MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 7 - Season 8 Episode 39

Back inside the ice room, Yang Kai and Su Yan’s Souls returned to their respective bodies and Su Yan once again entered into a deep sleep.

Having spoken at length with Su Yan, Yang Kai finally put down the burden weighing on his heart. Apparently she would remain in the Ice Body Sealed Heart’s frozen state until she broke through the next minor realm, that is, until she became a Second Order Transcendent, after which she would automatically wake up.

This was something she had set up in advance before she entered her deep sleep.

After knowing the truth, Yang Kai was no longer worried and also didn’t intend to take Su Yan away from Ice Sect. The environment here truly was very suitable for her cultivation, so leaving her here would benefit her more.

Moreover, Ice Sect’s Sect Master Qing Ya and Elder Qian Yue really were quite good to her; although Yang Kai held a small grudge against Qian Yue. Also, after Su Yan put in many good words for Qian Yue, Yang Kai decided to no longer hold it against that woman.

After carefully cultivating for a short time, the exhaustion Yang Kai felt from his Soul gradually faded.

Sensing two familiar auras outside the ice room, Yang Kai got up and opened the door.

Sure enough, Qing Ya and Qian Yue were standing outside. After seeing Yang Kai, the two women’s beautiful eyes flashed a slightly complex light.

“Did Su Yan wake up?” Qian Yue took a look around and asked somewhat hurriedly.

“She did wake up for a while but she’s fallen asleep again,” Yang Kai explained lightly.

Qian Yue turned her eyes towards Yang Kai and her brow wrinkled slightly; she found that this little brat no longer displayed much hostility towards her and couldn’t help wondering what had happened.

“Did you have a good talk with her?” Qing Ya asked softly.

Yang Kai gently nodded, “I did.”

“So what did the two of you decide?”

“Su Yan wants to say here, so I must ask several Seniors to take care of her.”

Qing Ya smiled gently and nodded, “Don’t worry, although Ice Sect does not accept outsiders, but even just considering Meng Wu Ya’s face, I wouldn’t treat her poorly.”

“Many thanks, Sect Maser Qing!” Yang Kai said.

“Good, I never thought someone could actually awaken another who had performed the Ice Body Sealed Heart, you’ve really surprised me. I suppose that also proves that the relationship between you and Su Yan is not ordinary,” Qing Ya’s pretty face showed a hint of admiration.

Yang Kai smiled and didn’t explain any further. Although part of the reason he had succeeded was his own efforts, the most fundamental reason was that Su Yan had made early preparations!

If it weren’t for her setting it up so, Yang Kai figured he would never have been able to contact her Soul, much less break into her spiritual world.

“I have something to ask you now,” Qing Ya suddenly said with a serious face.

“Hm?” Seeing her solemn expression, Yang Kai couldn’t help nodding, “What does Sect Master Qing want to know?”

“What kind of Dual Cultivation Secret Art do you and Su Yan cultivate?”

“Why do you ask?” Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling a bit strange. Ice Sect’s disciples cultivated Ice Attribute Secret Arts which stressed maintaining one’s purity, almost the exact opposite of dual cultivation, so Yang Kai didn’t understand why Qing Ya suddenly became interested in this.

Even if she knew what Secret Art Su Yan and Yang Kai were cultivating, and Yang Kai taught it to her, she didn’t have a partner with which to practice it so there would be no point.

“No need to be so vigilant, I’m not trying to inquire about your Secret Art, but there is something about it that bothers me,” Qing Ya frowned slightly, sinking into contemplation for a moment before slowly continuing, “A long time ago, Tong Xuan Realm had a number of famous forces.”

“Oh? What was so famous about them?”

“They were forces powerful enough to shake the realm!” Qing Ya quickly said, “These forces were the strongest in Tong Xuan Realm. When they reigned, the Demon Race and Monster Race didn’t dare act arrogantly. During that era, most of the Demon Land and Monster Domain actually belonged to our Human Territory.”

“There were such forces?” Yang Kai was extremely surprised.

“En,” Qing Ya nodded lightly, “It’s just that at some point, something happened, and all of these powerful forces suffered grave losses, some of them even losing their core inheritances. With their foundations crippled, these great forces inevitably declined and gradually became weak. Of course, such powerful forces, even after suffering sharp declines in strength, did not necessarily disappear, most of them still surviving until today just in a weakened state!”

Yang Kai expression changed, “Is Ice Sect one of those forces?”

Qing Ya was slightly surprised by his sharp insight but quickly smiled and nodded, “En, my Ice Sect is indeed one of those forces. At the height of its power, my Ice Sect had tens of thousands of disciple and occupied a vast territory, but after experiencing that disaster, my Ice Sect’s surviving Ancestors moved the Sect to this place to live a life of seclusion, isolated from the outside world.”

Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked, “What kind of cataclysm happened to cause so many great forces to suddenly collapse?”

Qing Ya shook her head, “I don’t know, it happened so long ago that no clear records remain of that event.”

“Why is Sect Master Qing telling me all this?” Yang Kai wondered, this kind of ancient history didn’t seem to have anything to do with him.

“Because I remember one of those ancient great forces seemed to practice a very profound kind of Dual Cultivation Secret Art and the top masters of that force were known as the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress! These two masters cultivated their force’s most core inheritance and it was said that when they joined forces to fight, they were nearly invincible. Also, when they fought… they could assume the form of a great dragon and phoenix!” Saying so, Qing Ya stared fixedly at Yang Kai.

Yang Kai’s look changed greatly, “Sect Master Qing’s meaning is…”

Qing Ya smiled softly, “I am just speculating and am not certain, but ordinary Dual Cultivation Secret Arts are detrimental. Those who cultivate them in general have impure True Qi and very rarely possess noteworthy accomplishments, but you and Su Yan are different. The Dual Cultivation technique the two of you cultivate is obviously extraordinary, and after witnessing the grand vision you showed earlier today, I could not help wondering if that legendary force has something to do with you!”

“I don’t know,” Yang Kai’s expression became awkward.

Qing Ya looked at him with a smile and didn’t ask any more. Regarding such matters, she only intended to inform Yang Kai of her thoughts; if she were to continue asking him questions, it would be akin to prying into his secrets, a taboo amongst cultivators.

“Sect Master Qing, do you remember what that force is called?”

“If I recall correctly, it seems to have been called Dragon Phoenix Heaven! It should still exist even now, if you search for it, it should not be difficult to find them.”

Yang Kai nodded lightly, pondering for a moment before suddenly remembering something, asking curiously, “Wait, Sect Master Qing, I heard that long ago, the first master under Heaven was the Demon Race’s Great Demon God? How could there be so many Human Race Sects dominating Tong Xuan Realm then?”

Qing Ya giggled lightly as his question, “The Great Demon God is also a character out of legend, but his time was actually further into the past, the era I spoke to you about came after the Great Demon God disappeared.”

“So it’s like that,” Yang Kai nodded, a few speculations arising in his heart.

With the disappearance of the Great Demon God and the Ancient Demon Clan being sealed away, the Demon Race would have been severely weakened and would obviously not be the Human Race’s opponent.

Tong Xuan Realm’s history was long and rich in legends, obviously a few different eras and rulers had come and gone.

“Sect Master Qing, I’ll be going out for a bit to run a small errand, I’ll leave Ice Sect shortly after I get back from it,” Yang Kai informed Qing Ya before leaving the ice room.

Looking at his disappearing back, Qing Ya slowly shook her head, “I wasn’t trying to chase you away just now.”

“The sooner he’s gone the better!” Qian Yue grumbled under her breath before turning around and rushing into the ice room to check up on Su Yan’s condition, only feeling relieved after she confirmed that the latter was in a stable state.

Inside the ice, Su Yan wore a happy smile.

Yang Kai rushed forward, following the route he had taken together with Su Yan just before, heading towards the location of the destroyed iceberg.

Half a day later, the collapsed iceberg finally came into view.

Without even having to release his Divine Sense, Yang Kai could clearly feel a powerful energy fluctuation coming from beneath the rubble.

Smiling happily, Yang Kai rushed over to it.

A short time later, after breaking through some layers of ice, Yang Kai found a longan sized crystal clear gem.

The energy fluctuations were being emitted from this ice crystal.

[Was this the Frozen Ice Jade Crystal that Su Yan had mentioned?] Yang Kai pinched it between his fingers as he examined it, soon discovering that the energy contained within this small crystal was actually extraordinarily pure and rich.

What made his feel strange though was that at this things core, there seemed to be a thick, transparent liquid.

This liquid exuded a chill so profound that Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was nearly frozen by it when he tried to probe it.

Yang Kai felt somewhat amazed at this, his Divine Sense was by no means ordinary, having evolved into a Conflagrated Divine Sense, but even so he couldn’t withstand the cold energy contained within this tiny ice crystal.

Giving up on trying to probing it further, Yang Kai stored the ice crystal into his Black Book space. When he was preparing to return to Ice Sect though, something nearby caught his attention and upon investigating, he couldn’t help feeling shocked.

Buried in the ice, there was actually a jet black skeleton.

On this skeleton’s bones there were many vein patterns that resembled meridians but there was not a trace of flesh, it was a truly ominous image.

[Could it be some disciple of Ice Sect encountered an accident here?] Yang Kai wondered in his heart. This iceberg had produced a suspected piece of Frozen Ice Jade Crystal, so perhaps someone had been here before treasure hunting only to end up being frozen here after suffering some kind of disaster.

However, what made Yang Kai somewhat uncertain was that this person’s meridians had remained, yet their flesh had not.

Yang Kai very much wanted to ignore this situation, but after thinking about it for a moment, he reached out and extracted the black skeleton from the ice before hefting it over his shoulder and flying back to Ice Sect.

Regardless of anything else, Su Yan would be in the care of Qing Ya and Ice Sect for the foreseeable future. If this person really was an Ice Sect disciple, the least Yang Kai could do was take him back to Ice Sect so he could be properly buried.

One day after he left, Yang Kai returned to Ice Sect.

Upon arriving at the ice mountain range, Yang Kai was met by Ice Sect’s Elder Qian Hao.

The middle aged man frowned slightly as he stared coldly at Yang Kai, inquiring in a somewhat dissatisfied tone, “Boy, why are you still in my Ice Sect?”

“I’ll be leaving shortly,” Yang Kai didn’t have a good impression on Qian Hao either, so he simply tossed over the skeleton from his shoulder and bluntly stated, “By the way, I found someone who might have been your Ice Sect’s disciple out there, it looks like they suffered some kind of accident.”

Qian Hao frowned hearing this and took a look, in the next instant his expression changing dramatically, his eyes quivering fiercely, seemingly having seen something terrifying, immediately dropping the frozen skeleton from his hands towards the icy ground below.

*Hong…*

The frozen skeleton hit the ice with a loud bang causing Yang Kai, who was still standing mid-air, to frown towards Qian Hao, wondering why this Second Order Saint was showing such a frightened expression.