When he received the summons, Yang Kai naturally hurried over to the spiritual peak where his parents resided to pay his respects and greetings. After much persuading, he finally managed to dispel their misunderstanding, making them realize that Yang Xiao was truly just an adopted son he had taken in, not his biological child.
Dong Suzhu's expression finally improved somewhat. She earnestly advised, "Lao Jiu, you're not young anymore. Now that you've established a foothold in the Star Realm, if you truly want a child, your mother won't oppose it—in fact, I fully support it. But you can't go messing around outside. There are four women at home; you can have a child with any one of them. Understood?"
"Understood, understood. I won't mess around." Yang Kai nodded repeatedly, and as he spoke, he couldn't help but think of Ji Yao, feeling inexplicably guilty.
Dong Suzhu saw through his perfunctory response and couldn't help but sigh: "Never mind. I can see you have no intention of that for now. You're always traveling far and wide, and it's not suitable for Xiao'er to keep following you around. Let him stay with me—he can keep Xue'er company. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, Yang Kai considered for a moment and nodded: "That works too." With his mother taking care of Yang Xiao, he naturally had nothing to worry about. However, he needed to ask Yang Xiao himself—if the boy didn't agree, there was nothing they could do.
He called Yang Xiao in and explained the matter to him. Yang Xiao naturally had no objections and agreed immediately.
He had figured it out—staying with his grandmother meant enjoying her protection. But if he followed Yang Kai, he'd likely be tormented by that Aunt Liu Yan again. She was practically a demon, always threatening to burn him at the slightest disagreement.
Yang Kai found this rather surprising, attributing it to the unpredictable nature of children.
With the matter settled, Yang Xiao moved in with Dong Suzhu.
Both the Lingxiao Pavilion in the Northern Domain and the Wuhua Hall branch in the Southern Domain had been peaceful lately. Yang Kai had no plans to go anywhere for the time being after returning this time. He intended to go into proper seclusion to consolidate his gains from the past few days. Ever since returning from the Star Realm, he had been constantly on the move with hardly any time for cultivation. The path of a martial artist demanded forging ahead through thorns and brambles, charging forward courageously. Now that he had rare free time, he couldn't afford to waste it.
Before that, however, there were still some trivial matters to handle. At the very least, he had to pay visits to his women.
Yang Kai first went to Spirit Pill Peak to find Xia Ningshang and spent a day and a night with her, which made Ji Ying quite unhappy. Xia Ningshang was now essentially Grand Emperor Miao Dan's closing disciple. Though she didn't have a formal master-disciple title, Ji Ying taught her on the Grand Emperor's behalf. Xia Ningshang's alchemy talent was something even Grand Emperor Miao Dan had praised endlessly, once saying that if given the opportunity, her future achievements would absolutely not be lower than his own.
She was essentially the second Grand Emperor Miao Dan.
Yang Kai coming over and wasting Xia Ningshang's time—Ji Ying could hardly be pleased about that. Regardless of how well he and Yang Kai normally got along, when it came to his little junior sister's future accomplishments, Ji Ying wouldn't tolerate the slightest negligence, fearing he would fail to live up to Xia Ningshang's talent.
After Xia Ningshang came Xue Yue, whom he also spent a day and a night with.
He then made a casual trip to Ice Heart Valley to find Su Yan and engaged in dual cultivation with her for a while.
Before leaving, he naturally couldn't avoid a secret rendezvous with Ji Yao—quite the thrilling affair.
Returning to Lingxiao Pavilion, standing before the spatial array, Yang Kai hesitated for a long while before finally letting out a sigh. He decided not to go to the Ancient Wild Lands after all. If he went to find that fox demoness again, his body really wouldn't be able to handle it.
For the first time, he realized that having too many women wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Effective immediately, he declared seclusion. Unless something major occurred, no one was to disturb him.
Atop Lingxiao Peak, within his bedchamber, Yang Kai sat cross-legged and waved his hand, scattering a vast quantity of high-grade Source Crystals around him. Activating his Emperor Yuan, he gave a slight pulse, and the Source Crystals shattered one after another, the heaven and earth spiritual energy stored within them dissipating outward. In an instant, the entire room transformed into an ocean of spiritual energy.
He continuously threw out Source Crystals, and the spiritual energy continuously filled the room until it gradually became mist-like, so dense it was nearly visible to the naked eye.
Only then did Yang Kai silently circulate his profound technique, cultivating while simultaneously comprehending the various insights he had gained from Dragon Island.
Within the Dragon Hall, the dragon souls of successive generations of Dragon Clan Grand Elders had imparted upon him numerous Dragon Clan secret arts through a form of enlightenment. Each secret art possessed tremendous power and unique applications. However, though Yang Kai had received these arts through the enlightenment, to truly deploy each one required his own understanding and comprehension.
This was not something that could be achieved overnight—it required constant experimentation and trial.
Spring turned to autumn, flowers bloomed and fell.
At the Emperor Sovereign Realm, a single session of seclusion lasting several years or even a decade was commonplace, and a hundred years was nothing remarkable. This was especially true for Yang Kai, who had already reached the second level of the Emperor Sovereign Realm—to make further breakthroughs required accumulated time.
During this period, he emerged from seclusion occasionally to check on Lingxiao Pavilion and see if anything significant had happened. Fortunately, with Hua Qingsi managing affairs, everything ran in an orderly manner, giving him ample time to improve his cultivation and strength.
One day, two years later, Yang Kai—who had been greedily absorbing spiritual energy—suddenly furrowed his brow, took a deep breath, slowly retracted his cultivation, and then opened the room's protective formation.
Hua Qingsi quickly walked in from outside and clasped her fists: "Pavilion Master."
"Something the matter?" Before entering seclusion, he had instructed that no one was to disturb him without good reason. Now Hua Qingsi was triggering the formation from outside, which clearly meant something had happened.
"People have come from the Southern Domain. They say it's urgent and they need to see the Pavilion Master."
"Who?"
"Elder Gao Xueting, and... Elder Xiao Yuyang of the Star God Palace."
Yang Kai was surprised: "They came together?" If Gao Xueting had come to find him, Yang Kai might not have been too surprised—after all, he was a guest elder of the Qingyang Divine Temple. But what was Xiao Yuyang doing here?