Chapter 4023

Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

They were 30,000 metres below ground, and because this was a Yuan Magnetic Mountain, the ground was extremely hard. In the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary, where Open Heaven Realm Masters couldn't display their true strength, it was near to impossible to forcefully create an exit.

Even if Yang Kai were to try it himself, he wouldn't have a chance unless he used the Azure Dragon Spear.

It was only because the Earth Dragon was innately proficient in burrowing through the earth that it could drill a tunnel this deep into the Yuan Magnetic Mountain.

Time slowly trickled by as more and more people flew over from all directions, hoping to leave through the passage, but all of them were stopped by Guo Zi Yan.

More and more people continued to gather at the tunnel entrance. In less than half a day, there were already several hundred people gathered.

Yang Kai was sitting atop the stone pillar, completely calm and composed. The hundreds of people below him were all clamouring in rage, many of them glaring hatefully at him, but none dared to act openly aggressive, only cursing in their hearts.

As time passed, more people arrived, but none of them understood what was happening after seeing so many gathered. After asking around, they learned that Scarlet Star's Sixth Manager actually wanted to collect a toll before they could pass. Furthermore, what was even more shameless and presumptuous was that he asked to check the Space Rings of cultivators who tried to go before.

No one would agree to such a rude request; after all, what if Yang Kai snatched it away after they had handed over their Space Ring? There was no way they could defeat him, nor could they snatch it back, so although there were many people gathered here, none of them could leave.

Hu Yi was also here. Besides him, there were also several other Open Heaven Realm Masters.

The crowd's eyes turned towards them, hoping that they could uphold justice.

Naturally, Hu Yi didn't want to be the first one to stand out. He couldn't wait to hide in the crowd, but with everyone watching, even if he didn't want to stand out, he had no choice. After all, if an Open Heaven Realm Master didn't stand up, how could he expect the Emperor Realm cultivators to speak up?

Raising his hand to calm everyone down, Hu Yi stated, "Everyone, please calm down. This Hu will go and inquire about Manager Yang's intentions."

The surrounding crowd cupped their fists, "Many thanks for your efforts, Manager Hu."

Hu Yi sighed in his heart and raised his head to look in Yang Kai's direction. Afterwards, he turned his attention to the Scarlet Flood Dragon and Earth Dragon, who were lying on the ground not too far away, pretending to be asleep. Hu Yi's scalp went numb as he secretly gulped before waving his sleeve and flying up the stone pillar.

Guo Zi Yan and the others looked over coldly but didn't stop him.

Hu Yi mounted the stone pillar, cupped his fists towards Guo Zi Yan, then cupped his fists towards Yang Kai, "Manager Yang!"

Yang Kai opened his eyes and looked at him, "Manager Hu, it seems you've thought things through. Please hand over your Space Ring."

Hu Yi's mouth twitched as he forced a smile, "Manager Yang, you must be joking, this Hu only came here to ask Manager Yang what the meaning of this is?"

Yang Kai asked indifferently, "What do you think?"

Hu Yi said, "It should be for the Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones!"

"Since you know, why ask?"

Hu Yi's face went stiff as he frowned, "Although I know, I'm afraid Manager Yang's actions are not appropriate. Everyone spent a lot of time and effort searching for these Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones, so who would be willing to hand them over so easily? Moreover, Manager Yang can't stop everyone from passing through without any justification."

Yang Kai raised his thumb and pointed upwards, "This tunnel was made by me! Isn't that reason enough?"

Hu Yi was stunned for a moment before a wry smile appeared on his face. This tunnel really was created by Yang Kai; there was no way to refute this point.

Yang Kai snorted, "Without this King's permission, all of you used the passage created by this King's beast to search for Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones underground. It's one thing if this King doesn't pursue this matter, but now that I want to ask to share some of the benefits, you're making excuses? What? Do you really think this King is easy to bully?"

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare!" Hu Yi quickly waved his hand, thinking that if this guy was a soft persimmon, no one in the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary wasn't. After a moment of silence, he added, "Manager Yang, what you say is also right. How about this, you give us a number, ten percent, twenty percent, or even thirty percent. If no one has any objections, we'll hand over the portion that belongs to Manager Yang and you let us go."

"A percentage? How would I know what you've found? What if you want to deceive me?"

"Absolutely not," Hu Yi waved his hand.

"Do you dare guarantee it?"

Hu Yi's expression became stiff. How could he guarantee such a thing? What if someone really was unwilling to pay up and simply took out some low-grade Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones?

"Don't waste your breath. If you want to leave this place, take out your Space Ring and let this King examine it. After the inspection, I will naturally let you leave."

Hu Yi stated, "Manager Yang's actions are likely to provoke public anger."

Yang Kai sneered, "It's not the first time!"

Hu Yi shook his head and advised, "Times have changed. Before, everyone's hearts were not united, but now everyone wants to leave. If Manager Yang insists on stopping us, will Manager Yang be able to stop these hundreds of people? Not to mention, there are even more who have yet to arrive."

Yang Kai raised his hand and took out the Fated Paths Bag, grinning as he stated, "Does this King need to block the way? If anyone dares to try to force their way through, they will get a taste of this King's Yuan Magnetic Divine Light!"

Hu Yi's face paled as he suddenly remembered that this guy had collected a lot of Yuan Magnetic Divine Light. All he had to do was block the entrance and release the Yuan Magnetic Divine Light if they provoked him. No matter how many people there were, they wouldn't be enough, and everyone would be killed.

Cupping his fists, he stepped back from the stone pillar.

The two of them didn't try to suppress their voices, so the hundreds of people down below heard them loud and clear. Many people were instantly filled with righteous indignation, thinking that Yang Kai had gone too far. It was true that his beast had created this passage, but there were so many treasures down below, so everyone who saw it would want to have a share. Now, he was even trying to block their way and rob them. How shameless!

However, not everyone thought so. Some cultivators were considering whether they should agree to Yang Kai's request. In any case, they didn't have any treasures in their Space Rings, so he might not be interested in them. The amount of Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones they had obtained this time wasn't much, so although it was quite painful to give up some of them, it was better than being stuck here forever.

At that moment, swishing sounds rang as everyone immediately turned their heads. The next moment, they saw a dozen or so people covered in blood rushing towards the tunnel.

Guo Zi Yan took out a long stick and flew to the tunnel entrance, "Stop!"

The dozen or so people obviously recognized Guo Zi Yan and quickly stopped. The leader cupped his fists and asked, "What advice does Sir have?"

Guo Zi Yan repeated the words he had repeated countless times, "If you want to leave here, first hand over your Space Rings and let Sixth Manager examine them!"

Unsurprisingly, the dozen or so people who heard this couldn't help becoming angry.

Just as they were hesitating, Yang Kai calmly said, "In ten breaths' time, the people who are chasing you will arrive. Either hand over your Space Rings, and this King will let you go, or you can continue fleeing!"

The man in the lead's expression changed as he turned his head to look back. Sure enough, he saw a streak of light rapidly flying towards them. He quickly thought about all kinds of things before asking, "Sir, could it be that everyone who wants to leave this place must hand over their Space Rings?"

Yang Kai stretched out his hand and pointed down, "Those who haven't handed over their rings are all over there!"

The man looked down and saw nearly a thousand people gathered below.

In this moment of life and death, this man was quite decisive and nodded, "Good, since that's the case, Sir, please have a look!" As he spoke, he took out his Space Ring and tossed it to Yang Kai.

Seeing their leader act in such a manner, the dozen or so people behind him also took out their Space Rings.

Yang Kai was extremely fast, and in front of everyone's eyes, his Divine Sense swept over the dozen or so Space Rings before raising his hand and returning all of them, "You can go!"

The lead cultivator was stunned for a moment, but he didn't have time to think about it. He simply cupped his fists towards Yang Kai and shouted, "Many thanks, Sir!"

Saying so, he led the dozen or so people behind him out of the tunnel and disappeared.

Three breaths after they left, a group of several dozen people came chasing after them. Seeing the group of people passing through the tunnel, they didn't hesitate to chase after them, shouting, "Where do you think you're going?!"

However, before they could approach the entrance, the Scarlet Flood Dragon, which had been sleeping on the ground, suddenly flew up. Its massive body completely blocked the entrance and it breathed out a mouthful of raging flames, scaring the several dozen or so people to the point of staggering back. Their faces immediately turned pale.

Everyone below was also shocked.

From the looks of it, if Yang Kai really didn't want to let them pass, he wouldn't even need to use his Yuan Magnetic Divine Light. Just the Scarlet Flood Dragon and Earth Dragon alone would be enough to seal the passage. Everyone immediately became frustrated.

The leader of the pursuers glanced at the Scarlet Flood Dragon and couldn't help gulping before turning to Yang Kai and stating, "Sir Yang, we are members of Emperor Heaven."

Yang Kai didn't even look at him, "Call Ding Yi over to talk to me."

The man's expression froze. He couldn't figure out what Yang Kai had to do with the people who had escaped and why he was protecting them, but he didn't dare act rashly and quickly took out his communication artifact and sent a message to Ding Yi.

While he was busy, the Divine Senses of everyone below suddenly began communicating.

Just now, when Yang Kai was examining the Space Rings of the first dozen or so people, they had clearly seen him only inspect them for a moment before returning them untouched and letting them pass.

It was impossible for that group to have found nothing down here. There were so many Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones here that even if one or two of them had not found anything, the others must have found something. At the very least, they would have collected some Yuan Magnetic Divine Stones at the Third Order.

However, Yang Kai really hadn't taken anything.

What was going on?

If that was the case, they might be able to accept Yang Kai's conditions. In any case, they wouldn't suffer any real losses. At most, they would lose some face.

Therefore, after a brief hesitation, someone immediately flew up to the stone pillar and cupped his fists, "Sir Yang!"

Saying so, he handed over his Space Ring.

Yang Kai stretched out his hand and grabbed the ring, sweeping it with his Divine Sense before tossing it back.

The man was overjoyed, "Farewell!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he rushed up, and the Scarlet Flood Dragon made way for him.

This scene caused quite a number of people to burst into an uproar. If they had been mistaken before, this time, everyone was staring at Yang Kai carefully, not daring to be distracted. They didn't dare to use their Divine Sense, and just relied on their eyes. From what they could tell, Yang Kai had indeed not taken anything from that man's ring.