Martial Peak

Chapter 2049, A Strange Test

Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

It was dark all around. Yang Kai felt his body free-falling constantly as if there was no end to this. When he looked up, he couldn't find even a ray of light.

Yang Kai furrowed his brow slightly. He might have been a little taken aback by the situation he was in, but he wasn't that alarmed.

What happened before in the stone room allowed him to understand one thing…

All those stone furnaces should be the triggers that activate on touch. That was why he couldn't find any clues when he used his Divine Sense. Only when he touched the stone furnace was the trap in the stone room finally triggered.

In light of this, the Raging Fire Temple disciples should have fallen into this trap. That was the reason why the stone room above was empty.

[I wonder if Kang Si Ran would also follow me down. And would there be Raging Fire Temple cultivators below?]

He didn't dare to be careless. He was silently circulating his Source Qi, ready to attack at a moment's notice if he found something wrong.

Not long after, he saw a ray of light coming from below. Yang Kai hurriedly spread his Divine Sense to scan, and a strange look appeared on his face in the next moment.

Because there was another stone room below. However, it was a little different from his imagination. There weren't any Raging Fire Temple cultivators in the stone room. It too was empty.

After a while, Yang Kai fell into this stone room and he promptly looked around. The stone room was completely empty; there was even a stone furnace this time.

Before Yang Kai could take a closer look, an unusual energy fluctuation suddenly appeared. Soon, a stone platform-like thing appeared out of nowhere in the centre of the room.

The stone platform slowly rose, causing lots of rumbles. While watching, Yang Kai kept his guard up all the while. The stone platform finally stabilized, but up till now, Yang Kai still didn't notice any danger.

He furrowed his brow, slowly making his way toward the stone platform.

He came before the stone platform and went up the stairs, soon reaching the top of the stone platform.

"An Array!?" Yang Kai raised his brow. He looked at the mysterious pattern that had appeared on the flat surface of the stone platform, surprised. He could faintly sense a sliver of Space Force fluctuations originating from this pattern.

"A Transmission Array!?" Yang Kai was greatly taken by surprise. But in light of this, he was now sure that if this Array on the stone platform activated, it should teleport him to another place.

However, this Transmission Array was very different from what he had learned. So, Yang Kai didn't dare to rush. He paid even closer attention to it, trying to see some clues from it.

As he looked carefully, Yang Kai found a line of small text under the Array, covered by the dust.

He cautiously reached out and brushed away the dust as the line of small text immediately emerged before his eyes.

"The Array can be activated by pouring Fire Attribute energy into the Array!" Yang Kai read, muttering to himself. He couldn't help but frown.

[Clearly, this is a Transmission Array but why does it need Fire Attribute energy?] Yang Kai was a little confused. [And what's the point of having such a special Array in this stone room!?]

Yang Kai couldn't figure it out after thinking over it for a while. So, he stopped thinking about it.

He had a Fire Attribute type of energy. Whether it was the Conflagration Knowledge Sea or Fire Sword Qi, they were both categorised as Fire Attribute energy. However, he didn't rush to activate the array and rather just stood there, waiting patiently.

He was waiting for Kang Si Ran, waiting for him to come down before moving together.

But to Yang Kai's disappointment, even after waiting for half an hour, Kang Si Ran was nowhere to be seen.

[When I triggered the stone furnace's trap, Kang Si Ran must have seen me fall. And judging by his personality, he would not ignore me for sure.] Yang Kai was sure that Kang Si Ran would certainly trigger the stone furnace mechanism.

However, Kang Si Ran was nowhere to be found. There was only one explanation to this: Kang Si Ran must have fallen into another stone room.

[There should be more than one stone room here. Otherwise, when I fell down, I should have seen at least one of the Raging Fire Temple disciples.]

[Maybe everyone who fell was separated so that they couldn't work together.]

Of course, this was only Yang Kai's conjecture based on the situation he was in. He couldn't verify if it was true.

Since he couldn't wait for Kang Si Ran, Yang Kai was left with no choice but to act alone. Considering all this, he no longer hesitated. He stretched his hand out toward the Array and mobilized the Fire Attribute energy in his body, infusing it into the Array.

A scorching hot aura immediately appeared in the stone room, causing the entire room to momentarily tremble. Suddenly, the Array lines on the stone platform lit up.

Seeing this, Yang Kai knew that there was no mistake. This Array indeed required Fire Attribute energy to start up. Then, he started pushing the Fire Attribute energy in his body even more madly.

*BAM BOOM BAM…* A series of rumbles resounded as the Array on the stone platform flickered with dazzling flashes, enveloping Yang Kai. And when the light dissipated, Yang Kai had disappeared.

"This…" Yang Kai turned his head and looked around. He found that where he was now was no different from the stone room he was before. Had he not felt that he had just teleported, Yang Kai would have thought that he had never moved.

"What the hell is this place!?" Yang Kai started frowning. He felt so confused.

In a normal cave mansion of a predecessor, there were many defensive and restriction-type Spirit Arrays. This was the norm, and there was no cultivator who didn't arrange things like this in his or her cave mansion. However, the cave mansion before him was a little strange. Many stone rooms were exactly the same. The first stone room he just came through only required the infusion of the Array with Fire Attribute energy to safely pass. There wasn't any difficulty or danger, whatsoever. [I wonder what's special about this stone room.]

Just as he was puzzling over, familiar rumbles rang again. The next moment, Yang Kai noticed that another stone platform just like the previous one had appeared in the centre of the stone room.

He furrowed his brow. But all he could do was slowly ascend the stone platform with the mentality of taking things as they come.

Looking around, Yang Kai couldn't help but let out a soft cry in surprise.

Because there wasn't any Array on the stone platform this time around. Instead, many grooves had appeared.

There were different kinds of herbs in these grooves.

These herbs had been stored with a special technique, preserving them for thousands of years without decaying. More importantly, their medicinal properties were still intact; they appeared as if they had just been picked up.

Yang Kai took a look and found that most of these herbs were foreign. He could only recognize three out of ten; he couldn't recognize the rest.

Afterwards, he shifted his attention to the bottom part of the stone platform. And as expected, there he saw another line of small text. After dusting off the dust, Yang Kai read aloud, staring at the line of small text, "Select fifteen poisonous herbs and the Spirit Array can be activated!"

"Select fifteen!?" Yang Kai was greatly shocked. He carefully counted all the herbs on the stone platform. He found that all the herbs added to be only twenty-five, that's all. In other words, more than half of these herbs were poisonous.

[What does the owner of this cave mansion want? Why did he give such a difficult problem?] Yang Kai was left completely confused.

He shook his head. All he could do was immerse himself deep into his mind and intently look at the twenty-five herbs in front of him.

Although the text on the stone platform didn't explain the consequences of choosing the wrong one, Yang Kai knew better not to test it out. Whether this cave mansion was left by Gong Sun Mu or not, it certainly belonged to an Emperor Realm master.

Yang Kai couldn't speculate the means of an Emperor Realm master. Once he made the wrong choice, he might fall here.

He didn't dare to play with his life. Thus, he became extremely serious.

"Hmm, this Heavenly Heart Orchid is poisonous. And so is this Filthy Shade Grass…" Yang Kai, after looking at them for a while, he first took the herbs he recognized from the groove and set them aside.

He was very cautious throughout the process, but since he didn't trigger any restriction, it seemed that he had chosen the right one.

However, he didn't recognize the rest of the herbs. On the one hand, it was because of his superficial knowledge of the Star Boundary's products, and on the other, it was also related to how foreign these herbs were to him.

Even the native Alchemists of the Star Boundary would not dare to say that they knew all these herbs, if they were here.

However, as an Alchemist, Yang Kai had studied the nature of herbs. The Alchemical properties of every herb had their own rules and characteristics. So, even if he didn't recognize most of the herbs, it didn't prevent him from judging whether these herbs were toxic or not.

He leaned closer to the herbs and carefully sniffed them. Very soon, Yang Kai had selected several more poisonous herbs from them.

The toxicity of these herbs was very subtle. Most people couldn't judge by their smell. Only an Alchemist, someone who dealt with herbs all the time, or people who had studied herbs, could judge them.

After tossing around a bit more, Yang Kai chose eight more. However, there were still more than half of the fifteen herbs left to choose from.

Unfortunately, the toxicity of the rest of the herbs couldn't be judged by their smell.

Yang Kai thought for a while before he came to the conclusion that he could only taste them himself and judge them by the reaction from his tongue and body.

He hesitated no longer after having come to this conclusion. He reached out and tore a very small piece from the petal of a light blue flower. He then put it in his mouth and started chewing.

The next moment, Yang Kai's expression changed as he suddenly turned pale. While chewing the small piece of petal, an extremely cold sensation suddenly numbed his mouth. It almost froze his tongue.

A panicked Yang Kai hurriedly circulated his Source Qi and immediately dispelled it.

"Although it's very strong, this one is not poisonous!" After a while, Yang Kai looked at the light blue flower with a look of fear. He had no idea what kind of herb would contain this kind of terrifying coldness.

Since he had made the confirmation, he could only cast his gaze on another herb.

Following suit, he tore a small piece and stuffed it into his mouth. The next moment, Yang Kai sat cross-legged as his face turned black and blue alternatively. His facial features were extremely distorted as if he was suffering extremely cruel torture.

After the time it takes for an entire incense to burn, he opened his mouth and spurted a stream of black blood. His aura had also fallen a lot.

"What a fearsome poison!" Yang Kai's face was filled with lingering fear. He had just chewed just a very tiny piece of it and yet he was poisoned. If he had taken the entire herb, he would have surely died at once.