Martial Peak

“Why is there a desert here?”

An hour later, Yang Xue froze in a daze as she took in the odd scene in front of her. A barren desert had popped up in the middle of the boundless void, a startling sight for any who saw it.

The two of them quickly surveyed the place and soon realised that it was not a real desert, even though it looked identical to a real one. This seemingly enormous desert was entirely made out of the strange Shattered Dao Essence.

All they saw around them was golden sand that stretched as far as their eyes could see. There was even a fierce wind that blew through the area, and the sand dunes that rose high up to the sky looked majestic!

Anyone who saw this sight would immediately notice the peculiarity of the situation, as well as the danger; however, the closer they got, the clearer the reaction was from Yang Xiao’s two Marks. He could tell that they were getting closer to the source of the reaction.

“Is Big Brother here?” Yang Xue frowned.

“Either way, we’ll find out once we look!” Yang Xiao replied.

Yang Xue nodded, and with a flick of her hand, something flew out and started spinning. It turned into a small temple the size of an ordinary dwelling. The characters ‘Flowing Time’ were etched on the sign above its main entrance. This was what used to be the Flowing TTemple that they had inherited from the Star Boundary’s Flowing TGreat Emperor.

Over the past few millennia, both of their cultivations improved and their understanding of the Dao of Thad long since surpassed that of Flowing TGreat Emperor.

However, Flowing TGreat Emperor was still their Honoured Master; thus, Yang Xue could not bring herself to simply discard the Flowing TTemple that the Great Emperor left behind.

Over the years, the two of them exchanged countless Military Merits to seek out the help of an Artifact Refining Great Grandmaster from Divine Cauldron Heaven to strengthen and improve the Flowing TTemple.

The Flowing TTemple was vastly different now when compared to its original state. Although it appeared largely the same, its power was not any weaker than that of Dawn’s Dawning Light Warship!

Throughout the many years of charging through the various Great Territory Battlefields, Yang Xiao’s Squad often relied on the Flowing TTemple to battle against the Black Ink Clan Masters.

This Mobile Palace Artifact had accompanied the two of them on their journey of growth and witnessed their rise. There were countless times when they had relied on it to flee for their lives, and to them, it was no longer just an artifact anymore as it was something that had its own meaning for existence.

After summoning the Flowing TTemple, the two of them swiftly entered. Yang Xue waved her hand once more and an hourglass-shaped artifact appeared in her fair hand. It was Infinite Hourglass, an artifact they had also inherited from the Flowing TGreat Emperor.

10,008 grains of Flowing TSand were sealed up inside the hourglass, and as the sand trickled down, TPrinciples encased the Flowing TTemple. This allowed it to becout of phase with normal Space-Tand becvirtually undetectable.

Yang Xiao and Yang Xue remained on high alert as they travelled into the depths of the desert.

A few days later, the Flowing TTemple abruptly stopped as Yang Xiao triggered his Great Sun and Moon Marks to quietly sense the surroundings for a moment. He then looked up at the towering sand dune in front of him, “It’s coming from the inside of that!”

No matter how one dissected the situation, it was strange to find a sand dune several thousand metres tall in the middle of this unending desert floating in the chaotic void.

The moment they arrived, the two of them realised that Yang Kai could not have been the source of the reaction from the Great Sun and Moon Marks. If he had been here, he would have sensed their approach a long tago and would not have stayed hidden.

“Lettry,” Yang Xiao said softly as he raised his hand.

The TDao Strength that permeated out of the Infinite Hourglass in Yang Xue’s hand grew even more concentrated as she beceven more fully focused.

The void shook, and under the vibrations from the Dragon Force, a stretch of bright light shot towards the sand dune.

The forceful blow centred on the sand dune before shooting out in all directions and stirring up clouds of sand in the process. Meanwhile, the seemingly lifeless desert sprung to life all of a sudden as hundreds of millions of grains of sand swirled in the air to form a giant cloud of several thousand metres tall that was constantly shifting in shape.

[What’s that?]

Yang Xiao and Yang Xue were both terrified.

However, Yang Xue’s eyes soon lit up as she pointed at a specific spot in the sand dune, “An Open Heaven Pill!”

A multi-coloured light flickered momentarily amid the billowing sand. It had only shone through for the briefest moment, but Yang Xue still managed to spot the shape of a Spirit Pill, along with the mysterious aura which emanated from it.

The shackles that kept her at the peak of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation trembled ever so slightly just sniffing the aroma coming from it!

Yang Xiao had seen the sthing and could not resist laughing with glee, “We’ve found treasure, Little Aunt!”

He never thought they would stumble across an Open Heaven Pill this quickly after entering the Universe Furnace. He was a pure-blooded Dragon so he did not need an Open Heaven Pill. As long as he kept refining his Dragon Vein, he would be able to attain the body of a Divine Dragon. Naturally, this was no easy feat as, after all these years, the Dragon Clan had only birthed a handful of Divine Dragons.

However, Yang Xue needed the Open Heaven Pill.

In the past, Yang Xue had directly ascended to Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm. At the time, the World Tree clone had only just begun blessing the Star Boundary and Yang Xue did not benefit much from it. The fact that she directly beca Sixth-Order Master was largely credited to her own aptitude.

If she had been born in the present era, Yang Xue’s aptitude and the blessing from the World Tree would have been enough for her to ascend directly to Seventh Order.

In any case, based on her current situation, reaching the peak of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation was her limit; however, if she could get the help of an Open Heaven Pill from the Universe Furnace, she could remove the shackles and reach the Ninth-Order!

Not only would she be able to reach the pinnacle of Martial Dao, but she would also provide a huge boost to the Human Race’s strength!

This Spirit Pill was the only reason why Yang Xiao accompanied Yang Xue into the Universe Furnace.

Technically speaking, Yang Xiao did not qualify to be one of the ones entering the Universe Furnace. There were over 400 Eighth-Order Masters in the Suppressing Black Ink Army and many of them were bound by the shackles which stopped them from rising into a higher realm. However, Fu Guang, who oversaw the Suppressing Black Ink Fortress, only allowed 50 of them to enter the Universe Furnace. This meant that a lot of careful thought and discussion went into deciding who could go in.

As part of the Dragon Clan, Yang Xiao did not need an Open Heaven Pill, so naturally there was no reason to waste a quota on him.

Fu Guang did not express any form of opinion on this either. The 50 Eighth-Order Masters were decided based on the discussion among the inner circle of Masters in the Suppressing Black Ink Army. Initially, they arranged for Su Yan, Yu Ru Meng, Shan Qing Luo, and Yang Kai’s other wives to enter the Universe Furnace.

Without Yang Kai, the Human Race would not have made it to this day. Furthermore, his Wives had slaughtered just as many of the enemy, if not more, so they had every right to enter the Universe Furnace.

However, if Yang Xue was included among them as well, nearly a fifth of all the openings would go to people who were closely related to Yang Kai.

The entire Suppressing Black Ink Army could only afford to allow 50 Masters to enter, which meant that it would be quite unfair to the others.

In the end, it was Su Yan who said that she and the other Wives would not be entering the Universe Furnace. Instead, Yang Xiao would accompany Yang Xue in the search for opportunities. It would be up to fate to decide whether or not their search would be a success.

Yang Xiao and Yang Xue could be considered childhood friends who knew each other extremely well. They had spent thousands of years together and had long since developed the connection that allowed them to be of one heart and mind. When they joined forces, they were able to wield strength that was far greater than that of simply two Eighth-Order Masters combined.

Allowing Yang Xiao to accompany Yang Xue was the best way to ensure her safety; after all, she was Yang Kai’s only blood-related Little Sister. How would anyone be able to face Yang Kai if something happened to her inside the Universe Furnace?

Thus, the two Yangs entered the Universe Furnace just like that.

Meanwhile, Zhao Ye Bai, Zhao Ya, and Xu Yi, who were also with the Suppressing Black Ink Army, all had the aptitude to becNinth-Order Masters on their own, so they did not need to enter the Universe Furnace in search of opportunities.

Before entering, Yang Xiao had secretly made up his mind to do whatever it took to protect Yang Xue and obtain an Open Heaven Pill that would enable her to beca Ninth-Order Master.

The only difficult part of this was figuring out how to locate such a valuable treasure.

Never would he have imagined it possible for them to locate the precious Open Heaven Pill that countless Human Race Masters desired so easily!

At this moment, he was puzzled as to what the relationship was between the Open Heaven Pill created by the Universe Furnace and the Great Sun and Moon Marks that his Adoptive Father gave him. Why was there a faint connection between them?

He could not figure it out and did not have the tto dwell on it either. As he probed into the sand dune, it seemed to stand up like a living creature, and the hundreds of millions of grains of sand were tumbling around in a way that made it look as if the sand dune was attempting to flee. It was a rather comical sight.

However, in the very next breath, Yang Xiao could no longer smile. Amid the strange movement of the sand dune, a huge surge of sand rose from the desert surface out of the blue, and soon, a large hand stuck out from the sand. It pressed down hard on the surface and a large silhouette appeared.

The silhouette was over 1,000 metres tall. It had the form of a Human and the face of a Human too, but the enormity of the body made the proportions look uncanny. It was as if a baboon had been enlarged by over a dozen times its size and had a Human’s head.

That was not all. More large hands stuck out from the sand, and soon, two more silhouettes joined the baboon-like figure with a Human head.

One of the figures looked like a normal Human while the other looked like it was from the Black Ink Clan!

Yang Xiao’s expression hardened slightly. Although he could not detect the strength of the three strange creatures and had no idea what these three even were, he had the innately heightened senses of a Dragon Clan which made it obvious to him that these three were not to be easily messed with.

They seemed to be guarding the sand dune that had devoured the Open Heaven Pill and would be attacking anyone who approached without any mercy.

Following the appearance of the three Chaos Spirits, the enormous sea of sand seemed to cto life as well. A whole host of formless Chaos Entities made up of Shattered Dao Essence began surging towards the Flowing TTemple.

“Little Aunt!” Yang Xiao called out.

Without saying anything, Yang Xue began unleashing the power of the Flowing TTemple as it charged towards the three Chaos Spirits.

To defeat an army, one should defeat the leader first!

Although the two of them did not know the difference between a Chaos Entity and a Chaos Spirit, they could tell that the three Chaos Spirits were the main obstacle in their attempt to seize the Open Heaven Pill. As long as they got rid of the three of them, everything else would not be an issue, including the sand dune that was several thousand metres tall…

The Flowing TTemple flashed forward and all the Chaos Entities in its path were knocked away. This was a Mobile Palace Artifact of comparable strength to Dawning Light while its defences were the best it could possibly be as Yang Xiao and Yang Xue had spent a hefty amount of their Military Merits on it.