Yellow Brother and Blue Sister showed no signs of anger. In fact, when Zhang Ruoxi stroked their heads, the two of them actually wore expressions of great comfort—Yellow Brother narrowed his eyes slightly while Blue Sister emitted soft sounds, like a cat's contented purring…
Then the unexpected happened. From within Yellow Brother and Blue Sister, extraordinarily pure and dense Yin and Yang power surged forth, flowing unimpeded into Zhang Ruoxi's body and pouring into her Small Universe.
It was the most primordial, most pristine power of Pure Sun and Pure Yin in all of heaven and earth.
Though Yellow Crystal and Blue Crystal were manifestations of these two beings' power—originating from the same source in theory—in truth, whether Yellow Crystal or Blue Crystal, both were residual byproducts born from the collision and mutual dissolution of Pure Sun and Pure Yin power. In terms of quality, they could not even begin to compare with the genuine article.
If one were to classify Pure Sun and Pure Yin purely by grade, they would absolutely be an existence that transcended the Ninth Order.
Moreover, the volume of Pure Sun and Pure Yin power within Yellow Brother and Blue Sister was simply staggering. Even though only a minuscule fraction flowed into Zhang Ruoxi's body, her aura surged in an instant—the might of a Seventh Order Opening Heaven cultivator skyrocketed to its absolute limit in the blink of an eye, and there were even signs that it was pushing to break through further.
Ruoxi had already reached the absolute peak of the Seventh Order, which was precisely why she had been able to detect the anomaly with her Small Universe's bottleneck. Had she continued cultivating at a normal pace, she would likely have had a chance to advance to Eighth Order Opening Heaven within two or three hundred years. Given the power of her own bloodline, that timeframe might have been even shorter.
But this unexpected turn of events had accelerated her breakthrough.
She had not been entirely unprepared. Ever since she realized that her Small Universe might not possess the so-called innate bottleneck, she had been making preparations for her advancement to the Eighth Order.
Nevertheless, it was exceedingly dangerous, because the torrential influx of Pure Sun and Pure Yin power had, in a single instant, shattered the balance of her Small Universe.
A Small Universe was, in the strictest sense, no different from the true cosmos. One of the foundations sustaining a Small Universe's existence was the balance of Yin, Yang, and Five Elements power. Once that balance was disrupted, the Small Universe faced the risk of total collapse.
The most common method by which cultivators advanced their cultivation was consuming and refining Opening Heaven Pills. Opening Heaven Pills themselves contained Yin, Yang, and Five Elements power within—a pill of balance—so as long as conditions permitted and one's strength had room to grow, one could take as many as needed without concern.
A more expedient method was refining cultivation resources directly. The benefits of refining a complete set of cultivation resources far exceeded what Opening Heaven Pills could offer. Of course, the cost was correspondingly greater—ordinary cultivators born from sects and families simply could not afford it.
And to maintain the balance of their Small Universes, cultivators refining cultivation resources would generally select them in complete sets—those of the same grade encompassing all seven types of Yin, Yang, and Five Elements resources.
Only in this way could one maximize the preservation of balance within one's Small Universe. Over the years, whenever Yang Kai cultivated, he chose his resources in exactly this fashion.
If a cultivator detected an imbalance among the Yin, Yang, and Five Elements powers within their Small Universe, they could compensate by refining resources of a particular attribute—this was also a common means of maintaining Small Universe equilibrium.
This exacting demand for resources directly led to the extreme scarcity and premium value of Yin and Yang attribute materials. Yin and Yang attribute resources were inherently rarer than Five Elements resources in heaven and earth. At lower grades the difference was somewhat manageable, but the higher the grade, the scarcer Yin and Yang attribute resources became.
Before Yang Kai had plundered massive quantities of Yellow Crystal and Blue Crystal from the Chaotic Death Domain, the great Caves Heavens and Blessed Lands had large reserves of high-grade Five Elements resources that remained largely unusable—because they lacked corresponding Yin and Yang attribute resources of the same grade to match.
This situation had only been resolved with the emergence of Yellow Crystal and Blue Crystal.
Yellow Brother and Blue Sister had not intended to pour their power into Zhang Ruoxi's body. It was simply that, drawn by the peculiar bloodline force, the Pure Sun and Pure Yin power had been unconsciously devoured by Zhang Ruoxi—something they had not anticipated.
Zhang Ruoxi herself had not expected this development. She had not deliberately tried to absorb those two streams of power—it was just that, in the instant of contact, everything had happened entirely of its own accord.
In that moment, the cosmic power within Zhang Ruoxi's body surged violently, her aura erupting forth. Yet the imbalance of power in her Small Universe threw her cosmos into turmoil, battering her mind until her composure faltered and her fair face drained of color. She cried out in alarm, "Sir!"
Yang Kai was startled too. One moment he had been watching Yellow Brother and Blue Sister's peculiar behavior with amusement, and the next, Ruoxi's Small Universe was on the brink of annihilation. Behind her, the phantom projection of her Small Universe had already materialized—a world that had once been lush with mountains and clear waters, serene and tranquil—now entirely cloaked in alternating washes of yellow and blue, the two colors shifting back and forth in a display of violent, destructive force.
It was exactly like the environment of the Chaotic Death Domain itself!
Yang Kai snapped back to awareness in an instant and immediately produced a complete set of Seventh Order Five Elements resources, thrusting them toward Zhang Ruoxi. "Hold your mind steady! Stabilize your Small Universe! Refine them now!"
When Yin and Yang fell out of balance, the only remedy was to supplement the Five Elements power as quickly as possible to restore equilibrium.
Zhang Ruoxi clearly understood that her life hung in the balance. She took the Five Elements resources without hesitation, sat cross-legged on the ground, and heeding Yang Kai's words, clenched her mind in tight focus. She fought desperately to suppress the violent upheaval within her Small Universe while simultaneously preparing to refine the resources.
But the turbulence of one's Small Universe had an immensely devastating effect on any cultivator.
When Opening Heaven realm experts clashed—even those of the same grade, with comparable strength—should one party's Small Universe become destabilized, defeat and even death would follow swiftly.
This was why all the great Caves Heavens and Blessed Lands possessed secret techniques and divine abilities specifically targeting a cultivator's Small Universe. Opening Heaven realm experts, when engaging in combat, also made deliberate efforts to guard their own.
In the Great Dao Army's battle to conquer the Ink Clan's Royal City, Yang Kai had once used the Ox-Hitting Secret Art to slay a Ninth Order Ink Slave. In terms of raw strength alone, he was naturally inferior to the opponent—Ninth Order was still Ninth Order, and the gap between a Ninth Order and an Eighth Order was enormous. By that measure, such an opponent was likely only a hair's breadth away from a False King Lord like Monaya.