Before long, Boya realized that Yang Kai was taking the matter of the World Gates far too seriously.
They passed through one continent after another, and at every single World Gate, Yang Kai insisted on inspecting it thoroughly. Naturally, those gates that were in good condition presented no issues — they just wasted a lot of time for nothing.
This left Boya somewhat exasperated. He tried hinting, both openly and subtly, for Yang Kai to ease up, but none of it worked. In the end, he simply stopped saying anything. If Yang Kai wanted to waste time, so be it — the worst that could happen was a few extra months traveling together.
It wasn't until a month later, after they entered yet another continent, that Yang Kai suddenly spoke up. "Brother Boya, I can see you've been bored out of your mind running around with me lately. Why don't you wait for me here? I'll check whether this continent's World Gate is in order, and if there's no problem, we'll set off for the next location."
Boya considered for a moment, then said, "Very well. Just make it quick, Brother Yang." The main reason was that this continent's World Gate had always been perfectly stable — no problems at all. Based on their experience so far, he already knew Yang Kai would insist on inspecting every last gate, only to find nothing.
Yang Kai nodded and called for his ten thousand subordinates to set out. Only once they had traveled far beyond the range of Boya's perception did a sharp gleam flash in his eyes. Finally, he'd shaken off that stubborn hanger-on. His efforts over these past few days hadn't been for nothing.
The World Gate on this continent was indeed perfectly stable, but according to the information Yang Kai had obtained, there had once been a gate here that collapsed — and the continent it connected to had vanished along with it.
Boya knew that Yang Kai could maintain unstable World Gates and repair those that still linked to existing continents. But if a continent had disappeared, the gate associated with it was beyond recovery. What Boya didn't know was that while Yang Kai couldn't do it alone, Guixu could provide some assistance.
Without wasting any more time, Yang Kai led his ten thousand subordinates straight to the location where the gate had long since vanished. He ordered Tuchaluo, Yin, Baza, and the others to seal off the surrounding ten-li perimeter, allowing no one to approach.
The Demon Kings harbored no suspicion — this was exactly what they'd been doing before. They were old hands at it by now, and the ten thousand subordinates were deployed into position swiftly.
Only then did Yang Kai stroll casually to the site of the vanished gate, carefully orienting himself, probing gently with his senses, then glancing around to confirm that no one was watching. He quickly released Guixu from his Small World.
Guixu shook its head about, then opened its massive, gaping maw and bit down hard at a particular spot in the void, tearing open a rip in space itself.
After a few bites, the faintest trace of another world's aura drifted through from the other side.
Yang Kai hastily put Guixu away and channeled the Laws of Space to widen and stabilize the spatial tunnel.
He couldn't go through himself. If Boya happened to show up here and found him gone, there would be trouble. The Avatar would have to go instead.
With a flick of his finger, he sent the Mysterious Boundary Bead hurtling across to the continent on the other side. Then he waited. To cover his tracks, he even used the Laws of Space to blur the remnants of the tunnel. This way, even if Boya did come at that very moment, he wouldn't necessarily notice anything amiss.
It took a full four or five days before Yang Kai suddenly looked up, his expression shifting. With a ripple of spatial power, he reached into the void ahead and withdrew his hand — the Mysterious Boundary Bead was back. There was no time to communicate with the Avatar about what it had found on the other side. He threw several fierce punches into the void ahead, further scrambling the spatial turbulence, then turned and left.
The traces here would fade before long, and after that, no one would be able to detect a thing.
He didn't rush back to find Boya. Instead, he continued leading his subordinates to inspect other World Gates. If you're going to put on a show, you might as well go all the way.
Along the way, he communicated with the Avatar and learned that the haul had been considerable. Although the previous trips to three vanished continents on Yu Rumeng's territory had yielded some Myriad Demons Pills, only the first trip had been fruitful — the other two continents had seen even the Myriad Demons Caverns destroyed, so no pills had been found there.
This time, however, there had been a return. Over a thousand Myriad Demons Pills had been acquired. Combined with the pills from last time, it was nearly enough for the Avatar to advance to the Half-Saint stage. Even with the Devouring Fighting Art, refining all those pills would still take considerable time — the energy stored within each Myriad Demon Pill was frankly staggering.
A few days later, having completed the inspection of the final World Gate, the entire group rumbled through the sky toward Boya's location, preparing to rendezvous and move on to the next continent.
Bo Ya suddenly flew to Yang Kai's side and turned to look at him.
Yang Kai glanced sideways at her. "What?"
Bo Ya hemmed and hawed for a moment before curiosity finally won out. "You can find those vanished continents?"
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
Bo Ya rolled her eyes with a hint of coquettish charm. "I mean exactly what I said. Stop pretending. The first place we went to originally had a World Gate connecting to a continent that vanished thousands of years ago. If you couldn't actually find it, why would you have spent so long there?"