Translator: Silavin & Tia
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Yu Zhuo stuck out her tongue, slipped into the room, took out an animal skin bag like it was a priceless treasure, and handed it to Yang Kai, “I found some more seeds for you. Have a look.”
Yang Kai reached out to accept them before he quietly murmured., “You don’t need to keep searching anymore. I have enough now.”
Yu Zhuo was taken aback by those words for a moment before she grunted noncommittally in reply. Her expression seemed a little disappointed, but she quickly cheered up again and asked, “Senior, what are you collecting these seeds for?”
He smiled, “My wife asked me to, so how can I be careless about it?”
“Your wife?” She was obviously startled, “Senior, you have a wife!?”
[Why didn’t I hear about this before!? I’ve been asking around about him a lot over the past few days, but I didn’t hear about this at all!]
Yang Kai nodded, picking up his teacup as he took a sip and calmly replied, “I have a few.”
[A few…] Yu Zhuo couldn’t help feeling a little out of sorts and immediately sank into a state of desolation. She was no longer as lively and cheerful as before. She clearly seemed rather absent-minded upon learning that Yang Kai was married, moreover, to several women at that. Then, after making small talk for a bit, she took the initiative to leave.
Yang Kai saw Yu Zhuo off at the door, and watching her slightly hunched back as she left, he slowly shook his head. He had no choice but to reveal some of his personal information to her in hopes of ending this mess quickly.
The group ranking battles continued on in full swing, and as the battles progressed, the ones remaining were all elites so the fights became more intense as a result. The heritage of many Sects across the Southern Territory was showcased in these battles. The longer they remained in the competition, the stronger the influence of the Sect behind them. Needless to say, none of the top three Sects were eliminated from the competition.
Unsurprisingly, the last three groups competing against each other belonged to the top three Sects. The group from Azure Sun Temple finally lived up to expectations and won first place in the competition in the Dao Source Realm category by an overwhelming margin. Although they lost in the Origin King Realm and the Origin Returning Realm categories, those losses were not a big deal.
The final results of the rankings were out. Hundreds of Emperor Realm Masters, as well as tens of thousands of participating disciples, gathered in the mountain valley once again. Following that, Xiao Yu Yang announced the top ten winners for each category of the competition and the rewards they were to receive. The cultivators and Sects whose names were called out received great honour. On the other hand, those who lost secretly vowed to themselves to wash this shame clean in the next Martial Gathering.
The Southern Territory Martial Gathering was now over, but nobody left. According to tradition, Orthodoxy Temple, as the host of the Martial Gathering, would throw a huge banquet on the final night of the Martial Gathering. It didn’t matter whether it was the Emperor Realm Masters who came to provide support or the tens of thousands of disciples who participated in the competition, all were invited to the banquet.
The banquet would be held in the evening, and since there was still some time until then, Yang Kai returned to his living quarters to wait. Not long after, the maid came to report that Yu Zhuo was asking to meet him again and he couldn’t help feeling a headache coming on. Pondering in silence for a moment, he ordered, “Tell her I’m not here.”
Although he had not made himself entirely clear the last time, the meaning behind his words had been obvious enough. He did not know what Yu Zhuo was thinking, but he really did not wish to continue with this ambiguous relationship.
The maid glanced at him curiously and could not understand why he refused to even meet with Yu Zhuo when he had been very kind towards her previously. Nevertheless, it was not her place to interfere and she could only retreat obediently.
Outside the hall, the maid returned, turned to Yu Zhuo, and said, “Elder Yang is not in.”
Yu Zhuo exclaimed, “But, I saw him return!”
The maid smiled, “Perhaps, he went out again.”
Yu Zhuo clearly did not believe those words as she had seen Yang Kai return to this place with her own eyes and there had been no trace of him going out again, so how could he not be in? Just as she was about to ask the maid to check again, she suddenly seemed to realize something and forced out a smile before bowing, “Many thanks.”
The maid shook her head, “It was nothing.”
Yu Zhuo turned around and her eyes abruptly reddened. She sullenly flew off in the direction of her living quarters but halfway there, she stopped and turned around to stare at the place where Yang Kai was living. She energetically waved her hand in that direction before hurriedly rushing away.
Yang Kai stood by the window, and upon seeing her actions, he sighed. He could only wish for her happiness in his heart now that things had come to this, hoping that she could put this behind her as soon as possible.
That night, the mountain valley was extremely lively as tens of thousands of people were gathered together. Countless tables were set up all across the entire mountain valley, and many maidservants made their way among them. Even the disciples of Orthodoxy Temple were busy as they constantly served up food and wine. The banquet spread out in all directions. It was rare to see such a grand occasion and drinks flowed freely, making the atmosphere extremely festive.
At the place where everybody from Azure Sun Temple was gathered, Yang Kai looked around and asked curiously, “Where is Senior Sister Gao?”
He did not see Gao Xue Ting anywhere all evening.
Murong Xiao Xiao replied, “Senior Sister mentioned that she was feeling under the weather, so she didn’t come.”
“Is she okay?” He looked concerned.
Murong Xiao Xiao blushed a little and quietly replied, “It’s nothing. She’ll be fine with some rest.”
Looking at her expression, Yang Kai wisely did not inquire further into the matter.
People kept coming over to propose a toast, so the people from Azure Sun Temple couldn’t just sit around relaxing. Wen Zi Shan gave an order, and several Emperor Realm Masters had no choice but to bring their wine glasses with them to offer toasts to others. On the way back, Yang Kai’s expression changed suddenly as he turned his head to the side and saw a figure flashing by, rushing into the darkness and disappearing out of sight.
“What was that?” He frowned. Putting down the wine glass in his hand, he chased after the figure and a moment later, he saw a person waiting for him approximately several hundreds of metres ahead. He walked over and cupped his fists, “Senior Brother Luo.”
Luo Chen turned to look at Yang Kai and quietly said, “Come with me.”
“Where?” Yang Kai furrowed his brow. It had been Luo Chen who quietly sent a Divine Sense transmission to him just now, asking him to come over. Speaking of which, there had not been much interaction between them although the two of them both belonged to Azure Sun Temple.
This person was even less talkative than Xiao Bai Yi. At the very least, Xiao Bai Yi would offer a comment once in a while. On the other hand, Luo Chen was practically no different from a mute. He wouldn’t make a sound even if he was hit with a stick. He seemed to be an outlier even in Azure Sun Temple and according to Murong Xiao Xiao, none of the many Elders in the temple had a particularly close relationship with him.
Yang Kai did not have much interaction with Luo Chen either and hadn’t exchanged more than a few words with him before, thus there was no friendship between them at all. Hence, Yang Kai seriously had no idea why Luo Chen called him out in the middle of the night.
“Senior Sister Gao wishes to meet you,” Luo Chen responded as he led the way.
“Senior Sister Gao…” Yang Kai was stunned. At the same time, he couldn’t help criticizing in his heart. [Why are they acting so secretively? If Gao Xue Ting is looking for me, she could have come to me directly, why send Luo Chen to deliver the message?]
Suppressing the doubts in his heart, he followed behind Luo Chen, but after a while, he frowned, “Senior Brother Luo, this is not the way back.”
Judging by the direction they were going, they seemed to be flying out of Orthodoxy Temple and it was making Yang Kai feel more and more suspicious. However, Luo Chen, who was leading the way, refused to give him any explanation whatsoever. Yang Kai couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off and his figure came to a sudden stop as he stared at Luo Chen’s back. In response, Luo Chen stopped and looked back at him.
“Senior Brother Luo, what is going on?” He frowned at Luo Chen.
Luo Chen repeated, “Senior Sister Gao wishes to meet you.”
Yang Kai asked, “Why does Senior Sister want to meet me?”
Luo Chen said, “I am only responsible for delivering the message. I don’t know anything about the specifics.”
Yang Kai stared at Luo Chen for a long time before he took out a communication artifact, poured some Divine Sense into it, and contacted Gao Xue Ting himself. Luo Chen’s behaviour was making him feel very suspicious; therefore, he couldn’t afford to care about offending the person in front of him anymore. [Let’s contact Gao Xue Ting and figure out what’s going on for now.]
Yang Kai quickly received a response from the communication artifact, and upon reading the message, he looked stunned. It turned out that Gao Xue Ting really wanted to meet him, but she didn’t mention the reason. She only said that he would know once he arrived.
Putting away the communication artifact, he bowed to Luo Chen with a slight sense of shame. What he did just now showed that he did not trust Luo Chen, but facts had shown him that he was simply overthinking things.
Luo Chen seemed unaffected and continued to lead the way without saying a word.
After a while, the two left Orthodoxy Temple and nobody stopped them. Yang Kai followed Luo Chen and sped into the distance. About an hour later, Luo Chen stretched out a finger and pointed at a tall mountain in the distance, “Senior Sister Gao is waiting for you over there.”
Yang Kai tilted his head to look at Luo Chen, “Are you not going?”
Luo Chen shook his head, turned around, and left.
Yang Kai was speechless. [Serves you right for not having any friends. Nobody can handle such an attitude! I wonder how Gao Xue Ting managed to make him move.]
Glancing in the direction Luo Chen had pointed, Yang Kai saw a peak not that far away; thus, he continued heading in that direction.
Landing at the top of the mountain peak, he glanced about his surroundings but there was nobody around. He used his Divine Sense to scan his surroundings, but there were no signs of life around.
“Senior Sister Gao!” He shouted, but there was no response.
Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling that the events of tonight were getting stranger and stranger by the moment. First, Gao Xue Ting entrusted Luo Chen with a message for him, but he didn’t see her anywhere now that he had arrived at their supposed meeting place. Could it be that she hadn’t arrived yet?
Feeling suspicious, he took out his communication artifact and poured his Divine Sense into it again. He wanted to ask Gao Xue Ting about the situation; however, there was no response from her this time around.
Just as Yang Kai was focused on fiddling with the communication artifact, a shadow silently appeared from the darkness behind him. The shadow had appeared like a wisp of black smoke, without any warning nor the slightest indication whatsoever. What was even stranger was that Yang Kai didn’t seem to notice it at all even though it was so close at hand.
The black shadow slowly condensed into a blurry figure that looked like it could be blown away by the wind. The figure lifted a hand, and a black dagger appeared in its grip. Then, it stabbed the dagger towards Yang Kai’s back slowly.
The moon was hidden by the clouds and the wind was strong. The world was quiet, with only the sounds of the birds and insects coming from all directions.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai was still fiddling with the communication artifact, scowling deeply, unaware of the crisis coming from behind him.
At that moment, the sounds of the birds and insects disappeared abruptly, as though they had been frightened by something. All the sounds of the night vanished in that instant and at the same time, the dagger that had slowly been moving towards Yang Kai suddenly burst forward at an unimaginable speed, stabbing violently into his back.
A sharp pain burst out, and the Emperor Qi in Yang Kai’s body exploded outward. The communication artifact in his hand turned into a cloud of dust as his body tensed, becoming as tough as metal. The forearm length dagger didn’t manage to stab any further than a finger length into Yang Kai, so despite being aimed at his heart, it instead became trapped in place by his muscles.
The black shadow holding the dagger swayed erratically for a moment. The position where its eyes were located shone with a light of surprise. It seemed that it had not expected its certain-kill attack would be blocked like this. Although it had managed to stab its dagger into Yang Kai, its actions had not achieved the desired effect. Considering the situation briefly, it immediately understood the crux of the problem. There was something wrong with this man’s body, making it incomparable to an ordinary cultivator’s.
Without giving that black shadow any time to react, Yang Kai turned around with a furious glare and punched out.
