Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain &Dhael Ligerkeys

In Room A1, Jiang Chang Feng looked helpless, knowing that Gong Sun Liang had thrown this to him to clean up and causing him to curse silently to himself.

On the stage, Li Nuo waited for a while, but seeing that Gong Sun Liang still had no intention of increasing the price, she began the countdown joyfully. After a full three count, the unknown Artifact Refining material went to Yang Kai.

When the maidservant brought the unknown material to Room A5, Yang Kai directly stuffed it into his Space Ring, his face filling with joy.

Hua You Meng was very curious, wondering what secrets this material had that it could actually make Yang Kai so happy.

The auction then came to an end, and the cultivators who came to participate left one after another. After most people had gone, Jiang Chang Feng stealthily went to find Li Nuo to retrieve the Saint Crystals that Gong Sun Liang had previously given to her.

That was 1.1 billion Saint Crystals, so they could not just be abandoned.

In Room A2, Zi Wu Ji paced back and forth uneasily, looking up from time to time, as if waiting for something.

After a long time, the door was opened wide and Ji Jun’s figure was revealed.

Zi Wu Ji’s expression shook as he asked urgently, “Old Ji, how did things go?”

Ji Jun grinned, cupped his fists, and said, “This old man has not failed Second Young Master. Both matters were successful.”

“Really?” Zi Wu Ji was overjoyed, “Excellent! After everything is settled, this Young Lord will not forget Old Ji’s valuable contributions!”

Ji Jun just shook his head and said, “Second Young Master is too serious. This old master has watched over you since you were but a small boy, so doing this much is only natural. There is no need to give this old master any credit.”

Saying so, he took out a jade bottle and said, “Second Young Master, please have a look. This is the Origin King Pill that this old master just bought from Lady Li Nuo. Lady Li Nuo offered her thanks to Second Young Master for lending his aid to her during a difficult situation and decided to sell this Origin King Pill to Second Young Master at the last price you bid, 600 million Saint Crystals.”

“Oh?” A look of surprise flashed across Zi Wu Ji’s eyes, “Was Li Nuo always so bold?”

Ji Jun also wore a suspicious expression on his face, “There is no good or evil in business, and Li Nuo is a shrewd businesswoman, taking the initiative to abandon 400 million Saint Crystals… this old master does not believe she doesn’t have a reason… Perhaps she is acquainted with that Sir.”

Zi Wu Ji thoughtfully said, “What Old Ji means is that she is thanking me for assisting that Sir by giving me such a big discount?”

“Besides this, I cannot think of another reason!” Ji Jun nodded sincerely.

“Is that so,” Zi Wu Ji pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement with Ji Jun’s speculation, “If that is the case, then we need to give greater care to this Clear Sky Auction House. En, enough about this for now though, what about the other matter I asked you to do?”

“That Sir has agreed. I have asked Lady Li Nuo to arrange a secret room for Second Young Master and him to meet privately. Please come with me, Second Young Master!”

Zi Wu Ji’s eyes flashed with joy as he quickly left with Ji Jun.

Behind Clear Sky Auction House, in a secret room with multiple barriers isolating it, Li Nuo and Hua You Meng stood quietly outside. Not long after, Zi Wu Ji and Ji Jun arrived.

The two women hurriedly saluted with Li Nuo smiling and saying, “That Sir is inside. Second Young Master, please.”

“Many thanks, Lady Li Nuo,” Zi Wu Ji cupped his fists politely.

“Second Young Master is too polite, it was but a small effort.”

“Regardless, this Young Lord will not forget what happened today. If there is a chance in the future, he will certainly repay this favour!”

Li Nuo smiled and did not say anything more.

Zi Wu Ji then brought Ji Jun and stepped forward.

Inside the room, Yang Kai sat alone on a chair, his eyes closed tightly, as if he was comprehending something.

Seeing this scene, Zi Wu Ji immediately held his breath and motioned to Ji Jun, signalling for him to go out.

Ji Jun frowned and said in a low voice, “Second Young Master…”

“Old Ji, I have a sense of discretion,” Zi Wu Ji looked at Ji Jun sincerely.

Seeing this, the latter had no choice but to withdraw.

Soon, there was only Yang Kai and Zi Wu Ji left in the room. Yang Kai did not move, didn’t open his eyes, and didn’t speak, so Zi Wu Ji didn’t dare to disturb him rashly, instead just standing back and waiting quietly.

He mistakenly thought that Yang Kai was comprehending something, but in reality, Yang Kai had sent his consciousness into the Small Sealed World.

Inside the Small Sealed World, there was no one else besides Yang Kai’s huge Embodiment, Firebird Liu Yan and Stone Puppet Xiao Xiao.

The Embodiment was formed by refining the entire floating continent and was naturally far too big to fit inside a Space Ring. Only an Emperor Artifact like the Small Sealed World was capable of accommodating it.

Since the last time he had collected his Embodiment, Yang Kai had not paid much attention to it, so at this moment, Yang Kai suddenly realized that his Embodiment had actually become much smaller.

Yang Kai was ecstatic. It seemed that as time passed, his Embodiment would continue to purge the impurities from its body, so although it was becoming smaller, its strength was actually growing.

This was similar to Artifact Refining in a sense, and the innate Divine Ability of the Stone Puppet clan was enough for the Embodiment to accomplish it. It seemed that in the future, it would become smaller and smaller.

Of course, it couldn’t return to the size of Xiao Xiao’s natural state, and Yang Kai did not have any desire to see that. As long as its size of his Embodiment could be reduced by half, that would be enough. The current Embodiment was so massive it gave any enemy it faced a strong sense of oppression, but being too large also made it inconvenient to move about, which was a negative.

Liu Yan was still devouring and refining some strands of Sun’s True Fire, an extremely time-consuming process, but with each successful refinement, her strength would noticeably increase.

Xiao Xiao was doing something similar.

Xiao Xiao and Liu Yan were two of Yang Kai’s biggest supporters, so he could not favour one over the other. Now that he had allowed Liu Yan to absorb as much Sun’s True Fire as she wanted, he could not allow Xiao Xiao to fall behind.

But Xiao Xiao’s actions were a little different from Liu Yan’s. Liu Yan would absorb a strand of Sun’s True Fire, then refine and absorb it into her body to increase her strength, while Xiao Xiao would directly swallow the Sun’s True Essence!

This approach was more domineering and dangerous than Liu Yan’s, but it had higher growth potential.

When Yang Kai arrived, his two big helpers were working hard cultivating, but even after so many years of consumption, the piece of Sun’s True Essence remained essentially unchanged, in the same exact state Yang Kai had first found it, exuding a terrifying heat.

Worthy of being refined from the core of a Sun Star, it was truly a priceless treasure. The energy contained inside this small fist-sized ore was impossible to estimate.

Yang Kai brought the unknown Artifact Refining material into the Small Sealed World with him, and with a thought, summoned both Xiao Xiao and Liu Yan.

The next moment, Liu Yan in her human form appeared in front of Yang Kai and said lightly, “Greetings Master, what orders does Master have?”

“You two, swallow and refine the outer layer of material from this thing,” Yang Kai pointed to the unknown material that he spent two Origin King Pills to obtain.

“This is…” Liu Yan stared at the melon-sized ore for a moment before a look of astonishment appeared on her face, “Master, what is this? Why do I feel that it is of great help to me!”

“The outer layer is Phoenix Star Silver!” Yang Kai smiled lightly.

During the auction, one cultivator had speculated that this was a piece of Phoenix Star Silver, and he was not wrong. Phoenix Star Silver was formed when an Ancient Divine Spirit True Phoenix used its flames to smelt together various types of ores and left behind some of its aura inside the resulting ingot, making it extremely valuable.

Liu Yan was originally an Artifact Spirit and her innate form had been that of a Firebird. In this world though, the noblest species of Firebird was naturally the Ancient Divine Spirit True Phoenix!

This was also the reason she could feel that the outer layer of Phoenix Star Silver was of great help to her. If she could devour and refine this Phoenix Star Silver, she might be able to comprehend some slight inheritance of the True Phoenix which formed it.

“The outer layer?” Liu Yan showed a thoughtful look, “That means there is something inside?”

“En, leave what’s inside of it, it’s useful to me!” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully.

“Master, what is inside this thing?”

“An Origin Essence Crystal!” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes and uttered a few words solemnly.

“Origin Essence Crystal?” Liu Yan was shocked, “The Origin Essence Crystal that only a Third-Order Origin King can condense?”

“Indeed!” Yang Kai nodded heavily. Although he was now a Second-Order Origin King, he had only just broken through to this realm and was ignorant about how to go about forming an Origin Essence Crystal of his own.

However, he had at least come into contact with a real Origin Essence Crystal before!

The mission entrusted to him by Monster Emperor Star’s Red Moon Tribal Lord was to enter the Blood Prison Trial and obtain the Origin Essence Crystal of Monster King Mad Crocodile!

However, that Origin Essence Crystal was from a Monster Race master, so in terms of form, it more closely resembled a Monster Core. What existed inside this Phoenix Star Silver was no doubt the Origin Essence Crystal of a Human Race master!

It was for this reason that he had spared no expense to compete with Gong Sun Liang for it!

Yang Kai believed that even if Gong Sun Liang did not know what was inside the outer layer of Artifact Refining material was an Origin Essence Crystal, he definitely knew it had extraordinary value, which was why he kept raising the price.

In that auction room, only he and Gong Sun Liang had reached the Second-Order Origin King Realm, and only their Divine Senses could pass through the outer layer of Phoenix Star Silver to see a trace of what really lay inside. No one else was capable of this, making it impossible for anyone else to judge the true value of this Phoenix Star Silver.

The biggest difference, however, was that Yang Kai was certain about what was inside while Gong Sun Liang only had a guess.

If Gong Sun Liang had been certain, there was no way he would have given up so easily. In all likelihood, he would have fought Yang Kai to the bitter end to obtain it.

An Origin Essence Crystal was of unimaginable value to an Origin King Realm cultivator as it could provide great assistance in making a breakthrough from the Second-Order to the Third-Order. Chi Yue had asked Yang Kai to help her obtain the Origin Essence Crystal from Mad Crocodile for this exact reason.

The current Yang Kai was comparable to Chi Yue from that time, so this Origin Essence Crystal was of great use to him.

Throughout the entire Star Field, how many Third-Order Origin Kings were there? These people were all old monsters who the general public didn’t even know were still alive. When these old monsters really reached the end of their lives, they would choose to die in seclusion, causing their Origin Essence Crystals to become lost.

As such, an Origin Essence Crystal was a treasure that simply could not be bought with money.

Yang Kai was able to obtain this Origin Essence Crystal because of pure luck. Compared with the Origin Essence Crystal that existed inside, the value of Phoenix Star Silver was not worth mentioning, so Yang Kai generously gave it to Liu Yan and Xiao Xiao to swallow and refine. Phoenix Star Silver was of great use to Xiao Xiao, while the True Phoenix aura contained in the Phoenix Star Silver was of great significance to Liu Yan. Coupled with the Sun’s True Essence, Yang Kai believed that his two big helpers would see even greater improvement in the future.

As for why this Origin Essence Crystal was wrapped in Phoenix Star Silver, Yang Kai did not know.

Perhaps a Third-Order Origin King was burnt to death by a True Phoenix many years ago, causing their Origin Essence Crystal to fuse together with some nearby ore.

This was nothing more than a guess, but it was probably close to the truth.

It was precisely because of the existence of the Origin Essence Crystal inside that the colour of this Phoenix Star Silver was so unique.