Martial Peak

This scene was not just happening in High Heaven Sect though. All of Shadowed Star’s cultivators were staring up into the sky towards the same spot at this moment.

The Emperor Garden!

Right now, the Emperor Garden was releasing a dazzling five-coloured light as it hovered quietly high up in the sky, clouds drifting around it, making it somewhat difficult to make out.

At the same time that this change in the Emperor Garden occurred, an invisible coercion appeared.

Emperor Pressure! Fortunately, this Emperor Pressure was not too strong, otherwise, at least eighty percent of cultivators on Shadowed Star would have already collapsed.

*Weng…*

A buzzing sound echoed across all of Shadowed Star and jade tokens the size of one’s palm exuding soft white light appeared. Even if these jade tokens had been stored in cultivator’s Space Rings, seemingly attracted by some mysterious force, they flew out all on their own.

The owners of these Emperor Jades reached out and grabbed hold of them hurriedly, but the instant they did, an indescribable feeling spread across each of their bodies, causing them shock and joy.

The Emperor Garden was about to open!

Although no one told them this explicitly, when they held onto their respective Emperor Jades, these cultivators were somehow able to sense this truth. Since the Emperor Garden first appeared, everyone had been waiting for more than two years for it to open, and now, finally, it was going to.

This was a huge opportunity; one countless people couldn’t help feeling exuberant about.

Inside High Heaven Sect, Yang Kai’s figure flickered and appeared beside Yang Yan and the others before he too turned a solemn gaze skyward.

“Yang Kai!” Yang Yan called out, her red lips opening lightly, seemingly wanting to say something, but before she could, Yang Kai smiled at her and simply said, “I know.”

Yang Yan nodded lightly and said nothing more.

Although Qian Tong and the others wanted to ask if Yang Kai had managed to finish consolidating his cultivation, it was clearly not the time for such questions, so they all remained silent.

Time continued to pass, the five coloured glow surrounding the magnificent Emperor Garden high up in the sky was suddenly drawn into it and seemingly absorbed in front of everyone’s eyes.

Immediately afterwards, three beams of white light shot straight down from the bottom of the Emperor Garden at an extremely slow speed.

Seeing this situation, Yang Kai’s heart froze as his face paled.

When the first Emperor Jade appeared, a similar situation had occurred, and as a result, Dragon Cave Mountain’s Mountain Defending Array had been torn apart. Now that three such beams of light were descending from the Emperor Garden; would High Heaven Sect suffer the same fate?

Fortunately, Yang Kai’s worries turned out to be unnecessary, as although the three beams of light shot straight down, they stopped about half-way to the ground. After these three beams of light disappeared, however, they each left something which radiated a brilliant light floating mid-air.

Everyone held their breaths as they stared towards these floating objects.

Although the distance was quite far, everyone had a certain level of cultivation, so they were naturally able to clearly see what these objects were. To everyone’s surprise though, what remained after the three beams of light disappeared was three white jade discs strangely hovering high up in the sky.

These discs were not large, only a few metres in diameter each, but engraved on each of these jade white platforms was a complicated set of flashing lines. Clearly these lines composed some type of Spirit Array. The distance between each of these discs was at least a hundred kilometres.

“Space Array!” Yang Yan’s beautiful eyes flashed an unusual light before she thoughtfully remarked, “It looks like we need to pass through one of those three Space Arrays to enter the Emperor Garden.”

“So that’s how it is!” Qian Tong and others showed a look of enlightenment.

These days, they had all been pondering over how they were supposed to enter the Emperor Garden after it opened. After all, from what they could see, the Emperor Garden did not have any kind of clear entrance, causing countless masters on Shadowed Star to knit their brows in frustration.

All of them had guessed entering the Emperor Garden had something to do with the Emperor Jades which had appeared not long ago, but now it seems their idea was completely wrong.

When the Emperor Garden opened, it deployed three Space Arrays. Apparently, all one needed to do was use one of these Space Arrays to enter the Emperor Garden! The Emperor Jades were simply used to resist the omnipresent Emperor Pressure.

Without an Emperor Jade, there was no way to get close to these three Space Arrays!

Everything suddenly became clear.

“This old master will be going on ahead!” Just as everyone was lost in thought, an aged voice called out from the side and two figures flew up into the sky, turning into a stream of light that headed towards one of the Space Arrays.

Naturally, these two were the Sect Master and Great Elder of Floating Mist Palace!

Now that the Emperor Garden had finally opened and these Space Arrays had appeared, they were reluctant to delay any further. The one who strikes first gains the advantage so to speak, so these two decisively set out.

In exchange for an Emperor Jade, these two had won the right to depart for the Emperor Garden from High Heaven Sect’s Front Court, granting them nearly a half-day advantage over the rest of Shadowed Star’s cultivators.

These two could use this half-day to explore more places and obtain more treasures!

Moments after these two old men departed for the Emperor Garden, two other groups of people flew up into the air from within High Heaven Sect’s territory; unfortunately for them, their locations didn’t grant them as much advantage as the pair from Floating Mist Palace.

These two groups of people had also paid a massive price to purchase the other two departure spots from High Heaven Sect. Yang Kai had obtained his Divine Nullification Sand from one of them in fact.

At the same time, outside the Flowing Flame Sand Field, the groups from the various great forces of Shadowed Star also rose into the air.

However, if these people wanted to get close to the Emperor Garden’s Space Arrays, they needed to first get around the flame barrier formed from the Three Blazing Flame Rings, a process that would take a significant amount of time.

Seeing that Floating Mist Palace had already gone on ahead, Qian Tong could not help turning an anxious look towards Yang Kai.

Yang Kai understood what he wanted to say, grinned, and nodded, “Let’s head out as well.”

Qian Tong was overjoyed and immediately pushed his Saint Qi along with Fei Zhi Tu to wrap up Wei Gu Chang and fly upward.

The four from Coloured Glass Sect followed suit, as did the three from Clear Sky Sect.

“Elders, while we’re away, I’ll have to trouble you to look after the Sect!” Yang Kai turned to Chang Qi and the others and said lightly.

“As Sect Master commands!” Chang Qi and the others responded in unison.

In truth, there was not anything for those remaining in High Heaven Sect to worry about. Although Yang Kai, Yang Yan, and Ye Xi Yun were all leaving for the Emperor Garden, dramatically reducing High Heaven Sect’s available strength, thanks to its unique location, even if someone had malicious intentions, there was simply no way they could break through the Three Blazing Flame Rings’ barrier and launch an attack.

High Heaven Sect could be said to be perfectly safe.

“Let’s go!” Yang Kai glanced over at Yang Yan before his figure flickered and disappeared, reappearing a thousand metres away in an instant.

Yang Kai didn’t know what method Yang Yan used to accomplish it, but the speed she displayed was not inferior to his at all, and needless to say, Ye Xi Yun was easily able to keep up with the two of them with her peak Third-Order Origin Returning Realm cultivation.

The trio flew straight up, not showing any of the tension or expectation the others around them were displaying. In fact, whether it was Yang Kai or Yang Yan, both wore incredibly calm looks upon their faces.

Yang Kai did not feel rushed because he had already visited the Emperor Garden once and knew a fair bit about the situation inside. With this kind of prior experience, he would not need to waste time searching around for opportunities like the others.

Yang Yan, on the other hand, was the Great Emperor’s Soul Clone. With the Emperor Garden being the Great Emperor’s personal residence, although she did not know much about it now, as soon as she entered it, her dust-laden memories would no doubt rise to the surface. In a sense, no one was more familiar with the Emperor Garden than she was.

Affected by the two of them, Ye Xi Yun’s excitement gradually calmed down as well.

“Yang Kai, what’s your condition like now?” Yang Yan asked with some concern as they continued their upwards flight.

“I haven’t had time to fully consolidate my cultivation, but it’s not a problem. A few battles should be enough to completely stabilize my realm,” Yang Kai grinned, not showing any signs of concern.

Generally speaking, after a cultivator broke through to a new Great Realm, it would take them a certain amount of time to stabilize their foundation. The most common and safest way to do this was through a long period of calm meditation; however, engaging in battle with others was another option, one that carried far greater risks but was arguably faster.

Yang Kai never worried about such things though as he had complete confidence in being able to stabilize his realm through battle.

“En, that sounds good!” Yang Yan gently nodded.

After this brief exchange, the trio fell silent as they continued to fly upwards. The Emperor Garden seemed to be suspended directly above High Heaven Sect, but after really rushing towards it, Yang Kai found that it seemed to be floating several hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, and no matter how high up he flew, it still remained beyond his reach.

Moreover, the further up he flew, the greater the ambient Emperor Pressure around him became. Soon, the Emperor Pressure became so powerful it was almost tangible, making Yang Kai feel like he was swimming through mud, his Saint Qi circulation even becoming sluggish.

Yang Kai was not discouraged by this and instead rejoiced, his eyes lighting up as a thoughtful and eager expression filled his face.

After flying a thousand metres upwards, the intensity of the Emperor Pressure suddenly increased, and Yang Yan and Ye Xi Yun had to stimulate the effect of their Emperor Jades, forming white light halos around their bodies to protect themselves.

Yang Kai, however, just came to a stop.

“What’s wrong?” Yang Yan turned a puzzledled at look at him, not understanding why he had suddenly decided to stop here at this critical moment.

“You go on ahead! I want to cultivate here,” Yang Kai looked over at her.

Yang Yan frowned for a moment but soon showed a look of understanding, “Do you want to use the Emperor Pressure here to condense your Shi?”

Ye Xi Yun was shocked as soon as this remark came out.

“Yup!” Yang Kai did not try to deny it, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I want to seize it!”

When he had gone to rescue Qian Tong with Fei Zhi Tu and the others, upon entering Fallen Emperor Mountain, Ning Xiang Chen had told Yang Kai that one day, when he broke through to the Origin Returning Realm, he could use the Emperor Pressure which filled Fallen Emperor Mountain and condense his Shi!

Shi condensed with the assistance of Emperor Pressure seemed to be much stronger than the Shi of an ordinary cultivator, providing incredible benefits for one’s future cultivation; however, such rumours had yet to be truly confirmed by anyone.

At that time, Yang Kai had decided that regardless of whether these rumours were true or not, when he broke through to the Origin Realm, he would go to Fallen Emperor Mountain.

If things were as rumoured, naturally that would be best, but if not, it didn’t matter. In any case, Emperor Pressure really could help a cultivator condense their Shi, this was a fact recognized by everyone.

However, since the Emperor Garden appeared, the Emperor Pressure which had always been present inside Fallen Emperor Mountain had disappeared, so if Yang Kai wanted to use Emperor Pressure to help condense his Shi, this would probably be his only chance. If he were to miss this opportunity, it would be impossible in the future to find such favourable conditions again.