Martial Peak

Chapter 1182, Flowing Flame Flying Fire

Inside the mountain valley, Yang Kai looked down indifferently at Xie Yun. Instead of killing him immediately though, he said, “Tell me, how did you know I was here? It’s impossible you found me by chance. The Flowing Flame Sand Field is so big that if you didn’t use some special method, there’s no way you could have traced my location. If you can give me a satisfactory answer, I’ll leave you a whole corpse.”

His expression then turned frigid as he continued coldly, “But if you dare try to conceal anything, I’ll let you know what it means to beg for death. Believe me, I can ensure you recover and torture you slowly!”

Xie Yun smiled bitterly as he panted for breath before replying, “It’s quite simple actually, we just had one of the Shadow Moon Hall disciples inform us about where you entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field. Everyone here follows the guidance of their Yuan Magnetic Compass as they proceed further, as long as we could determine where you entered, it wasn’t difficult to track your movements. Xie Yong who you killed was a master in this field!”

Yang Kai nodded slightly, thinking this explanation matched with his expectations.

After discovering that Xie Hong Wen was the one who had attacked him, Yang Kai had some speculations.

He had entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field by himself, and so far, had only encountered two other people, the pair he had met when he first came in. One of those two was wearing the uniform of Shadow Moon Hall while the other was a disciple from some other Sect. Yang Kai didn’t know who that other person was but his voice was somewhat familiar.

In order to pursue Yang Kai so quickly and accurately, Xie Hong Wen had to have received word from someone about his position, and that person must have been one of the two he had met when he first entered this place.

Now it turns out that it was really the case. No wonder that Shadow Moon Hall disciple, after noticing Yang Kai, had immediately shown a weird expression. It must have been that Xie Hong Wen had sent word to him in advance, which was also why he so anxiously left. Obviously, he had reported to Xie Hong Wen at that time.

Yang Kai was also certain that Xie Hong Wen had not only sent word to that person. There were seventy disciples from Shadow Moon Hall who had entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field, so there were definitely a lot of people who could be tempted with money.

Since ancient times, money was what had moved people.

“Let me die in peace.” After Xie Yun finished speaking, he lay on the ground indifferently without moving.

Yang Kai nodded and, using a precise burst of strength, puncture Xie Yun’s forehead.

Yang Kai was a man of his word. Since he said he would leave the other side a whole corpse, he naturally wouldn’t burn him down with his Demonic Flame.

Yang Kai stooped and picked up the strange crossbow artefact. After probing it for a moment, he couldn’t help raising a brow. This artefact was really quite powerful, it had even managed to directly wound him, but it definitely had drawbacks as well. Just seeing Xie Yun’s state after using it once, Yang Kai could infer that this crossbow not only consumed a massive amount of Saint Qi from its user but also a large quantity of their blood.

This was no doubt an evil artefact.

Yang Kai wasn’t interested in it as using it was nothing less than harming oneself to kill another. This artefact could only be used when there were others around to protect them after the fact.

Tossing it into his Space Ring, Yang Kai then picked up Xie Hong Wen and Xie Yun’s Space Rings. After some investigation, he couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.

The two of them had nothing but a few pills and Saint Crystals use to restore strength.

However, that was only to be expected. Unlike Yang Kai, who had brought along all of his valuables, other cultivators who entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field would leave their precious items outside, otherwise, once something happened, the loss suffered would be overwhelming.

Among the pills, the only thing that made Yang Kai a bit happy was a single bottle with five Snow And Ice Pills.

All of his Snow And Ice Pills had been given to Chang Qi and Hao An, and there had been no time since he entered this place to refine more, so picking some up now was actually quite handy. Perhaps he would have a use for them at some point.

After seeing how poor Xie Hong Wen and Xie Yun were, Yang Kai didn’t even have the heart to find Xie Yong’s Space Ring, so he simply turned and walked deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

Without the obstruction of the Fire Spirit Beasts, Yang Kai took advantage of the speed boost his Wind and Thunder Wings provided to leave the mountain valley completely in just over two days.

The further forward he went, the greater the ambient heat of the Flame Area became. Yang Kai physique was different from ordinary cultivators, and his Saint Qi was incredibly pure and dense; additionally, he had formerly cultivated a Yang Attribute Secret Art and now the powerful and abstruse Demonic Flames coursed through his body, so he only had to slightly circulate his Saint Qi to resist the invasion of the fire poison.

He didn’t know how vast the Flame Area was, so Yang Kai simply continued forward, not once encountering even a shadow of another person. His harvest along the way was also quite desolate. After half a month, all he had managed to collect was a few Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beast’s Fire Crystal Stone and ten or so Fire Attribute spirit herbs.

Only now did Yang Kai realize the preciousness and scarcity of Fire Crystal Stones. He happened to have killed an Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beast before and harvested a Fire Crystal Stone the size of a pigeon egg, and in the strange mountain valley, he had obtained one the size of a plate. It could be said that in terms of Fire Crystal Stones, Yang Kai’s harvest had already outstripped all others who had ever entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field before.

Because of the scarcity of Fire Spirit Beasts above Seventh-Order, Fire Crystal Stones were incredibly valuable.

The Fire Crystal Stones from Fifth-Order and Sixth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts were too small to serve any kind of Alchemy or Artifact Refining purpose, so they could only be absorbed by cultivators to cultivate.

Those dozen or so Fire Attribute spirit herbs also weren’t too precious, most of them Saint King Grade with one or two reaching the Origin Grade. There were so few of them mainly because very few types of herbs could even grow in the Flame Area. The only thing that made Yang Kai somewhat satisfied was that their medicinal properties were quite potent. No one had entered this place for over four hundred years, so naturally, these herbs had plenty of time to grow and mature.

One day, as Yang Kai was hurrying along, a flash of light suddenly rushed past him, like a shooting star soaring across the sky. It moved at such phenomenal speed that even though Yang Kai spread out his Divine Sense the instant he noticed it, he still failed to capture its movement.

In the blink of an eye, it disappeared entirely from Yang Kai’s field of vision.

“Flowing Flame Flying Fire?” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed as he instantly understood what it was.

Wei Gu Chang had mentioned to him about the oddity of Flowing Flame Flying Fires. Yang Kai also wanted to capture one of these Flowing Flame Flying Fires in order to strengthen his Conflagrated Knowledge Sea, but Wei Gu Chang had told him that these things were extremely rare. Even with over ten thousand people entering the Flowing Flame Sand Field, most would never even catch a glimpse of a Flowing Flame Flying Fire for the entire half a year they were inside. Some people who encountered them wouldn’t even be able to realize it.

Yang Kai didn’t think Wei Gu Chang had been exaggerating at the time, but now he discovered that he was still greatly underestimating the speed of these Flowing Flame Flying Fires.

Almost instantly, Yang Kai chased after it, the sound of wind and thunder echoing behind him as he pushed his Saint Qi to the limit, promoting his running speed so high it was as if he had transformed into lightning.

He wanted to see if he could catch up to that Flowing Flame Flying Fire.

Yang Kai was quickly disappointed though, after chasing it for half an hour, he discovered that the Flowing Flame Flying Fire had completely vanished, causing him to stop and stand on the spot with a bitter smile.

With such speed, who could possibly capture one of them?

Yang Kai didn’t know how the cultivators on Shadowed Star came to know that a Flowing Flame Flying Fire could allow one’s Knowledge Sea to mutate, but since such information had become widespread, someone must have tried it before, that is to say, someone had managed to catch a Flowing Flame Flying Fire.

How did they do it? Yang Kai couldn’t think of any other way than some accident or opportunity.

Yang Kai didn’t believe that anyone else in this Flowing Flame Sand Field could match his speed, so if he couldn’t catch up with a Flowing Flame Flying Fire, it was certainly impossible for others as well.

Standing there dejected for a while, Yang Kai reluctantly took out his Yuan Magnetic Compass, found his bearings, then continued deeper into the Flowing Flame Sand Field.

Six days later, Yang Kai stood in a certain position, looking at a few red weeds in front of him with a strange look upon his face.

He then went up and reached out to touch these weeds and found that they were indeed hard and sharp, just like blades.

He had seen this kind of weed once three days ago, and they were extremely similar in appearance to the ones in front of him now, practically identical in fact. Even if they were weeds, the fact that they could survive in the Flowing Flame Sand Field at all indicated that they weren’t a simple as they appeared. Previously, Yang Kai had wondered what spirit grass or spirit medicine he had run into, but after investigating them for a while, he discovered they really were just weeds with no Alchemy value at all, so he simply moved on.

However, their sharpness and toughness surprised Yang Kai.

He had seen them three days ago and now he was seeing them again.

Did he get lost? Yang Kai frowned and took out his Yuan Magnetic Compass again and confirmed he was heading in the right direction; he had taken out his Yuan Magnetic Compass every now and then to check his direction these past few days, so becoming lost would have been quite a feat.

Chuckling to himself as he shook his head, Yang Kai continued to move forward.

Before he left though, he made a mark next to these strange weeds just in case.

Three days later, Yang Kai stood in front of the same patch of weeds again with a gloomy complexion, his expression extremely ugly.

Only now did he understand that it had not just been his imagination a few days ago, he really was lost!

The mark next to the weeds was untouched, just as he had left them before on the remote possibility his hunch back then was right.

However... how did he become lost? Wei Gu Chang had said that as long as he followed the direction indicated by the Yuan Magnetic Compass, he would be able to arrive at the Treasure Area.

Was this Yuan Magnetic Compass broken?

Yang Kai didn’t believe such an artefact could be so easily damaged. There had to be some other reason why he was continuing to wander around in a giant circle, wasting nine days of time already.

Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he was filled with confusion, standing still while contemplating what was happening.

Suddenly, he thought of a possibility and brought his thumb to his mouth, bit it, then wiped it across his left eye.

The golden blood dripped into his left eye and instantly, it became a brilliant golden colour and was filled with a sense of immense majesty, making anyone who saw it shudder in fear.

Demon Eye of Annihilation!

Yang Kai looked around and immediately found a flaw. The world seen by his two eyes now showed some subtle differences. His right eye saw the same scenery as before, but his left eye now saw an almost imperceptible flow of energy in the air. Some of the hills and soil banks in the distance also became illusory and indistinct.

A Spirit Array?

Yang Kai was quite frightened when he saw this and his heart clenched up tightly.

His Demon Eye of Annihilation can see through all illusions in this world, and although Great Demon God only managed to cultivate to the Saint King Realm, this Divine Ability of his obviously far exceeded the level of Saint Kings.