MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 7 - Season 8 Episode 55

To stand on equal footing with the Holy Master meant at least being a Third Order Saint.

An Ling’er didn’t believe Yang Kai was capable of this and only thought he was an overconfident youth.

“Believe what you like,” Yang Kai smiled, his face filled with confidence.

“You really won’t reconsider?”

“No,” Yang Kai shook his head, “But I have to say, the way you choose your Holy Master is too sloppy. How can you decide the next leader of such a big force so casually?”

“It’s not sloppy!” An Ling’er retorted vigorously, “Our Secret Art is based entirely around finding the next Holy Master. As long as there is a suitable candidate within a certain radius, we Saintesses can perceive them. A situation like yours is the actually the alternative method to finding a candidate. If we Saintesses cannot find an appropriate candidate within the allotted time, we can only let the Holy Land recruit as many young people with high aptitude and pass them knowledge of the Holy Land’s Divine Skills to see if they can comprehend them. Although today’s event was an accident, you have indeed passed my test and are eligible to enter the Holy Land. En, in fact, your performance is exemplary, so you’re definitely qualified!”

Yang Kai laughed back at her, “Can you guarantee that the person you choose is loyal to your Holy Land and doesn’t have any ulterior motives?”

“We can!” An Ling’er nodded firmly, “After entering the Holy Land, the new Holy Master’s mindset will change.”

Yang Kai narrowed his eyes at this comment. Although he wasn’t quite clear about the details, from what he could gather, it seems the Nine Heavens Holy Land would use some special method to brainwash their new leader.

“Fine fine, let’s put this aside for now,” Yang Kai didn’t want to continue inquiring into the secrets of Nine Heavens Holy Land. The more he knew, the less helpful it was to him. Having said so, Yang Kai released a subtle stream of Spiritual Energy from the Soul Avatar and before An Ling’er could respond, wrapped her in it.

“What are you doing?” An Ling’er’s pretty face changed as she suddenly found herself unable to move. Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy was far stronger than she had estimated before and also contained a burning hot aura that caused her Soul Avatar a fair amount of discomfort.

Yang Kai looked her over, a complicated look flashing across his eyes as he nodded slightly, “En, considering everything that’s happened, the safest course of action would be to kill you.”

“Kill me?” An Ling’er’s beautiful face paled slightly, “You think I’ve seen too much?”

“That’s one of the reasons,” Yang Kai nodded calmly, “With the things you know, I can imagine that once you go back, your Nine Heavens Holy Land won’t leave me alone and will try to force me to go back with you, either to force me to take the position of Holy Master or to kill me in order to protect the secrets of your Holy Land. I don’t want to deal with either of these situations.”

“Aren’t you being a bit paranoid?” An Ling’er frowned as she stared at him faintly, “As long as I don’t tell anyone, who will know what happened here today? And don’t forget, I saved you once before, don’t tell me you’re going to repay that kindness with enmity.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” Yang Kai spat disdainfully, “In fact, I don’t know what I should do with you right now. If I killed you, I would definitely regret it for the rest of my life, at worst it may become a kind of heart demon, but if I just let you go, I won’t be able to feel relieved.”

Listening to him, An Ling’er nervousness couldn’t help diminishing greatly as she quietly asked, “So what do you need me to do?”

“Nothing much! But this was something I wished to avoid as well.” Yang Kai sighed as he reached out his hand and grabbed towards her Soul Avatar.

An Ling’er was frightened and wanted to struggle but was still unable to move.

Yang Kai’s hand hadn’t even touched An Ling’er before he clenched his fist and pulled it back towards himself.

An irresistible attraction seemed to emerge all of a sudden and An Ling’er’s vision became hazy, her Soul Avatar collapsing to the ground softly a moment later.

Struggling to raise her head, she directed a hate-filled glare towards Yang Kai and spat angrily, “So you learned more than just two Divine Skills!”

“Sorry, I actually learned three of them!” Yang Kai smiled, “This one is called Great Heavenly Attraction, right?”

An Ling’er bit down hard on her lips and refused to answer.

“Profound Heavenly Sword, Imprisoning Heaven Chain, Great Heavenly Attraction…” Yang Kai muttered, “Your Nine Heavens Holy Land’s Divine Skills are really quite convenient and practical.”

“Convenient? Practical?! You’re only able to use them because of my ten years of hard work!” An Ling’er listened to his evaluation and suddenly couldn’t help snapping back at him.

Yang Kai simply ignored her and instead stared at the small piece of Spiritual Energy in his hand. This thread was something he had pulled out from An Ling’er’s Soul Avatar and actually looked like a miniature version of her, sitting cross-legged atop Yang Kai’s palm, solemn and motionless.

This was An Ling’er Soul brand!

With this brand in hand, Yang Kai could control whether An Ling’er lived or died at will.

“As a safety precaution, I’ll be accepting your Soul brand, and I hope from now on our paths will never cross again. En, well, when one day I am able to match your Holy Master, I’ll go to your Nine Heavens Holy Land and return this brand to you,” Yang Kai said, storing away her Soul brand into his own Avatar.

An Ling’er looked as if she had suffered a great injustice, but was helpless to resist.

Although she too was proficient in the Great Heavenly Attraction, her Divine Sense was not nearly as powerful as Yang Kai’s, so even though she wanted to fight back, she couldn’t.

This man was simply abhorrent to the extreme, she had clearly just offered him fame, riches, power, and women, yet not only did he refuse her, but he was also now trying to control her as well.

“Hey, I’m not really trying to act maliciously towards you, stop looking at me like I’m so kind of monster,” Yang Kai said to her as he shook his head.

“You bastard!” An Ling’er gnashed her teeth, seemingly trying to vent her anger.

“Yes yes yes, I’m a big bastard, the most hateful person in the world. Anyways, you should calm yourself down and cultivate quietly for a bit,” Yang Kai waved his hand dismissively. Now that he was in possession of her Soul brand, he felt much more relaxed.

Although extracting her Soul brand had caused some damage to An Ling’er’s Soul, it would be fine as long as she cultivated for a while, Yang Kai had made sure of that just now.

An Ling’er pursed her lips and ignored him, wandering a short distance away and sitting down, looking very pitiful.

Yang Kai watched her for a moment before helplessly shaking his head and flying off.

This white world was indeed inside a Soul type artifact. As for this artifact’s purpose, Yang Kai wasn’t quite clear. All he knew was that it was capable of forcefully extracting others’ Soul Avatars and dragging them into this strange space.

This was something quite useful for Yang Kai nonetheless.

His Soul was actually much more powerful than his physical body, so once he encountered a powerful enemy, with this artifact, he could force them into a confrontation between Divine Senses.

In such a battle, Yang Kai would have a lot of advantages.

As such, he really wanted to collect this artifact for himself.

However, the more than a hundred people who had been drawn into this white space had already searched it several times over and found nothing of note. In fact, the only thing that was at all different in this place was the glowing ‘Soul Battle Hall’ words hanging up in the sky.

Flying up to the position where the words were written, Yang Kai carefully inspected them, his expression turned stern.

As time passed, An Ling’er also recovered from the damage she had suffered and turned her eyes towards the sky, a while later also flying up and standing next to Yang Kai, asking, “Are you looking for an exit, or do you perhaps want to refine this artifact?”

“Not angry anymore?” Yang Kai glanced over at her curiously, he found that this woman was quite forgiving. Before now, Yang Kai had repeatedly pushed her away, but each time, after a short bout of pouting, she would come over to him again.

“Of course I’m still angry!” An Ling’er firmly stated, “But I’ve decided to put that aside for now. The most important thing right now is to find a way out of here.”

“Clever girl!” Yang Kai grinned meaningfully, “You’re right, I want to refine this artifact. Since it’s a Soul type artifact, it should be possible to refine it using my Spiritual Energy, but I don’t know how I should go about doing that, what do you think? Any suggestions?”

An Ling’er swept her eyes around carefully and thought for a moment before replying, “You should try refining these three words, it may be the core of this artifact. Pour your Spiritual Energy into these words and you should be able to take possession of this artifact!”

“Seems we’re in agreement,” Yang Kai nodded before saying, “You should stand farther away.”

An Ling’er narrowed her eyes slightly, and although she felt a little confused by his suggestion, she still obediently moved away, landing back where the two of them had just had their last fight.

Looking up, she saw Yang Kai’s Soul Avatar sitting cross-legged and motionless mid-air, seemingly concentrating on something.

All of a sudden, an astonishingly hot burning aura spread out from his Soul Avatar as a brilliant, golden light filled the entire white space, the Soul Battle Hall seeming shaking in response.

Instantly, the three words were directly wrapped in blazing flames.

An Ling’er’s jaw went slack as she saw this, her tender body trembling slightly.

Originally she had thought that Yang Kai had cultivated some kind of special Soul Skill or possessed a powerful Soul type artifact which gave his Soul Avatar that faint burning aura, but after witnessing this scene, she realized that neither of these was the case. The truth was that his Soul Avatar gave off a burning hot aura because of its innate nature!

[A Conflagrated Knowledge Sea?] An Ling’er was completely shocked.

Moreover, from what she could tell, Yang Kai’s use of his Spiritual Energy had reached a very high standard.

No wonder he had taken her Soul brand, it wasn’t just because he had learned some of the Holy Land’s secrets from her, but also because he possessed such a secret!

He obviously didn’t want her to tell anyone about this.

However, with this, the two of them might really be saved. The power of a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea was far greater than an ordinary Knowledge Sea, and it seemed Yang Kai’s raw strength was also quite considerable. This Soul type artifact, even if its grade wasn’t low, probably wouldn’t be able to withstand being refined by such hot, violent Spiritual Energy.

An Ling’er suddenly felt a bit joyful as she made up her mind to do whatever it took to convince Yang Kai to return to the Holy Land with her!

A Holy Master with a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea! This was unprecedented even in the Holy Land’s entire history. With such aptitude and capital, as long as he became the next Holy Master, he would certainly be the most powerful one in history!