Yang Kai silently calculated the balance of top-tier combat power between the two sides. On the Ink Race's side, there were two Ink Giant Gods and one King Master.
On the Human Race's side, there was one Giant God and two Ninth-Order Open Heaven cultivators. If Fu Guang of the Dragon Clan hadn't died, then the Dragon Clan would also have a Sacred Dragon.
And there was still the Giant God A Da, who had yet to show himself.
By this calculation, the Human Race held the advantage in terms of top-tier combat strength.
But with the Void Domain's defensive line breached and the Ink Race launching a massive invasion of the Three Thousand Worlds, relying on just a handful of top-tier powerhouses was completely insufficient to stop them. The Ink Force was cunning and tenacious—capable of transforming an entire Great Domain into Ink Race territory in an extremely short time.
On top of that, after years of warfare, the Human Race's armies had suffered devastating losses. Countless Great Domains were currently suffering under the Ink Race's ravages, and countless humans had already been inked into Ink Servants. The evacuation and migration of the Three Thousand Worlds was therefore imperative.
Yang Kai suddenly thought of a problem: "What about the mortals? And what about all the warriors who lack the ability to traverse the void?"
A force like the Sea Swallowing Sect was at least capable of evacuating the entire Sect—after all, they only had a few thousand Disciples. All they needed to do was deploy some flying Artifacts, and they could naturally carry every last Disciple away.
But what about the Xuanyi Sect?
What about the Xuanyi World?
Like the Star Boundary, it was home to hundreds of millions of humans. The Xuanyi Sect had no ability to take them all away, and neither did the Sea Swallowing Sect.
If they were left behind, the only outcome would be to be inked into Ink Servants, enslaved and driven by the Ink Race, their very lives not their own.
Previously, Yang Kai hadn't thought too deeply about it. Under the current circumstances, evacuating and migrating to the Star Boundary seemed like the only option. Now he had suddenly become aware of this problem.
Wang Xuanyi's expression turned somber. Pressing his lips together, he said, "There's nothing we can do."
His Small Universe, along with that of the other Seventh-Order cultivator, could indeed hold some living beings—but only up to a limit. Once that limit was exceeded, it would affect the deployment of their strength.
Across the entire Sea Swallowing Domain, there were no fewer than a dozen Heaven and Earth worlds where humans lived, and each one was sizable in scale. The number of humans within them was impossible to count.
There was no way two Seventh-Order Small Universes could hold them all.
This evacuation of the Three Thousand Worlds was a task fraught with impossible choices. Every squad responsible for carrying it out had already grappled with this problem.
They could only take as many people with them as possible! But the vast majority were destined to be abandoned.
It was an incredibly cruel decision—and yet an utterly pragmatic one.
Yang Kai fell silent. Only after a long moment did he speak. "Captain Wang, help the Sea Swallowing Sect prepare for the evacuation. I'm going to the Xuanyi World."
Wang Xuanyi sighed and said in a consoling tone, "Commander Yang, a person's strength has its limits. Just do what you can."
He had clearly misunderstood, thinking that Yang Kai couldn't bear to leave them behind and intended to go to the Xuanyi World to use his own Small Universe to carry away as many humans as possible.
Yang Kai nodded, left a Void Spirit Bead with Wang Xuanyi, and told him to keep it on his person. Only then did his figure flash and vanish.
Moving swiftly through space, in less than half an hour Yang Kai had arrived outside the Xuanyi World. He gazed upon it and found the scenery truly breathtaking—that vast Heaven and Earth world set among the stars, like a magnificent, brilliantly colored sapphire.
If a beautiful world like this fell into the hands of the Ink Race, the only result would be a precious gem buried in dust.
The Sea Swallowing Domain had over a dozen such Heaven and Earth worlds.
The entire Three Thousand Worlds had countless such Heaven and Earth worlds.
Were they all to be abandoned?
Yang Kai couldn't bear it. There had to be some way to resolve this.
He stared for a while, then suddenly sat down cross-legged. His spiritual sense surged outward like a tidal wave, enveloping the vast Heaven and Earth world before him.
Though the Xuanyi World was no small thing, how powerful was the spiritual sense of an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator?
Not to mention someone of Yang Kai's caliber—even an ordinary Eighth-Order cultivator could envelop the entire Xuanyi World with their spiritual sense in a single thought.
The Space Laws surged to life, compressing the void in all four directions. Yang Kai's hands shifted through a series of seals, and streaks of flowing light shot toward the Xuanyi World, piercing into that Heaven and Earth world and transforming into dazzling, kaleidoscopic radiance.
He was going to refine the entire Xuanyi World into a Heaven and Earth Bead!
Yang Kai had crafted Heaven and Earth Beads before, long ago, back in the Star Boundary.
At that time, his strength hadn't been remarkable—he was only at the Emperor Realm, and his attainments in the Dao of Space were not particularly high—yet he had still produced a great many Heaven and Earth Beads.
They were a type of spatial Artifact modeled after Small Realms, capable of containing living beings.
During the war between the Star Boundary and the Ink Race's armies, the various forces of the Star Boundary had relied on Heaven and Earth Beads to achieve remarkable mobility. Women close to Yang Kai, such as Su Yan, had even received quite a few Heaven and Earth Beads—though they didn't use theirs to house armies. They used them to slay enemies.
Though a Heaven and Earth Bead was only the size of a single pearl, it was actually forged from fragments of celestial bodies. No special technique was required—even hurling it outright could deal considerable damage.