Yu Rumeng did not linger long on the Hundred Spirits Continent. After confirming that Yang Kai was in no mortal danger, she departed in haste, as though some pressing matter weighed on her mind.
Yang Kai couldn't help but think of Emperor Ming Yue. If there was anything that could occupy a Demon Holy Sovereign's attention to such a degree, it most likely had to do with Ming Yue. Yang Kai even suspected that when she had originally sent him away to the Cloud Shadow Continent, her reasons were twofold — as she had said, she wanted to harness his power to repair the realm gate, but she also likely hadn't wanted him lingering by her side. In her eyes, Yang Kai may have defected from the Star Boundary, but he had still been born there, and she might have worried he couldn't sever his sentimental ties to his homeland.
Yang Kai had considered passing word back to the Star Boundary, letting the Great Emperors find a way to rendezvous with Ming Yue, but the corridors between the two realms were all guarded by countless demons. There was simply no way for him to return to the Star Boundary unnoticed.
Thinking of his one-year promise with Ming Yue, Yang Kai felt a heavy weight settle in his chest. When the time came, he would likely be the only one who could help — but whether he could actually extract Ming Yue from the Demon Realm under the watchful eyes of all twelve Demon Holy Sovereigns, he hadn't the slightest confidence. He wasn't even sure whether he could be of any real use at all.
The struggles between Great Emperors and Demon Holy Sovereigns operated at a level far beyond him. With his current cultivation at the Second-Order Emperor Realm, he simply had no way to involve himself.
The day after Yu Rumeng left, Chang Tian summoned Yang Kai and had a frank and open conversation with him.
Just as Yu Rumeng had said, his original plan had been to borrow Yang Kai's power to seal all of the realm gates on the Hundred Spirits Continent, creating the illusion that the entire continent had separated from the Demon Realm. Of course, this kind of separation was fundamentally different from those continents that had vanished before.
If the entire Demon Realm was thought of as a single body, then those lost continents had felt to Yang Kai like necrotic tissue — the disappearance of their realm gates had caused them to gradually disintegrate into scattered fragments. Yang Kai sealing the realm gates with his spatial power, on the other hand, would be an active concealment of the Hundred Spirits Continent. The two were not remotely comparable. After being hidden, the Hundred Spirits Continent would face no risk of collapse, and its inhabitants would no longer be subject to the influence of the Demon Realm's other territories.
But upon discovering Yang Kai's Dragon Clan bloodline, Chang Tian had changed his mind.
The original plan had stemmed from despair. While the Hundred Spirits Continent had no shortage of Half-Saint-level creatures, not a single one was capable of shouldering a great responsibility. At minimum, it would take two or three thousand years before anyone could grow powerful enough to rival a Demon Holy Sovereign. And once Chang Tian perished, no one else would be able to bear the weight of the Hundred Spirits Continent's fate.
But now things were different. A spark of light kindled in the darkness had renewed Chang Tian's hope. No matter how intimately connected Yang Kai might be to Yu Rumeng, he couldn't afford to care about that. If there was a chance to entrust the entire Hundred Spirits Continent to someone, that was undoubtedly what he wished for most. One could even say that precisely because of Yang Kai's close relationship with Yu Rumeng, Chang Tian felt all the more confident in making such a transfer.
Even if Yang Kai's growth didn't turn out as hoped, with Yu Rumeng's backing, the other Demon Holy Sovereigns would likely not go looking for trouble.
Yang Kai's own words had further strengthened Chang Tian's resolve. The realm gates could be sealed, but there was no guarantee that doing so would make the Hundred Spirits completely vanish from the map — and that realization had thoroughly dispelled his initial plan.
Even so, the realm gates still needed to be sealed.
The Hundred Spirits Continent had a total of four realm gates. Chang Tian needed Yang Kai to seal three of them, leaving only a single one open.
This way, only one Half-Saint would need to guard the gate. The continent would no longer have to dispatch four Half-Saints at all times to seal off the realm gates and prevent intruders from slipping through.
Yang Kai had no reason to refuse — in fact, he was rather eager.
Had Chang Tian not pointed it out, he never would have thought of it. He was already well versed in repairing and maintaining realm gates, but sealing them was something he had never attempted. It was partly a blind spot in his thinking, and he had never dared pull anything like that on the Demon Holy Sovereigns' turf. If he had, it would certainly have stirred up trouble.
But here on the Hundred Spirits Continent, where such a need existed, perhaps this could bring him some fresh insight into the Laws of Space.
With that thought, Yang Kai eagerly left the vast, dim hall. Led by the Lian sisters, he set off for the nearest realm gate. Zhui Feng had found its way over as well, darting about beside them until Yang Kai scolded it sharply, at which point it finally settled down.
The Lian sisters watched from the side with their hearts in their throats. Although Zhui Feng had shown an unusually warm attitude toward Yang Kai before, even allowing him to ride on its back, the whole of the Hundred Spirits Continent knew that Zhui Feng's pride rivaled any Half-Saint's. Years ago, after the continent had been unified, a newly ascended Half-Saint had grown arrogant and provoked Zhui Feng — and the creature had hunted the poor fellow for three straight years, beating him down from the Half-Saint level until his cultivation was crippled, from which he had never recovered.
That incident had stemmed from a trivial matter, so trivial that the Lian sisters had long forgotten what it was about. And yet a petty disagreement had led to a Half-Saint's downfall. Now someone was actually scolding Zhui Feng, even manhandling it!
And yet Zhui Feng had barely reacted…
It was truly astonishing. Was it simply because this person shared a similar bloodline?
With Zhui Feng no longer a distraction, Yang Kai could finally devote himself to research.
Though he had initially thought sealing a realm gate would be no great difficulty, the actual process turned out to be entirely different from maintenance and repair. It wasn't simply a matter of reversing the procedure, as he had imagined — there were many factors involved that he had never anticipated.
Sealing the realm gate truly did bring him a wealth of new insights into the application of spatial Laws.
It took him a full month before he finally found his footing.