Five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were tasked with guarding these artifacts. Only this level and amount of force could deter enemies from having other thoughts.
But in this way, the number of masters who could be used was also reduced by five.
However, the incident which occurred when the third batch of artifacts appeared had already disrupted the balance of the six camps. If Yang Kang and the others didn’t throw everything they had into dealing with the situation in front of them, they would only fall into a passive state and gain less and less.
Yang Kai furrowed his brow as he pondered about how to capitalize on his current advantage.
The fourth batch of artifacts appeared soon after.
Nothing remarkable happened, the Spirit Array glowed and then artifacts surfaced from the bottom of the lake, but this time, no one acted rashly, although many people still charged in, this time they were significantly more cautious.
Everyone was on guard not only against enemies trying to rob them, but also against the artifacts themselves; after all, any carelessness might lead to their untimely death.
When the cultivators from the six camps reached the center of the lake, all of them suddenly stopped, no one wanted to serve as someone else’s pathfinder, so everyone waited for others to take the lead, contemplating how the artifact’s stored attack could be stimulated and making plans to handle these scenarios.
The scene suddenly became a stalemate, the artifacts suspended mid-air while the cultivators surrounded them, everyone glancing around vigilantly at each other.
Seeing this, Yang Kai frowned; although he also expected such a situation to appear, he too had no good way to deal with it.
Now, whoever came up first would definitely suffer, but they also couldn’t remain in this deadlocked. The fifth batch of artifacts would probably appear soon. If they couldn’t eat this batch, when the fifth one showed up, the situation would only get worse.
Finally, Yang Kang sneered, “Is everyone here so really so timid? Whoever is willing to step forward is who will have an opportunity! I don’t believe it’s impossible to seize these things!”
Just as his voice rang out, within the dense field of artifacts, a weak Spiritual Energy fluctuation emerged.
A Soul Skill! The sudden emergence of this Soul Skill broke the stalemate in an instant.
As an invisible force burst open, it pushed all of the gently floating artifacts into the surrounding crowd.
The energy contained within the artifacts all erupted one after another as a wave of attacks suddenly struck around, causing everyone to hastily dodge or defend themselves.
Yang Kai immediately turned his eyes towards Liu Qing Yao, his brow wrinkling further.
The Soul Skill just now had been his doing. No one knew why Liu Qing Yao was here. He hadn’t offered services to any of the Yang Family Young Lords, nor had he stirred up any trouble until now. Usually, he just stayed in War City, but this time he had quietly run over to Po Jing Lake, his intentions impossible to guess.
But now he had taken the initiative to break this stalemate.
Fortunately, this time everyone was prepared for it. From the moment these artifacts had appeared, everyone had been vigilant against the traps. Fortunately, the grades of these artifacts weren’t too high, so even fully charged with True Qi the power they could display wasn’t too big and the lethality of these attacks was quite low.
Such scattered and disorganized attacks were easy enough for these cultivators to handle as long as they worked together.
Once they had blocked this barrage of strikes, the cultivators once again found themselves in a chaotic competition. After receiving Yang Kai’s orders, his allies didn’t seek trouble with Yang Wei’s group while the reverse was also true. It was as if the two groups had come to a mutual non-aggression agreement.
After the stalemate was broken, the fourth batch of artifacts was carved up.
But before anyone had time to breath, the fifth batch appeared.
What was surprising though was that this batch of artifacts didn’t appear from the bottom of the lake, but instead descended from the sky.
Floating in the air, numerous glowing golden spheres condensed before quickly transforming into a hundred rays of light that shot out in all directions.
The cultivators who had just been grabbing artifacts hadn’t even had time to return to their respective camps when this fifth batch suddenly appeared.
These golden streaks flew about randomly, some of them even spreading as far as the crowd of spectators, causing quite a big disturbance.
The battlefield suddenly expanded because of the unexpected emergence of the fifth batch of artifacts; the chaotic battlefield was no longer limited to Po Jing Lake but had grown to encompass a big part of the surrounding wilderness as well.
With no other choice, even those who had stayed in the six camps had to join in and competed for these newly appeared artifacts.
For a time, the scene descended into pandemonium and everyone, whether they were here to compete or merely spectate, became involved.
Now that things had developed to this point, even the crowd of spectators found themselves becoming riled up, rushing into battle for a chance to grab one of these artifacts.
The Six Yang Family Young Lords constantly issued new instructions to their respective allies, carefully observing both their opponents’ actions and those of the outsiders who chose to involve themselves, adjusting their strategies on the fly.
A point that everyone found particularly interesting was that Yang Wei’s actions were no different from Yang Kai’s, seemingly taking his approach to this situation as a model for his own. Whenever Yang Kai dispatched reinforcements, he too would deploy more manpower. When Yang Kai had his troops pull back, he also had his allies fall back, even when it came to guarding the artifacts his team had already seized, he also used five Immortal Ascension Boundary masters.
Obviously, Yang Kai had noticed this but he didn’t say anything. What his big brother wanted to do was his freedom.
Amongst all the artifacts, one which was shaped like a bell suddenly let out a burst of magical sound that caused those nearby to tremble violently, their True Qi to fluctuate wildly and their blood to flow backwards. After the sound dissipated, those who were nearby who had withstood it dived towards this artifact, stirring up a great melee.
When this artifact had suddenly appeared here, the nearby crowd had boiled over with excitement, all of them using the full strength to try to seize it.
Soon, the artifact had disappeared and no one knew who had taken it away in the chaos.
A burst of curses and complaints erupted from those who hadn’t managed to snatch this artifact. It had been such a rare opportunity. So many artifacts had appeared here, but only one had landed here and now it was gone, who wouldn’t be regretful?
However, when everyone in this area was glancing around, wondering who had obtained the artifact, a pitiful cry rang out and a middle-aged man who seemed to be around forty years old fell to the ground, a great gash on his chest spilling blood and guts as the light in his eyes quickly faded.
Everyone was shocked.
From the middle-aged man’s sleeve, the bell-shaped artifact that had just disappeared emerged and, seemingly attracted by an invisible force, quickly flew out, accelerating towards the centre of Po Jing Lake, returning to the chaotic battlefield.
Everyone was horrified, quickly dismissing any thoughts they had about snatching these treasures.
They knew that this middle-aged man didn’t die for no reason; in trying to seize this artifact for himself, he had brought a fatal disaster upon himself.
Amongst the crowd, there must be masters staring at the movements of these flying artifacts; once an uninvolved bystander couldn’t resist their greed, they would immediately be killed!
Understanding this, the cultivators who had just tried to snatch this artifact couldn’t help showing a happy smile. Fortunately, they hadn’t been the one to obtain that bell-shaped artifact, otherwise the person who was lying dead on the ground wouldn’t be this middle-aged man, but themselves!
The uncompromising and overbearing nature of the Central Capital’s Yang Family was thoroughly illustrated to everyone here.
After numerous fishers amongst the spectators died, the crowd of onlookers no longer dared have any ideas about these artifacts. Once they were moved by their greed, they would find themselves dead.
The battlefield grew more chaotic; after the first few rounds, the time between when batches of artifacts appeared only became shorter.
Often, before a batch had been divided, the next batch had emerged, and everywhere an object appeared people would rush to snatch it.
More and more people died. No matter which camp it was, the losses weren’t small.
Those who remained beside the six Yang Family Young Lords also decreased as time passed; first, half the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters were sent out, then the younger generation leaders such as Huo Xing Chen entered the fray as well.
Each of these young rising stars would be accompanied by a number of strong Immortal Ascension masters, otherwise there would be no way for them to survive in such a turbulent battlefield.
Eventually, beside the six Young Lords, there was only their dedicated Blood Warrior guardian and the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters tasked with guarding their obtained artifacts.
When the seventh batch of artifacts appeared, the battle above Po Jing Lake became even more intense, because there were Heaven Grade artifacts among them.
In the eighth batch, most of the artifacts were Heaven Grade.
The ninth batch, all Heaven Grade…
Everyone who was snatching artifacts had their eyes dyed red. Everyone around them was an enemy. They wantonly unleashed their own True Qi and Spiritual Energy without any scruples. They used any method at their disposal in order to seize these powerful artifacts and bring them back to their camp.
Those who sat on the sidelines and watched the development of the situation all cheered loudly or held their breaths in anticipation.
Cultivators came out, grabbed an artifact, and then fought to bring it back, placing it under the care of the Immortal Ascension Boundary masters in their respective bases. Everyone’s consumption was huge. Fortunately, Xia Ning Chang and the Medicine King’s Valley Alchemists had refined a batch of pills that could quickly supplement True Qi, so in terms of endurance, Yang Kai’s people performed better than anyone else.
All of them had already taken some pills during the course of this battle.
Thus, despite their physical exhaustion, they could still spend their True Qi without any scruples.
Suddenly, a Spiritual Energy pulse blossomed in mid-air, containing an icy cold feeling.
Yang Kai’s eyes immediately lit up.
Soul type artifact! And it was an offensive artifact at that! But most importantly, this Soul type artifact’s characteristics matched Yang Kai’s Spiritual Energy very well!
If he could obtain this Soul type artifact, the power of his Soul Skill would be improved.
Although Yang Kai really wanted to step forward to seize this artifact personally, he somehow managed to press down this impulse, instead calling out to Dong Qing Han who was nearby where the artifact appeared.
Dong Qing Han was accompanied by the Wind and Cloud Dual Guards as usual, so even though he didn’t understand, his protectors did.
The moment the Spiritual Energy pulse broke out, the Wind and Cloud guards also realized the preciousness of this Soul type artifact.
Seeing the look in Yang Kai’s eyes, Dong Qing Han immediately left his original opponent and turned towards the newly appeared artifact, the Wind and Cloud guards following close behind.
Just as he arrived at the location of the artifact, before he had a chance to snatch it, a person appeared before him, smiling deviously as he stared down at Dong Qing Han, “Hey fatty, you’re an ally of Yang Kai, right?”
A blue vein throbbed on Dong Qing Han’s forehead when he heard this, his expression darkening greatly.
When Huo Xing Chen called him a fat brother, he did so in a natural and friendly manner, but the person in front of him obviously didn’t have this meaning.
Dong Qing Han stared at this newcomer with piercing cold eyes, obviously he had been enraged.