The owner of the giant eye was at least several hundred thousand zhang away from Yang Kai. At such a distance, even with his extraordinary strength, the barrier of the Dragon Pool's power made it difficult for him to fully perceive what was happening on Yang Kai's end.
All he could sense was that there was quite a commotion where Yang Kai was.
This kid still hasn't advanced? The owner of the giant eye found it somewhat strange. After all this time, devouring so much Dragon Pool power, he still hadn't advanced — clearly, this junior's talent wasn't all that impressive.
But to have held out this long, the little fellow's mental fortitude was quite remarkable.
He sighed. Mental fortitude was all well and good, but without sufficient talent, it was useless. Fine, fine — he'd move a little deeper. It wasn't as if he could really go looking for trouble just because he'd been disturbed, could he?
The owner of the giant eye had no intention of lending a hand. A dragon's advancement and breakthroughs primarily relied on themselves — outsiders couldn't help.
With that thought, he silently dove another hundred thousand zhang deeper, and only then did the commotion from above fade from his senses.
Time passed in a flash. Two months later, Yang Kai's body had grown by nearly another thousand zhang. His dragon form now measured roughly six thousand zhang.
If a five-thousand-zhang dragon body was considered the Ancient Dragon tier — equivalent to a newly advanced Eighth Order human cultivator — then a six-thousand-zhang body meant Yang Kai had firmly established himself at this level.
Growing a thousand zhang in just two months was something even the Dragon Clan could hardly imagine. If dragons could improve this quickly, who knew how many Ancient Dragons and Sacred Dragons would have been born throughout all of history.
The truth was, the Dragon Pool power Yang Kai was devouring was simply enormous.
Vast quantities of Dragon Pool power were drawn to him by the Solar Lunar Mark, devoured into his body, where the radiant yin-yang forces of Zhuo Zhao and You Ying transformed into a millstone, grinding down these energies and making them far easier for Yang Kai to refine and absorb. This was the fundamental reason for his rapid growth.
But Yang Kai could also sense that the further he went, the harder advancement became.
When he had first arrived, his body could grow by dozens of zhang in a single day. Now it was less than one zhang per day.
On the one hand, his dragon vein had become more refined, and the same amount of Dragon Pool power no longer yielded as much growth as before. On the other hand, the Dragon Pool power at his current depth had grown sparse.
With how voraciously he'd been devouring it, even the densest Dragon Pool power couldn't keep up.
This time, he didn't wait for the power to completely run dry. When it felt noticeably thinner than before, Yang Kai dove another hundred thousand zhang deeper.
The owner of the giant eye was disturbed yet again, his eyes rolling furiously.
Would this ever end? Was this junior deliberately antagonizing him?
With no other choice, he retreated once more.
Another two months passed, and to his astonishment, he felt the commotion from above once more — the junior had clearly descended again.
The veins on the giant eye owner's forehead throbbed as he suppressed his rising fury and retreated yet again.
Three strikes and you're out. If there was a next time, he'd make that kid regret it! he vowed silently.
Two more months later, the giant eye owner looked upward, and this time there was no anger on his face — only confusion.
He had detected the commotion from above once again.
He had previously assumed those disturbances were caused by the junior using the ancient method of vein tempering. But now, something didn't quite add up.
If he was going to break through, he should have done so by now. And if he wasn't breaking through, the junior should have been burst open by the sheer volume of Dragon Pool power long ago. So how could he keep going?
Curious, the giant eye owner suppressed his aura and silently ascended, preparing to take a peek for himself.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai was multitasking — simultaneously driving the Solar Lunar Mark to devour Dragon Pool power while comprehending the Dao of Time. Time Laws surged around his body, lending his dragon form a dreamlike, ethereal quality.
The reason he descended another hundred thousand zhang every two months was that Yang Kai had realized his actions were causing trouble for the dragons and wyrms above him.
The Dragon Pool's power seemed to flow from top to bottom. If he devoured all the power at his current depth, the dragons and wyrms above would have nothing left to benefit from.
So whenever he sensed the surrounding Dragon Pool power growing thin, he would descend another hundred thousand zhang.
He could eat the meat, but he should at least leave some bones for others.
It had been over half a year since he broke through to the Ancient Dragon stage. In that time, his gains had been substantial. Setting aside the nearly two-thousand-zhang increase in his dragon body — he now measured around sixty-seven hundred zhang — his comprehension of the Dao of Time had also advanced enormously.
Yang Kai had a faint feeling that with one more push, he could break through to the next level of the Dao of Time.
When that happened, the Dao of Time would reach the seventh level, placing him head and shoulders above the rest.
But just as he was focusing his efforts, he suddenly sensed something unusual.
The yin-yang power of Zhuo Zhao and You Ying within his body was depleting rapidly.
Yang Kai froze for a moment, then quickly realized — these two forces were nearly exhausted.
Years ago, Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan had each infused their power into his body. Over the years, it had resurfaced several times, purifying his bloodline. Here at the Dragon Pool, it had been ceaselessly intertwining and grinding.
This power ultimately wasn't his own — it would inevitably run out one day.
Yang Kai had mentally prepared himself for this, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon.
He wasn't disappointed, though. Without the millstone formed by those yin-yang forces to grind down the power, even if he could endure the influx of massive amounts of Dragon Pool energy, he never would have been able to refine it so quickly. And without rapid refinement, absorption and advancement would have been out of the question.