The void trembled, and the scene before Yang Kai's eyes shifted. Amidst the churning spatial currents, he found himself back within the Taixu Realm. Lifting his gaze, he realized he was no longer in the vast ocean—his body was plummeting at great speed, and he hurriedly channeled his power to stabilize himself.
His blood and qi churned in his chest, and he opened his mouth to cough out a mist of blood, his complexion turning slightly pale.
Moments ago, he had activated the Spirit Echo Pearl to traverse the void, only to be intercepted by that Kun Shark, which had damaged him in the process. Fortunately, the injuries were not severe—a day or two of rest would suffice for recovery.
He surveyed his surroundings. Towering trees stood in every direction, some a hundred zhang tall, others a full thousand zhang, their roots firmly anchored in the earth, their canopies stretching in an unbroken expanse. He had no idea where he was.
A lingering sense of dread gripped his heart. He had known the Taixu Realm was far more complex than he had initially imagined—there were Divine Spirits walking its lands—but he had never expected to find one among the sea clans as well.
The Kun Shark! That creature carried the bloodline of both the Kun Peng and the great sea shark, and the Kun Peng was the sworn enemy of the Dragon Clan. Yang Kai shuddered to think that if he had fallen into the Kun Shark's clutches, his death would have been agonizing.
Others might not have been able to detect the bloodline aura within him, but the Kun Shark certainly could.
And that Kun Shark's strength was truly formidable—it had even interrupted the Spirit Echo Pearl's teleportation, causing his positioning to fail and leaving the others scattered and swallowed by the spatial rifts.
He had no idea what their situation was now.
Because he had asked Xu Zhen to set up a large formation at the Scarlet Star Market, he had previously exchanged communication methods with him. Yang Kai quickly retrieved his communication pearl and reached out to Xu Zhen. After a brief wait, Xu Zhen replied, indicating that he was currently safe, though he had no idea where he was.
Yang Kai felt somewhat relieved. He then asked Xu Zhen to inquire about the status of the others, and Xu Zhen agreed without hesitation.
Yang Kai looked around, descended to the ground, found a hollow in one of the massive trees, and crawled inside. He began regulating his breathing while waiting for news.
Roughly half an hour later, Xu Zhen sent word: Qu Huachang, Gu Pan, and Ning Daoran were all still alive. However, just like Yang Kai, they had been swallowed by the spatial rifts and transported to random locations within the Taixu Realm. None of them knew where they were.
Only Lin Feng was unreachable—it was impossible to tell whether he was alive or dead.
Hearing that Gu Pan was still alive, Yang Kai finally felt at ease.
After a brief exchange with Xu Zhen, they agreed to rendezvous at the Scarlet Star Market. Yang Kai then put away the communication pearl, settling into quiet meditation to heal his injuries while also examining what he had gained from this ordeal.
He immersed his consciousness into the Small World and projected his spiritual body within it.
The moment he appeared, he couldn't help but shudder—the Small World had never been this cold before. He looked up to see a full moon hanging high in the sky, radiating an icy light.
"Master, Master! Something terrible happened—there's suddenly a moon here!" Mu Zhu and Mu Lu came fluttering over with their little wings, shouting in alarm.
The two little Wood Spirits had always remained in the Small World, tending to the rare treasures in the medicine garden, and were the only companions who had come with Yang Kai from the Star Boundary. They had been quietly looking after the garden when they suddenly saw a full moon rise and hang high in the sky, and they had been thoroughly startled.
"That's not a moon!" Yang Kai replied, though he found it equally baffling. How had the Ice Soul Cold Moon Pearl ended up here in the form of a full moon?
This suggested that even if the Ice Soul Cold Moon Pearl was not an actual moon, it was certainly related to one.
The two Wood Spirits flew up to his shoulders, one on each side. Mu Lu asked curiously, "If it's not a moon, what is it?"
"I don't know either," Yang Kai shook his head. He had never seen anything like this before, and even the disciples from the Blessed Lands and Great Cave Heavens hadn't been able to identify it. Perhaps he could ask the proprietress about it later and get some answers.
Mu Zhu was the more composed of the two. She frowned and said, "Whether it's a moon or not, it's far too cold. If you don't do something about it, everything in the medicine garden will freeze to death. Lu Lu and I will freeze too!"
Mu Lu burst into tears. "I don't want to freeze to death!"
Yang Kai turned to look and saw that the herbs in the medicine garden were indeed in trouble—many had wilted, and some had even developed a layer of frost on them, their medicinal potency greatly diminished.
As the master of the Small World, he could command everything within it. The numerous restrictions protecting the medicine garden had been carved using the power of the entire world itself, and ordinary forces could hardly hope to erode them. Yet the light of this moon was able to affect the garden's contents—its power was truly astonishing.
"Don't worry, I'll reinforce the garden's restrictions." Yang Kai acted on his thought immediately, connecting his mind and body with the Small World and borrowing its vast power to strengthen the layered restrictions, restoring the medicine garden to its original state.
However, before long, his brow furrowed again, because he could clearly feel that the restrictions he had just set up were still being slowly eroded by the moonlight. At this rate, they would be breached within a year or two at most.
"Remind me once every half year—I need to come and reinforce the restrictions here regularly."
Mu Zhu nodded. "I'll remember."
Yang Kai glanced up at the full moon once more, slowly shook his head, and withdrew from the Small World.
Meanwhile, out on the open sea, Lin Feng's body transformed into a streak of brilliant light, covering a hundred li in an instant as he fled at top speed, his passage slicing through the waves and splitting the ocean surface behind him.