During the second great battle, Brother Huang had learned his lesson. Having suffered a disadvantage after his previous defeat, he didn't rush to fight a decisive battle with Sister Lan on the same plains as before. Instead, he continually split off portions of his forces, sending small units to ambush and harass the Small Stone Clan armies under Sister Lan's command. Sister Lan never expected that Brother Huang would resort to such underhanded tactics, and for a time found herself hard-pressed to respond.
Once he had accumulated a sufficient advantage, Brother Huang unleashed his full army and turned the tide in a single sweeping victory. The outcome surprised Yang Kai, and was even harder for Sister Lan to swallow.
But no matter how powerful either of them was, they always shared one virtue — they accepted the stakes and paid their dues.
The first time Brother Huang had lost, and no matter how reluctantly, he had gritted his teeth and called her "Sister."
This time was the same, only now it was Sister Lan's turn to call him "Brother."
Both of them were supremely proud, which was only natural. They were supreme beings, after all, and carried their pride as their birthright.
So after achieving victory, neither one drove the other to destruction.
Just as Sister Lan had once left Brother Huang with a dozen-odd Stone Kings and room to develop, Brother Huang had done the same.
Not out of mercy — only to make the other understand that they were truly inferior, so that the words "Brother" or "Sister" would be spoken willingly.
And so, in the years that followed, Yang Kai bore witness to Brother Huang and Sister Lan's terrifying talent and growth in the art of commanding armies.
During their first clash, neither employed any strategy. They simply mustered virtually every fighting unit they had and hurled them at each other across the open plains — a head-on battle with nothing resembling command or control.
Yet after each had tasted defeat once and victory once, it was as if they had awakened to the art of war through sheer instinct. From that point on, they commanded their Small Stone Clan forces with the ease of moving their own limbs.
Year after year, Yang Kai witnessed a dazzling array of tactics — ambushes and counter-ambushes, traps and counter-traps, luring the enemy into a pot, striking east to hit west, drawing the tiger from the mountain...
Their mastery of formations and military strategy grew ever deeper and more unfathomable, and they competed in wit and cunning at every turn, leaving Yang Kai watching in sheer amazement.
When he had first proposed that the two settle their rivalry through their Small Stone Clan armies, he had never imagined it would lead to something like this.
The territory Yang Kai had divided between them had been entirely transformed into a battlefield.
And the Small Stone Clan armies under their command had ballooned from millions to tens of millions, consuming an incalculable amount of resources in the process.
If the people of the various Heavenly Cavities and Blessed Lands knew about this, they would surely call it a staggering waste!
Brother Huang and Sister Lan couldn't care less about the grade of their resources. To accelerate the growth of their Small Stone Clan, they fed them even Seventh- and Eighth-Grade materials without hesitation.
The result was that the Stone Kings under their command looked noticeably different from normal ones. Not only had their size nearly doubled, but the quantity and frequency of the stone eggs they produced had increased significantly, and the Small Stone Clan that hatched from those eggs were far stronger.
This ongoing competition between them brought Yang Kai tangible benefits.
The reproduction and growth of the Small Stone Clan ceaselessly enriched the foundation of his Small Universe. So even without cultivating during this time, his own strength had been steadily growing.
Brother Huang and Sister Lan had stopped rewarding him with Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals, devoting all their attention to outwitting each other.
Yang Kai was content enough. The gains from this trip to the Chaos Death Domain were already far too great. Since the beginning of time, no one had ever accumulated Yin- and Yang-attribute resources in their Small Universe to the extent that they formed two towering mountains.
Moreover, Yang Kai had recently been observing the state of his surroundings.
When he had first entered the Chaos Death Domain with the Giant Spirit A'Er, Blue Crystals and Yellow Crystals had been scattered throughout the void, seeming within easy reach.
But as time passed, the crystals drifting through the void had become almost impossible to find.
Some had been given to Yang Kai by Brother Huang and Sister Lan, stored within his Small Universe. Others had been used to nurture the Small Stone Clan.
Perhaps there were still scattered Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals somewhere in the Chaos Death Domain, but the quantity was certainly no longer significant.
Yang Kai's arrival had also fundamentally altered the situation that had persisted in the Chaos Death Domain for countless ages.
Before he came, the battles between Brother Huang and Sister Lan had been endless. After each titanic clash, countless clones would scatter and pair off in melee, their residual shockwaves sweeping across the heavens and earth. The entire Chaos Death Domain had been filled with mortal danger.
But now that the two of them were immersed in nurturing their Small Stone Clan armies and competing through them, the dangers of the Chaos Death Domain had gradually dissipated. Those countless clones had long since been transformed into Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals of various grades, and the interplay of gold and blue light no longer clashed.
The Chaos Death Domain was no longer so dangerous.
Yang Kai had discovered this by chance.
All along, the Giant Spirit A'Er had maintained a sturdy barrier around the surface of his body, one that had been up since he entered the Chaos Death Domain. Even when he was full and asleep, it had never been dropped. It was precisely by relying on this protection that Yang Kai had been able to remain safe all this time.
Then one day, the barrier around A'Er's body vanished without warning.
Only then did Yang Kai realize that the Chaos Death Domain had changed.
Seeing this, Yang Kai felt a complicated mix of emotions.
A passing suggestion born of a sudden insight had actually resolved the titanic feud between Brother Huang and Sister Lan that had persisted since the primordial era, transforming their conflict into something far more peaceful. He couldn't help feeling a quiet sense of accomplishment.
Not that it had been easy on the Small Stone Clan. But aggression toward one another was in their very nature — Brother Huang and Sister Lan had merely amplified that instinct.
Now that the Chaos Death Domain was no longer dangerous, Yang Kai felt it was time for him to leave.
The reason he hadn't left before was simply that he couldn't. Without the Giant Spirit A'Er's protection, every step through that void teeming with deadly peril would have been impossible.