Martial Peak

[Between 5 to 8 million… Let’s go with 7 million then. That’s still a significant number. Does the Black Ink Clan intend on starting a full-scale war inside the Universe Furnace?]

Then again, the Black Ink Clan might have even less of an understanding of the Universe Furnace than Yang Kai did, so they probably didn’t expect it to be this complex inside. Even though they threw in several million of their people, they wouldn’t be able to accomplish much.

Yang Kai quickly thought of something, “Since several million of you cin together, why are you here alone? Where are the others?”

The Feudal Lord shook his head and said, “As soon as I cin, I found myself alone and couldn’t see any of my other clansmen. The opening seems to have the ability to affect space. Everyone was separated.”

Yang Kai frowned the moment he heard this as a flicker of worry emerged in his heart.

If the Black Ink Clan Army had been separated despite entering from the sopening, then it must be the sfor the Human Race Masters. In other words, everyone would have to proceed alone the moment they entered the Universe Furnace, or spend tseeking out allies as soon as possible.

However, it would not be easy to find an ally inside the Universe Furnace.

Most of the Humans who cin would be Eighth-Order Masters. If they ran into a Territory Lord alone, it would still be an even fight as both parties were on a similar footing. However, if they ran into a Pseudo-Royal Lord such as Mo Na Ye, then they would be in a disastrous situation!

There was no telling how many Human Race Masters would die in this bid for opportunities inside the Universe Furnace. However, it was possible that those at the SuprHeadquarters would have made skind of arrangement. Yang Kai had been stuck inside a Universe Furnace projection ever since it appeared, so he did not have any contact with the Humans.

That being said, he was aware of Mi Jing Lun’s meticulous nature. The latter would surely gather as much information regarding the Universe Furnace as possible and cup with strategies to deal with all the possible scenarios.

[If I run into a Human who’s alone, I can lend a hand too.] Yang Kai eased his worries with this thought. Now that things had cto this, there was no point in worrying about it. The Humans who dared to enter the Universe Furnace in search of opportunities would have mentally prepared themselves for the possibility of losing their lives.

On the other hand, the Black Ink Clan who entered were separated too, and since their understanding of the Universe Furnace was a lot poorer than the Humans, they would not have expected this situation. This meant that for the tbeing, perhaps the Humans were not at a disadvantage when compared to the Black Ink Clan.

This Feudal Lord had been stationed at the No-Return Pass the whole tand had entered from the entrance in the Barren Territory, so he did not know much about the other Great Territory Battlefields. Yang Kai asked a few more questions, but he could not answer any of them.

Since there was no other useful information to glean from this Feudal Lord, Yang Kai did not want to waste any more tand slowly raised his hand.

Upon sensing Yang Kai’s motive, the Feudal Lord hurriedly cried out, “Sir Yang Kai! I will tell you a piece of information that’s useful to the Humans in exchange for my life!”

“Oh?” Yang Kai eyed him with interest, “Information that’s useful to the Humans? What is it?”

The Feudal Lord was sweating profusely as he gritted his teeth and said, “I know you are a man of your word, Sir Yang Kai. I’m sure you won’t go back on your promise…”

“Enough. I’ll spare your life if your information does prove to be useful!”

Yang Kai impatiently cut him off.

The Feudal Lord exhaled in relief and carefully explained, “It’s about the Open Heaven Pills that the Humans want!”

Yang Kai frowned and asked doubtfully, “You’ve seen the Open Heaven Pills?” He had used his Great Sun and Moon Marks not long ago and had not sensed anything, which meant that the nine Open Heaven Pills he marked were not in the vicinity, so where did this Feudal Lord see them?

Amid his puzzlement, the Feudal Lord pointed behind them and said, “One was devoured by that strange thing back there. I saw it with my own eyes! That’s why I got into a fight with it. I wanted to kill it and take the Open Heaven Pill!”

Yang Kai turned his head around and saw something floundering inside the Black Ink Cloud. It was the monster that cfrom this place.

Yang Kai’s lips twitched as he got the gist of it now.

The Feudal Lord did see an Open Heaven Pill, but it was not the kind that Yang Kai was hunting down. It was one of the lower-grade ones.

Yang Kai had witnessed the creation of the Open Heaven Pills, so that was how he knew there were two different Grades of Open Heaven Pills, but the Black Ink Clan did not. The Feudal Lord had immediately assumed that the Open Heaven Pill he saw was the opportunity the Human Race Masters wanted.

There was nothing wrong with his information, but… it barely mattered.

Yang Kai slammed his hand against the Feudal Lord and with a surge of World Force, the Feudal Lord was sent flying backwards. He spat out a mouthful of blood. He was certain that Yang Kai was reneging on the promise and that he was doomed to die, but to his surprise, he landed with his life still intact.

“Scram!” Yang Kai’s voice rang out from a distance.

The Feudal Lord felt as if he had been granted a Heavenly pardon, so he loudly called out, “Many thanks, Sir Yang Kai!” 

Then, he turned into a Black Ink Cloud and fled at once in spite of his injuries.

A heavily injured Feudal Lord was severely weakened, so letting him go was not a big deal. Yang Kai was not someone who would easily choose to renege on a promise he made.

Moreover, he could even use this Feudal Lord to let the word get out that he, Yang Kai, had already gotten an Open Heaven Pill! Sfrom the Black Ink Clan would surely turn their attention onto him, which would ease the burden on the other Human Race Masters.

Even though he could not defeat a Pseudo-Royal Lord, he could still escape from one fairly easily.

At this moment, Yang Kai’s curiosity was mostly piqued by the monster; more specifically, why did it devour an Open Heaven Pill?

Yang Kai surmised that these peculiar monsters were common inside the Universe Furnace as he had seen a number of them in the great river and now encountered another one at the mountain range.

[Open Heaven Pills are created inside the Universe Furnace too. Do they benefit these monsters in sway?]

With a flick of his hand, the Black Ink Cloud left by the Feudal Lord dispersed to reveal the monster that was still stumbling around woozily.

Endless Shattered Dao Essence flowed and surged like water across its body which kept changing forms as a result.

Previously, Yang Kai did not pay much attention to this monster, but after hearing what the Feudal Lord said, he took a closer look and finally noticed something unusual.

There was indeed an Open Heaven Pill inside the monster. It was wrapped inside the monster’s Shattered Dao Essence and its aura occasionally peeked only to disappear again.

Yang Kai could not tell whether this monster counted as a living being or not, but judging by how a Black Ink Cloud from a Feudal Lord was enough to hinder it, it would not be a living being of high sentience, even if it was technically alive.

However, Yang Kai was a little puzzled as he wondered why it did not merge with the mountain range…

During his explorations back at the Great River, the monsters would merge with the Great River when they realized they could not defeat the one they were up against, which made it hard for Yang Kai to track or capture one.

Logically speaking, the monster in front of him now would also have the ability to merge with the mountain range. The foundation of both the monster and the mountain range seemed similar as they were both created from Shattered Dao Essence. It would be possible for them to completely merge together.

Alas, Yang Kai’s thoughts instantly turned into reality. As soon as he finished pondering, the monster showed signs of attempting to merge with the mountain range. He was about to stop the monster when he quickly halted.

Yang Kai watched as the monster tried to sink into the mountain range, but it was to no avail. It was as if the mountain range rejected it. The monster lay flat on the ground like a puddle of flowing water, and the Open Heaven Pill’s aura was exposed once more.

It was indeed a lower-grade Open Heaven Pill. Yang Kai had collected a few of these earlier, so they were not unfamiliar to him.

He could have claimed the Open Heaven Pill for himself if he wanted, but Yang Kai was curious to see what would happen, so he did not immediately act.

He had a gut feeling that it was more important to figure out why the monster devoured the Open Heaven Pill.

The puddle of water started moving and the Open Heaven Pill aura followed along as well. The monster kept trying to merge with the mountain range at different spots, but nothing worked.

After observing all of this, Yang Kai finally realized why that was the case.

The monster had absorbed a trace of the Open Heaven Pill’s medicinal efficacies, and the Shattered Dao Essence that it was made up of changed ever so slightly. That was the reason why it could not merge with the mountain range, though they were originally formed of the ssubstance.

Thoughts began coursing through Yang Kai’s mind.

[Does this mean it wasn’t pointless for the monster to devour an Open Heaven Pill? Was it an instinctive act? What happens if it completely absorbs the Open Heaven Pill?]

It was just a unique being that was born inside the Universe Furnace…

After mulling things over for a short while, Yang Kai abruptly stretched his hand out in a grabbing motion while opening a portal to his Small Universe.

With the restriction from Yang Kai’s use of Space Principles, he was able to grab the fluid-like monster from the ground and toss it into his Small Universe without giving it any tto react.

Then, with a single thought, Yang Kai used the power of the Small Universe to lock down the monster. At the stime, he used the Grand Dao of Tto control the flow of tinside a small restricted area.

Traced forward in that small portion of his Small Universe. It was already 10 times faster than the outside world, to begin with, and with what he did now, tflew by even faster within the confined region.

Yang Kai went full force with this; thus, it was only a blink of an eye in the world outside, but the monster experienced an entire month of time.

The monster kept harnessing and refining the medicinal efficacies of the Open Heaven Pill. It was slowly absorbed into its body.

Yang Kai noticed that an unexpected change was slowly taking place with the chaotic and disorderly Dao Essence that originally formed the monster’s body.

The Dao Essence was gaining order and structure, and along with this, the monster’s form kept changing as well.

When Yang Kai first encountered these monsters, he could not even determine whether they were living beings or not because they did not have any of the characteristics found in living beings.

Yet, as the monster absorbed the medicinal efficacies of the Open Heaven Pill, its form changed as well, and it was slowly giving off the aura of a living creature.

The changes were becoming increasingly noticeable.

At last, when the Open Heaven Pill was fully absorbed and completely disappeared inside the monster’s body, the monster in front of Yang Kai was no longer a mass of free-flowing fluid.

Its form kept changing until a silhouette appeared. Then the silhouette continued refining itself until what finally appeared in front of Yang Kai’s eyes was a figure that looked similar to that of a Human.