Deep within the ice cliff, a hundred zhang below the surface, the cave dwelling trembled with unmistakable ripples of spatial power. They surged forth, coalescing into a clearly discernible domain field that blanketed the entire chamber.
Cracking sounds echoed outward as the space around Yang Kai grew unstable.
Thin spatial rifts formed leisurely, darting through the void like agile fish through water, only to be annihilated by the self-correcting laws of heaven and earth—a cycle that repeated endlessly, ceaseless in its loop.
Before long, those slender rifts began to connect, forming terrifying spatial fracture lines. The surrounding space was sliced apart like a bolt of fabric cleaved by a sharp blade, scarred with innumerable gashes running in every direction. The chaotic, turbulent forces of space lashed about wildly, carving wound after wound into the small cave dwelling as fragments of rock sprayed outward in all directions.
At the same time, brilliant starlight erupted across the surface of his body.
Tiny motes of stellar luminescence dotted his skin like fireflies.
This starlight was precisely what he had absorbed during his passage through the Starlight Passage—energy he had been unable to fully integrate into his flesh and had instead stored within his spiritual sea.
Stirred by Yang Kai's breakthrough, the starlight surged forth of its own accord, transforming into a miraculous catalyst that guided the Sacred Yuan within his body toward conversion into Origin Power.
Had anyone been standing nearby at that moment, they would have recognized at a glance that Yang Kai was a Star Lord. The anomalies radiating from his body were far too conspicuous, leaving little room for any other interpretation.
Torrents of majestic power surged through him like a sweeping tidal wave, yet Yang Kai was entirely oblivious, his consciousness immersed in his comprehension and condensation of spatial laws.
Black holes of varying sizes materialized around him—these were the direct manifestation of his secret art, Banishment.
Crescent-shaped attacks, pitch-black as ink, shot outward in every direction, scattering in all directions—the effect of Moon Blade.
In his practice of spatial arts, the two secret techniques Yang Kai had personally comprehended had now reached the moment of seal condensation.
A sound like the clashing of metal and iron rang from his lower abdomen. Something seemed to materialize there, newly born, and every insight and understanding Yang Kai had ever attained regarding spatial power converged into that nascent existence.
The Void Thought Crystal formed with a thunderous surge!
Simultaneously, Yang Kai's aura shot upward in a sudden, dramatic leap.
Crack, crack, crack, crack…
The Source Crystals he had pre-arranged around himself, drawn by some mysterious force, suddenly shattered by the dozens. Dense heaven-and-earth energy flooded the cave dwelling, and Yang Kai's body became like a bottomless pit, voraciously devouring and absorbing that energy, drawing it all into his being.
The bottleneck that had trapped him at the peak of the Void King Second Stage was shattered in an instant, allowing his cultivation to smoothly advance to the next level.
That was not the end of it. The pure energy contained within the shattered Source Crystals continued to pour into him unabated, stabilizing his current cultivation and making his foundation ever more solid.
As for Yang Kai himself, his mind was not on his own realm at all. Every shred of his attention remained immersed in his comprehension of spatial power.
He suddenly realized that certain aspects of spatial power that had previously been obscure and murky to him now took on an entirely new clarity.
A brand-new secret technique surfaced in his mind, vague but distinct.
Wild joy erupted within his heart, though his expression betrayed nothing. He focused even more intently on his meditation, determined to pierce through that final barrier obstructing his insight—to bring this new secret art fully into the light.
Time slipped by in the blink of an eye—one and a half months passed.
During this period, Yang Kai had not moved a muscle. The thirty thousand Source Crystals arranged around him had long since been completely consumed. His cultivation had stabilized firmly at the Void King Third Stage. Though the Sacred Yuan within his body had not yet fully converted to Origin Power, that was not something that could be accomplished overnight—it required the steady accumulation of time.
But when he opened his eyes once more, he seemed like an entirely different person.
Within his gaze, the illusion of the void flickered between existence and annihilation. With every gesture he made, it seemed as though the fabric of space itself shifted and warped.
"So this is the new secret technique?" Yang Kai murmured to himself. With a thought, his entire figure vanished from where he sat.
This was not the spatial teleportation of a movement art. Yang Kai had not actually moved an inch—he was still seated cross-legged in the exact same spot. However, any attempt to locate him with spiritual sense would find nothing. At his current level of Void King Third Stage, deploying this technique was more than sufficient to deceive an ordinary Dao Source Realm martial artist.
Visually, though, one could still faintly discern the outline of a transparent figure, motionless as a ripple on still water.
It was a concealment technique.
A secret art of stealth that Yang Kai had created by merging himself with the void.
After a moment of contemplation, Yang Kai broke into a grin: "I'll call it Void!"
Unlike Banishment and Moon Blade, the secret art Void was not a combat technique but a concealment art. In a certain sense, it was several degrees more valuable than both Banishment and Moon Blade—because only by preserving one's life could one possess the power to fight again.
Yet Yang Kai had a vague sense that the secret art Void did not merely possess the power of concealment. It held another function as well.