Chapter 5428, Another Breakthrough Translator: Silavin & Jon Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys About 250 years later, the second Temporal River was only left with a length of 100 metres. Just like what Yang Kai had previously done, he transferred the remnants of the Temporal River inside his Small Universe so that he could gradually refine it. Then, he set off on his adventure to look for the next Temporal River, resting in the less violent undercurrents as he traversed this Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon. Time passed by slowly. Initially, Yang Kai kept count of how many years had passed, but gradually, he had lost himself in this kind of unusual cultivation, forgetting the passing of time as he kept looking for more Temporal Rivers. Every time he absorbed and refined any kind of calm Grand Dao River, it would bring about some changes to his Small Universe, allowing him to gain some understanding of many Grand Daos he had never touched before in his life. His entire Small Universe was filled with traces of all sorts of Grand Daos now. In the past, when the Humans in Void Continent cultivated, given enough aptitude, they could easily comprehend the Dao of Space, the Dao of Time, the Spear Dao, or other Grand Daos Yang Kai had dabbled in. However, as Yang Kai refined more and more Grand Dao Rivers, the cultivators in his Small Universe now found it easier to comprehend even more kinds of Grand Daos. The entire Void Continent was now a fertile place where cultivators could freely choose from a variety of Grand Daos and focus on the ones that interested them. In the Void Dao Temple, many bright cultivators had reached the peak and were just one step away from ascending to the Open Heaven Realm. However, Yang Kai was currently trapped in a place where he couldn’t even guarantee his own life, so he couldn’t release them. The lengths of the Temporal Rivers in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon varied greatly. Some of them were thousands of metres long while some were as short as hundreds of metres, causing Yang Kai to wonder just how they were formed in the first place. Of course, longer Temporal Rivers allowed him to stay there and cultivate for a longer time. As he absorbed even more rivers, Yang Kai acquired some insights on many of the Grand Daos. In fact, he could now be considered something of a Master in quite a few of them. As more and more resources of different Orders were consumed, the heritage in his Small Universe increased by the day. It was an extremely long and unusual cultivation session and Yang Kai was fairly certain he was the first person in history who had ever cultivated this way for such a long time. One day, when Yang Kai was engrossed in cultivating in a Temporal River, he realised there were some unusual changes occurring in his Small Universe. Shocked, he hurriedly investigated. The World Tree clone seemed to resonate with the changes in his Small Universe as its leaves rustled noisily and it began to madly refine his World Force. Furthermore, some Heavenly Manifestations appeared in different parts of the Void Continent. The cultivators living on the Void Continent were pleasantly surprised to learn that the entire World seemed to have come alive. The Grand Daos became active, which allowed cultivators to comprehend them with ease. Therefore, many hurriedly entered seclusion to take advantage of this occasion. Something suddenly dawned on Yang Kai. [I’m about to break through to the Eighth Order!] He had observed Xu Ling Gong ascending to the Eighth Order before, and he had learned a lot from that experience; however, his ascension seemed slightly different compared to Xu Ling Gong’s. Every Open Heaven Realm Master who attempted to make it to the next Order would fall into a perilous situation, for any accident at this moment could cause their Small Universe to rupture and their life to be extinguished, and it was more dangerous the higher one’s Order became. The Eighth Order was only one Order below the peak, the Ninth Order, so it was by no means a safe endeavour. Although on the surface, Xu Ling Gong didn’t seem to be at any risk when he achieved his breakthrough back then, the real danger lay in his Small Universe, which others were unable to observe. Fortunately, his ample heritage helped him get through the crisis and successfully break through. However, some Open Heaven Realm Masters would face a bottleneck at this point, and before shattering that bottleneck, they wouldn’t be able to achieve a breakthrough. Back then, it took the Proprietress around 200 years to break through to the Seventh Order. Another example was Feng Ying who spent some 200 to 300 years trying to ascend to the Eighth Order. It wasn’t until the grand battle against the Black Ink Clan that she reappeared. Initially, Yang Kai was worried he would face a similar bottleneck, but now it seemed that he had been worried for nothing. He didn’t face any kind of bottleneck, and with ample heritage in his Small Universe, everything just proceeded smoothly. Perhaps it had something to do with the World Tree clone, which had been in his Small Universe for hundreds of years now and helped to refine his World Force to an incredible degree. His current World Force was purer than any other Seventh-Order Master’s, and the purer one’s World Force was, the more robust their heritage was. As a result, bottlenecks simply did not exist for Yang Kai. Yang Kai could even clearly feel that there was no danger to speak of when achieving this ascension. Although there were all kinds of different phenomena in his Small Universe, those were just the manifestations of the Grand Daos he comprehended and the results of his cultivation, which were harmless to his Small Universe. Everything just took place smoothly. Yang Kai had been extremely eager to reach the Eighth Order as soon as possible, but when the day finally came, his heart was as tranquil as a clear lake. He wasn’t as surprised or excited as he had imagined he would be. He had already expected this day to come, and he was confident he would make it to the Eighth Order no matter what. It was just a matter of time before he achieved it. His Small Universe continued to expand as it was going through an evolution, but he soon ignored the changes and continued refining materials. On the other hand, the cultivators living in Yang Kai’s Small Universe had benefited greatly from this change. In every corner of the Void Continent, there were cultivators who gathered together as they gained greater understanding of the Grand Daos they cultivated and made breakthroughs in their comprehension. In the Void Dao Temple, where the essence of the entire continent came together, many youths even managed to condense their own Dao Seals at this moment. As the Grand Daos all came alive, it made it easier for the cultivators to grasp them. The expansion of the World also widened the Martial Dao as a whole. Gradually, all the Heavenly Manifestations disappeared and the visible traces of the Grand Daos’ manifestations vanished. The entire Void Continent returned to calmness. However, the Emperor Realm Masters could detect that this World was already very different from the past. For one, it had become vaster. Cultivators formed into groups and began surveying these new lands, confirming their initial suspicions. In the past, there was a World Barrier that they couldn’t move past, but now that barrier was gone and many more territories had appeared. These territories were fertile, but there weren’t any living beings in them. When the Sects got wind of this, they sent out their Masters who led many disciples to occupy these virgin lands. Yang Kai had only placed a small number of people in his Small Universe back then, about 10 million or so. However, the environment in the Small Universe was filled with vitality, making it a paradise where cultivators could thrive. Moreover, there were no major wars or disputes, only some minor conflicts between the various Sects. With the Void Dao Temple’s appearance, even these conflicts also gradually vanished. With such a peaceful environment, the number of people in his Small Universe swelled over the millennia. As the population increased, there was a greater need for land. In the past, those from the Void Dao Temple were worried that if this went on, the entire Void Continent wouldn’t be able to accommodate the increasing population within a few thousand years. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺 Now though, that problem was solved. The land mass of Void Continent had expanded by five times at the very least, so even if the rate of population growth continued as it was, there was no need to worry about not having enough living space for several tens of thousands of years. Nevertheless, Yang Kai was oblivious to all of this because he was pondering on another issue. Now that he was in the Eighth Order, could his power continue to increase? Back then, he was forced to ascend to the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm, so theoretically, his limit was the Seventh-Order. However, after he consumed a Mid-Rank World Fruit, his limit became the Eighth Order. With him being in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm now, was there any future for him? There were quite a number of Human cultivators whose limit was the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm. Many of the Eighth-Order Division Commanders had directly ascended to the Sixth Order back then. In other words, the Eighth Order was the best they could achieve in their lifetimes. Yang Kai had asked the Eighth-Order Masters about it in the past, and he was told that after they ascended to the Eighth-Order, they could faintly feel a layer of restraint covering their Small Universes. It was this invisible restriction that confined them to the Eighth Order. Regardless of how hard they cultivated, they could never break through to the Ninth Order. If they forcefully tried to break that restraint, they would risk their Small Universes exploding, ending their lives. As such, it wasn’t that the Eighth-Order Masters didn’t want to keep improving themselves, but rather that their Small Universes were unable to bear greater power. Now, Yang Kai was also an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master himself, and just like what the Division Commanders had told him, he could feel an invisible shackle on his Small Universe. This kind of restraint was weak and barely perceptible at the moment; however, as he strengthened his power as an Eighth-Order Master, this kind of restraint would grow stronger to the point where he would be stopped from advancing further. As he recalled his decision of ascending to the Fifth Order back then, Yang Kai did not feel regretful. At that time, under the lead of Ti Zheng, a Seventh-Order Master from Myriad Demons Heaven, several Masters stopped him from attempting to directly ascend to the Seventh-Order. This had nothing to do with personal grudges as they were just trying to prevent a potential crisis. That was because there was such a catastrophe that took place in the 3,000 Worlds in the past that made the Cave Heavens and Paradises grow distrustful of those who ascended directly to the Seventh Order who were not supervised by them directly. At that time, if Yang Kai hadn’t ascended to the Open Heaven Realm, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the Shadowless Cave Heaven and save the Proprietress. After pulling himself together, he continued refining the materials to strengthen his heritage. He was still a newly promoted Eighth-Order Master, so there was some road ahead of him yet. However, once he reached the peak of the Eighth Order, that would be his limit. There might be some ways in the Universe that would allow one to shatter the restraint on his Small Universe. At the very least, the Innate Open Heaven Pills that were born in the Universe Furnace were one way to go about it; therefore, Yang Kai wasn’t worried about it. In the future, he could go looking for the Universe Furnace so that he would have a chance to make it to the Ninth Order. Unfortunately, those that he got from the Blood Monster Cave Heaven did not seem to have any effect on shattering the restraint on his Small Universe. Maybe it was the age of the Pills. Or maybe, there was some other reason. Regardless, Yang Kai remained hopeful that his hope lay in the Universe Furnace. Time continued to go by slowly as he repeatedly set off on journeys to look for more Temporal Rivers. It was a rare chance, so it would be a shame if he missed it. When looking for the next Temporal River or cultivating, he would seize the chance to refine even more Grand Dao Rivers. Finally, there came a day when he finished refining a set of materials in a Temporal River that was still 3,000 metres long, but when he was ready to fish out another set, he realised that he no longer had complete sets of materials. Silavin: Original title- Breakthrough to the Eighth-Order Also, added ‘Unfortunately, those that he got from the Blood Monster Cave Heaven did not seem to have any effect on shattering the restraint on his Small Universe. Maybe it was the age of the Pills. Or maybe, there was some other reason. Regardless, Yang Kai remained hopeful that his hope lay in the Universe Furnace.’ Thanks to Dhael for remembering this detail because I sure as heck did not. Wish my memory was as good D: