Purple Moon City was one of the tens of thousands of cities in the Eastern Domain, utterly unremarkable among them. Situated near the Purple Moon Wasteland, the city owed its lack of prosperity to the harsh surroundings and barren land.
It existed solely as a waystation for warriors venturing into the Purple Moon Wasteland. Many cultivators entered the wasteland to temper themselves, and Purple Moon City naturally served as the ideal place to rest and recuperate.
The overall strength of the warriors in the city was neither particularly high nor notably low—somewhat stronger than the old Fenglin City had been. The population was dominated by those in the Holy King Realm. While there were no Emperor Venerables, Dao Source Realm cultivators were plentiful.
Yang Kai and Zhang Ruoxi arrived at the city after traveling all the way from the Purple Moon Wasteland, dusty and weary from the road. They casually found an inn and settled in.
The phoenix egg transformed from Liu Yan had already been taken away by Nine Phoenix and Li Wuyi. Yang Kai wasn't particularly worried about Liu Yan's safety. After all, both Nine Phoenix and Li Wuyi were renowned powerhouses of the Star Realm, and they served under the Beast Martial Great Emperor. Combined with his relationship with Mo Xiaoqi, Yang Kai was confident that Nine Phoenix would take good care of Liu Yan and never do anything to harm her.
His only concern was that Liu Yan's process of refining the Phoenix True Fire might not go smoothly.
But right now, he was desperate to find Xiaoxiao's whereabouts, and he simply didn't have time to accompany Liu Yan. Otherwise, he would have gone with her to Spirit Beast Island and stayed there for a year.
This was the first time Zhang Ruoxi had gone out to explore and temper herself alongside Yang Kai. Previously, no matter where Yang Kai went, he had always settled her safely within the Minor Mystic Realm, letting her cultivate in seclusion.
But now, Zhang Ruoxi had already achieved the powerful cultivation of the third level of the Dao Source Realm, granting her sufficient ability to protect herself.
Cultivation wasn't something done behind closed doors. Yang Kai, who had forged his path through countless thorns, understood this deeply. After a brief weighing of considerations, he brought Zhang Ruoxi along. This way, the Zhang family's young girl could broaden her horizons and experience the customs and cultures of various regions throughout the Star Realm—something that would certainly benefit her future growth.
Zhang Ruoxi was overjoyed. Throughout the journey, her cheeks flushed with excitement, like a bird released from its cage. Everything was new and fascinating to her.
Over the past few days, Yang Kai had shared all his cultivation experience with Zhang Ruoxi. Despite the girl's usual air of obliviousness, her talent in cultivation left even Yang Kai astonished.
For many critical cultivation questions, Zhang Ruoxi could often extrapolate from one example to derive three conclusions. If Yang Kai hadn't possessed such deep foundations, he might genuinely have struggled to answer her inquiries. He racked his brains and cross-referenced his own cultivation journey, barely managing to avoid losing face in front of her.
While instructing Zhang Ruoxi, Yang Kai didn't neglect his own cultivation.
He had only recently advanced to the Emperor Venerable Realm, barely qualifying for the title of "powerhouse." Although various circumstances had caused the Emperor Essence within his body to undergo complete transformation, his advancement was still recent. There remained a gap between his utilization of power and his comprehension of the Emperor Venerable Realm compared to those veteran Emperor Venerables.
The more he cultivated, the more he felt that the Martial Dao knew no bounds, leaving Yang Kai awestruck while simultaneously setting his blood afire.
This was especially true when he recalled the battle between two Great Emperors. The terrifying might they unleashed with a mere flick of their wrists left Yang Kai unable to shake the desire to reach such heights.
He looked forward to the day when he could match that level—and even surpass it.
Having arrived in Purple Moon City, Yang Kai casually found an inn, booked two rooms, and set up several restriction formations in his quarters.
There weren't many experts in Purple Moon City—he was the only Emperor Venerable—so he wasn't worried about anyone causing trouble. However, being disturbed during cultivation was always unpleasant, making the restrictions a necessity.
After setting them up, Yang Kai reached into his spatial ring and withdrew an object.
It was a blue stone, roughly the size of a longan fruit, with an extremely irregular shape. At first glance, nothing seemed special about it—the color was a bit unusual, but its appearance was entirely ordinary, and it didn't emit any strong energy fluctuation. It seemed like nothing more than an exceedingly cheap forging material.
But this blue stone had come from Li Wuyi's hand.
Previously, Li Wuyi had flicked his hand, sending a streak of light hurtling toward Yang Kai. The object Yang Kai caught was this very blue stone.
During the journey from the Purple Moon Wasteland, Yang Kai hadn't had the chance to examine what secrets the stone held. Only now, in this moment of calm, could he sit down and contemplate it.
He placed the stone in his palm and solemnly extended his divine sense to probe it. Almost immediately, his expression froze. His divine sense surged outward in a torrent, wrapping around the stone in countless invisible threads. His face cycled through shock, horror, excitement, and finally, profound admiration.
Under the probing of his divine sense, the blue stone's surface appeared perfectly intact, but its interior was shattered beyond recognition.
The cause of this was that its insides were filled with countless spatial tears, each as fine as a strand of hair.
These spatial tears were nearly invisible to the naked eye. If Yang Kai's divine sense hadn't been so formidable, he might have missed them entirely.
These spatial tears within the stone certainly hadn't been prepared by Li Wuyi in advance. They were likely something Li Wuyi had created on a whim when Yang Kai had asked him to impart a divine ability.
Even so, it was enough to leave Yang Kai stunned.
He too was proficient in spatial power, and he naturally understood how extraordinarily difficult it was to carve countless fine spatial tears inside a stone like this without damaging it. It demanded impossibly precise control over spatial power and a profoundly deep comprehension of the mysteries of space.
Yang Kai possessed numerous spatial secret arts—Moon Blade, Banishment, Void—and he could even use spatial laws to instantly freeze a particular area of space. These applications of spatial power and divine abilities were all things he had comprehended on his own, without the guidance of any worthy teacher.
He had believed his attainment in spatial power to be remarkably deep.
But now, after observing this blue stone, Yang Kai realized he had been a frog at the bottom of a well, perceiving the sky as nothing more than the width of a well's opening.