Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

In the sky above a huge mountain valley that seemed to span several hundred thousand kilometres, Yang Kai and Yang Yan stood observing the thick, rolling clouds down below and frowned as they felt the abnormal chill in the air.

Even without delving into it, Yang Kai could tell that this chill would not be easy to resist, and from time to time he could hear something similar to howling or shrieking that was not just the wind. It was enough to make normal people shudder.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Yang Kai watched for a while before turning his head to look at Yang Yan.

“En, although I don’t know the specific location, if these two map fragments are pieced together, the path they create definitely leads to this place,” Yang Yan looked at the two map fragments she was holding before examining the surroundings and nodding once more.

“This will be bit troublesome then,” Yang Kai frowned.

The reason why he had brought Yang Yan out on this trip was precisely because of these two map fragments, one of which was originally owned by Yang Yan. How she obtained it, Yang Kai never asked. As for the other fragment, it had once appeared in the Treasure Trove Pavilion auction in Heavenly Fate City and was later obtained by Yang Kai after he killed an Imperial City Sect disciple called Meng Hong Liang in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

When these two map fragments were pieced together, although it was still impossible to obtain any precise coordinates, one could still make out some vague clues.

These map fragments obviously had a long history and should hide some valuable secrets, so once one could figure out where it led, they may be able to obtain great benefits. Dragon Cave Mountain’s resources were essentially depleted, and Yang Kai refused to allow Yang Yan to continue auctioning off artifacts, so she decided to take this opportunity when Yang Kai was going to visit Coloured Glass Sect to search for the location pointed to by these map fragments in the hope that she could find a way to resolve their poverty stricken situation.

After checking the amount of Thousand Illusion Coloured Glass swallowed by the Stone Puppet, the pair had rushed to this place. It had taken a full ten days before they finally arrived at this massive mountain valley. Yang Kai called it a mountain valley because he could see some mountains at its edge, but such a massive valley was something Yang Kai had never witnessed before.

At first glance, it almost looked as if some powerful expert had split the ground apart to create this valley. The coldness of the air inside was also quite uncomfortable. This was already the case at the periphery, so it was easy to imagine that inside the environment and danger would only be worse.

“Do you know where this place is?” Yang Kai asked. If he was alone, he wouldn’t be worried about anything, but Yang Yan was currently accompanying him, and although she had superior self-protection ability, if they really encountered great danger, Yang Kai wasn’t confident he could keep her safe, causing him to hesitate somewhat now.

“I don’t know. Shadowed Star is too big so how am I supposed to recognize every single area? However, it does not look like there is any kind of settlement in the surrounding region,” Yang Yan shook her head.

Yang Kai felt quite exasperated hearing this comment. It was easy to see this place was not suited to live in, why would Yang Yan need to point it out?

Wanting to find someone to ask about the situation here was likely impossible as the last time the two of them had seen people was six days ago when they passed through a small city.

“Since we are already here, let’s just go in and see. The final position marked on the map fragments is still uncertain, but I don’t want to let them go to waste completely,” Yang Yan saw Yang Kai’s hesitant appearance and couldn’t help urging him.

Yang Kai glanced at her and pondered again for a moment before nodding, “Okay! But you must follow closely, don’t get further than ten metres from me.”

“I know!” Yang Yan spat out her tongue before pulling her black robes tightly.

The two no longer hesitated and dove straight into the mountain valley.

The moment they entered, a thick cold air came at them from all directions, causing Yang Yan to shiver subconsciously. However, in the next instant, hot Fire Attribute Saint Qi burst from her body, dispersing the chill and allowing her to return to normal.

Yang Kai naturally would not care about the cold as his physique was powerful enough to passively resist it.

Looking around, it was obvious that this place was incredibly barren and desolate. It was difficult to see any trees and there were only occasionally some patches of grass growing here and there. The entire mountain valley was filled with a cold, dark aura, and the eerie sounds of howling constantly flooded one’s ears. Gusty winds blew back and forth, brushing against Yang Kai and Yang Yan’s bodies, sending a chill straight into their Souls, making it somewhat difficult to resist.

“Let’s go!” Yang Kai shouted lightly as he led Yang Yan forward, passing along the road. However, besides the uncomfortable environment and the occasional strong winds, there did not seem to be any real danger here, offering Yang Kai a pleasant surprise.

One day later, the pair had already advanced three thousand kilometres and were currently standing in front of some scattered ruins, feeling a bit confused.

Obviously there had been a building here at some point, but it had long ago collapsed. The years had also not been kind and much of this ruin had been completely flattened and worn down, some of the stone surfaces even having been polished to a mirror finish by the high winds.

“Oh!” Yang Yan suddenly noticed something and hurriedly ran over to a nearby broken wall, slowly walking around and examining it after she arrived.

Yang Kai did not stop her because under the investigation of his Divine Sense, he couldn’t find any signs of danger nearby.

After a while, Yang Yan walked back with a thoughtful look upon her face.

“What did you find?”

“A barrier,” Yang Yan quickly said, “This seems to have been the site of a long-lost Sect. There are traces of Spirit Arrays and barriers here, but they’ve all been destroyed. It seems that we’ll have to be more careful as we advance. Generally, the protective Spirit Arrays of a Sect become stronger as one proceeds further. We probably didn’t encounter anything up until now because we were still outside the borders of this ancient Sect.”

Listening to her saying this, Yang Kai nodded immediately and asked, “Where do we go now?”

Yang Yan took out the two map fragments and examined them for a moment before point in a certain direction, “That way!”

Yang Kai continued leading the way immediately and just as Yang Yan had suspected, along the road, the pair really encountered some remnant barriers and Spirit Arrays. However, these Spirit Arrays were not even worth mentioning in Yang Yan’s eyes. With her reminder, Yang Kai was able to easily avoid most of these barriers while the ones that could not be avoided were broken by Yang Yan.

None of these barriers or Spirit Arrays could last longer than three breaths in front of Yang Yan’s skill.

But Yang Kai didn’t show a single look of joy, his expression only growing more solemn the longer that passed. This was obviously the site of an ancient Sect, but even so many years after it had been destroyed, these barriers and Spirit Arrays were still functioning. It wasn’t difficult to imagine how powerful this Sect had been at its height, and such a Sect would not have arranged poor quality protective Spirit Arrays to defend itself.

Whenever Yang Yan was breaking a barrier and Spirit Array, Yang Kai would protect her from the side; then, after she broke a barrier, Yang Kai would lead the way again. The two of them worked together and cooperated exceptionally well.

At this moment, Yang Yan finished dismantling a small Illusion Array and clapped her hands happily. Just as she was about to say something to Yang Kai though, his face went cold, and he rushed over to her side. Grabbing her by the shoulder, Yang Kai placed Yang Yan behind himself as he pushed his free hand forward.

A scorching black flame was released from his palm.

This palm seemed to hit thin air but strangely, a howling scream suddenly rang out, one that contained a mysterious power, similar to a Soul Skill, that rushed towards Yang Kai and Yang Yan’s Knowledge Seas. However, this attack was quite weak and couldn’t even breach the pair’s Knowledge Sea defenses so they easily repelled it.

Even so, Yang Yan’s complexion went pale. She had not noticed any danger until the attack hit her, so naturally she was quite terrified.

When she peeked around Yang Kai to see what had happened, Yang Yan saw that some kind of illusory figure had actually been caught in his grasp. At this moment, Yang Kai’s Demonic Flames were illuminating the blurred features this figure which showed a very painful look, squirming as if it was being burnt alive.

“Yin Soul!” Yang Kai and Yang Yan blurted out almost at the same time, both of them exchanging a glance with each other as they felt the temperature around them drop slightly.

Yin Souls were incredibly special existences that were formed when the Soul of a creature of cultivator did not dissipate after its warm body died.

Generally speaking, such Souls wouldn’t be able to exist for long periods of time as without a body to contain them, they would soon dissipate and become part of the ambient World Energy. Only if a Soul were preserved inside a suitable artifact could it find a suitable physical body in short order could it survive.

However, could it be so easy to refine such a Soul artifact? Seizing another’s body was also extremely dangerous, if one was careless, they might instead be swallowed by the body’s original host. For example, when Old Demon wanted to seize Yang Kai’s body, he had wound up being controlled instead and forced to obey Yang Kai’s orders.

But there was another situation where a Soul would not quickly dissipate, and that was when their host body died in a special environment.

This giant mountain valley was one such environment. The chill and Yin Qi which permeated this place was incredibly rich, so Souls that were released here would dissipate at greatly reduced speed, and if there was enough opportunity, a disembodied Soul could actually transform into a Yin Soul.

Of course, after being transformed into a Yin Soul, this Soul would lose all be sentience and become a malicious ghost that could only act on instinct to survive.

Yin Souls formed like this were incredibly aggressive and would see any living creature as an enemy. They also straddled the line between the corporeal and incorporeal, making them exceedingly difficult to eliminate if one didn’t have a suitable Secret Art or artifact.

After Yang Kai’s Demonic Flame transformed into a pure Hot Attribute, it was equivalent to the burning rays of the sun, making it the perfect nemesis to this Yin Soul, allowing him to easily grasp and kill it. Had it been another cultivator here, they would not have had such an easy time.