Half a day later, a look of despair crept onto Ti Zheng's face.
A great deal of the foundation within his Small World had been lost. Even if Wu Kuang were to stop now, his cultivation would plummet. Recovery would require untold ages of slow, painstaking cultivation.
Wu Kuang, on the other hand, had swelled to nearly twice his original size after devouring so much power, his once gaunt frame now utterly transformed into that of a corpulent, rotund man. Qi and blood surged ceaselessly from his pores, trailing ribbons of fresh blood, and his entire body was shrouded in a dense, crimson mist.
He looked as though he might explode at any moment, unable to contain the vast power flooding his body — yet in truth, he showed no intention of stopping. He continued to frantically invoke the Heaven Devouring Battle Art, devouring everything Ti Zheng had to offer.
Moreover, as time passed, Wu Kuang's aura was climbing at a terrifying rate.
This man had advanced to the Fifth-Grade Open Heaven a mere seven or eight years ago at most — barely enough time for a cultivator to stabilize his realm. Yet Wu Kuang now appeared to have reached the very peak of the Fifth-Grade, with faint signs that he was on the verge of a breakthrough.
Ti Zheng was horrified.
What manner of heretical art was this Heaven Devouring Battle Art, that it could elevate one's cultivation so rapidly? Could there really be no aftereffects whatsoever?
Wu Kuang paid no heed, driving the Heaven Devouring Battle Art with manic intensity, greedily devouring the myriad foundations contained within the Small World of a Seventh-Grade Open Heaven cultivator.
Such an opportunity was extraordinarily rare. He had done this before, true, but the Open Heaven cultivators he had devoured then had only been Fourth- or Fifth-Grade. Now that this golden chance had finally presented itself, how could he possibly let it slip away?
And for this opportunity, he had Yang Kai to thank, of all people.
If Yang Kai hadn't brought a Sacred Spirit to grievously wound Ti Zheng, Wu Kuang could never have landed his sneak attack.
He hadn't expected that in just a few short decades, Yang Kai would have carved out such a formidable reputation across the Three Thousand Worlds and even claimed the Void Cradle as his own territory.
As expected — a man of real ability would never go unnoticed, no matter where he ended up.
Three full days passed before Wu Kuang finally ceased his technique. He drew in a deep breath, raised both hands overhead, and slowly pressed them downward, calming the turbulent blood and qi surging within him.
Three consecutive days of nonstop devouring had swollen his body several times over. From a distance, he resembled nothing so much as a great round ball, grotesquely bloated. Blood trickled from his seven orifices without pause, and the crimson mist spraying from his pores cycled endlessly.
Yet his aura had grown more than several times stronger than before, firmly established at the very pinnacle of the Fifth-Grade.
Ti Zheng, by contrast, was barely breathing. His eyes had gone vacant, his body withered and emaciated, every last shred of his Small World's foundation drained. He was a lamp that had burned through its oil — even if Wu Kuang didn't kill him, he wouldn't last long.
"Any last words?" Wu Kuang asked in a deep voice.
Ti Zheng stared at him fixedly, saying nothing.
Wu Kuang nodded. "Then I bid you farewell!"
A single palm strike descended, and Ti Zheng's body burst into fine powder, utterly annihilated in an instant. A dignified Seventh-Grade Open Heaven cultivator had met such an end — a tragedy, and a lamentable one at that.
After killing Ti Zheng, Wu Kuang immediately shot deeper into the Broken Heaven. Before long, he located a shattered Spirit Continent, slipped inside, and set up an array of concealment formations. He then drove the Spirit Continent further into the depths before settling into a cross-legged position, dedicating himself to refining the power he had devoured.
He had eaten far too much this time. Only an extended period of closed-door refinement would allow him to fully digest it all — and when he emerged, the time for his advance to the Sixth-Grade would have come.
The Heaven Devouring Battle Art had been created by his own hand and refined multiple times since his arrival in the Three Thousand Worlds. With such a heaven-defying technique in his possession, all he needed to do to elevate his cultivation was find some Open Heaven cultivators to devour. Why would he ever have placed any stock in Ti Zheng's promises?
As he had said — a thousand years was far too long. If the opportunity arose, advancing to the Seventh-Grade would not require nearly so protracted a wait.
…
Beneath a grey, overcast sky lay a lifeless, desolate expanse of earth, devoid of even a single blade of green. The surrounding laws were shattered, and even the great power of heaven and earth seemed broken and incomplete.
This was the Shadowless Heavenly Cave?
Yang Kai stood atop an unnamed, barren mountain, his brow furrowed as he surveyed his surroundings.
Compared to the Blood Demon Heavenly Cave, this Shadowless Heavenly Cave was frankly an eyesore. The Blood Demon Heavenly Cave had been nothing more than an Ordinary Heavenly Cave as well, yet its terrain had been varied and its scenery decent enough. The Shadowless Heavenly Cave, however, was this barren and dreary — it left Yang Kai genuinely puzzled.
He had torn through the void from the Broken Heaven to enter the Shadowless Heavenly Cave and arrived here.
Logically, since the entrance existed, it should function in both directions. Yet after probing the area for a good while, he couldn't detect even the faintest trace of spatial force, much less locate the spot where he had entered.
In other words, if he wanted to leave the Shadowless Heavenly Cave, he would have to find another exit entirely.
Where was the proprietress?
Yang Kai gazed into the distance but found nothing. Still, the Shadowless Heavenly Cave was just an Ordinary Heavenly Cave — its area shouldn't be too vast. As long as the proprietress was still here, he would eventually find her.
Before he could set off, a sudden intuition struck him. He turned his head in one direction and saw several figures hurtling toward him at great speed, arriving in the blink of an eye.
Three people — each radiating the aura of an Open Heaven cultivator. Leading them was a middle-aged man at the Fifth-Grade Open Heaven, trailed by a Fourth-Grade woman and a Third-Grade youth.
At first glance, the three looked rather like a family, though once a cultivator reached the Open Heaven realm, their true age was impossible to tell from appearances alone, and one could not judge their relationships on that basis.
Yang Kai had been fretting over finding someone to ask about the proprietress's whereabouts, so seeing these three appear was a welcome surprise.