The Blood Gate had been forged by Tianxing from his own vital blood — a forbidden zone of the Wildlands Ancient Territory that even the most powerful Demon Race members dared not approach lightly.
Such a Blood Gate could only be opened by an inheritor of Tianxing's bloodline!
Unfortunately, after Tianxing's passing, his bloodline had fallen into the mortal world. His descendants were unable to recapture the glory of their ancestors, gradually declining until they faced the threat of being extinguished entirely.
Later, Zhang Ruoxi's bloodline awakened, and she took control of the Blood Gate, bringing Xiaoxiao along with her. Xiaoxiao's current Taiyue form had been inherited from the Sacred Spirit Taiyue's origin within that bloodline.
Back in the Star Boundary, many of the great Demon Lords had benefited similarly — inheriting the origin of various Sacred Spirits from within the Blood Gate, soaring to new heights, and remaining active on the various Great Domain battlefields to this day. Among them were Luan Feng and Fan Wu. They had originally possessed only a sliver of Sacred Spirit bloodline, far from pure, but after obtaining the corresponding origins, they could be called true Sacred Spirits. All of them had even journeyed to the Sacred Spirit Ancestral Ground to cultivate.
Recalling all of this, Yang Kai's expression suddenly grew somewhat vacant.
Only Sacred Spirits had bloodlines to speak of — so what exactly was Zhang Ruoxi's Tianxing bloodline? This bloodline carried a natural suppression against Sacred Spirits; that much could be seen from Zhu Jian's reaction earlier. They had merely passed by one another, yet a powerhouse like Zhu Jian had felt a faint thread of danger toward Ruoxi, a mere Seventh-Grade cultivator.
In truth, even when Zhang Ruoxi stood before Yang Kai, he had felt a stirring of unease — and that stirring had originated from his own Dragon bloodline!
However, because they were familiar with each other and he knew Ruoxi would never harbor ill intentions toward him, the feeling had not been particularly strong.
But if she had been a stranger, even that faint stirring alone would have been enough to put Yang Kai on high alert.
He had never experienced this sensation before. Which meant either Zhang Ruoxi's Tianxing bloodline had grown tremendously, or his own Dragon bloodline had strengthened so much compared to the past that his sensitivity to Ruoxi's bloodline had heightened accordingly.
"Sir, you are experienced and knowledgeable. Ruoxi has a question she would like to ask." Zhang Ruoxi spoke softly.
Gu Pan had already waved her hand to deploy layer upon layer of barriers, shrouding the three of them and sealing off all contact with the outside world.
Yang Kai immediately understood that whatever Ruoxi wished to discuss must be of extreme personal importance — otherwise Gu Pan would not have been so cautious. He straightened his expression and nodded. "Go ahead."
Zhang Ruoxi said, "Sir is surely aware that when I once condensed my Dao Seal, the resources I refined were fifth-grade, and so the grade I ultimately achieved was also fifth-grade Open Heaven."
Yang Kai nodded. He was naturally aware of this matter. Back then, he had even tried to persuade Zhang Ruoxi to refine sixth-grade resources instead, since there was still a meaningful gap between fifth and sixth grade — especially regarding the ultimate ceiling one could reach. At the time, he had still possessed some Taiyi Purifying Spirit Water. If Ruoxi was willing, consuming it would have washed away the accumulated Dao Seal imprint, allowing her to start from scratch.
However, doing so carried tremendous risk. When it came to the Dao Seal, the slightest carelessness could prove fatal. Furthermore, Ruoxi felt that refining sixth-grade resources would be too much of a strain, so Yang Kai had not pressed the matter.
"Now Ruoxi has reached the Seventh-Grade, and has cultivated to the peak realm," Zhang Ruoxi continued. Over these years, she had followed Gu Pan across battlefields, slaying countless enemies and earning considerable merits, so cultivation resources had never been scarce. The current environment for human warriors was both dangerous and filled with opportunity — as long as one was willing to fight, anything could be exchanged for merits. It was nothing like the old days, when the best resources were hoarded by the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands, out of reach for ordinary cultivators.
Zhang Ruoxi was diligent by nature, and with merits to exchange for supplies, she cultivated constantly. Reaching the peak of the Seventh-Grade was hardly surprising.
"But sir..." Ruoxi looked up at Yang Kai, a faint trace of bewilderment in her eyes. "Ruoxi feels that her cultivation has not reached true completion. Nor has she sensed that natural layer of shackles within her Minor Cosmos."
Yang Kai had been listening carefully, and his expression turned grave at her words. "Truly?"
Zhang Ruoxi's statement might have sounded unremarkable at first glance, but it sent a thunderous shock through Yang Kai's heart.
She could not sense the natural layer of shackles within her Minor Cosmos! That was extraordinary.
After all, even Yang Kai himself could already sense that very layer of shackles.
The human race's Open Heaven method had its flaws — it was imperfect. This was something Yang Kai had only come to realize in recent years.
Back then, Cang and the nine others had comprehended the Open Heaven method beneath the World Tree, enabling the human race — once a weak and vulnerable species — to rise rapidly. Powerhouses and mighty figures emerged one after another, a contribution of incalculable merit.
Without the Open Heaven method, there would be no human race as it existed today. No person, no era, could ever erase that legacy.
Every subsequent generation of humanity had inherited the fruit of those ten Martial Ancestors' efforts, and Yang Kai naturally held them in the deepest reverence.
But it could not be denied that the Open Heaven method was incomplete. If it were truly a perfected Grand Dao, there would be no grade-based ceiling upon advancing to Open Heaven. It should have been a path that led all the way to the terminus of martial cultivation, a highway to the absolute summit — unobstructed and boundless.
Yet the current Open Heaven Dao had a definite end along its path.
The ceiling of fifth-grade Open Heaven was the Seventh-Grade; the ceiling of sixth-grade Open Heaven was the Eighth-Grade...
The World Fruit served to extend one's finite Dao by another stretch, allowing the consumer to walk a little further — but even so, the limit remained.