Chapter 1205, Solidified Space
Translator: Silavin & PewPewLaserGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain
One day, Yang Kai came to a canyon and stopped, stared at the scene in front of him, and frowned.
This canyon was only about eight or nine metres across but both of its sides were as high as mountains. It was as if someone had used an incredible Divine Ability to split a mountain in half.
Yang Kai hesitated for a long time while standing in place before deciding to make his way through this canyon.
Although the canyon felt a bit ominous, if he wanted to make a detour, Yang Kai would have to waste at least a few days of time. Since he didn’t want to spend the time to go around it, he could only proceed through it. Of course, he was confident in his ability to deal with any dangers that appeared. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have entered such a place to begin with.
In the Flowing Flame Sand Field, where flying was impossible, this kind of terrain was ideal for setting up an ambush. As long as one could block one of the two entrances to the canyon, even if the other party had great skill, they would still find themselves at a huge disadvantage.
However, the cultivators who entered the Flowing Flame Sand Field had all come here to seek out benefits, so although murder and plunder happened often, who would do something as passive as set up a trap in such a location?
Yang Kai estimated that no one other than himself had come this way, so he boldly entered the valley.
This canyon was very long. Looking towards the opposite side, Yang Kai could tell it was at least a dozen kilometres in length. It was truly a strange landscape in the Flowing Flame Sand Field.
For the first few kilometres, nothing seemed amiss, but after walking for a while, a number of bright flares flew out from an underground crack. These flares gave off astonishing energy fluctuations and all leapt towards Yang Kai the moment they appeared, transforming into Fire Spirit Beasts of various shapes as they bared their vicious fangs.
Yang Kai’s expression remained indifferent as he condensed a Demonic Flame sword in his hand. His purple shield also gave off a purple halo of light and floated behind his back, blocking the Fire Spirit Beasts who were leaping at him from that direction. Not paying any attention to his rear, Yang Kai confidently rushed towards the Fire Spirit Beasts in front of him and chopped down with his sword.
Yang Kai had anticipated this situation, which was why he had been hesitating about whether to enter this canyon before.
He did not expect anyone to be lying in ambush here, but the existence of Fire Spirit Beasts was basically guaranteed. Yang Kai couldn’t get out of this canyon without killing all of these Fire Spirit Beasts.
Numerous thuds and clangs echoed from the purple shield behind Yang Kai as it blocked the movement and attacks of the Fire Shield Beasts. At the same time, the Demonic Flame sword in Yang Kai’s hand pierced through the eye of a lion-like Fire Spirit Beast. Erupting violently, Demonic Flame poured into this Fire Spirit Beast’s body, immediately dying its red hue pitch black. This black colour rapidly spread throughout the entire beast’s body, seemingly consuming the red colour, a strange sight to behold.
Yang Kai could instantly kill a Seventh-Order Fire Spirit Beast with a single all-out attack, but seeing how there were many Fire Spirit Beasts here, he didn’t want to go all out with every strike. Instead, he used the properties of his Demonic Flame to burn these phantom creatures little by little.
Yang Kai drew his Demonic Flame sword from the lion’s head and then completely disregarded whether it lived or died, chopping towards another Fire Spirit Beast nearby without so much as a pause.
The Demonic Flame immediately contaminated this new Fire Spirit Beast, spreading out not only to the rest of its body, but to other nearby Fire Spirit Beasts as well.
The terrain here limited which abilities Yang Kai could use, but it also was not advantageous for the Fire Spirit Beasts. Because it was only eight or nine metres across, this canyon limited the number of Fire Spirit Beast which could attack Yang Kai at once to at most five or six while all the others were blocked by their own companions.
The strange strength which was simultaneously hot and cold was not something that these Seventh-Order or even Eighth-Order Fire Spirit Beasts could resist. Fire Spirit Beasts that were blocking Yang Kai’s path forward vanished while wailing mournfully, leaving behind Fire Crystal Stones of various sizes.
While Yang Kai killed these Fire Spirit Beasts, he still had the spare capacity to retrieve these valuable Fire Crystal Stones, making a lot of profit in one fell swoop.
There were many Fire Spirit Beasts in this canyon, hundreds at least, but that did not prevent them from falling one by one.
These Fire Spirit Beasts were also not like the ones back in the strange mountain valley. Each one of them had a Fire Crystal Stone in its body, so the effort Yang Kai invested wasn’t without returns.
As time passed, the Fire Spirit Beasts, which were so numerous they could not be seen through, gradually decreased, allowing Yang Kai to push forward almost an entire kilometre.
Another Fire Spirit Beast fell under his sword, and Yang Kai took another step forward, waving his arm to block the attack of another Fire Spirit Beast while reaching out to pick up the freshly produced Fire Crystal Stone.
Yang Kai had repeated this action countless times and was naturally quite familiar with it by now.
But how could he have expected that the instant he stepped forward, he actually encountered something astonishing? An inexplicable pressure suddenly struck him from all directions, causing Yang Kai to feel like the space around his body had solidified.
This caused the hand he was reaching towards the Fire Crystal Stone to become stuck mid-air, unable to advance another millimetre more. Even the Demonic Flame sword that he had swung became frozen in space.
Yang Kai paled and as he stared in shock, the Fire Spirit Beast that was approaching bit towards his neck. A great bestial roar rang out as a flaming aura and thick fire poison burst from its mouth.
Pain radiated from Yang Kai’s neck as fangs sank into his flesh and the fire poison penetrated into his body caused him to feel as if his neck was on fire, blurring his consciousness in an instant.
Just as he was struggling to compose himself, another Fire Spirit Beast in front of him attacked, opening its mouth wide and shooting out a fireball-like energy attack that smashed towards Yang Kai at great speed.
Yang Kai’s face went pale. Although he didn’t know what it was he had encountered, it was too late to retreat at this time, so he hurriedly pushed his Saint Qi to force his body out of this solidified space, causing Demonic Flame to erupt from his body, turning him into a flame man.
*Hong Hong Hong…*
A series of rumblings rang and after a burst of black flame, the Fire Spirit Beasts who were close to Yang Kai’s body let out pitiful howls and were blown away, burning to ashes as they flew out.
After the flames disappeared, Yang Kai’s incomparably distressed figure appeared. At this moment, his face was extremely ugly, his clothes were torn and ragged, his neck, face, arms, and torso were covered in scars and bite marks made by Fire Spirit Beasts. Among those scars, little wisps of black flame remained along with drops of fire poison.
Having been forced out by Yang Kai Saint Qi, all of this fire poison was quickly ejected from his injuries and the powerful restorative power of his Golden Blood soon began closing his wounds.
Yang Kai stared into the space in front of his eyes, his expression becoming more and more solemn by the moment.
Just taking a step into this space had nearly cost him his life. If he hadn’t broken free so quickly, Yang Kai estimated that he would definitely have been seriously injured at least.
However, after retreating one step, everything was restored to normal.
He didn’t have time to think about why the space in front of him was so strange though as he had to focus on coping with the Fire Spirit Beasts that were still surrounding and attacking him.
With this matter now occupying his mind, Yang Kai’s offensive became far more ruthless. A day later, the Fire Spirit Beasts which had once filled the canyon had been swept away cleanly by him, allowing Yang Kai to harvest four or five hundred Fire Crystal Stones in total.
Such a number was astonishing and was likely a greater number than the vast majority of major forces who had stayed in the first layer to hunt Fire Spirit Beasts had collected.
After all, there weren’t that many Fire Spirit Beasts in the first layer Flame Area, and they weren’t very high order to begin with, so the value of their Fire Crystal Stones was not great.
Standing in place to rest for a while, Yang Kai released his Divine Sense to examine his surroundings, and after confirming there were no potential dangers, he took a step forward again.
The same experience as the previous day appeared again. After taking this step forward, Yang Kai couldn’t help snorting as his posture sank. It was as if a great mountain was pressing down on him, one which he was unable to shoulder.
Not only that though, the space around him was incredibly viscous, to the point where it was essentially solid, completely different to the space he was just standing in. Yang Kai cultivated the Dao of Space, but while he was confronting the Fire Spirit Beast swarm, he hadn’t had time to investigate this phenomenon carefully, but now that he did, he immediately understood that there was something odd about space itself here.
Yang Kai didn’t know what had happened here but he could now tell that in this canyon, the space in front of him, for several dozen metres, had undergone some kind of strange transformation.
Before this point, it was as if he had been swimming through water, but after entering this strange region, it was like Yang Kai was now trying to swim through ice.
The space here was solidified to the point where it could fetter anyone in place, making them unable to move. If Yang Kai had not been proficient in the Dao of Space, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to figure this out.
This was not some kind of barrier or Spirit Array, but rather a direct manifestation of Space Force.
Yang Kai found it difficult to even breathe here as the air itself had been solidified. It took a lot of effort just to draw air into his lungs.
However, why had the Fire Spirit Beasts not been suppressed by this strange solidified space and instead could move about it freely?
Yang Kai didn’t understand.
The crushing pressure was extremely hard to withstand and Yang Kai’s forehead was already dripping with sweat, his strong physique actually convulsing under the strain. Even though Yang Kai was using all of his strength, he was still unable to take another step forward.
The sweat that left Yang Kai’s forehead didn’t drop to the ground but instead was crushed into oblivion by this strange solidified space.
Yang Kai pushed his Saint Qi harder and harder but was shocked to discover that no matter how he tried, the Demonic Flames which should have erupted from his body was completely suppressed in his meridians, unable to leave his skin in the slightest.
Just relying on his Saint Qi, it would be impossible to walk here.
Yang Kai’s eyes flashed suddenly and withdrew his Saint Qi, replacing it with his Space Force.
The huge pressure squeezing his body instantly lightened, and although Yang Kai wasn’t able to restore his complete mobility, slowly moving his body wasn’t a problem now.
Sure enough, specific problems needed specific solutions. Since this phenomenon was related to Space Force, only Space Force could deal with it.
Moreover, after pushing his Space Force, Yang Kai suddenly discovered that this strange space produced a kind of profound resonance with him. A marvellous feeling of enlightenment flooded him, causing Yang Kai’s comprehension of the Dao of Space to rapidly advance.
This made him overjoyed.