Three Sub-Trees. Yang Kai had given one to Wu Kuang, and still had two left.
Wu Kuang's side was critically important. No one knew when the Ink would awaken, and the stronger Wu Kuang became, the more he could harness the might of the Primordial Heaven's Great Restriction. That was precisely why Yang Kai had gone to such lengths to get Wu Kuang there in the first place — the Primordial Heaven's Great Restriction was formidable, but without someone to man it, it was nothing more than a dead mechanism. Only when Wu Kuang grew powerful enough to drive the great formation's power could the Ink continue to be suppressed.
Gifting him a Sub-Tree, supplemented by his Heaven Devouring Battle Law, Wu Kuang would be able to grow in the shortest time possible. Otherwise, Yang Kai wouldn't have dared to make the boastful claim of advancing to the Ninth Order within three thousand years.
After all, Wu Kuang was only at the Seventh Order right now.
"Back in the Star Boundary," Yang Kai asked, "who has attained the Dao?"
Attaining the Dao was not the same as advancing to the Open Heaven realm. It meant being acknowledged by the Star Boundary's Heavenly Dao and receiving a formal title. Strictly speaking, one who had attained the Dao was still only at the Emperor Realm — but unlike ordinary Emperor Realm cultivators, they were Great Emperors.
Generally speaking, every Universe World could produce its own Great Emperors.
The number of Great Emperors a Universe World could support was closely tied to its own scale.
The Open Heaven realm's small universe had a concept of scale, and so did Universe Worlds.
In all previous eras, the most Great Emperors the Star Boundary had ever produced was ten. That was the Star Boundary's scale, and the bottleneck of its Heavenly Dao — any more, and it simply couldn't accommodate them.
The position of Great Emperor, for a Universe World, was one seat per person. Unless a Great Emperor fell, no new one could possibly be born.
The Star Boundary's Great Emperors, including Yang Kai, had originally numbered nine. But this time, upon his return, Yang Kai had clearly sensed that another person had attained the Dao of a Great Emperor.
The two elders had mentioned it in passing during their earlier chat with Yang Kai, but hadn't said who it was.
Hua Qingsi said, "It's the Wuwei Great Emperor!"
Duan Hongchen added from the side, "Do you remember that Shi Dazhuang?"
Even with Yang Kai's deep cultivation and extraordinary memory, the name didn't ring a strong bell — though he had a vague sense of familiarity, as if he'd heard it before.
After a moment of thought, it suddenly clicked. "The disciple Elder Yu Changdao of the Carefree Paradise had his eye on?"
Duan Hongchen smiled. "That's right."
Yang Kai's face lit up with recognition. "So it was him." He said with pleasure, "In that case, he's also a member of our Ling Xiao Palace?"
Hua Qingsi beamed. "That's right, Palace Master. Our Ling Xiao Palace now has one sect, two Great Emperors."
Indeed, while the current Great Emperors of the Star Boundary all had close ties to Ling Xiao Palace, when it came down to it, each had their own origins and background — none were truly Ling Xiao Palace's own.
This Wuwei Great Emperor, with his earth-shatteringly plain name, was different. He had genuinely come from the Star Boundary and formally studied under Ling Xiao Palace. Together with Yang Kai, they were the real deal — one sect, two Great Emperors.
The reason Yang Kai could recall this person was that Shi Dazhuang had been among the first batch of disciples to benefit from the Sub-Tree's nourishing power.
Back when the Sub-Tree's nourishing power had first spread, every major Paradise and Blessed Land had rushed to the Star Boundary to establish academies and seek out talented disciples. Yu Changdao, an elder of the Carefree Paradise, had been fortunate enough to find Shi Dazhuang and had intended to take him as a personal disciple.
Unfortunately, Shi Dazhuang's widowed mother, Liu Caixia, had strictly adhered to her late husband's dying wish: apart from Ling Xiao Palace, Shi Dazhuang was not to join any other sect.
At that time, it had only been a hundred or two years since Yang Kai had led Ling Xiao Palace and the combined forces of the Star Boundary to repel the Demon Race and slay the Great Demon God Mo Sheng. Ling Xiao Palace's prestige was at its absolute zenith, its reputation blazing like the midday sun. The entire Star Boundary harbored a kind of inexplicable fervor toward Ling Xiao Palace, and every cultivator considered it the greatest honor to be accepted there.
Shi Dazhuang's father had died early, and the boy himself didn't possess particularly outstanding cultivation talent. But before his death, his father had left a final wish — that one day, Shi Dazhuang would be accepted into Ling Xiao Palace.
When Yu Changdao tried to take Shi Dazhuang as a disciple, Liu Caixia naturally refused.
The situation had given Yu Changdao quite the headache. After all, he hailed from the Carefree Paradise and held the rank of Seventh Order Elder — to personally come forward and offer to take someone as a disciple was an opportunity that anyone else would have seized with wild joy, bowing and kowtowing on the spot. Yet this woman, Liu Caixia, failed to appreciate the opportunity and remained stubbornly devoted to her late husband's wishes.
In the end, a compromise was struck: Yu Changdao was hired by Ling Xiao Palace as a Guest Elder, and Shi Dazhuang studied under him as his disciple — a solution that satisfied everyone.
So in truth, Shi Dazhuang was both a Ling Xiao Palace disciple and a disciple of the Carefree Paradise.
The facts had proven Yu Changdao's eye for talent was excellent. After joining and beginning his cultivation, Shi Dazhuang's progress was remarkably swift. In just two hundred years, he had advanced to the Emperor Realm, and moreover earned the acknowledgment of the Star Boundary's Heavenly Dao, receiving the title of Wuwei Great Emperor. After that, he had advanced directly to the Seventh Order of the Open Heaven realm. His future potential was limitless.
The former Shi Dazhuang, now the Wuwei Great Emperor, had become the Star Boundary's tenth Great Emperor. Just as Duan Hongchen and the others had benefited from the Sub-Tree's nourishing power to accelerate their cultivation, so too had the Wuwei Great Emperor. Moreover, his foundation was even stronger than that of the other Great Emperors'. Advancing directly to the Seventh Order meant that he had every prospect of reaching the Ninth Order one day.