Martial Peak

Looking around, Yang Kai immediately discovered the commotion surrounding the High Heaven Pavilion members, and although it wasn’t immediately clear what had happened, he realized that something was wrong and his expression couldn’t not help but sink.

“Senior Brother Yang, Senior Sister Su!” Li Yun Tian shouted tearfully, “Brother Su… Brother Su was stabbed!”

Su Yan’s beautiful face suddenly discoloured and her figure flickered as she rushed into the crowd, Yang Kai following close behind.

Staring at the scene before him, Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as wrath began filling his face.

In the middle of the crowd, Su Mu had already gone pale, kneeling limply on the ground. A sword was inserted in his right chest and thrust straight out his back. With blood leaking from his mouth and wound, his vitality slowly draining as he struggled for each breath, cringing the whole time as he endured his urge to scream.

One of the Martial Uncles from High Heaven Pavilion sat behind him, his hands pressed against his back as he poured his True Qi into Su Mu.

Su Yan’s eyes quickly became wet.

She and Su Mu were real brother and sister. Seeing her younger brother in such a miserable state, how could she not feel tearful?

Yang Kai pushed open the crowd and quickly stepped forward, reaching out and grabbing Su Mu’s wrist, examining his condition for a moment before squeezing open Su Mu’s mouth and feeding him some Myriad Drug Milk.

Bracing Su Mu, Yang Kai pulled out the long sword inserted into his chest, bringing with it a splash of blood.

Quickly using his True Qi to seal the flow of blood to Su Mu’s wound, he turned to Su Yan and gently comforted, “He’ll be alright.”

Su Yan nodded lightly.

Having fed him the Myriad Drug Milk, Su Mu’s life wouldn’t be in any danger, and may even turn this tragedy into a blessing. At the very least, his constitution and strength would be improved, but… if it wasn’t for Yang Kai and Su Yan’s swift appearance, if they had taken even half an hour longer to defeat the four Qiu and Kang Family masters, things may have turned out very different.

Even if Su Mu didn’t die, he would likely end up crippled for life!

Standing slowly, Yang Kai’s expression became incredibly calm as he turned and stared at Kang Zhan standing nearby.

Kang Zhan suddenly felt his mouth go dry. Seeing Yang Kai stare silently at him made him realize this time things would not end simply.

“Who did it?” Yang Kai stared at Kang Zhan and asked solemnly.

Kang Zhan swallowed and hesitated, “Ninth Young Lord, this was just an accident…”

“Who did it!”

Kang Zhan’s brow furrowed. Although he knew Yang Kai’s strength was tyrannical, as the leader of this operation and one of the Young Lords of the Central Capital, he naturally couldn’t act too timid, quickly saying, “Ninth Young Lord, this is the Inheritance War. It’s normal for one or two people to be injured or killed. You and I are enemies, and your friend’s life isn’t in any danger. Even if he really died, that’s all there is to it. Has Ninth Young Lord not taken the lives of many others during this war?”

“I’ve indeed taken many lives.” Yang Kai didn’t deny Kang Zhan’s claim, “If the relatives and friends of those people want to take revenge on me, they are welcome to seek me out. As such, now that one of my friends has been hurt, I have to take revenge for him, so I must know who did it.”

Kang Zhan suddenly froze up. Where there are contradictions and resentments, there is revenge. Since he just said that injuries and death are perfectly normal, what right did he have now to stop Yang Kai from seeking revenge? What’s more, the two of them had previously agreed that the people of High Heaven Pavilion would not be harmed in this fight as long as they didn’t intervene.

Now that someone from High Heaven Pavilion had been seriously wounded in violation of that agreement, Kang Zhan really didn’t have any moral ground to stand on.

Kang Zhan fell into a dilemma, if he was to sell out someone on his side just like that, he would appear spineless, but he really was afraid of what Yang Kai might do if he continued to feign ignorance.

“It was them!” Li Yun Tian suddenly stood up and angrily shouted, point his finger towards the far side of the crowd, “Those two groups are the ones who wanted to kill Brother Su!”

Turning his eyes in the direction of Li Yun Tian’s pointed finger, Yang Kai saw none other than Nan Sheng and and Xiang Chu.

Turning his gaze towards them as well, Kang Zhan frowned deeply as he suddenly discovered that Nan Sheng and Xiang Chu had at some point quietly slipped away and returned to their own camps.

The two of them had escaped, leaving him behind to wipe their asses. Kang Zhan was naturally furious!

“Them huh? I understand.” Yang Kai nodded lightly before turning his gaze back to Kang Zhan, coldly saying, “Young Lord Kang, I told you that the people from High Heaven Pavilion not participating in this battle was for your own good! It seems like you didn’t believe me when I said that if they were to suffer any losses I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from killing you.”

Kang Zhan was momentarily dumbstruck, his eyes quickly filling with fear.

He discovered that the aura Yang Kai was projecting had suddenly become violent and bloody as he released a thick murderous intent.

Almost subconsciously, Kang Zhan retreated as Yang Kai glared at him, raised his hand, and stabbed the sword which had formerly been pierced through Su Mu’s right chest towards him.

Kang Zhan face went pale, never having imagined that once Yang Kai said he would kill, he really would kill. Hastily pushing his True Qi and using his strongest Martial Skill, he tried to resist, but against the devastating force of Yang Kai’s thrust, Kang Zhan’s attempt to defend himself was meaningless.

*Pu…*

Kang Zhan let out a strained cough as his right chest was pierced by the long sword, just like Su Mu. Under the huge force of this strike, he stumbled back a dozen steps before finally stabilizing his stance.

His whole body trembling violently, Kang Zhan stared towards Yang Kai in total disbelief.

The entire crowd went dead silent, all of their faces showing utter shock!

For the first time in the Inheritance War, one of the Young Lords from the Central Capital Eight Great Families had been injured, seriously injured at that!

Usually, it was impossible for any of the Young Lords from the Eight Great Families involved in Inheritance War to suffer real harm, much less have to worry about their lives. No one had ever dared to kill them; at most, they would defeat them and force them to withdraw.

But now, this age old precedent that had been maintained for countless years had been broken.

Kang Zhan slowly lowered his head and stared at the long sword in his chest. Even as the dull pain gradually began to spread from his wound, he still couldn’t believe that Yang Kai had really stabbed him; his courage had simply reached the point where he didn’t fear the Heavens.

“Ninth Young Lord…” Kang Zhan muttered, his mouth filling with blood and his breathing becoming laboured.

Yang Kai simply glared at him coldly and said, “If you weren’t from the Eight Great Families, I would kill you where you stand!”

Kang Zhan’s face paled visibly as an icy chill tightly gripping his heart. He didn’t dare say another word, quickly sinking to the ground before taking out a high grade healing pill and swallowing it.

As the wind whistled across the battlefield, Yang Kai stepped forward, releasing a pressure towards the crowd that felt as if a mountain was pressing down on them, each of them feeling the breath of death upon their necks.

From the people Yang Zhao had deployed, besides Kang Zhan who was focused on healing himself, the four ice sculptures a short distance away, and the dozen plus masters battling Ying Jiu, everyone else had all gathered in one place.

Headed by Qiu Zi Ruo, all of them had a look of panic on their face.

“What should I do? What do I do?” Qiu Zi Ruo muttered, his face pale as he anxiously asked the people around him.

This time’s operation was supposed to be directed by Kang Zhan, but now that he had been seriously wounded, this burden naturally fell to Qiu Zi Ruo.

Facing such a strong and ruthless character like Yang Kai, who hadn’t even hesitated to stab Kang Zhan through his chest, Qiu Zi Ruo couldn’t summon any courage to resist, he was afraid that if he were to try putting up a strong front, his fate would be the same as Kang Zhan’s.

Unfortunately for him, since he had no idea what to do, how could anyone else?

“Nan Sheng, all of this stemmed from your actions! You tell me, what we should do now?” Qiu Zi Ruo turned and yelled at Nan Sheng.

Nan Sheng’s previously domineering and arrogant attitude had vanished, replaced with fear and depression as he licked his dry lips, saying nothing.

Seeing Qiu Zi Ruo’s flustered reaction, a hint of disdain and hostility flashed across Xiang Chu’s eyes as he said, “Young Lord Qiu, Yang Kai is just one man. What is there to fear? What he and Young Lord Kang said was the truth: In the Inheritance War, there’s nothing wrong with one or two people being injured or dying. What’s more, that kid isn’t even dying. Yang Kai is clearly just raising a fuss over a trivial matter, he has no right to criticize our actions! Now is still a good opportunity for us to eliminate Yang Kai. Young Lord Qiu should act decisively and grab it, all of us await your orders.”

“Bullshit!” Qiu Zi Ruo roared, “Yang Kai and Young Lord Kang both warned you two not to touch those High Heaven Pavilion people. Moreover, Yang Kai also just showed mercy to our people, but you… you… damn your eighteen generations of ancestors!”

Xiang Chu expression blackened, deeply disappointed with Qiu Zi Ruo’s weakness.

As these two spoke, Yang Kai had already approached to within ten meters of the crowd; he was just one man facing seven forces, yet he showed no fear. Although all of the top masters were occupied or disabled, his enemy still had a massive numerical advantage including several Immortal Ascension masters.

“Qiu Zi Ruo,” Yang Kai shouted, “You are Qiu Yi Meng’s brother. I don’t want to embarrass you, so stand aside.”

A look of joy flashed across Qiu Zi Ruo’s face but, just as he was about to open his mouth and agree, he paused, furrowed his brow, and shook his head, “Ninth Young Lord, your offer, this Qiu will have to decline.”

Yang Kai nodded, “Seems you have some backbone!”

Without saying anything else, a light suddenly flashed, and a giant bone shield appeared in his hands.

“It’s that Mysterious Grade artifact!” Qiu Zi Ruo and others looked slightly confused.

Yang Kai had only used this artifact once in public during the attack on Yang Kang’s mansion; as such, everyone knew how outstanding the defensive strength of this artifact was and that it had the ability to swallow True Qi based attacks. With it equipped, Yang Kai’s defense could be said to be impregnable.

But at this moment, why had Yang Kai summoned it? This act made everyone here feel quite puzzled. Did Yang Kai perhaps want to consolidate his defence before attacking?

Before they could think through all of this thought, a dangerous aura began filling the air.

Thin bolts of lightning began flashing across the bone shield’s surface before a violent flash of energy burst forth from its gaping mouth.

*Xiu xiu xiu…*

A lifelike meter-thick lightning dragon rushed out from the mouth of the bone shield, coiling through the air. Reaching several tens of meters in length, a potent destructive aura radiated from it as it stared down the remaining members of the seven forces.

“How is this possible?” Qiu Zi Ruo exclaimed.

There were many kinds of artifacts out there but they could broadly be grouped into three categories, offensive, defensive, and auxiliary. This bone shield of Yang Kai’s was clearly used for defense, so how could it suddenly display such great offensive might?

On top of that, this lightning dragon seemed was something they had witnessed before!

“It’s the power from Yang Kang’s Mysterious Grade artifact!” Xiang Chu screamed and suddenly realized that the bone shield in Yang Kai’s hand could not only swallow True Qi attacks but could also store and then release them.

This giant lightning dragon was clearly the ability Yang Kang’s Mysterious Grade artifact had displayed when he and Yang Kai had fought more than two months ago.

At that time, this lightning dragon must have been swallowed up by Yang Kai’s bone shield, and now he was preparing to unleash it.