Martial Peak - Chapter 2227
Chapter 2227, Yi Quan
Yang Kai followed Bai Lu up the flight of winding stairs.
After walking for about a quarter of an hour, they finally reached the end of the stairs where a large hall was presented in front of them. The side door of the hall opened along the trunk of the tree with light shining in from the outside.
Yang Kai took a glance at the outside and found that this place was already a few thousand metres from the ground. Everything at the bottom was hazy and hard to get a clear view of.
And, after walking to this place, he felt an almost palpable gaze locked onto his body.
Yang Kai instantly became alert and turned his head over just to see a middle-aged man dressed in simple clothes. This man had a plain appearance with black hair and was standing with his hands behind his back, looking at him, smiling.
Yuan Fei who arrived before them was standing by his side respectfully with a restrained expression.
[The Lord of Heavenly Monster Mountain!] This thought popped into Yang Kai’s mind inexplicably. Though he could not see anything from this middle-aged man that catched his eyes, Yang Kai was sure despite this man looking just like any ordinary man from a crowd that he was a peak Twelfth-Order Monster Race, equivalent to a Third-Order Emperor Realm Master, the very one who made a move earlier to assist him! This man was the Lord of Heavenly Monster Mountain, and similarly, the father of the Purple Squirrel!
Composing himself, Yang Kai bowed and cupped his fists, saying, “Junior Yang Kai greets Senior!”
Hearing this, the middle-aged man nodded lightly, but did not speak, instead just slowly raising his hand and pointing it towards Yang Kai from a distance.
Before Yang Kai could understand what he meant, his face suddenly changed and he hurried to circulate his Spiritual Energy, creating an invisible barrier in front of himself.
There was a soft thud as a strong force impacted him, easily breaking Yang Kai’s defences.
Yang Kai was taken by surprise and staggered backwards.
But very soon, he was able to steady himself. That was because the move he received was not anything substantial and only broke his defence. In other words, it posed no threat to him at all, almost as if it was just to probe him…
“Senior, what do you mean by this?” Yang Kai asked with a frown. His opponent was a peak Twelfth-Order Master, so what was the point in testing him? This man could obviously tell Yang Kai’s strength at a glance.
“Hm?” The middle-aged man raised a brow and looked a little suspiciously at Yang Kai as he asked, “Why didn’t you use your Soul-type Artifact?”
Yang Kai responded, “I met with a strong enemy prior to this, so that artifact was destroyed and is no longer…”
Before he finished his sentence, Yang Kai suddenly widened his eyes and stared at the middle-aged man in astonishment. “Senior, you…”
At this moment, he suddenly came back to his senses. [He actually mentioned Soul-type artifact!]
This was not a word that cultivators of this Divine Ascension Mirror World should know. Soul-type artifacts were only used by cultivators from the outside world. Due to the lack of materials to refine such artifacts, it was impossible for such things to exist here, let alone for knowledge of them to spread.
But this middle-aged man actually spoke about an existence he should not have known about.
How could Yang Kai not be shocked at this?
“What’s wrong?” The middle-aged man smiled, “Do you think that this King knows nothing?”
Though he spoke vaguely, Yang Kai understood exactly what he meant and was instantly shocked in place, not even knowing how he should respond.
“It seems…” The middle-aged man nodded lightly, “You really aren’t a person of this world.”
Yang Kai drew a sharp breath and cupped his fists, “Senior has good eyes. Only… How did Senior…”
The middle-aged man smiled and, as he raised his hand, a longsword suddenly appeared in it. Light flowed from this longsword and its energy fluctuations appeared truly extraordinary.
This longsword was not a coalescence of his Spiritual Energy, in other words, it was a physical object…
“A Soul-type Artifact?” Yang Kai’s eyes were almost bulging out of their sockets as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
To think a cultivator could bring out a Soul-type artifact in this world, and a very high-grade one at that. From the energy flowing out from the longsword, this sword had already reached the level of an Emperor Artifact as Emperor Pressure and Emperor Intent which complimented well with the middle-aged man’s own aura were present.
To the side, Yuan Fei and Bai Lu were also staring, dazed at the longsword.
As the subordinates of Heavenly Monster Mountain’s Lord, they naturally knew that their Lord had such a valuable treasure; however, even with their qualifications, it was still rare for them to see it.
In the past few hundred years, they had only seen it twice, so counting today it would be three times.
Yuan Fei and Bai Lu had no idea what this treasure was and where it came from, but they knew that it was incomparably sharp and powerful, much stronger than the weapons formed out of their Spiritual Energy.
They could not understand why their Lord had shown this treasure to a mere human like Yang Kai, whom they met today for the first time.
Moreover, what did their Lord mean when he said he wasn’t ‘a person of this world’?
They exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other’s eyes.
“Correct, this is a Soul-type artifact,” the middle-aged man nodded at his words. Then, he gently rubbed his finger on the blade. Under the resonance of energy, the blade of the sword trembled incessantly as if it had its own spirit.
“Eight hundred years ago, I won this from a guy called Wen Zi Shan,” The middle-aged man smiled and watched Yang Kai’s demeanour closely as he spoke to explain, “I wonder if you know him as well.”
“So, it was Temple Master Wen…” Yang Kai’s mouth twitched, suddenly understanding everything.
According to Wen Zi Shan, it was he who came to the Azure Sun Mountain Range eight hundred years ago and discovered the Divine Ascension Mirror, deciding to stay then and found Azure Sun Temple.
During that time, Wen Zi Shan likely entered the Divine Ascension Mirror as well and travelled here, bumping into this middle-aged man. As for how this artifact ended up in the hands of this man, Yang Kai did not know.
“He was an interesting guy…” The middle-aged man spoke with a hint of nostalgia on his face, “It felt like we were old friends the moment we met. We got along very well, and this King won this longsword from him through a bet. However, according to how you would describe it, this artifact was only Dao Source Grade High-Rank back then. It took several hundred years of refinement and nurturing for it to be promoted to an Emperor Artifact.”
Yang Kai said, thoughtfully, “It seems like Senior knows a lot about the outside world.”
The middle-aged man laughed happily, “This King casually poured a few jars of Monkey God Wine for that Wen Zi Shan and he spat out everything, almost revealing the colour of his underwear! How much do you think this King would know?”
At that comment, Yang Kai’s face twitched, but it also allowed him to ease his tension and no longer worry about his own safety. This man did not seem to hold any malice towards him and also knew Temple Master Wen and the world outside. This alone made it impossible for him to do anything to him.
“May Junior ask how to address Senior?” Yang Kai cupped his fists together and asked with a serious face.
“This King is called Yi Quan!” When the middle-aged man responded, he had already put away the artifact. He went on, “I heard from Yuan Fei that you saved my son’s life outside?”
“It was merely a coincidence,” Yang Kai said truthfully.
“Still, you saved his life.” As he said this, Yi Quan reached behind his back and urged a small figure over.
Yang Kai looked over and found it to be a young child about two years old, wearing short sleeves and short shorts. This child had a pink and chubby face as well as small and short exposed hands and legs with fair and tender white skin.
This was a little boy with his hair tied up in a sky-shooting braid. He looked extremely cute.
“Little Purple Squirrel?” Yang Kai looked at the boy and raised his brows.
The little guy seemed a little shy, and after glancing at Yang Kai, he quickly hid behind Yi Quan, grabbing at the corner of his father’s clothes with his little hands, looking around curiously.
As soon as he saw this, Yang Kai was sure he was the Purple Squirrel.
However, he seemed too nervous to be as close with Yang Kai as before.
“What did father tell you?” When Yi Quan saw this, he gave little Purple Squirrel a tap on the back of his head, causing him to stumble out from behind.
When Bai Lu saw this, she immediately had a hurt look on her face.
The little guy was pouting, seeming as if he was about to cry.
“Hm?” Yi Quan gave a soft hum.
This scared Purple Squirrel so much that he quickly stopped his tears and sniffled. Looking at Yang Kai, he tried to stutter a few words.
“No need to thank me, you helped me a lot too, so really I should be the one thanking you,” said Yang Kai gently as he looked at the little guy.
“A life-saving grace will be remembered for the rest of our lives!” Yi Quan said while stroking the little guy’s head, saying in a serious voice, “Remember that!”
Purple Squirrel quickly nodded.
“Bai Lu,” Yi Quan called out again.
“Subordinate is here,” Bai Lu quickly stepped forward.
“Bring the Young Master out to play. Watch over him carefully, don’t let him run off again. I have… some things to talk about with this young man,” Yi Quan said.
“Yes!” Bai Lu answered before waving at the little one.
This time, he was very well-behaved and trotted obediently in front of Bai Lu, reaching out his hand so she could hold it. Before leaving, he turned back to take another look at Yang Kai as Yuan Fei followed them out.
After leaving the hall, Yuan Fei asked Bai Lu in a whisper, “Did you understand what Sir said?”
Bai Lu shook her head and looked at him, asking, “Did you?”
Dark lines appeared on Yuan Fei’s face as he muttered, “If you didn’t, how do you think I would? However… I vaguely remember eight hundred years ago that a human came here. He had a long talk with Sir for three days and three nights before leaving.”
“Yes, I remember that as well. That man was very strong, no worse than Sir at all,” Bai Lu also nodded lightly.
“Strange, what is a Soul-type artifact? Why does Sir seem to be implying that that human brat has one too? But why don’t Masters like us understand it?”
“What are you worried about? If it is something we should know, then Sir would have told us,” Bai Lu glared at him.
“That’s true.” Yuan Fei nodded.
*Yayaya*… The little guy who was being pulled along by Bai Lu suddenly interjected at this time.
Hearing this, Bai Lu said, surprised, “Young Master, you mean to say that this Yang Kai boy used a Soul-type artifact previously in a battle?”
*Yayaya!* The little guy nodded his head vigorously.
“What does it look like? Tell us!” Yuan Fei instantly felt excited and asked a bunch of questions.
But who knew that the little one would only look at him and coldly snort. He turned his head to the side, looking like he didn’t want to talk to him at all.
