After spending so many years beyond the bounds of the Universe, Yang Kai was no longer the ignorant youth he had once been.
The vast Universe, the Three Thousand Great Domains—each Great Domain could be thought of as a closed-off space, and between one Great Domain and another lay extraordinarily robust Void Barriers that kept them isolated from one another.
These barriers had flaws, and only by threading through these flaws could one travel from one Great Domain to another.
These flaws were Domain Gates!
Whether Domain Gates were artificially created or naturally formed, Yang Kai had no way of knowing.
Over countless ages, all the known Great Domains had been recorded in the Universe Map, providing cultivators with tremendous convenience.
But there were also unknown Great Domains whose Void Barriers either had no flaws at all, or whose flaws were hidden. For example, the new Great Domain bordering Ling Xiao Domain—if the numerous experts of Void Land hadn't clashed with Zuo Quanhui in a great battle, it would never have been exposed, and the new Great Domain would never have come to the world's attention.
The new Great Domain was no isolated case. In truth, according to historical records, roughly every few thousand to ten thousand years, the vast Universe would produce a new Great Domain for someone to discover.
A new Great Domain meant abundant resources, so as soon as word spread, it would draw countless factions to stake their claim.
Had it not been for reliance on the World Tree of the Star Boundary, even Ling Xiao Palace couldn't have monopolized the new Great Domain bordering Ling Xiao Domain—they wouldn't have even gotten past the Great Caverns and Blessed Lands.
Right now, the colossal Giant God Spirit stood before a Domain Gate. By comparison, the gate looked no bigger than a mouse hole.
Yang Kai was curious how the Giant God Spirit intended to pass through it. With the Giant God Spirit's strength, it could probably force its way through, but doing so would shatter the Void Barrier, and the consequences for both Great Domains would be severe.
This wasn't merely a matter of one gateway breaking—it could trigger upheaval across two entire Great Domains.
Though the Giant God Spirit was a being of few words, he clearly understood this, so under Yang Kai's watchful gaze, energy suddenly surged within his body, and his titanic form shrank rapidly.
He continued shrinking until he could fit through the Domain Gate, at which point the Giant God Spirit, A Er, finally stopped.
Yang Kai had an epiphany! So the Giant God Spirit had this ability as well—passing through a Domain Gate was no difficulty at all.
He suddenly recalled Old Lord Bixi. Bixi's true form was similarly colossal; the entire Void Land rested upon his back. Bixi had said before that if he wanted to relocate, he would have to transform his true form and shrink his body down in order to pass through Domain Gates.
That was exactly what the Giant Spirit A Er was doing now.
But Bixi bore the weight of all Void Land on his back. If he truly shrank his true form, Void Land would cease to exist—and that was a loss Yang Kai could not currently afford to absorb. Void Land was the first foothold he had established across the Three Thousand Worlds. The Void Star Market had already grown into a thriving enterprise, carrying tremendous symbolic and financial significance.
Once he had shrunk, the Giant Spirit A Er plunged headfirst into the Domain Gate, Yang Kai standing firmly on his shoulder the entire time.
After passing through the Domain Gate and arriving in another Great Domain, the Giant Spirit's reduced body swelled back to its original size once more.
It seemed that this was the state he was most comfortable in.
Yang Kai didn't know where the Giant Spirit A Er was headed or what he intended to do. After hesitating briefly between continuing to follow or turning back toward Ling Xiao Domain, he ultimately chose the former.
He didn't absolutely need to return to Ling Xiao Domain—Hua Qingsi could handle everything there. In comparison, he found the Giant Spirit far more intriguing.
He harbored a deep wariness toward the Ink Clan hidden in some unknown reaches of the world. He had personally felt the power of that majestic will and knew full well that the forces at his disposal were nowhere near sufficient to resist it.
Although every Great Cavern and Blessed Land was now searching for the Ink Clan's trail—and a massive number of High-Rank Open Heaven cultivators had probably already poured into the Broken Sky—whether they could actually locate the Ink Clan, no one could say for certain.
Eventually, they would be found. The Ink Clan had revealed a trace this time, which meant it could no longer contain its restlessness. Sooner or later, it would strike again.
If Yang Kai could win the Giant Spirit over as an ally, then even if he truly encountered the Ink Clan in the future, he wouldn't need to worry nearly as much.
After following the Giant Spirit A Er as he hurtled through the void for nearly a month, Yang Kai finally understood why, all this time, no one had reported sighting the Giant Spirit.
He was simply too fast!
While traveling through the void, his colossal form would flash past in an instant. An ordinary person who happened to cross paths with him might not even notice.
If Yang Kai hadn't mastered the Laws of Space, even if he had detected the Giant Spirit, he never could have kept up.
After passing through more than a dozen Great Domains in succession, Yang Kai suddenly noticed something anomalous.
Generally speaking, the odds of encountering a cultivator in the void were not great—the void was simply too vast. Everyone was busy traveling, and unless it was pure coincidence or a prior arrangement, no one would run into anyone else.
But upon arriving at this particular Great Domain, Yang Kai discovered large groups of cultivators rushing toward him from ahead in great waves. There were also flying Artifacts of various designs streaking through the void as beams of light, each one packed with people.
They were moving at tremendous speed, and some of them looked panic-stricken, as though they were fleeing some catastrophe.
Any cultivator capable of traversing the void had, at a minimum, broken free from the bounds of the Universe—they had at least condensed their own Dao Imprint. Yang Kai spotted quite a few such cultivators.
The situation was thought-provoking. Under normal circumstances, even a cultivator who had condensed their Dao Imprint wouldn't casually traverse the void. Void Beasts were omnipresent, and doing so was extraordinarily dangerous—there was no telling when disaster might strike, leading to a sudden and violent death.
Yet the people Yang Kai was encountering seemed to have some compelling reason that forced them to leave their homes and head elsewhere.