Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Trapped by the mirror lake vortex, the puppet was unable to move and Yang Kai’s Heaven Covering Hand accurately landed on its body with a thunderous bang. Under the force of this impact, the puppet, which was already unstable, fell directly to the ground.

Yang Kai hurriedly retreated two steps but didn’t attack again.

For him, the priority now was to keep the puppet occupied because, before finding the Soul Wisp which was driving it, any attack was meaningless.

Cai He and Du Si Si apparently knew Yang Kai’s intentions and increased the power of their Spirit Arrays, causing more eddies to appear on the lake’s surface and the wisps of light in the air to become more dense.

Restricted by the two Spirit Arrays, the puppet was unable to get up immediately and its red eyes continuously flashed with anger.

Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent as he observed the puppet, silently monitoring its condition through his Artifact Spirit while at the same time scanning it constantly with his Divine Sense.

Since there was a hidden Soul wisp inside of this puppet, it would definitely be emitting some kind of aura fluctuations, something Yang Kai could only find by relying on his Divine Sense.

Just as he was investigating the puppet though, a sudden change occurred and the entire lake suddenly became turbulent. The puppet saw that it couldn’t easily get up so it had begun waving its giant jet black stick around in a rage, smashing its surroundings aimlessly.

Such an attack wouldn’t cause any harm to Yang Kai, but when Cai He saw this, his face changed greatly.

The reason was simple, in order to maximize the power of their Spirit Arrays, the two young Array Masters had arranged their tools and equipment over a very narrow range, but now that the puppet was wantonly destroying its surroundings, once it damaged the framework of the Spirit Array, it would likely collapse entirely.

Not only that, the puppet’s wild attacks carried enormous force behind them, creating shockwaves that were affecting the Spirit Array’s stability. If the puppet was not stopped, even if none of the equipment which created the Spirit Array was damaged, it would still collapse in time.

Out of desperation, Cai He could only weaken the suppression of the Spirit Array to ensure it continued functioning. Next to him, Du Si Si was forced to make a similar choice, weakening the power she put into the Painting Earth Prison Array.

Neither of them had ever encountered such a situation and it unavoidably frustrated them.

The glowing wisps in the sky and swirling vortexes on the lake diminished in strength rapidly, and with the shackles binding it weakened, the puppet no longer waved its giant stick indiscriminately and instead got back on its feet. However, when it finally stood firm, it first stared at Yang Kai for a moment, then down at the mirror lake under his feet, revealing a thoughtful expression.

Immediately after, it opened its mouth wide and released a swarm of buzzing wasp-like creatures. Each of these wasps was only about the size of a fist, but they easily numbered in the hundreds. Gathering together in a group, these wasps circled the puppet a few times before swooping down towards Yang Kai.

Yang Kai’s eyes shrank as he revealed a look of surprise.

This was the first time he saw that this puppet actually possessed such a strange ability. When he had tested its capabilities the other day, it hadn’t released these wasps.

Sweeping this swarm with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai’s face sank because he discovered that these wasps were all small puppets, each one exuding a strange aura.

Naturally, Yang Kai wasn’t about to allow these wasps to approach him, so he quickly condensed a long Demonic Flame sword in his hand and hacked towards them.

*Hong Hong Hong…*

An unexpected scene happened next. These wasps, which seemed to have extraordinary power, actually burst apart the moment Yang Kai’s sword waves struck them, as if they were frail and unable to withstand even the lightest blow. However, this only led to Yang Kai’s brow creasing even further.

Because these wasps hadn’t actually exploded as a result of his attack, rather they all self-destructed.

Each exploding wasp sent out powerful energy fluctuations while at the same time releasing a yellow mist into the air. This mist soon completely filled the surrounding space.

Yang Kai carelessly inhaled a bit of this yellow mist and immediately felt slightly dizzy. Sobering up immediately, he shouted, “It’s poison, hold your breath!”

As he shouted this warning, a jet black ball of Demonic Flame appeared in his hand and flew towards the yellow mist. Wherever this ball of Demonic Flame passed, the yellow mist was swept away. Although the yellow mist was quite toxic, it apparently was unable to resist the burning power of the Demonic Flame.

Cai He and Du Si Si breathed sighs of relief. When they heard Yang Kai shout just now, both of them had immediately tensed up, worried that the situation would spiral out of control, but after witnessing Yang Kai easily incinerate this yellow mist, they were able to relax and concentrate on operating their Spirit Arrays.

Yang Kai, on the other hand, was unable to relax in the slightest as he continued to chop and slash the wasp-like puppets while burning the yellow mist released by them with his Demonic Flame.

Since this puppet had such a method, there was no way of knowing if it didn’t have stronger ones as well. Delay only invited complications, so Yang Kai secretly began feeling anxious.

The hundreds of wasp puppets were soon wiped out.

However, at that moment, Yang Kai’s complexion changed, immediately revealing a look of pleasant surprise because he received a message from the Firebird Artifact Spirit.

It had found the location of the Soul Wisp that was driving the puppet’s actions!

Just as Yang Kai expected, the hiding spot of this Soul Wisp was in the centre of the puppet’s chest. Because this Soul Wisp was constantly sending out orders to manipulate the puppet, under the constant investigation of the Artifact Spirit, it had finally revealed a trace of itself.

Light flashed across Yang Kai’s eyes as he sent out a Divine Sense command. In the next instant, the Artifact Spirit which had been wrapping the puppet in flames reverted to its Firebird form and flew up above the puppet’s head while spraying out a barrage of fireballs to attract its attention.

Simultaneously, Yang Kai focused his own attention on the puppet’s chest, took advantage of it being distracted by the Artifact Spirit, and rushed up right in front of it. Leaping up high, Yang Kai curled his fist and punched fiercely towards the puppet’s chest.

With a loud bang, Yang Kai was bounced back by a huge counter-force while the puppet’s chest remained unharmed, without even a scratch on it.

This punch was just a probe, not meant to do any real damage, so Yang Kai wasn’t surprised by this result. Narrowing his eyes, he quickly shouted, “You two, increase your Spirit Arrays to their maximum power, victory or defeat will depend on this next move!”

Hearing this, Cai He and Du Si Si no longer held back and fiercely pushed their Saint Qi to power their Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array and Painting Earth Prison Array to their limits.

In an instant, the wisps of light appeared in the sky again and the small vortexes on the mirror lake’s surface swelled in size. At the same time, a new mud dragon rushed out of lake and wrapped around the puppet’s limbs, shackling its movements.

In conjunction with the Firebird’s attack, the puppet immediately fell into disadvantage and began waving its giant jet black stick around aimlessly again.

This time however, Cai He and Du Si Si paid it no mind and only increased the suppressive force of their Spirit Arrays.

Yang Kai saw the speed of the puppet greatly slow down and a look of joy surfaced on his face. Lifting his Demonic Flame long sword, he leapt up and chopped down at the centre of the puppet’s chest once more.

Flames splashed out and Yang Kai’s sword disappeared, but still no damage was done to the puppet’s chest.

Cai He and Du Si Si witnessed this scene and couldn’t help feeling their hearts sink.

Although the two of them could use their Spirit Arrays to limit the puppet’s actions, if Yang Kai couldn’t break through the puppet’s defense, they would still fall short. The situation was already beyond their ability to control though, so they could only put all their hopes on Yang Kai and pray that he would have a way to succeed.

To their disappointment, however, Yang Kai actually created another black blade-like attack and chopped towards the puppet’s chest.

But in the next moment, both of them were startled because this blade-like attack actually left a shallow mark on the puppet’s body! Although this mark was small, it was the first real damage the trio had managed to deal to the puppet.

This naturally filled Cai He and Du Si Si with joy as they stared towards Yang Kai with looks of admiration.

Even if they hadn’t faced it directly, the two of them understood just how tough this puppet’s body was from all the previous attacks Yang Kai and the Artifact Spirit had launched against it. Even if an Origin Returning Realm master were here, they may not necessarily have a way to damage this puppet, but now it seemed Yang Kai could.

This meant that there was a chance he could cut open the puppet’s body and destroy the Soul Wisp hidden inside it!

As if they had seen the light of dawn after a dark night, their hearts filled with great anticipation for Yang Kai.

On the other hand, Yang Kai looked at that tiny mark he had made and couldn’t help frowning. Just now, he had used his Space Blade condensed from Space Force which, although appearing similar to a sword wave, worked on an entirely different principle.

Space Blade could be considered Yang Kai’s trump card, difficult to sense and capable of devouring anything it touched; however, even it was only able to cause this degree of damage to the puppet. If he wanted to cut into the puppet’s chest, he would need to hit that exact spot at least a hundred times with his Space Blade.

Could Cai He and Du Si Si hold out for that long?

It was not that Yang Kai didn’t have confidence in their abilities, it was just that this puppet was far too difficult to hold down. The giant stick it waved around randomly not only made it difficult for Yang Kai to attack it accurately, it also destabilized the two Spirit Arrays which were fettering it. If too much time passed and these two Spirit Arrays broke, Yang Kai couldn’t guarantee he could hit that spot on the puppet’s chest at all.

There was no point in worry about such things right now, so Yang Kai steeled himself and began sending out one Space Blade after another towards the mark on the puppet’s chest.

Silently, Yang Kai’s Space Blades continued to strike the puppet.

As time passed, the scar on the puppet’s chest gradually became larger, but Cai He and Du Si Si were paling much faster. The two of them were trembling as they powered their Spirit Arrays to their maximum potential, and although they continued swallowing restorative pills, they were still consuming Saint Qi far faster than they could recover it.

What made everyone more anxious though was that, after the puppet fiercely struggled for so long, the two Spirit Arrays suppressing it had become precariously unstable. Whether it was the swirling vortexes and the mud dragon produced by the Mirror Lake Clay Dragon Array, or the light wisps produced by the Painting Earth Prison Array, both were clearly losing strength.

As a result, the force holding down the puppet weakened significantly and the number of Yang Kai’s attacks that were able to hit their mark decreased accordingly, frustrating him greatly.

Compared with the anxiety and helplessness of the three of them, the puppet only grew fiercer by the moment. Then it waved its giant stick around so violently that even the Firebird was unable to get close to it, only able to send out streams of pure Fire Attribute Energy from a distance to attract its attention.