That particular cultivation method was called the Desolate Scripture, and every Blessed Land had a copy preserved within its archives, so it was not exactly a closely guarded secret.
It was said that the earliest version of the Desolate Scripture had been carved onto an enormous stone stele, discovered by the ancestors of the Blessed Lands.
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person would never have the opportunity to study the Desolate Scripture. But Yang Kai was no ordinary cultivator. In name, he was the son-in-law of Yin Yang Heaven. In status, he was the Great Emperor of the Star Boundary, and because of the World Tree of the Star Boundary, he was tangled up with every major Blessed Land in a thousand threads of connection. He had also contributed enormously in resolving the matter of the Ink Servants of Langya.
Though Yang Kai was currently only a minor Sixth-Grade cultivator, he had already stepped into and participated in many of the secrets of these Three Thousand Worlds.
So in Li Yuanwang's view, letting him observe the Desolate Scripture was not a big deal.
However, he had one condition: whatever insights Yang Kai gained from the Desolate Scripture, he had to share with Langya.
Yang Kai agreed without hesitation. He simply wanted to know why cultivating the Desolate Scripture caused the time flow within one's Small World to accelerate so dramatically after advancing to the Open Heaven realm. If he actually figured it out, there was nothing to hide.
The Desolate Scripture was kept in a restricted area, surrounded by numerous prohibition formations. Within Langya, apart from the Grand Elder and a handful of Seventh-Grade high-ranking officials, no one else was permitted to set foot there.
When Li Yuanwang brought Yang Kai to the location, Yang Kai immediately spotted a stone stele standing upright upon the earth. The stele looked ancient and weathered, clearly having stood for untold ages, and its surface was covered in dense rows of tiny characters.
"No one remembers anymore where the original Desolate Scripture was first discovered, and this stele is not the original. Our ancestors made a complete rubbing of it, preserving even the exact dimensions of the stele without alteration, all so that future generations of disciples could better comprehend this cultivation method. It's just that after so many millennia, despite the emergence of talented individuals across all the Blessed Lands, they still understand what it does but not why it works."
Every Blessed Land knew the various benefits and drawbacks of cultivating the Desolate Scripture, but nobody could figure out the underlying reason. That was why Li Yuanwang had earlier called it imitating someone else's toothpick.
Yang Kai nodded and shifted his gaze downward.
Not far from the Desolate Scripture stele stood a row of thatched huts that were particularly conspicuous. Moreover, beneath the stele itself sat several figures in quiet meditation, each gazing up at the tiny characters on the stele, completely absorbed.
Among them were young men, teenagers, and even a child who looked to be about ten years old.
Hearing the commotion, the group turned to look, then rose and bowed: "Greetings, Sect Master!"
Li Yuanwang gave a slight nod and waved them off to continue their studies before explaining to Yang Kai: "These are the Langya disciples who cultivate the Desolate Scripture."
Yang Kai understood. At most there were only five people here. Whether they could successfully advance to Open Heaven, whether they could achieve Seventh-Grade, whether they could convert their Small World into a Small Origin World after death—each was an enormous hurdle. Failing to clear any single one of them would mean thousands of years of effort gone to waste.
"I'll give you half a year. Meditate on your own, and I'll come back for you when the time is up," Li Yuanwang said.
"Thank you, Sect Master!" Yang Kai clasped his fists.
This was, after all, a restricted area of Langya. Li Yuanwang allowing him to study the Desolate Scripture and granting half a year was already the absolute limit—he couldn't very well let him stay here indefinitely.
After giving Yang Kai his instructions, Li Yuanwang departed.
Yang Kai walked up to the stele, tilted his head back, and imprinted every character on its surface into his mind. He had to admit that the Desolate Scripture truly was an extraordinarily profound cultivation method. Though Yang Kai hadn't attempted to cultivate it, his current discernment was far beyond ordinary, and he could assess the merits and flaws of any technique at a glance.
Li Yuanwang had been right. This method was suited purely for cultivation—steady and uneventful. A cultivator of the Desolate Scripture would rarely encounter any bottlenecks, and as long as they progressed methodically, there was no risk of Qi Deviation. But that was precisely the technique's greatest flaw: it was far too placid.
Cultivating this way meant that even as one's cultivation rose, one would possess very little combat power.
At the same realm, engaging anyone in battle would inevitably put them at a severe disadvantage. For a martial artist who aspired to reach the pinnacle of the martial path, this was absolutely unacceptable. If one could barely preserve one's own life, what point was there in discussing higher realms?
But cultivators born within the Blessed Lands had nothing to worry about on that front. They trained here year after year, never needing to participate in conflicts beyond their borders, so having lower combat power hardly mattered.
Yet the more Yang Kai studied, the less he could see any connection between the Desolate Scripture and the Dao of Time. He could not fathom why cultivators of this method experienced such a dramatic surge in time flow within their Small World after advancing to the Open Heaven realm.
The five Langya disciples who had been cultivating here couldn't figure out Yang Kai's background, but they had all personally watched Sect Master Li Yuanwang bring him to this place. No one had ever received such an honor before. On top of that, Yang Kai's own Open Heaven cultivation base made the five disciples conclude that he was not one of their kind, so none of them took the initiative to speak to him.
Yang Kai paid them no mind either. He found a spot at the base of the stele, sat down, and continued observing and contemplating the mysteries of the Desolate Scripture.
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
Yang Kai had long since memorized the Desolate Scripture by heart, and its inner workings were thoroughly grasped in his mind. Yet he still had not discovered any connection to the Dao of Time.
This left Yang Kai deeply puzzled. In theory, if the Desolate Scripture could cause a cultivator's Small World time flow to increase dramatically after advancing to the Seventh Grade, it should have some relationship with the Dao of Time.