Martial Peak

The Shadow Technique’s backlash struck without any notice, and was impossible to guard against. At first, Yang Kai’s relatives could still remember him, but gradually, all their memories of him began to fade away, and eventually disappeared.

One after another, gaps began to appear in everyone’s memories.

For a period of time, everyone had even forgotten why they had gathered here until they remembered that they were waiting for a very important person. As for who that person was, none of them had any impression of him.

The biography that Xia Ning Chang brought back with her had a great effect. The things recorded in the biography and the remaining memories in their minds perfectly complemented each other. This helped them know that a person named Yang Kai had appeared in their lives, and that person held quite a huge place in their hearts.

Not far from their location was a Void Corridor leading straight to Chaotic Dead Territory.

At this moment, a figure walked out from the Void Corridor. It was none other than Zhang Ruo Xi.

Ruo Xi’s cultivation was currently at the peak of the Ninth Order, though the wings on her back had disappeared due to separating from the power of Yin and Yang.

Her Heaven’s Order Bloodline had been almost completely burned out in the final battle, so she was no longer able to maintain the delicate balance between the two opposing powers. So, she had no choice but to return to Chaotic Dead Territory and strip away the power of Yin and Yang.

Although the loss of her Heaven’s Order Bloodline was a significant detriment to her, it didn’t have much of an impact on her personal strength. It was just that it would be difficult for her to regain the phenomenal power she had displayed that time in the future.

Walking out of the Void Corridor, and identifying her bearing, Ruo Xi quickly arrived at Su Yan and the others’ location.

Noticing her appearance, everyone looked at her.

“It’s starting,” Ruo Xi stated softly.

Everyone nodded as a solemn look took over their faces.

On the platform in front of the palace, everyone sat down cross-legged and calmly started reciting Yang Kai’s name.

At first, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Over the past 8,000 years, everyone had done similar things countless times just to remind themselves not to forget that name.

However, as time went by, a different feeling slowly began to rise in their hearts. Everyone felt suffocated, as if there was a mountain pressing down on them, one that was becoming heavier and heavier. As this suffocating feeling grew stronger and stronger, the forgotten emotions also began to awaken, and along with them, a painful longing gripped their hearts. No one knew who they were missing, and none of them had a clear picture of them in their heart, but they had this feeling that someone who had left a deep mark in their lives had been forgotten, and that person’s name was…

…

“Yang Kai!”

In a vivid and colourful mysterious void filled with chaos and distortions, a tall and stalwart man with a sword in his hands let out an angry roar before swinging it down.

This sword strike almost cut the Space-Time River in two, revealing Yang Kai’s flickering figure behind it. By the time the water rolled back after the strike, Yang Kai had already arrived before the sword-wielding man. He then raised his hand and pointed a finger towards the opponent, sending a wave of water towards the stalwart figure.

The stalwart man’s expression instantly changed. Having fought Yang Kai for thousands of years, he naturally understood the might of this seemingly unremarkable wave. This wave contained the might of 10,000 Grand Daos, so even he didn’t dare to let himself get swallowed by it.

The stalwart man raised his sword and slashed out, shattering the incoming wave and splashing droplets of water flying in all directions. At the same time, the stalwart man quickly withdrew as if he was avoiding snakes and scorpions.

Yang Kai didn’t chase after him and simply stood in place.

Yang Kai sighed in his heart. When he had used the Shadow Secret Technique to defeat Mo and was corroded by the Space-Time Dao Strength, he basically thought that he would fall into a deep slumber or something similar, but how could he have known he would appear in this mysterious place in the blink of an eye.

After arriving here, Yang Kai began exploring and to his astonishment, he discovered he was not alone here! There were actually many other Masters!

These Masters were no weaker than him, with some even being stronger.

This revelation left him in total shock, because in the entire world, whether it was his cultivation or his comprehension of his Grand Daos, no one could hold a candle to him. Even Mo, who had 30% of his Source sealed, had been killed by him, so who in this Universe could be his opponent?

But here, there were many Masters here who could exchange blows evenly with Yang Kai.

What left him even more speechless was that the people here were all extremely belligerent. It did not matter whether there were any grievances between them or not, once two parties met, a fight broke out at least 90% of the time. Battles seemed to become the prime motivation for the survival of the living beings here.

In the beginning, Yang Kai had suffered quite a bit.

But his situation gradually improved over time as his injuries healed and his comprehension of the 10,000 Grand Daos deepened.

He also made a friend.

That man’s name was Chong Jiu, and he was also very powerful. When Yang Kai was being hunted down after first arriving, the man acted out of righteousness and helped him out.

Through his conversation with Chong Jiu, Yang Kai finally understood that this was a place of exile for all Masters who had touched upon the taboo.

In other words, everyone who was here had touched upon the secrets of the Heavens at one time or another. Yang Kai had summoned shadows from the future, which was a taboo. Although he didn’t know what Chong Jiu had done, he was certain he had done something similar.

As such, this place was simply dubbed the Taboo Realm.

What’s more, anyone who entered this place would be quickly forgotten by the outside world.

All memories related to those who entered this place would be erased in short order.

In the 3,000 Worlds, there were definitely very few living beings who could compare to Yang Kai. Yang Kai then recalled the Universe Furnace and its process of creating new Universe Worlds, and immediately understood that the Masters here all came from different Worlds or even Universes, ones far beyond the boundaries of the 3,000 Worlds.

Each and every one of them had reached the pinnacle of their strength in their own realm and had even touched upon that which should not be touched.

Yang Kai had once asked Chong Jiu how to escape this place, and the latter hid nothing. He knew more things than Yang Kai as he had arrived a bit earlier than him.

According to him, it wasn’t impossible to escape from this place; in fact, there were two methods to escape from here. However, whether these two methods really worked or not was still open to debate, because there had never been a precedent of anyone leaving this place.

The first method was to continue fighting and kill the Masters from other Worlds. Perhaps if they killed enough of them, they might be able to leave.

No one knew who proposed this idea, but it sounded a bit unreliable because there was no basis for it.

The second method was much more plausible, and it was to have the people of your Universe still remember you and wish for your return.

“A person will die twice in their lifetime. The first time is when their life ends, and the second time is when the last person who remembers forgets them. As far as we are concerned, we may still be alive here, but the world we used to live in no longer remembers us, so we are dead to that world. If we want to rise from the dead, enough people must remember you for you to break through the restrictions here.”

These were the exact words of Chong Jiu, and Yang Kai remembered them very clearly. At that time, Chong Jiu had been drinking the spirit wine he had taken out from his Small Universe while saying these words.

Although this second method was much more reliable than the first, it was still impractical, because once someone entered this place, his or her respective Universe would be affected by the restrictions, wiping every single memory related to him or her in a very short time.

Once the memories were wiped out, everything was lost. Even if there were some written records left behind, they would just become dust in history over time.

Saying so, Chong Jiu patted Yang Kai’s shoulder, “Little Brother, just stay here. Although there’s no way out of here, it’s still quite lively.”

It was indeed quite lively. Supreme Masters of many Worlds were gathered here, fighting non-stop every day. This kind of thing would be rarely seen in the outside world, but here it was a common occurrence.

At that time, Yang Kai just responded to Chong Jiu in one sentence, “I will be able to get out. My world will never forget me!”

Chong Jiu looked at him like he was looking at an idiot and threw a sentence, “I’ll be waiting for that day!”

Calculating the time, that day should be arriving soon.

While Yang Kai was lost in a daze, the tall and stalwart man had returned at some point, and sent a fearsome sword wave at him, forcing him to dodge.

From nearby, Chong Jiu’s playful laughter rang out, “Yang Kai, don’t die! If you die, I won’t be able to watch the good show!”

He had already arrived a few days ago as promised, wanting to see if Yang Kai could really leave this place. Although he felt that Yang Kai didn’t have much hope, since he made a deal, he naturally had to abide by it.

Unexpectedly, someone came to seek revenge on Yang Kai at this point.

Although it was called ‘seeking revenge’, the truth was that there was no great enmity between them. The sword-wielding man had fought with Yang Kai at least 100 times over the past few thousand years, and neither of them had been able to do anything to the other. But this time, he actually brought a companion, wanting to overwhelm Yang Kai with numbers.

But unbeknownst to them, Chong Jiu happened to be together with Yang Kai. A battle had broken out immediately afterwards. Yang Kai was up against the sword-wielding stalwart man while Chong Jiu dealt with his companion.

At this moment, a towering tree had emerged behind Chong Jiu. It was gently swaying, glittering and shining as if it was cast from gold. One after another, its leaves whizzed through the void, cutting space apart. Its every move carried endless power. Chong Jiu’s opponent was forced to retreat every time he tried to press forward.

After fighting for a while, the Master couldn’t help size up Chong Jiu before asking, “The Dao Tree lineage!?”

Chong Jiu raised his brow, “You’ve seen it?”

The Master continued, “The Dao Tree lineage is famous throughout the Heavens, and I had the honour of experiencing it first-hand once before.”

Saying so, he put away his weapon, “I won’t fight anymore.”

Chong Jiu smiled slightly, “I was thinking the same.”

Battles were common occurrences in the Taboo Realm, but there were many cases where a simple smile and greeting could wipe away all enmity; after all, everyone’s strength was about the same, so unless there was some kind of irreconcilable grudge between them, no one was willing to really fight to the death.

For example, someone like the sword-wielding stalwart man who repeatedly sought trouble with Yang Kai was actually quite rare. He kept attacking Yang Kai mainly because Yang Kai had only been here for a short time, and the sword-wielding man believed that he was an easy target.

Owing to repeated battles, Yang Kai’s strength had grown significantly over the past 8,000 years.

This wasn’t surprising though as Yang Kai did not get the time to consolidate his foundation and perfect it after swallowing and refining Mu’s Space-Time River before he was forced to fight Mo to the death.

It wasn’t until he had entered this place and fought battle after battle that Yang Kai finally digested the benefits he had obtained from Mu’s final gift.

Furthermore, his Small Universe’s foundation was constantly increasing. If he was allowed to go 8,000 years back in time to deal with Mo, he would definitely not end up as miserable as before.