Essence were the simplest of the Chaos Entities. While it was not easy to deal with them, it was not difficult either, as long as the Masters attacked with their Dao Strengths they could be defeated.

Apart from the countless Chaos Entities, the Universe Furnace also had Chaos Spirits, which had some level of sentience and fixed forms!

If the monsters Yang Kai encountered in the Infinite River were Chaos Entities, then the one he shoved inside his Small Universe and took on a form that was similar to the Feudal Lord after absorbing the Open Heaven Pill’s medicinal efficacies was a Chaos Spirit.

Basically, Chaos Spirits evolved from Chaos Entities, and the only thing that separated the two was an Open Heaven Pill.

Blood Crow informed the Human Race Masters that it was not a big deal if they encountered a Chaos Entity. As long as they were not disturbed, they would not attack first as they were not sentient.

However, he warned them that if they encountered a Chaos Spirit, then they had to be extremely careful because each one would be capable of gathering a large number of Chaos Entities as their subordinates, and these Chaos Entities would preemptively attack anyone who was not the same type of being as them.

If the Humans did run into a Chaos Spirit, they would have to either defeat their opponent swiftly, or leave as soon as possible.

Yang Kai’s hair stood on end when he saw Blood Crow’s speculation that there could be Chaos Spirit Kings hidden inside the Universe Furnace!

What was a Chaos Spirit King?

Chaos Entities who devoured Open Heaven Pills would become Chaos Spirits. Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills created ordinary Chaos Spirits, whereas the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills created Chaos Spirit Kings!

This was not baseless guesswork either. The Universe Furnace had surfaced many times throughout history, and even if only nine Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills were formed each time, it was unlikely that every single one had been taken away by someone from the outside. There would have been extremely lucky Chaos Entities who managed to absorb and refine Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills.

Blood Crow did not know how strong a Chaos Spirit King was as he never came across one; however, when he previously entered the Universe Furnace in search of opportunities, he sensed an intense battle taking place in the void very far away from him. It was a fight between a Ninth-Order Master and some other Master. At the time, Blood Crow did not pick up on the aura of anyone from the Black Ink Clan which he was now familiar with…

If the Ninth-Order Master was not battling against someone from the Black Ink Clan, then it was clear what the implications were.

If Blood Crow was right about this, the so-called Chaos Spirit King would not be any weaker than a Ninth-Order Master or a Royal Lord. They all stood at the apex.

Yang Kai felt a little overwhelmed.

Although he had already figured out that there was a third Great Force inside the Universe Furnace, he never considered the possibility that they would be harder to deal with than he expected!

If the Humans did not handle the search for opportunities inside the Universe Furnace well, it could become a calamity instead!

The jade slip contained other information and reports about the Universe Furnace World, so Yang Kai read through everything and seared the information into his memory.

Then, he destroyed the jade slip and asked, “How many people from our side came in?”

“I don’t know precisely how many as the Supreme Headquarters made all the arrangements,” Liao Zheng replied, “But if we’re talking about just the Wolf Fang Army, around 600 of us came in. Less than 200 of us are Eighth-Order Masters. The rest are in the Seventh Order.”

Yang Kai was startled, “Seventh-Order Masters came in as well?”

However, he soon figured it out, “Is it for the Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills?”

Liao Zheng nodded, “Many of these Seventh-Order Masters have not reached their limit yet, but because they have not been cultivating for long, they are still facing bottlenecks despite having enough heritage. They’re not here for the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills, but they might be able to become Eighth-Order Masters a lot quicker if they find some of the Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills.”

Yang Kai more or less understood Mi Jing Lun’s arrangement.

At this point, the Humans kept having new High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters added to their ranks because they had two Open Heaven Realm Cradles, which were the Star Boundary and the Myriad Monsters World.

These were all rising stars who benefited from the World Tree clones, so they had a higher starting point. Many of them became Sixth-Order Masters from the get-go; however, even if they were now Seventh-Order Masters and had enough heritage in their Small Universes, it was hard for them to become Eighth-Order Masters within a short timeframe as they had not been cultivating for long.