Qiongqi stepped out from behind and sighed, "Young Master, you should stop tormenting yourself. The world beyond the Universe is far too dangerous. There's no rush—wait until you've cultivated to the level the old master possessed before making any plans."
Yang Xiao's face was ashen. "How long would that take? The Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Horse?"
The more he cultivated, the more keenly he felt how difficult it was to improve his strength. Reaching the level the Great Emperor of Time had once possessed would take at least a millennium of accumulation. He had been born with the temperament of a monkey—fond of movement, averse to stillness. How could he possibly wait that long?
"Too lazy to waste words with you!" Yang Xue snorted coldly, extending a slender jade hand to grab Yang Xiao by the ear. Amid his cries of pain and pleas for mercy, she dragged him into the Temple of Time.
The temple doors slammed shut, and every restriction activated. The next time they opened—no one could say what year or month that would be.
……
"Sir!" In the void, Zhang Ruoxi smiled brightly, just as she had the very first time they met. The passage of time had left no mark upon her.
"How is your family?" Yang Kai asked.
"Thanks to your kindness, Sir, they are all well," Zhang Ruoxi replied.
She had walked out of the Blood Gate and immediately thrown herself into the death struggle against the Great Demon God. For a time afterward, she had also been busy at Yang Kai's side, rushing about here and there, until fifty years ago when Yang Kai entered seclusion. Only then had she finally had the chance to reunite with her family.
The Zhang family, based outside Maple Forest City, had never been a major clan. Their strongest member was merely at the Void King Third Stage—not a single one had reached the Dao Source Stage. Such strength was of no use in the war between the two worlds, so Yang Kai had long since gathered them into the Mysterious World Bead for safekeeping, which was why they had been perfectly preserved.
Now the Zhang family had settled within Lingiao Palace. Every younger generation member of suitable age had been accepted as a disciple. Over these fifty years, Zhang Ruoxi had shared familial joy with her loved ones while recovering from her injuries.
With the Blood Gate now open, Tianxing Palace was under the joint management of Luanfeng and the others. Any spirit beast in the world that carried the bloodline of an ancient sacred spirit could enter the Blood Gate and join Tianxing Palace to pursue the glory of their ancestors.
Zhang Ruoxi had also finished handling all of her own affairs.
For this journey beyond the Universe, she would be traveling alongside Yang Kai. The others either lacked the strength or were still recovering from their injuries and unable to set out.
"Good," Yang Kai nodded. "Go wait for me at Ada's location for a while. I still have one more matter to take care of—months at the shortest, three to five years at the longest. I'll come find you."
"Understood." Zhang Ruoxi nodded and turned to fly out into the void.
In the void, Yang Kai took his bearings, then transformed into a streak of light and shot away at tremendous speed.
The void was desolate and the journey long, but traveling alone gave him the opportunity to quiet his mind and reflect. He found it anything but tedious.
A full month passed before Yang Kai finally arrived at his destination. Even with his current strength, the journey had taken this long—such was the immense distance between this place and the Star Boundary.
He looked around, and his gaze fell upon the vast, boundless expanse of the universe. Yang Kai gave a slight nod. This would do.
He raised his hand and produced the Mysterious World Bead. With a thought, the tiny bead underwent a dramatic transformation, expanding into a colossal object that filled the void.
This journey beyond the Universe carried no guarantees of life or death. The road ahead was unknown, and unimaginable dangers might well await. Within the Third Domain of the Mysterious World Bead, tens of millions of Demon Race members still lived—it would be far too risky to keep it on his person. If he found himself in mortal peril, those tens of millions would likely perish alongside him.
Before departing, Yang Kai needed to separate the Third Domain from the rest of the Mysterious World Bead.
In the past, he might not have known where to begin. But now, with his greatly increased strength and the experience of having once separated the Second Domain, this task was not entirely beyond his reach.
The Small Mysterious World had originally contained three great domains. The First Domain was native to the Small Mysterious World itself. The Second Domain had been formed from several Cultivation Stars he had absorbed in the lower star domains. The Third Domain came from devouring the Demon Realm—essentially a second Demon Realm.
Before the second war between the two worlds, Yang Kai had traveled to the lower star domains and separated the Second Domain from the Small Mysterious World, expending a tremendous amount of effort and energy in the process.
Now, attempting the same trick once more, he had assumed it would not be too difficult. But once he actually set his hands to it, Yang Kai realized something was amiss.
The Third Domain was simply too vast. After all, it had consumed the entire territory of the Demon Realm—its area dwarfed the original Small Mysterious World by untold times, creating a situation where the host and subsidiary domains had become indistinguishable, the tail wagging the dog.
Yang Kai toiled away for days on end, but to no avail. He had anticipated this possibility, though he had not been entirely certain. Now, faced with the reality of it, he could only revise his plan.
With a thought, within the Small Mysterious World, the Dharma Body hovered in the void. Dark energy churned across its entire frame as its hands formed seals, its consciousness spreading to every corner of the Third Domain.
The Mysterious World Bead was Yang Kai's Artifact. The Dharma Body had been born from a wisp of his consciousness inhabiting a Stone Puppet's frame. Though it now possessed its own independent thoughts and awareness, it could still be considered his clone.