With Mo Na Ye's shrewdness, how could he fail to see that the Ink Clan had no hope of winning this battle? Sooner or later, the Human Race would crush the Ink Clan's army and seize Returnless Pass.
The Ink Clan stationed at Returnless Pass faced only one possible outcome — total annihilation.
But so what if he could see it? He had no intention of fleeing. If the Human Race wanted to take Returnless Pass, they would have to pay the appropriate price.
After all, once the Human Race had taken Returnless Pass, they still harbored far greater ambitions. If the Ink Clan at Returnless Pass could cripple the Human Race even in defeat, then even if the Ink Clan lost, they would still have won.
As long as the Supreme One's grand design of unifying all the Heavens could be accomplished — as long as the Ink could be made eternal in this world — what did it matter if every Ink Clan member at Returnless Pass perished?
The Human Race's strength had already been laid bare for all to see, while the Ink Clan's strength remained merely the tip of the iceberg. This war, which determined the survival of both races, would ultimately end with the Human Race's destruction.
Mo Na Ye had always believed this with unshakable conviction!
At the same time, within the Void Domain, the River of Time stretched across the void, its surface churning with surging winds and roiling clouds, the power of the Great Dao trembling throughout.
Within the river, Yang Kai was pushing the power of the Time Dao to its fullest, manifesting infinite profundities.
He was attempting something — or rather, seeking a breakthrough.
Over the past twenty years, he had leveraged the power of the Star Boundary and the Myriad Monster Boundary to cultivate, causing his strength to skyrocket. But there was still room for improvement. By his own classification of the Ninth-Order tier, his current level placed him at no more than upper-middle standing.
There were no longer any suitable World Beings he could draw upon for cultivation. To increase his strength purely through the accumulation of time — even with Yang Kai's cultivation speed and the unique advantages within his Small Universe — would take a minimum of one or two thousand years to advance to the peak of the Ninth Order.
If he could reach the peak of the Ninth Order, he would not fear a confrontation with even an Ink Colossus.
But what Yang Kai lacked most urgently under the current circumstances was time.
According to the Grand Strategic Command's plan, the battle at Returnless Pass needed to be resolved within twenty years, followed by the expedition to the Primordial Heaven's Forbidden Zone — to eradicate the Ink menace in one decisive campaign. In such a short window, if he were to cultivate at a normal pace, given his current foundation, he would see precious little improvement.
Fortunately, time was not immutable — especially not to someone like Yang Kai, who had reached the pinnacle of the Space Dao.
The time flow within his Small Universe was ten times that of the outside world. One year in his Small Universe was equivalent to a decade beyond it.
He had once spent fully several thousand years cultivating within the River of Time during the Great Sea Phenomenon, breaking through to the Eighth Order in a single leap while advancing his comprehension of the various Great Daos. But in reality, only a few hundred years had passed in the outside world…
With these real, firsthand experiences to draw upon, Yang Kai naturally harbored certain novel ideas. Of course, mere ideas were useless — one needed the ability to turn those ideas into reality.
Fortunately, with Yang Kai's mastery of the Time Dao, he already possessed that ability!
Back in the Celestial Temple, he had created three Secret Realms tied to the three Great Daos he primarily cultivated — Space, Time, and the Spear. Setting aside the Space and Spear Realms for the moment, the Time Realm functioned much like the River of Time. Warriors who entered it to train experienced time at a different rate from the outside world, though the ratio was not as extreme — roughly one to four.
Even so, the soldiers had flocked to it eagerly. Training for four years in the Time Realm meant only one year passed outside, effectively multiplying cultivation efficiency.
Among the three Secret Realms, the Time Realm was by far the most popular. Even those who had not mastered the Space Dao could use it to enhance their own cultivation, while the rare few who had attained insight into the Time Dao could study its mysteries within and deepen their comprehension.
Originally, Yang Kai had created those three Secret Realms for the disciples of the Void Academy to cultivate their respective Daos, and no restrictions had been imposed. But as time went on, too many soldiers sought entry to the Time Realm, severely impacting those disciples who had genuinely devoted themselves to the Time Dao. Grand Steward Hua had no choice but to report the matter to the Grand Strategic Command, which soon issued a directive requiring a certain amount of merit points to qualify for entry into the Time Realm…
Even so, it could not dampen the soldiers' enthusiasm.
If Yang Kai had not been perpetually elusive — a dragon that showed its head but never its tail — Mi Jinglun would have asked him to construct several more Time Realms.
It could be said that Yang Kai had long been capable of creating Secret Realms where the flow of time differed from the outside world. Now, having reached the Ninth Order with his Great Dao comprehension elevated yet another level, undertaking such tasks came even more naturally to him.
In truth, Yang Kai had begun working on this as early as his return journey from the World Furnace, traveling back from the edge of the world. During that six-hundred-year odyssey of wandering, he had not merely been making his way home. He had long sensed that time was running out — no matter how rapidly his strength grew, it could not keep pace with the demands of the war.
To truly solve this problem, he had to attack it from the angle of time itself.
After six hundred years of intensive research and repeated refinement, he had finally developed the necessary means.
Now, the River of Time stretched across the void. Under Yang Kai's command, the power of the Great Dao surged within the river, and in short order, Yang Kai stripped away the ten thousand Daos and absorbed them into his body, leaving only the Time Dao untouched.
This was not a difficult feat for Yang Kai. His mastery of the Time Dao, while not yet breaking through to the highest ninth level, had already reached the pinnacle of the eighth.
With this done, the River of Time transformed into a River of Pure Time!
It bore striking resemblance to those Rivers of Time he had witnessed during the Great Sea Phenomenon — only far more potent.