Such divine mastery could only be described as the work of gods and ghosts.
A stick of incense later, the dust had settled. Yang Kai raised a hand, and a sphere no larger than a fist was drawn back into his grasp.
In the distance, the numerous Ink Race powerhouses had long since been left dumbstruck.
Mo Na Ye sighed inwardly. He had miscalculated! He had assumed Yang Kai intended to use the power of his Small Universe to contain the Pure Yang Pass. Who would have thought he possessed such a technique as well?
Meanwhile, Yang Kai toyed with the River Sphere in his hand, secretly sneering.
He had been able to refine entire Universe Worlds into World Pearls — what was a single Pure Yang Pass by comparison?
Though refining Universe Worlds into World Pearls was somewhat different from the current situation. The reason he had been able to refine those worlds was primarily because their Heavenly Daos had not yet perished. In other words, the worlds were still alive, which gave him the latitude to refine them one by one and send them to the World Tree for resettlement. It was precisely through that method that he had forged a mysterious connection with the true body of the World Tree, allowing him to traverse the void using the old tree's power.
The Pure Yang Pass, after all, was an inanimate object — there was nothing to commune with, and it could not be refined. Yang Kai could only use the Space-Time River to envelop it, carve out the space the Pass occupied, and compress it with the river's power.
With his current mastery of the Dao of Space, he was fully capable of accomplishing this. Moreover, while journeying through the Endless River within the Universe Furnace, he had observed those exceedingly diminutive celestial phenomena and gleaned some of their profound principles.
It could be said that the Space-Time River was the very foundation of this feat. Without it, Yang Kai would have found it exceedingly difficult to carve away such a vast expanse of void.
He gave the River Sphere a light toss, then raised his eyes toward Mo Na Ye. "How about I take another Pass? Sixty years without coming back to the Gate of No Return?"
"Get lost!" Mo Na Ye was furious. He was suddenly realizing that the stronger this fellow Yang Kai became, the thicker his skin grew — to actually say something so shameless with a straight face.
Every single one of these Human race Passes was a devastating weapon. To let Yang Kai take one was already more than enough. How could they possibly agree to a second?
As for thirty years versus sixty, there was virtually no difference between them.
"How stingy!" Yang Kai curled his lip. He had only said it on a whim, certain the Ink Race would never agree. In truth, even if they did, he would have been powerless to act — there was only one Space-Time River, and he could not produce a second.
"Business here is concluded. Leave immediately," Mo Na Ye urged, unable to suppress his impatience. Every time Yang Kai visited the Gate of No Return, the Ink Race lost a Pseudo King Master, a King Lord-level Ink Nest, and now even the Pure Yang Pass had been taken. The losses were truly substantial.
Still, it could have been worse. If Yang Kai actually kept his word, they would not see him for at least thirty years. And during those thirty years, the Ink Race needed to find a way to deal with this kind of situation — otherwise, when Yang Kai returned in thirty years, they would be just as helpless as before.
"There's no rush." Yang Kai smiled faintly, gazing at Mo Na Ye. "I still have a second piece of business to discuss with you."
The moment those words left his mouth, Mo Na Ye's head began to ache. He raised a hand immediately. "Spare me. You yourself have said that the Human and Ink Races share a hatred deeper than the sea, irreconcilable and eternal. There is nothing to discuss. Take your things and leave!"
Anything related to Yang Kai was bound to bring trouble. Mo Na Ye was on high alert and truly did not want to exchange another word with him.
Yet Yang Kai acted as though he had not heard a thing, speaking at his own pace. "The battlefields between our two races still follow the old configuration — currently divided into twelve theaters, each garrisoned by no small number of Pseudo King Masters and an immeasurable army. Even if you don't care about the army's lives, surely you care about the Pseudo King Masters?"
Mo Na Ye's heart lurched, and his expression turned dark. "What do you mean?"
Yang Kai chuckled softly, took a single step forward, and with the Space Laws surging, appeared at the Domain Gate in the blink of an eye. Looking down from his vantage point at the assembled Ink Race powerhouses, he said with mocking amusement, "What do I mean — surely you know perfectly well? Or must I spell it out for you?"
Mo Yu's expression was ashen as a storm cloud, and Mo Na Ye's was scarcely better. He remained stubbornly defiant: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Yang Kai let out a soft humph. "Refusing to cry until you see the coffin!" After a brief pause, he continued: "Then let me take a guess. After I departed the Gate of No Return, you forcibly broke through the Domain Gate's seal. I imagine you sent word at once, ordering the Pseudo King Masters currently fighting at the front lines to pull back? Hmm — it wasn't just Pseudo King Masters, was it? There were probably Domain Lords and quite a few Lords as well. After all, those are all forces you've worked hard to cultivate, and losing too many would be a shame. Let me see — the batch closest to the Gate of No Return should be arriving in the Void Domain around now. Perhaps I could go and intercept them?"
Mo Na Ye's eyes blazed with fury, killing intent surging in waves. Through gritted teeth he said, "You had already thought of this!"
He had still harbored a slim hope that Yang Kai had not considered this angle. But the moment Yang Kai laid it out so clearly, Mo Na Ye knew he had been indulging in wishful thinking.
Come to think of it, with Yang Kai's cunning, how could he possibly have overlooked this? The fact that Yang Kai had shown no action or intention regarding this matter until now had given the Ink Race a sliver of hope.
But now that Yang Kai had laid the cards on the table, Mo Na Ye understood — the situation was spiraling in the worst possible direction.