Martial Peak

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Even a Third-Order Origin Returning Realm master wasn’t an opponent of this World Spirit, so how could a trivial python puppet equivalent to a Third-Order Saint King defeat it? After being shrouded in the white mist, the python puppet immediately began to freeze. Lian Guang’s complexion paled and he tried to take it back, but he was still a step late.

In the blink of an eye, the giant python was frozen into an ice sculpture and even the connection between it and Lian Guang was forcefully severed!

Immediately, the giant eagle’s claws grabbed the giant python, flew up into the air with it, and then dropped it to the ground.

With a loud bang, the python puppet shattered into pieces!

Under normal circumstances, such a puppet falling from such a height would suffer no damage. This python puppet had strength comparable to a Third-Order Saint King and was extremely durable, otherwise Lian Guang wouldn’t have used it to fight with his enemies; however, the white mist the giant eagle spat out had easily embrittled the puppet’s body so falling from any height naturally let to its destruction.

Lian Guang’s expression was as cold and gloomy as the ice road itself! He was a Third-Order Saint King, so it had taken him a great deal of energy and effort to refine this puppet that possessed strength equal to his own, but now, without being able to play any role at all, it had suddenly been destroyed.

It was easy to imagine the pain and grief in Lian Guang’s heart.

However, facing this World Spirit, he was helpless and could only stand there with a sullen face. No matter how many puppets he had, he was unwilling to simply discard them, but against such a World Spirit, all of his prided puppets were little more than scrap.

After the giant eagle crushed the giant python, its red eyes flashed a trace of smug disdain and soon began flapping its wing towards the crowd.

Fei Zhi Tu saw this and roared, “Block it!”

As soon as his words fell, Fei Zhi Tu summoned his Blue Jade Bowl while Ning Xiang Chen and the others all activated their defensive artifacts. In an instant, colourful light filled the air as various secret techniques and artifacts intertwined to form a defensive shield.

An eagle cry resonated through the air and another blast of white mist descended upon Yang Kai’s group. No matter what kind of attack or artifact it was, all of them were overwhelmed by the white mist and quickly froze. Even the blue light shield emitted by Fei Zhi Tu’s Blue Jade Bowl showed signs of freezing.

The giant eagle was unrelenting and immediately swooped down towards its prey, extending its talons like sharp blades to directly pierce the protective shield formed by the Firebird Artifact Spirit.

With a crack, the protective shield formed from the Artifact Spirit actually began to break in several places as a dense spider-web cracks rapidly spread out. Yang Kai’s face changed when he saw this and sent the Artifact Spirit a command via his Divine Sense before immediately releasing scorching hot black flames from his body to condense another dome-like shield to protect everyone.

At the same time, a sharp tweet rang out and the Artifact Spirit restored its usual Firebird shape. Spreading its fiery red wings several dozen metres wide, the Artifact Spirit charged at the giant eagle.

The Artifact Spirit seemed to be enraged; after all, although it wasn’t an orthodox World Spirit, it was still an existence extremely close to one. Just now, in order to protect Yang Kai and the others, it was impossible for it to show its true body and had to passively suffer repeated attacks from the giant eagle World Spirit. Naturally, it had become annoyed.

Now that it received Yang Kai’s permission, it immediately began fighting back.

Yang Kai was forced into this action. It was obviously not a wise decision to continue simply using the Firebird Artifact Spirit as a shield. The power of his Artifact Spirit was slightly inferior to this World Spirit so if he allowed the situation where it was continuously beaten to continue, sooner or later the Artifact Spirit would run out of strength.

That being the case, the better option was to let the Artifact Spirit fight directly with the giant eagle while everyone else used this opportunity to quickly escape the ice road.

Fortunately, the Grand Fire Ward was still active and, supplemented by Yang Kai’s hot Demonic Flames, there was temporarily no need to worry about freezing to death.

In the sky, the battle between the giant eagle and Artifact Spirit quickly became intense as the World Energy aura in the ice road distorted amidst the constant eagle and bird cries.

Seeing this, Fei Zhi Tu was overjoyed and hurriedly waved, “Go!”

As he spoke, he quickly used his movement skill to lead the way. Everyone else also hurriedly activated their defensive artifacts and vigorously pushed their Saint Qi to resist the chill which leaked through Yang Kai’s Demonic Flame and the Grand Fire Ward as they followed Fei Zhi Tu.

Unlike the anxious looks on everyone else’s face though, Yang Kai wore a puzzled expression on his.

Because the moment a whiff of the Ice Attribute Energy seeped into his body, he felt something stir within him and actually begin to absorb this cold energy in his surroundings.

Even with the profound chill invading his body, Yang Kai didn’t feel much discomfort. Instead, whatever it was that was absorbing this cold energy seemed to have received a great supplement and was becoming excited.

Yang Kai’s brow furrowed and while running forward he began probing himself.

A moment later, his expression became even weirder.

“So, that’s what it is!”

Yang Kai hadn’t imagined the Ice Phoenix Tattoo on his back would suddenly show a reaction at this time!

Strictly speaking, this was the Phoenix Empress’ Inheritance. He and Su Yan cultivated the Yin-Yang Joyous Unification Art and obtained two profound inheritances, both of which originated from Dragon Phoenix Palace in Tong Xuan Realm. Among them, the Dragon Emperor Inheritance was obtained by Yang Kai personally and had long ago been integrated into his body. The Phoenix Empress Inheritance on the other hand had previously been sealed in the Phoenix Nest, but before leaving Tong Xuan Realm, Yang Kai had visited it and managed to take it away with him.

Since then, Yang Kai had two tattoos on his body, one was of a Golden Dragon and the other was of an Ice Phoenix.

Yang Kai’s plan was to take the Phoenix Empress Inheritance with him so that when he found Su Yan, he could give it to her directly; but so far he hadn’t been able to accomplish this wish. Before meeting Qian Yue again, he hadn’t even heard the slightest news about Su Yan.

Yang Kai had received this Ice Phoenix Tattoo into his body more than ten years ago, but after accepting it, it had shown no movement at all. Thankfully, after arriving at this ice road and especially when the cold energy of this place had invaded his body, the Ice Phoenix Tattoo began reacting. After swallowing this wisp of Ice Attribute Energy, the Ice Phoenix Tattoo became more and more rowdy and was even showing signs of wanting to leap out from Yang Kai’s body.

Yang Kai’s mood suddenly became subdued as he couldn’t figure out whether the situation was good or bad.

The reason the Ice Attribute Energy here could stimulate the dormant tattoo was obvious; after all, the Phoenix Empress’ Inheritance itself was related to the Ice Attribute. However, Yang Kai had no control over it at all so he couldn’t tell what would happen if he were to release it now.

If it didn’t come back, Su Yan’s Phoenix Empress inheritance would be gone.

As Yang Kai was worrying about such a possibility though, his complexion changed.

Within moments of its first stirring, the Ice Phoenix Tattoo movements grew to the point where Yang Kai could no longer suppress it and in the next instant, he felt something suddenly rush out of his body. With a loud phoenix cry, a crystal white Ice Phoenix phantom more than thirty metres in length suddenly appeared on top of everyone’s head.

In that instant, an awe-inspiring pressure suddenly descended from above.

Fei Zhi Tu and the other’s complexions changed dramatically as they all came to a halt and turned to stare at the manifestation which had appeared above Yang Kai’s head.

After just a glance, Fei Zhi Tu was unable to stop himself from calling out in alarm, “Ancient Divine Spirit!”

The shock he felt in his heart could no longer be described in words. Originally, he felt that although there would be some danger in diving into this Ancient Ruin to rescue Qian Tong, with his plans and means, it shouldn’t be too difficult.

But contrary to his expectations, after stepping onto this ice road, he had first seen a true World Spirit, and then all of a sudden an Ancient Divine Spirit appeared out of thin air! Neither of these things were creatures ordinary people would be able to see in several lifetimes as they belonged to the category of legendary existences, but today they seemed to be appearing one after another.

Even with Fei Zhi Tu’s incredible self discipline and composure, at this moment, he couldn’t help his body from trembling and his heart from clenching.

The others present weren’t fairing much better; all of them had their mouths agape as they stared at the majestic Ice Phoenix before them, as if all of them had suddenly fallen into a daze, unable to speak and even forgetting to continue escaping.

On the other hand, Yang Kai’s mouth twitched as he stared at the Ice Phoenix with a worried look. The Ice Phoenix itself was in an illusionary state and although the pressure coming from it was grand and imposing, the actual energy fluctuations it was giving off weren’t very strong.

“No, it’s just a Remnant Soul!” Fei Zhi Tu also soon noticed this, allowing his expression to relax somewhat. If a true Ancient Divine Spirit had appeared here, it would be impossible for it to be giving off such a weak aura, the only explanation was that this was just a Remnant Soul.

However, even if this was just a weak Remnant Soul of an Ancient Divine Spirit, if it was given enough time, it may be able to restore itself, and even if it only managed to recover ten percent of its peak strength, it would still be an existence rivaling an Origin King!

The moment the Ice Phoenix appeared, its pair of beautiful eyes fixed on the giant eagle that was fighting with the Artifact Spirit, a look of pleasant surprise flashing across its eyes as it let out a joyful cry.

The giant eagle reacted as if its natural predator had suddenly appeared and its behaviour became chaotic, allowing the Artifact Spirit, which was originally being completely suppressed, to burn its face. Immediately, the World Spirit ignored the attack of the Artifact Spirit and fled.

The Ice Phoenix spread its wings and transformed into a streak of white light to pursue the fleeing World Spirit.

In the blink of an eye, the Ice Phoenix and the giant eagle had disappeared.

After losing its opponent, the Firebird Artifact Spirit immediately flew back and once again transformed into a protective cover, shielding Yang Kai’s group from the cold.

The chill which had been seeping past the Grand Fire Ward and Yang Kai’s Demonic Flame barrier was immediately blocked.

The entire ice road suddenly became silent as everyone stared dumbfounded at Yang Kai. Yang Kai himself wore a somber expression as he stared in the direction the Ice Phoenix had departed, no one able to tell what he was thinking.

Only after quite some time had passed did Fei Zhi Tu cough and asked hesitantly, “Yang Kai, was that Ice Phoenix Remnant Soul yours?”

Although he had seen a flash of light come from Yang Kai’s body before the Ice Phoenix appeared, until now he still couldn’t believe that this young man actually possessed a Remnant Soul of an Ancient Divine Spirit.

This little brat had a shocking Artifact Spirit as well as an Ancient Divine Spirit’s Remnant Soul…

Just how Heaven-defying must his luck be to have obtained these two things?

“Yes!” Yang Kai glanced over at him, and although he felt that it was impossible for the people here to try to fight for the Ice Phoenix with him, he still had some vigilance in his heart as he asked lightly, “City Lord Fei, do you know why my Ice Phoenix chased after that World Spirit?”

He had yet to figure out why the Ice Phoenix had suddenly reacted this time. There was no way it was simply because it had been stimulated by the Ice Attribute Energy in this place as Yang Kai had traveled to many frigid places before and had never seen such a reaction. His Profound Yin Sunflower Water also had an extreme amount of cold energy stored within it and the same was true for the Ten Thousand Year Ice Jade Pedestal, but the Ice Phoenix had never appeared like that before Yang Kai came to this ice road.