Chapter 5277, Disciple Xiao Cai Translator: Silavin & Raikov Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys 8 Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and 1 Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. Indeed, nothing should happen with them standing guard for a group of Emperor Realm cultivators while they advance to the Open Heaven Realm, especially since these disciples who came from the Dao Temple all had solid foundations and stable Dao Seals. Combining the help of the Heavenly Yuan Seal Stabilizing Pills that Yang Kai gave them, their advancements could be said to be smooth and steady with only one or two occasional minor hiccups, but nothing dangerous happened. The heart of the female Emperor Realm cultivator who Miao Fei Ping was in charge of became slightly hurried when she was advancing, but thanks to his timely help, she was able to calm herself and finish her breakthrough without incident. The Powers of the Seven Elements merged in their bodies, splitting Heaven and Earth apart and creating a Small Universe. Continuous auras of the birth of universes could be felt in the void. In a matter of days, 9 Open Heaven Realm Masters had come to this spot, and celebratorily, 19 left. The newly-advanced Juniors were all overwhelmed with joy. To go from the Emperor Realm to the Open Heaven Realm was a massive leap in strength. If it were merely advancing to the Low-Rank Open Heaven Realm, then the jump would not have been too obvious, but all 10 of them had advanced directly to the Sixth Order. After returning, as long as they focused on stabilizing their realms, then once they familiarised themselves with their power, it could be said that their strength would increase around 100 or even 1,000 times compared to what they had before. In this respect, the Heavenly Way could be considered unfair. Those with outstanding aptitude and talent were able to leave their peers far behind in the process of advancing to the Open Heaven Realm. The fools with no aptitude were left to fumble around at the bottom of the Open Heaven Realm, if breaking through to that realm was even possible. But when had the Heavens ever been completely fair? The 10 newly advanced Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivators were left with Feng Ying to bring back to Great Evolution Pass to settle in. Generally speaking, newly-advanced Open Heaven Realm cultivators couldn’t be relied on because a lot of time had to be spent for one to stabilize their cultivation. One had to familiarize themselves with the new surge of power; otherwise, they would not be able to perform at their full potential when facing off against an enemy. This could take several years, or even decades. Fortunately, now that a sort of peace had settled over the Great Evolution Theatre, these 10 newcomers had plenty of time to get used to their situation. This was also the reason why Yang Kai kept holding them in and not letting them out of the Small Universe until now. During the bloody war with the Black Ink Clan previously, letting them out would only have brought trouble to all parties. On the way back, the 10 newcomers gathered around Miao Fei Ping, bombarding him with all sorts of questions. The main reason for that was because Miao Fei Ping shared their roots. They had all come from the Void World, so there was not much of a gap between them. Instead, they had a natural sense of camaraderie with each other. This was different for Feng Ying and the other Seventh-Order Masters. No matter how amiable and easy to approach Feng Ying and the others presented themselves, these Juniors would still have some reservations. Miao Fei Ping was also happy to pass on his experiences to the younger generation. Back when they were at Blue Sky Pass, he was often the one who mentored the Open Heaven Realm Masters that emerged from Yang Kai’s Small Universe. All the Open Heaven Realm Masters who came out of the Void World had received Miao Fei Ping’s kindness. Faced with everyone’s questions, Miao Fei Ping was naturally eager to answer anything he could and spoke without hesitation. The sudden change in environment and the sudden acquisition of far greater power meant that the newcomers had a lot of questions they needed answered. 9 of the 10 were exactly that way, while only one of them was silent, but they were still listening intently. The quiet one was the female Emperor Realm cultivator who Miao Fei Ping was in charge of previously. After listening quietly for a long time, the young woman seemed to have made some sort of decision and suddenly sped up, coming to the side of Feng Ying who was leading the trip back towards Great Evolution Pass. Noticing her approach, Feng Ying turned around and smiled, “What happened? Are you struggling with something?” The young woman shook her head and transmitted her voice silently to her, “Martial Aunt Feng, I heard from Senior Brother Mao earlier that we are all fighting against the Black Ink Clansmen in units called Squads?” Feng Ying nodded, “That’s right. Squads are the most basic grouping in our Human Army.” The young woman asked hesitantly, “Then… Then, can I join your Squad?” Feng Ying was a little surprised. Nobody had ever asked her for such a request before. In fact, many Open Heaven Realm Masters had emerged from Yang Kai’s Small Universe over the years, each one of them starting from the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm at least, with a small minority of them even directly reaching the Seventh-Order. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶 However, Yang Kai was only responsible for bringing them out, while the rest was not his concern. It was not that it was too much trouble, he was just trying to avoid arousing suspicion. After all, more and more people would come out of Yang Kai’s Small Universe in the future, so as time went on, Yang Kai’s lineage was bound to grow immensely. If these people were to all gather together, an isolated atmosphere might form around them, which could not be permitted on the Black Ink Battlefield. In this brutal war, origin and status meant nothing, all were brothers and sisters in arms who lived and died together. Yang Kai was well aware of this, so the cultivators who he brought out back then at Blue Sky Pass were basically all handed to the Army Commanders to be taken care of while he did not need to interfere much. Right now, there was plenty to do in Great Evolution Pass and everyone was busy; otherwise, Yang Kai would not be leading Dawn’s Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters personally to act as Protectors. It was easy to see the results of this from Dawn’s current configuration. Out of all the cultivators that came out of the Void World, Miao Fei Ping was the only one who joined Dawn. The rest were all scattered throughout the Squads of different Divisions. This was also because Yang Kai had known and interacted with Miao Fei Ping for a long time. If Yang Kai really intended to gather his own forces, then the entirety of Dawn would be in the Sixth Order and Seventh Order. Moreover, he would be highly revered by his subordinates who would not dare to disobey his orders. When she first heard this young woman’s request, Feng Ying’s first thought was that Yang Kai might not agree; after all, Dawn already had the maximum 50 members, so there was no need or ability for them to take on newcomers. However, Feng Ying was as intelligent as she was beautiful, so when she saw the young woman blushing while putting forth such a request, combined with the scenes she saw by chance before, she had a faint guess. As such, instead of outright rejecting her, she asked, “Why do you want to join our Squad?” The young woman replied as if expecting this answer, “The Dao Lord has given us everything we have. Now that this disciple has gained some success in cultivation, this disciple wishes to stay by the Dao Lord’s side and offer her strength.” This young woman was clearly a bad liar as her eyes were constantly darting left and right while speaking, not at all daring to look straight at Feng Ying. Feng Ying laughed lightly and questioned, “Truly?” The young girl nodded incessantly, “Truly!” “Then swear on it!” “Ah?” “Just kidding,” Feng Ying laughed and explained, “Every Squad has an upper limit for members, and even as a Special Operations Squad, Dawn’s upper limit is 50. We currently have exactly 50 members, so if you wish to join Dawn… then the only chance you’ll get is if there is a battle and Dawn’s numbers are cut down.” The young woman quickly waved her hand when she heard what she said, “In that case, this disciple will not join Dawn. Martial Aunt, just take what this disciple said earlier as nonsense and don’t take it too seriously.” “However…” Feng Ying’s heart softened when she saw the genuine expression on her Junior’s face, “If the Squad Leader himself asks the Army Commander personally, then perhaps an exception can be made.” The young woman lowered her gaze timidly and shook her head, “There’s no need to bother the Dao Lord.” She had never wanted to cause trouble for anyone ever since she was a child, so she wasn’t about to start now. Feng Ying stared at her for a moment before asking, “What is your name?” The young woman answered, “Disciple is called Xiao Cai.” Feng Ying nodded, taking note of her answer, “If there are any questions you have about cultivation, feel free to approach me with them.” Xiao Cai thanked her respectfully. At the same time, on the universe fragment where Great Evolution North-South Army’s forward base was once located, as space warped, Yang Kai stepped out of the distortion. Several Open Heaven Realm Masters stationed nearby were surprised when they saw him and could not help but stare for a moment, but they all came over to greet him once they realized who he was. After handing over the 10 newly-advanced Open Heaven Realm Masters to Feng Ying, Yang Kai came straight here. It was for no other reason than that the Black Ink Nest was here. When the Black Ink Clan withdrew from Great Evolution Pass, a Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest was left behind. Yang Kai was not sure about the details, but he heard that it was a request from Army Commander Mi Jing Lun to the Territory Lords. Though reluctant, the Black Ink Clan had no choice but to agree. It had to be said that keeping the Black Ink Nest behind was simply a stroke of genius for the Humans. Yang Kai had no idea what Mi Jing Lun was thinking back then, but once he learned that a Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest had been left behind, he had to praise Mi Jing Lun. If there was anything that the Humans were starkly inferior at in comparison to the Black Ink Clan, then would be their numbers and growth cycle. The next most critical disadvantage they had though was the ability to transmit information. Transferring information was simply too convenient for the Black Ink Clan, as through the power of the Black Ink Nests, information could be exchanged between Black Ink Clansmen from different Theatres instantaneously, much less within the same Theatre. In this respect, the Humans were far inferior to the Black Ink Clan. Right now, it was quite easy for Humans to send messages from Great Pass to Great Pass through the use of Space Arrays, but when the Great Evolution Army was out on their campaign, someone had to make the trip in person to deliver messages between the different fronts. Yang Kai had also received orders to search for the location of the North-South Army near Great Evolution Pass before, and Adjutant Li Xing was also ordered to deliver news to the North-South Army about the final battle at the Royal City. For an ordinary Seventh-Order Master, it was a month’s journey from the Royal City to the Great Pass, and fortunately, he did not have to report back; otherwise, it would be another month on the road. That was a huge gap in time. If there were urgent Army matters that had to be passed on, then even a delay of a few hours could cause a major incident, let alone a journey lasting several days to a month. Mi Jing Lun must have thought about this, which was why he would demand the Black Ink Clan to leave the Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest behind. He intended to use it to build up the intelligence network on the Humans’ side. However, such a thing would be extremely difficult to put into practice. It was true that the Black Ink Nest was now in Human hands, and it was also a Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest that was of sufficient quality; however, it had been half a year since they retook Great Evolution Pass, and Mi Jing Lun was still unable to implement the intelligence network plan that he had in mind. Yang Kai had been working constantly with the Array Masters at Great Evolution Pass to repair the Space Array, so he was not too sure about what the situation was at this time. The only reason he came here was to create a Low-Rank sub-nest to put into his Small Universe so that he could incubate Black Ink Serfs to allow the Void Dao Temple’s disciples a chance to get some real combat experience against the Black Ink Clan before advancing to the Open Heaven Realm and joining the war. He had this idea in mind when he was still stationed at Blue Sky Pass; only, it was unfortunate that even though he had moved a sub-nest into his own Small Universe back then, once the higher Rank Black Ink Nest outside was destroyed, the sub-nest was also destroyed, which left him with nothing. In the Blue Sky Theatre, they couldn’t allow any Black Ink Nests to remain outside; otherwise, the Black Ink Clan might be able to reclaim them sooner or later.