Yang Kai turned to the third person. "What about you?"
That man held his head high and replied, "It was the same as Golden Light Hall. After our predecessors were taken away, Golden Antelope Paradise sent over some cultivation resources every year. And after a few years, experts from Golden Antelope Paradise would even come in person to instruct the Disciples in their cultivation."
Yang Kai gave a slight nod and asked a few more people. These were all individuals who had previously been named by Jiu Yan.
The treatment of the forces these people hailed from naturally fell into two categories. One was that nothing had changed at all. The other was that they had received considerable care from Golden Antelope Paradise—not only had they been granted secret techniques and manuals after their predecessors were taken, but they also received a steady supply of cultivation resources each year, making it far more convenient for their juniors and Disciples to cultivate than before.
Those forces that had received such care had previously kept it all under wraps, terrified that other powers would learn of it and grow jealous and resentful. So no one had ever known that they were not the only ones to have won Golden Antelope Paradise's favor.
But the way Yang Kai was asking now clearly carried deeper significance.
"Do any of you know why Golden Antelope Paradise treated your forces differently from the rest?"
The crowd fell silent. A few seemed to be mulling things over, but none dared speak carelessly. After all, the more one said, the more one risked revealing the wrong thing. With an Eighth-Order powerhouse standing before them, who would dare run their mouth?
Yang Kai hadn't actually been expecting an answer. He explained on his own. "You all live in this Three Thousand Worlds. Between the many forces, there are certainly grudges and conflicts, and skirmishes flare up from time to time. But at most, it's a struggle over a territory or two—nothing more than debts of gratitude and enmity. But how would you know that in a place the outside world has never known about, there exists another battlefield entirely?"
"On that battlefield, a war is being fought—one that concerns the very survival of the Human Race!"
Everyone on the tower ship couldn't help but shudder.
Hearing the words "survival of the Human Race" from the mouth of an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator—anyone could grasp the gravity of the situation. But what kind of battlefield could it possibly be to involve stakes so enormous?
This Eighth-Order cultivator had even used the word "war"... not "battle."
Fan Nan couldn't help but blurt out, "Yang... Grandmaster, this matter—"
Yang Kai raised his hand to cut him off. "We're sending them there regardless. If we don't explain things clearly to them now, they'll only grow resentful. What difference does it make whether they learn now or later?"
Fan Nan considered this and agreed. In the past, the Caves and Paradises had kept information about the Ink sealed off, fearing that some people would be unable to withstand the temptation of Ink's power. But now that the war in the Void Domain had reached a stalemate, the Caves and Paradises were running short on manpower and had no choice but to conscript Fifth- and Sixth-Order cultivators from the second-rate forces.
Once they were sent to the battlefield, the war against the Ink could hardly be hidden any longer.
Thinking it through, Fan Nan promptly kept his mouth shut.
"Perhaps you think I'm being an alarmist," Yang Kai continued, "but let me ask you this—for all these years, have you never once wondered why the Caves and Paradises, despite having existed for countless ages, are so lacking in apparent depth? Yes, compared to second-rate forces like yours, the Caves and Paradises are still titans that cannot be shaken. But where have all the Sixth-Order, Seventh-Order, and even Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators they've produced over the millennia gone? Surely they haven't all been cooped up inside their sects, meditating in seclusion."
This was a doubt Yang Kai had held for a long time, and he didn't believe the people before him hadn't shared it.
Given the vast stretches of time over which the Caves and Paradises had endured, the depth they displayed in the Three Thousand Worlds seemed absurdly shallow.
"The Open Heaven Realm boasts a long lifespan. Those who directly advance to the Fifth-Order have the potential to reach Seventh-Order Open Heaven. And among the Disciples of the Caves and Paradises, what would a direct advancement to Fifth-Order even amount to? Over all these years, the number of Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators they've accumulated—conservatively—must be in the tens of thousands. But have you ever seen a single Cave or Paradise with that many Seventh-Order cultivators?"
"None. Not a single one. The vast majority of the Sixth-Order and Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators that the Caves and Paradises accumulated have been sent to that battlefield! They fight against an enemy you never knew existed, and countless among them have fallen and perished."
"There are no Ninth-Order cultivators in the Three Thousand Worlds, because the moment an Eighth-Order Grandmaster advances to Ninth-Order Old Ancestor, they too will head to that battlefield to hold the line in some sector!"
"The peace the Three Thousand Worlds enjoys today is largely owed to the Caves and Paradises. It has been maintained through the sacrifice and toil of generation after generation."
"All of this... is something you have never known."
The words Yang Kai spoke left Yan Yi and the others with shifting expressions, caught between shock and disbelief. Putting themselves in his shoes—if Yang Kai had been in their position, never having witnessed the horrors of the Ink Battlefield firsthand—they too would have found it hard to accept.
The Caves and Paradises, whom they had secretly resented and blamed all this while, were in truth the guardians of the Three Thousand Worlds and the vast cosmos beyond. It was their silent, selfless sacrifice behind the scenes that allowed the myriad territories to flourish as they did today.
This utterly upended everything they had ever believed about the Caves and Paradises.
The man from Golden Light Hall, emboldened, asked, "Senior, who is the enemy that the Caves and Paradises are fighting?"
"The Ink Clan!"
The crowd stared blankly.