Martial Peak

These Soul Devouring Insects were Exotic Ancient Insects Yang Kai had been cultivating for years, and after recently devouring the Profound Insect Stone, they were now able to display strength far greater than before.

They could easily devour the Spiritual Energy of Saint King Realm cultivators and could even cause a certain amount of trouble for Origin Returning Realm masters.

However, they were rarely used by Yang Kai because enemies weak enough to be killed by them were no threat to Yang Kai, and against powerful foes, these Soul Devouring Insects couldn’t play much of a role.

However, this did not mean his Soul Devouring Insects had become useless, their true power lay in their ability in large scale battles.

At this moment, it seemed they had yet another use.

Soul Devouring Insects’ favourite food was Spirit Energy, so Lu Ye could only blame himself for using a Divine Sense Secret Technique condensed of his own Spiritual Energy. Yang Kai’s Demon Eye of Annihilation and Soul Devouring Insects were essentially both predators for this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect.

In the blink of an eye, the Soul Devouring Insects swarm flew over. Even suppressed by the Demon Eye of Annihilation’s Golden Light, the red insect had continued struggling, but when the Soul Devouring Insects appeared, it seemed to understand it had met its natural enemy and began to tremble.

The Soul Devouring Insects naturally did not care about this, however, and they threw themselves at the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect under Yang Kai’s control.

Gnawing sounds immediately rang out.

The Soul Devouring Insects left as fast as they had come, a moment later heading back to the seven-colour island, but the Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect which had been surrounded by golden light was nowhere to be seen.

It had been clearly devoured by the Soul Devouring Insects.

Yang Kai swept his Knowledge Sea to confirm there were no hidden dangers before gently nodding and sending his consciousness back to his body.

At the same time, more than two hundred kilometres away from Dragon Cave Mountain, inside the Xie Family’s main residence, a youth with delicate features who was sitting cross-legged in meditation suddenly turned pale and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face quickly filling with shock as he cried out in disbelief, “How is that possible?”

This person was naturally Lu Ye.

He was incredibly calculating and cautious, so he had not gone to participate in the siege of Dragon Cave Mountain, but instead waited calmly at the Xie Family’s residence for news; after all, if things went well, it wouldn’t matter if he was there or not, and if things didn’t go well, his presence wouldn’t make a difference.

Based on this consideration, Lu Ye decided to wait at a distance from beginning to end.

But just now, a fierce backlash occurred as one of the Thousand Poison Evil Insects he relied on the most had been killed! This Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect had been planted on the Xie Family’s Xie Li, which had taken a great deal of effort for Lu Ye. After all, Xie Li was a Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master and wanting to plant a hidden hand on him without his knowledge was no simple task.

To accomplish this, Lu Ye even sacrificed part of his own Soul Essence.

But now, this Soul Essence had been erased, and Lu Ye had received a certain degree of backlash as a result. This injury was not serious, but it was also not light, probably requiring him one or two months of meditation to recover from.

Lu Ye’s complexion instantly became fierce. He had thought that his plan this time was foolproof, yet it had actually failed miserably. However, from the last bit of feedback he received from this Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect, Lu Ye knew it had been extinguished by Yang Kai.

As for what method Yang Kai used to achieve this, Lu Ye could not tell. No matter how strong his Secret Technique was, he could not actually monitor the situation inside Yang Kai’s Knowledge Sea.

“Excellent!” Lu Ye grinned wickedly, “It seems this Senior has looked down on you. A trivial Saint King Realm cultivator actually being able to wound this Senior, there will apparently be more interesting times ahead.”

After muttering to himself for a while, Lu Ye’s expression became gloomy and he let out a cold snort, “A bunch of wastes, unable to accomplish something so simple and instead ruining everything. If not for this Senior having need of you in the future, what use would you be? It seems I shouldn’t remain here much longer…”

Saying so, Lu Ye stood up and left quietly from the Xie Family, casually picking a direction, and flying off.

Although he was technically Flowing Cloud Valley’s Young Master, he did not put such an identity in his eyes at all. After seizing this body and returning to Flowing Cloud Valley, he had completely subdued the Sect and sacrificed over ninety percent of its population in order to cultivate a certain evil technique, including the original Lu Ye’s family.

Currently, Flowing Cloud Valley was nothing but an empty shell, so Lu Ye naturally had no plans to return there.

In any case, he could go anywhere on Shadowed Star with his means. What was important right now was to find a good place to recover his cultivation. As for Yang Kai, there would always be another chance for him to settle their grudge. Lu Ye never believed that his treasure had been refined by Yang Kai; after all, Yang Kai’s cultivation was too low. Even if it was an Origin King Realm master, it would be impossible to refine that thing without several years of effort.

He must have been concealing it somehow!

Lu Ye had never even considered that Yang Kai had a supreme treasure like the Soul Warming Lotus! While Yang Kai truly did not have the ability to refine that thing, the Soul Warming Lotus had easily absorbed it and used the massive amount of energy contained within to evolve into its final seven-coloured form while allowing Yang Kai to comprehend the Blossoming Lotus Secret Technique at the same time.

On the other side, Yang Kai opened his eyes and spread out his Divine Sense to confirm Dragon Cave Mountain’s situation. He soon realized that the battle on Chang Qi’s side had also ended, with the three old men now sitting in meditation adjusting their breathing.

These three had faced the middle-aged man from Demon Blood Temple, and although their opponent was a genuine Second-Order Origin Returning Realm master, his strength had been greatly suppressed on Dragon Cave Mountain. As such, after a hard-fought battle, Chang Qi, Hao An, and Ning Xiang Chen eventually defeated him, with assistance from Yang Yan and her Spirit Arrays.

At this point, all the enemies that had invaded Dragon Cave Mountain had been killed, not even one remained.

Dragon Cave Mountain only sent out four people to fight, three First-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivators and one Third-Order Saint King. Although they dared not say such a feat would never happen again in the future, it was still an unprecedented victory. If word of this matter were spread out, it was likely no one would believe it to be true.

Standing in place, Yang Kai thought for a while before quickly changing out of his ragged clothes into clean ones and wiping off the blood from his body before walking over to where Chang Qi and the others were sitting.

After absorbing the Remnant Soul of the old man from Myriad Beast Mountain with his Demon Eye of Annihilation, and Xie Li’s after the latter self-destructed, Yang Kai was certainly not going to let off the one from the Demon Blood Temple cultivator.

Presumably, after refining the Spiritual Energy of these three people, Yang Kai could attempt a breakthrough to the Origin Returning Realm.

A moment later, Yang Kai arrived in front of Chang Qi and the others, glanced down at the broken body of the master from Demon Blood Temple and quietly absorbed his Remnant Soul into his Knowledge Sea.

His arrival had not been missed by the three old men, all of whom opened their eyes, stood up, and showed joyful looks upon seeing Yang Kai.

“Old Ning, it seems I’ve troubled you this time,” Yang Kai quickly cupped his fists to Ning Xiang Chen in thanks. This old man had not hesitated to stand together with Dragon Cave Mountain and killed many invading enemies for them, causing Yang Kai’s opinion of him to soar.

Regardless of what other intentions he had, the assistance he provided was indisputable.

“Haha!” Ning Xiang Chen laughed heartily. Although he had just experienced a great battle, his complexion was excellent as he was obviously not injured. “Little Friend Yang is too polite. Even in this old master’s long life, he has rarely experienced such a grand event. If anything, this old man must thank Little Friend Yang, engaging in such a hot-blooded struggle after so long has made this old man feel many years younger!”

Yang Kai smiled lightly, “Old Ning Lao is too polite. In the future, if Old Ning has free time, please feel free to visit Dragon Cave Mountain. You will always be welcome here!”

Ning Xiang Chen’s eyes lit up and smiled even more heartily. Yang Kai’s words obviously meant he was no longer an outsider, and he felt that all the effort he put in this had paid off, but he was not satisfied with just this and asked tentatively, “Instead of visiting often, I believe taking up residence would be better. What does Little Friend Yang say?”

“Hm?” Yang Kai gave him a surprised look; after all, Ning Xiang Chen’s words just now were essentially a request to officially join Dragon Cave Mountain.

Thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai understood why he had made this choice. This time, he had helped Dragon Cave Mountain kill many enemies, but had offended Myriad Beast Mountain, Demon Blood Temple, Sea Heart Sect, and Flowing Cloud Valley in the process. Although he was an Origin Returning Realm master, he had no Sect or family who could shelter him, so in the future, he might be hunted down by these forces.

Since that was the case, directly joining Dragon Cave Mountain was a better choice.

This was indeed the case. Although Ning Xiang Chen had wandered free all his life, now that he was old, he had found himself feeling somewhat alone and isolated. When he wanted to find someone to chat with and exchange experiences in cultivation with, he had no place to go. After witnessing Dragon Cave Mountain’s power today and earning their favour, he naturally had ideas of joining in order to seek a place to settle down.

Moreover, there were only two Origin Returning Realm masters in Dragon Cave Mountain and both had similar strength and backgrounds to him. Both were also open and friendly so he wouldn’t need to worry about being excluded if he joined.

Based on all kinds of considerations, Ning Xiang Chen had made this request. It was not a kind of spur of the moment decision but one that was carefully thought out and considered.

He wasn’t a young man anymore and wouldn’t make impulsive decisions.

After he asked, Ning Xiang Chen looked towards Yang Kai a little nervously, wondering if the other party would accept or reject him.

“Since Old Ning has such intentions, Junior wholeheartedly welcomes him!” Yang Kai replied, but wearing a solemn expression he continued, “However, Old Ning may wish to think twice. Right now Dragon Cave Mountain isn’t exactly a peaceful place to live. Perhaps soon…”

Before Yang Kai could finish speaking, Ning Xiang Chen smiled and waved, “What little friend wants to say, this old man can naturally guess, but this old man already has one foot in the grave so he has nothing left to fear other than dying alone without anyone realizing it, leaving a corpse in the wilderness to rot unattended to. If I can die here on Dragon Cave Mountain, it would still be my blessing, this is a good spot to be laid to rest.”

Yang Kai raised his brow slightly hearing this. Since the other party was willing to go so far, he naturally had no reason to refuse anymore, nodding firmly, “Good, then from now on Old Ning will hold the status of Foreign Elder on my Dragon Cave Mountain and enjoy the same treatment as Foreign Elder Chang and Foreign Elder Hao!”

“Haha, this Ning gratefully accepts!” Ning Xiang Chen laughed and cupped his fists.

Chang Qi and Hao An quickly offered their congratulations. Although the three of them had only met a short time ago, they had experienced fighting side-by-side already and formed a bond of friendship. As they chatted, Chang Qi and Hao An gave a brief description of what kind of treatment a Foreign Elder of Dragon Cave Mountain could enjoy, causing Ning Xiang Chen’s eyes to shine and his blood to boil.

When they were fighting Wu Xun from Demon Blood Temple just now, Ning Xiang Chen had seen what kind of benefits Chang Qi and Hao An enjoyed and realized it was far greater than a wanderer like him could hope to obtain.