MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 8 - Season 12 Episode 19

Despite the great excitement filling his heart at the prospect of being able to return home, Yang Kai didn’t show anything on his face and just asked lightly, “If you successfully complete your Space Array, how far will it be able to transport someone?”

Yang Yan laughed confidently, “Space Arrays themselves are designed to surmount the concept of distance, so as long as the origin and destination can be accurately localized, how far apart they are is irrelevant.”

“So there’d be no distance limit?” Yang Kai’s eyes brightened.

Yang Yan hesitated a moment before saying solemnly, “This is the case in theory, but implementing it will require careful study… Will you give me some?”

“Take what you like!” Yang Kai laughed, waving his hand boldly. In any case, there were so many Space Spirit Crystals here that he couldn’t possibly use them up. When the time came, his only request would be for Yang Yan to refine a Space Ring for all of his friends and family members.

“Thank you! You’re such a good person!” Yang Yan shouted gleefully, wishing she could rush up and kiss Yang Kai but setting that aside to immediately begin mining. Although she couldn’t collect Space Spirit Crystal at nearly as fast as the Stone Puppet, only things that were in her Space Ring could truly be considered hers.

Yang Yan understood this truth better than anyone.

Yang Kai didn’t mind Yang Yan’s behaviour, but after his initial surprise and excitement, his mood slowly calmed down, focusing his attention on the Stone Puppet gnawing at the Space Spirit Crystal lode, seeing the impurities ooze from its body and flake off in a seemingly never-ending cycle.

After so many years cultivating it, feeding it so many precious ores, Yang Kai was finally seeing a return on his investment, and this return was nothing short of astonishing as the first mineral lode the Stone Puppet discovered was actually a Space Spirit Crystal lode!

According to Yang Yan, the Stone Race was inherently sensitive to rare ore, as long as he had it by his side, Yang Kai would be able to find rare ores that others couldn’t.

Unfortunately, he only had one Blood Essence Stone, if there was one more, the other Stone Puppet should have been able to hatch as well.

With a cracking sound, the fragrant sweat covered Yang Yan quickly mined out the immense wealth in front of her while the Stone Puppet also continued chewing its way through the lode. In contrast, Yang Kai appeared somewhat idle.

Half a day later, Yang Yan ran back over to Yang Kai while panting heavily, taking out a piece of Saint Crystal to restore herself. Looking at her anxious appearance, it seemed she wasn’t done mining yet.

“It’s a pity,” Yang Yan suddenly said.

“What’s a pity?” Yang Kai asked in confusion.

“People only know that Space Spirit Crystals are used to manufacture Space Rings and arrange Space Arrays when in fact it has another use.”

“Oh? What is this other use that people don’t know about?” Yang Kai laughed. Although he hadn’t been together with Yang Yan for long, this little girl was always able to amaze him. This had nothing to do with her beautiful appearance or stunning figure, but rather her profound skill and knowledge. By now, Yang Kai had learned to not underestimate her.

“It can also be used to cultivate,” Yang Yan shook his head. “You didn’t know? That’s not surprising though, many people don’t know, en, in fact, only a select few should know.”

“Space Spirit Crystals can be used to cultivate?” Yang Kai was startled, “You’re saying that one can refine them just like Saint Crystals?”

“En, but we can’t, only some special people can, namely cultivators who have comprehended the Dao of Space. For such people, refining Space Spirit Crystals can deepen their understanding,” Yang Yan said casually, not taking notice of the weird expression creeping onto Yang Kai’s face. “The Dao of Space is a very esoteric field that is not only difficult to enter but even more difficult to master. All Space Arrays in existence right now are relics from ancient times that were arranged by cultivators who were proficient in the Dao of Space. En, the method to manufacture Space Rings also stemmed from their hands and was simply picked up by others along the way. I can confidently say that throughout the entire Star Field, cultivators proficient in the Dao of Space won’t exceed twenty, and of those twenty, only a few can actually use it to fight against their enemies… hey, what are you doing?”

Just as Yang Yan turned her head to the side, she discovered that Yang Kai was holding a piece of Space Spirit Crystal the Stone Puppet had refined in his hand and couldn’t stop herself from laughing, “You’re not thinking of trying to absorb the power inside that Space Spirit Crystal, right? Listen, if you don’t understand the Dao of Space, there’s no way for you to absorb. Only by understanding Space Manifestation is that possible. Do you know why so many people who have managed to gain some understanding of the Dao of Space have such poor achievements in it? It’s because they don’t know Space Spirit Crystals can be used for cultivation. On top of that, because the amount of Space Spirit Crystal is too small, even if they did realize this truth, they’d never be able to find enough to properly cultivate. This kind of cultivation is more wasteful than directly burning money, most people couldn’t afford to do it even if they learned about it.”

After giving this lecture though, Yang Yan’s jaw went slack and her eyes widened as she stared at the Space Spirit Crystal in Yang Kai’s hand.

She noticed that an obscure type of energy was flowing out from the Space Spirit Crystal and was being absorbed into Yang Kai’s hand.

At first, she thought she was imagining things and immediately rubbed her eyes before paying even closer attention.

To her shock though, there was indeed energy flowing out of the Space Spirit Crystal, like a trickling stream that was seeping into Yang Kai. It wasn’t an illusion!

“You…” Yang Yan was thoroughly shocked.

“It’s true?” Yang Kai was pleasantly surprised.

In order to study the Dao of Space, Yang Kai had always had to resort to submerging himself into The Void, but cultivating in that chaotic environment was not only extremely dangerous, it was also quite slow. Since escaping from the floating continent, Yang Kai hadn’t even done this once because he found that his comprehension of the Dao of Space had arrived at a kind of bottleneck, so there was no point in doing so.

After listening to Yang Yan’s words just now though, Yang Kai couldn’t help putting them to the test and was overjoyed that the effect was surprisingly good.

Space Spirit Crystals could really be used for cultivation and doing so would enhance his understanding of the Dao of Space.

“Do you understand the Dao of Space?” Yang Yan called out in shock.

“Yes, I’m one of those twenty people you mentioned,” Yang Kai laughed.

“Heavens, just what kind of monster are you?” Yang Yan’s beautiful face paled, never having expected she could meet such a freak. Yang Kai being proficient in the Dao of Space was even more shocking than her being an Origin Grade Artifact Refiners.

“We’ve just met, so it’s natural we have our secrets,” Yang Kai nodded lightly, “Good, I’m going to cultivate for a while, you can mine the Space Spirit Crystals here at will, whatever you mine is yours, en if you need help refining them, just ask the Stone Puppet.”

Saying so, Yang Kai no longer paid any attention to Yang Yan and focused all of his attention on refining the Space Spirit Crystal in his hand.

Yang Yan was dumbfounded for a while before eventually shaking her head.

The more she interacted with this man, the less she understood him.

However, Yang Kai not shutting her out and even exposing some of his secrets to her let Yang Yan feel relieved and soon, she too didn’t bother with him and instead joined the Stone Puppet to mine the mineral lode.

The energy contained within Space Spirit Crystals was similar to that in Saint Crystals, but just as Yang Yan had said, not everyone could absorb it. Even Yang Kai couldn’t refine this energy without using his own Space Force. As soon as he did apply his own Space Force though, Yang Kai was able to feel a wonderful energy flow out from the Space Spirit Crystal and into his body.

This kind of power wasn’t the same as Saint Qi, and it did not provide any kind of physical enhancement, but as he absorbed more of it, Yang Kai could clearly feel his comprehension of the Dao of Space becoming more profound.

In the past, when Yang Kai was feeling the chaotic flow of space in The Void, it was as if he was sailing in a great storm, making it very difficult for him to comprehend anything. It often took him a lot of time and energy just to grasp a few indistinct clues.

But now it is different. Yang Kai had never experienced such a feeling before, it was as if a door to all the mysteries of the Dao of Space was opened before him, allowing him to step through and spy on all these secrets.

Yang Kai had never known that cultivating the Dao of Space could be so simple and easy. As such, he soon became completely immersed in this world, cultivating without need for rest or sustenance, forgetting everything around him.

But soon, Yang Kai discovered a problem.

It was just as Yang Yan had said before, such cultivation was nothing short of family ruining.

This kind of cultivation consumed Space Spirit Crystal even faster than Saint Crystal. It would take about two hours for Yang Kai to completely refine the energy contained in a piece of High-Rank Saint Crystal.

On the other hand, a fist-sized piece of Space Spirit Crystal that had been perfectly quenched by the Stone Puppet would disappear from his hand in less than an hour.

In one day, he could consume more than a dozen fist-sized pieces of refined Space Spirit Crystal, which would equate to several hundred thousand pieces of High-Rank Saint Crystal!

Who could possibly bear such an outrageous price? Even a behemoth such as Heng Luo Chamber of Commerce may not be able to withstand such consumption. If one cultivated like this, no matter how wealthy they were, it wouldn’t be long before they went bankrupt.

Fortunately, the Stone Puppet had found such a large Space Spirit Crystal lode, and fortunately, Wu Yi had given this mountain to him, causing Yang Kai to be even more grateful than before.

In a flash, ten days passed, and Yang Kai had consumed almost two hundred Space Spirit Crystals, halving the amount the Stone Puppet had originally brought back.

Fortunately, over the past ten days, the Stone Puppet had been continuously mining, and now the underground cave had become several times larger than before.

Feeling the summon of Yang Kai, the Stone Puppet trotted over and spat out several hundred refined pieces of Space Spirit Crystal in front of Yang Kai.

Yang Yan couldn’t bear to watch this, feeling like Yang Kai was an evil slave master who was forcing the poor Stone Puppet to toil away in this mine while he sat back and reaped all the profits.

Stuffing the hundreds of pieces of Space Spirit Crystal into his Demon Mystic Tome, Yang Kai started cultivating again. He felt that his comprehension of the Dao of Space was on the verge of taking a great leap forward, and although he hadn’t done any experiments yet, Yang Kai estimated that if he were to tear space now, he would be able to travel far further than his previous thousand-kilometer limit.

One day, after another piece of Space Spirit Crystal, disappeared from Yang Kai’s hand, he slowly opened his eyes and saw Yang Yan staring at him with a pained look on her face. She was sitting quietly in front of him, her body covered in dirt and grime, resting her cheeks on her hands as if somewhat lost in thought.

“Why aren’t you still mining?” Yang Kai asked.

Yang Yan spat disdainfully, “I found that me going through the process of mining was pointless, letting Xiao Xiao collect the Space Spirit Crystal here, then asking him for some is far more efficient.”

“Xiao Xiao?” Yang Kai frowned.

Yang Yan pointed to Stone Puppet, who was still working hard to excavate the surrounding Space Spirit Crystal, allowing Yang Kai to understand she had given this little fellow a name without his permission.

Smiling, Yang Kai quipped, “Finally realized?”

“You just sit back and enjoy the fruits of others labour with such confidence, so why should I be one of those labourers?” Yang Yan stood up and patted her clothes, “Let’s go up, we’ll leave the Space Spirit Crystals here to Xiao Xiao, I still need to do some Artifact Refining.”

Yang Kai thought about it for a moment before nodding, “Yeah.”