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Translator: Silavin & Jon
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
These Seventh-Order Masters who had entered the Universe Furnace World were new generation cultivators that had received the World Tree clone’s nourishment. As such, they were all talented elites who increased their cultivation rapidly.
Wonderful aptitude and quick increase in cultivation were not always a blessing though, as compared to the experienced cultivators who had gotten to where they were slowly and steadily, these younger cultivators lacked accumulation and experience; therefore, when they reached the peak of the Seventh Order, they often faced bottlenecks, which made it hard for them to break through to the Eighth-Order.
Given their aptitude, they would shatter the bottleneck sooner or later, but that could still take dozens to hundreds of years.
However, in the current situation, time was always short.
Fortunately, Ordinary Grade Open Heaven Pills could solve this problem by helping them break through their bottleneck, saving lots of time.
Many Seventh-Order Masters managed to ascend to the Eighth-Order in the Universe Furnace World this time, and presently, hundreds of them had gathered together, but they were just Seventh-Order Masters when they entered.
Everything made sense if they bumped into Black Ink Clansmen and were turned into Black Ink Disciples before ascending to the Eighth Order.
The two Black Ink Disciples that had betrayed them were undoubtedly such cases.
Time seemed to have frozen at that moment as all the Humans shifted their attention to the two Black Ink Disciples who were charging towards Xiang Shan, in horror. Presently, Xiang Shan was at the most critical moment of his breakthrough. If he was interrupted now, his breakthrough would undoubtedly fail, and there would also be a serious risk to his life.
All the Human Race Masters surrounded him and formed a defence line to fend off the Black Ink Clansmens’ attacks; as such, no one stood guard directly by his side. Even though he had set up a kind of Spirit Array, it couldn’t stop two Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples from killing him.
Undoubtedly, Xiang Shan was powerless to contend with these two Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples.
Just then, another turn of events took place somewhere else.
It had taken Mo Na Ye a long time to devise this plan, and it had all hinged on him being certain that Yang Kai would show up. His trump card was meant to kill Yang Kai and Xiang Shan at the same time; after all, if he only wanted to take out the latter, he wouldn’t have had to wait until now.
Mo Na Ye would have ordered the two Black Ink Disciples to make a move at any point earlier on. He had been patient because he could feel that Xiang Shan would still take a long time to make a breakthrough, so he wasn’t anxious.
In comparison, he was more interested in ending Yang Kai’s life. Over the years, Mo Na Ye had suffered a lot of setbacks because of Yang Kai and could never rest at ease as long as the latter wasn’t dead. It was a knot in his heart, one that had nothing to do with Yang Kai’s cultivation.
Mo Na Ye had been stalling for time because he was waiting for this exact moment.
He needed a suitable person to carry out his plan, and the chance had finally come!
Just as two Black Ink Disciples left their respective Battle Formations and charged towards Xiang Shan while the Human Race Masters watched in horror, the Eight Trigrams Formation, which was dealing with Mo Na Ye, trembled as everyone’s aura descended into chaos. Soon, the Eight Trigrams Formation broke.
Everyone in the Formation was shocked as they had no idea what happened. The moment the Battle Formation came apart, the immense backlash swept across them, causing their vitality to undulate and their Small Universes to fall into turmoil.
They already suffered from various degrees of injuries when contending with Mo Na Ye, and now the situation was exacerbated.
Compared to the Battle Formation’s backlash, a despairing incident took place right before their eyes. One of the members suddenly summoned a sword and thrust it towards Yang Kai’s back. World Force undulated around the weapon as the attacker appeared dispassionate. Without holding back any power, he seemed determined to slaughter Yang Kai.
To make things worse, Mo Na Ye made a move at the same time as the Battle Formation shattered.
The chance he had been waiting for had finally come, so he naturally wouldn’t just watch from the sidelines.
The Battle Formation’s backlash, the betrayal of a member, and Mo Na Ye’s attack happened all at once, engulfing everyone in a sense of great danger.
The members of the Eight Trigrams Formation were flustered, furious, shocked, and despondent. All sorts of emotions broke out from them.
Despite that, Yang Kai remained calm and collected as things were playing out just as he expected.
The moment he realised that there were Black Ink Disciples within their defence line, he knew that there must be a Black Ink Disciple by his side as well.
Mo Na Ye had been beating around the bush earlier, looking as though everything was within his control. It was apparent that he had made some arrangements to target Yang Kai; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so composed.
Yang Kai was the Core of the Eight Trigrams Formation while his Human Self Fang Tian Ci, Monster Self Thunder Shadow, Yang Xiao, Blood Crow, Lin Wu, Zhan Tian He, and another veteran Eighth-Order Master assisted him.
Of these seven people, apart from Lin Wu, who had ascended to the Eighth-Order in the Universe Furnace World, the others were already Eighth-Order Masters long before entering this place.
The others would not be so easily corrupted; as such, it had to be Lin Wu that was the Black Ink Disciple.
It turned out that Lin Wu was indeed the problem.
Yang Kai couldn’t help recalling the time he came across Lin Wu. At that time, he, Zhan Tian He, Xiong Ji, and Liu Fei Fei were wandering around the Universe Furnace World. When he detected the aura of an Open Heaven Realm Master attempting a breakthrough, he went over and checked on him. Upon realising the person was Lin Wu, he invited him to join the team without worrying too much.
Then, he bumped into Tian Xiu Zhu.
Following that, he decided to take a huge risk by bringing Thunder Shadow with him to snatch a Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill. As such, he told Tian Xiu Zhu to leave with everyone else.
Now, it seemed that before he came across Lin Wu, the latter had already been turned into a Black Ink Disciple who was allowed to move around on his own and ascend to the Eighth Order. Then, Lin Wu joined the Human Race and waited for a chance to act.
It wasn’t necessarily planned for Lin Wu to target Yang Kai, but Mo Na Ye had made good use of a pawn like him.
Initially, Lin Wu wasn’t a part of the Eight Trigrams Formation. He and Zhan Tian He joined at a later time.
Mo Na Ye had been waiting for Lin Wu to join the Eight Trigrams Formation. That way, when he finally gave the order, three Black Ink Disciples would flare up at the same time. Not only could they stop Xiang Shan from achieving a breakthrough, but they could also end Yang Kai’s life. Mo Na Ye planned to remove the two biggest threats at the same time.
Everything became clear now.
A while ago, Yang Kai was still wondering why Mo Na Ye didn’t break Yang Xiao’s Six Paths Formation earlier even though he was capable of doing so. At that time, if Mo Na Ye had been willing to pay a small price, he could’ve defeated Yang Xiao and the others quickly. After that, he could’ve personally attacked the Humans’ defence line and killed Xiang Shan.
However, he didn’t do that. Just like Mo Na Ye said, he had been waiting for him to show up.
When Yang Kai formed the Eight Trigrams Formation to deal with Mo Na Ye, the latter actually fought back hard without being bothered by his injuries. That way, he could force the two newly promoted Eighth-Order Masters in the Formation to withdraw, giving Lin Wu a chance to join them.
It was all part of Mo Na Ye’s plot.
When Lin Wu finally joined the Battle Formation, all the pawns were in the right places and Mo Na Ye was confident that Yang Kai wouldn’t survive. Both of them had been contending with each other for millennia. Since his archnemesis was about to die, he couldn’t help recalling the fights between them over the years. Perhaps he respected a Master like Yang Kai or felt so conceited that he started talking nonsense.
Presently, two Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples were dashing towards Xiang Shan while Lin Wu broke the Eight Trigrams Formation and pushed his sword towards Yang Kai’s back with a gaze filled with murderous intent.
The initially clamorous battlefield fell into dead silence at that moment as every Human Race Master appeared helpless and despondent.
The Black Ink Clansmen still relentlessly attacked the Humans while Mo Na Ye guffawed.
“You dare!” Ou Yang Lie growled as his figure seemed to be burning.
“Big Brother!” Yang Xue exclaimed at the top of her lungs. She wanted to shake off the Chaos Spirit King and save Yang Kai, but she was unable to do so.
The Chaos Spirit King was more powerful than her, so it was difficult for her to even pin him down.
In the midst of this crisis, Yang Kai only let out a sigh.
Before Lin Wu even made a move, Yang Kai had realised that he was in danger; therefore, he had put his guard up. If he hadn’t figured it out, he probably would’ve lost his life.
Since he was well-prepared though, he had a chance to escape.
Nevertheless, if he fled, the remaining six with him would fall into grave danger. They no longer had the Battle Formation’s help, and faced with the backlash and Mo Na Ye’s attack, half of them would undoubtedly die.
Therefore, despite knowing that he was at risk of losing his life, Yang Kai couldn’t escape. Suppressing the undulating vitality within him, he released his Spiritual Energy and brought everyone’s aura together again. In an instant, he made the proper adjustments and formed a new Seven Stars Formation with him as the Core.
At the same time, he flicked his fingers and sent a wooden box flying away.
In the next instant, he summoned the Azure Dragon Spear as the Space-Time River swirled around the weapon like a Dragon. He then thrust the weapon towards Mo Na Ye.
As the violent force exploded, everyone shuddered while Yang Kai sprayed out a mouthful of Golden Blood. Fortunately, he managed to ward off Mo Na Ye’s fatal strike.
Nonetheless, a sword penetrated his chest the next moment. The power around the sword exploded, causing Yang Kai to stagger before he swept his spear across Lin Wu and sent him flying away.
After the sword left his body, blood started gushing out from the wound on his chest. His face turned pale in an instant, and his aura weakened.
Meanwhile, the two Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples reached Xiang Shan. Just as they were ready to make a move, they met Xiang Shan’s furious gaze.
Despite being at the most critical moment of his breakthrough, Xiang Shan extricated himself and got to his feet as he summoned a sabre. As World Force surged, he covered the two Black Ink Disciples with sabre lights.
He had given up on achieving a breakthrough!
It couldn’t be helped. If he tried to persist, he would only be killed as the Spirit Array he had set up wasn’t able to fend off two Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples.
Compared to losing his life, giving up on the breakthrough was the only choice.
The two Black Ink Disciples had only achieved a breakthrough in the Universe Furnace World, so how were they supposed to be a match for Xiang Shan even though there were the two of them? They were soon suppressed.
Nevertheless, considering that they were Humans, Xiang Shan didn’t move to kill them.
During the intense battle, Xiang Shan’s aura, which was initially reaching a peak, plunged. It was a sign that his ascension had failed. Fortunately, despite what happened, it didn’t affect his strength much.
In just several breaths of time, the Eight Trigrams Formation fell apart, Yang Kai was wounded, and Xiang Shan had given up on his breakthrough, sinking the Humans into a perilous situation once again.
Comes the fusion between three yoes.
And the backup mega pill to help Xiang Shan break through anyhow. All that said – MoMo’s arguments why it’s so hard for Shan-kun to break through to 9th level seem to be something of an ass pull.
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.