Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

It was not impossible for them to travel from the Northern Territory to the Southern Territory in an instant. It could be done with a Cross-Territory Space Array, but such a thing was extremely rare in the entire Star Boundary. Only a few Great Emperor Sects possessed such Space Arrays and all of them were inheritances that came from ancient times. Nobody knew if they could even still be used.

It was something the woman and the elderly man had never thought of before, but listening to the whisperings around them finally woke them up to the fact.

[Did we just use a Cross-Territory Space Array?] The more they thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Only by using a Cross-Territory Space Array could they suffer from such strong teleportation backlash; after all, they had crossed a distance of tens or even hundreds of millions of kilometres in an instant. It was incomparable to the teleportations that they had experienced previously.

Where did High Heaven Palace get their hands on a Cross-Territory Space Array? High Heaven Palace was currently occupying the former site of the Seeking Passion Sect, and most of the Emperor Realm Masters in the Northern Territory had been to the Seeking Passion Sect at least once in their lifetime. They had a thorough understanding of Seeking Passion Sect's heritage and were keenly aware that Seeking Passion Sect could not have owned a Cross-Territory Space Array.

It had long been rumoured that Yang Kai, the Palace Master of High Heaven Palace was proficient in the Dao of Space, so could it be that he is even capable of arranging a Cross-Territory Space Array!? If that is the case, then it is a huge deal!

The woman and the elderly man looked at each other, seeing the shock in each other's eyes. The whispers surrounding them became louder and louder, and the frequency of the words 'Southern Territory' seem to increase as well. Some people sounded like they couldn't believe it while others reacted like these two and stared at the Space Array on the ground with burning gazes.

If this was truly a Cross-Territory Space Array, then it was a huge treasure. Just like how Yang Kai saw the benefits in the circulation of materials between the two Territories, these old foxes could see them too. Any Sect could make a fortune just by having a Space Array that connected the Northern Territory and the Southern Territory

Just to be on the cautious side, the woman wanted to find somebody from High Heaven Palace to inquire about the matter; however, she froze mid-motion when her gaze swept over her surroundings.

The elderly man had yet to recover from the shock of being transported via this Space Array and arriving in the Southern Territory in an instant, but when he saw her expression, he couldn't help being taken aback as he sent her a Divine Sense transmission, "What's wrong?"

The woman did not respond, she simply continued to stare in a certain direction. Puzzled, the elderly man followed her gaze and was instantly stunned. There were nine Stone Men who were tens of metres tall standing there. They had angular bodies and all of them were so imposing that just looking at them gave people a strong visual impact. The bodies that seemed to be formed from piling a bunch of stones together were full of indescribable power. Nobody dared to doubt their combat prowess.

[I-I-Isn't that the legendary Stone Spirit Clan!? Weren't they said to be extinct!? Why are there so many of them here!?] It would have been one thing if that were all, but standing opposite the Stone Spirits were a number of equally imposing figures. There were not many of them, only about thirty or so, but be that as it may, the Monster Qi coming from each individual figure was overwhelmingly powerful and extremely terrifying.

The woman and the elderly man had been so fixated on the shocking existence of the Cross-Territory Space Array that they had failed to notice this shocking Monster Qi until now, but when they studied these figures carefully, their expressions changed drastically. These members of the Monster Race were all Monster Kings. None of the people here was a match for them.

The woman and the elderly man watched as the three Monster Kings from High Heaven Palace mingled with these other members of the Monster Race, laughing and chatting with each other. A careful count indicated that there were a total of thirty-two of them…

In other words, there were thirty-two Monster Kings in this place! What kind of force was this!? It should be said that most of the so-called top Sects only had one Third-Order Emperor Realm Master each. For example, Fire Dragon Palace only had Li Jiao; Full Sky Sect only had Mi Qi; Ice Heart Valley only had Bing Yun; and even Seeking Passion Sect only had two just before its destruction.

Faced with such a comparison, the strength represented by these thirty-two Monster Kings was extremely terrifying. To put it bluntly, the two hundred Emperor Realm Masters from the Northern Territory gathered here probably couldn't defeat this group of Monster Kings even if they all fought together. The only way they might stand a chance against the Monster Kings was if they actually coordinated and cooperated with each other perfectly.

[Are they also part of the reinforcement that the Palace Master of High Heaven Palace recruited? Where did a group of Monster Kings like them pop out from? Why were we completely unaware of the existence of these Monster Kings before?]

*Gudong…*

There were various gulping sounds as people swallowed nervously. Everybody's attention had finally shifted from the Cross-Territory Space Array to these Monster Kings.

The Monster Kings obviously felt the sudden attention on them too and many of them teasingly grinned back. The Monster Qi radiating from them became even more terrifying than before, completely terrifying many of the Emperor Realm Masters from the Northern Territory. They were afraid that the Monster Kings might suddenly go on a rampage and massacre them.

The woman suddenly remembered a rumour she heard in the past and her pupils contracted as she adjusted her focus to two men and a single woman standing in front of the thirty-two Monster Kings, secretly sending a Divine Sense transmission to the elderly man, "Thirty-two Monster Kings. Doesn't that number remind you of anything?"

"Remind me of what?" The elderly man responded subconsciously.

"I heard that in the Eastern Territory, there is a place known as the Ancient Wild Lands which retains its ancient wild aura unchanged from hundreds of thousands of years ago. Ruling that land are Four Great Divine Venerables, each with eight powerful Monster Kings under their command…"

The elderly man felt his mind going blank, "The Four Great Divine Venerables, each with eight powerful Monster Kings under their command?" [Aren't there exactly thirty-two of them here right now?] He had heard of this rumour before too, nevertheless, a rumour was just a rumour and nobody would dare to believe that rumour unless they personally saw proof. There were supposedly thirty-two Monster Kings in the Ancient Wild Lands, and there just happened to be thirty-two Monster Kings here too.

The elderly man paled visibly as he muttered, "Are you saying that they are from the Ancient Wild Lands? But, that's in the Eastern Territory…"

She rebuked, "So what if it's located in the Eastern Territory? We just came from the Northern Territory ourselves! So that's how it is. It turns out that the three Monster Kings from High Heaven Palace are from the Ancient Wild Lands!"

The existence of Ying Fei, Xie Wu Wei, and Xi Lei was not a secret, it was just that nobody in the Northern Territory could not figure out where Yang Kai managed to find and recruit three Monster Kings, who he then placed in High Heaven Palace as guards. It wasn't until this moment that they finally found the answer to this question that had puzzled them all for such a long time.

"That makes sense. Those Stone Spirits, which are rumoured to have gone extinct, probably came from the Ancient Wild Lands too." The elderly man gently nodded before he suddenly felt his breath catch in his throat and he tremblingly asked, "If those Stone Spirits and the Monster Kings are from the Ancient Wild Lands, then… who are those three standing in front of them?"

The woman turned her head stiffly to look at him. She had already considered that question a long time ago, and at this moment, she slowly uttered two words, stressing each word carefully, "Divine… Spirits!"

The elderly man immediately lowered his head, considered it for a while, and replied, "I think that what we talked about earlier was extremely ill-considered. We need to put more thought into it before making a decision."

They originally wanted to contact all the other Emperor Realm Masters in the Northern Territory to rebel against High Heaven Palace after this incident; however, they were now witnessing first-hand the powerful forces that Yang Kai could casually bring out at any moment. There were Stone Spirits, Monster Kings, and even Divine Spirits willing to answer his call, so who would dare to oppose him?

These Masters might all live in the Eastern Territory, but with the existence of the Cross-Territory Space Array, travelling from the Eastern Territory to the Northern Territory was as easy as taking a stroll. For them to appear here at this moment could only mean that there was another Cross-Territory Space Array in the Eastern Territory. If they provoked High Heaven Palace and caused this group of Monsters to march into the Northern Territory, they would still be no match even if they rallied every Sect in the Northern Territory together, and that was not even taking into consideration a lack of unity among them at that point.

The woman nodded with deep approval, "Actually, it's not that bad to have a leader in the Northern Territory. It's better than having us scattered about, unable to coordinate with one another."

Those words were probably only to comfort herself.

More than two hundred Emperor Realm Masters from the Northern Territory were gathered here; moreover, they were all worldly people, so if this woman and the elderly man could guess the origins of the Stone Spirits and the Monster King, it was reasonable to assume that the others could too.

Seeing so many Monster Kings and even Divine Spirits waiting around obediently, how could they dare to have any complaints? They quietly looked down at their feet and dutifully waited by the side. There was no need for other people to see how shocked they were.

Mi Qi and Li Jiao were standing together and many expressions flashed across the former's face. He was secretly thanking his lucky stars he had not completely fallen out with High Heaven Palace back then. If not, there wouldn't even be ashes left of Full Sky Sect. Even he might have died without knowing how!

On the other hand, Li Jiao was perfectly calm and composed. He had raised a ruckus on Dragon Island with Yang Kai before, after all. Besides, he also knew about the intimate relationship Yang Kai had with a Dragon Girl. Although he was a little surprised by Yang Kai's methods and prestige, he was considerably calmer than the rest. He even had an inexplicable sense of superiority. [If Yang Kai had called upon the Dragon Clan from Dragon Island, then that would truly be exciting.]

Unfortunately, he had no idea what stance Dragon Island had taken with Yang Kai at the moment. It stood to reason that Yang Kai was probably Dragon Island's greatest enemy after he caused such a big mess back then. But, the crux of the matter was that Yang Kai was now married to a Dragon Girl.

While everybody was still reeling from shock, Yang Kai led the last batch of people and appeared on the Space Array. All attention instantly focused on him as he swept his gaze over the crowd and loudly announced, "This is the Southern Territory. Orthodoxy Temple is located not far away. Moments from now, I must ask all of you to work together to aid me in the rescue efforts while preventing the Demons from escaping. Firstly, you must protect yourselves well. Don't let yourselves be corrupted by Demon Qi. Secondly, capture those who have been affected by the Demon Qi. Try not to kill them if you can and keep the killings as minimal as possible."

"We can't just kill them?" The crowd was in an uproar.

Even Fan Wu frowned and asked, "Why spare their lives if they have already been demonified?" If they were not allowed to kill, then their only option was to capture the enemy alive. Everyone here might be rather powerful, but capturing an enemy alive was far more troublesome than killing them. What's more; what was the point of capturing these people? It was easy to be demonified, but it was hard to cure. In his opinion, there was no need to spare their lives anymore if they were already corrupted by the Demon Qi.

"I have my reasons. Of course, if there's no other choice, I would rather you kill them than to let a single Demon escape from this place," Yang Kai said with a solemn expression, "Do you understand?"

"Understood!" Over 200 Emperor Realm Masters from the Northern Territory shouted together. Nobody dared show any disrespect anymore; after all, there was a group of Monster Kings and three possible Divine Spirits eying them dangerously at this very moment.

"For now, please surround Orthodoxy Temple and act according to my orders!" With a wave of his hand, he took the lead and headed in the direction of Orthodoxy Temple, "Let's go!"

The group of people followed closely behind him and a short time later, an almost imperceptible curtain of light appeared in their field of vision. It was the Sect Defending Array of Orthodoxy Temple. Everybody was secretly surprised to see the state of the Spirit Array. It was only a glimpse, but this Spirit Array was part of the heritage of a top Sect.

As they approached the Sect Defending Array, Yang Kai gestured to the left and the right with his hands and the two hundred Emperors immediately split into two groups, flying out in an orderly fashion around the light curtain. A person would stop and take up a position at fixed intervals. In this way, they completely surrounded Orthodoxy Temple in less than a quarter of an hour.