So even though Yang Kai's killing intent surged like a tide, he could only suppress it inwardly.
He approached Yang Yan and asked in a low voice, "What happened here?"
The devastating scene before him was proof enough that before his arrival, the humans and demons had fought a battle of unprecedented scale. And the cause of that battle was undoubtedly tied to the Great Dao opportunity.
"The Void Heaven Cauldron is here!" Yang Yan pointed behind Yang Kai.
Yang Kai turned to look, and his eyes narrowed. There, at the very center of the great hall behind him, stood an ancient cauldron of immense proportions. It looked as though it had emerged from the deepest currents of history, exuding an aura of desolate antiquity.
Countless strange patterns and engravings adorned the cauldron's surface. At first glance they seemed unremarkable, but a closer look revealed that every last one of them conformed to the supreme principles of the Great Dao…
Even though he had glimpsed the Void Heaven Cauldron's enormous projection from afar before, the first time Yang Kai laid eyes on the real thing, he still froze for a moment. His very consciousness seemed drawn toward it, filling him with an irresistible urge to throw aside everything and plumb the mysteries concealed within this colossal artifact.
Moreover, the Void Heaven Cauldron was not empty. Inside it grew a small tree—modest in height, only about three zhang, with verdant green foliage. From one of its branches hung a single fruit the size of a fist, translucent and crystalline, within which shifted a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colors.
A peculiar fragrance curled around his nostrils and pierced straight into his mind.
The scent was familiar—it was the same aroma he had noticed while traveling earlier. Yang Kai realized with a start that the source of that fragrance was here all along.
"What is this?" Yang Kai frowned deeply. The intelligence he had received from Sheng Yu Zhu indicated only the existence of the Void Heaven Cauldron, yet here, inside the cauldron, stood a small tree bearing a single fruit…
He glanced sideways at Sheng Yu Zhu, who slowly shook her head, indicating that she too was ignorant of this.
Whether she truly didn't know or was merely pretending, Yang Kai now had a distinct feeling: the key to becoming a Great Emperor was not the Void Heaven Cauldron itself, but rather this single fruit that had ripened on the small tree within it.
Yang Yan offered an explanation from the side.
After separating from Yang Kai, she and the others had headed straight for this location. Upon arriving, however, they discovered that everyone had already converged here. When old enemies met, there was little to say—they plunged straight into a massive battle.
People kept falling, and as the death toll mounted, a small tree gradually sprouted inside the Void Heaven Cauldron. A fruit slowly formed upon it, and the situation evolved into what stood before them now.
The losses on both sides had been staggering. The survivors were all wounded, and the toll of death and pain gradually brought both factions to their senses. Before Yang Kai's arrival, the humans and demons had been locked in a tense standoff.
"This is the Origin Heaven Fruit!" Jia Long's voice rang out from the opposite side. Yang Kai looked up to see Jia Long gazing at the lone fruit on the small tree with an expression of rapt obsession. He even licked his lips as he spoke. "Whoever seizes the Origin Heaven Fruit and refines it will claim that Great Dao opportunity." He cast a sidelong glance at Yang Kai, his tone provocative. "Do you want it?"
"The Origin Heaven Fruit?" Yang Kai raised an eyebrow. "Can Ye told you about this?"
It had to be said that in the intelligence game surrounding this Great Dao contest, the Star Boundary side was at an absolute disadvantage. The great emperors were trapped in some unknown space, unable to leave, while the Demon Race had Can Ye to point them in advance, allowing the demon half-sages to know their objective well ahead of time.
"Throughout all the ages, those who have entered this heaven-and-earth secret realm have been none other than pseudo-emperors," Jia Long said, ignoring Yang Kai's question entirely. "Every last one of them seized heaven and earth's blessings and enjoyed the favor of the heavens. Setting aside your Star Boundary pseudo-emperors, among us demon half-sages, is there anyone who didn't achieve their status the same way?"
Even as adversaries, Yang Kai could not refute this.
Any cultivator who reached the level of pseudo-emperor or half-sage possessed tremendous fortune and had lived a life of extraordinary brilliance. Take himself for example—along his path of Cultivation, he had been blessed with countless opportunities beyond counting. Without those coveted fortunes that would make ordinary people green with envy, how could he ever have reached this point?
In this world, there were always those blessed with exceptional luck. They could fall off a cliff and survive by sheer fortune, stumble upon the hidden cave dwelling and treasures of some ancient predecessor, master a divine technique, break free in a single move, and soar ninety thousand li into the heavens.
Every pseudo-emperor standing here, every half-sage—none of them lacked their own share of fortune and destiny.
"The Origin Heaven Fruit within this heaven-and-earth secret realm is nourished by precisely that fortune and destiny. Without those blessings, this fruit would never have appeared." Jia Long regarded Yang Kai with an indifferent gaze, a mocking smile playing at the corner of his lips.
Yang Kai's mind turned over this information, and he furrowed his brow. "You're saying that this secret realm absorbed the fortune and destiny of those who died, and that is how it produced this Origin Heaven Fruit."
"Precisely!" Jia Long's expression turned solemn. "That is why, in every Great Dao contest, more than half of the participants perish. They must die—if they didn't, how could this fruit ever manifest? Only when enough have died and the fortune and destiny carried by those fallen souls return to heaven and earth can the Origin Heaven Fruit be born. The total store of heaven-and-earth fortune is finite, after all!"
The reason only a single Origin Heaven Fruit had manifested this time was that heaven and earth would permit only one Great Emperor to be born. If the Heaven-and-Earth Bottle still had room, the small tree would likely have produced more than one fruit.
"If that's the case, then consuming this Origin Heaven Fruit would mean seizing the fortune and destiny of all those who died."
A chill ran through him. The combined fortune and destiny of so many pseudo-emperors and half-sages concentrated upon a single person—no wonder the Origin Heaven Fruit held such miraculous power.
"Naturally," Jia Long said in a deep voice. "And this Great Dao contest is different from all those that came before. This time, my Demon Race has joined the fray!"