The Old Ancestor hadn't revealed what became of that reclusive Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, but since the Soul-Sacrificing Thorn's secret art was now in the Old Ancestor's hands, the Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator's fate could already be imagined.
Both were Eighth-Order, yet the gap between them could be enormous—especially for those hailing from Grotto-heaven Blessed Lands, massive powers with deep foundations. They were far stronger than those Eighth-Order cultivators out in the wider world who had no backing and had to muddle through their cultivation on their own.
When Yang Kai had been a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, he'd been chased through the Shattered Heaven by Divine Lord Shengyang with no road to heaven and no path to earth, yet in the end he had still managed to escape with his life.
But swap in an Eighth-Order cultivator from a Grotto-heaven Blessed Land, and they might not have been so fortunate.
That was the gap.
Though the Old Ancestor had also been an Eighth-Order cultivator back then, she had possessed the potential to advance to the Ninth-Order. How could ordinary Eighth-Order cultivators be mentioned in the same breath as her?
With her personally taking action, the owner of the Soul-Sacrificing Thorn most likely didn't meet a pleasant end.
Still, it had to be said that whoever had devised the Soul-Sacrificing Thorn truly possessed some talent. If used well, this thing could allow the weak to overcome the strong. The owner had developed it primarily as a safeguard against Ninth-Order Supremes—if its power were any weaker, it wouldn't have had any effect.
The Soul-Sacrificing Thorn was both a profound secret art and an artifact—it could be said to comprise two interdependent parts that complemented each other. Without the artifact, one could not execute the secret art, and without the secret art empowering it, the artifact alone couldn't be wielded either.
The secret art and the artifact—neither could be dispensed with.
And just as the Old Ancestor had said, aside from Yang Kai, there probably wasn't anyone else who could make this thing work as intended.
Yang Kai received it as though it were a priceless treasure.
After taking his leave from the Old Ancestor, Yang Kai sent out a message and quickly received a reply. He headed straight for a section of the city wall at Great Evolution Pass.
In no time he arrived and spotted a figure busily working away at a certain point along the wall.
He stepped forward and greeted: "Master."
Master Mafan was in the midst of his work, the might of heaven and earth surging around him as sweat poured down like rain. Without looking up, he said: "Right on time. Give me a hand."
Now the busiest people in all of Great Evolution Pass were the artifact refiners and formation masters. Great Evolution had been reclaimed only half a year ago, and there was a great deal that needed their expertise to repair and set up. Throughout the entire Great Evolution Pass, every formation master and artifact refiner was stretched impossibly thin.
As one of the few grandmaster artifact refiners currently at Great Evolution, Master Mafan naturally couldn't stay idle either.
Moreover, he was more fired up than anyone else, because this was Great Evolution Pass—the place that generations of the Great Evolution Blessed Land had guarded. Though it had been lost for thirty thousand years, it had finally been wrested back from the Mo Clan.
He wanted to pour every ounce of his life's learning into his craft. He wanted to make Great Evolution Pass impregnable, so that the failures of their ancestors thirty thousand years ago would never be repeated!
He also knew that Yang Kai possessed the skill of an Artifact Refiner Grandmaster—a level more than sufficient to serve as his assistant. That was why he had called out so readily. Anyone else, and Master Mafan wouldn't have dared let them help so casually.
Yang Kai didn't dawdle either. He stepped forward to ask how to help, and soon the two of them were hard at work together.
This kept them busy for nearly half a month, until Master Mafan had forged a large-scale artifact into its preliminary form, at which point they finally stopped.
Both of them were quite exhausted. They handed the remaining work over to others and found a quiet spot to rest and recover their energy.
Half a day passed before Master Mafan finally opened his eyes. He pulled out a wine flask, took a sip, smacked his lips with satisfaction, and then sighed: "Getting old, getting old. Back in my youth I never ran out of energy like this—I could have worked at the forging platform for years on end and still been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed."
Yang Kai laughed: "Master is right in his prime—hardly old at all."
Master Mafan gave him a sidelong glance: "What did you come to see me about?"
Yang Kai promptly said: "I'd like the Master to refine some artifacts for me!"
With that, he produced a jade slip he had prepared beforehand and handed it over.
Master Mafan took it, swept it with his divine sense to examine its contents, and frowned: "Where did this come from? There's something sinister about it."
The jade slip Xiaoxiao Ancestor had given Yang Kai was complete, containing both the cultivation method and the forging method for the Soul-Sacrificing Thorn. Though it wasn't some critical secret, it was still a bestowal from the Ancestor, and without her permission, Yang Kai couldn't freely disseminate it. So what he gave Master Mafan was only the forging method—the technique for crafting the artifact itself—which Yang Kai had re-inscribed onto a separate jade slip using his divine sense.
Though it was merely the forging method for a single secret art, Master Mafan was no ordinary person. One glance and he could tell this thing was far from ordinary. If it were truly crafted, who knew what dark purposes it might serve—hence his assessment that it seemed sinister.
"Bestowed by the Old Ancestor," Yang Kai explained. There was no need to hide this.
Master Mafan was slightly taken aback. After studying the jade slip more carefully for a moment, he exclaimed in wonder: "Doesn't this thing also come with a complementary set of cultivation and control techniques?"
Yang Kai immediately gave him a thumbs-up: "Master's eye is as sharp as a torch."
Master Mafan looked up at him: "Since the Old Ancestor bestowed it, I really shouldn't pry too much. But I must warn you—wielding this thing may cause some harm to yourself. You need to judge the balance carefully."
Yang Kai said solemnly: "Rest assured, Master. I know what I'm doing."
"Mm." Master Mafan said nothing more. He rose to his feet: "Follow me."
Yang Kai stepped forward and followed.