Martial Peak

Translator: Silavin & Jon

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

After trading more than 100 moves, Ma Tian Yuan felt his Small Universe begin to shake. Meanwhile, the World Force coming from the other party increasingly thickened with every move, like there wasn’t an upper limit to his output. Flabbergasted, Ma Tian Yuan didn’t dare to hold back anything.

He began using his Secret Techniques and even summoned his Fifth-Order artifact. Despite that, he realised that he was still no match for the other party.

[Is this guy really Human?]

A horrified Ma Tian Yuan speculated that Yang Kai wasn’t a newly promoted Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master at all. He had never seen any new Fifth-Order Master who possessed such an immense power. This young man must have spent hundreds if not a thousand years of accumulation in his current Order. The aura he exposed must have just been a camouflage.

[What a devious man!] Although Ma Tian Yuan was utterly vexed, he had to admit that his opponent was truly incredible.

Despite the fact that he had fallen from the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he had the confidence to defeat or at least match anyone in the Fifth-Order. However, not only had he come across such an opponent on this day, but he was even at a disadvantage. This had never happened to him before.

“Stop!” Ma Tian Yuan bellowed after trading one more move with his opponent. Due to the scarcity of resources in the Shadowless Cave Heaven, unnecessary fights were pointless as it would only increase one’s consumption of power. When the people in this place came across one another, they wouldn’t make a move if there wasn’t a need for it; therefore, upon realising that Yang Kai was so powerful, Ma Tian Yuan decided to stop fighting.

However, Yang Kai ignored him. It was the first time he bumped into an opponent in the same Order since he broke through to the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm, which was why he wanted to test out his power. In fact, he hadn’t used any Secret Techniques after his initial two Moon Blades and had merely been drawing out the power of his Small Universe to battle against his opponent. He wanted to make use of this battle to familiarise himself with his newfound strength.

While they were locked in an intense battle, the woman and young man watched in horror from the side. They were respectively in the Fourth and Third-Order, but they were easily defeated by their opponent in the opening moments of the battle. Furthermore, they were totally powerless to intervene in the current fight.

Such a fierce battle seemed to have surpassed the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm. Perhaps it wasn’t far from a battle between Sixth-Order Masters.

All of a sudden, the woman sported a solemn expression and scanned her surroundings, then she yelled at Ma Tuan Yuan, “The wind is coming, Senior Brother Ma!”

Ma Tian Yuan, who was already exhausted from dealing with Yang Kai, appeared horrified upon hearing that. Hurriedly, he made a feint in an attempt to withdraw from the battlefield. Certainly, Yang Kai wouldn’t grant his wish. Such an intense battle was able to help him rapidly stabilise his cultivation, which was greatly beneficial to him.

Upon seeing that Yang Kai was relentless, a shocked and furious Ma Tian Yuan bellowed, “The wind is coming. Stop right now!”

A puzzled Yang Kai asked, “What wind?”

Judging from Ma Tian Yuan’s tone and the woman’s expression, Yang Kai reckoned that this ‘wind’ must be unusual. That was because the three of them sported terrified expressions as though they were truly afraid of what was coming.

However, Yang Kai was a newcomer to the Shadowless Cave Heaven, so he had no idea what this wind was.

Ma Tian Yuan was resentful of him, so he wasn’t willing to explain anything to him and simply said through clenched teeth, “You’ll soon experience what kind of wind it is!”

After he finished his words, the artifact in his hand suddenly shone brightly. As he infused all of his power into the artifact, he attempted to smash it down on Yang Kai’s head.

There was no doubt that Ma Tian Yuan had exerted all of his force with this attack, so Yang Kai wouldn’t dare to meet it head-on and quickly dodged to the side.

Seizing the chance, Ma Tian Yuan leaped away and yelled, “Run!”

Following this, he rushed in a particular direction. The woman took a long glance at Yang Kai before she supported the young man’s weight and fled in the same direction.

Yang Kai frowned and looked at their retreating figures without any intention to pursue them.

Then, he looked down at his hands and slowly balled up his fists. If he had this kind of power back then, he wouldn’t have to hide and only make use of Nine Heavenly Layers Grand Array to fend off his enemies, which was all he could do when the Hundred Sects Alliance attacked Void Land. If he had this kind of power at that time, he wouldn’t have been powerless to counterattack when he was besieged by Shen Liang and Jiang Yun Shan from Heavenly Sword Union just outside of Void Territory.

Presently, he finally had power of his own. In the 3,000 Worlds, a person would never be regarded as important if they weren’t even an Open Heaven Realm Master.

The starting point of the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm was a letdown as he had spent many years trying to directly become a High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Master; however, instead of endlessly waiting for a dream that might not even come true, the power in his hands now was far more real. Therefore, Yang Kai didn’t regret the decision he had made.

If the battle earlier went on, Yang Kai had the confidence to kill Ma Tian Yuan even though he would be slightly injured as a cost. Nevertheless, there was no blood feud between them, so it wasn’t necessary for Yang Kai to be so merciless. However, after the battle, he had a more direct understanding of his current strength.

Just then, he felt a breeze whisking across his face like an invisible hand fiddling with his hair.

Wind was indeed blowing. Yang Kai carefully inspected the wind but didn’t find anything strange about it, so he wondered why Ma Tian Yuan and the others appeared terrified just now. At the mention of the wind, all of their expressions changed drastically, and Ma Tian Yuan had chosen to trade injuries with him in order to create an opening to withdraw.

As Yang Kai shook his head, he identified a direction and stepped forward.

Ma Tian Yuan had met the Proprietress and the others, but he had no idea where they were now. On the other hand, the people from Profound Yang Mountain were hunting them down.

Yang Kai had a feeling that he could find some clues by heading to Profound Yang Mountain and asking them about it.

Nevertheless, he had no idea where Profound Yang Mountain was. At that moment, he regretted that he hadn’t asked Ma Tian Yuan and the others about its location first.

The wind was rapidly intensifying. It was still a breeze just a moment ago, but now, a gale lifted all the sand into the air, which made it impossible for Yang Kai to see clearly.

It was then he realised why the Shadowless Cave Heaven was so desolate. Given such a hostile environment, it would be strange if this place was fertile.

It wouldn’t have mattered if it was just a regular storm, but the problem was that the wind was extremely strange as it was able to sneak into a person’s flesh, which made him feel an excruciating pain all over his body, as though he had been repeatedly cut with countless knives. Besides that, the wind could even penetrate his Small Universe.

It was only as Yang Kai checked on his Small Universe that his expression changed as he realised that the wind had caused the place to descend into chaos. Even the foundation of his Small Universe was being damaged by this gale.

At that instant, he was dumbfounded as he couldn’t believe there was such horrifying wind in this world. Then, he recalled that the Fourth-Order Open Heaven Realm woman had mentioned that Ma Tian Yuan was originally a Sixth-Order Master, but due to some unfortunate events, he regressed to the Fifth-Order. It seemed that the incidents must have something to do with this strange wind.

Not only was this wind excruciatingly painful, but it was also able to grind down an Open Heaven Realm Master’s Small Universe, draining their World Force and damaging their foundation.

It wouldn’t matter if this only happened once or twice, but if a person had to endure this repeatedly, the heritage of their Small Universe would be permanently weakened, and their Order would drop. That should be how Ma Tian Yuan fell to the Fifth-Order from the Sixth-Order.

Moreover, this was just the beginning. As time passed, the gale intensified to the point where Yang Kai wouldn’t dare to be negligent. Quickly summoning his Azure Dragon Spear, he dug a deep hole in an attempt to seek refuge underground.

However, it was futile. Even though he dove several thousand metres below the surface, the wind seemed almost immaterial and penetrated the earth, infiltrating his Small Universe in the process. It seemed that there was nowhere in the Shadowless Cave Heaven that was safe from this wind.

Of course, there must be places in the Shadowless Cave Heaven where one could evade the wind; otherwise, all the Open Heaven Realm Masters in this place would’ve been killed following the collapse of their Small Universes.

At the very least, the places where the three great forces were based must be safe zones.

The gale didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Even though Yang Kai was trying his best to resist underground, his efforts proved useless. He could only bear this unspeakable pain while praying that the eerie wind would soon pass.

The wind disappeared as abruptly as it came, vanishing an hour later.

When Yang Kai climbed out of the hole he had dug, he was completely battered. Not only was his hair a mess, but his skin was also covered in cuts. These flesh wounds didn’t matter as he could recover quickly given the resilience of his physique; however, the loss of heritage in his Small Universe pained his heart.

The environment in the Small Universe didn’t change as the Sun and the Moon still moved in a cyclical manner; nevertheless, Yang Kai could detect that the heritage in his Small Universe had been reduced by about 10%.

In other words, if he came across the same kind of wind ten times, his Small Universe would destabilise and collapse, killing him. The immense loss pained him more than the injuries on his body.

It would take him a very long time before he could restore this 10%; in other words, the gale had wiped away years of hard cultivation.

[What was that wind? Why was it so strange?]

After stuffing a handful of Open Heaven Pills into his mouth, Yang Kai carefully examined his Small Universe.

It was the first time he refined Open Heaven Pills since he ascended to the Open Heaven Realm. As the pills dissolved in his stomach, the medicinal efficacies streamed into all his organs and turned into World Force, which was used to replenish the heritage of his Small Universe.

A handful of pills were fully refined after just a few breaths, which astounded Yang Kai.

It was no wonder that Open Heaven Realm Masters required a lot of cultivation resources. Given this rate, he was able to refine more than 10,000 Open Heaven Pills in a day, several hundred thousand pills in a month, and three to four million pills in a year.

The calculation made was based on the fact that he was in the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm. How many pills would he need when he ascended to the Sixth-Order or the Seventh-Order? How long would it take before he could achieve an ascension if he merely relied on refining Open Heaven Pills? How many pills would be used in the process? Yang Kai didn’t dare to keep thinking about it as that number must be astronomical.

Yang Kai initially thought that the Open Heaven Pills he had accumulated in Void Land were sufficient, but now it seemed that he was very wrong; after all, when the Great Emperors and the cultivators from the Star Boundary ascended to the Open Heaven Realm, they would need massive amounts of Open Heaven Pills to keep cultivating.

It was no wonder that Open Heaven Realm Masters had a thirst for cultivation resources as it was just too slow refining Open Heaven Pills. It would be much faster to refine cultivation resources of different Orders, but that would require a lot of money as well.

However, if a person was wealthy, they probably wouldn’t mind this. In comparison, it was much better to strengthen the heritage of one’s Small Universe by refining cultivation resources than Open Heaven Pills.