Martial Peak

Yang Kai watched all of this and secretly nodded. The Bold Independent Union’s disciples weren’t weak either in strength or means, at first glance it was clear to him that each member of Yun Xuan’s team was a veteran of many battles and under her leadership, they formed a cohesive force that could not be ignored. Even with an absolute advantage in terms of raw strength and defence, a Sixth-Order Monster Beast was still instantly suppressed by these eight Immortal Ascension cultivators.

Ji Hong’s two-handed axe slashed at the back of the still rampaging Metal Devouring Beast, causing a loud bang and many sparks to fly, but only leaving behind a shallow mark on its armour.

“So hard?” Ji Hong was taken aback; the rebound from his strike caused his hands to go a little numb and a sour taste to well up in his heart. Quickly composing himself, he continued to use his axe artifact to attack.

*Dang dang dang dang…*

“Ji Hong, fall back!” Yun Xuan quickly ordered. Ji Hong’s actions had clearly completely enraged the Metal Devouring Beast and it was now staring red eyed towards him as a golden beam shot out from its forehead. This fierce and blinding energy blast barreled towards Ji Hong at frightening speed.

Seeing this incoming attack, Ji Hong’s face sank as he hastily placed his axe in front of him, just barely managing to defend himself.

Yun Xuan had already rushed over, the spear which she had Grandmaster Ma repair tightly gripped in her hands. Her tender body suddenly gave off a heroic image as her tiny sparks of lightning began emerging from her spear.

A phantom image of a great snake suddenly appeared on her spear, and the spear’s body itself seemed to transform into a real snake, causing a fierce aura to ripple through the air. Thrusting forward, Yun Xuan’s spear gave off a brilliant radiance as it slammed into the Metal Devouring Beast.

Disregarding Ji Hong’s attacks, the Metal Devouring Beast seemed to feel a sense of uneasiness as it let out a frightening roar, its aura becoming more dangerous as its eyes filled with violent madness.

Energy collected between its two horns once again and it quickly sent out an attack to intercept Yun Xuan’s spear.

*Xiu xiu xiu…*

The two attacks collided and a disordered burst of energy erupted, sending stone debris from the mine tunnel flying. A great rumbling sound echoed throughout the mine tunnel and there were even some signs of it beginning to crack.

Yun Xuan’s expression remained indifferent and fearless, waving her spear about skillfully, blocking or parrying the attacks of the Metal Devouring Beast.

The other cultivators had also taken the opportunity to attack and had begun pummeling the Metal Devouring Beast.

A strange energy suddenly spread from the ground.

*Pu pu pu…* A bunch of sharp spurs shot out from the earth just below the Metal Devouring Beast, causing it’s strength to deflate like a punctuated balloon.

Blood flowed from Metal Devouring Beast as it tried to escape, only managing to make it several dozen meters before letting out a sorrowful roar and collapsing to the ground.

From the side, one could clearly see a few bloody holes on its soft belly where it had been pierced by the earth spikes.

Yun Xuan’s team rushed in and swiftly cut off the two horns on the Metal Devouring Beast and then bound its legs, only then taking out some healing medicine and applying it to the beast’s wounds.

Everyone went about their work in an orderly fashion, not in any way flustered.

After everything was done, Ji Hong walked over and happily patted Yang Kai’s shoulder, “Brother Yang, enjoying yourself?”

“En,” Yang Kai nodded lightly.

Until now, he had not taken action and had only been watching.

“This is just a simple mission, when you really join Bold Independent Union, your brother here will show you what a real fight is like.”

Yun Xuan took back her spear and shook out her hands, glancing over at Yang Kai and secretly nodding.

She found that throughout the day, this taciturn boy had always remained calm, and even when something unexpected happened, he didn’t show the slightest panic.

This discovery made Yun Xuan wonder about whether this was just his natural disposition or if he already had a great deal of worldly experience.

Clapping her hands lightly, Yun Xuan said, “Our traps have been used up so from now on, whenever we encounter Metal Devouring Beasts, everyone should be extra cautions and prioritize protecting yourselves.”

The team nodded firmly, their zeal and enthusiasm still at a fever pitch.

“Let’s go!” Yun Xuan waved her hand and walked forward.

The Metal Devouring Beast in the mine were all busy eating so they were all scattered about, most of them choosing to act alone while occasionally they would move about in groups of two or three. With the strength of the Yun Xuan’s team, catching them was quite easy.

As they advanced deeper into the mine, there were countless twists and turns, ramps and slopes, so the team made sure to record which path they had taken to avoid getting lost on the way back.

Yang Kai also began participating and in accordance with Yun Xuan’s orders, provided some small support, calmly attacking and defending in a stable fashion, causing everyone’s opinion of him to rise.

Even Yun Xuan couldn’t help re-evaluating Yang Kai.

She had originally thought he had come out from some remote countryside and was afraid that his combat strength wouldn’t be sufficient. Because of this concern, Yun Xuan had initially kept Yang Kai behind her and didn’t let him join the team’s battles, but after giving him a chance, he turned out to be surprisingly useful. At the very least, after he summoned his Bone Shield, he was able to block the charge of a Metal Devouring Beast head on.

This kind of frontal collision was something that even Ji Hong, who had the most brute strength of all her team members, couldn’t accomplish, yet Yang Kai did so with ease.

This ability was very important as it allowed everyone else on the team to focus on attacking.

After observing him block two such charges, Yun Xuan directly let Yang Kai with his Bone Shield act as the team’s blocker while everyone else launched attacks from the side or behind him.

Using this battle formation, Yun Xuan’s team’s efficiency shot up, bringing a smile to everyone’s face.

After half a day, the team stopped to take a break.

During this break, Yang Kai came over to Yun Xuan and said, “Ms. Yun, there’s something I don’t quite understand.”

“Oh?” Yun Xuan smiled back at him. Yang Kai’s performance today had earned her respect and she now really was thinking about how to get Yang Kai to join Bold Independent Union.

Any team that could have such a strong defensive specialist would be much safer when performing tasks.

“These Metal Devouring Beasts are all here to feed, right?”

“That’s right, why?”

“Brother Ji said that after they consumed enough minerals, they would process the raw ores in their bodies and then excrete the refined metals. This group of Metal Devouring Beasts have already been here for two or three months now but even after we traveled this far into the mine, why haven’t we seen any of their droppings?”

Yun Xuan was startled and after thinking about it for a moment, realized that what Yang Kai said was right.

The whole time they had been fighting she had never seen any refined metals anywhere.

Yun Xuan knit her brows as she didn’t know how to explain this, some doubts welling up in her heart.

The other members of her team heard this conversation and also wore confused expressions. All this time they had only been focused on capturing the Metal Devouring Beast so they had unconsciously overlooked this strange phenomenon.

“Maybe they have a specific place where they take care of their business, like a toilet!” Ji Hong suggested.

Yun Xuan’s face went slightly red but she nonetheless nodded, “It’s possible!”

“Then, if we were to find that place, couldn’t we harvest a large amount of refined metals?” Ji Hong thoughtfully stroked his beard.

Yun Xuan’s eyes flashed brilliantly. Capturing so many Metal Devouring Beasts this time would count as a great achievement and if on top of that they could find this mineral ‘storehouse’, the rewards they would receive would be incredibly rich.

Thinking about this bright future, everyone’s mental and physical fatigue was blow away and each of them once again became filled with enthusiasm.

“Then our secondary objective will be to search for such a place,” Yun Xuan, looking at their expressions, knew that they didn’t want to rest anymore and immediately issued this directive.

The rest of her team was obviously overjoyed and quickly got back on their feet.

Yang Kai, on the other hand, couldn’t help frowning slightly, thinking that there was something off about this situation, but with the little information he had he couldn’t form any reasonable hypotheses much less prove them so he chose to remain quite for now.

For now, whatever Yun Xuan decided, he would go along with.

As they continued into the mine, the number of Metal Devouring Beasts seemed to decrease so Yun Xuan’s team began spending more time scouting around for the refined mineral dump rather than fighting and capturing, unfortunately, they found nothing for their efforts.

As they continued their search, Yang Kai suddenly felt a trace of unease.

Suddenly thinking of a possibility, Yang Kai’s expression sank as he shouted, “Yun Xuan, there’s something wrong here!”

The team members, who were all excitedly searching for the metal dump, heard his voice and couldn’t help stopping, all of them turning puzzled looks towards him.

Yun Xuan frowned, “What do you mean?”

Yang Kai suddenly shouting gave her a fright and she quickly expanded the range of her Divine Sense, but after not finding anything out of the ordinary, she immediately became disgruntled.

When on a mission, one of the most taboo acts was to cause alarm for no reason. If one were to do this, their team members would begin to doubt their trustworthiness, and if trust was lost and a real emergency came up, it would put the team in danger.

Yang Kai didn’t answer; his warning just now was completely instinctual. Through a more in depth investigation of the surrounding area with his Divine Sense, he had noticed a powerful aura hidden deep within the mine.

From his experience, Yang Kai concluded that such a strong energy fluctuation could only be produced by a Transcendent Realm master!

A Transcendent Realm enemy was hiding nearby yet no one had discovered them yet, the fearfulness of this was obvious.

Sun Ying had previously checked the situation in the mine yet even he was unaware that there was another Transcendent here. That could only mean that Sun Ying wasn’t this master’s opponent!

Even Yang Kai himself hadn’t discovered anything up till now and could only conclude that the enemy had some frightening means of concealment.

“Well, what is it?” Yun Xuan’s asked again, a tinge of anger creeping into her voice.

“There’s some kind of danger in this place,” Yang Kai calmly said.

“Speak clearly.” Yun Xuan’s expression dimmed.

“There’s a very powerful master hidden below us, if you don’t want everyone here to die, we should leave now!”

“How do you know that?” Yun Xuan’s brow tightly wrinkled.

Ji Hong also came forward and sighed, “Brother Yang, you can’t joke about these kinds of things. How could there be such a hidden danger here?”

“I’m not making a joke,” Yang Kai shook his head seriously, but glancing around he noticed that everyone was giving him a distrustful look.

Yang Kai suddenly realized that his words really didn’t have any convincing weight behind them.

To an outside observer, he was just a young Immortal Ascension Boundary Seventh Stage cultivator. The strongest member of this team was Yun Xuan, who was a Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master yet she didn’t sense abnormalities nearby; naturally she wouldn’t readily believe his words.

Gently sighing, Yang Kai looked at Yun Xuan and said, “I only came here in order to return the favour I owe you. Right now, if you believe me, you’ll take everyone out of here. If you don’t believe me though, there’s nothing I can say to convince you.”