Martial Peak

Chapter 5726: Universe Furnace Manifests

The Great Sun and Moon Marks were created from the Burning Light’s and Serene Glimmer’s Sources; so naturally, the power that came from these two Marks contained the aura of their Sources.

It was a power that was derived directly from the Primordial Light. Perhaps that was the reason why the Innate Open Heaven Pills could not devour it completely.

Either way, the experiment was a success.

Yang Kai was thrilled. He quickly added the Great Sun and Great Moon’s auras to the eight remaining lights; however, after going to great lengths to do so, a thought dawned on Yang Kai.

[There’s no point in doing this!]

Initially, he wanted to leave something that he could control inside the nine best-quality Open Heaven Pills; that way, it would be easier for him to seize them when the Universe Furnace truly emerged. However, the power from the Great Sun and Moon Marks did not belong to him; they had been given to him by Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan. Although he could wield the two Marks to create Purifying Light, he could not use them to control the nine Open Heaven Pills.

All of Yang Kai’s delight disappeared in a flash as soon as he remembered this.

He thought that after spending half a day on his attempts, he was finally rewarded with success, but in the end, it had all been for nothing. No one would be pleased about that.

Thus, after being dragged into this place by the Universe Furnace, Yang Kai did not receive any significant benefit, other than personally witnessing the mysterious inner workings of the Universe Furnace and the creation of the Innate Open Heaven Pills.

Furthermore, Mo Na Ye got the chance to escape!

Yang Kai was feeling rather disgruntled.

However, he could not do anything about it. A strange power was restraining him right now, and he could not do anything about it.

As time passed, Yang Kai calmed himself down and continued watching as the Open Heaven Pills devoured the Dao Essence all around them and took on a physical form. Eventually, the nine lights grew brighter until they became nine Great Suns that hovered all around Yang Kai.

When compared to the nine Great Suns, the countless dots of glimmering light paled by far, like the difference between the bright moon and dim stars in the night sky.

However, Yang Kai had a feeling that the glimmering lights, which were also Open Heaven Pills, had to be crucial in some way. In any case, how could something produced by the Universe Furnace turn out to be ordinary?

The Open Heaven Pills he got from the Blood Monster Cave Heaven in the past were most likely these lower quality ones, but their medicinal efficacies had probably waned due to the passage of time and the failure to store them properly.

Yang Kai did not know how long it had been, but he was focused on observing the production of the Open Heaven Pills when he felt a kind of strong and vigorous energy surge towards him while undergoing some kind of unknown transformation.

His expression changed, but as he could not move, he could not dodge the sudden burst of energy, so he had to endure it instead.

The strange energy was incredibly powerful, and when confronted with it, even Yang Kai, who was at the peak of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, felt minuscule in comparison.

He heard his bones being dislocated and his five viscera and six organs felt as if they were about to explode from the pressure…

Yang Kai had no idea what was happening. Apart from being restrained, nothing else had happened to him ever since he entered the Universe Furnace, until now. It finally felt as if his life was at risk.

In that life-and-death moment, there was only one thought in Yang Kai’s mind, [Is the Universe Furnace… really going to refine me?]

Fortunately, the intense energy fluctuation disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The pressure had only lasted for a moment before it was gone.

Yang Kai could sense that the space he was in, the place with countless glimmering lights, was now endlessly stretching out. At the same time, the glimmering lights turned into streaks and shot out in all directions.

A thought popped into Yang Kai’s mind almost instinctively.

[The Universe Furnace has fully manifested!]

The strange event earlier was clearly a sign that the Universe Furnace was emerging!

After counting the days in his head, Yang Kai realized that the timing added up as well.

Then, Yang Kai noticed that the power that had been restraining him all this while had disappeared.

He instantly manipulated Space Principles to lock up the area around him as he reached out to grab the blazing streaks of light, but they moved away so quickly that Yang Kai came up empty-handed, even though he had been determined to catch hold of them.

Only a few of the weak, glimmering lights were caught inside his trapped space.

The weak, glimmering lights were trembling hard against the constraints of the Space Principles. It was as if the lights had a mind of their own and wanted to escape from Yang Kai’s grasp, but he was not going to let that happen. He stuffed the lights into his Small Universe, though he did not have the time to study them now. Instead, he dashed after one of the dazzling streams of light he targeted earlier.

Space Principles flickered, and in a flash, Yang Kai reappeared millions of kilometres away…

However, just a moment later, Yang Kai came to a stop with a helpless expression on his face.

The stream of light had already gone too far away. It flew a lot quicker than him even though he used Instantaneous Movement. After recalling the earlier scene, Yang Kai immediately understood what was happening. It was not really that the dazzling light was moving faster than he was, but rather that this space was, itself, rapidly expanding.

[I had such a great opportunity right in front of me, but I failed to seize it!] Yang Kai was vexed with himself. No words could express the consternation he felt. Nine top-quality Open Heaven Pills had been right in front of him, each one representing a new Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master; and yet, he did not even manage to grab a single one!

Yang Kai was agitated, and as he had been injured by the pressure from the powerful energy earlier, he ended up coughing up a mouthful of Golden Blood. Even his aura noticeably weakened.

He stood in place to restore himself for a moment as he looked around him with a frown.

[What the Hell is going on? Since the Universe Furnace has already appeared, why am I still inside of it? Shouldn’t I have been flung out of here the same way the Open Heaven Pills were? What’s more… the Universe Furnace seems too vast.]

By now, Yang Kai was starting to realise that all his theories had been wrong from the start. The inside of the Universe Furnace turned out to be an independent space, and there was no proof that the Open Heaven Pills had been ejected out of it. So, perhaps the opportunity to seize one of them doesn’t occur outside, but rather inside the Universe Furnace!

Yang Kai would be able to confirm this theory soon enough. If he encountered other living beings inside the Universe Furnace, then it meant the opportunity took place inside.

Yang Kai gathered himself and moved in the direction where the dazzling light had flown. Even though it had escaped from him earlier, he was still going to hunt it down.

At this point, he found that his earlier efforts had not been for nothing. Although the aura of the Great Sun and Moon Marks that he left on the nine Open Heaven Pills previously could not help him when it came to controlling them, he could use the Marks to ascertain where the pills were, though he could only do so if he was close enough.

Yang Kai became a lot calmer now. There was a benefit to being pulled into the Universe Furnace early after all.

During the chase, Yang Kai also found the time to check on the weak, glimmering lights he had captured.

He had slightly over a dozen of them and they were currently flying around his Small Universe. They looked like shooting stars streaking across the sky, and the many cultivators inside Void World were staring up at them in amazement. Some of the Dao Temple disciples with greater cultivation tried to chase after these lights, but none of them succeeded.

These weaker lights still moved at incredible speeds. Yang Kai used Space Principles to capture them, but the Emperor Realm Masters from the Dao Temple did not have such ability.

They thought this was some kind of amazing opportunity and had no idea these were just something their Dao Lord had tossed into his Small Universe as he did not have the time to bother with them.

Soon, Yang Kai gathered the scattered lights together and subdued them. The lights faded away, and several fragrant, flawlessly round Spirit Pills appeared in front of him.

Upon closer inspection, these Open Heaven Pills were fairly similar to the ones Yang Kai got from the Blood Monster Cave Heaven, but their medicinal efficacies were clearly much more potent.

[What are they for?] Yang Kai frowned. [Don’t tell me these Open Heaven Pills can help those in the Eighth Order break through to the Ninth Order as well?] 

If that was the case, the fact that he now had over a dozen of them meant there were going to be over a dozen new Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, but there was no way that was possible.

The reason Humans knew how to create Open Heaven Pills was because the Great Experts of the Early Ancient Era had derived a recipe for them based on the Innate Open Heaven Pills they obtained from the Universe Furnace. Although modifications and improvements to the Open Heaven Pill recipe had never ceased, the ones refined by Human Alchemists were still incomparable to the ones from the Universe Furnace.

There was only one benefit to the ones the Humans made. Those Open Heaven Pills were easy enough to create, and as long as there were sufficient resources and Alchemists available, the production could go on forever. Nearly every Sect had its own way of creating these Manmade Open Heaven Pills to fuel their disciples’ cultivation.

Yang Kai had also refined some Open Heaven Pills many millennia ago when he first entered the 3,000 Worlds. After all the cultivation and resources he had acquired since then, it felt as if this memory of his took place aeons ago.

Once again, Yang Kai gathered his thoughts. He created a Seal on the Open Heaven Pills and put them away safely. No matter what they were for, they had come from the Universe Furnace and thus could not be something simple. He would know whether or not they were useful once he brought them to Senior Brother Mi and asked the latter about them.

Yang Kai then continued chasing after the dazzling lights while occasionally using the Great Sun and Moon Marks to see if he could sense anything nearby.

…

As the interior of the Universe Furnace rattled and shook, the over a dozen illusory phantoms of it that had been solidifying for the past two years finally transformed into the Universe Furnace, which was a grand and majestic Alchemy Furnace that gave off a mysterious, ancient aura with complex lines circulating across its surface…

These Universe Furnaces were not the true body though, merely portals to the World inside of it. As if breathing, the Universe Furnace would occasionally disperse a wondrous aura from its entrances. If anyone was able to cultivate near the furnace opening, they would receive a lot of benefits.

However, who would be thinking of cultivating by the opening when the Universe Furnace had emerged? It was more important to enter the Universe Furnace for opportunities.

Outside the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, the many years of peace gave way to battle once more. The Black Ink Clan inside the Grand Restriction knew that the Universe Furnace was a great opportunity for the Humans, so to stop the Suppressing Black Ink Army from entering, the Black Ink Clan was willing to do whatever it took to launch an attack on them, forcing the various Masters to remain behind to hold the line.

A 100,000-metre-long White Dragon weaved through the fighting, killing dozens, if not hundreds with each blow he struck, but soon, two Royal Lords made huge sacrifices to rush out of the gap in the Grand Restriction and pin him down.

Royal Lords were heavily injured if they tried to leave the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction through the opening Wu Kuang had made. Previously, Fu Guang killed several Royal Lords who had been affected this way, so the enemy knew that in a one-on-one fight, these Royal Lords were no match for him, but it was not as easy for him to kill them when he was up against two of them at once.