Any cultivator who could directly advance to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven was a priceless treasure to every Great Cave Heaven and Blessed Land.
The Ninth-Order Supreme Masters of today had once been those very same direct-advance Seventh-Order prodigies.
Yang Kai had encountered his fair share of powerhouses from the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, but even accounting for his vast experience, setting aside the Old Ancestors guarding each great pass, only Luo Tinghe of Yin-Yang Heaven had been a direct-advance Seventh-Order.
Back in the day, Wu Qing, the Southern Army's Corps Commander at Yin-Yang Pass, must have also been a direct-advance Seventh-Order—otherwise, he could never have later advanced to the Ninth Order and taken up station at Yin-Yang Pass.
There were direct-advance Seventh-Orders among the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, but their numbers were slim.
Only in recent years had the Star Boundary produced a batch of Supreme Master candidates who could directly advance to the Seventh-Order, but it had been too short a time, and these individuals were still stuck at the Seventh-Order realm.
But that was the Star Boundary—a place with the World Tree. It was precisely because of the World Tree's nourishing power that so many peerless geniuses had emerged.
So what was the story with the people Yang Kai had brought back?
Mo Mei couldn't help but wonder—had Yang Kai made a trip to the Star Boundary and robbed them of all their promising seedlings? But that didn't make sense. The Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands would never allow such a thing. Finding and nurturing good candidates was no easy feat; they would never let Yang Kai simply steal them away.
Moreover, even the current Star Boundary probably couldn't muster such a grand lineup.
It wasn't five. It wasn't fifty. It was a full five thousand!
During the first few days, Mo Mei and the others had harbored some doubts—perhaps the Sixth and Seventh-Orders would advance first, followed by Fourth and Fifth-Orders later. But every single person who broke through into Open Heaven radiated the aura of the Sixth or Seventh-Order.
At that point, no one questioned it anymore.
The nearly five thousand people Yang Kai had brought back were, in fact, nearly five thousand treasures who could directly advance to the Sixth or Seventh-Order!
This wave of advancement lasted a full two to three months. Nearly every day, fluctuations in aura rippled through the air—sometimes a dozen or so people advancing, sometimes several dozen, even over a hundred…
Those who advanced were properly settled, and after questioning the first few, Mo Mei and the others finally pieced together the origins of this group.
They knew that Yang Kai's Small Universe was unique and that many living beings resided within it—after all, that very same group of them had been carried out of the Blood Demon Cave Heaven by Yang Kai using his Small Universe all those years ago. What they couldn't understand was what was so special about Yang Kai's Small Universe that it could nurture such a staggering number of monstrous talents.
This single batch rivaled over a thousand years of the Star Boundary's nurturing—easily!
Nearly five thousand people, with a full five hundred who could directly advance to the Seventh-Order. How many had the Star Boundary produced in recent years? At most around three hundred, which was fewer than what Yang Kai had brought back.
What they didn't know was that the Star Boundary's thousand-year nurturing was a literal thousand years.
But the time inside Yang Kai's Small Universe had spanned tens of thousands of years. Even though its territory couldn't compare to the Star Boundary, and its population base was far smaller, in terms of accumulated time, Yang Kai's Small Universe held a advantage of several dozen times over.
That so many had built up was only natural.
Void Terrain suddenly gaining five thousand Sixth and Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators sent Mo Mei and the others into a state of immense joy.
Originally, both Void Terrain and the Star Boundary had some Sixth and Seventh-Order cultivators—not many, perhaps a few dozen to just under a hundred. Even such a lineup was beyond the reach of ordinary second-tier forces, but because of the mobilization order from the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, they had all departed for the battle at the Expanse of the Void.
Originally, only three had been left behind to guard Void Terrain. Now, its strength had suddenly exploded. As long as these people properly consolidated their realms, they too could reinforce the Expanse of the Void. This many manpower could prove decisive on certain localized battlefields!
Void Terrain was thrown into a flurry of activity with the birth of thousands of Sixth and Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators. Meanwhile, Yang Kai, after several transfers, had brought Ji Lao San to the Broken Sky.
He had been to the Broken Sky twice before.
The first time, he had received word from Boss Lan Youruo and come to rescue her, only to be forced into advancing to the Fifth-Order Open Heaven outside the Shadowless Cave Heaven.
Back then, Yang Kai had harbored a belly full of resentment toward the arrogance and overbearing conduct of the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands. Though he had never spoken of it, he had secretly sworn that once his strength was sufficient, he would visit those Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands one by one and tear them apart, letting them know what it meant that the fortunes of the world shift—don't bully the young!
But all that resentment and bitterness had faded after he entered the Ink Battlefield and gradually came to understand the power of the Ink Clan and the good intentions of the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands.
Perhaps some people had acted out of self-interest back then, but at least they had still kept to the rules and hadn't gone too far.
He had only been at the peak of the Emperor Sovereign realm at the time. If Ti Zheng, the Open Heaven cultivator from Myriad Demon Heaven, had truly wanted to kill him, it would have been as easy as lifting a hand.
Besides, the one who had started it all, Ti Zheng, had long since perished—body and soul scattered.
Personal grudges, when weighed against the survival of one's race, truly counted for nothing.
If he put himself in the shoes of the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, Yang Kai reckoned he too would have wanted to eliminate potential threats.
His second trip to the Broken Sky had been purely for his own cultivation. He had also encountered Blood Demon, and that wretch, cursed with misfortune, had been captured by Elder Yu Sou of Bright King Heaven, imprisoned within Bright King Heaven, and later sent to the Ink Battlefield to fight the Ink Clan—putting his remaining use to good effect.
It was precisely during that second trip that Yang Kai had been chased by Divine Lord Sheng Yang into the Sacred Spirit Ancestral Land, which had led to a cascade of opportunities afterward.
This would be his third trip.
Yang Kai had never known before that the Broken Sky connected to an entrance to the Ink Battlefield. The disciples of the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands who wished to enter the Ink Battlefield all had to pass through the Broken Sky as a transit point.