Martial Peak

As they walked deeper into the jungle, the sounds of rustling suddenly came from in front of them, as if something was rapidly approaching.

The group of young disciples were all on guard, their nerves rather taut, but the four Immortal Ascension masters faces remained indifferent.

*Shua…* A ferocious head suddenly sprang from the jungle, dashing towards the old woman, its savage fangs gleaming from within its massive jaw.

This beast’s head was the two feet long; embedded with a pair of glowing triangular shaped eyes which flashed a brutal and desolate light. Displaying amazing speed, in the blink of an eye it was already upon the old woman.

However, the old woman only snorted, slightly raising her walking staff, gently swinging it forward and seemingly tapping the middle of the beast’s forehead and then again on the side of its jaw. Suddenly, it was as if that massive head had suffered a devastating attack, flying out to the side.

Before it had even landed, the whole head burst open, only leaving behind a bloody fog.

The beautiful woman’s body flashed as she sprang forward, her jade hand flickering as a coloured ribbon flew out from her wrist, like a snake striking from within its hole. The ribbon instantly seized the exposed Beast Core from within the blood fog and neatly retrieved it.

“Golden Eyed Silver-Back Python! A Peak Fifth Order Monster Beast!” Ling Tai Xu explained to Yang Kai.

Yang Kai carefully observed, and sure enough on the ground not far away there was headless python body, its back adorned with silver patterns, obviously it had been a very strong beast. Everything had happened too fast just now so he did not see how this big python had been killed, or even when the beautiful woman had retrieved its Beast Core.

Peak fifth-order beast, that was equivalent to a peak True Element cultivator, but in the face of this old woman it was effortlessly slaughtered. The strength of this old woman from the Ten Thousand Flower Palace was apparent, she was likely on the same level as Ling Tai Xu, if not even stronger.

The Ten Thousand Flower Palace really deserved to be called a first-class Sect! Its power was much larger than High Heaven Pavilion.

“Be careful, this thing is a social type Monster Beast!” Ling Tai Xu quickly warned.

His voice had hardly faded before waves of rustling sounds emerged from all around the group. From the dense surrounding jungle, everyone could vaguely see many pairs of triangular golden eyes staring towards them, rapidly moving closer.

The old woman did not remain idle this time, instead yelling loudly, “Move faster, once the smell of blood spreads it will only attract more Monster Beasts.”

The group quickly responded and dashed into the jungle.

*Shua Shua Shua* From every direction countless Golden Eyed Silver-Back Pythons leaped towards them, their bloody mouths ferociously snapping.

The old woman’s staff displayed unparalleled lethality, often with just a single tap, a big python would immediately be killed while Gui Li and the beautiful woman acted with great coordination, guaranteeing the safety of their own disciples.

Gui Li was truly a Evil cultivator, once he began circulating his Secret Art, a black gas filled with violent and bloody breath pulsed from his body. Holding a spear type artifact, he stabbed left and right, no enemy able to withstand a single blow, showing his strength to be superior to the beautiful woman. However, to deal with these fifth-order Monster Beasts, she was still quite relaxed, her graceful body danced in the wind while a hint of intoxicating fragrance lingered in the air. Often before one of the Golden Eyed Silver-Back Pythons even got close, they would be killed by some inexplicable means.

Ling Tai Xu never used any artifacts, his every move was simple and plain, but seemed to contain an infinite power, the speed with which he slaughtered these Monster Beasts was not much worse than the old woman.

Flesh and blood flew about as one by one these pythons were killed; it was akin to someone sweeping away the fallen autumn leaves, leisurely and unimpeded.

The disciples from the Ten Thousand Flower Palace were also employing their ribbon artifacts, not to fight with these Monster Beasts, but to retrieve their exposed Beast Cores.

These four girls were all sister disciples so their cooperation was flawless, three of them would together attack the head of any fallen Monster Beast to break it open, while the other would use her ribbon to extract its Beast Core.

These were fifth-order Monster Beast Cores; their value was by no means low.

These girl’s practices caused the three Ghost King Valley disciples to be extremely jealous, but since they had no method to compete with them, they could only watch helplessly and grumble to themselves.

As they collected more and more trophies, the happy smiles on these girl’s faces only grew bigger, each one like a blossoming flower full of charm mixed with a little pride.

On the other side, Gui Li attacked one of the Golden Eyed Silver-Back Pythons, piercing it with his spear and ferocious pouring in his True Qi, killing it instantly.

Flicking his spear, this Golden Eyed Silver-Back Python actually flew towards the crowd. It was clear that Gui Li also wanted his disciples to gain some benefits.

But intentionally or unintentionally, when he tossed this dead python he had exerted too much force, and the Golden Eyed Silver Back Python actually flew towards Yang Kai’s position.

Ling Tai Xu’s eyes flashed a cold light, but he did not attempt to block it.

At that moment, one of the Ghost King Valley male disciples rushed back, a faint grin upon his face, his ghostly white hands radiating a pale light as he concentrated his True Qi, forming a sharp blade which he stabbed towards the Golden Eyed Silver-Back Python’s head.

This strike seemed to be aiming for the beast’s Core, but in reality his stab had used far too much force and would no doubt end up impaling Yang Kai as well.

Yang Kai face went cold, instantly aware of the other side’s malicious intent, naturally he would not stand idly by.

Instead of directly confronting him, Yang Kai instead stretched out his hands and seized the dead Golden Eyed Silver-Back Python’s body, flinging it to the side with all his strength.

The Ghost King Valley disciple’s face which had been grinning until just now suddenly went stiff.

Yang Kai’s counterattack was beyond his expectation and a bizarre cry was heard as he and the python’s body were sent flying out several tens of meters.

But his reaction was also quite rapid; in mid-air he hurriedly removed his hand from the python’s head and kicked its body away from him, finally freeing himself.

However, before he had even landed, two new pythons leapt towards him, their giant jaws flapping as the stench of their breaths made his head spin.

His face instantly went pale and his hair stood on end.

His reaction was a stark contrast to the four Immortal Ascension masters who were killing these pythons like slaughtering chickens and dogs, after all, they had the strength to do so. An ordinary True Element Boundary cultivator could only wait for death if they were to encounter these pythons.

A crisis was approaching, causing this Ghost King Valley disciple to feel the breath of death; he had not thought that in plotting against Yang Kai, he would throw himself into this situation; it was really a case of harming oneself.

At this critical juncture, Gui Li finally reached him, his spear piercing out, quickly dispatching the two pythons as he grabbed the disciple’s shoulder and threw him back towards the group before quickly withdrawing himself.

However, in that moment, the disciples from the Ten Thousand Flower Palace had been attacked by another python, and if not for the beautiful woman’s quick reaction to protect them, the four girls may have suffered serious harm.

After Gui Li returned, the woman glared at him fiercely, furious that he had left his position and exposed her disciples to such mortal danger.

Gui Li knew that he was completely at fault here so he offered no complaints, instead coldly staring at Yang Kai and Ling Tai Xu.

In this subtle conflict, the older generation did not overtly intervene, but Yang Kai’s clever scheme had almost caused the Ghost King Valley’s disciple to suffer a great loss, sparking a flame of hatred in his heart and provoking him to find a chance to erase this shame.

Yang Kai obviously did not pay him any attention; the other side’s elder had already made it clear he wanted his life, why should he care about offending them? Being polite now was not showing goodwill but weakness.

The group continued fighting for quite some time, cutting down more than twenty of these Golden Eyed Silver-Back Pythons before escaping this predicament.

This was only the most peripheral region of Nether Mountain yet they had encountered such a crisis; this Forbidden Zone’s reputation was clearly not groundless.

After this battle, the older generation had obviously experienced some consumption, but the old woman still silently lead them forward, traveling a hundred kilometers or so before they found a relatively safe place to stop and rest.

The older generation wanted to maintain their condition at its peak while the younger generation had to restore their physical strength.

After stopping, the Ten Thousand Flower Palace’s old woman grumbled, coldly glaring at Gui Li, “That kind of farce, I will let pass this time, but this old woman does not want to see a repeat, if you cannot guarantee this then we shall part ways here, my Ten Thousand Flower Palace does not want to act together with unscrupulous people who put our lives at risk.”

Gui Li only laughed mischievously, “Please rest assured Yan Palace Lord, previously was this old master’s mistake. My disciple was just a bit too enthusiastic, it was all a misunderstanding.”

“Very well!” The old woman nodded lightly then stepped away to meditate and recover.

The three Sects put some distance between themselves, each remaining silent.

After a moment, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes and saw the Ghost King Valley disciple who had previously plotted against him walking over.

As soon as he was ten steps from him he stood still and coldly stared at Yang Kai, grinning maliciously, “My name is Jin Hao, you’d better roll far away from me, if not, I’ll mercilessly slaughter you!”

He was clearly furious, and completely did not care that Ling Tai Xu was sitting nearby.

Ling Tai Xu also did not say anything, just continuing to meditate.

Yang Kai looked at him, suddenly chuckling loudly, “Brother Jin, dogs that bite normally don’t bark first.”

*Puchi* Several muted noises suddenly were heard; it was the Ten Thousand Flower Palace girls unable to hold back their laughter.

The young woman quickly stared at them and the girls quickly sealed their lips, pretending to meditate.

Jin Hao fumed, “You have a sharp tongue, but you’d better pray we don’t meet inside!”

He snorted then turned away.

Watching his back, Yang Kai’s heart also filled with murderous intent. These three Ghost King Valley disciples were destined to be his enemies, but their cultivation was higher and there were more of them as well, once he encountered them he would definitely be in for a hard fight.

After a while, the old woman stood up and Ling Tai Xu and Gui Li also opened their eyes.

Arranging themselves as before, the group continued deeper into Nether Mountain.

Along the way, they were often harassed by Monster Beasts. Nether Mountain’s Monster Beasts were numerous, and their distribution was also chaotic, they encountered third-order, fourth-order, fifth-order, and even two sixth- order Monster Beasts.

However, the two sixth-order Monster Beasts clearly knew that this group was not easy to mess with, only probing them a bit before giving up; they were obviously significantly more intelligent than the others they had met.

In killing these Monster Beasts, the Ten Thousand Flower Palace’s four girls reaped the greatest harvest, flourishing their ribbons and snatching up the Beast Cores that appeared. The trio from Ghost King Valley also worked together with Gui Li to obtain a number of Beast Cores, accumulating no small amount of wealth.

Only Yang Kai’s performance was shabby, collecting just two fifth-order Beast Cores along the entire journey, and this had only been because Ling Tai Xu deliberately threw the Monster Beast’s bodies to him.

However, Yang Kai did not care, his cultivation was the lowest, and now with his ordinary performance, the others would pay less attention to him, this way he could bide his time, keep a low profile, and avoid all kinds of danger, allowing him to slowly enhance his strength.