The scouring force of the undercurrents within the Grand Sea Heavenly Phenomenon was tremendous. Without the Dragon Vein body to rely on,
He raised his hand and summoned the Azure Dragon Spear once more, letting out a soft breath as he adjusted himself to peak condition.
Just as he was about to charge out of the River of Time, a sudden thought flashed through his mind.
This remaining ten-zhang stretch of the River of Time, under the constant assault of the surrounding undercurrents from every direction, would probably shatter before long. When that happened, this River of Time would truly vanish forever.
Ten zhang of the River of Time wasn't much, but it still contained a considerable amount of temporal power. Could he收it into his Small Cosmos?
Once the idea surfaced, Yang Kai found it impossible to suppress the restless urge that surged within him.
That temporal power was an extraordinary boon to him. If he could draw it into his Small Cosmos and fuse it, absorbing it would bring tangible benefits to his cultivation of the Dao of Time.
Without further hesitation, Yang Kai instantly threw open the gateway to his Small Cosmos. Divine Sense surged outward in all directions, enveloping the short River of Time and forcibly dragging it into the portal.
In the next instant, Yang Kai's expression changed drastically. He hastily shut the gateway to his Small Cosmos, channeling the might of heaven and earth into the Azure Dragon Spear.
A dragon's roar erupted. The spear's protective barrier manifested as a colossal dragon that tore through the blockade of an undercurrent ahead, leading Yang Kai forward at full speed.
Sparks flew from the fine dragon scales covering his body. Yang Kai grunted through the pain as dragon blood sprayed into the void.
Despite having grown somewhat stronger than before, falling into the undercurrents still left him covered in wounds in the blink of an eye.
He clenched his teeth, eyes resolute, body following the spear's lead as he weaved through one enigmatic undercurrent after another. At the same time, he extended his Divine Sense in every direction, searching.
He needed to find another River of Time. Only by finding one did he stand a chance of survival—otherwise, he would inevitably be ground to dust by the relentless undercurrents.
His Divine Sense was also being steadily eroded, the pain almost unbearable.
The fine dragon scales covering his skin curled back one by one, then were ground away entirely.
In less than half an incense stick's worth of time, Yang Kai had been reduced to a gory wreck. There was hardly a patch of intact flesh left on his entire body. Yet he still hadn't found a River of Time.
Another half an hour passed. Yang Kai had lost most of his flesh and blood. Large stretches of exposed bone were visible everywhere, making him look utterly wretched.
His aura was rapidly fading, like a candle flickering in a storm, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.
His vision had gone blurry, and his Divine Sense could barely be sustained. Each time he pushed it outward, a tearing agony shot through his mind.
A profound sense of despair settled over him. Last time, he'd been lucky—at the critical moment, he'd used the Dragon Pearl to carve a path, which was how he'd broken into that nine-hundred-zhang River of Time. This time, he probably wouldn't be so fortunate.
Moreover, even after nearly two hundred years of recuperation, the Dragon Pearl still hadn't fully recovered. Cracks still ran through it. If he used it again, it might shatter entirely.
At this dead end, Yang Kai suddenly sensed an undercurrent nearby that was strangely calm.
Another River of Time.
Elated, he immediately gripped his spear and surged toward it.
After a dozen breaths, he broke through two undercurrents' blockades and plunged into the calm one. He hurriedly probed it with his Divine Sense, confirming there was no danger within, before collapsing and losing consciousness.
Two years later, Yang Kai's injuries had healed, and he was ready to set out again.
This second undercurrent harbored no killing intent, but it wasn't the River of Time he'd imagined either. There was no temporal power suffusing this place.
It was a River of the Natural Dao.
Longer than the previous River of Time—roughly two thousand zhang.
Unfortunately, this particular Dao didn't suit him. So over the past two years, apart from recovering from his injuries, he had spent his time studying the ten-zhang stretch of the River of Time that he had pulled into his Small Cosmos at the last moment.
That ten-zhang River of Time, once absorbed into his Small Cosmos, had its temporal essence fully taken in and assimilated, granting him a handful of new insights into the Dao of Time.
Not many—barely better than nothing. After all, even a single year of comprehension within a River of Time consumed forty to fifty zhang of its length.
A mere ten zhang couldn't bring him any significant advancement.
But through the process, Yang Kai had discovered an alternative method of cultivation.
Every undercurrent within the Grand Sea Heavenly Phenomenon represented the manifestation of some Great Dao. Absorbing and refining the power of a Dao directly within the undercurrent could certainly enhance his strength—but pulling the undercurrent entirely into his Small Cosmos and refining it there appeared to be even faster.
He had never cultivated the Natural Dao. Among the warriors he'd encountered, only those from the Carefree Blessed Land had delved deeply into it. That Ning Daoran had cultivated precisely the Natural Dao; every gesture of his was in accord with the natural order of heaven and earth. He revered the workings of creation, governing through non-interference. Practitioners of the Natural Dao possessed a refined, otherworldly air—something Yang Kai simply couldn't replicate.
But with the experience of absorbing that ten-zhang River of Time, he was very curious: if he pulled this two-thousand-zhang River of the Natural Dao into his Small Cosmos and fused it within, would he also gain some measure of mastery over the Natural Dao?
If so, then this Grand Sea Heavenly Phenomenon offered him far more than just the River of Time.
As long as the number of undercurrents he collected and refined was sufficient, he could theoretically merge the myriad Great Daos into a single whole.
The reason warriors had to determine the direction of their own Dao was primarily because their energy was finite while the Great Daos were infinite. Only by devoting sufficient study to a single Dao could one hope to achieve anything. If one attempted to cultivate too many Daos simultaneously, the result would be nothing more than becoming a relic of the age—abandoned and left behind.