Inside the Void Dao Field, numerous quasi-Open Heaven cultivators had gathered. The entire field held roughly three hundred people. Aside from over twenty Emperor Venerable Realm cultivators who hadn't yet fully refined their Yin-Yang Five Elements, the rest were all prepared, waiting only to leave and break through.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the space at the center of the great hall suddenly began to twist and distort, like a stone dropped into still water, sending out layer upon layer of ripples.
Then, where there had been nothing before, an oval-shaped portal suddenly materialized.
The eyes of all the quasi-Open Heaven cultivators lit up.
Liu Jingshan, who had waited three thousand long years, was the first to step forward without hesitation. While the others were still caught up in surprise, he cupped his fists: "Fellow junior brothers and sisters, I'll go ahead first."
With those words, he charged straight into the portal and vanished in an instant.
With Liu Jingshan leading the way, the others no longer hesitated either. One after another, they surged forward in an orderly stream, diving into the portal.
Fang Tianci was swept along with the crowd. After a dizzying sensation of spinning, he suddenly found himself standing in a vast expanse of void. Looking around, stars dotted the expanse in every direction. Standing within it, he felt an inexplicable sense of his own insignificance.
Liu Jingshan, who had been the first to leave the Dao Field, sidled over and tugged at Fang Tianci's sleeve, jerking his chin toward a certain direction.
Fang Tianci turned to look and immediately spotted a young man in fitted martial attire standing over there.
"Dao Master?" Fang Tianci exclaimed in a low voice.
He had seen the Dao Master's statue in the Hall of Names. Before him now, the young man bore at least an eighty or ninety percent resemblance to that statue, so he recognized him at a glance.
He wasn't the only one. The numerous quasi-Open Heaven cultivators who had emerged from the Dao Field all spotted Yang Kai at once, their gazes blazing with fervor and reverence.
One Dao Field disciple after another appeared from the portal. Before long, once the last person had emerged, the portal vanished without a trace.
Yang Kai looked left and right, then called out in a clear voice: "Since you've all chosen to leave the Void Dao Field, I trust you've prepared yourselves to fight the Ink Clan? However, to fight the Ink Clan, your current strength is far from sufficient. Go and advance first. You're all geniuses of the Void World, nurtured by the Dao Field for many years. Breaking through to the Open Heaven Realm should pose no difficulty. Don't disappoint me."
As he spoke, he shot a glance toward Hua Qingsi.
Hua Qingsi understood. She raised her hand, and several hundred streaks of light flew outward as she called in a sweet voice: "These are Tianyuan True Seal Pills. Take one before you advance, and it will lend you a helping hand."
The quasi-Open Heaven cultivators reached out and caught them, discovering that they were indeed spirit pills. All were delighted.
These cultivators had accumulated power at the quasi-Open Heaven level for many years. Even without outside assistance, their breakthrough should have been assured. Now, with the Tianyuan True Seal Pills, they had an extra measure of certainty.
They all bowed and expressed their gratitude.
Yang Kai waved his hand. "Go."
The crowd dispersed in an instant, each seeking their own spot to prepare for the breakthrough.
Zhan Wuhen, who had remained silent until now, finally couldn't help but speak up: "If I'm not mistaken, you brought out a batch of disciples from your Small Universe just four hundred years ago?"
That batch had been quite large—several thousand disciples in all. The spectacle of their advancement had shocked Bixi and Mo Mei of Void Land at the time. Though Zhan Wuhen hadn't witnessed it personally, he had heard about it afterward.
He hadn't expected that in merely four hundred years, there would already be nearly three hundred more elites ready.
Yang Kai said, "The time flow inside my Small Universe differs from the outside world."
This was the first Zhan Wuhen had heard of it, but after a moment's thought, he caught on: "Because of the Laws of Time?"
Yang Kai nodded. "Four hundred years outside is nearly three thousand years inside the Small Universe."
Zhan Wuhen silently did the math. That was roughly a seven- or eightfold ratio. If that was the case, then before reaching the Open Heaven Realm, cultivating inside Yang Kai's Small Universe would allow for extremely rapid growth.
"The population base inside the Small Universe is smaller than that of the Star Boundary, so in the same amount of time, fewer geniuses can be born."
However, due to the difference in time flow, though the Small Universe's population was far smaller than the Star Boundary's, when strictly calculated, the output of geniuses wasn't as far behind as one might expect.
On the Star Boundary side, these years, nearly every year saw the emergence of several promising talents capable of advancing directly to Fifth Grade or above.
"What about the proportion that advance directly to Seventh Grade?" Zhan Wuhen asked.
"About ten percent," Yang Kai replied.
Zhan Wuhen clicked his tongue. That proportion was truly impressive—even higher than the Star Boundary's. Over the years, the Star Boundary had conducted surveys showing that among talents who could advance directly to Fifth Grade or above, those who could jump straight to Seventh Grade numbered less than five percent. Of course, this was partly due to the vast population base.
The nourishing power of the Sub-Tree was finite. The larger the base, the more it was spread thin, and naturally fewer top-tier geniuses could emerge.
But now humanity had not only the Star Boundary but also the Myriad Beast World.
It had been roughly three hundred years since Yang Kai planted the Sub-Tree in the Myriad Beast World, and its nourishing effects were already beginning to manifest. Many soldiers had recently spent their battle merits to exchange for residency rights in the Myriad Beast World, bringing their descendants, relatives, and friends—or their sect disciples—to live and cultivate there.
Since not much time had passed, the situation in the Myriad Beast World hadn't fully stabilized yet.
Give it a few more hundred years. Once the Sub-Tree had fully matured, the Myriad Beast World would surely become a second Star Boundary.