Just as Yang Kai's consciousness happened to sweep across his Small Universe, an anomaly in a certain corner suddenly caught his attention.
The source of that anomaly was none other than the Fang Family Estate!
At this very moment, every member of the small Fang Family Estate was led by their current patriarch in ritual worship, crying out in reverence to bid farewell to their Heaven-Bestowed Ancestor. Their postures were devout beyond measure.
Earlier, when Fang Tianchi had merged back into the Origin, he had left his personal sword behind for the Fang family — a small act of selfish attachment. Yang Kai had witnessed the entire scene.
The Fang family members might not fully understand what their Heaven-Bestowed Ancestor had actually encountered or what he was doing, but that did nothing to diminish their awe and gratitude toward him. After all, everything the Fang family had achieved today was owed to this Heaven-Bestowed Ancestor. The family's rise to prominence had begun with him as the turning point.
Had this ancestor not cultivated successfully all those years ago and joined the Void Dao Academy, how could the Fang family enjoy such prosperity today?
Over the countless ages of the Void World, families large and small had sprouted like bamboo after rain, only to be wiped out and replaced in turn. Without a solid foundation, how could any lineage endure?
They worshipped with sincere devotion — for the ancestor's contributions to the family, and for the family's future legacy.
In the unseen depths, it seemed as though an invisible, shadowless mysterious force was gathering from the direction of the Fang Family Estate, flowing into the golden dragon shadow.
Yang Kai's consciousness sharpened. Earlier, he had been wholly focused on driving the Three Parts Return to One Art, attempting to break through his own shackles, and had failed to notice the anomaly at the Fang Family Estate. Moreover, this mysterious force was not particularly powerful — it was so faint as to be nearly imperceptible, which was why Yang Kai hadn't paid it much mind.
Now, observing with focused attention, he realized he hadn't been mistaken. Over at the Fang Family Estate, a mysterious power truly was converging. That power seemed to form a long, thin thread — one end anchored to the Fang Family Estate, the other connected to the golden dragon shadow!
A storm of thoughts flashed through his mind, and suddenly, Yang Kai understood.
So that was it!
So this was the true marvel of the Three Parts Return to One Art.
Though he had received the technique from Wu Kuang and practiced the Three Parts Return to One Art, spending millennia cultivating the Human Body and Beast Body as two separate avatars, Yang Kai still hadn't grasped how the technique could break through the shackles of the Open Heaven Method and allow him to advance from the Eighth Rank to the Ninth Rank.
He had originally theorized that he needed to draw upon the raw power of the Human Body and Beast Body, merging the strength of all three forms to shatter his restraints and achieve a breakthrough.
But after activating the Three Parts Return to One Art, he found things were nothing like what he had imagined. The combined power of three peak Eighth-Rank cultivators was insufficient to break through those shackles and breach the barriers of his Small Universe. Instead, it was the merging of their Origins that had allowed him to break through to the Sacred Dragon physique.
The true essence of the Three Parts Return to One Art was never about combining the raw strength of three bodies. It was about this mysterious power!
The power of Destiny!
What was Destiny? Destiny was fate, fortune, the grand momentum to which all things bowed — the convergence of Heaven and Earth!
This vast and boundless Universe, since the birth of that First Light, had roughly passed through three great eras.
The ancient era, when the Sacred Spirits born of that First Light roamed freely, ruling over all realms.
The prehistoric era, when great demons rampaged unchecked, wreaking havoc across the cosmos.
The recent ancient era, when the Open Heaven Method flourished and humanity rose to prominence — continuing to the present day.
In every era, the race that dominated was the favored child of that age, the gathering point of fortune. The Sacred Spirits, the Demon Race, and Humanity each represented a different epoch.
The Three Parts Return to One Art harnessed the power of three bodies, transcending the barriers of time and space, fusing the destiny of all three eras into a single being — thereby breaking through the shackles of the Open Heaven Method and surpassing one's own limits.
This was the true meaning of the Three Parts Return to One Art. The key was fusing the destiny-power of the races that had defined those eras. The magnitude or intensity of raw strength was secondary.
Having grasped this truth, Yang Kai couldn't help but silently praise — Devour, truly a prodigy of the highest order. The Three Parts Return to One Art was no longer a simple technique in any ordinary sense. It was entangled with the crystallized wisdom of those bygone eras.
Come to think of it, it wasn't so strange. If Devour hadn't possessed such abilities, he likely could never have deduced a heaven-defying cultivation method like the Devouring Battle Art.
Now that he had comprehended the true essence of the Three Parts Return to One Art, Yang Kai suddenly realized there might still be hope to salvage the situation. It wasn't yet time to give up.
Time was tight, but it was worth a try! If this succeeded, he would not only achieve the Sacred Dragon physique but also advance to the Ninth Rank as he had wished. If he failed, he would simply remain at the peak of the Eighth Rank — nothing more.
He immediately devoted the greater part of his consciousness to observing his Small Universe in detail. With this closer look, he immediately saw more streams of destiny-power converging toward the golden dragon shadow from every corner of his Small World.
Destiny-power was ethereal and formless, normally almost impossible to perceive. But this was Yang Kai's own Small Universe, and with his focused attention, he could sense it with perfect clarity.
Right now, within his Small Universe, apart from the Fang Family Estate worshipping their Heaven-Bestowed Ancestor, there were many other places where people were also holding rites and prayers, beseeching Heaven and Earth for peace.
The patriarch of the Fang family worshipped their own ancestor — one who had already merged into the Golden Dragon's Origin. When their destiny gathered, it naturally transferred along with him.
The other places were worshipping the world itself, so their destiny-power likewise flowed toward the golden phantom of the dragon.
Yet it still wasn't enough.
In the next instant, every living being in the Void World — regardless of their cultivation level, whether man or woman, young or old — witnessed a scene they would never forget for as long as they lived.
A figure suddenly appeared in the sky above the world, vast enough to blot out the sky and cover the earth, radiating immense and solemn authority.