Chapter 5429, Dao Advancements Translator: Silavin & Jon Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys Initially, Yang Kai had a massive amount of resources. Before he left the 3,000 Worlds for the Black Ink Battlefield back then, he had made some preparations by bringing many materials of all different Elements with him. Over the years, he had acquired even more resources on the Black Ink Battlefield, especially when he raised chaos in the Black Ink Clan’s territory and robbed many of their cities. Every Black Ink Clan Master’s territory had a large number of shops where there were innumerable resources for sale. Therefore, Yang Kai had never worried about not having enough cultivation resources. When Cang asked for some resources to restore his strength, Yang Kai gave him some without hesitation. Now, he still had a lot of materials, but those were all of the Five Elements. He no longer had any Yin or Yang Element materials with him, including the Yellow and Blue Crystals he had acquired from Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan. Among the different sorts of materials, Yin and Yang Attribute resources were the hardest to come by. In the 3,000 Worlds, higher Order Yin and Yang Element materials were considered strategic reserves even in the Cave Heavens and Paradises. They wouldn’t use them unless they absolutely had to. The situation was slightly better on the Black Ink Battlefield, but all in all, Yin and Yang Element materials were still much rarer than materials of the Five Elements. Without a complete set of materials, he couldn’t continue cultivating. He regretted using too many Yellow and Blue Crystals to block the Royal Lord’s aura back then. Every time he used Instantaneous Movement, he had to release potent Purifying Light to block the Royal Lord’s aura, and after years of running away, he had consumed a lot of those crystals. However, it wasn’t like he had a choice. If he didn’t use Purifying Light, he would’ve been killed. Even though he had a lot of Open Heaven Pills, consuming them to cultivate was extremely slow in comparison. Moreover, he had been staying in this Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon for far too long, so he intended to leave. This cultivation session should come to an end. After making some quick calculations, Yang Kai realised he had spent 4,000 years in the Temporal Rivers. It only took him around 2,000 years to make it to the Eighth-Order, while he spent the next 2,000 years cultivating, which allowed him to establish himself in the Eighth-Order. Just like that, 4,000 years had passed. With that said, a significantly shorter amount of time had passed in the outside world. As the flow of time in every Temporal River was different, and Yang Kai wasn’t aware of the exact ratio compared to the outside world, so he was unable to calculate how much time had really passed by in the rest of the Universe. However, he knew he had spent about 100 years outside of the Temporal Rivers, so taking some rough estimates, he guessed that somewhere between 400 and 500 years had passed in the outside world. [How is the war between the two Races?] It wasn’t until this moment that he thought about this matter. He hadn’t seen the Royal Lord after such a long time, so he wondered if the other party had entered the Great Sea as well, or if he was even still alive. When he had ample resources, he had forgotten about the passing of time in the Great Sea. Now that he didn’t have sufficient resources, it was pointless for him to keep staying here. Nevertheless, leaving this place wasn’t so easy. There were countless undercurrents in the Great Sea that intertwined with each other, so it was hard for him to identify any kind of direction. Having said that, Yang Kai believed that where there was a will, there was a way. He summoned his Azure Dragon Spear and opened up a portal to his Small Universe before absorbing the 3,000 metres long Temporal River. Then, he charged towards the undercurrent nearest to him. Unlike when he first plunged into the Great Sea, he was no longer flustered. Over the years, he had moved across the Great Sea countless times to look for more Temporal and Grand Dao Rivers, so he had learned some tricks to deal with these undercurrents. Every undercurrent had evolved from a Grand Dao, which formed a Martial Domain. Yang Kai had never dabbled in many of those Grand Daos, so it was hard for him to react accordingly. Now, he had devoured quite a lot of Grand Dao Rivers, including some of the Grand Dao of Space, which helped improve his mastery over the Dao of Space. By this point, it could be said that he had some basic achievements in most of the Grand Daos in the Universe, though his level of mastery in them varied greatly. When he was particularly skilled in a certain Grand Dao, he would have it easier in the corresponding undercurrent. For example, Yang Kai had come across several Space Dao Rivers which were full of Space Dao Essence and Void Cracks that moved about randomly. Most people would find such an environment to be a death trap. Even Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and Royal Lords would find it hard to survive once they landed in such a river. However, Yang Kai was able to traverse the Space Dao Rivers like he was strolling across a flat meadow. He just had to use his Space Principles to resonate with the currents in the river so he could ride along with it without being harmed. After absorbing such rivers in the past, he realised his mastery over the Dao of Space had still improved, and when he came across another Space Dao River, it became easier for him to deal with it. It was a virtuous cycle. Now, Yang Kai wasn’t skillful in all the Grand Daos, but as long as he knew a thing or two about them, he could make use of his comprehension to ward off some of the dangers in the undercurrents. If the rivers were cohesive enough, he could even refine part of them and enhance his mastery of those Grand Daos. Therefore, despite knowing that it would be easy to leave, Yang Kai wasn’t worried he wouldn’t be able to achieve it. Given enough time, he could absorb and refine all the undercurrents in the Great Sea, and without these undercurrents, the Great Sea would simply cease to exist. This would be an enormously strenuous task as just based on his observations so far, the Great Sea was so vast that it would take him several tens of thousands of years to achieve this on his own. His experience of absorbing the undercurrents this time was different from the previous ones. Back then, Yang Kai primarily focused on looking for Temporal Rivers to improve his cultivation while absorbing undercurrents was something he did when looking for the next Temporal River or to break up the monotony of cultivating. However, as he focused on taking in undercurrents now, his efficiency was far higher. This caused his Small Universe to be filled with Grand Dao Rivers that he hadn’t managed to refine. These rivers contained all sorts of abstrusities as they clashed in the Small Universe, causing some unusual phenomena. When it became too much, Yang Kai had to look for tranquil undercurrents to refine the remnants of the rivers, and only after they were fully refined would he continue with his journey. As he absorbed the Grand Dao Rivers, his mastery over various Grand Daos improved rapidly. He had also managed to raise his Spear Dao to the Seventh Level of Mastery. Reaching the Fifth Level in this Grand Dao didn’t do much to add to his strength, but it was enough for Yang Kai to now be considered a Great Master in the Sword Dao. Of course, that was just the level of Mastery he had achieved in a theoretical sense and he still wasn’t comparable to those who reached the same level through their own hard work and comprehension. Regardless, that was none of Yang Kai’s concern as he just wanted to make use of the advancements in the Grand Daos to help him get out of this Great Sea. Furthermore, it would take one a long time and much effort to reach the Fifth Level of Mastery in any Grand Dao, but Yang Kai only had to refine a number of Sword Dao Rivers to achieve that. As more and more Grand Dao Rivers were extracted by Yang Kai, he found it easier and easier to traverse the undercurrents in the Great Sea. Having said that, there was one point that made him torn between tears and laughter. Back then, he was eager to cultivate and make it to the Eighth-Order as soon as possible, so he always exerted himself to seek out Temporal Rivers, but only found one every 10 years on average. Now that he no longer needed Temporal Rivers to cultivate though, he chanced upon them quite frequently. After absorbing a couple dozen Temporal Rivers of different lengths, he suddenly felt that the flow of time in his Small Universe changed once again. In the past, the flow of time in his Small Universe was five times faster than the outside world, but at this moment, the ratio had increased significantly. After some quick calculations, Yang Kai realised that the flow of time in his Small Universe was now about seven times faster than in the outside world. In the meantime, he had acquired some new insights on the Dao of Time. His Dragon Vein throbbed as his Dragon Pressure spread out wantonly. He had achieved a breakthrough in the Dao of Time! When he visited the No-Return Pass several hundred years ago and cultivated inside the Dragon Pool, his Mastery of the Dao of Time had improved tremendously, reaching the Seventh Level. Now, after he absorbed a few dozen Temporal Rivers, he directly broke through to the Eighth Level, bringing it to the same level as his comprehension of the Dao of Space. With that said, Yang Kai had a feeling that he wasn’t far from achieving another breakthrough in his Dao of Space. The prerequisite was that there were enough Space Dao Rivers in this Great Sea for him to absorb and refine. The realization made him feel ecstatic. As he examined the changes in his Small Universe, he continued to move across the undercurrents. ….. In the periphery of the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, there were a lot of dead Universe Worlds where Black Ink Nests had been planted, with one of them being especially huge as it belonged to a Royal Lord. There seemed to be a powerful aura hiding in this Black Ink Nest. About 500 years ago, the sheep headed Royal Lord arrived at this place and saw Yang Kai dive into this vast Celestial Phenomenon. After entering it himself to inspect the situation, the Royal Lord realised the Great Sea was full of danger, so he had no choice but to withdraw. At that time, he was badly injured, and if he insisted on chasing after Yang Kai, forget about finding the latter, he might even lose his life. Therefore, the sheep headed Royal Lord dragged a dead Universe World to this place from the void and planted his Black Ink Nest. By doing this, he could monitor the Great Sea so that he could immediately capture Yang Kai should the latter manage to somehow survive and escape. Secondly, he had to recuperate. Now that 500 years had passed, his Black Ink Nest wasn’t the only Black Ink Nest in the periphery of the Great Sea. There were about several hundred Low-Rank Black Ink Nests. With that said, there were no Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests yet; after all, it would consume a vast amount of energy to nurture Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests, and the Royal Lord didn’t have the intention of having his own Territory Lords yet. The reason he even nurtured other Black Ink Clansmen was to help him monitor the Great Sea. Several hundred Low-Rank Black Ink Nests were scattered around the Great Sea with only a short distance between them while almost 10 million Black Ink Clansmen had been spawned from these Black Ink Nests. The resources in the nearby void had been fully extracted and sent to the Black Ink Nests to help nurture more and more Black Ink Clansmen. Now, most of these Black Ink Clansmen were posted around the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, so if Yang Kai really managed to emerge, they would immediately discover him.