Martial Peak

Chapter 5797: Who Said I Failed?

Since Yang Kai had not passed down this cultivation technique for so many years, it meant that it was not suitable for others.

He had a Divine Spirit Self, as well as the Soul Warming Lotus, so it could be said that the Three Selves Source Reconstitution Art was simply tailor-made for him and no one else could imitate his success.

All the Eighth-Order Masters in the vicinity, who were listening to this conversation, had a disappointed expression appear on their faces.

The Three Selves Source Reconstitution Art was an astonishing technique, but it was unsuitable for the general public to cultivate and thus couldn’t be disseminated. As such, it didn’t have much value.

A silent and heavy air descended on everything, as Fang Tian Ci didn’t know how to comfort them.

In fact, there was one more thing he didn’t mention, and that was that there was an even bigger issue with this technique.

In order to cultivate this technique, one needed to cultivate two Soul Clones, and these two Soul Clones were different from ordinary Soul Clones. Whether it was the Divine Spirit Self, Monster Self, or the Human Self, although they were inextricably connected to the true body, they could basically be considered independent entities with their own unique characters and thoughts.

It was also because of this reason that after the union of three Selves, the consciousnesses of the two Soul Clones were not actually lost, which led to the coexistence of these Soul Clones with the true body.

During the battle, Yang Kai’s consciousness had suddenly fallen into a comatose state as his Dao Strengths had become unstable, allowing his Monster Self and Human Self to emerge.

Although Yang Kai was now a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, his body contained three different consciousnesses, which was a big hidden danger. Perhaps one day, during a great battle, his original consciousness would fall into a coma again, transferring the possession of the body to Thunder Shadow or Fang Tian Ci; however, neither of them could bring out Yang Kai’s true strength.

This was a grave concern. Now that Yang Kai was a Ninth-Order Master, his future opponents would definitely be Masters like Royal Lords or Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods.

In a fight with such a powerful opponent, the slightest mistake could lead to eternal damnation.

Fang Tian Ci couldn’t help but be a little worried about it, but he had no idea how to resolve this issue. In his and Thunder Shadow’s original plan, when the three Selves united, his and Thunder Shadow’s consciousness would also fuse back into the main body. At that time, Fang Tian Ci and Thunder Shadow would no longer exist in this world; however, things didn’t go as they had envisioned.

Yang Kai’s consciousness suddenly fell into deep slumber, and Thunder Shadow’s consciousness woke up. After he was left in-charge of the original’s body, even Thunder Shadow took some time to adapt.

After a moment of silence, Fang Tian Ci changed the subject, “What are our casualties this time?”

Ou Yang Lie heaved a sigh as he replied, “Everyone is injured and needs to rest, and over 100 fell in battle!”

The fallen ones he was talking about were not Sixth-Order or Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, but Eighth-Order Masters; more than 100 Eighth-Order Masters had died in this battle alone!

The number of Eighth-Order Masters gathered here in the last battle was only a few hundred in total, and about 20% of them had died. Such losses were not insignificant.

The fall of so many Eighth-Order Masters was mainly because of two reasons; first, because the Human Race had lost the protection of their Warships, and second, because Mo Na Ye had ordered the Black Ink Clan to kill at all costs.

The Human Race hadn’t suffered many casualties during the early stages of the battle. At that time, Xiang Shan was refining the Open Heaven Pill’s medicinal efficacies and trying to break through to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm. Mo Na Ye had hidden his trump card and was waiting for Yang Kai to appear, so naturally he wouldn’t force the Human Race too hard.

Furthermore, the Human Race’s Warships were still displaying their full power at that time.

After Yang Kai advanced to the Ninth Order, both sides began to suffer massive casualties.

Although the Human Race had Yang Xue’s assistance, she was still just one person. The best she could do was defend one side of the defense line; she was unable to deal with the combined attacks of the Black Ink Clan Army.

After the last battle of the Barren Territory War, there had never been a fight in which the Human Race had lost so many Masters in thousands of years.

“We might have suffered significant losses, but the results of the battle were also great. The Black Ink Clan definitely lost more,” Ou Yang Lie encouraged, after seeing everyone become low-spirited.

While the Human Race had lost over 100 Eighth-Order Masters, the Black Ink Clan had lost at least 500 Territory Lords and a few Pseudo-Royal Lords.

Most of these casualties were wrought during the final pursuit, when the Territory Lords fled like stray dogs. Basically, not a single Black Ink Clansman who was caught survived.

As such, this was still a huge victory!

Not to mention, the Human Race now had three more Ninth-Order Open Heaven Masters! Including Xiao Xiao, Wu Qing, Luo Ting He, and Wei Jun Yang, the Human Race already had as many as seven Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters!

This was definitely an inspiring force.

Although Mo Na Ye had become a Royal Lord and had escaped, he was just one man.

The Human Race had also produced many newly advanced Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and harvested many Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills. If these Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills were to be distributed, the Human Race would gain even more new Eighth-Order Masters.

It could be said that the Human Race had a great harvest with the appearance of the Universe Furnace.

“Unfortunately, we were too careless and caused Big Head Xiang to fail his breakthrough!” Ou Yang Lie glanced at Xiang Shan and indignantly sighed.

Had he been on guard and quickly caught the hidden Black Ink Disciples, Xiang Shan would probably be a Ninth-Order Master right now, but during that kind of battle, who would have expected for a Black Ink Disciple to be hiding amongst the Eighth-Order Masters.

When the three Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples started rampaging at two battlefronts, not only did they cause Xiang Shan to fail in his breakthrough, but they also broke Yang Kai’s Eight Trigrams Battle Formation, severely injuring him in the process.

Everyone was befuddled and had really fallen into despair. Fortunately, they managed to turn things around and turn defeat into victory.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about,” Xiang Shan, on the other hand, looked completely calm, “In that situation, not realizing the Black Ink Disciples’ existence was a good thing. If we had caught Black Ink Disciple earlier, the consequences would have been unimaginable!”

The Black Ink Clan actually had the absolute upper hand before Yang Kai’s appearance, but Mo Na Ye had been holding back and hadn’t displayed his true strength as he wanted to engage in a long-drawn battle with the Six Paths Formation led by Yang Xiao.

Judging by the strength Mo Na Ye displayed later on, he was completely capable of quickly defeating Yang Xiao, even with the Six Paths Formation at a cost, but he didn’t, because he was waiting.

If they really disrupted Mo Na Ye’s plans, they would have only forced him to act in advance. At that time, Yang Xue was fully occupied with the Chaos Spirit King, so there was only one Ninth-Order Master on the Human Race side, Ou Yang Lie, who was preoccupied with Xiao You and the Territory Lords led by him. So, who could stop Mo Na Ye?

Breaking Mo Na Ye’s arrangements would only force him to go on a killing spree, which would definitely have ended tragically.

Hearing Xiang Shan’s words, Ou Yang Lie pondered for a moment before agreeing with him, “You’re right.”

This was the perfect example of the popular adage ‘Man proposes but Heaven disposes’.

Mo Na Ye thought he had everything under control, but unforeseen events kept throwing his plans off. For instance, had the Chaos Spirit King not suddenly appeared, eyeing Xiang Shan’s Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill, Mo Na Ye’s plan would have failed from the start.

The appearance of the Chaos Spirit King was equivalent to the Black Ink Clan finding a helper for free. This was also the main reason why the Human Race was in such a difficult situation.

“Not to mention…” Xiang Shan suddenly smiled, “Who said I failed my breakthrough?”

Everyone was taken aback for a moment and Ou Yang Lie couldn’t help but size up Xiang Shan a few times, his Divine Sense constantly scanning him as he muttered curiously, “You’re not a Ninth-Order Master!”

It was an irrefutable fact that Xiang Shan was still an Eighth-Order Master and had yet to break through; moreover, everyone had witnessed him failing in his breakthrough. At that time, when the two Black Ink Disciples were rampaging, Xiang Shan had no choice but to stop his advancement. It was already pretty good that he did not suffer any backlash, so how could he possibly break through?

After that incident, everyone believed that Xiang Shan’s path to reaching the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm was cut off, and he would remain at the peak of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm for the rest of his life.

“I didn’t say I was a Ninth-Order Master!” Xiang Shan shot a glance at him.

A thoughtful look appeared on Yang Xue’s face, “Senior Brother Xiang’s situation is different from other veteran Eighth-Order Masters. In that case… does that mean the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill was useful to you?”

Xiang Shan nodded slightly in affirmation, “Over 90% of my Small Universe’s boundary wall has been destroyed, leaving only a thin barrier behind. I think I can now break through with my own strength!”

From the beginning, Xiang Shan was qualified to reach the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm as he broke through directly to the Seventh-Order millennia ago. However, because of a harrowing battle on the Black Ink Battlefield in the past, during which his Small Universe was corrupted by Black Ink Strength, he had no choice but to sacrifice a large portion of it to protect himself, which caused his Order to regress.

Although he managed to recover his fallen Order by repairing his Small Universe using a Profound Yin Spirit Fruit, his Small Universe’s boundary wall seemed to have become much thicker because of that experience.

These circumstances basically made it extremely difficult for him to break through with his own strength.

While Luo Ting He and Wei Jun Yang had broken through to the Ninth Order during the last 1,000 years in secluded cultivation, Xiang Shan had not made any progress.

The boundary wall was so solid that even Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills couldn’t put a dent in it. It wasn’t until he had refined a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill that he felt a difference.

Mo Na Ye had allowed him to refine the pill until the very last moment before ordering the Black Ink Disciples to launch a sneak attack, clearly thinking that was enough to completely destroy Xiang Shan’s path forward. But what Mo Na Ye never expected was that Xiang Shan would still be left with a ray of hope precisely because of this delay.

Currently, the boundary wall in Xiang Shan’s Small Universe was no longer as thick and solid as it used to be; rather, it was even thinner than an average peak Eighth-Order Master. Such a boundary wall could not stop him.

Although he had not tried yet, Xiang Shan was completely confident!

Xiang Shan could actually break through to the Ninth Order! Everyone was overjoyed by this news.

Yang Kai was a symbol of the Human Race among the trillions of Humans, but so was Xiang Shan. Yang Kai had already advanced to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm, but there were some problems with his cultivation because of the mysterious technique he used. If Xiang Shan could also break through to the Ninth-Order, it would greatly boost the morale of the Human Race’s soldiers.

Although Ou Yang Lie had always had a kind of rivalry with Big Head Xiang, at this moment, he was genuinely happy and broke into a hearty laughter, “So you’re saying that the effects of the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill haven’t been wasted? Mo Na Ye’s plan was also in vain?”

Previously, in order to lure the Chaos Spirit King away, Yang Kai had thrown out a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill, which was enough to make one’s heart ache. That was a chance to grain another Ninth-Order Master.

If Xiang Shan couldn’t break through, it would be tantamount to losing another Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill. The Human Race had only managed to obtain a total of four such pills this time, that’s all. Losing half of them one after another would be hard for anyone to accept.

But by the looks of it, the only pill they had lost was the one Yang Kai had thrown away, while the one Xiang Shan had refined still played its role.

Everyone was overjoyed.

“There’s no time to lose, quickly break through to the Ninth Order,” Ou Yang Lie urged.

Xiang Shan agreed with a nod, “That’s what I was planning to do.”