MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 7 - Season 8 Episode 25

Dark Clouds Island was one of the islands under the direct jurisdiction of Water Spirit Temple. For some unknown reason, the sky over this particular island was always filled with clouds. On Dark Clouds Island, eight out of every ten days it would be drizzling, while the other two it would be pouring.

He Pu was only an Immortal Ascension cultivator, but he had good interpersonal skills, so although he couldn’t become a high ranking member of Water Spirit Temple, he had managed to acquire a steward’s position.

Nowadays, he managed the various business affairs of Dark Clouds Island. Today as well, the weather was bad, the rain never ceasing. He Pu silently cursed the Heavens while directing his fellow brothers to unload the goods from several recently arrived ships.

These materials were to be sent to Water Spirit Island to be used by the Sect’s Elite Disciple for cultivation and daily life.

While no one was paying attention, He Pu quietly took two Crystal Stones from one of the crates and stuffed them into his pocket before pretended nothing had happened and continuing to order the others about.

“Steward He, Steward He…” He Pu turned around quickly after being called out to, finding one of his Juniors named Cuttlefish waving towards him.

“What is it?” He Pu asked in a disgruntled tone. At that moment, he was feeling slightly guilty, so when Cuttlefish called out to him he nearly panicked.

Water Spirit Temple had strict rules. Even if he was the steward of Dark Clouds Island, if he was found to be embezzling resources, a light punishment would be expulsion from the Sect while a heavy one would be breaking his four limbs.

“Steward He, there’s a suspicious black spot over there, it looks like someone is flying over.” Cuttlefish wasn’t his real name, but due to his fish shaped face, someone had given him this nickname and now everyone called him that. However, the one in question didn’t mind and after so many years, most of his fellow brother and sister disciples couldn’t remember his real name.

“Someone flying over?” He Pu narrowed his already small eyes and stared in the direction Cuttlefish was pointing, a moment later wearing a mocking grin, “What an idiot, doesn’t he know about the mysterious power surrounding Dark Clouds Island? Well, whatever, just let him taste a little bit of the Heaven’s Wrath.”

“But… what if he dies?” Cuttlefish asked, slightly worried.

“If he dies, he died, why should I care?” He Pu coldly snorted, “Flying over like that while not even knowing about our Dark Clouds Island’s natural barrier, obviously he’s not an acquaintance; even if a thousand such people died it doesn’t matter.” Saying so, he turned his eyes up towards the sky and muttered, “This damn weather, it’s really too depressing.”

After hearing what He Pu said, Cuttlefish felt it was reasonable. Now he was no longer worried about this newcomer but instead was somewhat looking forward to his arrive, wanting to know how miserable the latter’s death would be.

As Yang Kai flew across the ocean, the first major Island he came upon was Dark Clouds Island. Looking up and seeing the dense cloud formation above this place, he faintly felt something was unusual about them, but even after pausing and spending a moment to investigate he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

Shooting off again like a bolt of lightning, Yang Kai rapidly approached Dark Clouds Island.

Ahead of Yang Kai there was a crowd of people that seemed to have noticed him. Many of these people were pointing at him and calling out to him from the shore but because they were separated by too great a distance and the winds were whistling too loudly, Yang Kai wasn’t able to hear what they were saying.

A moment later, Yang Kai arrived above Dark Clouds Island. All the cultivators down below stared at him, a look of pity and sympathy flashing across their eyes.

Seeing this, Yang Kai’s brow wrinkled; although he didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t notice any hostility from these people so he didn’t pay it too much mind, but just as he was about to descend, from above his head a crackling noise erupted.

Immediately after, Yang Kai felt a blast of lightning crash down from the sky and land upon his head.

The strength of this bolt of lightning was so intense that it almost caused Yang Kai to fall into the sea.

His whole body stiffened and all his hair stood on end, but after a brief loss of control, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a pervasive sense of comfort.

His Wind and Thunder Wings seemed to have absorbed the majority of the Lightning Attribute Qi and stored it in his right shoulder blade.

The crowd down below all called out in alarm when the lightning bolt struck, but in the next moment, they abruptly stopped, all of them showing dumbfounded looks as they stared at Yang Kai in something of a daze.

After being struck by a bolt of lightning as this as an adult male’s arm, aside from his hair standing on end, this little brat was completely unscathed; this development was somewhat beyond their ability to understand.

The defining feature of Dark Clouds Island was not only it’s overcast skies, but also the incredible amount of Lightning Attribute energy that lingered high up in the atmosphere. Normally, the dark clouds would not release this Lightning Attribute energy, only when some unfortunately living creature strayed too close would they be struck by lightning.

As such, Dark Clouds Island was not just a territory marker on the farthest outskirts of Water Spirit Temple, or a place for trade with the outside world, but also a natural defense barrier.

If a person who was not aware of this flew over, they would end up suffering a baptism of lightning.

This kind of Heavenly Wrath was something that even the Elders of Water Spirit Temple weren’t capable of withstanding.

Every six months, the Elders of Water Spirit Temple would use some special methods to release the Lightning Qi that accumulated in the clouds to prevent a situation where too much accumulate and suddenly discharged, destroying Dark Clouds Island.

He Pu recalled that the last time the Elders drained this Lightning Qi was a few months ago. After such a long period, the Lightning Attribute Energy accumulated within the clouds should have reached a level that would force Transcendents to yield and withdraw, so why was this little brat able to all but ignore it?

As the crowd watched absent-mindedly, bolts of lightning continued to fall from the dark clouds in rapid succession like snakes striking from their burrows, all of them, without exception, striking Yang Kai.

The burst of crackling noise resounded continuously and the light given off was so bright that the onlookers soon had to shield their eyes.

He Pu squinted and circulate his True Qi, attempting to continuing watching, but he was unable to see anything in the end.

This scene lasted for some time before the Lightning Qi in the dark clouds became somewhat sparse and the intensity of the light finally decreased enough that everyone could open their eyes again and scan the skies.

Screams rang out soon after as the crowd soon found that the youth who had rashly flown into Dark Clouds Island’s airspace was still floating up in the sky. On top of that, not only was he uninjured, his face had a happy smile upon it.

“Steward He, was that kid’s brain fried by the lightning?” Cuttlefish came over and whispered.

He Pu was also dumbstruck, unable to determine what to make of this situation.

If this young man wasn’t struck stupid, the only explanation was he possessed enough strength to ignore this degree of lightning!

However, how could that be possible? The Sect’s Elders had said that even a Third Order Transcendent wouldn’t be able to escape unscathed from such Heavenly Wrath. This little brat looked to only be twenty-three or four years old, was he really that powerful?

As the crowd down below was lost in such thoughts, the young man up in the sky shook his head, revealing a look of disappointment for a moment before hurriedly putting his clothes in order and flying down to Dark Clouds Island.

Noticing this, everyone on the shore became alert and secretly began circulating their True Qi.

Aware of their vigilance, Yang Kai made a silly grin, wearing a look of someone harmless to humans and animals alike and slowly landed on the island.

“Who are you?” He Pu asked in a cold voice, sizing up Yang Kai, quickly discovering that he had really never seen him before.

Anyone who entered Water Spirit Temple’s territory from the mainland would first have to pass through Dark Clouds Island. If this youth was really an acquaintance, given his freakish performance just now, He Pu should have had some impression of him.

“Pardon me, is this Water Spirit Temple?” Yang Kai did not answer the question directly, instead, asking this question while sweeping his eyes across the crowd. Relaxing when he noticed that there was no Transcendent Realm masters on the island. Most of those present were just Immortal Ascension Boundary cultivators.

“Indeed!” He Pu nodded, “This Water Spirit Temple’s Dark Clouds Island. May I ask who your Excellency is? Why have you come to my Water Spirit Temple?”

Yang Kai’s outrageous performance just now made He Pu feel that this young man was not someone he should provoke, so he did not dare act too overbearing; however, as the island’s steward, he still had to learn the identity and purpose of the other party.

“Don’t misunderstand, I have no malicious intentions here,” Yang Kai smiled, “I’m just here to find someone.”

“Find someone?” He Pu’s brow wrinkled slightly, “Who are you looking for?”

“En, a girl named Shui Ling. If I remember correctly, she should be the daughter of your Water Spirit Temple’s Sect Master!”

“Looking for Shui… Looking for the Little Princess?” He Pu’s eyes widened, a weird expression suddenly appearing on his face as he let out a chuckle.

Everyone else also gave Yang Kai wry looks when they heard this.

“Right, I’m looking for your Little Princess!” Yang Kai nodded, “If it is convenient, can you tell me where she is? En, it would be best if you could take me to see her.”

“Kid!” He Pu smiled and said in a light tone, “Although I don’t know which force you come from, considering you have some skill, I won’t embarrass you, but you’d still best turn back, the Little Princess is not someone the likes of you can get close to.”

Saying so, He Pu waved his hand as if to shoo Yang Kai away.

Seeing everyone’s attitude, Yang Kai frowned and said, “Are you misunderstanding something?”

Thinking Yang Kai was acting reluctant, He Pu just grinned spat and continued, “Misunderstanding? Are you trying to say you’re not here to try to court our Sect’s Little Princess? I don’t have time to waste with you then. My Sect’s Little Princess is a rare beauty so you young people seeking after her is quite normal, even my fellow brothers and I have had such fantasies once or twice,” Letting out a sigh, He Pu wore a distant look and said, “But although I understand and even somewhat sympathise with you, I can’t bend the rules, if you don’t leave, don’t blame us for being polite to you.”

Yang Kai couldn’t help himself from laughing despite trying his best not too, this group of people had really misunderstood him.

Although Shui Ling was truly quite pretty, like a playful spirit, Yang Kai had never had any impure intentions towards her.

Back in the Central Capital, the two of them had started off as enemies but gradually become friends. Because of that friendship, when Yang Kai decided to travel to Tong Xuan Realm, he had brought her along with him, sublimating their relationship quite a bit.

From beginning to end though, Yang Kai had never had any feelings of love towards Shui Ling, only friendship.

After thinking about it for a moment, Yang Kai took something out from his Black Book space and handed it over, “Take a look at this.”

He Pu glanced over at him suspiciously before accepting the object. After carefully examining it for a while, he suddenly called out in surprise, “Little Princess’s token? Where did you get this?”

“Huh? Naturally your Little Princess gave it to me,” Yang Kai replied somewhat dumbfounded.

“Gave it to you?” He Pu’s eyes bulged, slapping his forehead a moment later, seemingly remembering something, “Right, you must be the person the Little Princess spoke of. Oh, please pardon my rudeness from before, Brother. If Brother had taken out this token from the start, I wouldn’t have made things so difficult for you.”

“It’s fine,” Yang Kai shook his head and curiously asked” “What did your family’s Little Princess tell you?”

“Three years ago, when the Little Princess returned, she made a point of telling me that if a Young Master holding her token appeared here one day, be sure to treat him courteously.”