As the old saying goes, fortune and misfortune are intertwined — Yang Kai understood this truth intimately at this moment.
He had never expected that within the Flaming Sand Lands, there would exist such a peculiar, mutated space, one that allowed him to fathom the mysteries of the power of space.
He actually entertained the notion of staying here a while longer rather than leaving immediately. Instead, he stood rooted in place, ceaselessly condensing the power of space, generating resonance with everything around him, letting those wisps of insight pour into his mind and carve themselves deep into his soul.
Space power was exceedingly difficult to cultivate, because those who understood it were few, there was no clear method of training, and no one to share their insights with.
When Yang Kai had first begun cultivating the power of space, he had relied on tearing open spatial rifts and plunging into the chaotic void to sense the surging currents within, thereby deepening his comprehension. But that method had only remained effective for a short time before growing useless — as Yang Kai's understanding of space power advanced, he could walk through spatial turbulence as easily as treading on flat ground, so naturally he could no longer glean anything from it.
After that, he had resorted to absorbing the energy of Void Spirit Crystals — an extravagantly wasteful practice, but one Yang Kai had no choice but to undertake.
Fortunately, the Void Spirit Crystal vein that the Stone Puppet had discovered was bountiful, enough to sustain his spending for a very long time. But once those crystals were exhausted, obtaining more would not be so easy.
A person who fails to plan ahead will soon find trouble at their door. Void Spirit Crystals were a scarce resource in any realm, for they could be used to forge Spatial Rings — and Spatial Rings were a storage Artifact that every martial artist considered indispensable.
Now that this place offered an environment perfectly suited for cultivating the power of space, Yang Kai naturally wanted to seize the opportunity.
Moreover, cultivating here seemed far more effective than simply absorbing Void Spirit Crystals — the gains were greater!
Upon realizing this, Yang Kai immediately made up his mind to stay for the time being. The Flaming Sand Lands still had roughly four months before they closed, and that span of time was more than sufficient for him to find a suitable location to refine the Mysterious Yin Sunflower Water. There was no need to rush at present.
It took a full incense stick's worth of time before Yang Kai slowly sat down. Moving through this bizarre space, even for someone as well-versed in the mysteries of space power as Yang Kai, was as sluggish as a crawling tortoise. If any outsider had witnessed this scene, they would have found it thoroughly puzzling, unable to fathom what trick Yang Kai was playing, because the strangeness of this space was imperceptible to Divine Sense. Only by being immersed within it personally could one discover its properties.
Once seated, Yang Kai calmed the churning of his blood and qi. His eyes gleamed with sharp light as he extended one hand and swept it gently forward.
That simple wave of his hand consumed an enormous amount of effort and a vast stretch of time, but as the hand moved, a hair-thin black crack in space materialized — only to vanish without a trace in the blink of an eye, as fleeting as a passing blossom.
Seeing this, Yang Kai was not alarmed but delighted. A broad grin spread across his face.
Having decided to use this rare environment to cultivate his power of space, he naturally intended to train with his Space Blade.
In the stone chamber beneath Dragon Cave Mountain, Yang Kai had comprehended a method of rendering space power into a concrete offensive technique — the Space Blade. But back then, no matter how he had trained, the Space Blade's power remained meager, insufficient for use against any real opponent. Against weak enemies, space power was unnecessary, and against powerful ones, the technique was too half-hearted.
So he had yearned to perfect this signature move of his, yet had always been hampered by a lack of suitable conditions and environment.
But this place — this was unquestionably the ideal training ground. Yang Kai could foresee that once he could condense the Space Blade even in a place like this, then once he left, the Space Blade would carry genuine destructive force.
His trial just now had already given him a clear picture. This space was thick and viscous, making it exceedingly difficult to tear apart. Training the Space Blade here would not only deepen his understanding and comprehension of space power's mysteries, but would also surely cause this offensive technique to mature rapidly.
Without haste or impatience, perfectly composed, Yang Kai tore open space again and again, deploying his Space Blade.
Each time that hair-thin spatial crack appeared, it was immediately crushed and obliterated beneath the tremendous pressure of this space, vanishing without a trace.
Yang Kai trained for an entire day, draining his vast reserves of Divine Sense completely dry, yet made no visible progress.
But he was not the least bit anxious, because he could already feel that his manipulation of space power had become far more fluid than before, and his methods for tearing space had naturally multiplied. He was confident that if he simply kept at it, a breakthrough would come.
With his Divine Sense exhausted, Yang Kai could no longer continue training. He could only take some pills that replenished Divine Sense and enter a meditative state to recover.
Although the Warm Spirit Lotus was currently undergoing evolution, the restorative and nourishing effect it provided for his Divine Sense had never diminished — if anything, it seemed to have grown even slightly stronger than before.
Yang Kai needed only two hours to restore his completely depleted sea of consciousness to fullness.
He slowly opened his eyes, about to deploy the Space Blade once more, when suddenly a streak of light like a floating spark came hurtling toward him from a great distance. The spark shot along the narrow canyon passage, approaching Yang Kai with the speed of lightning.
"The Flaming Flying Fire!" Yang Kai blurted in shock.
He had seen the Flaming Flying Fire once before in the first layer of the Hot Flame Zone. Seeing it again now, he recognized it immediately. The last time he had stumbled upon it by chance, the Flaming Flying Fire had darted swiftly through his spiritual perception, and despite chasing it for a good while, Yang Kai had failed to catch up — a deeply frustrating experience.