Martial Peak

“There’s no need for us to think about such matters. Moreover, although they’ve entered that place, with their cultivations, there’s no way they can take the Sun’s True Essence out with them, so we don’t need to worry,” The female Corpse Soldier sneered.

“Yeah,” The male Corpse Soldier also chuckled, “That Sun’s True Essence is not something that can be handled easily, perhaps those two will suffer a big loss and fall without us even needing to do any work. We should just sit back and watch the show.”

Thinking so, the two Corpse Soldiers relaxed and, after concealing their auras, quietly crept forward while waiting to see what would happen next.

Meanwhile, inside the cave, Yang Kai looked at the scene in front of him and almost couldn’t help laughing.

This place was actually a storehouse for Saint Crystals and various rare ores!

High-Rank Saint Crystals were piled up in several hills, each one several metres in height. Even a single one of these hills had at least three or four million Saint Crystal in it.

In other words, there were tens of millions of Saint Crystal stored here!

Yang Kai had been secretly praying that this trip would be able to solve the poverty-stricken situation of Dragon Cave Mountain, but now that wish had actually come true.

He and Yang Yan looked at each other and both saw the deep surprise in each other’s eyes.

Not rushing out to collect these hills of Saint Crystals, the two of them instead turned their attention to a certain jade pillar. This jade pillar was a pure snow-white colour and was exuding a profound chill that made this entire Secret Cave quite cold. It was clear at a glance that this jade pillar was an extraordinary treasure.

On top of this jade pillar were four Space Rings and a strange ore that was surrounded by a thin energy barrier.

Walking up to this jade pillar and examining it carefully, Yang Yan whispered in a solemn manner, “This is… It is! It really is a Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade!”

“Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade!” Yang Kai’s eyes bulged as he anxiously asked, “Are you certain?”

“This is no doubt about it. It’s a Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade, I wouldn’t mistake it for something else.” Seeing her confident expression, Yang Kai was naturally convinced, but for a time his eyes still flashed with surprise and astonishment.

Ice Jade was rare treasure, and Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade was extremely rare even among Ice Jade. If an Ice Attribute cultivation used Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade to refine a personal artifact, it would allow them to more efficiently transform World Energy and increase their cultivation efficiency.

But Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade’s uses didn’t end there. If an Ice Attribute artifact had some Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade added to it, it could increase its power by at least thirty percent and could even allow such an artifact to release a frigid aura that could freeze an opponent’s body and Soul. It was a supreme Ice Attribute treasure.

Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade was known as one of the Three Great Profound Jades, and a fist-sized piece of it would sell for a fortune.

With such a big piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade in front of him, how could Yang Kai not be surprised? But what truly shocked him was that this Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade was actually just a pedestal for the four Space Rings and the strange piece of ore placed above it.

The four Space Rings were unremarkable, and were probably just placed atop this pillar randomly, but the strange looking melon-sized ore was definitely a valuable treasure, otherwise it wouldn’t have been protected by its own barrier.

Yang Kai glanced at Yang Yan quietly and found that she really was wearing a dignified expression. While observing this piece of ore, she never spoke, as if even she didn’t know what it was, surprising Yang Kai greatly.

“Let’s take a look at these four Space Rings first,” Yang Kai waited for a long time but still didn’t see any reaction from Yang Yan so he made such a proposal and reached out to pick up the rings.

After sweeping the contest with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai gently nodded.

Unsurprisingly, these four Space Rings were half filled with Saint Crystals and half filled with rare ores. Needless to say, the amount of Saint Crystals was enormous while the ores were actually rarer and more precious than the ones stored outside.

Yang Kai tossed the rings to Yang Yan, who swept them herself and nodded happily, “Great, with these things, I can refine the treasure I’ve been planning to.”

“What treasure?” Yang Kai asked curiously, wondering just what kind of treasure Yang Yan was so focused on refining.

“It’s a secret for now, but when the time comes I may need to borrow your strength,” Yang Yan grinned and returned the Space Rings.

Yang Kai glanced at her but didn’t ask anymore. After putting away the rings, he turned his attention back to the jade pillar’s barrier and asked, “Can you open this?”

“I can!” Yang Yan gently nodded, “But are you sure you want to open it? I don’t know why, but I feel a dangerous aura coming from this thing.”

“You also feel it?” Yang Kai was surprised. He had thought it was just an illusion, but now Yang Yan’s intuition was telling her the same thing as his. Immediately, Yang Kai’s expression became solemn, anything that could make him feel a sense of unease just sitting in front of him was no doubt very dangerous, but at the same time it was obviously incredibly valuable.

Yang Yan didn’t speak as she continued staring at the melon-sized stone in front of them intently, only after some time nodding, “Let’s open it. I believe that even if it is dangerous, we should be able to defend ourselves. If we were to just give up after coming this far, it would be too much of a waste.”

Saying so, she took out her array breaking tools and got to work.

Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately became vigilant and condensed his Saint Qi, preparing to act at a moment’s notice.

After thinking for a while, Yang Kai released the Stone Puppet as well and sent it a command with his Divine Sense. The Stone Puppet immediately rushed to the Saint Crystals and other rare ores and began inhaling them.

The structure of the Stone Puppet’s body was truly mysterious. Although the Stone Puppet looked quite small, its stomach seemed to contain infinite space, and in the blink of an eye it had already swallowed half a hill of Saint Crystals.

Yang Kai had asked Yang Yan about this before, and from her learned that the Stone Puppet itself had an innate ability to devour ores and evolve. Most of the ore swallowed would be spit back out, but it would absorb part of them and their essence to enhance itself.

Additionally, the Stone Puppet would take on some of the characteristics of the ore it swallowed after absorbing them.

Coincidentally, among the first ores the Stone Puppet devoured after it was born were Space Spirit Crystals that contained large amounts of Space Force. It was probably because of this that the Stone Puppet’s stomach capacity had increased exponentially, otherwise, even if an average Stone Puppet had the innate ability to devour large quantities of ore, it would not have been so exaggerated.

The Stone Puppet devoured the Saint Crystals and ores extremely quickly so Yang Kai didn’t need to pay any attention to it, instead focusing his attention on Yang Yan’s actions.

The barrier covering the strange ore seemed quite complicated, and even though it was Yang Yan, it was taking her quite some time to crack it. Yang Kai was naturally concerned that something unexpected would happen, so he quietly released his Divine Sense to monitor their surroundings.

After an initial investigation though, he was quite surprised.

Just outside, in the Secret Cave that the two had swept clean a moment before, there were two faint Corpse Qi auras hiding themselves. Although they were concealed quite well, with Yang Kai’s powerful Divine Sense he was still able to detect them.

What comforted Yang Kai was that these two Corpse Soldiers were only equivalent to Third-Order Saint Kings, and they didn’t show any signs of aggression. In fact, these two were just staying in place, motionless.

As long as they didn’t interfere, Yang Kai was disinclined to manage them, so he simply pretended not to notice anything while silently monitoring their movements as Yang Yan continued her work.

For Yang Kai, as long as they could sweep away everything here, this trip would be a success. At that time, he could just take Yang Yan away with him by tearing space, so even if he alarmed the countless Corpse Soldiers here, he could escape with ease.

Before arriving on Shadowed Star, Yang Kai hadn’t dared to bring along another person as he tore space; after all, The Void was an extremely unstable and hostile environment, and accidents were likely to occur when transitioning to and traveling through it. He could cope with these dangers if he was alone, but he couldn’t guarantee he could keep another person safe if he took them with him.

But now, his understanding and comprehension of the Dao of Space had improved dramatically, so taking another person with him across a thousand kilometres wasn’t a problem anymore.

With such confidence, Yang Kai naturally was not afraid of anything.

The barrier that surrounded the strange ore atop the jade pillar remained radiant even as Yang Yan worked on it, but if one looked closely, they would notice that slight ripples were now occurring across its surface. At the same time, the barrier began stretching and contracting, sometimes expanding and sometimes shrinking, making for quite an odd sight.

This time, unlike with all the previous Spirit Arrays she had cracked along the way, Yang Yan’s expression was particularly solemn and a touch of red filled her cheeks, indicating she was somewhat strained.

As time passed, the light barrier began to distort more obviously, and even Yang Kai could tell that it was on the verge of breaking.

Suddenly, Yang Yan muttered seriously, “Be careful.”

As soon as she spoke these words, the barrier broke, and at the same time, a pure Fire Attribute aura that shocked both Yang Kai and Yang Yan greatly burst from the strange ore.

In an instant, the entire Secret Cave became blisteringly hot as the mass of Fire Attribute energy seemed to transform into a Fire Dragon and charged out.

Yang Yan’s face suddenly turned pale. Although she had somewhat anticipated things would quickly become dangerous, she hadn’t expected it would happen the instant the barrier broke. The Fire Dragon hadn’t even reached her yet but she already felt as if she was being melted.

Several defensive artifacts on her body automatically activated just as Yang Yan sensed danger, and several layers of defensive barriers appeared in front of her.

These artifacts were all Origin Grade Low-Rank and were tailor-made for her, so the protection they offered wasn’t worse than an ordinary Origin Grade High-Rank artifact.

However, the Fire Dragon approaching her seemed unstoppable, and the instant its pure Fire Attribute energy impacted the light shields in front of Yang Yan, they all evaporated and with a crisp crack, the two earring she was wearing shattered, along with a bracelet on her wrist while at the same time, the glow from the Artifact Armour she was wearing went dull.

These three layers of protection were unable to stop the approach of the heat wave and had all been burnt through as if they were paper. Some of her prided artifacts were even destroyed in the process.