Of the more than one hundred Open Heaven Realm cultivators who had emerged from his small universe, four were now able to cultivate the Dao of Space, three could cultivate the Dao of Time, and even more — more than twenty in total — pursued the Dao of the Spear.
Some others had shown remarkable talent in Alchemy and Artifact Refining, which was undoubtedly related to Yang Kai's accomplishments in those disciplines. While the Dao marks of alchemy and artifact refining within his small universe were not as rich or dense as those of the other three Great Daos, they were still plentiful. Warriors who had grown up in that world could, if they possessed the talent, easily perceive the mysteries hidden within those Dao marks.
Overall, the future cultivation paths of these disciples who had emerged from his small universe — roughly a small half of them aligned with the Great Daos he himself practiced. That proportion was already quite remarkable.
He had no intention of taking on any more disciples. For him, having Zhao Yebai, Zhao Ya, and Xu Yi as his three Personal Disciples was already sufficient.
Setting aside the Dao of the Spear, the Dao of Space and the Dao of Time were always extremely niche Great Daos. Ordinary warriors could forget about cultivating them — even gaining an initial foothold was exceedingly difficult.
Yet among the warriors who had emerged from Yang Kai's small universe, many were naturally suited to cultivate these two Daos. This was one of the reasons those Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators valued these disciples so highly.
During Biluo Pass's expedition, the Grand Cosmic Formation Yang Kai had deployed had played a tremendous role. However, there was only one Yang Kai, and Biluo Pass's success would be difficult to replicate.
But if these disciples with talent in the Dao of Space were to achieve mastery, they would surely prove immensely useful in the future.
When it came to cultivating either the Dao of Space or the Dao of Time, there was essentially no one in all of Biluo Pass besides Yang Kai who could offer instruction. But Yang Kai couldn't be at these disciples' side at every moment, so over a hundred years ago, he had taken the time to inscribe his insights on cultivating these two Daos, along with relevant secret techniques, onto jade slips and presented them to the War Preparedness Hall.
From then on, anyone who wished to cultivate either of these two Daos could spend a certain amount of Battle Merits at the War Preparedness Hall to exchange for them.
Though Biluo Pass had been free of conflict for a long time, these warriors from his small universe could still earn Battle Merits with ease — by mining resources, patrolling territories, or assisting with alchemy and artifact refining, all of which awarded merits. So there was no need to worry about their future cultivation.
Of course, when Yang Kai had time and was in good spirits, he would also gather these people together for dharma demonstrations. Over the past two hundred years, Yang Kai had demonstrated twice — once for the Dao of Space and once for the Dao of Time — and the disciples had reaped enormous benefits both times.
Overall, Yang Kai had long since gained experience in how to arrange for these warriors from his small universe, and it no longer required any great effort on his part.
Returning to Biluo Pass through the Grand Cosmic Formation, Yang Kai headed straight for the Eastern Army Military Affairs Office to report in.
Ding Yao didn't say much to him, merely having his adjutant lead Yang Kai to a sealed chamber.
Though he had already guessed what to expect, Yang Kai still couldn't help drawing a sharp breath when he saw what was inside. There was nothing else in the chamber — only piles upon piles of Divine Spears.
They were stacked one heap after another, nearly filling the entire chamber.
A rough count revealed at least several dozen piles. If each pile contained several hundred Divine Spears, then the total gathered here was at least ten to twenty thousand.
Yang Kai's eye twitched. "That many."
The adjutant smiled. "Junior Brother has worked hard, but this is something only you can handle. There's no way to entrust it to anyone else."
Yang Kai nodded. "Understood." He then asked, "Is that all of them?"
The adjutant shook his head. "The majority are here. Some from the other passes haven't been sent over yet, but they should all arrive here before long."
"Very well." Yang Kai accepted his fate.
The adjutant said, "Then I'll take my leave."
After the adjutant departed, Yang Kai began inspecting the Divine Spears. He quickly noticed that each pile contained a different number, though most hovered around two to three hundred.
Moreover, each pile had an empty Space Ring placed before it, and the rings were labeled with the names of different passes. Seeing this, Yang Kai understood immediately — each pile of Divine Spears corresponded to a different human pass, and they had all been sent from various human strongholds.
After he infused them with Purifying Light, he would need to place them back into the Space Rings and send them back through the formation.
Crafting the Divine Spears was no easy task. It had been five years since the last successful trial of a Divine Spear against Hong Hu.
Five years, exhausting the entire artifact-refining capacity of a single pass, had produced only two to three hundred Divine Spears. One could well imagine how long it took to forge a single one.
Yang Kai had once heard Master Mafan mention in passing that for a single Artifact Refining Grandmaster, crafting one Divine Spear would take at least a year. After all, this was a weapon designed to counter powerful Ink Clan experts, and the demands on artifact-refining skill were exceedingly harsh — the slightest oversight would result in failure.
In other words, an Artifact Refining Grandmaster could produce at most one Divine Spear per year — and that was only under ideal conditions. If one or two failures occurred, it would be normal for several years to pass before a single spear was completed.
How many Artifact Refining Grandmasters could a single human pass field? At most around a dozen, with some locations having fewer than ten. By that calculation, disregarding any possibility of failure, a single human pass could produce at most no more than fifty Divine Spears in five years.
In reality, it might not even reach half that number — the failure rate for crafting these things was simply too high.
This being the case, Yang Kai was perplexed that a single human pass could produce two to three hundred Divine Spears in five years. That number was clearly wrong — it far exceeded his calculations.