Martial Peak

"Don't take it so seriously, Sir," the young man grinned, "I didn't mean to scold you. Alright, alright, I really need to buy something from this shop. Can you please let me in?"

It was uncertain if the casual words of the young man had some kind of magic in them, but after a short pause, the head guard actually made way for the couple.

The other City Lord's Mansion guards were looking at their Commander in bewilderment, secretly questioning his decision but they dared not speak out.

"What the hell!?" The Third-Order Dao Source Realm cultivator, who was monitoring Azure Sun Pavilion from the nearby teahouse, jumped up in anger. He immediately released his Divine Sense towards the Commander, and condemned, "What's wrong with you?"

"Sir Jia!" The Commander's face turned solemn after receiving the voice transmission.

"Didn't I tell you not to let anyone in? How dare you disobey this King's order!"

"I allowed someone in?" The Commander was shocked and soon, he remembered what he had just done. Wiping the cold sweat on his forehead as his face turned pale, he mumbled, "How could I have let someone in…"

He had no idea what happened just now. Although he was clear-headed, he could not resist the young man's request and obediently made way for the young man to enter Azure Sun Pavilion.

If it were not for Sir Jia's voice transmission, he probably would not be able to recall his actions.

"A Soul Technique!" Seeing the Commander's complexion, Sir Jia immediately deduced that he was affected by some kind of Soul Technique, which led him to act involuntarily.

"Sir Jia, what should we do now? Should this subordinate bring the team in and capture that man?" The Commander asked.

"Calm down. That man seems to be very strong. We don't know his purpose for coming here yet. Perhaps, he really just wanted to buy something. Let's continue to observe." Sir Jia replied.

"Yes!"

While Yang Kai and Zhang Ruo Xi were inside the shop, they looked around and found that it was truly small, with few goods on sale. The goods did not seem to be valuable and were messily placed around the shelves.

Two shop-hands, who had low cultivation, were sitting near the counter. They looked aggrieved, as if they had just lost their parents, and occasionally glanced at the guards outside, "It's over, it's over," one shop-hands mumbled, "What trouble did Shopkeeper cause? It's really over now!"

The two shop-hands were extremely nervous and did not even notice that Yang Kai and Zhang Ruo Xi had entered the shop.

After taking a brief glance at them, Yang Kai turned to the rear of the shop and headed straight towards the backyard, completely ignoring them.

After passing a corridor, Yang Kai arrived at a small garden. He proceeded further until he reached a certain room. He stood in front of the room and knocked at the door gently.

"Who!?" A woman's voice called out, one that sounded dreadfully exhausted, as if she had not slept for many days.

Yang Kai answered in a deep tone, "I'm here to buy something."

After a moment of silence, the woman inside responded, "This shop has faced some problems recently and it will be closed for some time. Please leave."

Yang Kai could not help rolling his eyes, he continued "This Young Master came from Southern Territory and travelled a great distance to buy something, and you're asking me to go back?"

"Southern Territory…" After a cry of realization and a gust of wind, the door flew open with a bang and a haggard-looking young woman abruptly appeared in front of Yang Kai.

This young woman seemed to be in her late twenties, was dressed decently, and even though her looks were not outstanding, she could still be considered quite pretty.

Perhaps troubled by something recently, dark circles rimmed her bloodshot eyes; however, she directed an exceedingly bright gaze towards Yang Kai at this moment, as if she were hoping for a miracle from him.

"Did you… really come from the Southern Territory?" The young woman asked nervously.

"Indeed." Yang Kai nodded.

He noticed the young woman was in the Second-Order Dao Source Realm and the aura she exuded seemed to be a bit lacking, meaning she definitely could not unleash the full potential of her cultivation at this time.

Yang Kai was not sure whether it was due to laxness in her cultivation or because there was something wrong with her foundation.

"Do you have any proof?" The young woman questioned suspiciously.

Yang Kai smiled faintly and took out his Azure Sun Golden Token, waving it in front of her.

The young woman's eyes lit up and her previous doubts and anxiousness disappeared, as if she had just reunited with a long-lost family member.

"Let's talk inside," the young woman made way for him.

Yang Kai nodded in agreement and walked into the room together with Zhang Ruo Xi.

The young woman looked around in worry, making sure there was no one hiding nearby, before finally closing the door and activating a few restrictions with a wave of her hand.

After she finished these preparations, Yang Kai turned to her with a gloomy face, "What trouble have you gotten into? Why are there so many people surrounding this shop, treating you like a criminal?"

Instead of answering Yang Kai's question immediately, the young woman solemnly took out a token from her Space Ring and handed it over to Yang Kai with her hands.

The token looked similar to Yang Kai's Azure Sun Golden Token, but Yang Kai's token was gold in colour while hers was bronze in colour, which symbolized the difference of their status.

Although Yang Kai was not familiar with the different rankings of the Azure Sun Temple's disciple tokens, he could still guess that gold should be the highest grade, followed by silver, then bronze. In other words, there was a two rank difference between him and this woman.

"Senior Brother, the name of this disciple is Lu Wen, I follow Elder Chen Qian."

Yang Kai raised his brow, because he was quite familiar with Chen Qian who was one of Azure Sun Temple's Elders and a First-Order Emperor. She was mainly responsible for the logistics and materials in Azure Sun Temple. Yang Kai had met Elder Chen several times, but this Elder Chen had often been more reserved and not spoken much.

"Is Senior Brother Xia Sheng?" Lu Wen asked Yang Kai quizzically.

Yang Kai curled his lip and snorted, "Can Xia Sheng be as handsome as me?"

Lu Wen could not help feeling slightly embarrassed at his narcissistic attitude. Her cheeks flushed when she asked again, "Are you Senior Xiao Bai Yi?"

"I'm not Xia Sheng, and I'm not Xiao Bai Yi either. My name is Yang Kai," Yang Kai said in exasperation.

"Senior Brother Yang…" Lu Wen frowned, she seemed to be unfamiliar with this name.

Yang Kai questioned, "If you are an Azure Sun Temple disciple, how could you not recognize the faces of Xia Sheng and Xiao Bai Yi? They are the top elite disciples of the Temple."

Lu Wen replied in embarrassment, "This Junior Sister left Azure Sun Temple many years ago and has not returned since, so I've never had the chance to meet those two Senior Brothers."

Yang Kai was surprised, "I see… Then why did you come to the Eastern Territory and start a shop here?"

Lu Wen answered, "I'm here on a mission for the Temple. This shop was opened as a front for my convenience. My duty here is to report everything that occurs here to my Honoured Master to support her operations."

"Explain in detail," Yang Kai pressed on with a deep voice.

"Although our Temple is based in the Southern Territory, it still needs to gather information about the other three territories. Therefore, a number of disciples are sent out to gather intelligence in each territory, and they will report to the Temple at specific intervals. This Junior Sister is the person in charge of this matter in Earth City. We usually will keep our names anonymous and our identities hidden so as not to expose our origins unless we are in life-threatening danger."

"There is such a thing?" Yang Kai was astonished.

Lu Wen smiled lightly, "Senior Brother Yang must be an elite disciple of the Sect, so you don't need to know about such trivial matters as your only task is to strengthen your own cultivation. This type of mission is usually handled by disciples who are not very talented or have no hope of raising their cultivation further in their lives."

"Such tasks take up a great deal of effort and time, so it would delay the disciples' cultivation. It is unrealistic to allow elite disciples to take part in them."

Yang Kai nodded in acknowledgement, "Many thanks for your hard work."

Lu Wen smiled slightly, "It's nothing. When our Senior Brothers and Sisters get stronger, the Sect will be more prosperous, and people like us will have a place to live and carry out our duties in safety. Not only our Azure Sun Temple, but this practice is also followed by all other great forces. Many disciples will travel to all parts of Star Boundary to collect information."

"Then what trouble have you gotten into now?" Yang Kai asked.

Lu Wen's face darkened, "It's not me who's in trouble, but Elder Gao."

Yang Kai was puzzled, "Elder Gao? Which Elder Gao?"

Suddenly he was startled, whispering, "Elder Gao, as in Gao Xue Ting?"

"En."

Yang Kai's face changed as he continued, "Has Elder Gao come to the Eastern Territory?"

"That's right, and she might be in life-threatening danger right now."

"What happened?" Yang Kai hurriedly asked.

"Relax, Senior Brother. I will explain everything to you."

Only after Lu Wen's explanation did Yang Kai understand the issue.

Lu Wen had been in Earth City for more than twenty years since she left Azure Sun Temple and had been collecting all kinds of information and passing it back to the Sect. For her own convenience, she opened a shop here; but instead of making money, the shop was actually a camouflage to cover up her real identity. As such, she did not put much effort into operating her business, which resulted in its current messy state.

Half a year ago, Lu Wen bought half of an animal skin from a downtrodden cultivator. The seller told her that it was handed down by his ancestors and there was an ancient secret hidden in it.

Lu Wen naturally would not believe this kind of nonsense and had only bought the animal skin out of compassion for the poor man.

After studying the animal skin for a notably long time, she still could not discover any clues about it. Still, she realized that there was something mysterious about it so she sent the animal skin together with the information that she collected back to Azure Sun Temple through a special channel.

Three months ago, Gao Xue Ting suddenly came to Earth City and asked her various questions about the animal skin.

It was only then that Lu Wen truly believed that the animal skin had some kind of profound background and seemed to truly contain some precious secret. Otherwise, how would it attract a Master like Gao Xue Ting to come here?

Lu Wen certainly did not hide anything and shared everything she knew when the Sect Elder questioned her.

Unfortunately, Gao Xue Ting did not get any useful clues from her.

In the days following her arrival, Gao Xue Ting had been studying the secrets hidden in the animal skin, and from time to time, she would leave Earth City for a while. However, Lu Wen had no idea of what she was doing.