Martial Peak

The people who had gathered here departed as quickly as they had arrived; a short time later, they had all reported the situation to Qiu Yi Meng.

“There have been no losses.” Qiu Yi Meng said, her expression slightly unsightly. Although she was glad that there were no signs of damage and no one was injured, how a person managed to sneak into this heavily guarded area was worth investigating further.

Of course, a traitor wasn’t impossible, but it was unlikely. As of this moment, Yang Kai didn’t have any suspicions about the people inside his mansion.

However, this meant that a lone person had sneaked into the vicinity of the Pill Room solely relying on their own ability; such a thought made Qiu Yi Meng pale up.

By this point, Yang Kai had gathered a lot of strong people, a number of whom were Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage masters. The defense of the Pill Room was also the strictest in the entire compound, yet it was still almost invaded by this mysterious master, just how strong was this person?

But since he had successfully made it so far, why was he exposed all of a sudden? Qiu Yi Meng couldn’t understand what exactly had happened.

“Ying Jiu, did you see what he looked like?” Yang Kai asked, his brow thoroughly wrinkled.

From the shadows, Ying Jiu’s voice rang out, “I apologise, but your subordinate doesn’t even know if the intruder was a man or a woman, let alone their cultivation level.”

Hearing this, everyone couldn’t help gasping. In terms of concealment and assassination, Ying Jiu was an expert of the highest order, yet even he hadn’t managed to learn anything about the intruder. This person was really mysterious.

“However, if this subordinate isn’t wrong, this person’s real cultivation shouldn’t be very high; otherwise he wouldn’t have been caught by my Flickering Shadow Strike.” Ying Jiu commented.

Although the intruder managed to escape, he or she was still injured; the fresh blood on the ground was clear evidence of that.

Yang Kai sunk into contemplation for a moment before concluding, “Either he uses some kind of powerful artifact, or he cultivates some technique specializing in stealth! Interesting, who among my brothers managed to recruit such a master?”

This time, if he and Treasurer Meng hadn’t been on alert, this invader would likely have succeeded in their mission.

Sneaking into the vicinity of the Pill Room, his intentions were obvious. This person definitely wanted to act against the Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley. If the Medicine King’s Valley people suffered any harm, it would be a huge problem in many ways for Yang Kai.

“Junior Brother Yang, since nothing happened, I’ll be heading back first.” Qin Ze said nonchalantly, his expression perfectly calm, totally unlike someone who had just survived a possibly life threatening situation.

“En.” Yang Kai nodded lightly.

After Qin Ze left, Yang Kai called out, “Xiao Shun!”

“Reporting!” An Immortal Ascension Boundary Eighth Stage master a full head shorter than an average man walked out of the crowd.

This was the Yang Family Blood Warrior who had come to offer his services to Yang Kai after his Eighth Brother Yang Quan was eliminated. When he had arrived he was seriously injured, but with the help of Yang Kai’s miraculous healing pills he had completely recovered over the past couple of days.

“From now on you will stand guard in front of the Pill Room!”

Xiao Shun nodded firmly, “Little Lord can rest assured that as long as I still draw breath, no one will get close to the Pill Room!”

Yang Kai gently nodded before turning his gaze in the direction that the mysterious master had fled, a fierce grin slowly forming on his face.

It seems that the presence of these Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists was still bothering his brothers quite a bit, or it would have been impossible for them to send such a powerful master to deal with them. However, whoever ordered this really had some guts, daring to attack this group of Alchemists.

As the sun slowly began rising in the east, the sky gradually brightened.

Following this unprecedented event, no matter who it was, they couldn’t feel at ease; Qiu Yi Meng immediately redeployed the entire mansion’s defenses, keeping everyone busy.

Yang Kai stood in place and stared at the blood stain on the ground while thinking about the scene where his Divine Sense had discovered the intruder, eventually shaking his head helplessly. He too hadn’t been able to determine what this person was up to or even if they were a man or a woman.

Whatever Secret Art or artifact this mysterious master was relying on was truly amazing.

Suddenly, a set of approaching footsteps brought Yang Kai out of his contemplation. Turning around he saw a cultivator from the Qiu Family’s Autumn Rain Hall rush over and cup his fists in front of him, saying, “Young Lord Kai, a Yang Family representative has come!”

“A Yang Family representative?” Yang Kai expression became pensive.

“En, he holds an order from the Yang Family Elder Hall and has been brought to the main hall. He asks that Young Lord Kai come immediately!”

“En, I understand.”

Dismissing the man and frowning for a moment, Yang Kai suddenly sighed, “Everyone should prepare, today there will be a big event.”

“Haha, finally some action!”

“En en, these past few days have been nothing but cultivation and more cultivation, it’s killing me.”

“Yang Kai, this time, no matter what you decide to do, you have to bring us along.”

A group of young men and women all rolled up their sleeves and eagerly clamoured to stir up trouble, like they feared the world not being chaotic.

“Don’t get too hasty, I don’t know the details yet. Anyways, all of you should go back and get yourselves ready to move out.” Yang Kai smiled wryly and turned to the direction of the main hall.

Qiu Yi Meng rushed to catch up and asked suspiciously, “How do you know there will be something today?”

Yang Kai chuckled as he replied, “If my guess is right, the family should want to speed up the progress of the Inheritance War. Since my two brothers were eliminated, the remaining six of us have been quietly minding our own business for almost a month now. Such a peaceful scene is not something the family would desire.”

“Do you think the Yang Family will order you to take the initiative?”

“The Elder Hall wouldn’t use such a blunt instrument; they must be planning something else.” Yang Kai frowned, he too was speculating about what the family would do; however, in the end all he could do was listening to the official announcement.

As the two chatted, they quickly arrived at the main hall.

Inside the hall, someone with his hands crossed behind his back stood waiting.

After a single glance, Yang Kai wore a stunned expression before hurriedly greeting this man, “Father?”

When the Yang Family Fourth Master turned around and saw his son striding in, he couldn’t help himself from smiling, nodding lightly.

Qiu Yi Meng also reacted quickly, performing a graceful bow and politely greeting, “Qiu Family’s Qiu Yi Meng, greets the Yang Family Fourth Master.”

Yang Ying Feng looked at Qiu Yi Meng for a moment before smiling back, “Young Lady Qiu is too polite, since you’ve chosen to support Kai’er, we’re all one family now.”

Pausing for a moment, “To be here with Kai’er, you must have suffered.”

“Uncle doesn’t need to treat me like an outsider. Helping Yang Kai was niece’s decision, she did not suffer at all.”

(Silavin: I believe they used niece here because Yang Ying Feng said they were family)

Yang Ying Feng let out an even happier laugh as he nodded and said, “Kai’er is young. If he offends you, I ask little niece to not take it to heart. If you ever feel like you have been wronged here, just tell uncle bluntly and I’ll teach him a lesson for you!”

“Thank you, Uncle!” Qiu Yi Meng smiled sweetly, “If there ever comes a time, little niece will depend on Uncle’s words.” As she said so, she smugly shot a glance towards Yang Kai, silently saying ‘If you dare to bully me, I’ll definitely complain’.

As Yang Kai listened to his old man and the young woman beside him rapidly go from polite strangers to intimate family members, his expression couldn’t help turning black, quickly steering the conversation back to the main point, “Father, what are you doing here?”

“Delivering the family’s command!” Yang Ying Feng’s expression immediately became serious as he handed over the Yang Family Elder Hall’s order, quickly explaining, “Two hours later, fifty kilometers outside War City at Po Jing Lake, a batch of artifacts will appear; whoever manages to seize them can keep them!”

Hearing this, Yang Kai’s eyes lit up while Qiu Yi Meng’s beautiful face also showed an excited expression.

The biggest factor that determined a cultivator’s strength was their own cultivation, but in addition to this there were other external forces they could rely on.

There were three kinds of external forces, one was pills, the second was artifacts, and the last was Secret Arts or Martial Skills which could raise their combat power.

When it came to pills, Yang Kai didn’t need to spare a second thought. With Xia Ning Chang and the group of Alchemists from Medicine King’s Valley supporting him, Yang Kai had an absolute superiority in this aspect.

Secret Arts and Martial Skill weren’t things that he could easily obtain, so Yang Kai was focused on acquiring artifacts right now!

A cultivator could dramatically increase their combat efficiency by using a powerful artifact.

Also, compared to the use of techniques, the rise in strength brought by artifacts was simpler and more direct.

As of right now, this was the soft underbelly of Yang Kai’s mansion. The artifacts used by the cultivators in his house were all brought from their own forces and everyone only had one or two pieces each. If he could acquire a large batch of artifacts, then the overall strength of his supporters would be upgraded significantly.

Glancing over at Qiu Yi Meng, the two of them were clear about each other’s intentions.

“I have delivered the Elder Hall’s command, whether you go or not is for you young people to decide!” Yang Ying Feng smiled.

“Why wouldn’t I go?!” Yang Kai said enthusiastically, suddenly thinking of something, “This batch of artifacts is from the family, right?”

“No, not just our Yang Family, but all of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families donated some artifacts. However, most are still from the Yang Family. The other seven families only symbolically contributed.”

“How many pieces?”

“One thousand in total!” Yang Ying Feng said as he raised a single finger.

Both Yang Kai and Qiu Yi Meng were not inexperienced youngsters and could even be said to be amongst the top of the younger generation, but even they couldn’t help feeling some shortness of breath at this figure.

A thousand artifacts. Right now there were at most three hundred people gathered in the mansion, if all of these artifacts could be obtained, that would mean that every person here could receive three or four artifacts! Of course, such a calculation was definitely unrealistic.

“Eighty percent are Earth Grade artifact while the vast majority of the remaining twenty percent are Heaven Grade… but there are also a few Mysterious Grade artifacts!”

“All the more reason to go!” Yang Kai grinned.

The roles Mysterious Grade Artifacts could play were significant. If he didn’t grab them, they would only fall into others’ hands.

Being able to take out a thousand artifacts in one shot, the heritage of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Families was really extraordinary, although most of the artifacts weren’t too high grade, this number was still scary enough.

“Uncle, is there any other news available?” Qiu Yi Meng asked with a sweet smile, apparently hoping to gain more information to help plan ahead.

For example, how and where exactly would these artifacts appear? Having such information would be of great value and make taking the initiative easier.

“Don’t bother asking, the family felt relieved enough to allow my own father to deliver their command, obviously they only told him information they wanted disclosed.” Yang Kai waved his hand.

Yang Ying Feng glanced at his son and nodded, “En, the only things I know are innocuous pieces of intelligence, the others who have come as messengers are the same. The starting point of all you juniors is the same. How much can you harvest will be up to your own means.”

“I was just asking.” Qiu Yi Meng shook her head gently, paying particular attention to her behaviour in front of Yang Ying Feng for reasons even she didn’t quite understand.

“In that case, we should go prepare ourselves now.” Yang Kai grinned fiercely, his expression overflowed with confidence as a raging fire burned in his eyes.

“If Father has nothing to attend to, you might as well stay here for a few more days.” Yang Kai suddenly proposed to Yang Ying Feng.

However, the Yang Family Fourth Master shook his head wryly, “Your mother has said specifically that I must go back and report your situation to her.”

“En, take care then, Father.”

“En, I’m off!” Yang Ying Feng waved and set out.