Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Ever since Yang Kai broke through to the Emperor Realm, he rarely ran into opponents that could put up a fight against him. He even killed several Third-Order Emperor Realm Masters; hence, it couldn't be helped that his mentality had undergone some subtle changes. He finally understood that the world was vast and there were capable people everywhere. The price of underestimating his opponents was nothing but pain and suffering.

It was only thanks to his Half-Dragon Body that he managed to survive this near-death experience; without it, that sneak attack from behind by the black shadow might have killed him instantly, and it was also his Half-Dragon Body that allowed him to survive the fatal poison from that dagger.

It was only thanks to the toughness of his Half-Dragon Body that his body could lock the dagger in place and prevent it from advancing further or being retrieved. It had allowed him to avoid receiving fatal damage, slow down the spread of the poison, and survive the ordeal.

Yang Kai was still filled with doubts when he thought back on what he went through tonight. The only reason he came to that mountain was that Luo Chen had used Gao Xue Ting's name to bring him along. If not for that, he would never have gone there for no reason; at the same time, it was clear that the black shadow's ambush had been premeditated.

[How are Luo Chen and Gao Xue Ting related to this matter?] Yang Kai had contacted Gao Xue Ting beforehand and received a response from her; otherwise, he would not have trusted Luo Chen so easily. Moreover, the demonification of those dozen Emperor Realm Masters gave Yang Kai the feeling that something even more nefarious was happening behind the scenes.

The Southern Territory had just resolved the last Demon incident. In the ten or so years that Yang Kai had been in Heng Luo Star Field, the Southern Territory had been hunting down the Demon Spirits that had escaped from Spirit Sword Peak and it was said that the Demon Spirits had all been cleaned up, so where did so many demonified Masters pop out from?

While mulling over it, Yang Kai suddenly came to a shocking realization. The dozen Emperor Realm Masters who attacked him were all people who came to participate in the Martial Gathering, but he didn't even notice any abnormalities in them until today. If they all quietly underwent the Demon Transformation, then what about the others here? There are hundreds of other Emperor Realm Masters and tens of thousands of elite disciples from all over the Southern Territory within this mountain valley right now. It would be catastrophic if some or even all of them had fallen too!

Not daring to continue with that line of thought, Yang Kai emerged from the Small Sealed World. The Mountains and Rivers Bell stood there quietly on top of the mountain peak while the surroundings were a complete mess, with traces of the huge battle from earlier still remaining. Faint sounds of movement came from inside the bell as the Emperors who were suppressed within were clearly trying to break free. However, the suppression of the Mountains and Rivers Bell was extremely powerful, so how could it be so easy to escape?

Yang Kai struck the bell with a punch, causing a loud clanging noise to ring out, and the inside quietened down following several groans coming from within. When Yang Kai took back the Mountains and Rivers Bell, he saw the five Emperor Realm Masters that he suppressed lying collapsed on the ground. He reached out to grab the white-haired elderly man. Pushing his Emperor Qi, Yang Kai investigated the body of the elderly man as his expression darkened.

The situation was exactly as he had feared. The elderly man had undergone demonification, but it would seem that the Demon Transformation had only happened recently and the Demon Qi had not corrupted him too much; he could still be saved.

With a solemn expression, Yang Kai's aura went through an astonishing change, instantly becoming ancient and desolate. It was as though he had stepped out of ancient times and was quite incompatible with the world of today.

Shaman Strength!

Yang Kai wasn't just an Emperor Realm Master, but also a Shaman King proficient in various Shamanic Spells. From his previous experiences, Yang Kai knew that Shaman Strength was definitely the most effective method to restrain Demon Qi.

Reaching out to press his hand against the elderly man's head, he began chanting in a strange and broken language. A layer of hazy light instantly enveloped the elderly man and soon after, he began glowing with a faint blood-red light. Bloodlust Spell!

Inside that ancient world, Yang Kai had fought fiercely against the Demon Race for many years and had many experiences in treating people who had undergone the Demon Transformation. The Bloodlust Spell was very effective in resisting Demon Qi's erosion, and supplemented by his Shamanic Spell, it shouldn't be difficult to reverse the elderly man's demonification.

However, the Bloodlust Spell was created to stimulate a cultivator's Blood Essence, and this elderly man was not young anymore, so doing this would slightly reduce his lifespan. Nevertheless, Yang Kai was in no position to consider that right now. He had to quickly figure out what happened today so that he could plan for the future.

After blessing the elderly man with the Bloodlust Spell, Yang Kai began chanting a new spell, the Demon Exorcism Spell.

The elderly man began trembling as his expression distorted, like he was suffering from great pain before wisps of black smoke flowed out of his seven orifices. That black smoke dissolved without a trace the moment it separated from the elderly man's body. That was the Demon Qi that had been corrupting him, and it was being purified now by Yang Kai's spell.

All of a sudden, the elderly man's eyes jerked open without warning. Those eyes were pitch black. He grimaced in pain, howling and snarling at Yang Kai like a wild beast despite being restrained completely. The way he acted was as though he would only be satisfied if he could tear Yang Kai's body to pieces with his bare hands.

This scene reminded Yang Kai of numerous previous encounters. Inside the ancient world, the Demon Race and the Barbarian Race had fought fiercely, trying to wipe each other out. The sight of flesh and blood flying in all directions… If he had not seen it for himself, it would have been hard for him to imagine just how cruel the conflict between the two races was.

Fortunately, the elderly man's struggling and roaring soon subsided. At the same time, the Demon Qi flowing out of his seven orifices lessened, and the darkness in his eyes gradually faded.

More than ten minutes later, the elderly man lay limply on the ground, covered in so much sweat it was like he had just been fished out of the sea. Blinking in confusion, he muttered, "What… What happened?"

Yang Kai stared down at the elderly man from above and asked, "Do you recognize me?"

The elderly man's vision gradually focused, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't you Elder Yang of Azure Sun Temple?"

"Do you remember what happened to you?" Yang Kai asked in a deep voice.

The elderly man frowned and pondered for a moment, but a short while later, his expression changed drastically as he shouted, "W-What happened? The last thing this Old Master remembers is…"

He seemed to have some recollection of what happened just now and was not completely oblivious to the situation.

Yang Kai explained, "You were taken over by Demon Qi and underwent demonification. When and how did it happen?"

"Demonification!?" The elderly man's expression changed and became as pale as could be. Shaking his head wildly, he muttered over and over, "That's impossible! Impossible!"

He seemed to refuse to believe those words. The Southern Territory had been chasing and killing those Demons for more than a decade now, so it was clear that he understood what demonification entailed. He had also met people that had undergone the Demon Transformation before and those people would experience a huge change in temperament. Unable to recognize their family and friends, even willing to kill their wives and children without batting an eye. However, he never imagined that something like this would happen to him and couldn't help feeling scared.

Yang Kai grabbed the elderly man by the collar and shouted, "What do you mean by impossible!? Just look at those four!"

The elderly man turned in the direction Yang Kai pointed and saw four people collapsed on the ground next to him, each of them surrounded by a pitch-black Demon Qi. The pupils of his eyes contracted abruptly as he had no choice but to face reality. There was no way to explain away the strange events that had happened to him.

"Think about it carefully. Was there anything suspicious that happened to you recently?"

The elderly man hesitated for a moment before he recalled, "This afternoon, Lady Han and I were invited by Elder Feng to meet with Temple Master Lei, and then… I don't remember much after that."

"Feng Ming and Lei Gu?" Yang Kai's expression darkened. There were only two people this elderly man would address as 'Elder Feng' and 'Temple Master Lei' in the entire Southern Territory, but if those two were the culprits…

Yang Kai abruptly turned his head to look in the direction of Orthodoxy Temple with a worried look on his face.

"That's right." The elderly man slowly shook his head and continued, "No, it can't be the doing of Temple Master Lei… Elder Yang, where are you going?" Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Yang Kai suddenly soar into the sky at an astonishing speed, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Staggering to his feet, the elderly man felt incredibly weak. He turned to look at the four people lying unconscious on the ground, then looked at the traces of battle in the surrounding area. Slapping his thigh in frustration, he sorrowfully muttered, "A great catastrophe is approaching…"

He faintly felt that a storm was brewing, one that would shake the foundations of the world. There were four demonified people here though, so he could not just leave them be. He worried that they might bring harm to their surroundings once they regained consciousness; however, he also had some friendship with these four people and could not bring himself to kill them. He could only think of a way for him to restrain them and bring them back to let Yang Kai heal them. [If Elder Yang can rescue me from the Demon Transformation, he might be able to save these four too.]

At this moment, Orthodoxy Temple was a chaotic mess. The sounds of killing came from all directions as countless figures were trying to flee while corpses lay collapsed in pools of blood everywhere. One of the three top Sects in the Southern Territory had turned into Hellscape in less than an hour.

One after another, Emperor Realm Masters wrapped entirely in Black Qi wandered back and forth, killing people as though they were chopping melons and cutting vegetables. Their pitch-black eyes were filled with cruelty and madness. On the other hand, more than a hundred Emperor Realm Masters had formed a defensive perimeter, shielding all those who fled back to the mountain valley as best they could. That was originally the place where the banquet for the last night of the Southern Territory Martial Gathering had been held tonight.

Feng Ming held a communication artifact in his hand, checking the information inside. He frowned and turned to Lei Gu, who was standing next to him, "I just received news from that side. They failed."

Lei Gu's clothes fluttered in the wind and although his entire body was wrapped in black Demon Qi, it was clear that he had not lost his sentience. His situation was not as simple as being corroded by the Demon Qi. Rather, his body had been possessed by a Demon Spirit. At this moment, Lei Gu was no longer the Lei Gu of Orthodoxy Temple. The same went for Feng Ming.

Upon hearing those words, Lei Gu roared furiously, "How could they possibly fail!?" [It was a foolproof arrangement! Just how did they screw it up!?]

"I don't know the exact details, but that person got away," Feng Ming shook his head.

"Wastes! All of them!" Lei Gu's expression turned sullen. It was precisely because they feared that person's Space Divine Ability that they tried to get rid of him first, lest he disrupt their plans. Contrary to expectations though, the ambush group failed to kill him. These results greatly dissatisfied Lei Gu. Nevertheless, he knew that if even 'that' person could not finish the job, it would not have gone any better even if he had gone personally. [I can only say that the Heavens have other plans in mind. It looks like I still underestimated that boy's abilities.]

"Speed things up. We have to try and wrap things up before word gets out about this incident," Lei Gu ordered.

Feng Ming nodded and shot into the air with a flicker.

Yang Kai's figure flashed under the night sky as he wore a tensed expression. His heart and mind were both feeling a sense of calm and worry at the same time. He initially suspected that this matter was related to Luo Chen and Gao Xue Ting, and reality had proven that it was indeed related to them; however, what made him feel relieved was that it was not as though they actually conspired against him. Luo Chen and Gao Xue Ting were most likely under the influence of Demon Qi and were being controlled by somebody else.

Yang Kai suddenly recalled something at that moment. Luo Chen and Gao Xue Ting seemed to have gone out together during the day, and if he remembered correctly, it was because they had been summoned by Lei Gu. Their situations were probably no different from that elderly man from earlier.

It was just that there was something Yang Kai could not figure out. Wasn't the Demon Spirit situation in the Southern Territory settled? How did the Demon Spirits pull off such a huge operation like this? They deliberately chose this period during the Southern Territory Martial Gathering, so it was clearly a large-scale and thoroughly planned out trap. It could not have occurred over just a day or two, it had to have been in the works for a long time now.