Martial Peak

Chapter 1177, Strange Mountain Valley

Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain

Three days later, Yang Kai arrived at the mouth of a mountain valley-like area. During these three days, he had been hurrying along, and with the help of his Wind and Thunder Wings, his speed was much faster than others. Besides spending some effort to kill an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast, nothing else of note had happened.

That Eighth-Order’s Fire Spirit Beast had solidified to a certain extent, and when it suddenly emerged from the cracks in the ground, it really surprised Yang Kai. If it wasn’t for his rapid response, and the speed boost his Wind and Thunder Wings provided him, this sneak attack might have injured him.

It was at that point that Yang Kai realized the real threat of Fire Spirit Beasts weren’t their strength, but their ability to perfectly integrate into the environment of the Flowing Flame Sand Field. As long as they did not appear of their own accord, cultivators wouldn’t be able to find them.

However, when one did appear, they would immediately launch a deadly sneak attack.

Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts were equivalent to Saint Kings, and if it had been any other cultivator, that sneak attack would have claimed their life.

Fortunately, Yang Kai managed to kill it and acquired a Fire Crystal Stone the size of a pigeon egg for his efforts.

This piece of Fire Crystal Stone was far larger than the one he first obtained and its value was certainly not low. As long as an Alchemist or Artifact Refiner perfectly integrated the pure fire aura contained inside this Fire Crystal Stone into the pill or artifact they were refining, they could improve the grade and quality of that pill or artefact.

This small harvest pleased Yang Kai, and he couldn’t help wanting to search for other Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts to kill; after all, he was an Alchemist, this thing was quite useful to him.

Inside the mountain valley, Yang Kai used his Divine Sense to cover a three hundred meter radius around him to guard against sneak attacks from powerful Fire Spirit Beasts.

The terrain here was strange. In all directions, there were bare mountains, and the whole mountain valley itself looked like a giant pit. This valley was also quite large, and from the entrance, one could not see the end, only an endless expanse of crisscrossed gullies and cracked crevices, almost like a deep abyss that made one shudder at the mere sight.

Yang Kai, however, didn’t care and promptly used his Wind and Thunder Wings to continue deeper into the valley.

He and Wei Gu Chang had the same idea, to rush to the Treasure Area as soon as possible and collect some spirit grasses and spirit medicines before others arrived en masse. Once the elites from all the great Sects made their way over, there would be fewer chances to obtain good things.

Everyone should be hurrying right now, but with his Wind and Thunder Wings, Yang Kai had a big advantage.

Half a day later, Yang Kai reached the interior of the mountain valley, but surprisingly, he had not encountered a single Fire Spirit Beast along the way. Earlier, no matter how good his luck was, Yang Kai would run into at least one or two Fire Spirit Beasts every hour, but now half a day has passed without any Fire Spirit Beasts appearing, making him feel quite puzzled.

It was as if this mountain valley was some kind of restricted area that Fire Spirit Beasts wouldn’t enter.

Yang Kai was pleased with this development though and simply continued onwards.

But all of a sudden, Yang Kai’s face changed as he instantaneously dodged to the side.

Just now, his Divine Sense had detected traces of abnormal energy fluctuations. This type of energy fluctuation was something he was now quite familiar with as it was a sign that Fire Spirit Beasts underground were about to launch an attack.

Sure enough, the instant after he dodged, the place Yang Kai had originally been standing was set upon by a number of different shaped and different levelled Fire Spirit Beasts.

Yang Kai didn’t want to bother with them, he just wanted to keep moving, but before he could even come to a halt, more abnormal energy fluctuations appeared beneath his feet.

Yang Kai frowned and changed position again.

A third set of energy fluctuations appeared…

At the same time, in all directions, the whole mountain valley seemed to boil as chaotic flows of energy burst forth and streams of fire erupted from the cracked ground, transforming into various strange and grotesque Fire Spirit Beasts.

The number of flames which leapt from the earth were innumerable and more were appearing in the distance with every breath.

Yang Kai’s face finally changed.

There was something off about this mountain valley!

He never thought that so many Fire Spirit Beasts would appear in a single location. This place was completely different from what he had imagined. Rather than a restricted area for Fire Spirit Beasts, it was clearly their paradise.

Who knew how many Fire Spirit Beasts had gathered here? In just a few breaths, Yang Kai found himself completely surrounded by Fire Spirit Beasts, all of them eyeing him menacingly.

Sweeping his surroundings with his Divine Sense, Yang Kai’s face sank.

Tens of thousands of Fire Spirit Beasts had filled the surrounding thousand-meter radius around him alone. Although the majority of these Fire Spirit Beasts were Fifth or Sixth-Order, there were some Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order ones mixed in. On top of that, more Fire Spirit Beasts were arriving with every passing moment.

Yang Kai felt like he had accidentally broken a bee-hive and the look on his face became extremely ugly.

Since he couldn’t fly, he could only kill his way out of this encirclement, but against so many Fire Spirit Beasts, could he really do that?

As Yang Kai stood in a daze though, a beastly roar rang out and the Fire Spirit Beasts surrounding him began their assault, all of them swarming towards him in large groups, baring their fangs and flashing their claws as some even launched Fire Attribute energy attacks from a distance. Fireballs spewed from a number of Fire Spirit Beasts’ mouths while others materialized arrows of flame that they shot towards Yang Kai at speeds that split the air apart.

Thankfully, these energy attacks could only be sent out by the Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beasts.

Yang Kai also let out a war cry as he pushed his Saint Qi to its limits, condensing a giant Demonic Flame sword in his hand and swept it around fiercely, sending out a shocking sword wave that sliced apart any Fifth or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beast it touched.

Yang Kai waved his hands again and sent out a dozen Demonic Flame spears in all directions, each one piercing the bodies of countless Fire Spirit Beasts before gradually disappearing.

Yang Kai repeatedly displayed the Profound Heavenly Sword and Heaven Punishing Spear, using these two Nine Heavens Divine Skills to slaughter the Fire Spirit Beasts around him.

If others had come across so many Fire Spirit Beasts, even if they were in a large group, they would likely resign themselves to death immediately, because there were simply too many of them. Even if most of these Fire Spirit Beasts collapsed in a single blow, the amount of energy it would take to kill all of them was simply unfathomable.

Before a cultivator could kill them all, they would likely run out of strength and simply be drowned in the sea of Fire Spirit Beasts.

Yang Kai was different though, he never worried about how much strength was stored in his body. Before, he stored Yang Liquid in his dantian, but now that his Saint Qi had taken on the form of Demonic Flames, he directly stored it in his body.

The amount of Saint Qi Yang Kai possessed was hundreds or even thousands of times greater than any Saint King. Even Origin Returning Realm masters couldn’t compare to him in this aspect.

Recklessly releasing his own Saint Qi let these Fire Spirit Beasts who were coming for his life understand that he wasn’t some easily had prey.

Soon, however, Yang Kai frowned.

When such a massive number of Fire Spirit Beasts appeared just now, he had truly been startled for a while, but soon he actually became excited.

Because with so many Fire Spirit Beasts, he could harvest an enormous amount of Fire Crystal Stones. Even if the Fire Crystal Stones from Fifth-Order or Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts weren’t very useful, the ones from those at the Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order were different, each one of these Fire Crystal Stones could definitely be useful for Alchemy or Artifact Refining.

But now, Yang Kai noticed a strange phenomenon. After these Fire Spirit Beasts were destroyed by him, he discovered a fundamental difference between them and the Fire Spirit Beasts outside the strange valley: They didn’t have Fire Crystal Stones in their bodies.

After the time it would take to boil a cup of tea, Yang Kai killed at least three hundred Fifth and Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts. He had even killed a dozen or so at the Seventh-Order but strangely, no matter Order they were, after their bodies dissipated, not a single Fire Crystal Stone appeared

Something was drastically wrong here! Yang Kai only became more confused as he continued killing, but suddenly he set his sights on an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast not far away.

He wondered if the same thing would happen with this guy!

The Demonic Flame sword in his had traced a wide arc, contaminating the Fire Spirit Beasts around him with Demonic Flames, causing them to instantly collapse and dissipate. He then dashed out through the gap he had created and went straight towards the Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast.

Before he even arrived, Yang Kai hurled a Heaven Punishing Spear.

This Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast actually possessed some skill and swiftly retreated into the herd, using the bodies of more than a dozen companions to resist the Heaven Punishing Spear, sending out a blast of flames from its mouth before Yang Kai could launch another attack.

Yang Kai didn’t even try to evade, condensing his Saint Qi in front of him and diving straight into this blast of flame, emerging on the other side a moment later and swinging down the Demonic Flame long sword in his hand.

The Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast could not avoid this strike and was instantly decapitated. After suffering this blow, the Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast fizzled out of existence.

Yang Kai searched carefully but quickly found that no Fire Crystal Stone had appeared.

Seeing this, Yang Kai couldn’t help cursing out loud. There were countless Fire Spirit Beasts trapping him here, but even after killing them, he didn’t obtain a single thing; it was simply intolerable.

If he could harvest a large number of Fire Crystal Stones here, Yang Kai would still feel that killing these Fire Spirit Beasts was worthwhile, but with no prospective benefits, how could he retain any interest in slaughtering these creatures.

After letting out an angry cry, a hundred-meter long dragon suddenly leapt out of Yang Kai’s body. It was the Golden Dragon Tattoo on his back.

However, after Yang Kai poured his own unique Saint Qi into it, this Golden Dragon had become jet black, the Demonic Flame composing its body surging about as its giant pair of eyes swept over the herd of beasts.

This black dragon shook its head and waved his tail as it rushed into the crowd of Fire Spirit Beasts, rampaging as it destroyed wide swaths of them in short order.

At the same time, Yang Kai took out the purple shield refined for him by Yang Yan and used it to resist the attacks of the Fire Spirit Beasts behind him. He also took out the Hundred Mountains Picture which originally belonged to the Xu Family and used one the phantom mountains contained within to smash the Fire Spirit Beasts in front of him.

Yang Kai’s strength was much higher than Xu Zhi Shen’s was at that time, so while Xu Zhi Shen was only able to reluctantly summon six mountain peaks, Yang Kai was easily able to bring out eight in an instant.