Having gained experience with the first seal, the rest came easily. In barely ten days, Yang Kai had sealed three of the four realm gates on the Hundred Spirits Continent, leaving only one open as a passageway for entering and exiting.
This way, so long as he held this single entry point, no one would ever be able to sneak into the Hundred Spirits Continent again to wreak havoc.
Yang Kai didn't know whether a Demon Saint-level powerhouse could shatter his seal with a full-power strike, but Half-Saints certainly couldn't — the Lotus Sisters had already verified that by taking turns attacking it personally. Yang Kai figured that even if his seal couldn't withstand a Demon Saint's brute assault, it should at least hold for a decent amount of time.
If he could reduce the time required to establish a seal, perhaps he could use this technique to accomplish something…
And so, for the following stretch of time, Yang Kai remained stationed at one of the Hundred Spirits Continent's realm gates, ceaselessly sealing it, restoring it, sealing it, restoring it — over and over again in an endless cycle…
The Lotus Sisters watched from the side, somewhat speechless. They had no idea what he was fussing about. Chang Tian's assigned task was already complete, and they could have returned long ago, yet this fellow insisted on finding trouble here, dragging them along to stand guard as well — which naturally left them a bit annoyed.
Black Lotus had gone to ask Yang Kai about it, and his answer was that he was using this method to cultivate his Space Laws.
She didn't understand how Space Laws were practiced anyway, so whatever Yang Kai said, that was that.
However, Yang Kai's progress was plain for all to see. At first, sealing a single realm gate took him a full three days. Gradually, the time required grew shorter and shorter. After a few months, sealing a gate took him less than ten breaths, and with a mere flick of his hand, he could restore a sealed gate to visibility in an instant.
This struck the Lotus Sisters as almost inconceivable. How realm gates came into being was something probably only the Demon Saints throughout the entire Demon Realm could say with any certainty, and in all those years, no one had ever been able to toy with a realm gate like a plaything in the palm of their hand.
One day, while Yang Kai was busy refining his gate-sealing technique, he suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and paused, sinking his consciousness into the Small World.
At once, the Dharma Avatar's voice reached his ears: "I'm about to break through!"
Yang Kai blinked, then was overcome with delight.
After devouring the Stonefire Origin, the Dharma Avatar had entered a long period of dormancy. Upon awakening, it already possessed cultivation roughly at the peak of the Emperor Realm. Over the ensuing time, practicing ceaselessly with the Heaven Devouring Battle Art, its strength had naturally grown considerably. In recent days, it had been continuously devouring Myriad Demon Pills, accumulating the power needed for a breakthrough — in truth, Yang Kai had been waiting for it to reach the Half-Saint tier all along.
The Myriad Demon Pills recovered from those vanished continents had been plentiful, and the Avatar had now consumed roughly seventy or eighty percent of them. It was about time for the breakthrough.
Yang Kai simply hadn't expected it to come a touch later than anticipated. In his estimation, the Dharma Avatar should have broken through ages ago.
"Do you need me to let you out?" Yang Kai asked. The laws of heaven and earth within the Small World were by now fairly complete, and even an Emperor Realm breakthrough could be managed inside. But if the Avatar was contacting him like this, it clearly couldn't take that final step within the Small World.
Yang Kai assumed it needed to break through in the outside world.
"That won't work. I feel I need to return to the Cloud Shadow Continent!"
This answer puzzled Yang Kai for a moment, but when he considered that the Dharma Avatar was the master of the Cloud Shadow Continent, he understood. There were surely certain factors involved that he knew nothing about, and for the Avatar to shatter its bottleneck, it probably had to draw upon some element unique to the Cloud Shadow Continent.
With that thought, Yang Kai said immediately: "Wait for me!"
With that, he restored the sealed realm gate, swung around, vaulted onto Zhui Feng's back, and called out to the Lotus Sisters: "I need to go see Senior Chang Tian. I'm heading out first."
He squeezed his legs together, Zhui Feng let out a sharp whinny and transformed into a streak of lightning. Behind him, the Lotus Sisters exchanged bewildered glances, still having no idea what he was up to, but hurried after him all the same.
Since Chang Tian had entrusted Yang Kai's safety to them, they couldn't let him out of their sight for even a moment.
They raced back at breakneck speed and soon returned to the castle. Yang Kai leaped from the horse's back and hurried inside.
The colossal beast known as Lion suddenly appeared, blocking his path. It looked down at him from its towering height and rumbled: "Something the matter, boy?"
Perhaps owing to Chang Tian's influence, Lion's attitude toward Yang Kai was considerably more agreeable, lacking the contempt it had shown during their first meeting.
Yang Kai cupped his fists: "I need to see the Senior."
Lion tilted its head, listened for a moment, then gave a slight nod: "Go on in. The Master is inside." With that, it stepped aside.
It was the same dark, cold, cavernous hall as before. Chang Tian sat cross-legged at its center, dense demonic energy filling the space, drifting like clouds and mist. The moment Yang Kai entered, the demonic energy was drawn back into Chang Tian's body like a whale gulping water — not a wisp remained.
Two brilliant lights blazed in the darkness, like a pair of miniature suns.
Yang Kai wasted no time. He cupped his fists and said: "Senior, I need to make a trip back to the Cloud Shadow Continent. I've come to take my leave."