The ten Emperor Realm cultivators had originally gathered inside the Void Dao Academy. They had long since received Yang Kai's spiritual transmission, instructing them to prepare everything.
Some of them had been waiting for this day for many years.
In the current Void Dao Academy, the fact that one could advance from the Emperor Realm to Open Heaven was no longer a secret. Neither was the fact that the entire Void World was the Dao Lord's personal Small World. Inside the academy itself, a statue of Yang Kai even stood, for disciples to worship day and night.
Yang Kai had even deliberately revealed a certain amount of information about the Ink Battlefield to the academy's disciples, so they could make their own choices.
Once they took the step into Open Heaven, they would have no choice but to throw themselves into the Ink Battlefield and fight the Ink Clan. If they were unwilling to fight the Ink Clan, they could only remain in his Small World and stop at the Emperor Realm.
These ten had chosen to advance to Open Heaven, which meant they had already steeled themselves for war against the Ink Clan. In truth, virtually every Emperor Realm cultivator who was capable of taking this step made the same choice. From the moment a martial cultivator set foot on the path of cultivation, they had been climbing ever higher, striving to see more brilliant vistas. There was no reason to stop now.
Stepping out of Yang Kai's Small World into the outside world brought a mild sense of disorientation. This had nothing to do with their foundation or strength—it was simply the difference in the greater environment of heaven and earth.
But they were all Emperor Realm cultivators, after all. They steadied themselves quickly.
The next instant, every one of them broke into a look of delighted surprise and bowed respectfully: "Disciples greet the Dao Lord!"
Inside the Void Dao Academy, Yang Kai's statue was rendered with lifelike precision, and the disciples worshipped it daily, so they were intimately familiar with that face. Moreover, before their departure, they had already intuited that this time they would meet the Dao Lord in person—and now it seemed their intuition had been correct.
This was the Dao Lord. The entire Void World was the Dao Lord's Small World. They had been born, cultivated, and grown up within the Void World, and in a sense, it was the Dao Lord who had given them everything. Previously, their worship had been purely spiritual, but now that they stood before the living person, the feelings were something else entirely.
It could be said that while the Dao Lord might not be their literal parent, he was close enough. Every living being within the Void World could be considered a child of the Dao Lord.
Feng Ying and the others were somewhat surprised, but they had already heard about this, so they merely studied the ten Emperor Realm cultivators with curiosity.
Blood Crow alone looked as though his eyes might pop out of his head.
Since joining Dawn, Blood Crow had always seemed rather aloof, never really interacting with the others. Had Yang Kai not personally dragged him out for this, he likely would have refused to come.
He had spent some years on the Ink Battlefield, but he knew nothing of Yang Kai's background, so seeing these Emperor Realm cultivators was genuinely shocking.
"Your Small World has living beings?" Blood Crow blurted in disbelief.
There was no other way to explain where these Emperor Realm cultivators had come from.
Yang Kai glanced at him. "Is that so strange?"
Blood Crow said incredulously, "Aren't you afraid that during a battle, the turbulence of your Small World would lead to a massacre?" A moment later, he seemed to realize something. "You have the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth!"
Only with those could one guarantee the stability of a Small World—and only with them could one raise living beings inside it at the Seventh-Order Open Heaven level.
Yang Kai didn't bother explaining. He had indeed possessed the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth before, but he had since parted with the Heaven and Earth Spring, allowing Ding Yao to refine it. What had replaced the Spring was the World Tree's Sub-tree, which possessed not only the functions of the Four Pillars but many additional abilities they lacked.
There was no need to show off, though it wasn't a matter of distrust toward Blood Crow.
"So what are you dragging these Emperor Realm cultivators out here for?" Blood Crow asked with a frown. "There may be no Ink Clan hereabouts, but the Ink Battlefield is no place for them to linger."
This sort of danger zone was a death sentence even for low-level Open Heaven cultivators. The minimum requirement for the various Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands to send personnel here was Sixth-Order Open Heaven! Every Fifth-Order cultivator currently stationed at the various passes had fallen from the Sixth or Seventh-Order.
So he had no idea what Yang Kai intended to do with these Emperor Realm cultivators.
Feng Ying smiled. "Senior Brother Blood Crow should take a closer look at their condition."
Blood Crow furrowed his brow and focused his gaze, then quickly gasped. "They're all about to advance?"
"It's not quite so simple as just advancing," Feng Ying said, smiling and shaking her head.
By now Blood Crow had spotted the telltale signs, and his expression shifted in shock. "Their Dao Seals have all absorbed Sixth-Order resources?"
He was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator after all, and in his previous life he had been an Eighth-Order Divine Lord. With a careful inspection, he could pick up certain clues. The ten Emperor Realm cultivators before him carried faint traces of Sixth-Order resources on them—clearly residual signatures left behind during the condensation of their Dao Seals.
"Indeed!" Feng Ying said, smiling demurely.
Blood Crow was utterly astonished. He turned to look at Yang Kai. "How did you train them?"
Sixth-Order Open Heaven was perhaps nothing remarkable to him, but those who qualified to advance directly to the Sixth-Order were a different matter entirely. In any Cave Heaven or Blessed Land, such talent would rank among the elite disciples, with a genuine shot at reaching the Eighth-Order in the future.
That had been his own level in his previous life.
One or two such prodigies would be impressive enough, but to produce ten at once...
There was clearly something unique about the method.
Yang Kai hadn't wanted to explain too much, but since Blood Crow had asked, he could only answer. "Brother Blood Crow, have you heard of my Star Boundary's World Tree Sub-tree?"
Blood Crow thought back for a moment. "I've heard of it. They say the Sub-tree possesses a wondrous power that can nourish the living beings of the world it inhabits." After escaping from the Blood Demon Cave Heaven, he had gone straight to the Broken Sky, where he had spent a number of years before being captured by the Fisherman of Bright King Heaven. During his time in the Broken Sky, he had indeed heard of the World Tree's Sub-tree, though he hadn't paid much attention and knew little about it.