MARTIAL ADVERSITY, VOLUME 8 - Season 12 Episode 8

Looking at Yang Yan, who was sprawled out on the bed in his stone room in a completely sloppy and defenseless manner, Yang Kai shook his head helplessly.

One month of continuous Artifact Refining seemed to thoroughly exhaust her. Lying there, breathing deeply, her incredible figure on full display, regardless of whether Yang Kai wanted to be seduced or not, he couldn’t stop his eyes from fixing on her towering twin peaks.

Yang Kai’s return didn’t wake Yang Yan in the slightest.

Turning around, Yang Kai walked straight out of the cave again and proceeded to hunt down a few animals in the mountain forest before building up a fire near the cave entrance and grilling their meat. Yang Yan’s physical and mental exhaustion was clearly quite serious, so eating something would be good for her restoration.

Yang Kai had only half-finished his cooking when Yang Yan ran out of the cave sniffing the air, folding her arms in front of her as she squatted down next to him with a smile and stared at the golden roasted rabbit, eagerly waiting to eat.

“How was your rest?” Yang Kai glanced over at her.

“Somewhat, It’ll take a few more days for me to completely recover,” Yang Yan replied casually before crying out innocently, “Flip it over quickly, it’s already well roasted. Ah, no, not like that! Here, let me do it!”

Fussing like this, Yang Yan couldn’t stop herself from snatching the meat away from Yang Kai.

Yang Kai didn’t try to stop her and simply sat back and relaxed, directing a somewhat suspicious look towards her. “If you’re really an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner, why are you so miserable?”

This was the point that had confused Yang Kai the most about Yang Yan. He had witnessed her ability already, so Yang Kai knew that as long as she was willing to reveal it, she would be able to live a lavish life. Any force on Shadowed Star would be willing to accept her and provide her with the most generous treatment. Many of them would even be willing to fight over her.

Yang Yan pursed her lips, “What do you know. You’re probably thinking I should just hire myself to one of those big forces, right?”

Yang Kai nodded.

“I don’t trust them,” Yang Yan snorted, “None of them are anything good, I won’t refine artefacts for them.”

When she said this, Yang Kai understood.

Without the support of a big force, a woman like Yang Yan couldn’t show her true ability. Because she couldn’t acquire enough high-grade materials to display her abilities, when she entered a place like Artifact Refining Pavilion, everyone would question her skills and only dare allow her to refine some low-grade artefacts.

Even if she continued to declare that she was an Origin Grade Artifact Refiner, no one would risk giving her Origin Grade materials to verify her ability.

Under this vicious circle, her not being miserable would be strange.

Even Yang Kai had not believed her and had only given her some materials he was planning to discard as a test.

“Do you have some kind of grudge against them?” Yang Kai asked.

“No, I don’t resent them, I just don’t like them. I heard that no matter which force it is, they’ll have many internal power struggles and external conflicts. I have no interest in being caught up in such troublesome things, I just want to quietly focus on Artifact Refining.”

This was also true. The higher level an Artifact Refiner was, the more forces would try to recruit them, but the inner workings of these forces would not all share the same opinion. Small families like Hai Ke Family were constantly squabbling amongst themselves, and it was only worse for behemoths like Shadow Moon Hall.

Once Yang Yan entered one of these forces, she would likely be caught up in these annoying matters.

As the scent of roasted meat wafted through the air, Yang Yan looked at the barbecue pit with satisfaction, tore off a rabbit leg, and handed it to Yang Kai. Yang Kai slowly shook his head to refuse, leading to Yang Yan unceremoniously stuffing her face with great satisfaction.

“I sold the artefacts you refined,” Yang Kai said casually.

“En, they’re yours in any case, do what you want with them.”

“They sold for twenty thousand High-Rank Saint Crystals in total!”

“The price is fair, you didn’t suffer a loss,” Yang Yan nodded casually.

“How many Saint Crystals do you have on you right now?” Yang Kai asked again.

“Why?” Yang Yan immediately became alert and covered her Space Ring, seemingly afraid that Yang Kai was having ideas about her precious Saint Crystals, but after thinking about it for a moment, she felt it was unlikely and haltingly said, “Around two thousand… Low-Rank Saint Crystals.”

“So poor!” Yang Kai was speechless, shaking his head and sighing before taking out some High-Rank Saint Crystals from his Space Ring as well as a few bottles of pills used for restoring Saint Qi and Spiritual Energy and passing them over to her, “Artifact Refining consumed a lot of strength, you can have these.”

Yang Yan wiped the grease from her hands and then snatched the Saint Crystals Yang Kai offered without the slightest hesitation, stuffing them into her Space Ring before opening one of the bottles of pills and sniffing it, a look of surprise soon appearing on her face, “Saint King Grade pills?”

She hadn’t anticipated that Yang Kai would be so generous. A single bottle of Saint King Grade pills was quite a lot. The bottles he had just handed over to her were worth almost half as much as the artefacts she had refined.

“Looks like you’re quite rich,” Yang Yan looked at Yang Kai strangely. Massive amounts of Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order Monster Beast materials, several bottles of Saint King Grade pills, a Saint King Grade High-Rank Star Shuttle, an Origin Grade artefact…

Yang Yan found it hard to imagine how a mere Third Order Saint came to possess so many good things.

Comparing him with herself, it was almost like Heaven and Earth. Where had he found all these things? It didn’t look like he had some kind of strong background.

“Don’t bother trying to conserve those pills, if you run out just ask me for more, I have lots,” Yang Kai said casually. He understood Yang Yan’s personality and knew she was the frugal type who would keep track of every last piece of Saint Crystal, so he was worried she would try to not use these pills in order to save up more money.

“You’re a really good person.” Yang Yan declared, feeling quite touched.

After saying so, she picked up another piece of barbecue and continued chomping on it, fragrant oil dripping down from her lips.

A few days later, after Yang Yan completely recovered, she began Artifact Refining again. This time, Yang Kai allowed her to work in his stone room directly. The Seven Coloured Spirit Gathering Flags were set up in his stone room so it would be much easier for her to restore herself here, improving the efficiency of her Artifact Refining.

Blazing hot Yang Attribute strength burst out constantly, but this kind of heat actually made Yang Kai feel quite comfortable.

While Yang Yan was engaged in Artifact Refining, Yang Kai wasn’t idling, moving to the Yang Yan’s stone room and entering secluded retreat to accumulate more Saint Qi.

At least four or five years had passed since he broke through to the Third Order Saint Realm, and although Yang Kai had been sealed in the blood-red crystal for most of those years, unable to feel the passing of time, but with the hundred drops of pure Demon God Golden Blood flowing through his veins, Yang Kai could clearly feel that his strength had improved again.

While he was unconscious, his realm seemed to have solidified and risen substantially.

Yang Kai even faintly felt that the Saint King Realm was within his reach and he had no shortage of insights into the Heavenly Way and Martial Dao. The only thing he was missing now was some accumulation, which conversely meant that as long as he accumulated enough Saint Qi, he would soon reach a critical point and break through.

While accumulating Saint Qi, Yang Kai was also studying the uses of his Golden Blood.

Some time ago, Yang Kai had used a drop of Golden Blood to form a golden spear which he then used to resolve Wu Yi and her crew’s crisis. This incident allowed Yang Kai to realize the power of his Golden Blood.

Now he wanted to know what his Golden Blood could do other than fight.

Thinking carefully about the scene from that time, Yang Kai’s expression changed as a novel idea popped into his head. After thinking of this, he quickly condensed a drop of Golden Blood at his fingertip.

The Golden Blood plunged into The Void and reappeared over a thousand kilometres away in an instant.

At that moment, Yang Kai felt a marvellous sensation. He was clearly still sitting in Yang Yan’s stone room in Dragon Cave Mountain, but he could clearly see the scene around his drop of Golden Blood a thousand kilometres away. It seemed that the Golden Blood had an inseparable connection to him and his consciousness could freely switch between it and his physical body. With this drop of Golden Blood, Yang Kai could easily see a scene a thousand kilometres away.

Yang Kai immediately entered an ethereal state, his mind observing the surroundings of his drop of Golden Blood as he flew forward.

He saw cities, mountains, forests, and rivers as his drop of Golden Blood shot forward at lightning-fast speed, at least a few times faster than his Star Shuttle was capable of. This speed was also a result of Yang Kai’s comprehension of the Dao of Space. This drop of Golden Blood could break through the shackles of space, allowing it to move at speeds even greater than Yang Kai’s Divine Sense was capable of.

The shocking vitality which emanated from this drop of Golden Blood as it flew forward alarmed many masters on Shadowed Star.

Countless masters’ eyes followed the Golden Blood as it passed by them, causing horrified looks to appear on their faces.

They didn’t know who was giving off such a shocking life aura, or how strong one would have to be to move even faster than their Divine Senses could. Often, by the time these masters became aware of the drop of Golden Blood, it had already disappeared from their sight, making it impossible for them to probe it.

The Elders and higher-ups of many forces gathered together in the following days to discuss whether this golden flash was an enemy that threatened their Sect.

Some masters tried to chase after the flash of golden light but all were unsuccessfully and soon forced to give up.

Yang Kai had no idea he had disturbed all of Shadowed Star with his unintentional movements, he was simply immersing himself in the Golden Blood’s miraculous uses.

After just three days, the drop of Golden Blood had made a complete survey of Shadowed Star.

The vitality contained within the drop of Golden Blood had not actually weakened much though; apparently, this journey had not caused it any strain.

Yang Kai was thoroughly shocked. His consciousness had been following this drop of Golden Blood while it toured the entirety of Shadowed Star, so he knew just how massive this Cultivation Star was. If he were to use his Star Shuttle, it would take him at least four months to cover its surface.

But the Golden Blood was able to do this in just three days; it was clear from this alone how terrifying its speed was.

What were its limits? How far apart could it be from his main body while still maintaining contact?

Yang Kai felt the need to figure these two questions out and with a single thought, sent the drop of Golden Blood which had just come back to him straight up into the sky, soon breaking through the cloud layer and heading out into the Star Field!

Yang Kai’s consciousness remained attached to the drop of Golden Blood as he saw one Dead Star after another as well as vast Asteroid Seas and packs of roaming Black Rock Beasts.

This was a rather strange experience, roaming the Starry Sky with just ones consciousness was something even a master at the Origin King Realm couldn’t do after all.

The Golden Blood was truly amazing.

After entering this kind of ethereal state, the speed at which Yang Kai’s physical body was able to absorb the surrounding aura increased sharply, allowing him to accumulate Saint Qi far quicker than before, dramatically improving his cultivation rate.

Yang Kai didn’t relax his vigilance however, as right now it was only him and Yang Yan on Dragon Cave Mountain. Yang Yan was concentrating completely on Artefact Refining, so naturally, Yang Kai could not lower his guard or he would be unable to defend them against unexpected aggressors.

Fortunately, he was able to switch his consciousness between his physical body and the drop of Golden Blood at will, as if his soul was simultaneously inhabiting two different bodies. Yang Kai paid attention to the movements of the drop of Golden Blood from time to time but didn’t monitor it constantly.

Over time, he even lost interest in keeping track of it. Although the drop of Golden Blood had been flying through the Starry Sky for quite some time, the vitality it contained only seemed to have weakened slightly. Yang Kai estimated that it would be able to continue on like this for at least several years before finally disappearing.