Martial Peak
chapter-5040

After emptying his mind, Yang Kai opened the wooden box and fished out the High-Rank World Fruit picked from the World Tree’s clone.

The fruit was fragrant and tasty.

In the past, he had consumed a Mid-Rank World Fruit that came from the Mother tree, which allowed him to directly ascend to the Sixth-Order from the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm. He could still clearly remember the sweet taste of that fruit.

After examining the baby-fist-sized fruit for a moment, he placed it into his mouth and bit down on it. The moment the peel broke, his mouth was filled with a refreshingly sweet taste.

A sense of warmth streamed into his stomach. The next instant, a gale blew across his entire Small Universe as a large amount of World Force appeared out of thin air. Even the World Tree in his Small Universe rustled lightly.

This new power was harmless and devoid of any impurities to Yang Kai. It was so indescribably pure that anyone could easily absorb it.

This was the abstrusity of the World Fruits.

Yang Kai quickly pulled himself together and started circulating his Secret Art. Every time his Small Universe undulated, his heritage would be strengthened a little, which allowed the World Force in his Small Universe to become more ample and solid.

The situation lasted for more than 10 days. It wasn’t until half a month later that Yang Kai felt that he had fully refined the medicinal efficacies of the World Fruit.

As he examined his Small Universe now, he couldn’t help feeling moved.

Although he already knew that a High-Rank World Fruit wouldn’t allow him to directly ascend to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm and could only save him some cultivation time by strengthening his heritage, he was still pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

The heritage of his Small Universe had increased by 20%. One must not underestimate a 20% increase in heritage. If he were to cultivate in seclusion, it would have taken him 300 to 500 years to achieve the same result.

In other words, a High-Rank World Fruit from a World Tree’s clone had saved him 300 to 500 years of cultivation time.

This was indeed an incredible benefit.

300 to 500 years of cultivation would allow him to fully consolidate his Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation and increase his strength significantly.

Because it was very hard for an Open Heaven Realm Master to ascend to the next Order, often taking hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years, some people had proposed that every Order should be divided into early, middle, and late stages. That would allow them to quickly judge the power of an Open Heaven Realm Master.

According to this kind of classification, Yang Kai was still just in the early stage of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. Even though he was still in the early stage after consuming the World Fruit, his power had been significantly strengthened.

Nevertheless, this kind of classification was too complicated, so it was not universally accepted.

With that said, it explained why there could be such a huge gap in strength between two Open Heaven Realm Masters who were in the same Order.

A newly promoted Seventh-Order Master was only in the early stage while someone like Feng Ying was definitely in the late stage of Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. The difference between them was several thousand years of accumulation, possibly even longer. The huge gap between their heritages meant that they wouldn’t be equally matched if they got into a fight.

A High-Rank World Fruit had saved Yang Kai several hundred years of cultivation time, so what if he consumed even more of the fruits?

He couldn’t help but let his thoughts run wild.

With that said, Yang Kai knew that it was unlikely to happen. There were only a dozen High-Rank World Fruits that were picked from the World Tree’s clone, and the reason he could get one was that he had made some significant contributions in the past. There were other High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters in Blue Sky Pass who must have also made great contributions and these High-Rank World Fruits should be given to them as rewards. Furthermore, even the Eighth-Order Division Commanders and Army Commanders would benefit from consuming these High-Rank World Fruits.

On top of that, the benefits gained from refining the same kind of treasure would always decrease with repeated consumption. One High-Rank World Fruit had saved Yang Kai 300 to 500 years of cultivation time, but the effects of a second would likely yield half that benefit at most. As for a third or fourth fruit, there might be no benefits at all.

It was a characteristic shared by essentially all precious treasures.

Regardless, Yang Kai was already pleased with the increase in strength after having one High-Rank World Fruit.

However, he now needed some time to adjust to the sharp increase in heritage and power.

It wasn’t until a month later that he let out a long breath. Although he still wasn’t fully adapted to his increased strength, it was at least manageable now. Even if he got into a fight with a formidable enemy, he would be able to fully utilize his power.

After getting some rest, he fished out a set of Seventh-Order materials and refined them.

In the past, he would always refine Sixth-Order materials when cultivating; however, since he was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master now, he was able to refine Seventh-Order materials.

Refining materials equivalent to one’s own Order had always been the quickest and most desirable way for Open Heaven Realm Masters to steadily cultivate.

Still, High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters usually wouldn’t squander materials in such a way.

Seventh-Order Yin and Yang Element materials were extremely rare, and they were considered strategic resources in the Cave Heavens and Paradises. They wouldn’t use such resources unless it was absolutely necessary and no one would refine them just to cultivate.

However, Yang Kai was different. Yellow and Blue Crystals had been piled up like mountains in his Small Universe, so he would never be lacking Yin and Yang Element materials.

He had also prepared a lot of Five Element materials that were sufficient for his own cultivation. On the Black Ink Battlefield, he could only ensure his safety by increasing his strength and quickly ascending to the next Order; therefore, he didn’t mind refining Seventh-Order materials to increase his rate of cultivation.

In the past, an Open Heaven Realm Master, who apparently had nothing better to do, had carried out a certain experiment. He refined a set of Fourth-Order materials, then refined Open Heaven Pills equivalent to the cost of a Fourth-Order set of materials. Comparing the two, the increase in power from refining a set of Fourth-Order materials was only half that of the increase in power from refining Open Heaven Pills.

The person obtained the same result after experimenting with Fifth-Order materials.

In other words, the increase in power one would gain from refining a set of materials was only half of what one could gain by refining Open Heaven Pills of the same value.

Therefore, the average Open Heaven Realm Master wouldn’t want to squander their wealth by refining a set of materials.

The Open Heaven Realm Master who carried out the experiments never experimented with Sixth-Order and Seventh-Order materials because he wasn’t strong or wealthy enough; however, the results would most likely be the same. In short, it was a waste of resources to refine Sixth-Order and Seventh-Order materials.

What was wasted wasn’t the power of the materials of course, but the maximum value these materials could bring.

However, Yang Kai’s primary goal was to increase his strength as quickly as possible, and he wasn’t lacking materials, so he didn’t mind trading value for speed. Refining Open Heaven Pills was too slow compared to refining Seventh-Order materials.

As time passed, a set of Seventh-Order materials was absorbed and added to the heritage of his Small Universe.

Even though he was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master now, it still took Yang Kai quite some time to refine a set of Seventh-Order materials.

It wasn’t until half a year later that the power of the Seventh-Order materials became depleted and they crumbled into dust.

Yang Kai opened his eyes as a light flashed across his gaze. His eyes were as bright as two Suns.

The heritage of his Small Universe had increased after he refined that set of Seventh-Order materials.

However, he felt that something was off during the process, but it wasn’t really a bad thing. It was just that the speed at which he refined materials was quicker than what he had expected.

It was the first time he refined a set of Seventh-Order materials, and he had never experienced such an anomaly before, so he wasn’t sure if there was really anything wrong. As such, he didn’t stop refining them.

As he recalled the entire refinement process, Yang Kai realised that such speed was actually outrageously quick. It had to be noted that it would take him roughly the same time to refine a set of Sixth-Order materials when he was in the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm in the past. Since he had ascended to the Seventh Order, it was expected that his refinement speed would increase as well, but this was still ridiculously fast. What he had refined was a set of Seventh-Order materials, which were starkly different from Sixth-Order materials.

A set of Sixth-Order materials was worth about 130 million to 150 million Open Heaven Pills. When Yang Kai was in the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he could refine more than 100,000 Open Heaven Pills every day. If he traded a set of Sixth-Order materials for Open Heaven Pills, it would thus take him 4 to 5 years to fully consume them.

Nonetheless, it would only take him half a year to refine a set of Sixth-Order materials.

He initially thought that it would take him a few years to refine a set of Seventh-Order materials which were worth approximately 10 times as much as a Sixth-Order set of materials, so he was truly surprised at the outcome.

After giving it a thought with a frown, he fished out a set of Sixth-Order materials and refined them in silence.

While he was refining the materials this time, Yang Kai also paid close attention to what was happening in his Small Universe.

In just one month, the set of Sixth-Order materials lost all its power and became valueless.

Upon opening his eyes, Yang Kai fell into his thoughts.

When he was a Sixth-Order Master, it would take him half a year to refine a set of Sixth-Order materials. Even though his strength had increased as he was now a Seventh-Order Master, it shouldn’t have been so quick and easy for him to refine these materials. He initially estimated it would take him three to four months.

The only explanation was that something was increasing his efficiency when refining the materials, and that assistance must have been provided by the World Tree clone that had merged with his Small Universe.

He had been paying close attention to the World Tree clone when refining the materials, and although there didn’t seem to be anything off about it, Yang Kai was certain his increased rate of refinement had something to do with the tree.

The only major difference between when he was a Sixth-Order Master and a Seventh-Order Master was the World Tree clone’s presence in his Small Universe.

It seemed that the clone was able to significantly increase his speed of refining resources, though he didn’t understand the reason behind it.

Despite that, it was a huge benefit to him as he could refine a set of materials much quicker now. In other words, as long as he was willing to spend time cultivating, Yang Kai would be able to increase his strength at a much faster rate than other cultivators. The effects wouldn’t be conspicuous in the short term; however, ascending to the Eighth Order from the Seventh Order was a long process of accumulation. The benefits of the World Tree clone would make a huge difference in the long term.

When he told the Army Commanders about the three benefits he was aware of after planting the World Tree’s clone in his Small Universe, Yang Kai felt that there might be more hidden benefits, and had said as much, but didn’t go into detail. It wasn’t that he wanted to hide it from them, it was just that he didn’t know them at the time. If he hadn’t decided to cultivate in seclusion this time, he wouldn’t have discovered this benefit at all.

This came as a pleasant surprise to him. It had cost him a lot of Military Merits to get this World Tree Clone; however, the merits were nothing compared to the benefits that this clone had brought him. The clone was as good as free.

Since he was in a jovial mood, Yang Kai even found joy in this kind of supposedly boring method of cultivation. He then fished out another set of Seventh-Order materials and refined them.

If others saw Yang Kai right now, they would surely curse him out as a wastrel for squandering so many materials away.