Martial Peak

Chapter 1147, Black Belly Yang Yan

Yang Kai believed that Qian Tong would believe the words he said, and as long as Qian Tong didn’t doubt him, he would be absolutely safe here. With Qian Tong’s protection, incidents like with the Xu Family wouldn’t occur again.

“I see!” Wu Yi nodded.

“If you understand then go about your own business, I must enter retreat,” Yang Kai waved to them.

“Big Brother Yang, about the Treasure Trove Pavilion’s auction…” Wu Yi bit her lip and asked.

“You want to go?” Yang Kai knit his brow.

He hadn’t expected that not only Wu Yi, but even Yang Yan would nod, the two of them seemingly quite looking forward to this event.

“If you want to go then just go.” There was no need for Yang Kai to stop them. In his opinion, this auction would be an eye-opening experience for these two, a chance for them to see the broader world. Wu Yi came from a small family, so even if she had some worldly wisdom, she couldn’t compare to those disciples with great backgrounds. As for Yang Yan, she had seemingly been quite miserable and poor her whole life, so what she had seen was definitely not much, it was only natural for her to take interest in this auction.

“What about you?” Wu Yi asked.

“If I haven’t exited my retreat then I won’t attend, just be careful by yourselves.”

“En,” Wu Yi nodded before leaving with Yang Yan.

Yang Kai closed the stone room, sat down cross-legged, and sank his consciousness into his Knowledge Sea.

Inside his Knowledge Sea, Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar appeared before two masses of pure Spiritual Energy and stared at them excitedly.

This was the first time Yang Kai had managed to collect the remnant Soul of an Origin Returning Realm master. Never before had any Origin Returning Realm master died close enough to him for Yang Kai to do this. As such, Yang Kai had never been able to refine an Origin Realm master’s perceptions of the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao, causing him to not know much about this new realm or the power called Shi. If it wasn’t for his battle with Hong Zhen today, Yang Kai likely wouldn’t have had an opportunity to learn about Shi for a long time. This mysterious strength held great attraction for him.

Facing an Origin Realm expert had caused Yang Kai some alarm. He had always been fighting against opponents in higher realms than his own. He was able to defeat Immortal Ascension masters when in the True Element Boundary, Saints in the Immortal Ascension Boundary, and Saint Kings in the Saint Realm. Now that he had reached the Saint King Realm, Yang Kai had assumed he would be able to defeat First Order Origin Realm cultivators, but reality turned out far different from how he expected.

The Origin Returning Realm and Saint King Realm were fundamentally different, and it was all due to Shi!

Sitting down cross-legged, Yang Kai drew these two Soul remnants towards himself and carefully began to absorb the insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao contained within them. If the way he absorbed Souls remnants before was like stuffing his face, Yang Kai’s current behaviour was more akin to slowly savouring these two Souls’ taste. This was a rare opportunity, and if he didn’t take full advantage of it, Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to comprehend what this Shi thing was and the next time he faced an Origin Realm masters, he would be unable to resist it.

Time passed by as Yang Kai slowly but steadily absorbed these two Souls, delicately squeezing every essence out of them.

Two days later, when he had finished consuming the two pure Soul remnants, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes.

He now vaguely understood what Shi was, but due to the strength of Hong Zhen and his Senior Brother not being very high, only First Order Origin Returning Realm, they only had a basic comprehension of Shi and its application. Since Yang Kai’s understanding of Shi was based on these two people’s, naturally it too wasn’t in any way complete.

An Origin Realm Master’s Shi wasn’t something intangible like fighting spirit, imposing manner, or killing intent, things masters honed and developed over years of cultivation and killing and would erupt almost involuntarily during the battle.

However, these invisible auras were a component of Shi.

The Shi of an Origin Realm master was a combination of their fighting intent, Saint Qi, and Spiritual Energy, woven together into a physical phenomenon which could be used directly in combat. A cultivator’s understanding of the Martial Dao and Heavenly Way had to reach a certain height before they could condense Shi.

Shi was invisible, but it had physical presence as well as formidable suppression ability and lethality. Why could Origin Realm masters easily kill Saint Kings? It was because of the absolute suppressive strength of Shi. The reason Yang Kai wasn’t able to kill Hong Zhen and his Senior Brother with a drop of Golden Blood wasn’t because that drop was lacking strength, but rather because the overlapping Shis of those two had greatly impeded the speed of the Golden Blood’s attack. With the Golden Blood blades greatly slowed, the two Origin Realm masters were able to perceive where they would be struck and move to avoid suffering fatal wounds.

If not for this, they would have died.

Comprehending Shi was very difficult. Hong Zhen had broken through to the Origin Returning Realm more than ten years ago but had only just begun to condense his own Shi. His Senior Brother was slightly stronger than him, but not by much.

On top of this, Yang Kai also learned a certain truth. Only after one’s Shi reached the grand accomplishment stage could they attempt to break through to the Origin King Realm!

Even though Qian Tong was already a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master, Yang Kai estimated that his comprehension of Shi had not reached the grand accomplishment stage. This meant that no matter how hard he cultivated or how much he managed to enhance his Saint Qi by, before he completely condensed his own Shi, it would be impossible to advance his cultivation realm again. This was the biggest obstacle obstructing his path and once that could not be crossed easily.

This was probably an important reason why the number of Origin King Realm masters was so low throughout the Heng Luo Star Field. Achieving such a cultivation not only required great strength but a comprehensive improvement in all aspects.

After understanding this, Yang Kai immediately started his own research on Shi. He discarded the dregs in Hong Zhen and his Senior Brother’s comprehension of Shi while inserting his own insights and opinions, doing his best to coalesce his will, Saint Qi, and Spirit Energy.

During his battle against Hong Zhen, Yang Kai had faintly touched upon the mysteries of Shi, but that touch was fleeting and light. Now, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t recall or replicate the sensation he felt at that time, causing Yang Kai to feel a little annoyed.

Yang Kai tried again and again but always felt something was wrong. Ten days later, Yang Kai gave up his current attempt to study Shi.

He feels that his strength was still a bit too low. If he reached the Second or Third-Order Saint King Realm, the process should become much smoother. After all, this profound force belonged to the Origin Returning Realm. Being able to superficially understand it already was already quite remarkable.

Yang Kai wasn’t one to plow the air, so after considering all this, he immediately got up and decided to wait for his cultivation to improve before trying again. If he could absorb a few more Origin Returning Realm Soul remnants during this time, Yang Kai was sure he could achieve twice the results with half the effort.

Just after opening his stone door, Yang Kai saw Wu Yi run over while shouting happily, “Big Brother Yang, you came out just in time.”

“Why do you seem so excited?” Yang Kai looked at her curiously.

“It’s time for the Treasure Trove Pavilion auction,” Wu Yi answered quickly.

“It’s today?” Yang Kai was surprised, thinking it was a bit too coincidental.

“En,” Wu Yi nodded and leaned closer to Yang Kai, whispering in his ear, “Yang Yan refined an Origin Grade Mid-Rank artefact and an Origin Grade Low-Rank artefact to sell at the auction.”

“Is she insane?” Yang Kai was frightened and exclaimed, “Where is she?”

“I’m here,” Yang Yan’s figure appeared behind him.

“What are you thinking?” Yang Kai looked at her with a stern face, “Didn’t I just tell you not to go around showing off? Are you really worried others won’t have their eyes on you? How could you have forgotten so quickly?”

Yang Yan just grinned though and said, “As long as the three of us don’t say anything, who will know I was the one who refined these artefacts?”

“It will still attract too much attention,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Shadow Star’s best Artefact Refiners are only Origin Grade Low-Rank, how are you going to explain the sudden appearance of an Origin Grade Mid-Rank artefact?”

“Big Brother Yang doesn’t need to worry about that,” Wu Yi smiled slightly, “Although the Artefact Refiners on Shadowed Star don’t have such skill, there are still a number of Origin Grade Mid-Rank and even High-Rank artefacts present, so the appearance of an Origin Grade Mid-Rank artefact won’t cause too much trouble.”

Yang Kai frowned for a moment but soon understood that while the current levels of the Artifact Refiners and Alchemists on Shadowed Star were low, that didn’t mean it was always so. Good artefacts could be kept in storage for thousands or even tens of thousands of years without degrading, and Shadowed Star definitely had such legacy items. There may even be Origin King Grade artefacts somewhere on this Cultivation Star, but if there were, they would definitely be treated as foundational pillars of great Sects, things not easily taken out and used.

Considering all this, Yang Kai’s expression relaxed greatly and nodded, “Although that may be the case, there’s no need to sell artefacts of this grade. Why not keep them for our own use?”

“Where are we going to get Saint Crystals to buy material to enhance the Spirit Array without selling artefacts?” Yang Yan snorted, “We’re dirt poor now; this auction is a rare opportunity to earn some money.”

Yang Kai also suddenly recalled this point. Yang Yan arranging Spirit Arrays was indeed equivalent to burning money, but thanks to her Spirit Array, Hong Zhen and his Senior Brother had been blocked last time, so this matter couldn’t be treated haphazardly, rather it was of utmost priority.

“What artefacts did you refine? Let me see!”

Seeing Yang Kai no longer object, Wu Yi was very excited to quickly took out two offensive artefacts, one was a soft whip while the other was a pair of twin daggers. Yang Kai knew at a glance that these two artefacts were refined using the Ninth-Order Monster Beast Scarlet Tailed Purple Armoured Scorpion’s stinger and pincers. Both sent of potent energy fluctuations and had extremely beautiful designs, ones that were particularly suited for women to use.

Yang Yan was really black-bellied, deliberately refining artefacts like this was almost like asking men to bleed money, wasn’t it? Yang Kai secretly shook his head.

(Silavin: black-bellied means sly and manipulative. In this case, she was using the chance of women and their men appearing at the auction. Of course, when the girls want something… and the guys want to show off their big *ahem* you get $$$)

“More importantly, Big Brother Yang, the reason why I support Yang Yan selling these two items is to completely convince Elder Qian Tong that your non-existent master exists! Others won’t know where these artefacts came from, but Elder Qian Tong will definitely think they were refined by your master. Once he thinks so, he will only treat us better in the future,” Wu Yi explained.

Yang Kai nodded slightly, applauding, “Your thoughts are quite meticulous. En, since that’s the case, let’s go.”

Seeing Yang Kai agree, Wu Yi and Yang Yan smiled at each other.

“How long before the auction starts?” Yang Kai suddenly asked.

“Three hours, but that’s okay. I went to Heavenly Fate City to deliver a message to Elder Qian Tong, saying that we will have something to auction, so we only need to deliver the items and Elder Qian will take care of the rest.”

“En, good. Right, Wu Yi, do you know what pill is the most expensive on Shadowed Star?” Yang Kai suddenly asked