"Signs of advancing to Open Heaven?" Yang Kai looked taken aback. "What do you mean?"
Yue He said, "Young Master may not know, but any warrior who advances to Open Heaven must shatter their own Dao Seal, merging their Grand Dao into the Small Universe within their body." She gestured toward the area where Mo Mei and the others were. "They are at precisely that critical juncture right now. If they succeed, they will advance to Open Heaven. If they fail, the consequences would be dire."
"That actually happens?" Yang Kai was stunned. He truly hadn't known that the Dao Seal had to be shattered during advancement to Open Heaven. He had always assumed the Dao Seal was something that would accompany a warrior for their entire life. But now it seemed that Open Heaven cultivators did not possess Dao Seals — because the Dao Seal had already been shattered and merged into the Small Universe, branded with the imprint of one's Grand Dao within that inner world.
He furrowed his brow again. "But if the Dao Seal is so important, wouldn't shattering it cause irreparable damage to a warrior?"
Yue He smiled softly. "What Young Master describes is the consequence of forced external intervention — for example, if a half-step Open Heaven cultivator were struck by a secret technique that shattered their Dao Seal. In that case, even if they didn't die, their cultivation would be completely ruined. However, during a proper advancement to Open Heaven, this process is absolutely necessary. How else could one merge one's Grand Dao into the Small Universe? You could think of it as destruction before reconstruction. That is why advancing to Open Heaven has always been incredibly dangerous — the slightest misstep and all previous efforts would be wasted."
Yang Kai was starting to understand, but still had his doubts. "I'm still one step away from Open Heaven, but that step won't be easy to take either. So why is my Dao Seal already showing these changes?"
Yue He couldn't figure it out either. She shook her head. "I don't understand that part either. Young Master, are you truly feeling no discomfort?"
Yang Kai said, "If something were wrong, I would certainly notice. But in truth, there is nothing unusual on my end — apart from the crack in my Dao Seal."
Yue He pondered for a long while before saying hesitantly, "Perhaps... it's related to the grade of resources you've refined. Throughout history, warriors capable of refining supreme-grade resources have been exceedingly rare — not even one might appear in thousands or tens of thousands of years. What kind of anomalies might occur during cultivation for someone like you, Young Master — no one can say for certain."
Seeing that Yue He couldn't offer a definitive explanation, Yang Kai didn't know who else to consult. In Void Territory, she had the highest cultivation and the broadest knowledge. If even she didn't know, others certainly wouldn't.
Zhu Jiuyin was a Sacred Spirit, but her cultivation path was fundamentally different from that of humans. Asking her would be even more pointless.
Seeing his troubled expression, Yue He spoke up to comfort him. "However, there is one silver lining to this situation."
Yang Kai smiled ruefully. "What silver lining? Let's hear it."
"When you advance to Open Heaven in the future, it certainly won't be difficult. You're already showing signs of advancement now. The day when Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements all come together, your advancement will proceed as naturally as water flowing downhill — with very few obstacles."
Though Yang Kai knew she was trying to comfort him, he did feel somewhat relieved. He nodded. "I hope so."
His conversation with Yue He, while it hadn't resolved the worry in his heart — and he still didn't know why his Dao Seal had undergone such changes — had given Yang Kai a vague realization.
Between the Emperor Sovereign Realm and the Open Heaven Realm lay a long, empty stretch of cultivation, and this vacuum could potentially be filled by an entirely new realm. For instance — the Dao Seal Realm!
For the Dao Seal was the crystallization of a warrior's lifetime of cultivation, condensed when they reached the pinnacle of the Emperor Sovereign Realm and comprehended their own Grand Dao. And during the advancement to Open Heaven, the Dao Seal would shatter completely, merging into the Small Universe. The journey of the Dao Seal from existence to nonexistence represented the rise and fall of an entire realm, with extremely distinct characteristics.
He simply didn't know why this realm had never existed before.
Unable to figure it out, and not particularly inclined to keep dwelling on it, he supposed there must be a reason why the Dao Seal Realm had never appeared throughout all of history.
Five or six days passed in a flash. Yang Kai, who had been closely monitoring the state of his Dao Seal, suddenly sensed an enormous surge of heavenly power rippling through the void. He quickly looked up and saw that in the distance, Pang Duo was rising to his feet, a smile on his face, standing proud in the void.
Compared to before, he was incomparably more powerful. Simply standing there, he seemed like an entire new world coming into being, with the might of heaven and earth swirling around him.
He had successfully advanced!
Almost simultaneously, the void all around rippled with heavenly power one after another. Jin Yuanlang, Mu Qianxuan, Gongyang Xi, and several others all advanced to Open Heaven within the span of half a cup of tea. These elders of Dingfeng City had cultivated for roughly the same length of time and had each refined fifth-grade resources, so their foundations were comparable. Now their advancements were occurring almost in lockstep, one right after the next.
Half a day later, Fan Wuxin and the other deacons also succeeded.
One day after that, Mo Mei completed her advancement as well!
Yang Kai was overjoyed!
Though he had given Mo Mei a considerable number of Heavenly Origin True Seal Pills — and with such pills as aid, a warrior's chances of successfully advancing to Open Heaven would be greatly improved — pills were ultimately external aids. What truly determined success or failure was each individual's foundation. No matter how powerful the external help, if one's own foundation was insufficient, there was still a risk of failure.
Now, seeing that all of them had succeeded without a single failure, he was naturally delighted.
Mo Mei had long been aware of Yang Kai's arrival, so the moment she finished advancing to Open Heaven — before she even had time to stabilize her cultivation — she flew straight toward him.
Behind her, Pang Duo and the others quickly followed. The several hundred Dingfeng City warriors who had advanced to Open Heaven even earlier trailed close behind.