Martial Peak

Hu Jiao Er had always been stronger willed than her sister. On any other day she would still treat Fang Lao as an honored Senior, however, at this moment, seeing him actually wanting to kill Yang Kai, she couldn’t help but curse him as an old bastard.

Fang Lao’s eyes twitched upon hearing a junior insult him so, but due to this girl’s identity, he couldn’t respond too forcefully and instead calmly replied, “Him? With his current appearance how hasn’t he fallen to the Devil’s Practices?”

Hu Jiao Er simply sneered, “If he’d already fallen into the Devil’s Practices, do you think we could still stand safely beside him? Are you blind?”

Hearing this argument, although they were annoyed with her tone, Fang Lao and Xu Lao also couldn’t help but hesitate, uncertain about what exactly was happening. Yang Kai’s current state was completely beyond their understanding. There was no doubt that he was under the influence of a Heaven shaking Evil Qi that should have completely distorted his consciousness, but the look in his eyes was clearly calm, without the slightest taint one would associate with the Devil’s Practices.

“Also, you only saw him kill Cheng Ming, have you ever once stopped to think about what the old dog did to him?” Hu Jiao Er’s tone became more intense.

Fang Lao moved his mouth to retort only to freeze up the next instant, and he remained silent for a few moments before saying, “This old master only believes what he has seen.”

Hu Jiao Er’s sneer became even deeper, “Two weeks ago, these people from Thunder Light Sect and Soaring Rainbow Court suffered a big loss at his hands. Today they abandoned their duties at the front lines and came back here in secret. For what purpose? I’m sure you can guess! Even if Yang Kai really killed them, it can only be considered self-defence. All the dead here brought this on themselves; what does it have to do with him? When an elder wants to kill you, do you have to stretch out your neck and let them cut off your head? If someone else attacks you, are you not allowed to resist?”

Guan Chi Le nodded firmly, “The First Young Lady is right! The people from Thunder Light Sect and Soaring Rainbow Court not only took action behind our backs but also deserted the battlefield in order to kill one of our own! The Young Lord must uphold justice!”

“Please judge the situation fairly Young Lord!” Fang Ziji barely managed to contain his smile while also adding his voice.

Xiang Chu smiled indifferently and said, “If things are really like this, this young master will certainly mete out punishment to those from Thunder Light Sect and Soaring Rainbow Court to serve as a warning to others!”

Pausing here though, Xiang Chu continued, “But in the end all of this is just your assumptions. All of you came back with me and none of you saw clearly what happened. Naturally this young master also did not witness what happened either; therefore, I suggest that the parties involved, both sides, explain exactly what happened here.”

“I have no objections!” Yang Kai grinned and nodded.

“This young master appreciates this friend’s understanding.” Xiang Chu nodded then turned to his guards, “Fang Lao, Xu Lao, gather up those who are still alive!”

“Yes!” The two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters flew out and after a few short breaths had brought back all the juniors who had survived.

Many of them were seriously injured and could barely keep themselves from falling over. Xie Rong and Li Fu, although quite embarrassed, still couldn’t hide how badly beaten they were.

Quietly glancing towards Yang Kai, the two juniors quickly took back their gaze in a panic, and their junior brothers and sisters didn’t even dare to look at Yang Kai.

Over the course of the previous fight, a deep and profound fear of this mysterious youth had taken root in their souls.

Even the powerful Elders who were from their parents’ generation had been easily slaughtered by Yang Kai, so how could these young people have any ability to resist?

“Xie Rong. Li Fu.” Xiang Chu called out firmly.

“Ye… ye… yes…” Xie Rong trembled as he stuttered to respond, Li Fu, even more so, was unable to compose herself enough to speak.

Xiang Chu’s brow furrowed slightly but quickly put on a kind expression, “You two should have seen everything with your own eyes, right?”

“Ye… yes.”

“Good, then recount everything that happened, including all the details you can remember, if you dare conceal or lie about anything, you know the consequences!” Xiang Chu said lightly.

Xie Rong and Li Fu glanced at each other, but neither of them dared to speak.

Seeing this, Hu Jiao Er smirked, “A guilty conscience makes one nervous.”

Xiang Chu rubbed his forehead before grinning, “Jiao Er, please don’t say such things before we’ve made a conclusion.”

Hu Jiao Er coldly snorted in return, “Young Lord Xiang, I don’t want to remind you again, please don’t call my name so familiarly.”

“Apologise Young Lady Hu, I was distracted and spoke negligently.” Xiang Chu replied smoothly without a hint of embarrassment in his voice and once again turned to face Xie Rong and Li Fu before continued, “If you don’t dare to speak, then this Young Lord must conclude that you are in the wrong and will kill you right now!”

Xie Rong and Li Fu couldn’t help shuddering as their eyes met Xiang Chu’s.

However, Xiang Chu swiftly added, “But if you are the ones who have been wronged, this Young Lord also swears to uphold justice for you!”

Hearing this sentence, everyone from Storm Hall and Blood Battle Gang couldn’t help but frown.

Xiang Chu’s words sounded fair and unbiased, but upon further thought they held a profound meaning.

Sure enough, Xie Rong and Li Fu once again looked at each other, and their panic-stricken emotions gradually stabilized as they seemed to have found a support to lean on.

Li Fu finally managed to whisper, “Xie Rong, you say it.”

Xie Rong swallowed hard, grit his teeth, and nodded. “Good.”

Taking a deep breath and not daring to look in Yang Kai’s direction, he spoke in a deep and aggrieved tone, “Earlier today, when we were fighting on Tai Fang Mountain our two Sects ended up chasing down a group of Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land cultivators. After killing them, we discovered that we were not far from the camp and decided that backtracking to meet up with Young Lord Xiang wasn’t necessary, so we simply returned here.”

“Dog shit!” Hu Jiao Er couldn’t help shouting, “Since the beginning of the fight, I never once saw anyone from your two Sects! What ‘chasing down Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land cultivators?’ You clearly decided to sneak off and return to camp from the very start!”

“I swear what I’ve said is the truth! Young Lord Xiang, if you don’t believe me, you can search the western outskirts of the camp, there should still be some fresh bodies left there.”

Xiang Chu nodded slightly, “I’ll definitely investigate your claims. If you were chasing down our enemies, that is something to be commended, however… failing to return to the rally point was definitely a mistake in judgement by your two Sects. I have no choice but to reprimand you in regards to such an error, I assume you have no complaints, correct?”

“None!” Xie Rong and Li Fu shook their heads at the same time.

The Hu Sisters nearly choked on their anger as although Xiang Chu seemed to be properly handling matters, his statements and judgements so far were clearly favouring Thunder Light Sect and Soaring Rainbow Court.

“Continue!” Xiang Chu motioned casually.

“When we and our respective Elders returned to camp, we planned to send out a few of our members to report our situation to Young Lord Xiang but before we had a chance to sit down and rest, we suddenly felt an eruption of Evil Qi.”

“An eruption of Evil Qi?” Xiang Chu frowned.

“Right, we had never felt this kind of wicked aura before. The Elders of our two factions thought that some incredibly powerful demons had infiltrated the camp and thus led all of us back to confront them, but when we found the source of the aura it was actually… actually…”

“What, speak up?”

“It was that person.”

“What man?” Xiang Chu asked.

“The strange man the Hu Sisters brought back with them the other day!” Xie Rong replied in a horse voice.

Xiang Chu looked over at Yang Kai, who simply smiled back at him.

It was a plain smile filled with a look of self-confidence, leaving Xiang Chu at somewhat of a loss.

“And then?” Xiang Chu asked, turning his eyes back to the two juniors in front of him.

“Then… then… that man madly attacked us! Our two Elders couldn’t stop him and many of our fellow disciples were either killed or heavily wounded. In the end, the two elders sacrificed their own lives trying to save as many of us juniors as possible.” As Xie Rong recanted this horrific tale, his voice seemed to contain infinite grievances and pain, and even his breath quickened as he mournfully said, “This humble one begs Young Lord Xiang uphold justice and exact revenge for the fallen Brothers, Sisters, and Elders of our two Sects!”

Li Fu also shed tears as she frantically wiped her eyes, weeping as she added, “Young Lord Xiang please! This hatred cannot go unsettled!”

Listening to these two, the disciples from Blood Battle Gang and Storm Hall ground their teeth, and a bitter rage and hatred welled up in their hearts.

Xiang Chu was silent for a moment before motioning, “You two, get up.”

“If Young Lord Xiang cannot uphold justice for us and kill this demon, we will kneel here forever!” Xie Rong and Li Fu declared as they lowered their heads to the ground.

Xiang Chu’s expression became somewhat displeased seeing their display, saying, “Things have yet to be made clear. All of this is just your side, but if you wish to kneel, then just kneel.”

Lifting his eyes, he smiled towards Yang Kai and continued, “This friend, your situation doesn’t appear to be so simply described, if you have something to say, this Young Lord will hear you out.”

The Hu Sisters turned and stared towards Yang Kai.

However, Yang Kai simply shrugged and said indifferently, “Nope!”

“Yang Kai!” Hu Jiao Er’s beautiful face immediately cramped up, and she nervously seized his arm.

Xiang Chu was also quite surprised and couldn’t help looking at him strangely. It seemed like he hadn’t expected Yang Kai to not argue back.

Upon seeing the calm, disdainful look on his face, Xiang Chu had a faint bad premonition.

He dared not defend himself, and he didn’t seem the slightest bit nervous, so obviously he wasn’t afraid he would suffer any consequences from this situation. Was he simply arrogant, or was he still hiding something that gave him this sense of confidence?

“Yang Kai, you have to fight back, they’ve slandered you so, how can you just stand there and say nothing?” Hu Mei Er also pleased anxiously.

But Yang Kai just maintained a light smile and replied, “Since they already have the predisposition to condemn me, context does not matter. So let’s not waste our breath.”

At that moment, the Hu Sisters frozen for an instant before suddenly realizing that no matter what argument or defence Yang Kai put forward it was useless. His current state was enough for everyone to label him a demon!

Now that they were at war with the Ash-Grey Cloud Evil Land, what was the fate of a demon that had appeared here? Everyone would slaughter him! So even if the Thunder Light Sect and Soaring Rainbow Court people were the ones who acted first, Yang Kai’s reasons were meaningless.

Justifications? All of that was just wasted spit!

His expression gradually sinking, Yang Kai sneered, “Whether I am a man or a devil, that’s not for outsiders to decide.”

Xiang Chu’s eyes couldn’t help squinting as he stared at Yang Kai fixedly.

After a long time saying, “What this friend means to say is, this young master isn’t qualified to pass judgment on you?”

“You think you’re worthy?” Yang Kai looked at him indifferently.

“Bold!” Fang Lao shouted, “The Xiang Family is a first-class family, and the Young Lord is the commander of this camp, yet you, a mere stray dog, dares say the Young Lord isn’t worthy?”

“A first-class family, how awe-inspiring!” Yang Kai laughed rampantly.

“So be it! This Young Lord will let you understand the power of a first-class family today!” Xiang Chu was also angered by Yang Kai’s slights, and he coldly snorted, “Fang Lao, Xu Lao, capture this demon.”

“Yes!” The two Immortal Ascension Boundary masters responded firmly.

“You dare!” The Hu Sisters flew out, placing themselves in front of Yang Kai.

Xiang Chu’s complexion sank and a hint of jealous anger flashed across his eyes. Taking a deep breath he said, “Two young ladies, if you don’t want to get hurt, I suggest you stand back. If you continue to insist on this course of action, this Young Lord will have no choice but to assume you are in league with this demon and capture you together with him!”

“Such great prestige!” Guan Chi Le took a step forward and sneered, “Young Master Xiang, is this how your Xiang Family handles its affairs?”

Xiang Chu’s expression became gloomy, “This how I, Xiang Chu, handle affairs! If this demon isn’t punished, how could our people feel at ease!”