In truth, with Yang Kai's current strength, killing an acquired Domain Lord head-on would be trivial, but using this new method of his made his actions even more clandestine—the Domain Lord hadn't even seen who struck from the shadows before he died.
Under the stunned gazes of Zhan Tianhe and the others, Yang Kai casually tossed the Domain Lord's corpse aside, then channeled the Power of the Great Dao. Within the River of Space-Time, turbulent undercurrents surged and spray scattered in all directions.
Faintly visible in certain areas was dense Mo Force dissipating outward, along with the fleeting silhouette of a trapped Mo Clan Domain Lord.
Clearly, another Domain Lord was struggling to free himself from within the River of Space-Time.
A moment later, the Power of the Great Dao receded and the River of Space-Time dissipated. The Mo Clan Domain Lord that had been trapped within was now exposed—but at this point, the Domain Lord was already devoid of life. Looking closely, there was not a single intact spot on his body, as though it had been sliced by a razor-sharp blade billions of times. What was even more bizarre was that the Domain Lord gave off an aura of extreme age, as if he had lived through an incomprehensibly long stretch of time before drawing his last breath…
Zhan Tianhe and the others watched in awe. This river infused with the powers of time and space was truly far too bizarre.
Through these two Domain Lords as test subjects, Yang Kai gained a rough assessment of his new method. Compared to the Sun-Moon Divine Seal, the River of Space-Time was undoubtedly more useful for trapping and restraining enemies—the Sun-Moon Divine Seal was purely an offensive technique, entirely lacking that functionality.
In terms of destructive power, they were roughly comparable, though the cost was rather steep, since he had to continuously channel the Power of the Great Dao to sustain the River of Space-Time's operation.
Still, all things considered, it fell within an acceptable range. As long as it didn't drag on into a prolonged battle, there would be no significant problems.
The group continued onward.
Time passed, and occasional gains were made. Whenever they encountered the Mo Clan, the outcome was never favorable for the latter. When they came across small groups or lone human cultivators, Yang Kai would temporarily recruit them, and once enough strong fighters had gathered—enough to guarantee their own safety—he would send them off to travel together.
After all, too many people gathering in one place wasn't ideal either. While safety would be assured, the spoils would correspondingly diminish.
At the peak, the number of people traveling alongside Yang Kai reached more than a dozen.
Zhan Tianhe and the others had never realized that fighting the Mo Clan could be so simple and effortless. They had battled Mo Clan powerhouses across various great domains before and clashed with Mo Clan Domain Lords, but based on their own strength alone, defeating an acquired Domain Lord wasn't difficult—killing one, however, was another matter entirely.
By Yang Kai's side, whenever they encountered the Mo Clan, virtually none escaped alive. Every Mo Clan powerhouse that was discovered was slain to the last.
There was only one exception, when they encountered a Mo Clan Pseudo King Lord leading several Domain Lords on the move. Both sides charged at each other with great enthusiasm, but the moment they clashed, the Pseudo King Lord was shocked. After mere moments of combat, he attempted to flee in haste. Yang Kai, however, gave chase relentlessly, leading a group of human powerhouses in pursuit for a considerable distance, finally relenting only after inflicting significant injuries on the Pseudo King Lord at some cost.
Zhan Tianhe and the others naturally understood Yang Kai's reasoning. Inside the world of the Qiankun Furnace, Pseudo King Lords posed the greatest threat to human powerhouses. If one was encountered, even if they couldn't kill it, they had to wound it and whittle down its strength—to prevent the Pseudo King Lord from going after other human fighters.
Mo Clan powerhouses found it difficult to recuperate while injured in this place, so being wounded inside the Qiankun Furnace was an especially painful blow for the Mo Clan.
In that battle, had the Pseudo King Lord not still had several Mo Clan Domain Lords providing support, Zhan Tianhe and the others suspected Yang Kai might have been able to keep even the Pseudo King Lord there permanently.
Though the Pseudo King Lord escaped, the Domain Lords that had accompanied him were all slain—hardly an unrewarding outcome.
As they pressed onward, the war spoils were plentiful.
Some of the Mo Clan powerhouses had also collected mortal-grade Kaitian Pills, and after being cut down, these naturally ended up in the pockets of Yang Kai and his companions.
The only thing Yang Kai found regrettable was that he had yet to encountered his human body, nor had he sensed the presence of a supreme-grade Kaitian Pill.
For him, reuniting with his human body and finding a supreme-grade Kaitian Pill were the only two objectives of this trip into the Qiankun Furnace. He had already obtained one supreme-grade Kaitian Pill, turning Ouyang Lie into a newly promoted ninth-grade cultivator, but his human body remained nowhere to be found. He had even inquired about Fang Tianci's whereabouts with the human powerhouses he had recruited along the way, but to no avail.
Wandering through the Qiankun Furnace, they experienced two more evolutions of the Great Dao. As the number of Dao evolutions increased, the frequency of encountering enemies—or coming across allies—grew much higher.
This clearly indicated that the space within this furnace-world was becoming clearer, no longer as boundlessly vast as before. Perhaps, just as Blood Crow had relayed in his intelligence, once the Qiankun Furnace's Great Dao had evolved nine times, this furnace-world would finally reveal its true face entirely.
In the deep, boundless void, several broken corpses drifted. Traces of residual power lingered where heavenly might had dissipated. Beside those corpses lay scattered fragments of shattered Artifacts. One of the corpses had its eyes wide open in fury—though life had already fled, the body still stood upright, glaring defiantly ahead, as if it had fought to the very last breath even unto death.
Moreover, fragments of minor cosmos floated throughout the surrounding void, Mo Force coiling around them—most likely having been deliberately severed and discarded.