Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Hearing Yang Kai’s question, Yang Yan froze up for a moment before suddenly covering her small mouth as her shoulders trembled, leaning backwards as a peal of delightful laughter spread from her lips.

“What’s so funny?” Yang Kai asked in exasperation.

Yang Yan kept waving her hand to indicate it was nothing, but she completely failed to stop her laughter, tears even gathering in the corners of his eyes.

Yang Kai rolled his eyes and asked again, “Then have you mastered some kind of beauty preserving technique so you appear young but are actually an old woman who has lived for thousands of years?”

This time, Yang Yan acted like a cat whose tail was stepped on, her laughter ceasing and her smile disappearing as her beautiful eyes glared fiercely at Yang Kai, grinding her teeth as she spat, “I can answer definitively that I am not some several-thousand-year-old woman!”

“Makes sense…” Yang Kai gently nodded. If Yang Yan really had lived for thousands of years, her worldly experience couldn’t possibly be so poor. The various behaviours Yang Yan exhibited up until now made her seem like a young, naive girl rather than a long-lived master.

Yang Yan’s expression also became serious, her thoughts unreadable but the look on her face somewhat pale. After a long time, she finally asked, “You want to know if I seized this body, right?”

“En.” Yang Kai nodded frankly. Only a forceful take-over by a powerful master could explain why Yang Yan was so young yet so proficient in Artifact Refining and arranging Spirit Arrays.

One person’s time and energy were limited. Although Yang Kai’s attainments in Alchemy were quite good, he couldn’t afford to put any effort into studying another craftsmanship field unless he gave up his cultivation path.

Yang Yan, however, had great attainments in both Artifact Refining and Spirit Arrays. The artifacts she refined and the Spirit Arrays she arranged so far even exceeded Shadowed Star’s level in terms of subtlety and practicality. How did she accomplish this?

There was no shortage of geniuses in this world, but even if Yang Yan was an extraordinary talent, given her age, it was impossible for her to have reached her current height, prompting Yang Kai to ask this question.

“Have you suspected so for a long time?” Yang Yan looked at Yang Kai and asked.

“Since I learned you were an Array Master I had some suspicions. But you can rest assured, whether you seized this body or not means nothing to me. The one I know is you, as for the previous soul of that body, I don’t care,” Yang Kai said lightly.

Yang Yan laughed bitterly and went silent for a while before saying, “It’s not just you who has had such doubts. Sometimes, I can’t understand who I am either… But I don’t believe I seized this body from another because I can clearly remember all of my experiences from childhood up until now. There are no gaps or inconsistencies in my memories, like a second person’s thoughts suddenly took over at some point, so I don’t think a forced possession took place.”

“Then did you worship a supreme master who taught you about Artifact Refining and Spirit Arrays?” Yang Kai continued asking, not showing any doubt about Yang Yan’s words.

Yang Yan shook her head slowly, biting his red lips lightly as her two little hands fiddled anxiously with her black robes. A look of hesitation and fear appeared on her face for a while before she lifted her eyes and whispered, “If I told you the reason I understand Artifact Refining and Spirit Arrays is because I was born with that knowledge, would you believe it?”

“How is that possible?” Yang Kai looked shocked.

Yang Yan smiled bitterly, “I know that it sounds crazy, but it’s the truth. My knowledge really seems to be something I was born with. It’s almost as if my Artifact Refining and Spirit Array skills were sealed into my memories, and as I continue to refine artifacts and arrange Spirit Arrays, those skills are slowly unseal, allowing me to comprehend more profound Artifact Refining techniques and Spirit Arrays. On top of that, sometimes, when I see rare or precious items I have obviously never heard of or encountered before, I am able to recognize them. Do you think it’s strange?”

Yang Kai was dumbfounded.

This wasn’t on the level where it could be merely described as strange. No one was born proficient in Artifact Refining and Spirit Arrays for no reason. There must be some reasons for this, but these reasons may not even be clear to Yang Yan herself.

It was precisely because of these strange circumstances that Yang Yan sometimes felt afraid of herself.

Yang Yan didn’t have any reason to lie to herself, she what she said was probably the truth.

This was something Yang Kai couldn’t help her with. Although he knew that Yang Yan was odd, he had not expected her to be this strange. He did not continue to force this issue though; for Yang Kai, whether Yang Yan’s current self was one that had seized this body, or somehow possessed vast innate knowledge others couldn’t hope to master for a lifetime, that had nothing to do with him. He only knew the current Yang Yan, that was enough for him.

After pondering for a while, Yang Kai asked, “What grade of artifact can you refine now?”

“Origin Grade High-Rank shouldn’t be a problem. As long as I have a lot of materials to practice with, sooner or later I should be able to refine Origin King Grade artifacts.” When speaking about her field of expertise, Yang Yan’s spirits lifted noticeably and a natural look of pride once again filled her face.

“Great, help me enhance this again.” Yang Kai took out the purple shield with a slightly awkward look.

The shields original purple hue had becoming incredibly dim and dull, indicating its spirituality had suffered a great loss.

As soon as Yang Yan saw it, a look of concern appeared on her pretty face. Picking up the shield and stroking it gently, she quickly asked, “Did you run into some kind of intense fire-type Spirit Array? A single strike actually reduced this Origin Grade Mid-Rank defensive artifact to such a state.”

“En, but I was ultimately able to emerge safely.” Yang Kai grinned.

“Good, with the materials you gave me, it should be fine to enhance this to an Origin Grade High-Rank artifact.” Yang Yan said before taking the purple shield into her Space Ring. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she restored her previous cheerful expression as her eyes glowed with joy, asking curiously, “What good things did you obtain on this trip? Please let me see.”

“Alright!” Yang Kai nodded before searching through his Space Ring. There were quite a lot of good things he had obtained from this, and he had called Yang Yan here to show them to her, hoping that she would be able to help him identify some of the things he couldn’t recognize.

Soon, Yang Kai waved his hand and a plate sized fiery red crystal that gave off an intense burning aura appeared between the two.

“This is…” Yang Yan’s two eyes immediately flashed brilliantly as she stared fixedly at this fiery red crystal.

“It should be a Fire Crystal Stone!” Yang Kai stroked his chin. “It’s just that I don’t understand why it’s so big, and the process I went through to obtain it was also quite strange. It wasn’t from a Fire Spirit Beast…”

Yang Kai briefly talked about his experience in that strange mountain valley and how he obtained this huge Fire Crystal Stone, his first big harvest in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

Yang Yan had been staring at the Fire Crystal Stone while Yang Kai was talking about these things, gently stroking it with her hand.

After Yang Kai finished speaking, Yang Yan nodded, “It should be a Fire Crystal Stone like you said, but this Fire Crystal Stone has a formed a Natural Spirit Array inside of itself, allowing it to create those Fire Spirit Beasts which blocked your path.”

“A naturally formed Spirit Array?” Yang Kai expression changed. He had not checked at the time.

“Yeah, it’s a naturally generated and very profound Spirit Array.” Yang Yan smiled, “This thing is exceptionally good, but using it for Artifact Refining would be wasting the Heaven ‘s precious gifts. Give it to me, it can be used as an Array Core for a powerful Spirit Array.”

“Okay.” Yang Kai nodded, handing the giant Fire Crystal Stone over to Yang Yan freely. In any case, she would be using it to arrange a Spirit Array to protect Dragon Cave Mountain, so the one to benefit in the end would still be him.

“What else?” Yang Yan put the huge Fire Crystal Stone into her Space Ring before returning her beautiful eyes to Yang Kai, seemingly looking forward to what he would bring out next.

“There’s this!” Yang Kai took out a blood-red bead that looked a bit like a grass seed but exuded a strange bloody aura.

“A Blood Sword Grass seed!” Yang Yan saw this thing and her beautiful face instantly lost colour as she exclaimed.

She was able to recognize this seed at a glance.

“Blood Sword Grass… a fitting name,” Yang Kai nodded thoughtfully, recalling what he had experienced after falling into that strange Bewildering Array. When he broke free of that Spirit Array’s constraints and walked out onto the narrow passage, there were many blood red blades of grass growing on either side of the path that seemed to come to life and attacked him.

Those blood-red blades of grass were incredibly hard and sharp. Even with his intrepid physique, Yang Kai didn’t dare let them cut him at will.

“The Flowing Flame Sand Field actually had this kind of thing?” Yang Yan’s face paled.

“Is this thing quite famous?” Yang Kai saw Yang Yan acting so fearful and couldn’t help feeling curious.

“I don’t know if it’s famous or not, but I do know how terrifying it can be. It can grow infinitely as long as it’s supplied with enough flesh and blood. Its power will also continue to increase and when it reaches its limit, it is even capable of slicing through the body of an Origin King.”

“Is it really so frightening?” Yang Kai a touch of fear washing over him as well as a sense of relief.

If Yang Yan’s words were true, then the Blood Sword Grass he encountered shouldn’t have been fully grown, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to escape unharmed.

“This thing had an ominous reputation in ancient times and many large Sects would plant it around Restricted Areas to protect them,” Yang Yan gently pinched the blood-red seed and examined it carefully.

“Unfortunately there’s only one seed, if there were more…” Yang Kai not only wasn’t concerned but instead felt it was a pity.

“Unfortunately?” Yang Yan snickered, “No such thing, a single Blood Sword Grass seed is more than enough as it can multiply on its own. As long as it’s fed enough blood it can grow without limit.”

Yang Kai heard this and his eyes lit up.

“What do you want to do?” Yang Yan seemed to be aware of the dangerous glint in Yang Kai’s eyes and asked hurriedly.

“Nothing,” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully before taking the Blood Sword Grass seed back from Yang Yan and storing it away carefully.

“Let me tell you this first, if you want to plant it, you have to tell me in advance. However, there’s no need to worry too much about it, as long as you don’t feed it fresh blood, it won’t grow bigger or pose any threat.”

“I understand.” Yang Kai nodded before taking out two more things from his Space Ring.