Martial Peak - Chapter 2267
Chapter 2267, Eighteen Stars Grand Array
After about a dozen breaths of time, eighteen Spirit Springs fully emerged in the vast underground cavern.
These Spirit Springs were no lower than Mid-Ranked, and three of them were even High-Ranked.
These eighteen Spirit Springs seemed to be arranged in a special pattern, scattered across the cavern with the three High-Rank springs arranged at the centre and the fifteen Mid-Rank ones surrounding them.
There seemed to be a great mystery behind this arrangement.
These eighteen Spirit Springs erupted together, and everyone was dumbstruck by this spectacular scene.
After experiencing the initial excitement and shock, everyone soon figured that there must be something more to this than mere coincidence.
The appearance of a Mid-Rank Spirit Spring would already attract the first-class great forces to come and seize it, but now eighteen Spirit Springs had emerged at once, with three of them being High-Rank, so this was no longer something that those first-class great forces could occupy alone. Perhaps even the peak level Sects like Azure Sun Temple, Heavenly Martial Holy Land and Orthodoxy Temple would be alarmed. Even Star Soul Palace might send someone here to investigate.
This was definitely a major event that would shake the entire Southern Territory, possibly even the whole Star Boundary.
Maplewood City would soon become famous across the world.
“It’s over, it’s over!” Someone muttered with the corner of his mouth twitching.
Although he didn’t speak clearly, everyone knew what he meant. With the emergence of these Spirit Springs, this place would now certainly have nothing to do with his own Sect.
“The arrangement of these Spirit Springs… could it be… the Eighteen Stars Grand Array?” A person among the crowd who was scanning the surroundings with his eyes uttered in amazement.
“Eighteen Stars Grand Array?” A man looked at that person in doubt and questioned, “Are you proficient in Spirit Arrays?”
“I know a little something…” That person nodded.
Everyone turned to that person in curiosity and asked, “Since you know about Spirit Arrays, would you enlighten us about this Eighteen Stars Grand Array?”
The face of that person turned pale and bitter, but after pondering for a moment, he quickly answered, “I’m not sure if this is the Eighteen Stars Grand Array; after all, that Spirit Array is an ancient one lost to history and I only chanced upon a brief description of it in an ancient text.”
“An Ancient Spirit Array!” An exclamation sounded abruptly.
Ancient Times and Primordial Times were two very special periods, and it was said that in those times the World Principles were far stronger and richer than they were today, as if over time Principle Strength was gradually thinning, making it more and more difficult for cultivators reach the peak of the Martial Dao.
But anything involving Ancient Times and Primordial Times would bring excitement to the people.
So, when they heard that Eighteen Stars Grand Array was an Ancient Array, everyone was interested and wanted to inquire about it.
Yang Kai’s expression also changed slightly as he looked at that person and questioned, “Is your surname Gong?”
“One of the Heavenly River Valley Gong Family?” Someone yelled immediately.
If someone could recognize Ancient Arrays at just a glance, his attainment of Spirit Arrays must not be underestimated. In the entire Southern Territory, the Heavenly River Valley Gong Family was renowned for its comprehension and proficiency in the Dao of Spirit Arrays, so anyone from the Gong Family was known as an Array Master.
Yang Kai had dealt with Gong Wen Shan from the Gong Family in the Four Seasons Realm and had witnessed the prowess of the Gong Family in Spirit Arrays, which was why he asked this question.
“I… It’s you…” The cultivator who stood beside Yang Kai did not seem to notice his presence until now, but he immediately opened some distance with him once he did come to his senses.
Others followed suit, and in an instant, there was no one left beside Yang Kai.
Yang Kai pointed to himself, “I was just taking a walk here, no need to be so tense.”
He also did not expect that others would be so afraid of him.
Seeing him acting so casually, not showing any murderous intent, the others present felt a little relieved.
“Brother Gong…”Yang Kai spoke to that person again.
The person gave a wry smile, “My surname is not Gong… but I’m still considered a half-member of the Gong Family.”
What he said confused everyone.
The person explained, “My wife belongs to the Gong Family, so this one also studied a bit about Spirit Arrays from the Gong Family.
“So that’s how it is!” Everyone nodded in understanding, secretly guessing this man had married into the Gong Family just to get him an opportunity to study Spirit Arrays.
“Please tell us about the Eighteen Stars Grand Array,” Yang Kai requested, “I’m also curious about what this Spirit Array does.”
“The Eighteen Stars Grand Array is a powerful Ancient Array that has extremely harsh requirements to arrange. As you can see, you need to gather eighteen objects that can continuously generate World Energy on their own as the base of this array, making Spirit Springs the best building blocks!” The Gong Family son-in-law spoke rapidly about the Spirit Array with a solemn face. Obviously, he possessed a strong foundation, so what he said was convincing, “And the use of this Ancient Array is… “
He paused for a while and continued, “To suppress and seal something!”
“Suppress and seal?”
“Seal what?”
The crowd was puzzled.
“I don’t know,” the man shook his head and turned to Duan Yuan Shan, “City Lord Duan, was something unusual buried here once?”
The corner of Duan Yuan Shan’s mouth twitched as he glanced over at Yang Kai and answered, “Since all of you have come to Maplewood City for a while now, you must know that Maplewood City was flooded by Ancient Demon Qi a few months ago.”
“Could it be that the thing that was sealed was actually…”
“Ancient Demon Qi?”
Everyone’s face changed drastically as their legs began shaking in fear.
Yang Kai was also in a daze as he secretly admired the powerful methods of ancient times.
Among the people present, he knew best what was sealed here. It was not the Ancient Demon Qi, but rather the Black Eye of a Giant Ancient Demon.
The Black Eye was capable of casting darkness across the world.
And all the Ancient Demon Qi which had gathered in this place had been born from that Black Eye.
It was indeed a good way to seal Demon Qi with World Energy, but it was a pity that even those ancient powerhouses had underestimated the power of the Black Eye. After countless years, the Black Eye had not disappeared and although it had lost its spirituality and will, it continued to exist and finally broke free, only to be acquired by Yang Kai in the end.
“You don’t have to worry. After that Demon Qi flooded the city, three Emperor Realm Masters arrived and dealt with it, so there should be no danger anymore. We also didn’t notice any existence of Demon Qi for these past few months anyway,” Duan Yuan Shan comforted the people.
He always believed that the retreat of the Demon Qi that day was due to the efforts of Gao Xue Ting and the others.
“It seems that Demon Qi was being sealed here by this Eighteen Stars Grand Array!” The Gong Family son-in-law’s face paled, feeling afraid.
The rest also shivered slightly.
After a moment of silence, a person voiced, “Let’s not worry about the Ancient Demon Qi. Given that these eighteen Spirit Springs have appeared, this is undoubtedly an opportunity for all of us.”
“Yes, yes! Since we cannot occupy them forever, why not take this opportunity to absorb as much as we can? What are we still waiting for?!” Another person shouted before charging towards a Spirit Spring.
This person was decisive and immediately rushed towards one of the High-Rank Spirit Springs in an attempt to occupy it and absorb World Energy as it erupted from it.
There were only three High-Rank Spirit Springs while the number of forces present was between twenty and thirty, so it was natural that people wanted to seize the initiative.
As soon as the person moved, everyone could not help using their Movement Skills and rushing towards the Spirit Springs too.
Yang Kai also made a move and immediately teleported on top of one of the High-Rank Spirit Springs, hovering mid-air as he gazed around coldly.
He could see several cultivators were dashing over crazily, seemingly belonging to the same Sect, their cultivations all decent, the lowest of which was Second-Order Dao Source Realm while their leader was a Third-Order. They seemed intent on seizing this High-Rank Spirit Spring.
However, Yang Kai arrived before them in just the blink of an eye.
This group stopped their steps as all their faces turned ugly.
The leader of the cultivators was a calm, handsome looking middle-aged man. After pondering for a moment, he cupped his fists and spoke, “Brother Yang, can we have a discussion?”
“No!” Yang Kai replied decisively.
The middle-aged man’s face darkened, forcing a smile, “I haven’t said anything yet.”
“My answer is no!”
“Don’t be like this. Everyone here wants the best, can you not give us a chance? Besides, this Spirit Spring is too big for you alone, how about we take half while Brother Yang occupies the other half? That way everyone will be satisfied.”
“I like monopolizing treasures and never share with others,” Yang Kai lifted his nose high to the sky, acting like he was invincible.
“Little brat, don’t get cocky! Don’t you think that we’re afraid of you, we’re just giving you a bit of face,” A cultivator behind the middle-aged man suddenly clamoured.
The middle-aged man furrowed his brow, but he did not speak to stop him. Obviously, he was displeased too.
Yang Kai glanced at the person from the corner of his eyes, “If you’re not afraid, don’t just flap your lips, come up and snatch it from me!”
The man was enraged and stepped forward, seemingly wanting to do just as Yang Kai proposed.
The middle-aged leader was frightened when he saw this and hurriedly raised his hand to block his companion, turning to Yang Kai and asking once more, “Brother Yang, can we really not share?”
Yang Kai answered coldly, “I’ve already given you face when we first spoke, yet you still continue to challenge me. If you dare to fight with me, don’t blame me for slapping you.”
“Slapping…” The middle-aged man’s face changed drastically, horrified as he recalled the moment when Ning Yuan Shu and Zhuang Pan were slapped by Yang Kai…
Yang Kai glanced away at that point and continued, “If you go to grab another Spirit Spring now, you might still have a chance, but if you continue to idle here, I’m afraid that you wouldn’t even be able to drink some soup from this meal.”
The middle-aged man anxiously turned his head to look before waving and shouting, “Let’s go!”
As Yang Kai’s said, more than half the eighteen Spirit Springs were already occupied, and battles had begun to break out for the ones that remained. The scene was quite shocking as World Energy swirled about and stones from the cavern broke apart.
The scene was especially frigid around the other two High-Rank Spirit Springs as the strongest groups were all competing for these prizes.
Duan Yuan Shan and the rest of Maplewood City’s Old Ancestors, who were familiar with one another, knew they did not have the strength to compete for a High-Rank Spirit Spring, so they instead chose to cooperate to occupy one of the Mid-Rank ones.
