A moment later, the Spirit Array at the bottom of the lake lit up again, causing the now blood red water to take on an eerie glow.
Having experienced this twice now, everyone knew that the third batch of artifacts was about to appear. Facing this upcoming battle, the spectating crowd all also wore expectant expressions, jostling about for good positions to watch the show from.
Having received his orders, Yang Kai’s group, although staring at the bottom of the lake with some enthusiasm, didn’t make any motions.
Yang Kang and the others on the other hand gripped their fists and prepared to set out.
*Xiu xiu xiu…*
In a burst of light, a new batch of artifacts appeared.
“Go, kill anyone who dares block your path!” Yang Kang loudly shouted, the people around him quickly flying forward.
At the same time, Yang Shen and Yang Ying also issued the same order, their expression ruthless as though they were facing off against their most hated enemies.
However, when these three parties rushed out, everyone was surprised to find that there were two groups who didn’t move.
One of them was Yang Kai’s, the other was Yang Wei’s!
The eldest and youngest brothers seemed as if they were satisfied with their gains just now and had no plan to continue fighting.
“What are they doing? Why aren’t either of them acting?” The onlookers whispered amongst themselves. This six party melee was too interesting, but with two less participants, it just didn’t seem as lively.
“They can’t be scared, right? How could such cowards even think of fighting in the Inheritance War?”
“Come on, what are you doing you stupid pigs? Fight and die!”
“Fuck! Such a good opportunity, how can they not grasp it? If only I belonged to a stronger Sect and was allowed to join one of these Young Lords, I could have grabbed these artifacts here today!”
….
Ignoring these boos and shouts from the crowd, Yang Kai glanced over at Yang Wei and saw a rare smile on his face, as if he was saying he had also seen through this situation.
“Come back!” The next moment, Yang Zhao’s brow furrowed as he called out to his allies.
The cultivators who were excited and ready to show their skills were already halfway to the lake’s centre and were preparing to snatch some artifacts, so when they heard Yang Zhao’s sudden recall order, how could they not be confused?
Some acted quickly and immediately returned to Yang Zhao’s side while some were reluctant to give up this chance, greed flashing across their eyes as they reaching out towards the nearest artifacts in front of them.
In the next instant, a terrible reaction occurred. The moment these cultivators grasped the floating artifacts, from the centre of Po Jing Lake a great distortion suddenly formed and a burst of energy shot forth.
*Boom…!*
Flames ignited, lightning flashed, ice crackled, Sword Qi sliced through the air and waves of blinding light erupted all around. In the sky above Po Jing Lake’s centre, a myriad of deadly attacks spread outwards, indiscriminately striking the group of cultivators at point blank range.
Everyone was stunned.
The spectators who had just been shouting and cursing out Yang Kai and Yang Wei for not participating fell silent.
The group of cultivators who had gone forward to snatch these artifacts had only been on guard against their opposing forces, so when they suddenly came under attack from an unexpected source, they had been caught completely off guard, many of them calling out in shock and surprise.
Most of these people were True Element Boundary cultivators, and none of them had anticipated such a situation.
In truth, this array of attacks was quite messy, and each strike wasn’t very strong, but what made the people cough and vomit blood was the sheer number of them.
Pile enough sand and you can build a tower, collect enough drops of water and you can form a river. Under this massive barrage, how could these True Element Boundary cultivators endure?
In the blink of an eye, the cultivators gathered in the central most position were swept away, broken limbs and hunks of flesh scattered about as fresh blood sprinkled down like rain.
A void nearly twenty meters in diameter had suddenly appeared, almost like everything in that range had been swallowed up by an invisible black hole.
Slightly further away, the cultivators who survived this onslaught rushed to escape, no longer dare to remain, glancing back occasionally at the miserable scene behind them, their faces filled with horror, silently thanking the Heavens for blessing them with good luck.
The entire scene fell quiet and only the sounds of body parts dropping into the lake disturbed the silence.
“Really sinister!” Yang Kai muttered under his cold breath.
These sudden bursts of energy didn’t come from the various cultivators involved, but from the hundred artifacts themselves.
This third batch of artifacts obviously had the True Qi of strong masters sealed within them and were set to unleash an attack when a cultivator tried to seize one; this had completely caught everyone off guard.
This whole setup was a trap! The Yang Family had intended this to happen when they lured everyone here to snatch these artifacts!
The first two waves were meant to reduce the various cultivators’ vigilance, while the third batch hid a killing blow…
“If our people had also rushed over just now…” Su Xiao Yu’s face paled slightly. It wasn’t like she hadn’t witnessed death before. When she went for life experience in that Isolated World’s she had personally killed people, not to mention the scene a little while ago where fifty cultivators had died in battle trying to snatch artifacts.
But seeing several dozen people suddenly cut to pieces in a terrible explosion was still considered a horror scene to her.
“Young Lord Kai, I deeply admire you from the bottom of my soul!” Huo Xing Chen’s shouted as his cheeks twitched slightly. When Yang Kai had ordered them not to participate in this round of artifact snatching, Huo Xing Chen felt he was being too paranoid, but now, it was obvious to him that Yang Kai wasn’t acting cautious, but was already aware.
If they had rushed forward without thinking like last time, they would certainly have suffered a lot!
Realizing this, how could Huo Xing Chen not admire him? Not only the Huo Family’s Young Lord, all of Yang Kai’s allies stared towards him with respectful and awe filled looks.
“Eldest Young Lord, how did you know…” Across the lake, Meng Shan Yi’s expression also changed greatly as he whispered to Yang Wei.
However, Yang Wei simply shook his head, “I didn’t, but so long as Ninth Brother doesn’t move, we won’t either, everyone just needs to follow his lead.”
“You mean, when you saw Yang Kai just now…”
“En.” Yang Wei nodded, “Thankfully Ninth Brother acted cautiously. If it wasn’t for him…”
Meng Shan Yi took a deep breath and no longer dared underestimate Yang Kai. Turning to look at the other Yang Family Young Lords, Yang Zhao’s expression was a mix of fear and relief. Just now, he had fortunately issued a command to fall back in time, so he only lost three cultivators to this trap. As for Yang Kang and the others, their faces were incomparably pale and ugly.
Yang Kang, Yang Shen, and Yang Ying had suffered heavy losses this time. When the third batch of artifacts emerged, each of them had ordered their allies forward as quickly as possible, so the central dead zone was almost completely occupied by their people.
Each of them had lost more than a dozen people, and many others had suffered varying degrees of injuries, including many low-level Immortal Ascension masters.
What’s more, they now appeared even more incompetent compared with Yang Kai and Yang Wei! This made them feel a little angry.
The floating artifacts in the sky seemed to have expended all their stored power in that one burst so at this moment they appeared somewhat dull. When the surrounding cultivators had all retreated back to the lake’s shore, these artifacts also slowly fell back towards the lake.
However, after suffering such a big loss, no one dared to approach these artifacts right away.
“You can grab them now!” Yang Kai squinted and said a faint voice.
“What are you waiting for?” Huo Xing Chen immediately roared.
From Yang Kai’s camp, almost everyone shot forward, leaving behind the various young leaders and a few Immortal Ascension masters.
At the same time, Yang Wei also issued an order, seemingly determined to act as Yang Kai did.
The cultivators from the other camps around Po Jing Lake didn’t miss the movements of these two groups, but given their recent experience, and in the absence of an order to do so, none of them dared act rashly.
Yang Kang and the others struggled for a while but eventually didn’t send their allies out again.
Before these artifacts could fall into the lake, the cultivators from the two groups had all rushed up and wantonly began harvesting them, not suffering any sudden or unexpected attacks.
Unexpectedly, the two sides reaped many gains and returned triumphantly to their own camps without the slightest harm.
Watching this scene play out, Yang Kang and the others’ guts wrenched with remorse. Yang Zhao’s expression was also quite ugly. If he hadn’t hesitated just now, he too would have been able to eat a piece of this pie.
“Young Lord Kai! We obtained fifty four artifacts!” Huo Xing Chen counted the number and excitedly reported, “What’s more, they’re all Earth Grade Top-Rank!”
Yang Kai nodded lightly, his eyes glancing over at Yang Wei before saying, “Eldest Brother’s men over there, don’t clash with them in the future!”
“Understood!” The crowd nodded.
Yang Kai noticed that just now when they had been snatching artifacts, several of his people had attacked Yang Wei’s allies, but those people had only defended themselves and not fought back, it seems they had received some kind of instructions from Yang Wei.
It was for this reason that his people had managed to snatch a few more pieces than his brother’s.
This seemed to be his Eldest Brother’s way of silently forming an alliance with him, otherwise he wouldn’t have given such an order.
“Young Lord Kai, what do we do next? Do we still sit back and watch?” The Huo Family Young Lord asked with a smile.
Yang Kai shook his head. “They’re not fools. After suffering a loss this time, they won’t make the same mistake again. For the next batch we will go forward to snatch things as well, the only difference is now you’ll have to be wary of attacks from enemies and also these artifacts. Maintaining your own safety is top priority, use whatever Martial Skills and artifacts you have to defend yourselves, don’t die too fast!”
Hearing Yang Kai’s instructions, everyone nodded.
The reason why the batch of artifacts had been able to kill so many people just now was because everyone was vigilant against their opponents and didn’t expect to suddenly suffer attacks from these seemingly idle weapons, so they had taken far more hits than they normally would have. Even some Immortal Ascension Boundary masters had suffered as a result.
This was only the third batch of artifacts and there was nearly a hundred corpses in Po Jing Lake already. After all one thousand artifacts had appeared, just how many people would have died?
Thinking of this, whether it was the spectating crowd or the involved cultivators, all of them felt a slight chill.
The Yang Family and the other seven families had really set up a nasty event this time.
“Young Lord Kai, what should we do about these artifacts right now? There’s quite a lot of them.” Huo Xing Chen asked with an aloof snort, but anyone who saw him now would notice he was smirking.
“Have the Duan Mu Family’s five seniors look after them.” Yang Kai thought for a moment before saying.
The number of artifacts that they snatched from now on would only increase. These artifacts varied in shape and size, some were large while others were small. Some of the smallest were the size of rings and earrings while the largest were the size of swords and axes. For those larger objects, everyone holding onto what they had snatched was obviously not a good solution so someone had to be assigned to look after them.
Because of this, a group of masters would be required to stay behind to guard them, and Yang Kai figured his brothers would also act similarly.