The short-statured Open Heaven Realm cultivator who guided them spoke little, focused entirely on controlling the tower ship the entire way. Even when Yuan Tongguang tried to build rapport, the guide only offered a few perfunctory replies.
Yang Kai stood on the deck, surveying his surroundings.
He had visited the Black Domain twice before and wouldn't claim to know it well, but at the very least he wasn't entirely unfamiliar.
Before long, he noticed a vast expanse of fragmented spirit continents scattered densely across the void to the right — barren beyond measure, strewn in countless numbers.
Seeming to notice his gaze, Yuan Tongguang walked over and said, "Brother Yang, curious about those broken spirit continents?"
Yang Kai already had his answer but could only play dumb. "Does Brother Yuan know?"
Yuan Tongguang chuckled. "I heard about it from the locals last time I was here. They say the master of the Void Territory, the Star Boundary's Great Emperor Yang Kai, has powers that reach the heavens. He once came to the Black Domain and used his great divine abilities to relocate mineral stars from deep within to the outer reaches, making it convenient for Warden Luan's subordinates to mine them. Those broken spirit continents you see now are the leftover fragments and debris after all the resources had been extracted."
Luo Tinghe looked at Yang Kai with surprise.
She hadn't yet seen the mineral stars, but they were presumably just resource-rich cosmos worlds. Being able to relocate an entire cosmos world from one place to another — that could truly be called reaching the heavens.
She was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator. If she went all out, destroying a cosmos world wouldn't be a problem. But relocating one? She honestly might not have that ability.
Yuan Tongguang's junior brothers were naturally curious as well. One asked, "Relocate mineral stars here? For real? Isn't that Yang Kai only a Sixth-Order Open Heaven? Could he really do something like that?"
Yuan Tongguang shook his head. "I don't know whether it's true, but it's almost certainly real. And that Yang Kai didn't just relocate a single mineral star — look at the scale of these fragments. Apparently, he spent some time and moved several hundred mineral stars from deep within the Black Domain!"
"Several hundred!" The group was stunned. This was simply beyond imagination. Judging by the scale of the fragments, they could roughly estimate the size of each mineral star. Could such a thing really be done?
Was that Yang Kai even human?
Another junior brother said, "Then this must have happened a long time ago? Seeing how thoroughly these mineral stars have been mined, it must have taken quite some time."
Yuan Tongguang nodded. "Yes, apparently it was nearly three hundred years ago."
As he spoke, he kept glancing toward the short-statured Open Heaven cultivator, hoping to get some confirmation from him. Unfortunately, the guide showed no intention of responding — perhaps he simply looked down on Yuan Tongguang and the others.
As they pressed onward, Yang Kai's confusion only deepened.
Luan Baifeng had many subordinates, including a large number of war captives from the former Heavenly Sword Alliance. With nearly three hundred years, it made sense that they could finish mining the mineral stars he had relocated, leaving behind nothing but fragments scattered throughout the void.
But what puzzled him was that he couldn't sense the strange force that pervaded the Black Domain.
On his previous two visits, Yang Kai had experienced it firsthand — the deeper one went into the Black Domain, the more prominent the eerie force became. Under its influence, the foundation of one's Inner World would continuously drain away.
That was why, despite Luan Baifeng controlling the Black Domain for so many years and despite its incredibly rich resources, she could do nothing but stare — there was simply no way to mine them.
But this time, Yang Kai couldn't sense the strange force at all.
This left him thoroughly bewildered. The Black Domain seemed to have undergone many changes, and these unexpected shifts left him feeling somewhat uneasy.
After a full half-day or more, the group had reached a relatively deep part of the Black Domain.
In the past, no one could have easily reached this point. Before arriving here, the foundation of one's Inner World would have been completely drained away by the eerie force.
Yet now, even Third-Order and Fourth-Order Open Heaven cultivators like Yuan Tongguang's group from White Tooth Province could arrive unharmed.
Up ahead was a mineral star of considerable size, and the tower ship descended straight toward it.
After delivering everyone to the site, the short Open Heaven cultivator spoke: "This is Heaven-tier Number Sixteen. Mine here diligently. If you find anything, you may return on your own to hand it over."
"Many thanks, sir." As he spoke, Yuan Tongguang stepped forward and slipped a spatial ring into the guide's hand.
The short cultivator accepted it, nodded, then shot skyward and retraced his route.
After the exhausting journey, they had finally reached their destination. Yuan Tongguang and the other White Tooth Province Open Heaven cultivators looked exhilarated as they gazed around.
One of them asked, "Senior Brother, what should we do?"
Among them, only Yuan Tongguang had experience and the highest status, so naturally they would follow his lead.
Yuan Tongguang smiled. "Nothing complicated — just mine freely. All the resources here are hidden inside something called black stone. Until you crack open a black stone, no one knows whether there are any resources inside or what grade they might be. So our task is to find black stone. Even if we have to turn this mineral star inside out or shatter it to pieces, the Black Domain authorities won't care."