MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 7 - Season 8 Episode 40

Floating over Ice Sect, Qian Hao’s look changed and became especially complicated. Yang Kai stood by and watched, frowning deeply as he did.

“Boy, where did you find this thing?” Suddenly, Qian Hao looked up and solemnly asked Yang Kai.

“About half a day away from this place, inside an iceberg,” Yang Kai replied casually, “Why, what’s wrong?”

Qian Hao didn’t answer, his expression instead becoming even more dignified. Suddenly, he turned around and let out a loud shout, a clear meaning of warning apparent in his tone.

Yang Kai’s gaze flickered as he realized he had probably made some kind of mistake in judgement and had inadvertently struck upon one of Ice Sect’s secrets.

[Whose frozen bones were these? Why did Qian Hao look like he had seen a fierce enemy the moment he laid eyes upon it?] Yang Kai wondered as he locked his Divine Sense onto the black skeleton but was unable to notice anything unusual.

Hearing Qian Hao’s shout, Ice Sect immediately became active, the Transcendent Realm and above masters quickly appearing, following the lead of Sect Master Qing Ya.

“What happened?” Qing Ya hurriedly asked.

If it wasn’t an extremely important matter, Qian Hao would never have issued such an alarm, so Qing Ya immediately realized a serious problem had occurred.

“Come with me!” Qian Hao said, quickly flying down as he quietly circulated his True Qi, ready to act at a moment’s notice.

Yang Kai’s expression dimmed as he quickly followed after the masters of Ice Sect.

Down on the ground, the Ice Sect masters tightly surrounded the frozen black skeleton, many of them frowning suspiciously, obviously many here also just as lost about it as Yang Kai was, but when Qing Ya and the other Saint Realm Elders saw these jet black bones, all of them went pale.

“All of you fall back!” Qing Ya quickly ordered.

The Transcendent Realm masters all look around at each other in confusion, but didn’t ask anything in the end and obediently followed Qing Ya’s orders to withdraw.

Soon, only Qing Ya, the four Saint Realm Elders, and Yang Kai remained.

“Where did you obtain it?” Qing Ya asked, her pretty face filled with a stern solemnity.

“This boy brought it here,” Qian Hao pointed to Yang Kai.

“Yang Kai, where did you find this? How did you find it?” Qing Ya quickly asked.

Seeing a seriousness he had never witnessed before on Qing Ya’s face, Yang Kai fully realized the gravity of the situation and quickly explained what had happened. As the five Saints listened to his tale, their expressions became even heavier.

“What’s wrong? Is he not a disciple of Ice Sect?” Yang Kai frowned and asked, he had brought this skeleton back out of good intentions but now it seems he had actually caused trouble for Ice Sect, naturally he felt a bit embarrassed.

“How could such an ominous creature be one of my Ice Sect’s disciple?” Qian Hao coldly snorted, a look of anger and even hatred flashing across his face.

“Ominous creature?” Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked this time, “I had no idea there was some kind of grievance between him and your Ice Sect, I only thought he was one of your disciples who had gone missing. Since that’s the case, I’ll just return him to where I found him.”

“Don’t touch him!” Qing Ya quickly stopped Yang Kai, shaking her head slowly.

Seeing her violent reaction, Yang Kai couldn’t help smiling dumbly, “Aren’t you all making too much of a fuss over nothing? No matter what kind of evil this guy committed in life, he’s dead now, what reason is there to be so wary of him?”

“Who said he’s dead?” Qian Hao coldly snorted.

The smile on Yang Kai’s face suddenly converged as a deep wrinkle appeared on his brow, “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like, he’s not dead, he’s still alive!” Qian Yue muttered, her pretty face still somewhat pale.

Yang Kai was dumbfounded, sweeping his eyes over the other Saints in doubt but finding that none of them showed any meaning of refuting, obviously they all agreed with Qian Yue’s assessment.

“He’s not dead? But this person doesn’t have any flesh, he’s just a skeleton with meridians, how could…”

Qing Ya softly sighed, interrupting Yang Kai’s words to explain, “There are many strange life forms in this world which you have never heard of. No one knows how they were born, but these strange life forms normally possess strong vitality and odd physiques that grant them more powerful strength than mere flesh and blood.”

Hearing her explanation, Yang Kai couldn’t help remembering the Jade True Spirit!

That Jade True Spirit was also a sentient creature that lacked flesh, blood, and even bones; however, if it had been allowed to fully mature, its destructive power would have reached an earth shattering height.

Therefore, although what Qing Ya said was somewhat difficult for him to comprehend, he still quickly accepted it.

“But you don’t need to be nervous, this one doesn’t appear to be too strong,” Qing Ya smiled slightly. Hearing her words, Qian Hao and the other Saints also relaxed.

“Yang Kai, since you brought this thing here, you’ll have to help us deal with it,” Qing Ya turned to Yang Kai again.

“Good, please grant this Junior instructions!”

“Incinerate him,” Qing Ya pointed to frozen skeleton in front of them.

Yang Kai said nothing and pushed his True Qi directly, wrapping up the frozen skeleton in a ball of scorching flames.

The ice melted at a rate visible to the naked eye, soon revealing the jet black skeleton within.

Just as Yang Kai wanted to increase his True Qi output to burn it down in one fell swoop, a violent aura pulsed outwards from the black skeleton.

Yang Kai was stunned, his expression hanging greatly as he saw the two empty eye sockets suddenly fill with two green flames, akin to human eyes, revealing a dangerous light as the skeleton began to move.

It seemed to be struggling.

Qing Ya pretty face darkened as she quickly waved her hand, sending a few energy spikes into the skeleton, nailing it to the ground.

Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately pushed his True Qi to its limit.

Suddenly, a screeching howl filled the air, penetrating the ears of everyone present. This howl was filled with cruel and violent impulses that seemed to be trying to warp the minds of any who heard it.

Ice Sect’s Saint Realm masters were obviously able to ignore this, but surprisingly, even Yang Kai wore an indifferent expression.

This fact was not lost on Qing Ya, who had secretly been paying attention to him. She had originally thought Yang Kai would be at least somewhat affected by this Soul attack, so she was quite surprised when she saw him could completely disregard it.

The piercing wails ringing in all of their ears grew even shriller and soon took on a desperate feeling.

Gradually, the tragic howls weakened and eventually disappeared.

*Hu…*

The black skeleton finally succumbed to the flames and was quickly reduced to ashes, completely disappearing into the wind.

Seeing this bizarre scene, Yang Kai was having trouble associating it with reality.

He had never imagined before that a skeleton without any flesh or blood could actually remain alive and retain its consciousness.

“Sect Master Qing, can you explain now? What was that?” Yang Kai frowned towards Qing Ya, not knowing anything made him feel particularly uncomfortable.

“What point is there in asking so many questions?” Qian Hao coldly snapped.

However, Qing Ya waved her hand and softly replied, “There’s not much I can tell you, in truth, even we don’t know much about these beings. I simply heard from my Ice Sect Seniors that he is a member of the Bone Race.”

“Bone Race?” Yang Kai’s brow furrowed.

“En, they don’t innately possess flesh and blood, only a skeleton and meridians, but among them there are masters of exceedingly high strength. The reason my Ice Sect became so weak is directly related with them.”

“No one can say clearly where this race came from. In addition to the Bone Race, it seems that long ago many strange life forms suddenly appeared on Tong Xuan Realm. Remember how I told you before that because of a certain event, many of the world’s greatest forces were nearly destroyed? That event is related with these strange races. One of the reasons my Ice Sect has taken up residence here is because of those races. My Seniors said that apparently, in the past, some of the Bone Race’s masters escaped; we are here to seek them out and guard against them. Over the millennia, we have discovered a number of frozen Bone Race members and killed them, but since I assumed the position of Sect Master, this is the first time one has been discovered. Apparently we have still let some fish slip through our net.”

“That’s an interesting story,” Yang Kai said, a strange expression upon his face.

“How is it interesting? What you found this time is only a very weak Bone Race clansman, if it had been one of the stronger existences, our Ice Sect would probably have suffered greatly!” Qian Hao said coldly.

“Then why do you insist on remaining here?” Yang Kai was stunned.

“The Bone Race indeed has powerful masters, but not all of them are so strong, also… we are not weak, us guarding this place is to ensure they don’t have a chance to resurface and wreak havoc,” Qing Ya smiled lightly.

Yang Kai trembled slightly hearing this, “So what you mean to say is, you live in this secluded place in order to protect the world in secret?”

“Hehe, it’s nothing so grand, we are just following the wishes of our Ancestors. Besides, the outside world is a bit too noisy for us, after staying here for so long we simply don’t want to leave,” Qing Ya replied casually.

Yang Kai suddenly felt a profound sense of respect for these silent guardians.

“Elders, I must trouble you to take a careful inspect the area to see if there are any other Bone Race survivors,” Qing Ya turned to four Saint Realm Elders and ordered.

“Yes!” The four Elders answered in unison before turning around to organize the Transcendents behind them and setting off to survey the region.

Yang Kai stood in place, pondering for a long time before finally asking hesitantly, “Will Su Yan be in any danger here?”

“Don’t worry,” Qing Ya turned her eyes towards the sky, “As long as I am here, she won’t encounter any harm. Even if there are any Bone Race survivors lurking about, they can’t stir up any trouble here!”

Hearing this, Yang Kai felt a lot more at ease, quickly took out the ice crystal from the Black Book space, and handed it to Qing Ya, “This is something I found in that same iceberg, Su Yan said that it was useful for those who cultivate Ice Attribute Secret Arts.”

“Frozen Ice Jade Crystal?” Qing Ya was mildly surprised, but after staring at it for a moment she called out in shock, “No, this is… Frozen Ice Jade Marrow?”

“What’s that?”

“This crystal’s outer layer is comprised of Frozen Ice Jade Crystal while the liquid inside it is an even purer substance known as Frozen Ice Jade Marrow. You’re luck is really good, even being able to find such a treasure,” Qing Ya looked at him with amazement, “With this to assist her, Su Yan’s strength will increase even faster, it’s nothing less than an ultimate treasure for those who cultivate Ice Attribute Secret Arts.”

Saying so, she directed a smile towards Yang Kai and asked, “Giving this to me, aren’t you worried I might take it for myself? It also has great use for me!”

Yang Kai smiled and said, “Even if Sect Master Qing uses it, it doesn’t matter, you can think of it as a gift from me for taking care of Su Yan from now on.”

“Hmph, your tongue really is glib!” Qing Ya teased lightly, “Don’t worry, when Su Yan wakes up, I will help her refine this. I’m not so desperate as to steal something from a Junior!”

“In any case, I’ll thank Sect Master Qing in advance for looking after Su Yan,” Yang Kai smiled brightly and cupped his fists.

Seemingly realizing something, Qing Ya asked, “Are you not going to see her again before you leave?”

“There’s no need, I know she’s fine now,” Yang Kai shook his head, “Junior will take his leave now.”

Saying so, Yang Kai turned around decisively and left.

“If you see Meng Wu Ya, give him a message from me, tell him the favour he owes me, I’ll collect sooner or later!” Qing Ya’s voice came from behind.

Without turning around, Yang Kai waved his hand and soared off into the distance.