As time flowed by, and the sun and moon alternated, soon one month had passed.
On the first day of the new month, inside the huge stone room where Yang Kai lived, the pretty young girl Guan’er sat a few hundred meters away, bored, watching Yang Kai who was currently engaged in reading.
On the long table, there were hundreds of ancient books, but after this period of time, Yang Kai had basically read through all of them, and the ones he had finished stacked in a messy pile to his left while only a few he had yet to glance through remained on his right.
The previous knowledge contained in these ancient books has been deeply carved into Yang Kai’s mind.
Guan’er let out a light sigh, secretly thinking to herself that this Human Race boy was actually quite diligent, spending an entire month inside this stone room reading through all the ancient books piled up here with great enthusiasm.
Suddenly, the space nearby twisted, and a faint energy fluctuation came from her side. Standing up, Guan’er smiled happily and assumed a respectful posture.
Soon, from the small distortion, a mature and dignified woman gradually appeared, it was none other than Senior Li.
“Greetings, Mistress!” Guan’er quickly bowed.
“En,” Senior Li gently nodded before glancing over at Yang Kai in the distance, smiling as she asked, “How is his performance?”
“He’s quite interesting…” Guan’er replied honestly, “Very different from the humans that came here before.”
“Oh? How so?” Senior Li asked, slightly interested.
“He’s spent all his time studying those ancient books left by all the previous Alchemists and hasn’t taken a single step outside his room. He also hasn’t shown any irritable or urgent behaviour. Hehe, Mistress, do you think he’s perhaps a bit silly?”
Senior Li stared at Yang Kai deeply and slowly shook her head, her brow furrowing for a moment before her eyes suddenly lit up, “He’s definitely not stupid, but looking at him, he seems to be quite interested in the Alchemic Way, which actually saves us quite a bit of trouble. In any case, let’s go see him, since he’s behaved quite well so far, it should be alright to tell him some things.”
“Yes!” Guan’er answered quickly.
Two women, one old, one young, walked towards Yang Kai, and soon came up beside him.
Yang Kai however remained indifferent, still sitting in his chair, immersed in the ancient book in his hands.
Guan’er lightly coughed and called out, “Outsider!”
“Wait a minute!” Yang Kai responded faintly, not even lifting his eyes.
Guan’er was stunned and suddenly felt unhappy, “Senior Li has come to see you, quickly stand up and greet her!”
Yang Kai let out a light sigh, glanced over at her, and then lowered his eyes back down to his book and ignored her.
Guan’er couldn’t help feeling annoyed and was just about to reprimand him again when Senior Li raised her hand and motioned to her to let it go, smiling light as she stood their patiently and waited.
Guan’er ground her teeth but still obeyed, but her impression of this outsider plummeted a few notches. She wished to give him a few good slaps to teach him a harsh lesson.
Time passed quickly and Senior Li and Guan’er had soon waited for half a day before Yang Kai finally closed the ancient book in front of him and let out a long sigh.
“Finished?” Senior Li finally spoke in a soft tone.
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
“How is it?”
“Some gains!” Yang Kai replied.
Senior Li smiled beautifully, “It seems you really have some foundation in the Alchemic Way.”
Without a certain foundation in Alchemy, it would be impossible for anyone to understand these ancient books.
Yang Kai grinned, “You seem to have caught quite a number of people with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas before, then brought them here and trained them to become Alchemists… En, I now somewhat understand what it is you want me to do.”
This one month, Yang Kai had read all of these ancient books. Some of these books were left behind by famous predecessors who had deep attainments in the Alchemic Way while others were put together from the various experiences and insights of people who had suffered the same fate as Yang Kai.
They had been caught and sent here by the Coffin Carrying Man, and under the support and training of the members of the Demon Race here, they had toiled away to become Alchemy Grandmasters, but unfortunately, not one of them could satisfy the necessary requirements and all of them had eventually disappeared.
One month’s time was enough for Yang Kai to understand his capture’s intentions and his own situation which allowed him to completely calm himself.
As long as these people needed his help, he didn’t have to worry about his safety and would in fact gain many benefits instead.
“En, we have captured a lot of cultivators with Conflagrated Knowledge Sea for the express purpose of cultivating powerful Alchemists,” Senior Li frankly admitted.
“Why? Do you have some kind of problem you need an Alchemist to solve?” Yang Kai raised his eyebrows, “Such as, refining some pill?”
Senior Li looked at him with amazement and after a long time, nodded lightly, “En, we need to refine certain pill, but not just any Alchemist can do refine the pill we need, it must be Alchemist with a Conflagrated Knowledge Sea. That’s the reason why you were caught and sent here.”
“Good, it just so happens I want to become an Alchemist, so if your conditions are right, I don’t mind helping you!” Yang Kai looked at her said in a businesslike manner.
“Shameless boasting!” Guan’er spat disdainfully, “Cultivators with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas are rare, but over the countless years, Coffin Slave Senior has also caught and sent us more than a dozen people, each of whom was an outstanding master, yet none of them were able to complete our request, what makes you so confident that you can succeed where they have failed?”
“That’s my problem, you don’t have to worry about it, and besides, you should be hoping I can succeed should you not?” Yang Kai smiled faintly.
“Indeed, we very much hope that you can succeed and free us from our long imprisonment so we can go out and see the outside world,” Senior Li gently nodded, a look of anticipation flashing across her eyes, “First allow me introduce ourselves, our ancestors had the honour of serving as The Great Demon God’s disciples and elite guard. However, at some point, our ancestors were sealed by The Great Demon God in this Independent Small World, and from that time we have not been able to leave.”
“The Great Demon God… and an Independent Small World?” Yang Kai’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Great Demon God is the supreme being of our Demon Race, the master of our ancestors!” Senior Li said with great reverence and respect, “As for the Independent Small World, it’s what the space we currently occupy is known as. According to legend, in ancient times, when extraordinarily powerful masters fought, they would often tear open space and create small isolated spaces; we refer to these spaces as Independent Small Worlds. Have you heard of this before?”
“I’ve heard of such places before, I just didn’t know they were called Independent Small Worlds,” Yang Kai nodded.
Apparently the Inheritance Heaven’s Cave and the Isolated world in Nether Mountain were Independent Small Worlds.
Suddenly realizing something, Yang Kai smiled strangely, “Since Great Demon God was the master your ancestors served, why where they sealed in this place?”
Senior Li smiled and shook her head, “Although there are some speculations about this in our ancient books, no clear reason was ever recorded; however, after so many years, what that reason was has very little significance. Now, our greatest wish is to leave this Independent Small World. Because of a certain problem with our physiques, we aren’t able to survive in the outside world, so we need a special type of pill to be refined in order to fix the defects in our bodies, and this pill is what we need you to refine.”
“I understand,” Yang Kai nodded and asked, “What about the Coffin Carrying Man? He should be one of your people, why can he walk about outside and why does he carry that blood red coffin everywhere he goes?”
Senior Li’s expression suddenly became a bit dispirited as she solemnly replied, “You should be referring to Coffin Slave Senior. He is actually dead, but through a special technique, he is able to maintain a very limited degree of consciousness. He travels around outside seeking cultivators with Conflagrated Knowledge Seas in order to help us. As for his true identity, we don’t know, we don’t even know how old he is or when his mission began, only that in our oldest records he has always existed. The blood red coffin he carries is actually the seal of this Independent Small World. It can be said that Coffin Slave Senior is literally carrying the destinies of the thousands of members of our clan on his back.”
“You mean, if someone was to successfully rob the blood red coffin from him and destroy it…” Yang Kai suddenly had a terrifying thought.
“Then this world will collapse and all of us will be killed by the power of the void!” Senior Li explained.
Yang Kai was stunned and couldn’t help feeling a burst of chills, “Your destinies are completely out of your hands.”
“As is yours now,” Senior Li smiled lightly, “So in order to get out of here as soon as possible, you should work hard. I hope that you are indeed different from the others who came before you and can fulfill our wish.”
Arriving at this point, Senior Li suddenly asked, “That’s right, what grade of Alchemist are you now, what grade of pill can you refine?”
Yang Kai lightly coughed, “I can reluctantly only refine Earth Grade pills.”
The young beauty Guan’er couldn’t help but covering her small mouth, and even Senior Li looked at Yang Kai with an incredulous look.
From how Yang Kai had spoken and acted so far, always confident and composed, the two women had thought he was already a skilled Alchemist, but now it seems that this was not the case at all. This outsider was clearly just a novice when it came to the Alchemic Way, so both of them couldn’t help feeling somewhat disappointed.
However, Yang Kai just chuckled, “My teacher taught me that before I reached the Immortal Ascension Boundary, I was not to perform Alchemy, as such I just recently began my practical studies.”
“How long do you need to become a Saint Grade Alchemist?” Guan’er asked, “Only a Saint Grade Alchemist can refine the pill we need.”
“Shouldn’t be long,” Yang Kai grinned confidently.
“I really hope that that’s true, you have to accomplish this goal within ten years, otherwise… you’ll die!” Senior Li stared at him seriously, “It’s not that we want to impose a deadline on you after which we will kill you, but you should be able to tell that this world is filled with Demonic Qi, which is incompatible with the True Qi of your Human Race. Once you have been exposed to it for too long, you will inevitably influenced by the surrounding Demonic Qi and your consciousness will become more and more irritable and violent, eventually degrading completely. All of those who were sent here before by Coffin Slave Senior suffered such fates and we were forced to kill them.”
“You can rest assured that even if I stay here for a hundred years, the Demonic Qi here will not affect me,” Yang Kai sneered.
Not only would he not be affected, his Unyielding Golden Skeleton would even become stronger, it actually quite liked the surrounding energy here.
“Your confidence is certainly not small…” Guan’er looked at Yang Kai with disdain, “You humans always like talking big, but in the end you’re not as good as us demons!”