High Heaven Pavilion, although only a second-class force, had several thousand disciples at its height. However, after the last disaster, only a hundred or so disciples had chosen to live and die together with the Sect.
Although there were not many people back at High Heaven Pavilion’s territory, their degree of loyalty to the Sect was obviously not as high as the members here.
These brave few, after High Heaven Pavilion’s name was restored, would become the foundation of its rebirth. Therefore, absolutely no harm can come to them!
The news that a battle would soon take place disturbed all of High Heaven Pavilion disciples, but none of them showed any fear on their faces. On the contrary, many, like Su Mu, showed some eagerness to fight.
All of them had been in hiding for more than a year now, and many had grown restless. Now that they had Yang Kai as their shelter, they naturally felt emboldened. Nevertheless, this was also due in part to ignorance, not knowing just what kind of enemy they were about to face.
Noticing all of this, Yang Kai’s brows furrowed heavily. Yang Zhao sending people to intercept him here was completely out of his expectations.
Since the other party dared to do this, they must be certain of their ability to win; at the very least, they were confident of stalling Ying Jiu! This meant that, among the people sent here to ambush him, there would be at least one Peak Immortal Ascension Boundary master. However, since his Second Brother had deployed so much manpower, Qiu Yi Meng would certainly have noticed! Perhaps there were reinforcements from his forces rushing over right this moment.
Considering all this, Yang Kai’s tension slowly faded.
On top of all this, it wasn’t like the current situation was hopeless! His enemy had almost certainly miscalculated Ying Jiu’s true strength. Since he had already broken through to the Immortal Ascension Boundary Ninth Stage, his combat power was now much stronger than before.
They also weren’t clear about his true strength, and Su Yan’s presence was another huge variable.
If Yang Zhao had made arrangements based purely on their previous battles, then this time he still had a chance to come out on top! But soon, Yang Kai realized he had underestimated Yang Zhao’s wariness towards him.
Yang Kai quickly noticed a large number of silhouettes flying towards his group; sweeping this approaching force with his Divine Sense, his face couldn’t help cramping slightly.
The opposite party was comprised of at least seven forces! Among them, Yang Kai recognized four: Qiu Family, Kang Family, Xiang Family, and Nan Family, two of the Central Capital’s Eight Great Forces and two first-class forces, all of them turning out in full strength with absolute determination to win.
When they noticed so many people approaching, everyone from High Heaven Pavilion couldn’t help feeling some shock, none of them had expected their opponent to have made such a big move.
The few Martial Uncles were even more stunned, instantly understanding just what kind of importance Yang Kai had in his enemy’s eyes. In order to capture him, they hadn’t hesitated to send so many people, and so many masters.
Above the vast wilderness, two groups of people rapidly approached each other, coming to stop only a hundred meters apart.
Two pairs of hatred filled eyes swept over from the enemy force towards Yang Kai, obviously belonging to Xiang Chu and Nan Sheng, the two of them smiling deviously.
Qiu Zi Ruo wore a complex look when he saw Yang Kai staring back at them without any trace of fear, not knowing what he was thinking, while Kang Zhan’s expression was simply indifferent.
On the contrary, many of the others in this group were staring towards Su Yan who stood next to Yang Kai. Such an outstandingly beautiful young woman, with her cold noble temperament, had naturally caught many people’s attention. Looking at her, whether they were a man or woman, old or young, they couldn’t help feeling not help but feel a sense of defeat, even the two Young Lords from the Eight Great Families weren’t exempted.
It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen great beauties before. With their identity and status, no matter how many women they wanted, they could obtain. But, facing Su Yan, who seemed like an immortal ice fairy descended from the Heavens, even they felt unworthy of approaching her.
On the contrary, with Yang Kai standing beside her, they seemed to form a perfect pair, almost as if they were made for one another.
When this idea crossed their minds, Qiu Zi Ruo and Kang Zhan’s expression couldn’t help darkening; neither of them believed they were much worse than Yang Kai.
Lightly coughing, Kang Zhan cupped his fists and called out, “Ninth Young Lord, it’s been too long!”
“Brother Kang!” Yang Kai slightly curled his lips as he calmly asked, “Is my Second Brother not here with as well?”
“Second Young Lord is quite busy right now and unfortunately couldn’t be here, so he requested Brother Qiu and myself to entertain Ninth Young Lord, I hope Brother Kai won’t take offence!”
Yang Kai sneered back at him and stepped forward, proudly declaring, “My Second Brother didn’t bother coming to see me personally and instead sent you two as errand boys, right?”
Kang Zhan’s expression sank at these words as he coldly replied, “Ninth Young Lord, between all of us there’s a certain friendship, why make such demeaning comments?”
“There’s a friendship between me and you…?” Yang Kai rubbed chin and chuckled, “How come I can’t remember that?”
Regarding Kang Zhan and Qiu Zi Ruo, Yang Kai had basically never interacted with them, only sharing a drink briefly with the former when he had first returned to the Central Capital and was shouted out to by Yang Zhao. As for Qiu Zi Ruo, he had never even spoken to him.
Kang Zhan took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, calming his anger before saying, “Since Ninth Young Lord has such thoughts, this Kang won’t say any more nonsense. We really don’t have any friendship; our only connection is as enemies! In the coming battle, if we offend you in any way, Ninth Young Lord can only blame his own bad luck!”
“To you as well!”
Kang Zhan continued. “Before leaving, Second Young Lord told me that if Ninth Young Lord is willing to surrender, not to embarrass you, lest you feel he isn’t taking your brotherhood into account! So this Kang still has to ask, is Ninth Young Lord willing to accept Second Young Lord’s kindness?”
Yang Kai simply grinned and shook his head, “For a question you know the answer to, why bother asking?”
“Good!” Kang Zhan nodded heavily.
“Why bother with all this crap? While the masters from my Nan Family and the Xiang Family contain Ying Jiu, everyone else just needs to rush over and seize him.” Nan Sheng blurted out, obviously quite impatient to defeat Yang Kai and resolve the hate in his heart.
Kang Zhan’s brow wrinkled and didn’t say anything. He knew that Nan Sheng had a lot of grievances against Yang Kai; moreover this was also what he was planning to do anyways.
Yang Kai seemed to have a large number of people with him, but every few of them had reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary. The members of High Heaven Pavilion were nothing in Kang Zhan’s eyes.
Just as he was about to give the order, Yang Kai’s voice called out again, “Brother Kang, how about we make a deal?”
“What kind of deal?” Kang Zhan frowned.
“For this battle, only me and Ying Jiu will fight! If you can beat us, then you will be able to complete the task my Second Brother gave you!”
Listening to him, Kang Zhan and Qiu Zi Ruo couldn’t help looking at him strangely.
Neither of them had thought that Yang Kai would try to stop the hundred or so people behind him from participating in this fight.
Although the strength of these hundred cultivators wasn’t enough for Kang Zhan to worry about, if they all fought, they would still cause some losses to the forces he had brought.
So when he heard Yang Kai’s proposal, Kang Zhan subconsciously thought that he was plotting something and was hesitant to agree.
As for those on Yang Kai’s side, the several Martial Uncles from High Heaven Pavilion all objected, saying they wanted to contribute in any way thought could and that even if they knew they might die, they couldn’t just stand by and do nothing, their attitudes extremely resolute.
“You can’t have any losses,” Yang Kai shook his head and refused their kindness, his expression becoming dignified, “I am a Yang Family Young Lord. They won’t dare kill me. Even if I can’t defeat them, at worst they’ll just capture me, but if there are casualties amongst you, how will I be able to face Grand Master?”
“Our Martial Uncles shouldn’t fight, but I must!” Su Yan looked at Yang Kai and declared her gaze firm and unyielding.
Yang Kai looked at her and thought for a moment before nodding. Su Yan’s strength, like his own, couldn’t be inferred from her cultivation, and she may be able to bring about some unexpected effects if she was to work together with him.
Seeing him nod, Su Yan smiled happily and stepped forward…
“Brother Kang, sorry, I’ve changed my mind, there will be three of us participating in this fight from my side, myself, Ying Jiu, and my Senior Sister Su Yan!” Yang Kai said casually, “Defeat us, and I’ll voluntarily withdraw from the Inheritance War!”
Kang Zhan was trying to guess what Yang Kai was up to. He simply couldn’t understand, from the way he spoke and acted, it was as if this really was what he wanted to do and wasn’t some kind of clever ploy.
“It seems like those people are very important to Yang Kai. Even in this situation he’s actually trying to protect them.” Nan Sheng snorted, his aura becoming somewhat dangerous as he stared at the people from High Heaven Pavilion like a ruthless snake.
Xiang Chu nearby also sneered.
Kang Zhan’s frown deepened as he finally decided to just ask, “Ninth Young Lord, can you tell me why?”
“It’s simple really.” Yang Kai slowly shook his head, “These people are my Martial Uncles and fellow brothers and sisters from my Sect! If any of them were to be hurt, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to control myself. If that were to happen and Brother Kang or Brother Qiu weren’t able to return to War City… it would be difficult to explain to the Kang Family and Qiu Family.”
“They’re from High Heaven Pavilion?” Kang Zhan and Qiu Zi Ruo’s expression changed greatly. Suddenly understanding where these hundred people originated from, a hint of dread even appearing in their eyes.
High Heaven Pavilion, it couldn’t be treated like an ordinary second-class Sect; after all, that was the Demon Lord’s Sect!
“This proposal has no downside for you, what is there to think about?” Yang Kai urged.
“Young Lord Kang, don’t agree!” Nan Sheng licked his lips and gazed over at the other side, “These wicked person, all of them deserve to die. We can’t say that amongst these people, another Demon Lord will descend. Killing them all is the best precaution!”
“I think so too!” Xiang Chu nodded in agreement.
Kang Zhan glanced over at them and snorted. He knew that righteousness had nothing to do with their motives; they just wanted to vent their anger against Yang Kai by killing these people now that they knew they were important to him.
Qiu Zi Ruo on the other hand shook his head and said, “Brother Kang, I think there’s nothing wrong with agreeing to his proposal. At this moment, we have an absolute advantage, so selling him a favor shouldn’t matter. I also don’t think Second Young Lord wants us to simply act ruthlessly.”
In Qiu Zi Ruo’s view, right now, capturing Yang Kai was as simple as flipping his palm, there was no doubt about the outcome.
In which case, there was no need to further antagonize him.
Killing these hundred people from High Heaven Pavilion wouldn’t help them win the Inheritance War and would only forge a grudge between them and Yang Kai.
Qiu Zi Ruo wasn’t willing to really become enemies with Yang Kai, a man who always seemed somewhat ruthless and unrestrained.
Hearing this, Kang Zhan nodded lightly, “What Brother Qiu says makes sense.”
Nan Sheng and Xiang Chu looked at each other and couldn’t help feeling aggrieved. This was simply the perfect opportunity to take revenge on Yang Kai, but in this situation they had no right to make any decisions, naturally they felt somewhat depressed.
“Ninth Young Lord, I accept your proposal!” Kang Zhan loudly declared, “For this battle, we will not involve the members of your Sect, provided they don’t interfere in any way, or else they will suffer the consequences of their own actions!”
“Of course!” Yang Kai gently breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Actually, this is also for your own good.”