Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

The people surrounding Yuan Wu continued to clamour noisily. He endured it for a while until he couldn't stand it anymore and roared, "Shut up. All of you!"

Everybody immediately fell silent at those words as they turned to look at him. He swept a cold gaze over the crowd before speaking through gritted teeth, "I've gotten the gist of it, but I'm not too sure about the finer details either. Let me explain once I've figured it out."

After saying that, he took out the Space Ring Fu Qi had given to him and carefully studied its contents.

Meanwhile, everybody watched him carefully to observe his reactions. They saw his expression turning into one of surprise, followed by one of glee. Then, his expression darkened again. After several more changes of expression, his face regained that bitter expression from before.

He waved his large hand and took out something that looked like an animal skin from the Space Ring to look at it carefully. The moment he laid eyes on it, he let out a soft exclamation of surprise.

The Emperor Realm Masters surrounding him couldn't curb their curiosity anymore and leaned in for a closer look and their expressions changed after looking at what was written on the animal skin.

"What is this?"

"It looks like a palace."

"It sure is large."

"Huh? Even the construction materials have specific requirements."

"What does this mean? Were we brought here to build a palace?"

"No way! Why would the Dragon Clan need to build a palace? I've never heard of the Dragon Clan having such needs before."

"Unbelievable. This is just unbelievable. If this palace is built, there won't be another one like it across the entire Star Boundary!"

"Green Gold Purple Copper, Ice Spirit Snow Jade, Heavenly Crystal Meteor Sand… Hey, these are all materials for refining Emperor Rank Artifacts. A-A-Are we really building a palace with these?! Isn't it too lavish?!"

After seeing what was written on the animal skin, the group of Emperor Realm Masters immediately became a little uneasy and their expressions changed as a result.

Those gathered around the periphery couldn't see the drawings on the paper, but their eyes also widened in surprise when they heard what was being said. They looked like they were in disbelief, their faces twitching slightly from the shock.

Green Gold Purple Copper? Ice Spirit Snow Jade? Heavenly Crystal Meteor Sand? One after another, those highly impactful terms sounded in their ears like thunderbolts, rendering them stupid from the shock.

Although they had always lived on Dragon Island and never communicated with the outside world before, that did not mean that they were ignorant of the ways of the world. The Alchemists and Artifact Refiners in Half-Dragon City had everything they needed. Besides, there was no shortage of cultivation materials on Dragon Island, so as long as they did not infringe on the benefits or boundaries of Dragon Palace, they were allowed to move about freely in this Small World. Therefore, they all knew what these materials meant.

All of these were extremely rare Artifact Refining materials, and any one of them was incredibly expensive. Moreover, they were extremely hard to find. If an Emperor Realm Master could get their hands on these materials, they could use them to greatly improve the Emperor Artifacts that they owned.

However, the voices in their ears seemed to be saying that these materials that were so rare to the point where they were almost non-existent were actually going to be used to build a palace! How could that be? Their hearts were filled with doubt and they did not dare to believe what they were hearing.

In an instant, everybody's gaze turned to Yuan Wu, hoping he would give them an answer.

Even Yang Kai was surprised. [If that really is true, then this is certainly far too lavish. Even those Great Emperor Sects could not afford to make such a large and luxurious expenditure. Can Dragon Island really do this?]

In the meantime, Yuan Wu had been observing the animal skin drawing. He finally put it away after studying it for some time then swept his gaze over the crowd, his insidious eyes landing on Yang Kai for a moment before he loudly announced, "The Dragon Clan has given us a very difficult mission!"

As soon as the words rang out, the crowd exploded in noisy chatter.

"No way!"

"Are we really going to build a palace?"

"With those materials no less?!"

"Building a palace isn't a big deal. We have so many people after all. No matter how large the palace is, we should be able to finish constructing it in a month. The problem is… those materials…"

"Yeah! Where are we going to find those materials?! How are we going to build the palace if we don't have the materials?! Is the Dragon Clan trying to kill us?!"

"Shhh. Watch what you say! This is Dragon Palace! The walls have ears! Be careful!"

The crowd began talking among themselves.

Yuan Wu's expression was as ugly as it could be as he waited for some time before he continued speaking, "You're right. The Dragon Clan wants us to build a palace. Moreover, it's a very magnificent and grand palace. From what I saw just now, this palace will span across an area of hundreds of thousands of square metres upon completion."

A round of gasps rang out through the crowd. [Hundreds of thousands of square metres!? How big was this island? If it spans across an area of hundreds of thousands of square metres, then it will occupy almost a tenth of the entire landmass!]

They originally thought that they had enough manpower on their side, but they were stunned by how large the palace was going to be. Could that still be called a palace!? It was more like an entire city!

Yuan Wu pointed to the centre of the island and said loudly, "The palace will be located there. The Dragon Clan has essentially planned everything for us so we only need to follow their instructions." Seeing that the crowd was showing signs of breaking out in a commotion again, Yuan Wu lifted a hand to suppress them and continued, "I know what you are worrying about. It's about the materials needed for construction. Regarding the materials, Dragon Palace has prepared them in advance." He lifted the Space Ring in his hand into the air, "It's all inside this Space Ring."

When those words sounded, everybody seemed taken aback for a moment before they all let out a breath of relief in unison.

"Oh! The Dragon Clan prepared them in advance! That sure scared me!"

"Yeah, that's right! If we had to find those materials ourselves, we might as well just commit suicide."

"That's more like it. Still, I've heard that the Dragon Clan is astonishingly wealthy, but now I finally know that the rumours weren't exaggerated."

"Yeah. I can't believe they are building a palace with all those materials. It's so exaggerated and wasteful! If only they could give me some…"

"Stop dreaming. Who would dare to steal any of the materials from that Space Ring? If anybody really did do that, they wouldn't even know how they died."

"That's true. Heh heh… I was just saying, you know?"

Just as the crowd began to relax, Yuan Wu smiled coldly, "I'm not trying to spoil your mood, but the materials within this Space Ring are not enough. It lacks a large part of what we need. We will need to obtain the rest ourselves."

"What?!" They were shocked by those words. With just a few words their emotions fluctuated again and again. They could not believe what they were hearing. [The materials in the Space Ring are not enough?! We need to obtain them ourselves?! Where are we going to find such precious materials?! These materials can only be found by chance and won't appear just because we are looking for them!]

Yuan Wu comforted them again, "Don't worry. There are a few Spirit Islands in Dragon Palace that produce these materials. We only need to obtain them and bring them back."

Their tense nerves relaxed again. That was good if that was the case. They were scared that the Dragon Clan wanted them to search for the materials themselves. These materials were extremely rare; where would they even begin to search for them? Upon hearing that the nearby Spirit Islands produced these materials, they did not worry as much anymore.

However, they couldn't help criticizing Yuan Wu slightly in their hearts. [This bastard is definitely doing this on purpose, saying one thing but leaving out half the details. Why did he have to scare us like that?]

"Yuan Wu, may I know why the Dragon Clan wants us to build a palace like that?" Somebody asked suddenly.

That question represented the doubts in everybody's hearts. They had coexisted with the Dragon Clan in this Small World for countless years, but there had never been a precedent for something like this. Although the Dragon Clan occasionally visited Half-Dragon City in the past, most of those occasions were to gather Dragonborn to cultivate the Dragon Blood Flowers. Therefore, the sudden request to come and build a palace left them feeling strange. Since when had the Dragon Clan paid attention to such things, and with such an exorbitant price too.

Judging from the scale of this palace and the materials needed for its construction, it was not meant for an ordinary member of the Dragon Clan to live in. It might turn out to be the palace of an Elder within the Dragon Clan. That conjecture inevitably made them feel uneasy as they knew that if they did not do this well, all 500 of them would die.

"I want to know that too," Yuan Wu replied unhappily. He was extremely upset today. First, he was beaten up and humiliated. Then, he took on such a dreadful task. The rage burning in him was reaching its boiling point and right now, he just wanted to find an outlet to vent out all his frustrations.

The person who asked the question was a Human in the Third-Order Emperor Realm, but after being snarled at by Yuan Wu, he merely laughed apologetically and said nothing more. It couldn't be helped. Inside this Small World, he did not dare to make Yuan Wu an enemy even if his cultivation was higher than his.

It wasn't just the Humans or the Monster Race. Even the Dragonborn had to tread carefully around Yuan Wu. There was no benefit to provoking this man, especially now that he was having a headache over the fuss about the Dragon Clan's orders.

Yuan Wu scanned his surroundings with an insidious gaze before taking a deep breath and saying, "The situation is very grave. I won't say more. I'm sure you all understand it too. If we want to finish building a palace of this scale within a month, we will need to give it our all, maybe even… put our lives on the line."

Those words did not contain a single lie. If it was just a palace covering an area of hundreds of thousands of square metres, then it wasn't too troublesome a task for the 500 people present in this place; after all, the Emperors among them numbered over a hundred, so how hard could building a palace be?

The main issue was that the Dragon Clan had specified the materials to be used. Those were extremely precious Emperor Grade materials, each of which was incredibly tough to handle. It would take a lot of manpower and resources to obtain them and then refine them into the necessary shapes and sizes. Just take the Green Gold Purple Copper for example. It would take a long time just to melt a palm-sized piece of the Green Gold Purple Copper.

Hence, everybody could understand how arduous this task was. All of them were silent and looked grim, thinking about their prospects. Meanwhile, Yang Kai was the only one looking carefree. He studied their surroundings without paying much attention to the matter at hand. He came to Dragon Island to look for Zhu Qing, not to work as a slave. As long as he could find a chance to meet with Zhu Qing, he couldn't care less about other matters.

A gaze suddenly landed on Yang Kai and he turned to look in that direction to see the monkey-like man from before smiling at him. When their eyes met, that person nodded at him lightly.

Yang Kai's impression of this man was quite good as he had taken the initiative to smooth things over between him and Yuan Wu when the situation between them was getting heated. That indicated that he was a brave and just man; therefore, Yang Kai had to return this favour regardless of whether he had needed the help or not. Seeing that that man was nodding at him in greeting, he smiled back at the man. It was a gesture of goodwill.

On the other side, Yuan Wu accidentally discovered this little action of Yang Kai's and it immediately caused a wave of rage to rise in him. [I'm drowning in gloom, worrying about what's going to happen during this one-month period, and yet this brat is so damn calm, relaxed, and at ease! Why!? Just why!?]