Several days later, Divine Lord Shengyang was the first to recover, though he soon flickered and vanished without a trace, presumably to scout the area and find a way to escape.
He was gone for more than half a month. It was only after fifteen days that he suddenly reappeared on another spatial fragment, his face ashen.
He had clearly found no leads. Even with his Eighth-Order Open Heaven realm foundation, he was unable to forcibly break through and leave this place. The spatial chaos here was extreme — no matter what he tried, all of his attacks were randomly teleported to other spatial fragments, bouncing and flickering between different fragments until, like the torrent of divine abilities that had chased him here, their energy dissipated into nothing.
Brute force could not break through, and he could not discern the slightest pattern. Even a powerhouse as formidable as Divine Lord Shengyang had no choice but to accept the reality of being trapped.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai healed his injuries while keeping a close watch on his Small Universe.
During their earlier flight, when Yang Kai had probed his Small Universe, he had gained certain insights — a flash of inspiration that seemed tantalizingly within reach. Unfortunately, before he could fully comprehend it, Xia Linlang had interrupted him. Back then he'd been too focused on escaping to dwell on it deeply. Now, though he was trapped, the situation had inadvertently granted him a stable opportunity to cultivate.
Within his Small Universe, a strand of Yang Kai's divine sense manifested in vivid detail, indistinguishable from his true self, standing tall above the firmament. He gazed down below, watching the masses of living beings migrate, watching cities rise from nothing, watching births and deaths and the cycle of life, watching the sun climb and the moon arc across the sky.
As time passed, his eyes gradually grew brighter.
At a certain moment, a decree resounded throughout the heavens: "In the name of my Universe, I shall command the power of time and space!"
In that instant, the tens of millions of living beings who had migrated into his Small Universe all seemed to sense something, lifting their heads in unison toward the sky. The Sovereigns among them perceived it most keenly. But when they focused their awareness to investigate, they found nothing — as though the entire world had undergone some minute change, or perhaps no change at all. They were left puzzled and confused.
In the span of a single breath, the anomaly passed, and the entire world returned to its previous state.
Above the clouds, Yang Kai grinned, laughing soundlessly.
The tens of millions of residents of his Small Universe might not have detected anything, but that did not mean his Small Universe had remained unchanged. In truth, the transformation was so enormous that even he could scarcely believe it.
The time flow within his entire Small Universe had accelerated to nearly twice the rate of the outside world.
Xu Linggong had once said that the shortcut to cultivation in this world, aside from entering the Small Source World to train, was the River of Time. Within the River of Time, time flowed differently from the outside world — one year outside might equate to a hundred years, a thousand years, or even ten thousand years within.
He had already entered the Small Source World once, but the River of Time remained something he had only heard of and never witnessed. He had often wondered what that wondrous River of Time truly looked like, but the opportunity had never presented itself.
Now, under the dual blessing of the Time Laws and the Space Laws, his own Small Universe had taken on the unmistakable flavor of being bathed in the River of Time.
It was merely a diminished version of that legendary river, yet it had already raised the time flow within his Small Universe to roughly twice the outside rate.
In other words, one day outside meant two days within his Small Universe. One year outside meant two years within!
This change had no direct impact on himself, but for the living beings residing in his Small Universe, the implications were enormous.
An accelerated time flow would not shorten their lifespans, because from their own perception, time still felt the same — the difference only became apparent when compared to the outside world.
The entire purpose of nurturing living beings within one's body was to assist one's own cultivation. Advancing through the Open Heaven realm required vast stretches of time, and the living beings bred within one's Small Universe generated spiritual fortune as they lived and reproduced, continuously strengthening the foundation of the Small Universe. Even if an Open Heaven cultivator did nothing, this accumulation would continue on its own.
With the time flow now accelerated, it meant Yang Kai would reap far greater benefits going forward.
It had been nothing more than a flash of inspiration and an experiment — he had never expected it to actually succeed. It was nothing short of a delightful surprise! Though in truth, this was likely something only someone who had comprehended the Time Laws to a certain degree could achieve. The Time Laws were said to be even more difficult to cultivate than the Space Laws — how many people in this world, like Yang Kai, had pushed the Time Laws all the way to the sixth level?
In the future, Yang Xiao and Yang Xue should be able to do the same. After all, they were the inheritors of the Sovereign of Time's legacy.
It was a pity that with his current mastery of the Time Laws, even at his absolute limit, he could only accelerate his Small Universe's time flow to nearly twice the normal rate. Anything beyond that was wishful thinking.
Perhaps as his comprehension of the Time Laws deepened in the future, this multiplier could be raised further.
And though this transformation brought tremendous benefits, it was not without cost.
The price Yang Kai had to pay was his own lifespan!
His Small Universe was the foundation of his entire life. Whatever the multiplier of time's passage within the Small Universe, the same multiplier applied to the consumption of his own lifespan.
But for an Open Heaven cultivator of the Sixth Order like him, this cost was negligible when measured against the gains. Never mind nearly twice — if he could raise it to ten times or a hundred times, Yang Kai would do it without hesitation.