The Sand Scorpion warship shattered into fragments. Every last star pirate perished without a single intact body remaining. Mei Jiu'er's face cycled through a flurry of emotions — confusion, elation, surprise, and terror.
Being freed from crisis out of nowhere, snatched from the jaws of death, naturally left her overjoyed. But a warship could not simply explode on its own for no reason. One could even say that across the entire Heng Luo Star Domain, there was no known force capable of achieving such destruction in a single instant. The power behind this event had already exceeded the boundaries of Mei Jiu'er's comprehension.
Still, she was a clever woman. In the blink of an eye she pieced together the key, gasped, dropped Yang Kai, and went hurtling back the way she had come.
After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, she returned, clutching tightly in her hand the stone she had thrown, her expression shifting constantly.
Once she drew near, she looked Yang Kai up and down. Her beautiful eyes held a suspicion she could not dispel, and she spoke in a low voice: "Who are you? And what is this thing?"
She had merely tossed that stone away, and it had annihilated the entire Sand Scorpion force — even the warship had been blown to bits. That throw had not used a shred of her own strength. In other words, all of this destruction was the stone's power alone. Yet what was truly bizarre was that she had not sensed even the faintest fluctuation of energy from it.
A stone like this could only be called a divine artifact. And whoever could produce such a stone was certainly no ordinary person. She was already half-convinced that Yang Kai was some reclusive old monster who had been hiding his true strength just to toy with her.
Yang Kai shook his head and did not answer. Had she not previously berated him so viciously, he might have revealed his identity. But after being chewed out like that, to turn around and tell her that the person she had just cursed was him — would that not be the height of absurdity?
He offered a faint smile, projecting an air of unfathomable mystery: "Fate brought us together. Consider this stone a gift. You clearly have great ambitions, so I hope you will never forget the resolve you hold today."
As his words fell, his figure swayed, and his silhouette rapidly faded.
"Wait!" Mei Jiu'er raised her hand.
But when she looked around, Yang Kai had already vanished without a trace. A wave of vexation washed over her — how could she not realize she had truly encountered an extraordinary expert? Still unwilling to give up, she searched the surrounding starry expanse for any sign of him. A full month passed before she finally abandoned the effort. She found a secluded place to settle down and concentrate on healing her injuries. Once she had recovered, she made straight for the Sand Scorpion stronghold.
Along the way, she tested the divine stone's power on a dead planet. She discovered that it required no infusion of energy to activate, bore no weight of its own, and simply needed to be thrown to inflict devastating destruction. For a time she treasured it like a priceless treasure, marveling at it again and again.
Half a year later, word spread through the star domain that the Sand Scorpion star pirate gang — which had terrorized the region for so long — had been annihilated. Their stronghold was destroyed. Not a single member escaped. They had been eradicated in one decisive battle by a mysterious powerhouse.
…
While Mei Jiu'er was wiping out the Sand Scorpions, Yang Kai was hiding on a dead planet — not far from where he and Mei Jiu'er had parted ways. But he had concealed his tracks perfectly; even if she had been right next to him, she would never have detected him.
Spatial laws surged. Yang Kai poured his entire consciousness into the Mysterious World Bead.
After years of arduous study and refinement, the day had finally come to prove the results. Yang Kai dared not be even slightly careless. To that end, he had released his Dharma Body to stand guard around him.
As long as the threat lurking within the second territory of the Small Mysterious World remained unresolved, the Mysterious World Bead could not devour any continent from the Demon Domain. He had to excise the second territory from the Small Mysterious World entirely.
When the Mysterious World Bead had originally absorbed the second territory, he had never imagined there would come a day when he would need to separate it again. That absorption had seemed pointless in hindsight. Yet without that seemingly unnecessary step, how could Yang Kai ever have settled down and devoted himself to those years of study and cultivation? How could he have reached his current level of achievement?
All things under heaven and earth, every sip and every bite — nothing is ever truly wasted.
He submerged his consciousness. Like unwinding thread from a cocoon, Yang Kai spread his awareness across the entirety of the second territory, peeling it away from the Small Mysterious World, piece by painstaking piece.
Within the Small Mysterious World, the second territory hummed ceaselessly. Heavenly phenomena erupted across the sky as though doomsday had arrived. The billions of living beings inhabiting it were thrown into panic and terror.
Yang Kai's image materialized across the heavens. In that moment he was the sky, he was the earth. He spoke with a calm smile: "Do not panic. Do not be afraid." His voice carried to every corner of the second territory, imbued with a strange, magical quality that soothed every heart it touched.
And as the spatial laws continued their work, the Mysterious World Bead gradually began to change.
The bead, which he had always held in the palm of his hand, now had a small bump protruding from its surface — as though a tiny tumor had sprouted.
Time flowed on. The tumor grew larger and larger, eventually reaching roughly one-tenth the size of the original bead. From a distance, the Mysterious World Bead now resembled a gourd — a large sphere connected to a smaller one. The sight was deeply peculiar.
The surge of spatial laws around Yang Kai grew ever more violent, and the space where he stood had become a devouring black hole that consumed all things.
One year. Two years. Five years…