Not long after the intense battle started, both Yang Kai and the sheep-headed Royal Lord felt their hearts sinking as they sported solemn expressions.
For Yang Kai, even though his strength had increased by several times, he was still no match for the other party.
Although there was only a difference of one Order between them, it was the biggest gap to cross.
When Yang Kai was a Fifth-Order Master, he could kill a Sixth-Order Master. When he was a Sixth-Order Master, he could kill a Seventh-Order Master. When he was a Seventh-Order Master, he could kill a Territory Lord; however, as an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master now, he realized he had no hope of killing a Ninth-Order Master with his own strength alone.
A Royal Lord’s power was equivalent to that of a Ninth-Order Master.
He could even clearly feel that the Royal Lord still hadn’t fully recovered. In other words, the other party wasn’t in peak condition, yet he still wasn’t a match.
[Damn it! If this drags on, I’ll fall into an unfavourable position; however, if I don’t kill this Royal Lord, I can’t keep the secrets of the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon safe.]
While this was giving Yang Kai a headache, the Royal Lord was equally frustrated.
The Human across from him was significantly more powerful than he was 500 years ago. Although they hadn’t been fighting for long, the Royal Lord came to realise that it wouldn’t be easy for him to kill this opponent.
There was no doubt this Human still wasn’t a match for him, but he already had the power to oppose him.
Other powerful Eighth-Order Human Masters could also probably deal with him for a time, but the Royal Lord was confident he could kill such enemies sooner or later. However, Yang Kai was different. This guy was a Master of the Dao of Space and the Royal Lord vividly remembered being unable to capture him despite having pursued him for years 500 years ago.
If nothing changed in their current battle, Yang Kai would probably flee.
[I can’t give him a chance to run; otherwise, I’ll never find out what Cang gave him. Cang’s trump card must be of critical importance and must be controlled by us!]
Both of them had different thoughts in their minds, but at that moment, they decided they needed to go all in to defeat the other party at the same time.
The next moment, Yang Kai suddenly leaped away from the Royal Lord, widening the gap between them. He initially thought that the Royal Lord would stop him, but instead, the Royal Lord just let him go.
Despite his puzzlement, Yang Kai didn’t have time to ponder on the issue as he dropped the Azure Dragon Spear and began rapidly forming a set of hand seals.
A Golden Crow cawed as a Great Sun leaped into existence. Following that, a cold Full Moon rose from behind him as it cast its glow onto the void. The Sun and Moon appeared at the same time, forming a wondrous vision.
The moment the Sun and Moon manifested, they began orbiting around Yang Kai, affecting both space and time in the surrounding region.
Time Principles spread out, while Space Principles undulated and intertwined with them, forming an entirely new kind of strength.
Sun and Moon Divine Wheel!
This was the most powerful trump card Yang Kai could bring out besides his Dragon Bead.
It was also the Divine Ability he had invented through his own comprehension. Activating it was not difficult, but the prerequisites to cast it were extraordinarily difficult, such that only Yang Kai was capable of it as it was formed from the resonance of his two strongest Grand Daos. Therefore, this Divine Ability displayed an extraordinary might when he used it.
He was unable to use his Dragon Bead casually, so to deal with this Royal Lord, Yang Kai could only rely on his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel.
If this move wasn’t even useful, he would have no choice but to retreat before trying to come up with another way to kill the Royal Lord.
The instant Yang Kai cast his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, the Royal Lord also looked up and glared at him.
His dark eyes seemed to have turned into a bottomless abyss as though they could devour Yang Kai. His obsidian eyes reflected Yang Kai’s figure, which was engulfed in endless Black Ink Strength. It was as if he was burning with a dark flame.
Royal Lord Secret Technique!
At that instant, both Yang Kai and the Royal Lord brought out their most lethal moves in an attempt to defeat the other party. It could be said that they had made the same judgement in this situation and acted decisively on it.
Yang Kai was startled as he was quite familiar with the Royal Lord Secret Technique.
For the Black Ink Clansmen below the Royal Lords, if they wanted to corrupt a Human, they just had to release their Black Ink Strength to invade that Human’s body and Small Universe. If that Human couldn’t resist, they would be turned into a Black Ink Disciple.
Royal Lords could naturally do the same, but they also had a better and more efficient method, which was known to the Humans as the Royal Lord Secret Technique.
It was well known among the Humans that when a Royal Lord activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique, even an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master couldn’t resist it, instantly turning them into a Black Ink Disciple.
This was one of the reasons the Eighth-Order Masters didn’t interfere carelessly when a Ninth-Order Old Ancestor battled a Royal Lord. A Ninth-Order Master could fend off the Royal Lord Secret Technique, but those in the Eighth-Order couldn’t. Once they were struck by the Royal Lord Secret Technique during an intense battle, the Humans were bound to suffer immense losses.
To deal with a Royal Lord, a Ninth-Order Master had to personally make a move.
The Humans had been studying the secrets behind the Royal Lord Secret Technique for years, but they hadn’t found out anything useful yet, mainly because no Royal Lord would easily activate the Royal Lord Secret Technique.
Without a target they could study or examples they could learn from, the Humans obviously couldn’t gather any useful information.
With that said, the high-ranking officers had speculated that the Royal Lord Secret Technique might be a kind of Innate Divine Ability that was exclusive to the Black Ink Clan. Only Royal Lords were able to use this Innate Divine Ability, and it was most likely a kind of attack that directly affected one’s Soul.
Certainly, Yang Kai had heard of such information and even experienced it for himself twice in the past, but he was too weak back then to really understand what was happening. Now, having reached the Eighth-Order and possessing incredible Soul cultivation, he was finally able to realize that the Royal Lord Secret Technique wasn’t purely a Soul Technique, but rather a combination of one with an Eye Secret Technique.
When the Royal Lord activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique, Yang Kai could clearly see his own reflection in the other party’s eyes.
The figure was engulfed in thick Black Ink Strength, as though he had really turned into a Black Ink Disciple.
At the same time, Yang Kai was indeed covered in Black Ink Strength in reality. The Black Ink Strength was pure, and it was as though it had appeared out of nowhere. At the very least, Yang Kai didn’t see his opponent releasing this Black Ink Strength.
The thick and pure Black Ink Strength soon penetrated his physique, and despite his best efforts, Yang Kai was unable to resist its invasion.
This kind of corrosion was harmless to his body, but the Royal Lord Secret Technique was never meant to be lethal.
The pure and dense Black Ink Strength invaded Yang Kai’s Small Universe in the blink of an eye, but unlike what would normally happen, the Black Ink Strength just sputtered, like a stone dropping into an ocean.
Any other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would have been turned into a Black Ink Disciple and been enslaved to the Royal Lord by now; however, Yang Kai’s Small Universe had the protection of a World Tree clone. He had even planted a Low-Rank Black Ink Nest in his Small Universe many years ago to nurture some low-level Black Ink Clansmen to use as training tools for the disciples of the Void Dao Temple.
A massive amount of Black Ink Strength had already been suppressed and sealed in his Small Universe; therefore, Yang Kai was truly not afraid of its corrosion anymore.
Cang once told him that the World Tree clone might not be able to fend off the Black Ink Strength from Mo itself, for he was the source of all Black Ink Strength, but although the sheep-headed Royal Lord was also powerful, he was orders of magnitude weaker than Mo. As such, he could never break through the World Tree clone’s protection.
Suddenly, Yang Kai realised that the Royal Lord’s aura had plunged tremendously after he cast the Royal Lord Secret Technique.
At that instant, Yang Kai recalled the reason why the Royal Lords wouldn’t use the Royal Lord Secret Technique unless it was absolutely necessary to do so.
That was because there was a price to pay if they wanted to use it.
This Secret Technique was extremely powerful, and it was silent when it was cast. As such, the Eighth-Order Masters could not hope to defend themselves from it. If the Royal Lords could repeatedly cast it without any restraints, the Black Ink Clan would just have to send a Royal Lord to wander around the battlefield to turn all the Eighth-Order Masters into Black Ink Disciples. Once that happened, the Human Race would be doomed.
However, since there was clearly a big price to pay, the Royal Lords wouldn’t use the Royal Lord Secret Technique as they pleased lest the Ninth-Order Masters seize the chance and kill them.
Obviously, the life of a Royal Lord was far more important than a few Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters.
Upon that realization, Yang Kai started grinning. He was still engulfed in Black Ink Strength, making him look extremely evil.
He was initially worried that his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel might not be powerful enough to deal with this Royal Lord; nevertheless, the latter had been significantly weakened after he activated the Royal Lord Secret Technique. As such, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel would probably be quite deadly to him.
Just as Yang Kai was affected by the Royal Lord Secret Technique and his entire figure was covered in Black Ink Strength, the power of the swirling Sun and Moon reached the Royal Lord.
Yang Kai’s eyes brightened as he was secretly thrilled.
It wasn’t the first time he used the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel. In fact, he had cast this Divine Ability many times back then to deal with opponents who were more powerful than he was; however, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had never been more powerful than it was now. It was to the point where even Yang Kai felt the Divine Ability was unusually powerful on this day.
There was no denying it had something to do with his advancement in the Dao of Time; however, he reckoned the biggest reason was that he had reached a form of equilibrium.
In the past, his mastery over the Dao of Space had always been greater than his mastery over the Dao of Time.
Before he headed to the No-Return Pass, his mastery over the Dao of Space had already reached the Eighth Level while his mastery over the Dao of Time was only on the Sixth Level.
After the training in the Dragon Pool, the power of his Dragon Vein increased tremendously, which resulted in his mastery over the Dao of Time reaching the Seventh Level.
When he was cultivating in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, Yang Kai managed to absorb and refine several dozen Temporal Rivers, thus pushing his Dao of Time to the Eighth Level, which was on the same level as his Dao of Space.
In the past, when he activated his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, Yang Kai realised that there was an imbalance between the Space Principles and Time Principles that composed the attack. This kind of imbalance stopped the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel from unleashing its full potential.
He had speculated that once both of his Grand Daos reached a state of balance, he would see a significant increase in the power of his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel. Now, it seemed that his speculation was right.
As the powers of both Grand Daos intertwined, they showcased an entirely new Space-Time Strength, which seemed to resonate with the Universe itself. The instant the Royal Lord cast the Royal Lord Secret Technique, his expression changed drastically.
His aura was frail at this moment, and faced with the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, he couldn’t help feeling that his life was at risk.
The Royal Lord madly surged his Black Ink Strength in an attempt to drive it off; however, affected by the strange Space-Time Strength, his mind and movements became sluggish. Before he could come to his senses, the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had already struck his figure.
An invisible impact then spread across the void. The Sun and Moon exploded and formed into a massive sphere of light.
At that instant, time and space seemed to have fallen into a chaotic state. Even Yang Kai, the one who cast this Divine Ability, felt that everything seemed to have turned upside down.
At that moment, Yang Kai widened his eyes and looked fixedly at the light sphere. Although tears started sliding down his cheeks in response to the dazzling light, he still didn’t close his eyes.
That was because he was seeing something inconceivable. There seemed to be some images flashing across the light sphere.
In the images, he saw a vague figure that was engulfed in Black Ink Strength with a big head in his hand. Black blood was seen spilling from the head and countless Black Ink Clansmen surrounded the figure as though they were worshipping him.
Before he could see anything clearly though, the images had disappeared, and the images he saw next were even more stunning.
Thriving Stars and Universe Worlds filled with vitality were shrouded in Black Ink Strength as they soon turned into barren wastelands void of any life. These images soon disappeared as well.
Then, he saw a humongous tree that appeared to be sick. The leaves had withered, and even the fruits on the tree were shrivelled. They appeared so wrinkled as though they had been exposed to Sunlight for years on end.
Strange images continued to flicker through the light sphere but they all disappeared before Yang Kai could look into them. As such, he couldn’t take in the details.
In just a moment, over 100 scenes had flashed past the light sphere, which was soon replaced by darkness as though there was no longer any light in the Universe.
Yang Kai fell into a dazed state. [What were those images?]
He had activated the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel before, but he had never seen such a strange phenomenon.
The light sphere had disappeared before he could figure anything out. Engulfed in the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, the sheep-headed Royal Lord was soaked in black blood, and his face had been transformed by horror. His aura had already turned weak after he used the Royal Lord Secret Technique, and it now seemed even more frail.
He had seen the images at the same time as Yang Kai; however, even Yang Kai had no idea what those things were, so how was he supposed to know? Moreover, he wasn’t in the mood to ponder on it.
The power of the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had exceeded Yang Kai’s expectations and had also gone beyond the Royal Lord’s imagination. The amazing Space-Time Strength was now corroding the Royal Lord’s mind and body, making him suffer indescribable pain; however, he still felt confident that the dust had settled.
No Human could resist the Royal Lord Secret Technique, or at least the Royal Lord thought so, as the next instant, his expression changed drastically, for Yang Kai, who was covered in Black Ink Strength, suddenly grinned mockingly at him.
[Four Universe Pillars!] These words sprang into the Royal Lord’s mind in an instant.
The Royal Lord Secret Technique wasn’t without its archnemeses. The Four Universe Pillars could block the Royal Lord Secret Technique, ensuring that the Humans who possessed one of them wouldn’t be corrupted by Black Ink Strength.
However, as far as the Royal Lord knew, precious treasures like the Four Universe Pillars were extremely rare throughout the entire Universe; therefore, only a small number of Humans would possess one.
The Royal Lord had never expected that the Human he had been hunting down had one as well.
He had heard that precious treasures like the Four Universe Pillars were always owned by the strongest Eighth-Order Masters. This Human was only in the Seventh Order 500 years ago, so why did he have one of the Four Universe Pillars as well?
At that instant, the Royal Lord deeply regretted activating the Royal Lord Secret Technique, which caused him to be weakened; otherwise, he would have been able to deal with the opponent’s strange Divine Ability.
He was already weakened to begin with, and he was subsequently struck by the opponent’s Divine Ability, which exacerbated his condition.
Realising he was in a dangerous situation, the Royal Lord’s figure shook as he used a Secret Technique. At the same time, the Royal Lord Black Ink Nest which was planted nearby started transmitting Black Ink Strength to him, allowing his aura to surge.
His Black Ink Nest wasn’t far away, so he could make use of it to improve his condition.
Although he looked battered, everything was still well within his control. He still had a chance to kill this Human.
The moment the Royal Lord drew energy from his Black Ink Nest though, Yang Kai’s facial features warped, as though he was going through some excruciating pain. He then howled in agony.
The Royal Lord was startled, but before he could figure out what was wrong with Yang Kai, a howl of even greater intensity burst from his lips.
At that moment, he felt an immense force tearing apart the defence of his Soul and badly damaging it. Coupled with the Space-Time Strength’s influence, his mind went completely blank.
Soul Rending Thorn!
When Yang Kai asked Grandmaster Ma Fan to refine Soul Rending Thorns for him for the first time, the latter crafted 12 for him to use. Then, Yang Kai used 11 of them in the fight for the Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest, which resulted in him badly injuring or killing the equivalent number of Territory Lords and Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples. After that, outside the Royal City in Great Evolution Theatre, he used the last one to kill Che Kong.
With such a record of success, Yang Kai naturally made sure to get more Soul Rending Thorns for himself.
When the Great Evolution Army set off on their second crusade, Yang Kai gathered some materials and asked Grandmaster Ma Fan to make more Soul Rending Thorns for him. It took Grandmaster Ma Fan some time and energy to do so, but now Yang Kai had several dozen Soul Rending Thorns with him and had been hiding them from the enemies. Even when he cast the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel earlier, he did not use them.
That was because he would be the first one injured before he could harm his opponent. Using a Soul Rending Thorn would result in mutual injuries; therefore, Yang Kai wouldn’t use one unless it was necessary to do so.
Now, it had come to a point where he had no choice but to use them.
The Royal Lord was indeed powerful. Even though his Soul had been struck by the Soul Rending Thorn and Space-Time Strength, he still managed to pull himself together quickly, but when he looked up, he realised Yang Kai was nowhere to be found.
When his mind was blank earlier, Yang Kai had vanished. Reacting on instinct, he turned around as he widened his eyes and roared, “You court death!”
Above the dead Universe World where his Black Ink Nest was located, Yang Kai’s figure abruptly appeared. He wielded his spear as his weapon turned into a spear light and struck the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest.
Yang Kai didn’t directly attack the Royal Lord because he didn’t have the confidence to kill him with one strike. It was difficult to deal with a Royal Lord at the peak of his power. Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao was unable to succeed back then under similar circumstances, so Yang Kai naturally wouldn’t think he could do any better.
Therefore, he believed that it would be best for him to seize the chance and destroy the other party’s Black Ink Nest.
A Black Ink Nest could not run away or counterattack, after all.
Yang Kai had learned his lesson in the Great Evolution Royal City back then, so he held nothing back this time. As the spear light slashed across the Black Ink Nest, it was cut clean in half. Spear Intent burst forth and vaporized the Black Ink Nest down to its roots.
All the Black Ink Clansmen in the Black Ink Nest were killed in an instant as their auras disappeared.
The next moment, the Low-Rank Black Ink Nests around the Great Sea started collapsing and withering as they had lost their support.
Without the support from their source, which was the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest, all the Low-Rank Black Ink Nests were doomed to perish.
With his spear in hand, Yang Kai turned around and faced the Royal Lord, who was coming at him. His facial features contorted in pain, but the murderous intent behind his gaze seemed to have materialised as he pointed his spear forward and roared, “It’s your turn!”
The Royal Lord had just reached the peak of his power before his aura plunged again to the point where it was worse than before.
Faced with the glistening spear, he felt panic for the very first time. The other party was indeed weaker than him, but after they exchanged finishing moves, he was the one badly injured. He couldn’t help but think if the fight dragged on, he would be killed by his opponent.
Soon however, he cast his fear away and grit his teeth as he charged towards Yang Kai. His expression was more hideous than that of his opponent for it had come to a point where there was no turning back. Today, one of them would fall, there was no other possible outcome.
Yang Kai remained unwavering. As they brushed past each other in the Void, their blood spattered and they growled at the same time.
This couldn’t be helped, as Yang Kai seized the chance to use another Soul Rending Thorn during their exchange of moves. While his Soul was again wounded, the Royal Lord wasn’t feeling any better.
Yang Kai had the Soul Warming Lotus, so he wasn’t worried about his Soul being damaged too much, but the same couldn’t be said for the Royal Lord. The moment they stabilised their figures, they turned around and charged at each other again.
In the void, countless Black Ink Clansmen surrounded them in all directions. Knowing that he was in a perilous situation, the Royal Lord intended to make use of his subordinates.
Unfortunately for him, back then, he abstained from spawning any Territory Lords to save some energy, so his most powerful subordinates were only Feudal Lords.
The Royal Lord wasn’t sure if such an Army could pose any threat to Yang Kai, but it had come to a point where he had no choice but to give it a try.
Yang Kai had apparently realised this as well. Under normal circumstances, he would certainly have no regard for these Feudal Lords, but the situation now was different. Presently, he was surrounded by millions of Black Ink Clansmen, and he had to deal with the Royal Lord at the same time. If he wasn’t careful enough, he might lose his life here.
Therefore, he became even more ruthless with his moves as he madly activated the Soul Rending Thorns.
After using a fourth Soul Rending Thorn, Yang Kai realised he had fallen into a dazed state. He secretly cursed because he had used too many Soul Rending Thorns and had now affected the very foundation of his Soul.
If he continued to use the Soul Rending Thorns, his Soul would be ripped apart before he could even kill the Royal Lord. When that happened, even the Soul Warming Lotus couldn’t save him.
These thoughts all occurred in a flash before his mind suddenly turned blank as he was no longer able to think clearly. Then, he lost consciousness.
Some unknown amount of time later, Yang Kai abruptly came to his senses when he felt a cool sensation.
His head was in pain as his Soul had been badly damaged, which made him unable to think clearly. It was only thanks to the Soul Warming Lotus that he could even regain consciousness.
Following that, Yang Kai realised he was surrounded by enemies that stretched out into the distance with no end in sight. They were the Black Ink Clan soldiers!
At this moment, he was fighting against the Black Ink Clan soldiers, and wherever he went, blood flowed like rivers as countless Black Ink Clan corpses littered the void.
Despite the fact that he was unconscious earlier, his body honed by hundreds of years of combat reacted instinctively to kill the enemies, which saved his life. Otherwise, the Feudal Lords would have been able to kill him.
He considered himself lucky that there were no Territory Lords among the Black Ink Clansmen; otherwise, he wouldn’t have stood a chance to survive.
The next instant, he realised the Royal Lord was nowhere in sight.
[Where is he?]
The reason he fell into a stupor was because he had activated too many Soul Rending Thorns. His Soul was unable to bear the damage brought about by four repeated sacrifices.
Since he had fallen into such a state, he reckoned that the Royal Lord wasn’t in a better condition either despite the fact that the latter was stronger.
However, now that he was awake, he couldn’t detect the Royal Lord’s aura. [Did he run away? No!]
Suddenly, Yang Kai looked down at his hand and realised he was holding a huge head with sheep horns. This head’s eyes were still wide open as though he was unresigned before his death. Black blood could be seen dripping from his severed neck.
At that instant, Yang Kai realised he had seen such a sight before.
The sheep-headed Royal Lord was dead!
What was certain was that the Royal Lord died by Yang Kai’s hand, but Yang Kai didn’t know exactly how he had decapitated the Royal Lord.
He also didn’t know why he was holding the Royal Lord’s head in his hand.
In this situation, there was no way Yang Kai could think clearly, and when he tried, he just felt dizzier.
He knew this was because his Soul was seriously injured. So far, he had relied on the fact that he had the Soul Warming Lotus and had done many risky things; however, the injury to his Soul this time was something that could not be compared to any other in the past.
The consequences were huge, but the result was worth it!
He had killed a Royal Lord!
This was also the very first Royal Lord he personally killed all by himself.
Although he had previously killed a Ninth-Order Black Ink Disciple in the Royal City of Great Evolution Theatre, that Black Ink Disciple’s actual strength was much inferior to a Royal Lord’s, not to mention that he only delivered the last lucky blow while the opponent had his guard down.
The opponent’s Small Universe was already extremely unstable after taking a blow from Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao, and Yang Kai just happened to have the means to defeat him. Using the unique features of his Cow Punch, Yang Kai was able to send his opponent to his death with just one punch.
Thus, the killing of that Ninth-Order Black Ink Disciple was more of a lucky accident rather than a show of strength and skill.
But this was a real battle.
Since being chased after by the sheep-headed Royal Lord from outside the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, Yang Kai had faced innumerable dangers, used up a lot of time, and was even forced into the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon to save himself during his escape.
However, the winner was king, while the loser was the villain. He was still alive, while the sheep-headed Royal Lord was dead.
At that moment, Yang Kai felt a sudden sense of satisfaction rise in him. He felt his 4,000 years of dull cultivation didn’t go to waste, nor did the countless resources he used when in the Temporal Rivers inside the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
It just so happened that the cultivation that lasted who knows how many actual years in the outside world had given him the strength to kill a Royal Lord in a head-on battle.
Of course, the consequences he suffered weren’t minor either. Yang Kai could tell that several of his bones were broken, and Golden Blood was oozing from a penetrating wound on his lower abdomen, seemingly having been inflicted by the sheep-headed Royal Lord’s claws. Also, one of his arms and one of his legs were bent in a strange way, with the most serious injury being the one to his Soul. After using the Soul Rending Thorn four consecutive times in short order, Yang Kai felt about half of his Soul had been sacrificed. In fact, if it had been anyone else, that person would have already died.
It was also because he had the Soul Warming Lotus that Yang Kai was able to stay alive and regain consciousness.
The successful killing of the sheep-headed Royal Lord was not only because of his efforts, but also luck. If such a battle were to happen again, Yang Kai couldn’t guarantee that he would be the ultimate winner.
Now, he indeed had the capital to fight against a Royal Lord, but there was still quite a large gap between their real strength.
Yang Kai felt groggy, as he could not keep himself conscious for much longer. He was barely able to stay awake and felt like he was suspended in water while constantly sinking into the abyss.
This was because his Soul was desperate to shut down and sleep to heal.
In the end, Yang Kai sank into a state of semi-consciousness again just moments after it had woken up.
Though his mind fell into a daze, his body didn’t stop killing the enemy.
When Yang Kai woke up the second time, his injuries seemed to have worsened even more. The Black Ink Clansmen were still besieging him from all directions, and he was continuously killing the enemies as if this battle would never end.
Having his mind falling asleep and waking up several times, Yang Kai didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually, he woke up to find himself simply standing in the void. His body was exuding a heavy murderous aura that was so potent it seemed like it could condense into a tangible substance while all around him were corpses and pieces of the Black Ink Clansmen. There were so many that it seemed like they were going to fill up the entire void.
As for Yang Kai, he was currently standing tall above the mountain of corpses.
At some point, his killing spree had stopped.
There was not a living Black Ink Clansman in sight, though Yang Kai wasn’t sure if he had killed them all. However, judging by the remains on the battlefield, he guessed that even if some Black Ink Clan soldiers had escaped, there wouldn’t be too many of them.
He had killed at least 70% of the Black Ink Clan Army here!
The strongest among this Black Ink Clan Army were only Feudal Lords, so even if they escaped, it wouldn’t make much difference because the dangers they would face in this region of the deep void were great, even for someone like Yang Kai.
Without a truly powerful Master protecting them, they would all die in this place sooner or later.
Lowering his head to look at his hands, Yang Kai discovered the head of the sheep-headed Royal Lord he was holding when he woke up the first time was gone. Perhaps he had unknowingly lost it at some point.
But he wasn’t concerned with that. After having a look around his surroundings, he found a Universe Fragment the Black Ink Clan had moved here before stuffing a handful of Spirit Pills into his mouth and began to adjust his breathing and recuperate.
The injuries to his Soul had yet to heal, but they were constantly being nourished and repaired by the Soul Warming Lotus, so their condition was better. If that wasn’t the case, he wouldn’t have been able to wake up several times.
On the other hand, the injuries on his body were very severe; after all, there were a multitude of Black Ink Clansmen here, so even if their strongest were only Feudal Lords, that was still enough to pose a huge threat to him.
His body was covered in wounds of all sizes that were too numerous to count. Many of them were even layered atop old wounds.
Fortunately for him, the Royal Lord was dead, and he had killed who knows how many Black Ink Clansmen, so there was no one here to disturb him while he was healing.
The first thing Yang Kai did was to reconnect all his broken bones before correcting his twisted arm and leg, which made him break out in cold sweat during the process.
After doing all that, he carefully checked his body internally and externally to ensure there weren’t any hidden injuries.
Having done so, he did find something that made his face twitch.
His Dragon Bead had cracked again…
During the 4,000 years he had been cultivating in the Great Sea, his previously damaged Dragon Bead had already been fully restored. Now that the Dragon Bead had cracked again, it meant that he had activated his Dragon Bead while in his hazy state.
There was no need to even guess though, it was undoubtedly the Royal Lord who had damaged his Dragon Bead again.
It seemed like the sheep-headed Royal Lord didn’t die without a fight.
At the beginning of their battle, the Royal Lord was already not in peak condition, then he used his Royal Lord Secret Technique which had weakened his strength, making it difficult for him to resist the blast from the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel. At that point, he could be said to be severely injured.
Following that, Yang Kai used four Soul Rending Thorns in a row, which tore into the Royal Lord’s Soul, causing massive damage.
Therefore, when Yang Kai summoned his Dragon Bead, the Royal Lord’s end was set in stone.
Just thinking about it, Yang Kai couldn’t help shivering slightly. Since his body could instinctually kill enemies while he was in a semi-conscious state, it would naturally be the same for the Royal Lord, who was far stronger.
Yang Kai couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if the Royal Lord had shattered his Dragon Bead when he summoned it in his fugue state…
Thinking of the Royal Lord, Yang Kai thought about something else.
When he woke up the first time, he was holding the Royal Lord’s head while being surrounded by countless Black Ink Clan soldiers…
That scene closely resembled one of the scenes he saw after using the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel.
Back then, he thought the Black Ink Clan that had surrounded him were showing their admiration for something, but now it seemed like they weren’t admiring anything, they were clearly besieging him to kill him.
Yang Kai was shocked.
[How can this be? Could the scene I saw be the scene I just experienced?]
After activating the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel, he did have the feeling that time itself had become chaotic. [Could the misalignment of time lead to me being able to foresee future events?]
Instinctively, Yang Kai wanted to deny this conjecture, but one of the flashing scenes he had seen at the time slowly became clearer in his mind, and he discovered that it was very similar to the scene he saw when he first woke up.
The moment time became warped, the first scene Yang Kai saw was a figure holding a detached head. The figure looked almost identical to him, but the face was blurred, and no matter how Yang Kai tried to recall it, he couldn’t make out who it was.
He then shuddered.
[If that is true, then what do the other scenes I saw represent? Could they be future events as well?]
He had seen many scenes back then, but most disappeared immediately after appearing, so he couldn’t determine what they were. Still, there were a few scenes that he was able to see clearly.
Prosperous Stars and Universe Worlds that were full of vitality being enveloped by Black Ink Strength, rapidly turning into wastelands devoid of life.
There was also a gigantic tree that seemed to be sick. Its branches and leaves were shrivelled, and even its fruits lacked any lustre as they shrivelled up as if they had been exposed to the sun for too long.
…..
As for the Universe Worlds that had their vitality destroyed and turned into wastelands after being enveloped by Black Ink Strength, that scene might correspond to what might happen if the Black Ink Clan invaded the 3,000 worlds.
If the Black Ink Clan had successfully invaded the 3,000 worlds, there was no doubt that such a future would happen.
[What about that gigantic Tree? Could it be the World Tree?]
At that point, Yang Kai suddenly recalled Cang’s words. He said that the World Tree was almost as old as the Universe itself, and its appearance wasn’t that different from when Mo was spawned, which appeared when the Heavens and Earth first split apart. Moreover, the World Tree had an inexplicable relationship with the 3,000 Worlds. Cang, the other nine Martial Ancestors, and even Yang Kai himself were means by which this vast Universe tried to help itself by exerting its Rules through the World Tree.
Cang and the others had gotten a gift from the World Tree and were able to enlighten themselves about the Martial Dao while comprehending the method of reaching the Open Heaven Realm, earning them the title of Martial Ancestors.
Yang Kai was also barely considered to have received a gift from the World Tree as he had obtained a root from it.
Since ancient times, others must have entered the Grand Ancient Ruins Boundary and received gifts from the World Tree. These were all the Universe’s means to save itself, but unfortunately, those people seemed to have all failed and fallen.
Suppose the World Tree and the 3,000 Worlds did have an unbreakable connection. If the Black Ink Clan invaded the 3,000 Worlds and turned all the flourishing lands into wastelands, plunging the entire Universe into turmoil, then the appearance of the World Tree that seemed like it was severely ill…
The more Yang Kai thought about it, the more he sweated. He couldn’t help but shake his head to disperse those thoughts from his mind.
However, he didn’t expect that when he moved, his head felt like it had turned into mush and the pain was so intense that he almost passed out again.
Luckily, after such an interruption, he did not have the intention to think about such nonsense anymore.
The ability to foresee the future was too surreal to Yang Kai, so he wasn’t willing to believe it was possible. Even though the Space-Time Strength he used was mysterious as well, it was just a type of strength that made use of his comprehension of the Grand Daos of Space and Time. How could such strength break through the flow of time itself and allow one to peer into the future?
[Healing my injuries is more important!]
A while later, cold sweat began dripping from Yang Kai’s forehead.
No matter how much he refused to believe it, he could vaguely sense that he seemed to have obtained a glimpse of the future. The Sun and Moon Divine Wheel had warped and broken time to the point that it let him witness events that had yet to transpire.
After a year of focusing all his efforts on recuperating, Yang Kai had almost made a full recovery.
Emerging from the Universe Fragment, Yang Kai observed his surroundings for a while before his figure dashed in the direction of the Black Ink Nest.
Though the High-Rank Black Ink Nest exploded after his attack, there were still some remnants left behind.
After searching through the debris, Yang Kai found quite a lot of resources.
These resources were mined by the Black Ink Clan from surrounding areas. The Black Ink Clan had a high demand for resources when spawning more of their members and the Royal Lord also needed resources to heal his injuries.
All these unused resources now belonged to Yang Kai.
However, he did not intend to use these resources on himself, nor did he intend to further his cultivation at this moment. He scavenged for these resources because he wanted to arrange a Universe Array.
The Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon was a natural treasure trove, and Yang Kai wasn’t sure if he would be able to find it again after leaving, so he decided to leave a Universe Array here, which might be of use someday.
In fact, he still had quite a lot of resources on hand, but he was lacking some critical components. It just happened that the resources he found from the Black Ink Nest were enough to make up for the shortage.
Soon, a Universe Array took shape in what was left of the Universe World where the High-Rank Black Ink Nest was originally situated. Yang Kai then made some arrangements to cover up and conceal the Universe Array.
After taking a good look at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, Yang Kai turned around and left.
All that was left now in this vast stretch of void were densely scattered corpses that seemed to be a sign that there was once a tragic battle here.
Previously, outside the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, where he was targeted by the Royal Lord and chased all the way here, Yang Kai planned to follow the path the Humans took during their crusade back to the No-Return Pass to seek help from the Dragon and Phoenix Clans to defeat the Royal Lord.
Unfortunately, he got lost on the way and the longer he ran, the more unsure he was of where he was heading.
Now, he didn’t even know where he was or which way he should travel now.
But he wasn’t too worried about it because he knew he would eventually find his way back, he just needed to take some time.
Another thing that made him feel helpless was that he didn’t know how much time had passed.
He could accurately calculate the time he spent in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, but he had no idea about how much time had passed in the outside world.
The speed of time in each Temporal River was different, so there was no way to make an accurate estimate.
[I wonder what happened after the war between the two races.] When Yang Kai escaped from the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, Cang fused his body with the restriction to summon the energy Mu needed to leave Mo in deep sleep.
Just before making that sacrifice, Cang left his backup plan to Yang Kai, which was extremely important!
It was because the Black Ink Clan saw this take place right before their eyes that Yang Kai was targeted by a Royal Lord.
Now that things had gotten to this point, Yang Kai did not resent Cang because he was the only person Cang could trust during that last moment; after all, he was also one of the means chosen by the vast Universe. To be able to be chosen meant that Yang Kai was special in some way. Therefore, if it were Yang Kai, he would make the same choice as Cang.
But no matter how that battle ended, the Human Army couldn’t stay at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction.
If the Humans won, they would definitely withdraw their forces.
If they were defeated, they would still retreat back to the No-Return Pass to join forces with the Dragon and Phoenix Clans because that was the only way they could resist the Black Ink Clan Army’s attack.
That was why Yang Kai only had one destination in mind, the No-Return Pass!
In his current situation, it would be difficult for Yang Kai to be certain which direction would lead to the No-Return Pass, but as long as he could find the Late Ancient Era Battlefield, he would be able to estimate his whereabouts.
Flying through the void, Yang Kai’s figure soared along at amazing speed.
He would stop every half a month or so to activate the Universe Transference Law to try and connect to any of the Universe Arrays he had set inside those Purifying Black Ink Battleships; however, the only Universe Array he could sense was the one he set up next to the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
Such a situation meant that his distance from those Universe Arrays was too great for the Universe Transference Law to even detect them.
Although he couldn’t sense the position of any Purifying Black Ink Battleship, this tactic wasn’t useless because, at the very least, he could use the Universe Array he left at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon to deduce his current position.
As time passed, his connection with the Universe Array at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon became vague, which told Yang Kai that he was getting further away from the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
It was not until half a year later that he could no longer sense that Universe Array.
With the speed he could travel, coupled with Instantaneous Movement, Yang Kai still used about half a year before he lost all contact with the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, which showed how vast an area a Universe Array could cover.
There were Celestial Phenomena of all shapes and sizes in the void, and Yang Kai had seen many of them while he was escaping from the sheep-headed Royal Lord. He even dove deep into a Dense Fog Celestial Phenomenon and the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
But since he was running for his life to avoid being killed, he didn’t have the time to enjoy the beauty of these Celestial Phenomena along the way.
Now that he was feeling more relaxed, he had time to study these Celestial Phenomena more carefully and even found them quite miraculous.
These Celestial Phenomena might be the manifestation of the Universe’s original form and might. Many radiated extremely dangerous auras, while some of them were deep and unfathomable. Just like the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, though they looked tranquil and calm on the outside, one would only know of the dangers lurking inside after entering them.
The 3,000 Worlds didn’t have any Celestial Phenomena, possibly because of all the activities of Human cultivators causing them to fade away.
[Wait! The 3,000 Worlds does have some.]
Yang Kai suddenly recalled rumours about some strange Forbidden Zones in several Great Territories. Those Forbidden Zones were filled with dangers, and they were very difficult for ordinary cultivators to even approach.
Those so-called Forbidden Zones might be remnants of ancient Celestial Phenomena. They weren’t complete anymore and only retained a portion of their mysteries and might. As time passed, coupled with repeated explorations by cultivators, those Forbidden Zones would also gradually disappear into the annals of history.
Suppose one could explore the mysteries of these Celestial Phenomena. Maybe one could use the opportunity to gain insight into the true meaning of the power of the Heavens and Earth!
That thought flashed across Yang Kai’s mind as he flew past different Celestial Phenomena.
Year after year, his dull voyage continued in solitude.
The void was incredibly vast, and it contained all sorts of wonders, but he wasn’t anxious because he knew it was no use being anxious.
Along the way, Yang Kai left hidden marks inside some dead Universe Worlds, making it easier for him to find his way back to the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
Suddenly, on a particular day when he used the Universe Transference Law, Yang Kai finally sensed a Universe Array in a particular direction.
The distance was still quite far away, and the connection he felt was exceptionally weak, but if he exerted all his efforts to get there, he could probably arrive within half a year.
Yang Kai was elated. All his efforts had paid off as he finally discovered something and hurriedly moved in that direction.
A few days later, he used the Universe Transference Law to determine his position.
Another few days later, it was still the same…
One month later, after Yang Kai used the Universe Transference Law again, he frowned.
Over this one month’s time, he had used the Universe Transference Law five times, and although he could establish a connection with the faraway target, there was something wrong with the situation.
He was now rushing there with all his might and had activated the Space Principles, so his speed was exceptionally fast.
Therefore, it was reasonable to say that he could have easily shortened the distance between them in this one month’s time, and the nearer the distance with the Universe Array, the stronger the connection he had with it when using the Universe Transference Law.
But the reality was that the connection was still very weak.
There were only two possibilities that could cause such a situation. One was that the Universe Array he was connecting with was also continuously moving forward and was keeping a constant distance from Yang Kai.
However, a Purifying Black Ink Battleship’s speed was incomparable to Yang Kai’s, so even if it was somehow moving in exactly the same direction as him, the distance would still have been greatly shortened.
Which meant it could only be the second possibility.
The Universe Array he had set up in this Purifying Battleship was damaged!
Yang Kai had arranged the Universe Arrays in the very heart of the Purifying Ink Battleships, along with the storage room for Purifying Light, and after all the Great Passes had obtained their Purifying Black Ink Battleships, they specifically reinforced the defences around the Universe Array to the point that it could be said that it would not be damaged unless the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was completely crippled.
But now, the Universe Array on this unidentified Purifying Black Ink Battleship was actually damaged, so what about the Purifying Black Ink Battleship itself?
Did they encounter some kind of battle?
Were there still… survivors there?
Yang Kai was so anxious that he pushed his speed even harder.
Two months later, Yang Kai estimated it was about the distance that he could transmit with his now Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation and strong physique. Also, it wouldn’t be too risky to teleport at this point, so he used the Universe Transference Law, wanting to use the Universe Array and directly transport himself onto that Purifying Black Ink Battleship.
However, when the patterns of a Grand Array lit up under his feet, there was no sign of transmittance.
With a deep frown on his face, Yang Kai discarded this plan and continued to move forward under his own power.
It seemed that the Universe Array he had sensed was indeed damaged to the point that it was no longer functional.
Along his way, Yang Kai kept his vigilance up, guarding against the possibility that there might be enemies lurking nearby.
Another two months passed when Yang Kai suddenly looked up and could vaguely make out a lofty shadow standing tall inside the void.
It was a Great Pass!
Even though it was still quite far away, and the visibility inside the void wasn’t too good, he could still make out an outline of a huge Great Pass.
Yang Kai’s mind suddenly shook as his figure dashed forward.
However, as the distance shortened, Yang Kai’s heart also gradually sank.
It was indeed a Great Pass, but it was a destroyed one.
The originally majestic-looking Great Pass was now in ruins with large holes broken in its thick walls. Outside the Great Pass were scattered corpses of soldiers from both Races and fragments of broken Human Warships.
Yang Kai’s figure gradually slowed down as he passed through the mountain of corpses and blood, feeling suffocated.
He didn’t know what kind of battle this Great Pass had encountered, but judging from the gruesome scene before him, it was one filled with brutal bloodshed.
Outside the destroyed Great Pass, Yang Kai forced down his anxiety and released his Divine Sense like a flood, wanting to find any trace of vitality that might still be around; however, it was clear that this battle ended many years ago, so if there were any survivors, how could they still be here?
Moreover, he couldn’t sense any signs of vitality.
Crossing the battlefield that looked like a hellscape, Yang Kai arrived above the Great Pass and looked down. What he saw was the ruined interior of the Great Pass with corpses scattered everywhere.
Yang Kai’s face fell.
Although he didn’t know what kind of battle the Humans of this Great Pass had gone through, he could guess just by looking at the scene before him. The Black Ink Clan Army broke through this Great Pass’ defences and swarmed inside, engaging in a battle to the death with the Human soldiers.
Soon, he saw a Purifying Black Ink Battleship that was broken in two and sensed the weak connection coming from the Universe Array inside of it.
It was this particular Universe Array that had led him over here.
[Which Great Pass is this?]
Yang Kai couldn’t figure this out from just a cursory examination, so he continued his search and soon came to the Inner Sanctum.
The Inner Sanctum of every Great Pass, specifically the Central Square, could be said to be a Human Army’s drill ground. Now that he looked at this place, he could see obvious traces that were left behind from the battle as there were numerous Black Ink Clan corpses littered around the area.
Those dead Black Ink Clan soldiers were piled up layer by layer and almost covered the entire Central Square.
And in the centre of all those dead Black Ink Clan soldiers was an empty space where a figure was quietly sitting cross-legged with both eyes wide open and a peaceful expression.
At that moment, Yang Kai felt like his heart was being squeezed by an invisible hand.
He slowly walked forward, cleaning out a path among the piles of corpses before arriving before the figure.
The two pairs of eyes met each other, and Yang Kai felt a deep sense of sorrow fill his heart.
He now knew which Great Pass this was.
Azure Void Pass!
Although each Great Pass had similar layouts, Yang Kai had visited Azure Void Pass many times and was quite familiar with this place.
It was because Azure Void Pass was a complete mess after the great battle that Yang Kai couldn’t immediately recognise it.
However, he did recognise the peaceful-looking fallen cultivator sitting cross-legged in the middle of the courtyard.
It was the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Old Ancestor of Azure Void Pass! He was the one who gave Yang Kai a piece of beef all those centuries ago. That beef was cooked into soup and allowed Xu Ling Gong to gain a burst of enlightenment and break through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm.
The Old Ancestor of Azure Void Pass had died in battle here!
Even in the last moments of his life, he still didn’t give up on the Great Pass he protected.
Thinking of that, Yang Kai felt his vision becoming a little blurry.
Beside the Old Ancestor of Azure Void Pass was the Ox Monster which was missing one of its horns that the Old Ancestor had kept for numerous years. Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao had her eyes on this Ox Monster for a long while but never succeeded in getting it.
At this moment, the Ox Monster was in the same situation as Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor. Its body was covered in wounds while its other horn was broken as well. Even its tail was nowhere to be seen.
The Ox Monster quietly lay beside Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor with its head lowered.
Yang Kai blinked a few times to dispel the blurriness in his vision. Then, he faced the Old Ancestor of Azure Void Pass and bowed with a solemn expression.
[I vow to live and die together with the Great Pass!]
That was the oath that every soldier in every Great Passes swore.
Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor had fulfilled that oath!
Every soldier in Azure Void Pass had done so!
For numerous years, countless Human soldiers died on the Black Ink Battlefield to protect the 3,000 Worlds, and the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Old Ancestors weren’t an exception.
No matter their cultivation or status, these Humans who died fighting the Black Ink Clan were all honourable warriors.
Their corpses shouldn’t be left out in the void to rot. Since Yang Kai wasn’t able to join this battle and had coincidentally arrived here, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to help gather these corpses.
When he rose to his feet, he suddenly saw the Ox Monster beside Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor raising its head and saying, “Take the Old Ancestor’s corpse. If you encounter another Supreme Master, it can help you defend yourself against the enemy!”
Yang Kai was elated, “Senior Ox, are you still alive?”
However, the Ox Monster didn’t answer his question but continued, “There’s no need to hesitate. This is also the Old Ancestor’s last wish before he died. If his corpse could be used to kill a few more enemies, he would surely feel happy in the afterlife.”
After that, the Ox Monster again closed his eyes and silently laid its head down.
Yang Kai’s expression darkened. It seemed like the Ox Monster had already died as well.
The reason it was able to speak might be due to the effect of some Secret Technique.
If the being that came here was Human, the Ox Monster would speak and tell that person to store away the Old Ancestor’s corpse, but if it were a Black Ink Clansman, things might not be that simple.
Since the Old Ancestor’s corpse could also be used as a weapon still, it must be because the Old Ancestor had left some kind of last Will behind before his death.
This final Will probably held extraordinary power, and it was after hearing this that Yang Kai suddenly realised why the corpse of Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor was able to remain undisturbed here.
The only enemy who could face an Old Ancestor was a Royal Lord, and Yang Kai could see that the injuries on the Old Ancestor’s body were not left by just one Royal Lord. Just by looking at those injuries, Yang Kai could distinguish the auras left by three Royal Lords.
In other words, before Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor died, he had fought at least three Royal Lords but was unable to defeat them and died.
As for why the three Royal Lords didn’t choose to destroy the Old Ancestor’s body and simply left it here, they must have seen that Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor left behind that last Will and were afraid to do anything, lest they encounter an accident.
If it hadn’t been for that, Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor’s body would have already been destroyed.
Considering all this, Yang Kai felt his heart clench.
If the Royal Lords noticed this, how could they not leave some people behind to monitor the situation to avoid any surviving Human soldiers from approaching this place?
Just as he was thinking so, Yang Kai suddenly raised his head and looked up.
What he saw were three figures suddenly appearing from inside Azure Void Pass, each with a majestic aura.
They were Territory Lords!
The Black Ink Clan had indeed left guards behind. A Royal Lord couldn’t wait here for such a reason, but a few Territory Lords could be spared for such a duty!
If three Territory Lords worked together, they could deal with most situations.
Among those three Territory Lords, one of them had a seductive figure and a flirtatious expression, which reminded Yang Kai of the Charm Demon Clan.
There was also a tall and strong Territory Lord that looked more than three times taller than the seductive Territory Lord. Two fangs were poking out from both sides of his lips and curved upwards, making him look hideous like he was a crazy wild boar.
The third one looked more normal and had many Human traits, with the only difference being that his limbs resembled talons that were shining with cold light. This Territory Lord also had a pair of wings.
It was unknown where they were hiding because Yang Kai didn’t even sense the slightest trace of their auras before now.
The three Territory Lords weren’t in a hurry to appear, seeming to be not worried that Yang Kai would escape.
The seductive Territory Lord spoke up first, “When the Sirs asked us to stay here in case any Humans decide to come back, I first thought they were being too careful, but now it seems that there are indeed some Humans that are seeking death.”
The fang-toothed Territory Lord snorted lightly, “We’ve waited here for 200 years. I think my body is about to become mouldy. Human, you’re unlucky today.”
On the other hand, the taloned Territory Lord frowned while warning, “Don’t be careless. This Human is an Eighth-Order Master, so he might not be easy to deal with.”
After letting out a snort, the fang-toothed Territory Lord retorted, “So what if he’s an Eighth-Order Human? It’s not like we haven’t killed any of them. Let me kill him while you two stand guard!”
Saying so, the fang-toothed Territory Lord charged at Yang Kai. Because he had a burly and bulky body, his actions seemed clumsy, but in fact, he was moving very fast, and his huge frame fell like a meteor, quickly approaching Yang Kai.
The terrifying aura of a Territory Lord burst forth, causing the broken walls in the Great Pass to begin to creak.
Meanwhile, the taloned Territory Lord fixed his eyes on Yang Kai, and even his eyes reflected the latter’s figure. He was the fastest among these three Territory Lords, so he needed to be vigilant in case Yang Kai decided to activate whatever final seal was left on the Ninth-Order Master’s corpse.
Although they didn’t know what this seal was or what it was for, the Royal Lords had specifically told them it was definitely something the three of them couldn’t resist. Even they, as Royal Lords, might not be able to resist the power which was hidden inside that seal.
Even after death, a Ninth-Order Master still couldn’t be underestimated because the Secret Techniques those Humans practised often had unimaginable power.
If Yang Kai really did exhibit any intentions of touching that corpse, the taloned Territory Lord had to stop him immediately.
While watching Yang Kai’s every action carefully, the taloned Territory Lord tried to think in Yang Kai’s shoes and predict his next move. Just like he had said, an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master wasn’t so easy to deal with.
The Territory Lords had indeed killed many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters outside the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, but the Territory Lords had suffered huge losses as well. The number of fallen Territory Lords in that battle was two to three times higher than that of the enemy.
Even he himself had been severely injured by a near-dead Eighth-Order Open Master. Though several hundred years had passed since that battle, he could still feel slight pain coming from his injuries whenever he thought about that scene.
In this situation, this Eighth-Order Human only had two possibilities for survival. One was activating the seal on the Ninth-Order Old Ancestor’s corpse, while the other was to flee immediately.
No matter how strong an Eighth-Order Master was, when faced with three Territory Lords, the only possible ending was death.
What shocked the taloned Territory Lord was that the somewhat excessively young-looking Eighth-Order Master didn’t reveal the slightest bit of panic since they appeared. Instead, this Human kept a saddened expression, which was naturally because of the death of his people and the destroyed Great Pass.
Under that veil of sadness, however, was endless murderous intent!
This Human clearly had no intention of activating the seal on the corpse.
The taloned Territory Lord felt his heart sink and hurriedly warned the others, “Be careful!”
Right after he said that, he saw the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master lunging at his fellow Territory Lord with a vicious expression. The Human was so fast that he left a blurred afterimage behind him, making it look like there were countless clones of him charging forward to kill.
The taloned Territory Lord felt his pupils shirk. [This speed… it’s too fast for me to interfere!]
When the big and small figures clashed, the sound of bones breaking rang out, but the expected scenario of the small Human being sent flying away did not appear. Instead, the figure being sent flying was the tall and strong fang-toothed Territory Lord. His chest had caved in, and his expression looked shocked, as if he couldn’t believe that he was not a match for his enemy in a head-on confrontation.
However, as the Territory Lord was sent flying, he still viciously punched his opponent.
Yang Kai wasn’t able to dodge that attack, or more precisely, he didn’t intend to dodge, simply lifting his arm to guard himself.
At the same moment, his other hand made a grabbing motion towards the void and the Azure Dragon Spear appeared. With a flourish of the spear, numerous Dao Strengths manifested, creating a kind of unstoppable torrent.
Following that, the long spear pierced out.
A soft, muffled sound came out, causing the taloned Territory Lord’s pupils to shrink to the size of needles as he felt the entire world suddenly freeze.
*Hong…*
At that moment, the fang-toothed Territory Lord that was sent flying out finally fell onto a ramshackle house, smashing the already toppling building to the ground.
*Drip…*
*Drip…*
Fresh blood dripped down and splashed onto the ground, creating a beautiful blood flower.
Time seemed to have stopped at this moment.
Above Azure Void Pass’s Central Square, Yang Kai held his spear with one arm, and on the spear was a curvaceous body. The spear had penetrated that figure, and black fresh blood was dripping from it.
While the different Dao Strengths intertwined, they created a strange balance above the figure pierced with the spear. However, the owner of the figure could feel that the balance was very weak and could be broken with just a slight change. Once the balance was broken, those Dao Strengths would suddenly explode, and what awaited her would be her death.
“You…” On the Azure Dragon Spear, the seductive Territory Lord looked at Yang Kai with a conflicted expression. Her eyes were wet, making her look pitiful, but she felt more disbelief than anything.
It was as if she didn’t expect that she, a Territory Lord, couldn’t even stand a single spear thrust from her opponent.
Her figure was smaller than the fang-toothed Territory Lord, so when the fang-toothed Territory Lord was charging forward, she used a Secret Technique to follow behind him and silently approach her enemy.
These three Territory Lords never thought to look down on an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, a lesson they learnt from fighting the Humans on the battlefield outside the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction and in various places throughout the vast void.
So, at that moment, though it looked like only the fang-toothed Territory Lord was attacking, it was actually a joint attack from all three Territory Lords.
The seductive Territory Lord concealed herself behind her companion, while the taloned Territory Lord intimidated the enemy with his sharp aura, distracting his attention with his focused Divine Sense.
This wasn’t the first time these three Territory Lords worked together. Back when they attacked Azure Void Pass, they used such techniques to kill several Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters.
That was why the Royal Lord had specifically left them here, because they were strong enough to deal with any dangers that might arise.
By coordinating with each other, these three hadn’t made any mistakes and could be said to be unbeatable.
However, they had encountered an anomaly this time!
The fang-toothed Territory Lord was sent flying after a head-on clash, followed by the seductive Territory Lord being run through by a spear. Meanwhile, the taloned Territory Lord’s pupils just shrank as he didn’t dare to make a move.
He could detect that the opponent still had an explosive force that had yet to be unleashed condensed inside that spear, so if he moved rashly, the seductive Territory Lord would immediately die.
Although they were shocked at how powerful this Eighth-Order Human was, they… had actually won!
The seductive Territory Lord indeed looked quite pitiful at this moment as Yang Kai’s spear was piercing her, but her efforts and sacrifices weren’t in vain as her jade hand had pierced into Yang Kai’s chest and grabbed his heart. She could feel the strong beating of his heart inside his chest in the palm of her hand!
Just by tightening her grip, she would be able to crush this Human’s heart and kill him; however, she didn’t do that. Instead, she silently looked into Yang Kai’s eyes and suddenly smiled, “You’re very strong!”
[Such a strong Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, I don’t feel like killing him anymore.]
Black Ink Strength filled the air and flowed into Yang Kai’s body. In an instant, the outside of Yang Kai’s body was surrounded by Black Ink Strength.
She was going to corrupt this strong opponent with Black Ink Strength and make him her Black Ink Disciple!
Though she was by no means weak, if she had such a strong Black Ink Disciple protecting her, her strength would more than double.
On the other hand, Yang Kai stayed put as if he were afraid of something.
The Black Ink Strength soon enveloped him, and even his eyes turned black.
[Success!]
The taloned Territory Lord, who was feeling nervous all this while, relaxed his breath as he was also reluctant to see his companion dying here. Now that the Black Ink Strength had corrupted their enemy, their side would gain a strong helper, which was undoubtedly the best outcome of this situation.
“Put me down,” the seductive Territory Lord ordered gently as if she were sweet-talking her lover.
“Yes!” Yang Kai responded.
At that moment, the seductive Territory Lord suddenly felt something wasn’t right and immediately roared before trying to tighten her grip on Yang Kai’s heart.
But before she could crust her opponent’s heart, she felt a mysterious strength suddenly erupt from inside her body. Right then, numerous Dao Strengths ran rampant, rapidly expanding the seductive Territory Lord’s curvaceous body into a ball before exploding it!
Black blood fell like rain, and pieces of flesh flew everywhere!
The seductive Territory Lord’s body exploded into a pretty-looking blood flower.
That sudden turn of events shocked the taloned Territory Lord so much that he turned pale. It was then that he realised that his enemy wasn’t afraid of being corrupted by Black Ink Strength.
At that point, Yang Kai had stealthily appeared by his side, and with a sweep of his spear, it transformed into a huge shadow that slashed down at his head.
With a roar, the taloned Territory Lord channelled his Black Ink Strength into his claws and wings, instantly turning them into weapons as he battled with Yang Kai.
Fresh blood flew everywhere from both Yang Kai and the taloned Territory Lord. The battle looked even from the outside, but the taloned Territory Lord felt his blood run cold.
After their initial clash, he knew he wasn’t a match for his opponent, and the only reason this Eighth-Order Human was being wounded was because he completely gave up defending himself to kill him faster.
In just three breaths of time, the two figures separated.
While panting heavily, the taloned Territory Lord had a shocked expression on his face while sporting hundreds of injuries of all sizes all over his body, leaving almost no place unscarred. It wouldn’t have mattered if that was all though, but these injuries all contained some strange power that affected his ability to use his Black Ink Strength, which made him continuously grow weaker.
At that moment, an angry roar sounded, and a huge figure charged over from the side and instantly appeared behind Yang Kai before spreading his arms wide and closing them while approaching Yang Kai.
It was the fang-toothed Territory Lord who had finally regained consciousness and came to help.
He was still a little confused as to why one of his companions wound up severely injured while the other died during the short moment he was knocked away.
All he knew was that he and his companions had greatly underestimated this Human Eighth-Order Master.
Just as he was about to slap his hands and crush his enemy, the fang-toothed Territory Lord suddenly felt a strange power surging in the air and surprisingly found that no matter how he tried to bring his palms together, he couldn’t shorten the distance between them. At this instant, the space between his palms seemed to be infinitely stretching.
This scene shocked him even more.
While he was distracted, the Eighth-Order Master had already disappeared, and a grunt and roar came from the other side.
Raising his head to look over, the fang-toothed Territory Lord felt his heart jump as he watched his taloned companion being madly beaten up by the Eighth-Order Master like a sandbag.
The space over there seemed warped, distorted beyond recognition, causing the two figures on the other side to appear occasionally elongated or shortened like they were reflections in a broken mirror.
Black blood spewed everywhere, and the taloned Territory Lord seemed to be unable to resist the relentless thrusts of Yang Kai’s spear. Many Principles and Dao Strengths were being activated by Yang Kai and turned into killing power.
Noticing the situation, the fang-toothed Territory Lord howled madly before dashing over to help his companion.
They came here as a trio, but now one of them was dead. If another one of them fell, they might be completely wiped out!
Having never encountered such a terrifying foe before, the fang-toothed Territory Lord thought that all the other Eighth-Order Masters they had previously killed were simply incomparable to the one before him.
Despite the fact that his aura wasn’t stronger than any of the other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, this Human had control over some various kinds of Strengths that were exceptionally difficult to deal with.
They had seen such Strengths used by other Human Masters, but those Humans would only be proficient in one to two of them, so they weren’t so difficult to counter.
There had never been a Human who could wield so many different kinds of Dao Strengths. These Strengths weren’t much on their own, but when they all intertwined in one place, they seemed to produce unpredictable effects.
After madly running halfway to help his companion, the fang-toothed Territory Lord suddenly stopped and immediately turned around before charging out of Azure Void Pass’s broken walls and into the void’s depths.
This couldn’t be helped as he saw the taloned Territory Lord’s head blown to pieces by Yang Kai before he could even arrive to offer assistance.
In just 30 breaths of time, even with three Territory Lords working together, two of them had been killed, leaving only one alive. Would he be able to keep his life if he stayed there?
Before the fang-toothed Territory Lord could escape Azure Void Pass though, he suddenly stopped and looked up with a heavy expression.
Standing tall above the crumbling walls was a figure with a long spear that was pointing down at him as black blood dripped from his hand. That figure was glaring at the fang-toothed Territory Lord with cold eyes.
That figure was the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, who was supposed to be behind him!
The fang-toothed Territory Lord felt a truly bitter taste in his mouth.
However, he soon composed himself because after killing both his companions, this Human must have also suffered severe injuries. The most obvious sign of that was the Human’s aura, which felt wavered between strong and weak, clearly indicating the other party was not in top form anymore.
[I… might be able to defeat him! I can’t let him intimidate me with his aura alone after he killed two Territory Lords. If I don’t fight, I might really die here. I can kill him! I must kill him!]
The fang-toothed Territory Lord roared as Black Ink Strength poured out of him like a tsunami, making his figure become even bulkier. With determined eyes, his aura flared to the point that it felt like he could kill the enemy with one punch, even if the one standing before him was a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.
Then, he charged at Yang Kai.
Following that, the two figures entangled together, their fight drifting from Azure Void Pass out into the void. Attacks were exchanged back and forth as the two were locked in an intense battle.
At that moment, the fang-toothed Territory Lord was indeed very happy.
He discovered that, just like what he had expected, this Eighth-Order Human’s strength really had fallen after killing his two companions. Even though the enemy was still very strong, this Human couldn’t kill him with his current strength.
Sensing this, the fang-toothed Territory Lord immediately changed tactics.
Since the opponent seemed to be fighting with all his might, wanting to end this battle as quickly as possible, he would focus on defence instead. He then decided that he would drag this battle out until the Human couldn’t hold on any longer.
An hour, six hours, half a day later…
The battle was still as intense as ever, but the fang-toothed Territory Lord didn’t feel as relaxed as before, and his expression was gradually becoming heavy.
As the battle gradually became disadvantageous for him, he was able to discover the root of the problem as well.
The strength that this Human Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was exerting was slowly increasing.
In other words, the Human was slowly becoming stronger.
[This Human… What’s wrong with him?]
The fang-toothed Territory Lord could never have expected that the opponent before him had only just broken through to Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm recently and was considered newly advanced.
Yang Kai had spent quite some time cultivating inside the Great Sea so his foundation was extremely stable and his heritage wasn’t distinguishable from veteran Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master’s, so the thought that he had only just reached this Realm was hard to imagine.
Under normal circumstances, there were two criteria for determining if an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was a veteran or newly promoted, one of them was that the heritage of that person’s Small Universe had achieved a certain threshold.
Under normal circumstances, even 2,000 years after a cultivator advanced to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, they could still not be counted as a veteran.
2,000 years was basically just sufficient for an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master to stabilise their foundation and be able to freely exert their strength.
The second criterion was one’s experience in battling and killing enemies.
No matter how strong one’s heritage was, if they didn’t have any battle experience, they would be restricted in battle and wouldn’t be able to bring out their full strength.
Among all the Human Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters on the Black Ink Battlefield, there were only a few newly advanced Eighth-Order Masters, while the rest were veterans. After they had advanced to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, they continued cultivating while simultaneously battling the Black Ink Clan, slowly training themselves to master and enhance their strength. Therefore, situations like being unable to bring out their complete strength essentially never occurred.
However, Yang Kai was an exception.
He had a breakthrough to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm inside the Temporal Rivers of the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon and then cultivated there for 2,000 years before exiting.
After Yang Kai left the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, he battled the sheep-headed Royal Lord and even decapitated him, but during that fight, he had constantly been going all out in a desperate struggle as there was a huge difference between his and the Royal Lord’s true strength, even using four Soul Rending Thorns, causing himself to become delirious due to his injured Soul. In the end, he didn’t even know how he killed the Royal Lord as he was already holding onto his head when he came to his senses.
This time, it was different.
With his current strength, a Territory Lord wasn’t too strong nor too weak, but rather just right for him to use as a polishing stone.
After he killed two Territory Lords one after the other, Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to end the third Territory Lord’s life. Instead, he wanted to borrow this Territory Lord’s strength to hone and familiarise himself with his newfound strength.
The many Grand Dao Strengths he had refined inside the Great Sea, especially, were unfamiliar to him. If he could hone them during an intense battle, Yang Kai could gain better control over them and would be able to use them more effectively.
That was why the fang-toothed Territory Lord felt that the Yang Kai’s strength was growing. Yang Kai now controlled so many Dao Strengths that he wasn’t able to skillfully wield them.
He desperately needed an opponent to battle against.
Therefore, he chose to quickly kill two Territory Lords, even if it meant getting hurt in the process.
Another half a day later, the fang-toothed Territory Lord felt despair because this battle, which started with them being on par with each other, then turned against him slightly, was now approaching the point where he was completely overwhelmed.
His heart was filled with bitterness.
The battle had now made a complete turnaround. Yang Kai’s attacks were calm and unhurried as he was still honing his strength while on the other hand, the fang-toothed Territory Lord was fighting back desperately as he knew that the longer the battle continued, the stronger his opponent would become. Once this Human had reached a certain limit, he would die.
But in battle, sometimes fighting with everything one had simply wasn’t enough.
Another half a day passed, and the fang-toothed Territory Lord’s aura had already weakened beyond recognition. His body was covered in every kind of wound imaginable, and his Black Ink Strength was leaking out from all those injuries. If this went on for much longer, there was a high likelihood that his strength would regress from that of a Territory Lord to a Feudal Lord.
At this moment, he felt envious of his two companions because at least their deaths were swift.
Meanwhile, he was like a piece of meat being slowly shaved by a dull knife, a torturous process for both his body and mind.
Knowing that he was destined to die today, the fang-toothed Territory Lord made a decision and completely gave up on defending before brazenly charging towards Yang Kai in a final, desperate struggle.
After a dozen breaths, a long spear pierced into his eye socket, and numerous Dao Strengths surged into his brain, grinding it into a paste. His originally fierce-looking expression gradually turned peaceful, feeling a sense of relief as the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
Yang Kai withdrew his spear and frowned slightly because he was quite dissatisfied with his current strength.
He didn’t consider the battle with the sheep-headed Royal Lord because he had completely lost consciousness during that fight, relying almost solely on his instincts to kill the enemy.
After the battle with these three Territory Lords, he discovered his shortcomings.
Back when he was a Seventh-Order Master, he could crush those in the same Realm without any difficulty. No matter how strong a Feudal Lord was, they were no better than children before him and had no chance of fighting back.
But now that he had advanced to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, his situation couldn’t compare to the glory he had when in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm.
During this battle, Yang Kai had paid quite a large price to kill the seductive Territory Lord and taloned Territory Lord. It was even so for the fang-toothed Territory Lord he killed last. Although he had intended to use this Territory Lord to hone his strength, the time he took to finish the latter off was less than satisfactory.
According to the intelligence he obtained during the previous crusade, these three Territory Lords were considered Innate Territory Lords, ones who were spawned directly from a High-Rank Black Ink Nest. Therefore, they were stronger than those Black Ink Clansmen who advanced to become Territory Lords through their own cultivation.
Innate Territory Lords were already the strongest among all Territory Lords.
In other words, Yang Kai might still be invincible among his peers, but was far from being able to crush those in his Realm!
But after giving it another thought, Yang Kai understood that he had only been in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm for 2,000 years, so the heritage in his Small Universe hadn’t reached anywhere near its maximum yet. Once he reached the peak of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, it wouldn’t be a problem to crush his peers.
On the other hand, he also discovered the biggest problem he was having now.
He had too many Dao Strengths under his control!
To escape from the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, he had no choice but to absorb those undercurrents, which increased his attainment in many, many different Grand Daos.
It seemed now that he had absorbed and refined too many undercurrents, so his foundation, which comprised of all the different Grand Daos, was just too broad. With the ability to wield so many Dao Strengths, it meant he had more means of dealing with different enemies, which was a good thing; however, Yang Kai was finding it difficult to integrate all these varied Dao Strengths into a coherent force. While he had comprehension of many Dao Strengths, he did not know how to harmonize them to enhance his power and could only clumsily smash them all together at the moment.
Also, he had a vague feeling that if he could properly gather all these Dao strengths into one, the power he could exert would definitely experience an Earth-shattering change.
In his current situation, he could only think about these things because, among the variety of Dao Strengths, he did have attainments in some of them, but none were comparable to his mastery of the Dao of Space, Dao of Time, and Spear Dao. How could he gather all these Dao Strengths into one when he hadn’t even comprehended the true mysteries behind them?
Even with just the Dao of Space and Dao of Time, which he had focused on cultivating over many centuries, Yang Kai still hadn’t managed to achieve a perfect fusion.
Shaking his head to clear out such distracting thoughts, Yang Kai turned to look into the distance and stared for a moment before shouting, “Come out.”
From the cover of the messy battlefield, a few figures slowly emerged from the shadows. Each of them looked at Yang Kai with shocked expressions on their faces.
They had watched the battle just now, and the scene where an Innate Territory Lord was slowly being tortured to death was quite an eye-opener for them.
“Great Evolution’s Yang Kai greets fellow Martial Brothers and Sisters!” Yang Kai bowed.
He had already discovered that people were spying on him while he was battling the fang-toothed Territory Lord and could feel that they weren’t very strong, nor were there many of them.
Clearly, they had been attracted here by the fallout from the battle.
Since these visitors kept themselves hidden nearby and showed no intention of coming out, Yang Kai couldn’t tell whether they were friends or foes.
It was not until this moment that he was certain that these observers were Humans!
“It’s Senior Brother Yang!” One of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters was elated after hearing Yang Kai announce his identity.
They were originally worried that the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master that killed those Black Ink Territory Lords might be corrupted by Black Ink Strength, which was the reason why they didn’t show themselves even after Yang Kai had killed the fang-toothed Territory Lord.
But upon learning his identity, those worries disappeared.
This couldn’t be helped, because every Human soldier in every Great Pass knew Yang Kai’s name. He was the one who brought them Purifying Light, so it was well-known he wasn’t afraid of being invaded by Black Ink Strength.
All those below the Ninth Order had the possibility of being corrupted by Black Ink Strength, but Yang Kai was an exception.
Meanwhile, the others also revealed happy expressions as they hurriedly approached Yang Kai. When they saw Yang Kai’s face, they could finally determine his identity.
Yang Kai also thought these people looked quite familiar, and after taking a closer look, he stated hesitantly, “You’re the Senior Brother who was always on guard duty at the Space Array.”
Having visited Azure Void Pass several times, Yang Kai naturally recognised the Seventh-Order Masters that guarded the Great Pass’ Hyper Space Array, and he was sure that this person before him was one of them.
That Seventh-Order Master seemed like he was about to cry from joy and choked out, “Sun Mao greets Senior Brother Yang!”
Then, Yang Kai swept his gaze over the others, and his face fell, “Are you… all that remains of the Azure Void Army?”
Sun Mao composed himself before answering, “There are a few other Fellow Brothers and Sisters, but they are currently in hiding. We came here because we sensed there was a battle happening and wanted to investigate.”
“How many of you are there?” Yang Kai asked.
Sun Mao replied in an astringent voice, “Less than 1,000…”
Feeling his face twitching slightly, Yang Kai felt as if his heart was being torn out.
Azure Void Pass should have had 30,000 Human Masters stationed here, about the same as Blue Sky Pass back then. After the attack on the Royal City in the Azure Void Theatre, they undoubtedly suffered some casualties, but there should have still been more than 20,000 troops here during the second crusade.
Less than 1,000 of the original 20,000 survived, while even the Old Ancestor died in battle. It was nothing less than tragic.
“Senior Brother Yang, are there still any Black Ink Clansmen in the Inner Sanctum?” Sun Mao asked.
Yang Kai shook his head, “I didn’t make a thorough check, but there shouldn’t be any left.”
Since the three Territory Lords hidden here had been killed, any remaining Black Ink Clansmen would have appeared by now, even if it was just to try to flee.
Hearing that, Sun Mao felt relieved, “If that’s the case, then Division Commander Huang and the others can be saved.”
Yang Kai frowned, “Why did you say that?”
Sun Mao explained, “Division Commander Huang and some Fellow Brothers and Sisters were invaded by Black Ink Strength. Since we ran out of Purifying Black Ink Pills and didn’t have access to any Purifying Light, they were unable to eliminate that Black Ink Strength. Previously, Division Commander Hai led some troops here, intending to recover the Purifying Black Ink Battleship. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any news from them since they left, so we assumed they ran into trouble.”
Quite a number of the remaining soldiers gathered here had been stained by Black Ink Strength and had been suppressing the Black Ink Strength inside their bodies over the years using various methods, but every once in a while, one of them could not hold on any longer and would have to commit suicide.
The battle 200 years ago not only destroyed Azure Void Pass, but also cut off the Humans’ supply lines. Even the Purifying Black Ink Pills and Evil Purging Divine Spears were all used up by now.
Although there were still Alchemists among their ranks, it was impossible for them to refine Spirit Pills without any Spirit Herbs or materials.
Division Commander Huang Xiong was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, so even if he was invaded by Black Ink Strength, he could still hold on for a time, but if too long passed, he would also find it difficult to cope.
Now, the only thing that could save them was the Purifying Black Ink Battleship that lay in the Inner Sanctum. Purifying Light might still be sealed inside the Battleship, so the only way they could survive was to extract it from the Great Pass.
When the Purifying Black Ink Pill was first introduced, Yang Kai did some experiments with the Alchemy Great Grandmasters of Blue Sky Pass.
That pill could indeed allow one to resist Black Ink Strength and eliminate it from their Small Universe, but only if one had not completely become a Black Ink Disciple.
The stronger the cultivator was influenced by Black Ink Strength, the more limited the effect of the Purifying Black Ink Pill.
Whenever a Human was invaded by Black Ink Strength, they would choose the most appropriate method to resolve the crisis. Before a big battle, the Human soldiers would take a Purifying Black Ink Pill, and only if they were unlucky enough to be stained by Black Ink Strength after the pill’s effects wore off would they resort to using Purifying Light.
After Azure Void Pass fell, about 1,000 soldiers were left from the original complement of 20,000 troops, and among those 1,000 soldiers, many had been invaded by Black Ink Strength.
Therefore, the Purifying Black Ink Battleship here was their only hope.
That was why Division Commander Hai Xing led some soldiers here to try to recover the Battleship, but there had been no news since they left, so Sun Mao and the others presumed that they had encountered a strong enemy and ultimately ended up dead. From this, they also surmised that there were strong enemies still occupying Azure Void Pass, which was why they were hesitant to come here all these years.
Yesterday, they felt the fallout from a great battle coming from the direction of Azure Void Pass, so Sun Mao and the others risked their lives to come over and investigate, only to personally witness Yang Kai killing the fang-toothed Territory Lord.
“Where are Division Commander Huang and the others hiding? Quickly bring me…” Yang Kai wanted to ask them to lead him there and let him help dispel the Black Ink Strength from their bodies until he suddenly remembered that he couldn’t do that anymore.
They needed Purifying Light to dispel Black Ink Strength, but to create Purifying Light, Yang Kai needed Yellow and Blue Crystals.
However, he had consumed all the Yellow and Blue Crystals he had left during his 4,000 years cultivating inside the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon…
At this moment, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling frustrated. If he had known this would happen, he would have saved some of the Yellow and Blue Crystals, but then he thought about when he was cultivating in the Temporal River. He could feel his strength increasing steadily, so how could he be willing to stop before he was forced to?
He might still be cultivating inside the Temporal River if he had more resources.
Such an opportunity was simply too rare to come by.
“Please invite Division Commander Huang and the others over. I’ll sweep Azure Void Pass to see if there are any more Black Ink Clansmen in hiding,” Yang Kai instructed them.
Sun Mao and the others were instantly elated and left in a hurry.
After they departed, Yang Kai began inspecting Azure Void Pass again. This time, he did a thorough sweep using his Divine Sense to ensure there were no more Black Ink Clansmen inside.
After an incense stick’s worth of time, Yang Kai determined that those three Territory Lords he just killed were the only Black Ink Clansmen stationed here.
But that wasn’t strange. This Great Pass had already been thoroughly destroyed, so it was impossible that the Black Ink Clan would pay much attention to this place. Moreover, three Territory Lords were posted here mainly to prevent any Humans from coming over to retrieve Azure Void Pass’s Old Ancestor’s corpse.
With three Innate Territory Lords working together, they could handle most situations, when there was no Old Ancestor.
The Division Commander Hai that Sun Mao mentioned might have fallen at the hands of those three Territory Lords.
After finishing his inspection, Yang Kai returned to the central square and bowed again to the Old Ancestor before carefully storing his corpse and the now hornless Ox Monster in his Small Universe.
Immediately after that, he came to where the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was. This Warship was severed in two, but fortunately, the place storing the Purifying Light and Universe Array weren’t too severely damaged; otherwise, the Universe Array wouldn’t have responded to Yang Kai when he used the Universe Transference Law.
The question now was whether the Purifying Light inside had all leaked out. Technically speaking, Purifying Light was just another kind of energy. When designing the original Purifying Black Ink Battleship, Yang Kai had joined forces with several Array Masters to create a sealed space that would ensure the Purifying Light would not leak out.
As for getting in and out of that space, they could use a Space Array.
Now that the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was heavily damaged, if the formations inside were also affected, even if it were a minor flaw, the Purifying Light sealed inside would all eventually flow out and dissipate.
Yang Kai prayed silently for that not to be the case. Since he no longer had any Yellow and Blue Crystals, he couldn’t create more Purifying Light, so if the Purifying Black Ink Battleship no longer had any, Division Commander Huang and the others would fall into a difficult situation.
Standing on the deck, Yang Kai checked the Space Array and found it to be slightly damaged, so he quickly went about repairing it.
In less than half a day, the Space Array was fixed, and Yang Kai stood above it before trying to activate it. He felt relieved and lucky that the Space Array inside of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was intact; otherwise, he didn’t know how he was going to get inside.
The light of the array flashed, and Yang Kai was instantly transported inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship’s main cabin. After giving it a good look, the hope inside him disappeared.
The interior of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was clearly damaged, meaning the seal was broken and there was no longer any Purifying Light.
Moreover, there was a Black Ink Clan corpse here…
When the Black Ink Clan attacked Azure Void Pass, they must have discovered that the Purifying Black Ink Battleship looked different from other Human Warships, so they naturally investigated it.
This dead Black Ink Clansman must be the one who went inside to probe the situation, instantly falling into this space that was filled with Purifying Light. Like an ant that fell into a pot of boiling oil, the Black Ink Clan let out a final attack before dying and damaged the Arrays from the inside, causing the leakage of Purifying Light.
Gnashing his teeth, Yang Kai teleported back outside.
Since the Purifying Black Ink Battleship no longer had any Purifying Light, and he couldn’t produce any, Purifying Black Ink Pills were their last hope.
Now, Yang Kai could only hope that the survivors weren’t too heavily invaded by Black Ink Strength, or else the Purifying Black Ink Pills wouldn’t have much effect on them.
Since the introduction of the Purifying Black Ink Pill, every Great Pass had been mass refining them and would distribute them to all soldiers before a battle.
With a World Tree Clone in his Small Universe and the ability to cast Purifying Light, Yang Kai naturally did not need Purifying Black Ink Pills, so he did not have any on him.
However, he was the one who found the remnant recipe for the Purifying Black Ink Pill, while it was later completed by the Great Grandmaster Alchemists of Blue Sky Pass, so it wasn’t hard for Yang Kai to refine them.
Moreover, he didn’t lack Spirit Herbs. Back when he was still stationed at Blue Sky Pass, Yang Kai had planted large numbers of the herbs necessary to refine Purifying Black Ink Pills in the medicine garden in his Small Universe, leaving his two Wood Spirit helpers to look after them. Over 4,000 years had passed since then for Yang Kai, while time in his Small Universe flowed several times faster than that, so now there was an abundance of all kinds of Spirit Herbs, Flowers, and Fruits in his medicine garden. He had even stockpiled over 1,000 Profound Yin Spirit Fruits, which were normally so rare and in demand that there was never any in stock in the various Great Passes.
Understanding what needed to be done, Yang Kai took out an Alchemy Furnace and got to work.
He had essentially abandoned the Alchemic Dao after ascending to the Open Heaven Realm, but with his experience in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, his mastery of the Alchemic Dao had actually improved greatly.
Though he hadn’t reached the level of Great Grandmaster, or even Grandmaster, Purifying Black Ink Pills weren’t too difficult to refine, so his current skill was more than sufficient.
One furnace of Purifying Black Ink Pills was soon produced, and Yang Kai immediately started on the next. Before this second batch was finished, Sun Mao and the others had already led the 1,000 or so remnant soldiers over.
It had been more than 200 years since they last stepped into Azure Void Pass, so those soldiers who wouldn’t even frown in the face of death all had teary eyes.
Looking at the Inner Sanctum and the gruesome battlefield reminded them of the bloody battle they had fought here 200 years ago, causing them to feel quite emotional.
The one in the lead was a middle-aged man with a stout figure and a firm gait. His face was fair and without a beard while his expression looked fierce without appearing angry. However, the man saw Yang Kai was in the middle of refining pills, so he stayed far back to not disturb him.
This man had an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation and was the only Eighth-Order Master among the bunch. It was obvious he was the Division Commander named Huang Xiong Sun Mao mentioned before.
They didn’t come forward, so Yang Kai bowed and greeted them first, “Great Evolution Army’s Yang Kai greets Division Commander Huang and Fellow Brothers and Sisters.”
Huang Xiong’s eyes lit up, “Martial Nephew, your name has spread far and wide. I only found out today that not only do you have superb combat capabilities, but you also have high attainments in the Alchemic Dao. How remarkable.”
He didn’t come forward to disturb Yang Kai just now because he was afraid he might disturb the latter, causing him to fail the refinement of the batch of pills he was currently working on, but when he saw Yang Kai appearing at ease while continuing to refine pills, even greeting them, it showed that he obviously had quite some skill in the Dao of Alchemy.
Squeezing out a smile, Yang Kai shook his head, “Division Commander Huang is too polite. I just finished a furnace of Purifying Black Ink Pills. Please distribute them to the others.”
Although it was a happy thing to reunite with his fellow comrades, the current situation made it hard for Yang Kai to truly smile.
He swept his gaze over the 1,000 soldiers before him and found that many of them had been stained by Black Ink Strength. Even Huang Xiong had a faint Black Ink Strength lingering around the surface of his body, and while they were talking, there was even a trace of darkness flashing in the depths of his eyes.
That was an obvious sign of being seriously invaded by Black Ink Strength. If left unattended, it was only a matter of time before Huang Xiong would be entirely corrupted.
Of course, he wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen because he would either end his own life or sacrifice part of his Small Universe before then.
Huang Xiong came forward and received the Purifying Black Ink Pills that had just been refined before casually tossing them to the soldiers behind him. As for him, he sat cross-legged beside Yang Kai and silently watched him refine pills.
A while later, Huang Xiong finally spoke up, “Inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship…”
With a slow shake of his head, Yang Kai replied, “The Black Ink Clan sent someone inside to investigate and they damaged the Sealing Arrays. The Purifying Light has all leaked out.”
Although Huang Xiong had already guessed this outcome when he first saw Yang Kai, he still sighed heavily after getting confirmation, “I shouldn’t have let Senior Brother Hai come over. They lost their lives for nothing.”
There were already not many Masters among the survivors here, and the only surviving Eighth-Order Masters were him and Division Commander Hai. More than 10 years ago, when Division Commander Hai brought some soldiers to Azure Void Pass to salvage the Purifying Black Ink Battleship but never returned, Huang Xiong understood that Division Commander Hai must have fallen at the hands of the Black Ink Clan.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai stayed silent because he didn’t know what to say.
Huang Xiong suddenly asked, “Martial Nephew, did you encounter some kind of opportunity? When did you advance to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm?”
As far as he knew, Yang Kai was a Seventh-Order Master who had broken through less than 1,000 years ago.
But looking at him now, not only did Yang Kai break through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he even managed to kill three Innate Territory Lords above Azure Void Pass all on his own.
Only the strongest, most veteran Eighth-Order Masters might be capable of such a feat. Although it seemed like Yang Kai suffered some serious injuries in the process, it didn’t seem to affect him at all as he was casually refining pills here, which surprised Huang Xiong greatly.
After asking, Huang Xiong realized his question was somewhat rude and intrusive, so he added, “If you find it inconvenient to tell me, you can take it as if I never asked.”
Since this matter was related to a cultivator’s personal secrets, it was inappropriate to pry into it.
Shaking his head, Yang Kai replied, “There’s nothing inconvenient about it. I indeed managed to break through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm because I met with an opportunity.” He then stopped for a moment before continuing, “Division Commander Huang, how long has it been since the battle at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction?”
Huang Xiong looked at him strangely. Though he didn’t know why Yang Kai would ask such a question, he still answered honestly, “It’s been 512 years.”
“512 years…” Yang Kai raised an eyebrow. The actual time was somewhat different from his estimations, but the difference wasn’t too big.
Back at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, the hardest thing to estimate was how long had passed in the outside world for he had spent some 4,000 years in and out of numerous Temporal Rivers which all had different ratios for the flow of time.
However, he could clearly account for part of that time.
He had spent about 100 years searching for Temporal Rivers to cultivate in, and after deciding to leave, he used up almost 200 years to escape from the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
With that in mind, and with the information from Huang Xiong, it seemed the time he spent cultivating inside the Temporal Rivers was just about 200 years as well.
Though only 200 years had passed in the outside world, Yang Kai actually spent 4,000 years cultivating, which meant that the average rate of time flow inside the Temporal Rivers was 20 times that of the outside world, which was actually much higher than he expected.
After composing himself, Yang Kai used a Pill Condensing Technique to collect the furnace of Spirit Pills before handing them to Huang Xiong. This time, Huang Xiong ate one before passing the rest to the soldiers behind him.
With a slightly complicated expression, Yang Kai explained, “Division Commander Huang, while 512 years passed in the outside world, I’ve actually been cultivating in a certain place for over 4,000 years.
Huang Xiong was taken aback, “4,000 years? How is that…”
Following that, he suddenly thought of something and asked, “A Temporal River?”
It was obvious that he had heard rumours about Temporal Rivers in the past; therefore, if there was any place in this Universe that could allow Yang Kai to have such a strange encounter, that was the only possibility.
Rumour had it that time flowed faster inside Temporal Rivers compared to the outside world, allowing one to cultivate inside for 10 or even 100 years while only a single year passed by in the rest of the Universe.
Many Open Heaven Realm Masters had heard these rumours, yet the overwhelming majority had never seen a Temporal River for themselves, much less used one.
If that were true, it wasn’t a surprise that Yang Kai was able to break through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm so quickly.
Yang Kai’s aptitude was clearly exceptional as well, seeing how high his strength had risen in just 4,000 years.
Nodding, Yang Kai answered, “It was a Temporal River. Outside the Primordial Heavens Source Restriction, I was targeted by a Royal Lord. All of the Old Ancestors and Eighth-Order Division Commanders had their own enemies to face, so with no other option, I could only try to escape. Originally, my plan was to pass through the Late Ancient Era Battlefield and head for the No-Return Pass to seek help from the Dragon and Phoenix Clans to deal with that Royal Lord, but my plans went astray and I became lost along the way…”
Even though Huang Xiong was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master with a calm nature, he couldn’t help but want to chuckle after hearing Yang Kai say he actually got lost.
When one’s strength had reached the Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, with a Universe Chart in hand, they could freely roam throughout the vast void without ever getting lost.
However, the Black Ink Battlefield was too vast, and the region beyond the Royal Cities was completely uncharted territory, so becoming lost wasn’t actually that surprising.
It was especially so with Yang Kai’s situation, where a Royal Lord was chasing him, so it made sense that he got flustered and lost his way.
Then, Yang Kai began talking about the dense fog Celestial Phenomenon and how he repeatedly escaped from the grasp of the sheep-headed Royal Lord before encountering the mysterious Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.
When Huang Xiong took all of this in, his eyes brightened as an excited expression appeared on his face.
Yang Kai could see that the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon was a very valuable place, so naturally, Huang Xiong could as well.
Within the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, many undercurrents hid several kinds of Martial Domains that evolved from the purest form of Grand Dao Essences. Absorbing and refining even one compatible undercurrent could save a cultivator tens, if not hundreds of years of hard cultivation, not to mention the existence of so many Temporal Rivers. To an Open Heaven Realm Master, Temporal Rivers were a shortcut to a higher Martial Dao on a path that wasn’t supposed to have any shortcuts.
“Where is this Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon? Can you still find it?” Huang Xiong asked.
With a nod, Yang Kai answered, “I’ve left markers along my way here and arranged a hidden Universe Array at its outskirts, so finding it again shouldn’t be difficult.”
Huang Xiong was excited, “Great! Such a treasure will surely be helpful to us Humans in the future.”
But after expressing his excitement, his mood immediately turned gloomy. For now, they couldn’t head to the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, because the Human Race wasn’t in a good situation.
“What was the result of the battle at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction? How was Azure Void Pass destroyed to such an extent?” Now that Yang Kai had answered Huang Xiong’s questions, he asked some of his own.
Back then, Yang Kai was targeted by the sheep-headed Royal Lord not long after the battle had begun and was forced to escape from the battlefield, so he had no idea what actually happened afterwards.
Huang Xiong sighed heavily, “That battle… was our Human Race’s loss!”
Hearing that, Yang Kai felt his heart sink.
Actually, he had already guessed this outcome because if the Humans had won, Azure Void Pass wouldn’t be in such a state.
“The Black Ink Giant Spirit God?” Yang Kai asked in a deep voice.
If there was one variable on the battlefield outside the Primordial Heavens Source Restriction, it would be the Black Ink Giant Spirit God. Before the battle, Mo, the ancient Supreme Master, kept trying its best to maintain balance on the battlefield, which was why there were never more Royal Lords leaving the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction than there were Old Ancestors.
It was like Mo wasn’t interested in defeating the Humans, but rather fully intended to maintain the balance between the two sides.
In the beginning, no matter whether it was the Humans or Cang, no one could understand Mo’s intentions.
But when the Black Ink Giant Spirit God appeared, everything became clear.
The corpses of the Black Ink Clansmen that died in battle had left behind a massive amount of Black Ink Strength, and all of that became a huge help to the Black Ink Giant Spirit God. Moreover, the Black Ink Giant Spirit God had pried open the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction from the inside in order to free itself. In fact, if Cang hadn’t fused his body with the restriction to trigger the hidden hand that Mu had left behind, sealing the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction and forcing Mo into a deep slumber, the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction might have been torn open then and there and Mo would have been set free.
If such a scenario had come to pass, the Human Race wouldn’t have just lost the battle, they would have been wiped out.
Fortunately, Mo was rendered unconscious and the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction was sealed up in the end.
The number of Royal Lords on the field was actually lower than the number of Ninth-Order Masters, for the Territory Lords, the Eighth-Order Masters could deal with them, and for the Feudal Lords and below, the Humans actually held the advantage. However, the Humans still lost that battle, so there was only one possible reason, which was that the Black Ink Giant Spirit God was just too powerful!
When Yang Kai was escaping, he noticed a scene where several Old Ancestors worked together to suppress the Black Ink Giant Spirit God; otherwise, the sheep-headed Royal Lord wouldn’t have had the time to deal with him.
He had only caught a quick glance, but what he saw was that those Old Ancestors were already stretched to their limit just dealing with the Black Ink Spirit God whose lower half had been cut off by the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction when it abruptly closed. How strong would a complete Black Ink Giant Spirit God be?
Huang Xiong nodded gravely, “It was the Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods! If there had been only one, though the Humans would still have had a hard battle, we would still have had a chance to emerge victorious. However, another one of those monsters appeared!”
Yang Kai’s pupils contracted, “There were two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods?”
[Where did it come from? Before the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction was sealed, there was only one Black Ink Giant Spirit God; in fact, it was only half of one since the Grand Restriction sheared him in two, so where did the second one come from? Could it be that the Grand Restriction re-opened?]
Contrary to Yang Kai’s worries, Huang Xiong slowly explained, “I don’t know where the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God came from either, it just suddenly appeared from behind the Army and instantly destroyed a Great Pass, signalling our defeat!”
“From behind the Army?” Yang Kai was instantly dumbfounded.
[Why would there be a Black Ink Giant Spirit God that came out from behind the Army?]
Although Mo clearly created the Black Ink Giant Spirit God in the image of the true Giant Spirit God Clan, the Black Ink Giant Spirit God wasn’t much different in terms of strength and ability.
If such a behemoth were to launch an ambush from behind the Army, it would be impossible for the Humans to react in time.
Suddenly, Yang Kai thought of something and asked, “Did the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God appear from the direction of the Late Ancient Era battlefield?”
Huang Xiong nodded, “Indeed! “
Yang Kai took a breath, “I probably know the origin of the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God.”
Huang Xiong was stunned, “You do?”
He still couldn’t figure out how a second Black Ink Giant Spirit God appeared. Even the Azure Void Pass Old Ancestor couldn’t deduce anything after hundreds of years of pondering the issue, so how could Yang Kai uncover the truth after just hearing about it.
Yang Kai said solemnly, “If I’m not mistaken, it came out of the Late Ancient Era battlefield. During the second crusade, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao and I encountered a true Giant Spirit God…”
Along the path Great Evolution Pass travelled to reach the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, Yang Kai saw a Giant Spirit God who was rampaging across the Late Ancient Era battlefield, holding a huge bone club, seemingly fighting a swarm of invisible enemies.
At that time, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao went to investigate with him, and they were almost accidentally smashed by that Giant Spirit God.
From their observations at the time, the two of them speculated that the Giant Spirit God had already died in battle; however, it seemed the Giant Spirit God Clan, despite being childlike and innocent, possessed truly indomitable Wills that even in death were able to maintain the instinct to fight on. That Giant Spirit God had probably been rushing across that battlefield for millions of years even after perishing so long ago.
Yang Kai was deeply moved at the time, believing that the Giant Spirit God’s obsession was with trying to save its friends and allies rather than killing the enemy, because with the strength of a Giant Spirit God, while there might be some enemies it could not defeat, there was no enemy it could not escape from. The fact that it died in battle meant it had chosen to remain behind and keep fighting.
However, now it seemed his speculations back then were incorrect and that Giant Spirit God was not at all what he suspected.
That Giant Spirit God was probably also a Black Ink Giant Spirit God which was created by Mo a long time ago, possibly even before it was trapped by Cang and the other Martial Ancestors in the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction.
When the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction was opened this time, Mo must have used some unknown method to revive that Black Ink Giant Spirit God in the Late Ancient Era battlefield and directed it to attack the Human Army from behind!
Although he had not personally witnessed that battle, Yang Kai could still imagine how desperate and helpless the Humans must have felt when that second Black Ink Giant Spirit God set foot on the battlefield!
Originally, the Old Ancestors had a slight advantage over the Royal Lords, but the first Black Ink Giant Spirit God occupied at least a dozen Ninth-Order Masters, flipping that advantage on its head. When the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God appeared, it was like the Black Ink Clan suddenly received a dozen more Royal Lords as reinforcements, with no one capable of stopping it!
Once that second Black Ink Giant Spirit God started rampaging, what could be done to stop it?
In such a vast yet almost even battle, even the smallest breakthrough could result in a chain reaction that completely tipped the scales of war, much less the intrusion of a being as powerful as a Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
Huang Xiong was stunned when he heard this and couldn’t help asking, “Are you saying that the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God was the one you saw before?”
Yang Kai nodded, “Other than that, there is no other possibility.”
Huang Xiong was speechless as sorrow filled his heart.
After a long while, Huang Xiong finally spoke up, “The two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods attacked us from both front and back, destroying a few Great Passes in the opening moments of the battle. The Old Ancestors had no choice but to order us to retreat from the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction to preserve our strength. The Black Ink Clan naturally didn’t just let us go, so their Army pursued us under the lead of the Royal Lords…”
During the bloody battle in the void, the two races both suffered serious casualties.
Meanwhile, the two raging Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods were constantly causing havoc.
In such a situation, even the Old Ancestors weren’t able to reverse the declining trend.
While they were retreating, the two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods destroyed several more Great Passes, and though most of the Humans inside those Great Passes managed to escape in time, there were still a significant number of casualties.
The situation had taken a turn for the worst, and even if the Human Army and the others from all the Great Passes managed to reorganize themselves, they were still facing annihilation.
Therefore, the Old Ancestors had a rapid discussion and decided that the remaining Great Passes would split up into several groups and retreat separately.
The group to which Azure Void Pass belonged to was particularly unlucky as they were targeted by the Black Ink Giant Spirit God that came from the Late Ancient Era Battlefield. Besides that Black Ink Giant Spirit God, there were nearly 20 Royal Lords and large numbers of Territory Lords and Feudal Lords within the pursuing Black Ink Clan Army.
If the Humans didn’t think of a way to escape from the Black Ink Giant Spirit God, it would be impossible for them to escape using this route.
At the critical moment, Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor split off from the main group in order to lure the Black Ink Giant Spirit God away. Naturally, the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t give up on chasing the Humans so easily, so the Black Ink Clan Army surrounded the Humans from different sides under the lead of the Black Ink Giant Spirit God and Royal Lords.
That struggle lasted for nearly 300 years. It was only 200 years ago that Azure Void Pass’ casualties reached a breaking point where too many Eighth-Order Masters had fallen, making it impossible for them to flee anymore. As such, they made a last stand against the Black Ink Clan.
The result was clear and required no other explanation.
Azure Void Pass was destroyed, and the Old Ancestor couldn’t resist the joint assault of several Royal Lords and ultimately died in battle.
The huge holes on the walls around the Great Pass were made by the huge bone club of the Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
From that moment, Azure Void Pass, which had been guarding the Black Ink Battlefield for millions of years, met with total defeat, ending its magnificent history.
More than 20,000 soldiers had guarded this place, yet less than 1,000 remained after the nearly 300-year battle. Azure Void Pass could be said to be almost entirely wiped out!
Among the less than 1,000 remnant soldiers, many had been stained by Black Ink Strength and were constantly at risk of falling. Moreover, because their supplies had been completely used up, most of those corrupted soldiers had to sacrifice themselves just so that they wouldn’t become Black Ink Disciples and bring more trouble to their fellow survivors. This situation was just like Meng Qi’s, the Seventh-Order Master Yang Kai met when he first arrived at the Black Ink Battlefield.
Meng Qi was the first Open Heaven Realm Master Yang Kai had met that had the courage to give his life for the Human Race!
Back then, Yang Kai felt greatly touched by this selfless sacrifice.
In the 3,000 Worlds, Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivators were true Masters who were only found in the Cave Heavens and Paradises, making them all but invincible and untouchable.
However, on the Black Ink Battlefield, such a Master willingly ended his life without any hesitation in order to protect the secret of the Void Corridor leading to Black Territory.
It could be said that the Human Race was able to endure until today because there were millions of Humans like Meng Qi who sacrificed their blood, sweat, and even lives to protect the 3,000 Worlds.
Such bravery should be respected by all.
The remnant soldiers of Azure Void Pass didn’t leave this place but instead found a dead Universe and silently hid inside. For one, they knew they might not be able to survive if they left, and two, Azure Void Pass was taken from their hands, so they still wished to take it back, even if their chances were slim at best.
Their wait lasted nearly 200 years and finally ended when Yang Kai arrived yesterday.
While they were waiting for an opportunity to re-take what they had lost, they also looked for a way to solve their troubles of being corrupted by Black Ink Strength and tried to salvage a derelict Purifying Black Ink Battleship; however, after the disappearance of the Eighth-Order Master named Hai Xing who led that effort, the rest didn’t dare to act rashly.
If Yang Kai had arrived just half a year later, the remnant soldiers of Azure Void Pass would have launched a last-ditch attack under Huang Xiong’s lead.
Even if they couldn’t get Azure Void Pass back, they would rather die with the Great Pass than linger on in disgrace!
While they spoke, Huang Xiong’s body suddenly expelled a dense cloud of Black Ink Strength. It was a sign of the Purifying Black Ink Pill taking effect.
Purifying Black Ink Pills were effective as long as a cultivator had not been entirely turned into a Black Ink Disciple. The less Black Ink Strength in them, the better their situation would be, and the more effective the pill was. Therefore, Purifying Black Ink Pills were usually taken prophylactically.
A short while later, Huang Xiong had dispelled all the Black Ink Strength in his body and let out a long sigh of relief.
It had been difficult for him to keep suppressing the corruption of the Black Ink Strength, but now, that problem was completely solved.
Yang Kai looked at Huang Xiong and asked, “Division Commander Huang, did you previously sacrifice part of your Small Universe?”
Yang Kai hadn’t paid attention to it at first, but he now noticed that Huang Xiong’s aura was quite unstable. It felt like his Order would regress at any moment. That was a clear sign that the latter’s Small Universe was damaged.
On the Black Ink Battlefield, such a situation only occurred when one was forced to sacrifice a large portion of their Small Universe.
Huang Xiong nodded, “This is already the second time I was invaded by Black Ink Strength. I was able to sacrifice part of my Small Universe to save myself the first time, but this time… I did not have the option to do so again.”
His aura was already fluctuating unstably, so if he sacrificed part of his Small Universe again, he would definitely regress into the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm.
Under other circumstances, Huang Xiong would not have hesitated to sacrifice part of his Small Universe to purge the Black Ink Strength’s corruption from himself, but he was the last Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master among the remnant soldiers of Azure Void Pass, so his strength was indispensable for their survival. Without a powerful Master to lead them, this rag-tag band of soldiers’ fate would be sealed.
Huang Xiong wasn’t the only one who was concerned about such a possibility because everyone among the 1,000 or so remnants that were stained with Black Ink Strength had similar thoughts. None of them was unwilling to sacrifice their Small Universe, they simply felt it was better to retain as much strength as possible to launch one final attack on the Black Ink Clan!
Meanwhile, Yang Kai knew of Huang Xiong’s worries without needing him to explain anything.
With a slight nod, Yang Kai retrieved a Profound Yin Spirit Fruit and gave it to Huang Xiong, “Division Commander Huang, refine this.”
Just as Huang Xiong was about to refuse when he saw Yang Kai take out several dozen more Profound Yin Spirit Fruits and called out to Sun Mao, “Senior Brother Sun, please distribute these fruits to those with damaged Small Universes.”
Sun Mao agreed and happily came forward to accept the fruits.
Noticing the situation, Huang Xiong didn’t refuse anymore and readily took one for himself. Despite not having any more troubles with Black Ink Strength, the amount of strength he could exert now was at best on par with a newly promoted Eighth-Order Master. If he could repair his Small Universe, his strength would increase significantly.
After all, he was originally a veteran Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.
Having suffered hundreds of years of hardships and torment, these soldiers finally attained a moment of peace and could finally dispel Black Ink Strength plaguing them and restore their Small Universes.
Sun Mao came forward and whispered to Yang Kai, “Senior Brother, I would like to lead a few people to gather the bodies of our fallen Brothers and Sisters. Might I trouble you to stand guard here?”
Nodding, Yang Kai agreed, “Of course. Go ahead.”
Even if Sun Mao hadn’t mentioned this, Yang Kai had also planned to spend some time helping to gather the remains of the fallen Azure Void Pass soldiers. These soldiers had all died in battle and deserved to be laid to rest with dignity rather than simply being left in the nameless void to rot.
Receiving permission, Sun Mao quickly led a few others away to carry out the task.
A month later, the interior and exterior of Azure Void Pass had been cleaned out. All the bodies of fallen soldiers they could bring back were buried in the restored Cemetery. Then, Sun Mao and the others found a way to dispose of the corpses of Black Ink Clansmen and the remaining Black Ink Strength in the nearby void.
Inside the Core Hall of Azure Void Pass, Huang Xiong led Yang Kai to investigate the situation.
Since he had consumed a Profound Yin Spirit Fruit and repaired his Small Universe, Huang Xiong was no longer at risk of regressing to a lower Order, but he still needed some time to cultivate to restore his strength to its peak.
Now that Azure Void Pass was rid of its external enemies, the two of them needed to think about what they had to do next.
Of course, there was only one idea that came to mind, which was to head towards the No-Return Pass!
There must still be a Heaven-shaking war happening there!
Although it had been hundreds of years, both of them weren’t sure whether the Black Ink Clan had captured the No-Return Pass; therefore, they needed to head over and take a look for themselves in order to be sure.
With two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods and dozens of Royal Lords, there was no telling whether the Divine Spirits headed by the Dragon and Phoenix Clans would be enough to withstand the enemy.
Perhaps the No-Return Pass had already been defeated.
But the 3,000 Worlds were everyone’s homeland after all, and they all had to return there at some point.
Great Evolution Pass had a Core, so Azure Void Pass naturally had to have one too. In fact, every Great Pass had its own Core, which was placed in the most central location in each Great Pass. Moreover, every Great Pass was only able to function as a Mobile Palace Artifact and engage in a crusade because of the existence of its Core.
These Cores were the crystallisation of the wisdom of Great Experts from the Early Ancient Era.
After a thorough investigation, Huang Xiong discovered that a strong force had shattered Azure Void Pass’ Core, and from the lingering aura, he determined that it was the Old Ancestor’s doing.
Seeing that Azure Void Pass was lost, the Old Ancestor must have shattered the Core at the last moment, preventing the possibility of the Black Ink Clan causing more trouble to the Human Race after gaining Azure Void Pass.
Yang Kai’s accomplishments in Dao of Artifact Refining and Dao of Spirit Arrays were quite profound now, but it was still completely beyond his capabilities to refine a new Core.
Moreover, even if he was able to refine a new Core, there were nowhere near enough soldiers in Azure Void Pass to power it.
During the Great Evolution Army’s crusade, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao personally controlled the Core while 30 Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters worked together with her to power it.
Now, the only Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters here were Huang Xiong and Yang Kai, so it was impossible for them to even activate a Core if they sank all their strength into it.
Huang Xiong also understood this. It was never his intention to regain Azure Void Pass but instead to simply retrieve the Core for possible future use.
Since the Old Ancestor had shattered the Core though, he could only discard this plan.
“There are 935 of us in total, so although it will be cramped, one Purifying Black Ink Battleship should be able to fit everyone. I need a few who are skilled in Artifact Refining and arranging Spirit Arrays to assist me. Please help me arrange that, Division Commander Huang.”
Huang Xiong nodded, “Then I shall have to trouble you, Division Commander Yang.”
On the Black Ink Battlefield, once a cultivator reached the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, they were qualified to become a Division Commander. Though no Old Ancestor or Army Commander had appointed Yang Kai to such a position, the situation was different now, so it was normal for Huang Xiong to address Yang Kai as Division Commander.
If they wanted to head towards the No-Return Pass, they couldn’t only rely on just the few soldiers they had here. A Warship was necessary to maximise the strength of the Fifth and Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters among them and reduce their consumption in battle.