Chapter 343 – Refining The Essences
Watching Yang Kai strut around in front of them while casually collecting Evil Spirit Essences made Yu Qing smile as hard as he could, occasionally opening his mouth, but eventually not saying anything.
The old man’s face was also quite ugly, and he was also doing his best to resist his urge to spit blood.
After what seemed like a long time, Yang Kai glanced around at the remaining Evil Spirit Essences floating near the plateau and nodded as he smiled happily, “Keep it up, I’ll be back soon!”
Hearing these words almost made everyone die from rage.
Although his four newly acquired Purifying Spirit Bottles weren’t full yet, Yang Kai decided to first return to his group’s side before continuing his collection.
Landing amongst his comrades, Yang Kai offhandedly threw the four Purifying Spirit Bottles to the Hu Sisters, “Take however much you want.”
“En.” Both Hu Sisters smiled sweetly, like they were staring at their sweetheart.
Although all four of these Purifying Spirit Bottles were given to Hu Jiao Er and Hu Mei Er, none of the Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect disciples complained.
Both of their groups had already harvested two full bottles of Evil Spirit Essence.
The debt Yang Kai owed Ghost King Valley had been paid back ten times over with some extra as gifts.
As for Tao Yang and the other Treasure Instrument Sect disciples, their four Brothers and Sisters had only come here because their Master wanted to try using Evil Spirit Essence to refine an artifact.
Their original plan was to kill a few red Evil Spirits and then leave having completed their task, but now they had forty purple Evil Spirit Essences, a huge harvest. Thus, how could they have any complaints?
What’s more, they had all seen how Hu Mei Er did not hesitate to jump into the Evil Spirit Spring to find Yang Kai, so it was obvious that the relationship between these two sisters and Yang Kai wasn’t simple. At the very least, they weren’t recently acquainted strangers.
If so, it was no wonder that Yang Kai had been able to convince them to join their group so easily, even though they had a prior enmity.
Thinking till here, all of them glanced back and forth between Yang Kai and the Hu Sisters, and an ambiguous and snide look appeared on their faces.
“Sure enough, he’s really just a no good playboy!” Leng Shan secretly gnashed her teeth as a strange bitterness rose in her heart.
Originally, in that isolated world, this little bastard gained so many cheap advantages from both her and Zi Mo. Had it not been for an enemy showing up at the last moment, he and Zi Mo would have already…
At that time, if Zi Mo had really been eaten by him, Leng Shan was certain she wouldn’t have escaped his grasp either.
She had never thought that this trip to the Evil Cavern would reunite them, and that they would then run into a pair of country destroying beauties, twins at that, who also happened to be his sweethearts!
Just how many women did he have? For them to run into them in this random forsaken place, what kind of probability was that?
As these thoughts rampaged about her head, Leng Shan became more and more confused and secretly decided to do her absolute best to avoid entangling herself with Yang Kai in the future. Although she truly felt he was a good person, her intuition was constantly warning her not to get involved with him.
She felt, if she kept walking near him, she’d one day find herself lacking her purity without even knowing how it happened.
Even she had dreams of wanting to marry into a good family. Feeling a sense of kinship with the Hu Sisters, she wanted to say something to them and thus opened her mouth to speak.
But after a moment, no words came to mind, and instead she just flapped her lips before sighing and turning away.
Atop the pillar, Yang Kai sat cross-legged on the ground and withdrew the evil energy back into the Unyielding Golden Skeleton while allowing the True Yang Yuan Qi in his dantian to re-fill his meridians.
The Evil Qi that erupted out of the Evil Spirit Spring could be swallowed directly into the Unyielding Golden Skeleton, but the Evil Spirit Essences first had to be refined with his True Yang Yuan Qi before he could truly absorb them.
Carefully inspecting the essences stored in his dantian, Yang Kai found that there were exactly one hundred, and one of which was distinctly different from the others.
It was the essence left behind after the Soul Type Evil Spirit’s death.
After considering for a moment, Yang Kai decided to refine this unique essence last.
The best things should always be enjoyed at the end of one’s meal.
Extracting the other essences from his dantian into his meridians, Yang Kai began using his True Qi to refine them all while meditating over his own Martial Dao.
As he cultivated, Yang Kai felt his understanding of the world’s principles being shackled by some ethereal force, but he remained unconcerned. This was, after all, a normal occurrence when a cultivator attempted to make a breakthrough.
After breaking free of these shackles and surmounting this layer of resistance, a cultivator’s strength would increase once more, and if they failed to do so, their cultivation could only halt where it was. The higher one’s strength became, the more intense this resistance would be.
This was one of the reasons why the growth of a cultivator slowed as their realm rose.
Sometimes a cultivator would sink into a meditative state all year round precisely because the limitations of their aptitude prevented them from reaching a higher realm.
This bondage was especially noticeable when one reached Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary.
It was because of this, that in this world very few cultivators could make the breakthrough to the Above Immortal Ascension Boundary, so anyone who made the breakthrough to Above Immortal Ascension Boundary was considered an overlord! At the very least, they would be the head of a first-class force.
There was only one obvious exception, Ling Tai Xu, after all, High Heaven Pavilion was only a second-class Sect, although now it had been disbanded.
As Yang Kai meditated, he used his Soul and Spiritual Essence to constantly impact this layer of shackles.
Time passed by slowly.
After who knows how long, the restraints holding Yang Kai back suddenly ruptured, and his whole body immediately emitted rays of light, and like a caged beast that had suddenly broke free, his mind, body, and soul all experienced an indescribable sense of freedom.
It seemed like this world’s rules could no longer stop his ascent to the peak of martial arts.
An intangible aura, with Yang Kai as its center, exploded outwards and sent out waves of visible ripples above the pillar.
Those around him who were still laughing and smiling about their amazing good fortune were shocked by this unexpected movement and quickly turned to look towards Yang Kai.
When they realized that these vibrations had come about because Yang Kai was making a breakthrough, all of them are exposed strange expressions.
Daring to break through in this dangerous environment, Yang Kai really had guts!
True Element Boundary, Sixth Stage!
Even though he had successfully broken through, Yang Kai didn’t immediately get up. He still circulated his Secret Art as he continued to refine the remaining Evil Spirit Essences and absorb them into the Unyielding Golden Skeleton.
Since Yang Kai had just make a breakthrough, the Unyielding Skeleton no longer felt saturated, which resulted in a whirlpool like suction that quickly inhaled the purified Evil Spirit Essences.
Although he had only broken through a moment ago, but because of this devouring of pure energy, his realm was quickly consolidated.
However, within his dantian, there was still a single Evil Spirit Essence left.
It was the Special Essence he had obtained from killing the Soul Type Evil Spirit.
Yang Kai grinned and unconsciously became excited as he stared at this Special Essence, and he was anxious to see what kind of benefits it would bring him.
As he drew this essence into his meridians, Yang Kai instantly used his True Qi to smelt it.
Slowly removing the impurities, the essence became more and more sublime.
This lump of energy lived up to its name as a Special Evil Spirit Essence; Yang Kai actually spent a whole hour purifying it.
After finally refining this Special Essence, it began to circulate throughout Yang Kai’s meridians and brought a strange euphoric feeling with it wherever it went, which once again clearly distinguished it from other ordinary Evil Spirit Essences.
Then, suddenly, this mass of pure energy quickly flowed through his meridians straight to his head, and then disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The next moment, Yang Kai noticed that his Spiritual Energy had grown significantly.
This Evil Spirit Essence could actually increase his total amount of Spiritual Energy!
Not only that, but as he continued to observe the changes in his body he noticed he had also gained something more.
Yang Kai’s eyes shot open as lightning seemingly flashed across them and then sparkled as he stared off into the distance, like he was lost in thought, and then his mouth slowly curled in a strange grin.
As he slowly got up, Yang Kai turned his gaze towards the old man atop the other pillars.
“Brother Yang, are you okay?” Chen Yi hurriedly asked.
“En, I couldn’t be any better.” Yang Kai nodded firmly, while still staring towards the old man with a dangerous light that slowly crept into his gaze.
Seemingly detecting Yang Kai’s hostile gaze, the old man couldn’t help but turn around to meet eyes, and he wrinkled his brow after a moment.
He found that this strange youth had somehow undergone some kind of subtle change. Compared to just before, he now seemed to be more confident, more arrogant, and more domineering.
[Only having promoted a single Minor Realm and now wanting to hit back against this old master?] The old man sneered to himself and really wondered what gave this brat the confidence to act so presumptuously before him.
Yang Kai really was thinking about dealing with this old man.
This old dog, in order to snatch that Special Evil Spirit Essence, had struck to kill Yang Kai a moment ago. If it weren’t for Yang Kai’s physique being far more tenacious than an average True Element cultivator, and the True Qi within his body being exceptionally pure, which allowed him to condense a Yang Liquid Shield at that last moment, he really would have ended up dead.
Although he had already extracted a bit of interest right now, the original debt had still yet to be paid, and fully collecting on what he was owed had always been Yang Kai’s philosophy. Enduring such a slight was simply not in his nature.
But as his eyes flashed, Yang Kai gradually withdrew his hostility.
Right now, he still wasn’t completely confident he could kill this old man. After all, the other party’s realm was much higher than his own, so even with the new ability he had just acquired, he didn’t have a hundred percent grasp of success.
[Seems that I still have to use strategy.]
“Brother Yang.” Tao Yang interrupted his train of thoughts, and his expression was dignified as he looked at Yang Kai, “All of us just discussed a moment ago; we think staying here long-term isn’t a solution.”
“En.” Yang Kai thought so too. Before they couldn’t escape because all the nearby Evil Spirits had come flooding towards here, which forced them into a situation where they could only seek refuge atop these giant stone pillars, but now that all of the surrounding Evil Spirits had gathered here, no doubt it would be safer outside rather than continuing to wait here, “What do you want to do?”
“All of us want to leave here,” said Chen Yi, his brow quickly furrowing, “But once we leave this plateau, all of the surrounding Evil Spirits will likely attack us, making it very dangerous to move about.”
“Then what do you propose?” Yang Kai had undoubtedly become the core of this group, so it was natural for them to place their hopes upon him.
“Brother Yang, can you fly while still maintaining such a large defensive shield?” Chen Yi asked somewhat embarrassedly. Wanting Yang Kai to shelter all the Ghost King Valley and Treasure Instrument Sect disciples along with the Hu Sisters was a rather excessive request.
On top of that, they didn’t even know if Yang Kai had enough True Qi to accomplish such a feat right now.
“I’ve never tried something like that, but I should be able to manage it.” Yang Kai thought for a moment before replying, thinking that maintaining such a wide area shield would cost him a lot of True Qi, but he calculated that he should still have enough Yang Liquid in his dantian to accomplish it.
“If so, then we’d like to take a chance,” Chen Yi nodded.
*Dong dong…*
Just as their group was deliberating their escape plans, suddenly, from nearby, a series of deep powerful thumps, like the beating of a huge heart, rang out.
Everyone suddenly wore the same expression and turned their gaze towards the direction from where the sound originated.
After waiting for a moment, the pounding sound came again.
This time, everyone had clearly seen where the sound had come from The epicentre of the Evil Spirit Spring, the place where all of this turbulent Evil Qi had erupted from.
*Pu pu pu…*
The thick turbulent Evil Qi below them suddenly seemed like it was boiling. One giant bubble after another emerged from its surface, only to burst a moment later and release large amounts of Evil Qi into the air.
As these bubbles began bursting, the entire sea of Evil Qi actually surged and roiled more violently than ever before.