Martial Peak

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

When Fei Zhi Tu’s jade shovel hit the soil of the flower bed where the Sword Soul Grass was planted, a white flash of light suddenly burst from it and an abnormal energy fluctuation filled the air at the same time.

Fei Zhi Tu’s face changed dramatically as he hurriedly withdrew. The old lady and old man along with the Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master also pushed their Saint Qi rapidly to protect the four Saint King Realm juniors.

The Sword Soul Grass, which originally looked like a straight purple sword, suddenly distorted and in the blink of an eye disappeared. Replacing it was a dazzling halo of light that rapidly spread out and then transformed into a thick cloud bank which enveloped the group of eight.

Within just a breath, the surrounding environment had undergone a tremendous change. Looking around, there were no more lofts or buildings, no exotic flowers and no Sword Soul Grass, only an endless sky filled with strange clouds.

The place where everyone was standing now appeared to be inside a gathering of multicoloured clouds of all shapes and sizes, with nothing else visible for as far as the eye could see.

“A Spirit Array!” Fei Zhi Tu’s face went black. By now it was obvious that the Sword Soul Grass everyone had been coveting a moment ago was just a trap. Once someone tried to pick the Sword Soul Grass, this Spirit Array would appear immediately and surround the would-be thieves.

However, this Spirit Array was incredibly well concealed. Among the eight cultivators present, only Yang Kai was able to notice something wrong and shout a last minute warning; unfortunately his warning came too late.

Thinking of this, Fei Zhi Tu glanced over at Yang Kai curiously, wondering how he had noticed a flaw in this trap when none of the four Origin Returning Realm masters had.

Yang Kai naturally understood what Fei Zhi Tu was thinking and proactively explained, “Junior has some slight knowledge of alchemy. Since the Sword Soul Grass just now was purple, its medicinal age must be extremely high, but such a Sword Soul Grass should give off a slightly pungent fragrance that would make one feel as if they were being pricked by invisible sword blades.”

Fei Zhi Tu was startled, but didn’t dwell on the subject further. Now that the trap had been sprung and they had been surrounded by this Spirit Array, figuring out why wasn’t the immediate priority. Turning to Cai He and Du Si Si, he asked, “You two are skilled in Spirit Arrays, do you have any idea what this one is?”

Hearing this, Du Si Si and Cai He began observing their surroundings, and after a while, Du Si Si’s pretty face became gloomy as she reported, “If Junior is not mistaken, this should be a type of lost, ancient Spirit Array called the Spectral Cloud Array!”

“Junior concurs!” Cai He nodded in agreement with Du Si Si’s conjecture.

“Spectral Cloud Array?” Fei Zhi Tu glanced at the other three Origin Returning Realm masters, but seeing their blank faces it was apparent none of them had heard of this Spirit Array before, so he turned back to the youths and asked, “Is this array difficult to crack? What kind of power does it have?”

Du Si Si smiled bitterly, “Setting aside cracking it for the moment… Junior should explain about this array’s characteristics first. Do you all see the clouds surrounding us?”

“Naturally! These clouds don’t seem to be illusions or a form of energy, truly peculiar!” Ning Xiang Chen nodded.

“Because they are real clouds!” Du Si Si declared.

“What?” Fei Zhi Tu and all the others couldn’t help showing looks of shock as they asked, “You mean to say these are real clouds?”

“Yes, the reason why the Spectral Cloud Array became a lost Spirit Array was because of the requirement of refining the clouds in the sky. Currently, even the most powerful cultivators on Shadowed Star lack such ability, so naturally it became impossible to arrange this Spirit Array.”

“Refine the clouds in the sky…” Fei Zhi Tu and all the others present were dumbfounded by Du Si Si’s statement, finding it somewhat unbelievable.

What kind of shocking means would a cultivator need to even be capable of refining the clouds in the sky?

Du Si Si turned a blind eye to their stunned expressions and continued to explain, “Refining the clouds is just the first step. Next, different energy attributes need to be fused with these clouds along with the Souls of powerful Monster Beasts, transforming the originally inanimate clouds into a kind of life form. All the clouds in a Spectral Cloud Array can transform into Cloud Beasts. The Monster Beast Souls extracted by the one who arranged this array can vary greatly in strength, creating Cloud Beasts over different strengths, but regardless of what kind of strength they possess, these Cloud Beasts are extremely difficult to kill!”

“You mean all these things will transform…” Fei Zhi Tu glanced around at the countless different coloured clouds with an extremely ugly expression.

There was no need for Du Si Si to answer though, because before Fei Zhi Tu could even finish his question, a dozen or so of the scattered clouds began to wriggle and twist, transforming into different forms resembling Monster Beasts in the next moment. However it was apparent that these so called Cloud Beasts didn’t have a true physical body and were simply a combination of the cloud they were formed from and a large amount of pure attribute energy, making them even stronger than ordinary Monster Beasts.

Everyone’s Divine Sense swept through the bodies of these Cloud Beasts nervously, but after feeling the energy fluctuations emitted by them, Du Si Si breathed a sigh of relief and a bit of colour returned to her pretty face as she said, “It seems our luck isn’t too bad, there are only Ninth-Order Cloud Beasts here.”

Her thinking they were fortunate wasn’t without reason. Since this Spirit Array was from ancient times, who could tell how powerful the master who arranged it was? If there was even one Tenth-Order Cloud Beasts here, all of them would certainly die here.

Even if they had Heaven shaking methods, there was no way Fei Zhi Tu and the other Origin Realm masters here could fight against a Tenth-Order Monster Beast, as it would be the same as trying to fight an Origin King.

Just having stepped into this Ancient Ruin and already falling into such a Spirit Array caused everyone to feel great pressure and naturally none of them dared to take the situation lightly. Fei Zhi Tu quickly shouted, “Du Girl and Cai Boy, focus on cracking this array, leave these Cloud Beasts to us!”

“Yes!” Cai He and Du Si Si nodded hurriedly and knowing that the time for them to display their talents they immediately became spirited.

Fei Zhi Tu glanced over at Yang Kai and the reticent Lian Guang next, “You two take care of yourselves, don’t accidentally fall here.”

Yang Kai nodded lightly while Lian Guang said nothing.However, he did take out a number of palm sized puppets from his Space Ring; all exquisitely refined. With a wave of his hand he scattered them around. Immediately after, Lian Guang began pouring his Saint Qi into each of these puppets.

In the next moment, these puppets rapidly grew bigger, causing Yang Kai’s eyes to flash in surprise and interest.

This was the first time he had witnessed someone using puppet techniques. Lian Guang was a Third-Order Saint King Realm cultivator, but all of the puppets he was operating gave off energy fluctuations equivalent to First or Second-Order Saint Kings.

There were six puppets in total, all of them different shapes and sizes. The smallest one looked like a small snake while the biggest was actually the size of a house, but all of them had an imposing aura to them.

Yang Kai immediately understood the reason why the Lian Family was so famous, and clearly deserving of their reputation. With these puppets, Lian Guang was invincible among cultivators in the same realm, and even if he were to encounter an Origin Realm master, he would still have an opportunity to escape.

Nearby, Fei Zhi Tu summoned his Blue Jade Bowl and expanded it to over ten metres in diameter. With a wave of his hand, Fei Zhi Tu sent out his Blue Jade Bowl towards one of the menacing Cloud Beasts and in the next instant, a flash of blue light erupted. Before this Ninth-Order Cloud Beast could even launch a single attack, it was engulfed by this blue light and, despite struggling and howling fiercely, it was dragged into and captured by the Blue Jade Bowl.

Seeing this, Yang Kai realized he had greatly underestimated the power of this Blue Jade Bowl.

At the same time, Ning Xiang Chen snorted and a cane-like artifact appeared in his hand. With a flick of his wrist, this cane transformed into a black streak that struck towards a nearby Cloud Beast while the old lady sent out a large net-like artifact that emitted a dazzling three-coloured light that not only captured another Cloud Beasts but also began viciously cutting into it.

When the Origin Realm masters of this group all suddenly took action, the surrounding Cloud Beasts seemingly became enraged and bestial roars rang out. Besides the Ninth-Order Cloud Beast which had been swallowed by the Blue Jade Bowl, all the others leapt forward with their great maws opening wide. Before any of them even arrived, beams of energy shot out from their mouths, raining down on the group with imposing might.

This scene caused Fei Zhi Tu and the other Origin Realm masters’ expressions to grow even more dignified. Summoning back the Blue Jade Bowl, Fei Zhi Tu used it to create a light shield around Cai He and Du Si Si to protect them.

“Brother Wen, take care of Du Girl and Cai Boy,” Fei Zhi Tu left behind his Blue Jade Bowl while shouting to the middle-aged Second-Order Origin Realm man before he pushed his Saint Qi and shot forward to meet the approaching Cloud Beasts.

Ning Xiang Chen followed with his cane artifact along with the old woman and her net artifact, the three of them intercepting eight of the attacking Cloud Beasts.

The middle-aged man surnamed Wen remained where he was, but seeing Du Si Si and Cai He standing there stunned, he shouted, “Haven’t you begun yet?”

“Oh!” Hearing this scolding, Cai He and Du Si Si recovered and quickly took out some specialized tools from their Space Rings and injected their Saint Qi before spreading them around.

Yang Kai glanced over at them and seeing them begin to study this Spectral Cloud Array, he calmed down.

He had been together with Yang Yan for a long time now and naturally knew that the tools these two had scattered a moment ago were called bases and plates. These things were used not only to arrange Spirit Arrays but were also essential when one was trying to crack them.

Moreover, with these tools, even if one wasn’t proficient in arranging Spirit Arrays, they could still set up some simple ones.

Before, Yang Kai had wanted to ask Yang Yan to refine a couple powerful sets of these tools for him, but unfortunately he had not found the opportunity or time to ask her. It seemed that after returning from this mission, he would need to prioritize asking her for these tools.

Although using such tools to arrange a Spirit Array wouldn’t result in as powerful a Spirit Array as when one follows an orthodox methodology, as long as the tools themselves weren’t damaged, they could be reused without limit. For someone like Yang Kai who frequently encountered crisis when out exploring the world, such tools would undoubtedly be beneficial to have on him.