Martial Peak

Five days later, Yang Kai and Qian Tong stood above a fresh corpse in front of them with truly ugly expressions.

This corpse did not belong to the Corpse Spirit Race, but instead was a Human cultivator. This person’s cultivation was not that high either, only First-Order Origin Returning Realm.

But this was the twenty-seventh body the mysterious Religion Master had seized!

It seemed that he did not suffer any damage to his Soul when he seized another host and could continue this process infinitely.

This was completely contrary to the understanding that Yang Kai had. When the physical body of a powerful master was destroyed, if that master’s Soul survived somehow, it could attempt to find a suitable body and seize it, but Soul Seizing was a very dangerous process. It was highly likely that in the process the foreign Soul would be defeated and swallowed up by the person they target. As a result, even if a Soul Seizing was successful, it would consume a massive amount of Spiritual Energy.

It was essentially impossible for someone to attempt to seize a second host in short order!

However, the mysterious Religion Master had completely broken this rule. In just five days, he had seized twenty-seven different hosts, and although Yang Kai was able to follow his trail and catch up to him each time he did, even if he and Qian Tong killed this new host, the Religion Master would simply move on to a new body!

After five days of pursuit, having still failed to kill the Religion Master, Yang Kai and Qian Tong both realized how difficult an opponent they were facing.

However, their efforts were not completely in vain.

Over time, they discovered that the Religion Master could not simply seize anyone’s body, only those he had implanted with a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect.

Yang Kai had contacted these Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insects before. The Xie Family’s Xie Li was controlled by a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect when he attacked Dragon Cave Mountain, ultimately leading to him self-destructing in an attempt to kill Yang Kai.

This strange insect was a unique Secret Technique of the Religion Master. Once a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect was implanted into someone, that individual would have no choice but to obey the Religion Master’s orders.

Clearly, he relied on this method to enslave unwilling subordinates, and now it seemed like they could also be used to perform Soul Seizing in an emergency!

As long as there was a Ten Thousand Poison Evil Insect host within a certain distance, his Soul could instantly reach its location, regardless of the limitations of space, and seize it for himself.

In addition to this knowledge, Yang Kai and Qian Tong also noticed that the Religion Master was choosing weaker and weaker hosts to seize as time went by.

In the beginning, the body’s he possessed were all Third-Order Origin Returning Realm masters or peak-level Corpse Generals, but after two days, he was forced to choose Second-Order Origin Realm cultivations, and now, he could only seize First-Orders!

Apparently, his Soul Seizing technique was not without flaws, possibly even dealing some damage to his Soul the more he used it. Even the Religion Master could not avoid such backlash entirely.

Nevertheless, Yang Kai and Qian Tong were exhausted from being run around in circles.

“Next! We cannot possibly do this forever! This old master does not believe he will be able to escape!” Qian Tong had a stomach full of grievances. He was now an Origin King, the undisputed strongest on Shadowed Star, but just as he had reached the proudest moment in his life, he was unable to slaughter this Religion Master, making him very angry.

Of course, Qian Tong was unaware that the Religion Master was a master who had reached far beyond the Origin King Realm.

“Have you found him yet?” Qian Tong turned his head and looked at Yang Kai.

After a few days of pursuit, Qian Tong also understood the strangeness of the Religion Master’s methods. In fact, if not for Yang Kai being here to track him, Qian Tong knew that he would not be able to kill this enemy to the last.

He was simply unable to trace the Religion Master’s Soul when it escaped.

Yang Kai closed his eyes to scan their surroundings. A moment later, his eyes shot open and he slashed his hand through the air to open a Void Crack.

In a dense jungle, a handsome but evil-looking young man fled hastily. This man seemed to only be around thirty years old and his body radiated the aura of a First-Order Origin Realm master; however, his expression was quite dishevelled and his eyes flashed with a bloodshot light.

As he fled, he did his best to conceal his aura while sweeping his surroundings with his Divine Sense.

There did not seem to be any signs of movement within thirty kilometres.

But this young man did not relax his vigilance because of this. On the contrary, he continued to flee as if something terrifying was chasing him.

His face was filled with cruel, unforgettable hatred and rage.

He was a famous character even in that place, with few daring to provoke him, but since arriving in this tiny Star Field and falling onto this Cultivation Star, his fortunes had only grown worse and worse for ten thousand years. First, his body was vaporized by Yang Yan, then he had to spend ten thousand years just to recover.

But now, just as he awoke once more, he found himself being hunted down by a mere Third-Order Origin Returning Realm trash.

In his heyday, he could rip such an opponent into ten thousand pieces with a simple glance, but now he had no choice but to flee.

The young man felt grief and anger, like a tiger being taunted by a dog after it left the mountain, or a dragon being toyed with by a shrimp in a shallow pond, making his blood boil and his breathing difficult.

His Soul escaping technique was unparalleled, and even an Origin King would not be able to discover any trace of it, but that damned brat named Yang Kai just so happened to cultivate the Dao of Space! If not for this, how could he have possibly been forced into such a desperate situation?

The Dao of Space was an esoteric field even in that place, with very few able to cultivate it. Even smashing his head on a rock couldn’t help him understand how there was someone in such a backwards place who had reached such a high level of comprehension in the Dao of Space that they could tear it and instantly cross thousands of kilometres.

Just as he was grumbling to himself, gnashing his teeth, a strange energy fluctuation suddenly appeared in front of him.

The young man’s face immediately turned grim and pale.

This situation had occurred several dozen times now, so he was no stranger to it, and he knew what was about to happen.

“Boy, you’ve forced my hand!” The young man’s eyes filled with sullenness, as if he had just made some kind of important decision, stopping in place, and waiting quietly.

The strange fluctuations became more and more obvious and soon, a pitch-black crack suddenly appeared, one filled with a swirling, chaotic nothingness.

Two figures immediately emerged from this tear in space, with Qian Tong at the lead and Yang Kai following close behind.

As soon as Qian Tong appeared, a powerful Divine Sense immediately locked onto the position of the handsome young man. Without even speaking any words, Qian Tong expanded his Domain and engulfed the young man, wrapping him in a field of wind blades that crashed towards him.

The cultivation of this young man was not high, only First-Order Origin Returning Realm, so Qian Tong didn’t even need to make a conscious attack as his Domain was enough to strangle him to death.

The young man, however, let out a fierce laugh as he shouted, “Humble ants, bear the supreme anger of this King!”

As these words fell, he opened his mouth and spat out a verdant coloured aura. This dark green aura twisted before condensing into a long sword emblazoned with complicated runes that made one dizzy just by staring at them.

This green long sword immediately and silently slashed through the air.

A shocking scene then appeared as Qian Tong’s Domain was directly smashed by this sword, shattering to pieces instantly.

At the same time, both Qian Tong and Yang Kai’s complexions changed dramatically. In their vision, the verdant long sword mysteriously vanished and broke through their Soul defences before directly entering their Knowledge Seas. Transforming back into the appearance of a sword, it slashed down like a bolt of lightning.

In an instant, both Yang Kai and Qian Tong felt their Knowledge Seas cut in half by this attack, raising a great storm in their minds.

The strength of their Spiritual Energy was instantly ground down.

Yang Kai and Qian Tong felt they had instantly lost more than a third of their Spiritual Energy.

Both of them cried out as their heads felt like they were being split in half, their vision blurring and almost passing out.

Both their complexions went pale as they had not expected their opponent to still have such a powerful card to play, hurriedly pushing their Saint Qi to defend themselves in anticipation of a follow-up attack.

After the young man released this attack, however, his face also turned white and his entire body trembled uncontrollably. He was about to take advantage of this opening to cut down Yang Kai and Qian Tong, but in the end, he was strong in will but weak in strength.

Fiercely cursing, the young man’s body suddenly exploded into dust and disappeared.

However, as it did, a Soul rushed out and wrapped around the green long sword before cutting open a Void Crack and fleeing into it.

Yang Kai stared in the direction this Soul fled, doing his best to try to track it, but a strange field had somehow blocked off the surrounding region, making it impossible for him to follow it.

Feeling the fierce, piercing pain in his head again, Yang Kai could not help crying out and quickly took out a jade bottle. Pouring out several pills, he gave half to Qian Tong before stuffing the remainder into his mouth, sitting down cross-legged, and meditating.

Upon seeing this, Qian Tong quickly stuffed these pills into his mouth and also closed his eyes to adjust his breathing.

After a full day, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes, a trace of fear still lingering in the depths of his eyes.

He had the Seven Coloured Soul Warming Lotus, so even though his Soul was damaged, it did not matter much as given enough time it would be restored.

On the contrary, Qian Tong seemed to have suffered significant damage. Even though he was an Origin King, having suffered a blow like this, he would need at least half a year to heal himself.

As if sensing Yang Kai’s gaze, Qian Tong also opened his eyes, his face slightly pale, and paused for a moment before asking, “Did he get away?”

Yang Kai nodded silently.

Qian Tong sighed heavily, “A terrible opponent indeed. This old master thought he was already invincible on Shadowed Star after breaking through to the Origin King Realm but now I have suffered such a big loss at his hands. En, there are so many astonishing talents out there still. What kind of artifact was that? Why was it so powerful?”

Yang Kai pondered for a moment before replying, “It was probably an Emperor Artifact.”

“Emperor Artifact?” Qian Tong frowned before checking their surroundings thoughtfully and nodding, “That makes sense, there is indeed a faint Emperor Pressure lingering here, but why does it feel like this Emperor Pressure is different from the one emitted by the Emperor Garden?”

Yang Kai glanced at him as he mused to himself that there was more than one Great Emperor-level existence in this world, but he held his tongue.

It was this faint Emperor Pressure which had blocked Yang Kai’s tracing, allowing the Religion Master to escape.