Three years had passed since the Domain Gate connecting Void Land and Feiyan Domain had been sealed shut.
Over those three years, everyone in Void Land had devoted themselves wholeheartedly to cultivation, expending vast quantities of resources. And the results were plain for all to see.
The most striking improvement was that the number of Open Heaven Realm cultivators had increased by nearly five hundred!
On average, several to over a dozen people advanced to the Open Heaven Realm every single month.
The warriors from the Star Boundary naturally couldn't achieve such speed. Most of them were still laying the groundwork for their own advancement to Open Heaven — some hadn't even reached the Emperor Heaven Realm yet.
These newly advanced Open Heaven cultivators had all emerged from Dingfeng City within the Blood Monster Cave Heaven.
Back when Yang Kai had brought thousands of people out of Dingfeng City, the unique environment of the Blood Monster Cave Heaven and the Bloodline Great Curse had permanently capped the warriors there at the peak of the Emperor Heaven Realm, preventing them from ever glimpsing the mysteries of the Open Heaven Realm.
Yang Kai had brought them out, dispelled the Bloodline Great Curse, granted them free status and excellent cultivation conditions, removing all their worries and misgivings.
Those who had long been qualified to advance to Open Heaven but had been held back by their environment naturally experienced wave after wave of explosive breakthroughs.
Mo Mei and the others advanced to the Open Heaven Realm in short order, instantly adding over three hundred Open Heaven cultivators to Void Land's ranks.
Yet the potential of Dingfeng City's warriors was far from exhausted. Over the years, warriors from Dingfeng City had continued advancing to Open Heaven in an unbroken stream, steadily strengthening Void Land's foundation.
Though many of those who advanced later held relatively unimpressive grades — very few even reached Fifth-Order, with most being Third or Fourth-Order — sheer numbers made up for it, and they had the Celestial Pivot Stabilizing Pills to guarantee their success.
No other force, not even the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, could ensure that every single disciple's advancement to Open Heaven would succeed without fail.
But Void Land could!
Even those advancing to Third-Order Open Heaven received a Celestial Pivot Stabilizing Pill each. Advancing to Third or Fourth-Order wasn't particularly difficult to begin with, and with a treasure like the Celestial Pivot Stabilizing Pill, failure was practically impossible.
By now, the total number of Open Heaven cultivators in Void Land had surpassed the one-thousand mark! It was foreseeable that in the days to come, even more warriors from Dingfeng City would join their ranks.
Though Yang Kai had anticipated this development long ago, when Bian Yuqing reported the compiled statistics to him, he still couldn't help but beam with delight.
Looking back, when he had first entered the Thirty Thousand World and ended up at Seven Mysteries Place as a menial disciple, scraping together every last Open Heaven Pill he could get his hands on — who could have imagined that one day he would have over a thousand Open Heaven Realm cultivators under his command?
If he marched this force out into the open, across the entire Thirty Thousand World, aside from the great Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, what faction could possibly stand against them?
Void Land could truly be called a land brimming with talent, its armies strong and its warriors mighty!
No matter how Void Land tried to conceal things, with so many people continuously advancing to Open Heaven, traces were inevitably left behind.
And Zuo Quanhui's Heavenly Sword Alliance had long since planted spies outside Void Land — there were even their lackeys operating within the Star Market itself.
Yang Kai and Bian Yuqing were well aware of this, but unable to root them out, they had no way to expel them.
Perhaps stimulated by the constant stream of breakthroughs, the Heavenly Sword Alliance had managed to hold its peace for the first year. After that, however, they had begun probing actions.
From time to time, warships bearing the Heavenly Sword Alliance's banners would roam through Void Territory. They didn't dare venture too close to Void Land itself, nor did they dare attack the lower-realm worlds any longer, but their mere presence terrified the seven subordinate Sects under Void Land.
Within Void Territory, aside from Void Land itself, there were seven Third-Class forces — all of them could be considered Void Land's subordinate Sects, dependent on Void Land's protection for their survival. Most Third-Class forces didn't even have a Mid-Grade Open Heaven cultivator, and those that did had at most one or two Fourth-Order experts. Their foundations were paper-thin, and when they spotted the Heavenly Sword Alliance's warships prowling near their doorsteps, their souls would scatter in terror as they rushed to Void Land for help.
Void Land dispatched troops several times, but by the time they arrived, the Heavenly Sword Alliance's ships had long since vanished without a trace.
After several such incidents, Bian Yuqing gritted her teeth and organized the Open Heaven cultivators under their banner into a patrol squad to monitor the situation across Void Territory.
This way, the two sides inevitably crossed paths from time to time, and minor skirmishes broke out as a result.
Void Land was fighting on home turf and enjoyed overwhelming numerical superiority in Open Heaven cultivators, so they naturally held every advantage — nearly every clash ended in a decisive victory.
The Heavenly Sword Alliance, after losing several of its tentacles that had been probing into Void Territory, showed some restraint. However, they still maintained a heavy blockade on the Domain Gate connecting Feiyan Domain to Void Territory, and showed no signs of launching a full-scale assault — clearly still clinging to their strategy of slowly starving Void Land to death.
In truth, the Heavenly Sword Alliance's decision wasn't necessarily wrong. Three years had passed, and Void Land's accumulated resources had dwindled significantly. The Star Market was generating almost no income now, and with so many more Open Heaven cultivators, the rate of resource consumption had only accelerated.