After flying over a large stretch of the Snow Mountain Range, Yang Kai sat down quietly atop a small hill, the falling snow soon burying him.
Yang Kai was indifferent to this and instead focused on concealing his aura. Even if an ordinary Saint Realm master were to pa.s.s by, it was unlikely they would be able to notice him.
A short distance away from the mountain, a green streak of light was quickly approaching.
A moment later, the green streak of light came to a stop above the mountain top, revealing a black-cloaked figure; naturally, it was Wu Jie of Netherworld Sect.
In Wu Jie’s hand was a dispirited Liu Gui, the young disciple from War Spirit Temple seemingly having accepted his fate and making no attempt to resist.
“Where is he?” Wu Jie glanced around, asking coldly upon not finding any trace of Yang Kai nearby.
Liu Gui quickly said, “This is the location he gave me, is he not here?”
As he spoke these words, Liu Gui hurriedly searched his surroundings.
“What took you so long?” Suddenly, a voice called out from nearby, greatly surprising Liu Gui. Immediately after he identified the source of this voice though, Liu Gui wore a big smile and shouted, “Lord Holy Master!”
Wu Jie also starred in front of himself towards a nearby snowdrift, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng brilliantly.
Soon, a person emerged from the snowdrift and with a light pulse of True Qi melted the snow which had covered him.
Wu Jie grinned, casually tossing aside Liu Gui before cupping his fists, “Sir Holy Master, it’s been several years; I see you’re doing as well as ever!”
As he spoke, his glowing eyes swept over Yang Kai, wondering how much this young Holy Master had grown, and upon discovering Yang Kai had actually become a Third Order Transcendent, his heart couldn’t help clenching slightly in shock.
“Sect Master Wu as well,” Yang Kai gently nodded.
Wu Jie quickly said, “Heh heh, it took some time to escape those people’s detection, I hope Sir Holy Master won’t take it to heart.”
“Sect Master Wu appearing is all that matters,” Yang Kai replied lightly before finally glancing over at Liu Gui, “You’ve worked hard.”
Liu Gui quickly waved his hand, “It is my honour to work hard for Lord Holy Master; moreover, it is all thanks to Sect Master Wu’s strength that this lowly one could appear here… heh heh…”
As he spoke, Liu Gui wore a somewhat anxious expression, as if there was something he really wanted to say but didn’t dare to.
Understanding what all this was about, Yang Kai tossed him a jade bottle and said lightly, “This is your reward for this time. I may still have need of you in the future, go back and cultivate well.”
Liu Gui was overjoyed as he quickly caught the jade bottle, “Many thanks, Lord Holy Master!”
Last time, when Liu Gui brought Yun Xuan and Ruan Xin Yu of Bold Independent Union to see Yang Kai, he had obtained a bottle of pills as a reward. It was all thanks to that bottle of pills that Liu Gui’s strength had grown so rapidly recently. Today, Yang Kai had rewarded him with another bottle so naturally, Liu Gui was ecstatic.
Tightly holding the jade bottle, Liu Gui cautiously said, “If two Sirs have no further need of me, this lowly one will retire first. If I am gone for too long, those in my unit will become suspicious.”
“En, go!” Yang Kai waved his hand.
Liu Gui took off and never looked back.
As Yang Kai was speaking with Liu Gui, Wu Jie just stood nearby and listened, showing no intention of interjecting, a somewhat puzzled look appearing on his face as he did so.
Only after Liu Gui left did Wu Jie ask curiously, “How are you related to that War Spirit Temple disciple?”
Yang Kai smiled lightly and replied, “When you all attacked Nine Heavens Holy Land, I subdued him and made him remain in War Spirit Temple, I never expected to get so much use out of him though. En, I hold his life in my hands so I feel relieved letting him run around, there’s no need for you to concern yourself over him.”
Wu Jie grinned and nodded, “Sir Holy Master’s vision is quite profound. Even seeing through this, it seems that your Soul is also stronger than mine now.”
If that wasn’t the case, when Wu Jie arrived here, he would have been able to detect Yang Kai’s existence.
A Third Order Transcendent having a stronger Soul than a First Order Saint, how was that even possible?
Wu Jie felt deeply shocked, though he didn’t show much on his face.
Saying so, Wu Jie waved his hand and a moment later, a creepy black wisp flew back to him from the direction Liu Gui left and soon disappeared into Wu Jie’s body.
“Sect Master Wu, how come you’re here?” Yang Kai’s expression became serious as he got down to business.
Back in Grand Boulder City, when Yang Kai released his Divine Sense, he faintly felt Liu Gui’s presence and couldn’t help feeling surprised. Since Liu Gui was here, it meant that War Spirit Temple had deployed its forces here, which in turn made it likely Netherworld Sect and Shattering Mystical Palace had as well.
These three forces formed the core of the crusade against Nine Heavens Holy Land.
However, this group of people travelling all the way to the endless Snow Mountain Range was nothing short of odd, and although Yang Kai had some guesses about their purpose, he still had to find Wu Jie to confirm it.
“You couldn’t still be chasing me, right?” Yang Kai narrowed his eyes as he stared at Wu Jie with a grin.
Wu Jie sighed and said, “You could say that, but not at this moment. Simply put it, we’re here to find someone!”
“Who are you looking for?” Yang Kai continued to stare at Wu Jie, silently causing the latter to feel a faint sense of oppression.
Wrinkling his brow, Wu Jie explained, “This person should have some relations.h.i.+p with Sir Holy Master, and it seems that you also have some concerns regarding him, so Sir Holy Master has likely already guessed our purpose in coming here! It seems Sir Holy Master really does know the secrets of the Coffin Carrying Man ad even knows where he is hiding, yes?”
Yang Kai’s brow furrowed as he let out a sigh, it seems his enemies had really come here for the Coffin Carrying Man.
When he first met Wu Jie, Yang Kai recalled him seemingly casually mentioned that a cultivator from War Spirit Temple named Yao Di once witnessed him being abducted by the Coffin Carrying Man outside Raging Flame City. It was also because he seemed related to the Coffin Carrying Man that Shattering Mystical Palace and War Spirit Temple were so reluctant to give up chasing Yang Kai.
However, Yang Kai didn’t care what these two forces thought as he truly wasn’t afraid of them.
Unexpectedly thought, two years later these enemies of his had actually found their way to the endless Snow Mountain Range.
“Whether I know something or not isn’t of importance, just tell me, why did you all decide to come here?” Yang Kai frowned.
Wu Jie grinned and didn’t bother speaking any nonsense, directly explaining, “It was actually quite simple to trace Sir Holy Master here. Sir Holy Master caused both Zhang Ao of Shattering Mystical Palace and Cao Guan of War Spirit Temple to lose a ma.s.sive deal of face, so naturally, they spared no effort in investigating your background and origins. It wasn’t difficult to learn that Sir Holy Master originated from Soaring Heaven Sect… but what was surprising was that Sir Holy Master didn’t seem to have been born in Soaring Heaven Sect but instead came from some remote countryside and only joined Soaring Heaven Sect recently. Knowing this, it was easy to learn that Sir Holy Master served as an Honoured Guest in the nearby Bright Thunder Spirit Religion for a time. En, after questioning some disciples of Bright Thunder Spirit Religion, we learned that Sir Holy Master first appeared in the Snow Mountain Range, coupling that with the fact that Sir Holy Master’s last known appearance was when he was abducted by the Coffin Carrying Man, it was easy to draw some conclusions.”
“Seems your minds are quite sharp,” Yang Kai coldly snorted.
He had been taken away by the Coffin Carrying Man and then appeared in the Snow Mountain Range, just this fact alone was enough for some people to infer that the Coffin Carrying Man might be hiding somewhere in this endless Snow Mountain Range.
And they were right!
Wu Jie’s expression became solemn suddenly as he continued, “Zhang Ao and Cao Guan both hate you deeply and extremely covet the strength behind the Coffin Carrying Man, so naturally they went all out to uncover this information; moreover, it truly wasn’t much effort, simply asking a few people was enough to learn all of this.”
“However…” Wu Jie continued with a somewhat grim look upon his face, “Despite guessing the Coffin Carrying Man is hidden somewhere in this Snow Mountain Range, with how vast this region is, trying to find a single person with no other clues was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack the size of a mountain, so originally Zhang Ao and Cao Guan weren’t willing to come here.”
“Hm, then why are you here?” Yang Kai frowned.
Wu Jie paused before wearing a bitter smile, “I’ll be honest, Sir Holy Master, two years ago or so, the three of us pursued you for a few months, but after thoroughly losing your tail the three of us returned to our respective Sects in defeat. At the time, Zhang Ao And Cao Guan both sat on pins and needles, worrying about when Nine Heavens Holy Land’s restored its former strength and sought revenge, thinking they needed to find a strong backer that could compete with Nine Heavens Holy Land or uproot and move their Sects! But before they could implement either of those plans, a mysterious individual appeared before Zhang Ao asking about Sir Holy Master. It was because of that mysterious person that we entered the Snow Mountain Range.”
“A mysterious individual?” Yang Kai’s brow rose, “Mysterious how?”
Wu Jie look became dignified, “That person completely concealed themselves in a black robe so we were unable to even determine their gender, all we know is that he or she possesses an unfathomable cultivation and is always accompanied by a subordinate. But that subordinate is actually a First Order Saint!”
Yang Kai’s face also couldn’t help becoming serious hearing this.
If this mysterious fellow’s subordinate was already First Order Saint, how strong was he himself?
“This time’s exploration was under the command of that person, so my Netherworld Sect had no chance to reject.”
“Do you know anything about that mysterious individual’s background?”
Wu Jie slowly shook his head, “He only promised us that if we followed him, Nine Heavens Holy Land would no longer pose a threat to us, so Zhang Ao and Cao Guan both immediately agreed, not only inviting all their allies to join this expedition, but also spending a ma.s.sive amount of resources to rope in the nearby Ancient Moon Cave Heaven and Luo Sheng Sect.”
Yang Kai nodded. The Snow Mountain Range was so vast that it was only natural they sought out more manpower. Although there were no top-level masters in Ancient Moon Cave Heaven and Luo Sheng Sect, they didn’t lack people who could be used.
Ran Jing and Mao Da going to Grand Boulder City to find Du Wan in order to ask him to refine them Dispelling Poison Pills was obviously in preparation for facing the poisonous aura released by the Coffin Carrying Man.
“Although this Wu doesn’t know who that guy is… but in this world, there are very few who have achieved such profound cultivation, and… whether it was him or his subordinate, the auras surrounding their bodies is quite discomforting!”
“Oh, what kind of aura?”
Wu Jie lowered his voice and declared, “A demonic aura!”
Yang Kai’s expression changed greatly, “You mean that the person is from…”
Wu Jie slowly shook his head, “I can’t say for certain, but the aura around them certainly does feel like that. Sir Holy Master, I believe you should not involve yourself in this matter; it’s not something this Wu can help you with. To be honest, even I feel on edge every moment I stay here.”
“Don’t worry. I know what to do.” Yang Kai nodded lightly.