MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 8 - Season 12 Episode 14

If Yang Kai relied solely on meditative cultivation, it would take him twelve months, or a full year to condense four drops of Golden Blood. This meant that four drops of Golden Blood contained a full year’s worth of Saint Qi accumulation.

However, the Divine Tree was able to absorb that much in a single instant.

Just as Yang Kai was about to ask about its situation, the Divine Tree spoke, “I think… I need to sleep again.”

“What do you mean?” Yang Kai was startled, wondering if the vitality contained in his Golden Blood was too strong for even the Divine Tree to bear.

“This is a good thing. I think I’ll experience some kind of breakthrough after I wake up. Rather than worrying about me, you should spend some time examining those two black stones. Something seems to have changed with them,” The Divine Tree said aloud before falling into a deep sleep and no longer responding no matter how Yang Kai called.

[Could the Divine Tree still grow further?] Yang Kai asked himself with a bewildered look, but since it had told him itself, it shouldn’t be a mistake. Yang Kai was quite looking forward to this development and wondered just what kind of change the Divine Tree would undergo this time.

Now though, he had to concern himself with what the Divine Tree’s said just before falling asleep, shifting his attention to the two black stones.

Yang Kai only now remembered he had not paid any attention to those two strange pitch-black round stones for a long time. Since spending a lot of Saint Crystals on Water Moon Star to buy them countless rare ores, he had forgotten about these two pitch-black round stones.

Immediately, Yang Kai sent his consciousness into the Demon Mystic Tome.

What Yang Kai saw there stunned him.

The mountain of rare ores had all disappeared, with their essences obviously having been completely absorbed by the two pitch-black round stones. Only some impurities were left behind, but amongst all those impurities, there was a fairly obvious life aura that was emitting a strong pulsing sound, like a heartbeat.

What was going on?

Yang Kai swept away the pile of impurities and immediately saw the two pitch-black round stones. However, unlike before, they now have some slight differences. Both stones exuded a vigorous vitality, but one of them was even emitting a heartbeat.

Was this thing alive? Yang Kai found it difficult to believe as he quickly withdrew the two pitch-black round stones and placed them in front of himself.

Looking closely, he was quickly shocked.

The pitch-black round stone that was sending out a heartbeat was wiggling somewhat, as if there was a living creature inside of it that was moving about. The clearly visible lines on the surface of the round stone were as intricate as human meridians.

It was almost like he was looking at a pregnant woman’s belly and the baby inside was kicking just before it was born!

This wasn’t the case for the other stone, however; it gave off an equally strong vitality but had no heartbeat.

Yang Kai stared blankly, not knowing what to do for a while.

Although he had owned these two pitch-black round stones for many years, he still knew next to nothing about their secrets.

Immediately, he remembered what Gui Zu had said to him back on the floating continent.

[‘Take care of them, and one day they will give you a pleasant surprise,’ was it?]

Gui Zu was a master at the Origin King Realm and had lived for over two thousand years. He was very knowledgeable and seemed to know exactly what these two pitch-black round stones were, but at that time, their relationship had not been very harmonious, so Yang Kai had not asked and Gui Zu had not taken the initiative to tell, so until now, Yang Kai was still utterly lost about these two stones.

The two pitch-black round stones were brought by Yang Kai from Tong Xuan Realm, but since Gui Zu recognized them, they should have been products of the Starry Sky that had somehow found their way to Tong Xuan Realm. Was now that time for the pleasant surprise Gui Zu mentioned?

Yang Kai sat cross-legged and circulated his Secret Art while paying attention to the movements of Yang Yan and the two pitch-black round stones.

Ten days passed by in a flash.

The two pitch-black round stones didn’t show any changes, so Yang Kai was beginning to grow impatient. He was very eager to know what mysteries were hidden inside the two stones in front of him, especially if there it was some kind of living creature.

After thinking about it, Yang Kai carefully squeezed out a drop of Golden Blood onto the stone that was giving off a heartbeat.

Since his Golden Blood contained a massive amount of vitality that could put even the Divine Tree into a state of deep sleep to evolve, there was no reason it couldn’t provide some assistance to this pitch-black round stone.

When the drop of Golden Blood landed on it, the heartbeat sound coming from the pitch-black round stone became even louder, and as the drop of blood was absorbed, the entire stone began emitting a brilliant golden radiance.

Some obvious changes quickly appeared on the stone, with the external lines like human meridians becoming agitated and something seemingly trying to break through the shell.

Yang Kai stared without blinking, not willing to miss anything.

*Kacha…*

A crisp cracking sound rang out, causing Yang Kai to unconsciously feel a little nervous.

On the pitch-black round stone, small cracks began to form, and soon those small cracks expanded, covering its entire surface in the blink of an eye and in the next instant, its contents burst out.

Yang Kai stared at this sight and was completely stunned!

Although he had some speculations up until now, when he finally saw what had appeared in front of him, he was still taken by surprise.

Inside the pitch-black round stone, there really was a living creature! It was an egg, one that madly devoured mineral essence! Yang Kai had cultivated it for so many years and the number of rare minerals it had consumed during that time was considerable, but now, finally, it had finally hatched from its shell.

At this moment, a grey thing sat in front of Yang Kai. It looked like a stone sculpture and had a dull grey colour to its body. It had limbs, a head, and clear features on its face.

It was clearly a Stone Man, a Stone Man the size of a palm!

As Yang Kai was observing it, it slowly stood up, seemingly having quite a bit of difficulty, swaying back and forth and nearly falling over.

Yang Kai saw this and quickly reached out to help.

The Stone Man’s arms were strangely long, dragging along the ground even as it stood up, its waist and back were slightly curved, its leg slightly bent, and its body was seemingly composed of a number of pieces of stones. Its looks were angular and highly layered. Although it had clear facial features, its expression was naturally gruff and, in conjunction with its clumsy movement, it appeared a bit silly.

Yang Kai watched it without missing a beat.

It turned its head around blankly for a while but when its grey eyes saw Yang Kai, it stopped for a while.

Because it had absorbed a drop of Golden Blood from Yang Kai, it seemed to be quite curious about him. Similar to the Divine Tree, Yang Kai felt like there was an inseparable connection between him and this Stone Man.

After only looking at him for a while, the Stone Man stopped paying attention to Yang Kai and instead stretched out its two long arms and picked up the black stone shell pieces on the ground, bringing it to its mouth and chewing them.

Seeing it crunch the stone shell with such enthusiasm, Yang Kai was once again astonished.

What the hell was this thing?

Although he had not tested it, Yang Kai was certain the black stone shell was incredibly hard; after all, it had absorbed the essence of so many rare ores over many, many years. With that kind of precipitation, it was likely this shell wasn’t inferior in hardness to an Original Grade defensive artefact, possibly even stronger.

However, that black stone shell seemed as fragile as tofu in the mouth of this small Stone Man.

After a while, the black stone shell had been eaten clean. After eating the stone shell, the little Stone Man seemed a bit tired and staggered over towards Yang Kai before trying to climb up onto his lap.

Yang Kai figured it was time he tried out its strength and reached out and flicked its forehead.

The small Stone Man immediately tumbled like a bottle gourd and rolled away.

Yang Kai’s face turned black and secretly wondered if this was really the creature he had cultivated for so many years and spent so many precious minerals on. Although it was hard enough, it didn’t seem very strong.

The little Stone Man soon stood up, shook its head, and toddled over to Yang Kai again to continue its climb.

Yang Kai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but this time he didn’t flick it again and simply let it crawl up onto his thigh.

It didn’t seem to have any other intentions, seemingly only wanting to climb up onto Yang Kai. Lying down on its back, it closed its eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

Yang Kai looked at it, shook his head, and sighed. He wasn’t repulsed by this little guy just because he appeared useless, it was just that the whole situation was too different from his original expectations. Yang Kai thought he would perhaps obtain two incredibly precious ores which, if he continued to cultivate, would one day be used to refine an Origin King Grade artefact. How could he have anticipated that a tiny Stone Man would pop up?

Frankly, it was a bit disappointing.

Observing it for a while though, Yang Kai’s expression suddenly froze and his eyes fixed on the chest of the little Stone Man where a dark red light pulsed.

Immediately after, Yang Kai sent his consciousness into the Demon Mystic Tome and began searching for something carefully.

A short time later, Yang Kai withdrew his consciousness and frowned.

He finally understood why the two pitch-black round stones weren’t the same. Originally, it was because of the Blood Essence Stone!

The Blood Essence Stone that he had stored inside the Demon Mystic Tome was now implanted in the little Stone Man’s chest, seemingly acting as its heart.

Yang Kai only possessed one Blood Essence Stone, and it was now part of this small Stone Man so obviously the other pitch-black round stone wasn’t able to emit a heartbeat.

Yang Kai firmly believed there was another small Stone Man inside the other pitch-black round stone, but without another Blood Essence Stone to act as its heart, it couldn’t break out of its shell.

Was there some kind of relationship between Blood Essence Stones and these things? Yang Kai became more and more confused, unable to figure out anything even after thinking about it for a while.

Meanwhile, Yang Yan had seemingly reached a critical point in the refining of the Origin Grade defensive artefact Yang Kai requested; he could tell because the energy fluctuations coming from the cave were now much stronger than before. As such, Yang Kai remained outside, not daring to disturb her, feeling a bit bored.

Ever since the small Stone Man appeared, Yang Kai began studying its secrets.

A few days passed but this little guy didn’t seem to experience any kind of growth. He was however quite interested in the place Yang Yan was working. Every time Yang Kai took his eyes off of it, the little Stone Man would run over to the cave, as if it was being drawn in by something. Yang Kai eventually had no choice but to order it to not approach the cave.

After some observation, Yang Kai discovered a problem. Although this little Stone Man had traces of life and was definitely a kind of creature, it didn’t seem to have much of a consciousness. It wasn’t like the Divine Tree that had its own thoughts and wisdom. Instead, it seemed that, aside from Yang Kai’s orders, it was relying solely on its instincts to act.