Martial Peak

Chapter 2560, The Blood Gate Incident

Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

Zhang Ruo Xi kept her silence for a long while before she summoned up her courage and started circulating her Secret Art again.

This time, Zhang Ruo Xi could clearly feel it. She wasn’t just absorbing the World Energy by cultivating here, she was also absorbing the Wild Force, yet strangely enough, both of those energies were beneficial to her, especially the latter. She almost couldn’t get enough of it and couldn’t stop absorbing it, nor did she want to.

[What’s happening? What’s wrong with my body? This is Wild Force… Right?]

Zhang Ruo Xi suddenly got a little afraid and didn’t dare to continue cultivating, stopping the circulation of her Secret Art and just sitting there in silence with a confused look on her face.

She couldn’t find any explanation for this other than her bloodline. [Sir had said once that I had a strange bloodline power with many unknown abilities.]

She was pretty bewildered by this, as she wasn’t cultivating the Secret Art taught by the Zhang family, but rather the one comprehended and invented by her. She had grasped it on her first cultivation attempt, as if it was engraved in the depths of her mind.

As she sat there in a daze, nothing unusual occurred, with the surroundings as quiet and peaceful as ever.

Zhang Ruo Xi mulled this over for a moment then took out the Space Spirit Jade from her Space Ring. Yang Kai had handed over the Space Spirit Jade to her before entering this land and he asked her to study it more deeply, insinuating that it likely contained the way to unseal her bloodline power.

At this moment, after Zhang Ruo Xi had taken out the Space Spirit Jade, her body shivered and she raised her head to look in a certain direction.

She got that strange feeling once again!

She faintly felt that the Space Spirit Jade in her hand was resonating with something far off in the distance, and whatever it was, it was summoning her. Zhang Ruo Xi’s blood felt as if it was set afire, circulating faster and faster.

She had gotten a similar feeling in the past and could affirm that it wasn’t just a product of her imagination.

But, it was still a fleeting feeling, and it had quickly disappeared before she could observe it more carefully.

As all kinds of spectacular scenery flashed past the Space Spirit Jade, Zhang Ruo Xi held it in her hand and started studying it for a long while, yet couldn’t find any clues. She couldn’t understand the function nor the meaning of those scenes.

…..

In a thick and dense forest in the depths of the Ancient Lands.

It was the true depths of the Ancient Wild Lands, a region never before tread upon by mankind, with only a myriad of Monster Beasts and Monster Race living and reproducing here since the dawn of its existence.

This was like a whole new world, completely different from the Star Boundary’s Four Territories.

On a towering mountain, a luminous oval object was shining brightly with blood-red radiance. This object was wholly blood-red, as if it was formed from fresh blood, but it emitted a sweet and enchanting fragrance.

The Blood Gate!

All Monster Race Masters living in the Ancient Wild Lands knew of the existence of the Blood Gate, but none had managed to enter it, nor did they know what kind of secrets were hidden within it.

However, some rumours about the gate had spread across the Ancient Lands. It was said that the Blood Gate hid behind it the secrets for allowing beings of the Ancient Lands to evolve into Divine Spirits.

The inhabitants of the Ancient Lands had all inherited a varying degree of one or another Ancient Divine Spirit’s bloodline. Even the lineage of the most ordinary-looking snake could be traced back to the Dragon Clan of ancient times.

Once the dormant primordial bloodline of the Ancient Lands’ beings was stimulated and awakened, then they would possess power rivalling their ancestors, the Divine Spirits, but since ancient times, the number of the Ancient Lands’ inhabitants that had successfully unearthed their bloodline power and transformed into Divine Spirits could be counted on one’s fingers and toes.

Yet, it was rumoured among the myriad races of the Ancient Lands that the Blood Gate possessed a mystical power, which would completely unearth the bloodline power of those Monster Race Masters. If they could fully stimulate their bloodlines, then they would get a great chance to relive their ancestors’ glory as Divine Spirits.

The Blood Gate’s location had turned into a sacred land for all races of the Ancient Wild Lands because of these rumours. Many living beings confident in their strength or luck would rush over one after the other to cross the Blood Gate in hopes of stimulating their bloodline, yet none of them had succeeded up to this day.

None could even approach the Blood Gate. Most who entered within a perimetre of ten kilometres around the Blood Gate would suffer a miserable death and turn into a pool of blood and flesh.

There was once a powerful Monster King at the peak of the Twelfth-Order who arrived near the end of his lifespan and decided to make one last struggle. He didn’t have much lifespan left, and if he couldn’t come up with a way to prolong his life, he would shortly die of old age, so he took the gamble.

The Blood Gate was his last hope!

A Monster King at the peak of the Twelfth-Order was tantamount to a Human Race’s Third-Order Emperor Realm Master. Only a few people in the whole of Star Boundary could reach this realm.

The Monster King used all his strength and techniques without restraint, yet he couldn’t get closer than three kilometres from the Blood Gate. In the end, he persevered for three days and nights there only to perish, melting down into a pool of blood.

Since then, no one in the Ancient Lands dared to approach the Blood Gate. Even a Monster King at the peak of the Twelfth-Order couldn’t enter the Blood Gate and awaken their bloodlines, so what hope did others have?

The Blood Gate had become the Ancient Lands’ forbidden area and no being dared to approach it again, out of fear of the death awaiting them there.

This was a custom that stood since ancient times, but fortunately, the creatures of the Ancient Lands were all endowed with a long lifespan. Moreover, a lot of Monster Kings ruling over large territories had witnessed the miserable death of the Monster King at the peak of the Twelfth-Order with their own eyes. Afterwards, they had all admonished their subordinates to stay away from the Blood Gate.

At this moment, the Blood Gate atop the towering mountain that didn’t go through any changes for innumerable years suddenly let out a blazing scarlet light. The scarlet light formed a large column that broke through the clouds, leaving a large hole in them.

But, this light column quickly disappeared, leaving only specks of red light behind that gradually disappeared into the air.

A hundred kilometres from the Blood Gate, a pitch-black python strangled its prey with its large body then opened its gaping mouth and devoured it.

At that moment, it had been facing the Blood Gate’s direction and it had clearly seen the red column of light that flashed past there.

The black python widened its eyes and stared intensely in the Blood Gate’s direction with clear fright.

The python’s fears were well-grounded, as the legends of the Blood Gate were all fairly intimidating. It had been standing there for innumerable years without going through any changes, yet it suddenly let out such a light. So, who wouldn’t tremble in fear in the face of this?

But, this abrupt incident had ended quickly and didn’t affect it, so the python quickly calmed down.

The python waited for a long while, not daring to make a rash move, and only after ascertaining that the Blood Gate had no other peculiarities did it twist its body, making its bones let out a crackling noise. The five-metre-long body of the large python started going through drastic changes.

But, those changes didn’t take more than an instant. The black python instantly turned into a dark-skinned middle-aged man with a treacherous gaze clad in a black robe.

The man’s mouth was still wide open, exposing its numerous large fangs, and it was still chewing on its prey, a pretty scary sight!

Along with a gulping noise, the black python that had turned into a middle-aged man swallowed down his prey, blowing it up, as if he was a woman pregnant for ten months. But, as he patted his large belly, it quickly shrank down to its usual size.

“This is a major incident, I must hurry up and report it to Sir!”

After the middle-aged man muttered to himself with his hesitation apparent on his face, his Monster Qi started surging and he turned into a ray of light that flew off in a certain direction.

The energy fluctuations emitted by the man reached the Eleventh-Order, which was more or less equivalent to a Dao Source Realm Cultivator.

After two hours, the black ray stopped outside of a gate in front of a large mountain.

The two Monsters standing guard there became alert as one of them took out a bone hammer while the other raised the two bone spears in his hands; glaring intensely at the black ray of light.

“Who goes there?” The Monster with the bone hammer let out a shout, placing his weapon in front of him as he continued, “This is the palace of Monster King Xi Lei. If you don’t identify yourself immediately, we will mercilessly slay you.”

“Indeed!” The Monster with bone spears also shouted imposingly.

The black ray stopped near the gate and showed itself. It was none other than the black python that had turned into a middle-aged man.

“I’m one of you, I’m one of you. Brothers, I’m also one of Xi Lei’s subordinates and I have something important to report to him. Please notify him!” The middle-aged man cupped his fists and spoke.

The two Monsters at the gate exchanged a glance then started sizing up the man doubtfully. One couldn’t blame those two guards for nor recognizing him as a lot of Monsters lived in this area and Monster King Xi Lei had more than a hundred thousand subordinates scattered in an area of several hundred thousand kilometres. They couldn’t recognize anyone other than the ones seen regularly.

Moreover, not just anyone could obtain an audience with Monster King Xi Lei whenever he wanted.

The Monster with bone spears in his hands let out a sneer, “You’re claiming that you’re one of us, aren’t you? Do you have any proof?”

It looked like the middle-aged man had already expected this and he quickly took out an object from his Space Ring and handed it over to the guards respectfully.

The Monster Race obviously couldn’t craft Space Rings, but a lot of Humans had come here to seek death, so these Monsters had obviously gotten their hands on a number of Space Rings left by the Humans over the years.

The middle-aged man had also once killed a Human cultivator, obtaining his Space Ring for himself. He usually put all of his possessions in it and he found it pretty convenient.

The Humans were pretty good at using their brains and could make a lot of good things such as artifacts and Spirit Pills. It was really a pity that none in the Monster Race could craft such exquisite things.

The Monster with the bone hammer accepted the object handed to him and he discovered that it was a token made out of bone with a design of a galloping rhinoceros depicted on it, as well as a large ‘Lei (雷)’ character on it.

This was the token crafted by Monster King Xi Lei. It was pretty crudely made, but not just anyone could imitate it because they were all made from the bones of the same Monster Beast.

The two Monsters standing guard at the gate had seen a lot of tokens and they could recognize with a glance that it was a genuine one.

Only a few Monster Race Masters could obtain this token. Among more than a hundred thousand Monsters, only around two thousand had one, and it was a sort of status symbol.

So, upon seeing the middle-aged man take out the bone token, the expressions of the two Monsters standing guard at the gate turned for the better. The one holding a bone hammer spoke, “Even though you’re one of his subordinates, we still can’t let you in. Sir has asked to not bother him for any little and trifling matter. If you have something to tell him, then just tell us and we’ll pass your message to him.”

The middle-aged man said anxiously, “This is not something trivial or insignificant; I must speak to Sir in person!”

This might be a great contribution to Sir Xi Lei, so how could the middle-aged man employ any other middle-man to act on his behalf?