Martial Peak

Inside his room, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the Yang Crystal Jade Bed, furiously circulating his True Yang Secret Art.

When Lu Si sat atop this jade bed, he would gently pull a thread of Yang Qi in order to sooth his meridians, but now, Yang Kai wantonly extracted the Yang Qi from the Yang Crystal Jade Bed at an astonishing rate.

Yang Kai’s whole body seemed like it had become a bottomless pit. All of his pores were fully open and exhibited an unparalleled suction power. The golden energy was drawn out from the Yang Crystal Jade Bed at a rate the naked eye could see; it was like hundreds of silk threads were flowing out of the Yang Crystal Jade into Yang Kai’s meridians to gather in his dantian.

An indescribably comfortable feeling suddenly arose inside him.

Yang Kai was astonished by the strength and purity of the Yang Qi in this Mysterious Grade Mid-Rank Precious Jade.

Seeming to have been stimulated by this torrent of Yang Qi, Yang Kai felt his meridians constantly quench and flush themselves of impurities, purifying his Yang Qi and making it denser.

Quickly, Yang Kai felt his meridians swell up. Then, with an accompanying low rumble, a new drop of Yang Liquid formed and was deposited in his dantian.

His once bloated meridians suddenly became empty, and the cycle of Yang Qi intake began again.

The Yang Qi in the Jade Bed quickly transformed into Yang Kai’s strength. The Yang Liquid in his dantian formed one drop after another, and the entire Yang Crystal Jade Bed began to shrink very slowly.

During this process, Yang Kai’s physique, his five viscera, and six organs seemed to undergo an incredible baptism.

Two days later, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes, and a light flashed across them.

There were now more than two hundred drops of Yang Liquid in his dantian. When he had left the Evil Cavern, Yang Kai only had a trivial twenty or so drops of Yang Liquid left, but now the number had increased tenfold.

It was obvious how terrifying the quantity of Yang Qi contained in this large Yang Crystal Jade Bed was.

Yang Kai’s current Yang Liquid was very different from when he had begun cultivating. Yang Kai’s True Qi was exceptionally pure, and the energy contained in every single drop of Yang Liquid was also many times greater than before; therefore, even if it was only two hundred drops, it was actually an astonishing amount.

At the very least, it was enough to support Yang Kai for a long time.

The entire Yang Crystal Jade Bed had almost disappeared. Lu Si would be shocked that the treasure he had been using to heal himself, the Precious Jade the Lu Family had spent an incalculable fortune to acquire, had nearly disappeared from this world only a couple of days after it had changed hands.

Only a piece small enough to fit in one’s palm was left!

Yang Kai gripped this small piece of Yang Crystal Jade, and his eyes flashed as he stared at it skeptically.

He discovered that he couldn’t absorb the energy in this small piece of Yang Crystal Jade, even if he ran his True Yang Secret Art at full strength. It seemed that there was something mystical inside that was resisting the absorption force from his body.

If he really wanted to absorb it, Yang Kai was confident that he could extract the remaining energy inside the jade piece, but when he discovered such a strange phenomenon, he was more inclined to examine it than simply absorb it.

The palm-sized jade block still had the same golden glow as before, but the richness of its colour was far greater than the peripheral Yang Crystal Jade. The circulating hue almost appeared like a golden molten liquid rather than the previous wisps of gas.

Staring at it curiously though, he couldn’t unravel anything special about it.

After a moment, Yang Kai used his Divine Sense to probe the jade; however, even if he fully exerted his Divine Sense, all he could sense inside the jade block was darkness, like there was absolutely nothing abnormal about it.

With neither his True Qi nor his Divine Sense probes yielding anything, the obvious conclusion was that this piece of jade was just a normal piece of Yang Crystal Jade, but Yang Kai couldn’t shake the feeling that something was unusual about it, so after contemplating for a moment, he called out, “Tu Feng, Yu Xian!”

The door opened soon after, and Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian walked in.

“What orders does Little Lord have?” Tu Feng asked loudly. Tang Yu Xian on the other hand stared at Yang Kai curiously. She discovered that after not seeing him for only two days, this Little Lord of hers seemed to have become stronger. Although his realm remained at the True Element Boundary Seventh Stage, which she knew he had also broken through to not long ago, Yang Kai’s cultivation had largely consolidated, even showing some faint signs of breaking through once more.

[Impossible!] Tang Yu Xian shook her head secretly. After just two days of retreat, how could he have achieved such phenomenal growth?

Also, where did that Yang Crystal Jade Bed go? Tang Yu Xian couldn’t see the large jade bed anywhere inside the house.

Yang Kai casually threw the jade block in his hand to Tu Feng and asked, “Take a look at this thing. Can you discover anything unusual about it?”

Tu Feng took the jade in hand, and his eyes flashed in surprise, but he quickly steadied himself and wrinkled his brow as he released his True Qi and Divine Sense into the block, examining it for a while before shaking his head and replying, “My accomplishments with Divine Sense aren’t as good as Yu Xian’s, it’s best if you let her see it.”

It was now Yang Kai’s turn to look strangely at Tang Yu Xian, not having expected that her Soul would be stronger than Tu Feng’s to the point where he would readily acknowledge it.

Anyone who reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary was not only required to increase the strength of their True Qi but also, and perhaps more importantly, they needed to cultivate their Soul. Some people had a greater understanding and aptitude towards Divine Sense and Soul Skills, and this naturally gave them an advantage over other Immortal Ascension Boundary masters of the same realm.

Apparently Tang Yu Xian was one such person.

Yang Kai nodded, and Tu Feng easily passed the jade block to Tang Yu Xian.

The latter simply smiled softly, took the jade block, closed her eyes, and poured her Divine Sense into it.

Gradually, the look on Tang Yu Xian’s elegant face became slightly serious, apparently she had really discovered something, and thus the output of her Spiritual Energy also began increasing steadily.

Yang Kai’s eyes brightened upon seeing this, and he secretly looked forward to unravelling this mystery.

A good while later, Tang Yu Xian took back her Divine Sense, exhaled softly, and opened her eyes with clear signs of excitement apparent on her face, “Little Lord, this Precious Jade has bred a True Spirit!”

“A True Spirit?” Yang Kai and Tu Feng both exclaimed together.

“A True Spirit!” Tang Yu Xian nodded firmly and quickly elaborated, “On top of that, as far as I can tell, it formed quite some time ago, and has already achieved a certain degree of sentience, so it was able to deceive your Divine Sense.”

“This True Spirit has its own consciousness?” Tu Feng half shouted, “That means, at minimum, it’s over a thousand years old!”

“Ahem!” Yang Kai gave a wink to Tu Feng.

Seeing this, Tu Feng suddenly remembered something and quietly released his Divine Sense to carefully examine the surroundings. A moment later, a harsh coldness filled his expression as he grunted heavily.

In that sweep of the area, he discovered several Immortal Ascension Boundary masters hiding their auras around this house, obviously monitoring the situation inside Yang Kai’s courtyard.

Obviously, these people were masters from the Lu Family!

It wasn’t that Tu Feng’s Divine Sense wasn’t as strong as these people, but these masters had also taken advantage of a few special artifacts which helped hide their presence. If it wasn’t for Yang Kai’s reminder, prompting him to intentionally probe the surroundings, it was likely he wouldn’t have even noticed their presence.

In his heart, Tu Feng was secretly surprised, and did not know whether Yang Kai was just being cautious or if he was already aware of them.

After knowing someone was watching outside, Tu Feng didn’t dare say too much.

Yang Kai beckoned both of them closer, quickly letting Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian sit down a short distance away from himself.

The three of them leaned their heads in closer and whispered softly.

“I’ve heard about some Precious Treasures breeding True Spirits in the past. It is said that if a piece of Precious Jade has an exceptionally long history, there is a chance for it to give birth to a True Spirit. Is this the situation right now?” Yang Kai asked in a lowered voice.

Tang Yu Xian nodded slightly, whispering, “En, it’s just that the chance of such a True Spirit forming inside such a jade is exceptionally small. Out of over 10,000 Precious Jades of such age, it’s not certain even one will breed a True Spirit.”

As she spoke, her expression became slightly agitated. “But once a True Spirit is born inside a Precious Jade, its value immediately rises several tens of times.”

Tu Feng also nodded in agreement, “Indeed.”

Yang Kai suddenly became interested and asked curiously, “What kind of uses does such a True Spirit have?”

The two Blood Warriors looked at each other and suddenly felt relieved; after they had started accompanying Yang Kai, it was always he who had marveled both of them, but now it seems that he really was still just a young man. In terms of knowledge and information, he was still not a match for them.

[It turns out we can still be of use to this Little Lord.] Tu Feng and Tang Yu Xian thought to themselves.

Putting aside these distracting thoughts, Tang Yu Xian hurriedly replied, “The formation of a True Spirit is incredibly difficult and can only occur in the largest and highest quality jade mines. If I’m not mistaken, the Lu Family’s Yang Crystal Jade Bed should have been extracted from a large scale Yang Crystal Jade mine. The Yang Crystal Jade in that mine was likely very high in grade, and that Yang Crystal Jade Bed was likely the core of the mine.”

“And this small piece should be the inner most piece of that Yang Crystal Jade Bed, right?”

At this point, Tang Yu Xian naturally could guess the origin of this jade block.

“En.”

Tang Yu Xian smiled brilliantly, “The Lu Family must have thought that the Yang Crystal Jade Bed was the essence of that jade mine, but in fact, this palm sized piece of jade is the core of that essence! The energy contained within it and its true value is probably higher than the rest of that entire jade mine!”

Yang Kai suddenly became infected with her excitement.

“Also, the most important aspect of a True Spirit… is it can achieve sentience!” Tang Yu Xian’s eyes flashed a fervent light, not making any effort to conceal the enthusiasm in her voice, “If it can be refined into an artifact, then when the artifact is completed, its grade will surely be improved by leaps and bound, it’s even possible that if an Artifact Refining Grandmaster were to refine an artifact with it, it could possibly become a Spirit Grade artifact!”

Spirit Grade artifact!

That was something only heard of in legends.

Xiao Fu Sheng’s lifelong pursuit had been to be the first person to refine a Spirit Grade pill. In a similar fashion, the highest level of artifact so far had always been Mysterious Grade Top-Rank and such artifacts were extremely scarce, there had never been a confirmed Spirit Grade artifact.

It seemed as if there was some kind of power in this world that suppressed the advancement of Artifact Refinement and Alchemy, making Mysterious Grade Top-Rank the highest achievable height.

“If you give it some time and allow it to fully develop its consciousness, then it will certainly be able to play a huge role. This is truly a blessing from the Heavens, an unparalleled good fortune!” Tu Feng quickly added.

“Oh? How long will that take?” Yang Kai asked.

Tang Yu Xian smiled wryly, “At the very least, it will take a few hundred years, most likely more.”

Yang Kai couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

A few hundred years later, who knew if he would be dead or alive.

“The growth of a True Spirit is definitely slow as it’s not a physical entity per-say, but if it does achieve maturity, it will become unrivaled in this world.”

“Is it really so powerful?” Yang Kai inhaled a sharp breath.

“It is most certainly that powerful,” Tang Yu Xian nodded, and her expression became serious, “In addition to Artifact Refining, if you can safely absorb this True Spirit, it will provide a tremendous boost to your strength, it may even grant you some unexpected benefits or even bestow upon you some kind of Heaven defying ability.”

Hearing this last bit of information, Yang Kai suddenly felt the urge to immediately absorb the True Spirit.

Tang Yu Xian obviously saw this look in Yang Kai’s eyes and quickly waved her hands, sternly warning, “Little Lord, you mustn’t act impulsively! The energy contained within this small piece of jade is beyond your imagination, if you really tried to assimilate it now, the results would be disastrous.”