In the void, Yang Kai soared through the expanse, with a small, cat-like demon crouching on his shoulder — none other than Lei Ying in her demon form.
The jellyfish Chaos Entity couldn't be harvested in greater quantities, which left Yang Kai rather regretful. He had no choice but to retreat from that area with Lei Ying. He had originally intended to let Lei Ying carry him for a stretch, so he too could experience the convenience of having a mount. Unfortunately, Lei Ying adamantly refused, instead shrinking her form to squat on his shoulder.
Yang Kai found this rather helpless. Since Lei Ying wouldn't cooperate, he wasn't about to force the issue.
At the moment, he held a small Ink Nest in his hand, his expression somewhat hesitant.
This was naturally the spoils from slaying those Mo Clan Domain Lords earlier. After careful inspection, Yang Kai had confirmed it was a Lord-level Ink Nest. But the fact that it could relay messages within the Qiankun Furnace meant that at least one higher-level Domain Lord–grade Ink Nest must also be in the possession of some Mo Clan powerhouse somewhere within the Qiankun Furnace.
Otherwise, the Mo Clan would have no means of transmitting information through the Ink Nest space.
Now that he had this small Ink Nest, he could take the opportunity to probe the Mo Clan's intelligence. There might be something useful to be gained.
The concern was that the Mo Clan might detect the intrusion and use a secret technique to seal off the Ink Nest space…
If that happened, his consciousness would inevitably be trapped within, unable to break free. He had experienced something similar once before. Fortunately, the Warm Divine Lotus had protected him, and through the Soul Sacrifice Thorn he had managed to injure and kill numerous Mo Clan powerhouses, ultimately forcing them to voluntarily reopen the seal so he could escape.
That time, he had still been part of the Great Yan Army — a different situation from the present.
This was, after all, inside the Qiankun Furnace. If his consciousness were trapped here, it would be a serious detriment to his subsequent actions.
After deliberating for a long while, Yang Kai still sighed and crushed the small Ink Nest in his hand. The Mo Clan would certainly be on guard against intelligence-gathering attempts. If he truly entered the Ink Nest space with his consciousness, he might very well plunge straight into a trap.
Better to err on the side of caution than invite unnecessary trouble.
Just then, the surrounding void suddenly trembled slightly. Yang Kai immediately halted, focusing his senses.
On his shoulder, Lei Ying's expression grew solemn. She spoke in a low voice, "The first Evolution is here!"
The so-called Evolution referred to the changes in the fragmented Dao Marks within the Qiankun Furnace's chaotic interior. These changes would occur a total of nine times, and after the ninth, the environment inside the Qiankun Furnace would undergo a dramatic transformation — also signaling that this treasure hunt was drawing to a close.
This intelligence had come from Blood Crow. He was a survivor of the previous Qiankun Furnace expedition. Though he had not obtained the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pill nor participated in any major battles, he had nonetheless emerged alive from the Qiankun Furnace and, with the gains he had made, effortlessly broken through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm.
In the jade slip Liao Zheng had given Yang Kai, there was not only mention of the distinctions between Open Heaven Pill grades and the existence of Chaos Entities, but also the Evolutions that occurred within the Qiankun Furnace.
The interior of the Qiankun Furnace was suffused with extraordinarily dense fragmented Dao Marks — something anyone who entered could directly perceive.
Due to the influence of these fragmented Dao Marks, the environment inside the Qiankun Furnace could be described as chaotic and disorderly, much like the marks themselves. Here, the concepts of time and space were extremely vague, and from this, a multitude of Chaos Entities had spawned.
Such an environment may not have affected the Mo Clan too greatly, since they were fundamentally creatures of Ink, not practitioners of the Dao.
But for human warriors, there was an impact — particularly when they mobilized the power of their own Daos.
In the outside world, Dao power permeated every corner of the universe. Open Heaven Realm warriors who mobilized their Dao power resonated with the Heavenly Dao, borrowing its strength.
But within the Qiankun Furnace, the Dao was shattered and the Dao Marks were in disarray. There was nothing to borrow from.
What remained unaffected were one's physical strength and the Heavenly Might of one's Small World.
Take Yang Kai for example — inside the Qiankun Furnace, his Dragon Vein body suffered no impairment, and mobilizing the power of his Small World was likewise unaffected. But if he were to channel the power of Space or Time Daos, it would be somewhat weaker than in the outside world.
Of course, the impact was not severe. For warriors of his caliber, the primary reliance in combat was still their own power. Still, it was a degree of weakening nonetheless.
But the environment inside the Qiankun Furnace was not static.
Every time the Qiankun Furnace manifested, the interior space would undergo nine successive Evolutions of the Dao. Why these Evolutions occurred, why there were exactly nine — Blood Crow did not know either. But that was simply how the process unfolded.
The result of each Evolution was that the fragmented Dao Marks suffusing the Qiankun Furnace would become progressively more complete, until after the ninth Evolution, those fragmented marks would transform entirely into whole, ordered Dao Marks.
This had a direct and significant impact on the Qiankun Furnace's interior space.
The reason the Qiankun Furnace originally gave the impression of being vast beyond measure was precisely because space here became extremely nebulous, without clear definition.
But as the fragmented Dao Marks became more refined with each Evolution, the definition of space would grow ever clearer.
In terms of space, if the Qiankun Furnace before the Evolution could be said to have no order, then with each successive Evolution, a clear standard would emerge, allowing spatial distances to be quantified.