According to ancient stories, The Sun’s Burning Light and Moon’s Serene Glimmer were the ancestors of all Divine Spirits. The various Divine Spirits only appeared after these two, followed by the Primordial Era and the glorious days when Divine Spirits ruled the Universe.
During that era, all sorts of different Divine Spirits were found throughout the 3,000 Worlds.
It was a pity that a brutal war that went on for millennia caused the extinction of many Divine Spirit Clans. Today, only a handful of Divine Spirits remained, and many of those Divine Spirits that managed to survive were on the verge of disappearing. The undeniable fact was that Divine Spirits were incredibly powerful, and every Mature Divine Spirit was equivalent to a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master at least. What’s more, all they needed to do was constantly refine their bloodline, and their strength would increase until one day they stood on par with Ninth-Order Old Ancestors, if not higher.
However, according to the information Yang Kai received from Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan, the rumour about them being the first ancestors was made up. Since they first gained sentience, the only matter that had concerned them was deciding who was the Elder Sibling; moreover, Yang and Yin were counteracting forces, so how could they produce so many Divine Spirits?
The only real joint creation of these two Supreme Beings was when Yang Kai used the Great Sun and Moon Marks to fuse their power to create Purifying Light, which was the most effective method the Humans currently had to restrain Black Ink Strength.
Before Purifying Light appeared, the only thing that could restrain Black Ink Strength was the power of Divine Spirits. Of course, the Divine Spirits’ power wasn’t as effective as Purifying Light, but it was still far better than what mere Humans were capable of.
Ancestral Strength from the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land was particularly good at this and could be thought of as a purer, stronger version of the Divine Spirits’ Power. At the end of the Early Ancient Era, a Black Ink Giant Spirit God was suppressed and sealed in the Demon Sealing Land by the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress of that generation with the help of the Sacred Treasures from 16 powerful Divine Spirit Clans and more than half of the Ancestral Strength of the Ancestral Land. After so many years, even the Black Ink Strength inside that Black Ink Giant Spirit God had been continuously ground away by the Ancestral Strength.
When Yang Kai opened the Demon Sealing Land back then, the Black Ink Giant Spirit God was only an empty husk. If Mo’s Soul Clone hadn’t been injected into the dead Black Ink Giant Spirit God, it would have been impossible for it to be revived.
The Primordial Light was the opposite of the initial darkness, and both the Burning Light and Serene Glimmer were separated from it. That was why the combination of Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan’s strength could perfectly counter Black Ink Strength.
If that were true though, why could the Divine Spirits also resist Black Ink Strength? Did the Divine Spirits really have no connection with the Primordial Light?
Now, the Divine Spirits were on the brink of extinction, and there weren’t many of them still alive. Only a few Divine Spirit Clans were left, but even they were no longer as glorious as they were during the Primordial Era. However, the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land endured, so even if Big Sister Lan didn’t suggest this to Yang Kai, he was already preparing to head over there as he might find some clues.
The Shattered Heaven was the land of exile in the 3,000 Worlds. It was where the wicked gathered, so there had been all sorts of characters living there in the past.
Back then, those Open Heaven Realm Masters who wanted to break through to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm, but weren’t from any Cave Heaven and Paradise would head to the Shattered Heaven. That was because even the Cave Heavens and Paradises couldn’t control that place.
They could peacefully break through to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm without having to worry about being besieged by the Masters from the Cave Heavens and Paradises.
Of course, looking back now, the Cave Heavens and Paradises did have the ability to wipe clean and control the Shattered Heaven, they simply chose not to because the world needed a place to hide its dirty and dark secrets.
Even though the 3,000 Worlds was a vast and endless place, it couldn’t be entirely clean. Order and chaos were like light and dark, impossible to exist on their own. Everything had a positive and negative side, and both sides relied on each other to survive.
Deep inside the Shattered Heaven was the Divine Ability Sea, which was placed there by Great Experts near the end of the Early Ancient Era to surround the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. It was a natural barrier and also an invisible cage.
At this moment, Yang Kai was standing outside the Divine Ability Sea and could see a huge, safe passageway that led straight to the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land.
This pathway was obviously the one the Black Ink Giant Spirit God opened when it emerged from the Ancestral Land.
This made things easy for Yang Kai as he didn’t need to deal with the Divine Ability Sea now.
Taking one step after another, Yang Kai strode forward, and with the help of Space Principles, each step carried him 100,000 kilometres further.
Soon, Yang Kai passed through that pathway and arrived at the Ancestral Land.
The Ancestral Land was a vast World that was filled with an ancient aura. If one were to say the Myriad Monsters World had barely managed to retain the aura of the Early Ancient Era, the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land could be said to have perfectly preserved the Primordial Era’s environment without the slightest change.
Counting this trip as well, Yang Kai had visited the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land three times.
The first time was when Cheng Yang chased him here. He was escaping with a female Seventh-Order Master named Xia Lin Lang, and they accidentally barged into this place. Perhaps it was because he had a Dragon Clan Bloodline that he was able to arrive here alive as, back then, Yang Kai was only a Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.
The second time was when he came to prevent an Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciple from reviving the Black Ink Giant Spirit God. Unfortunately, he was too late and was forced to personally kill a respected Senior, Lu An. Then, he personally witnessed the revival of the Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
That Black Ink Giant Spirit God was the one that charged out of the Demon Sealing Land to the Ancestral Land and then out through the Shattered Heaven before arriving at the Barren Territory Battlefield.
This was Yang Kai’s third visit to this place.
During his first visit, though he had a potent Dragon Vein, he wasn’t a Pureblood Dragon Clan member. During the second visit, all his focus had been on the Black Ink Giant Spirit God, so he didn’t have any spare attention to investigate this place.
But this time, he could feel a natural sense of comfort and closeness when he arrived here. It felt like he had returned home from a long journey and ran back into his mother’s arms. His Dragon Blood was surging inside him, and he couldn’t help wanting to let out a dragon roar to vent his feelings.
Although he was born a Human, the current Yang Kai could be fundamentally considered a Pure-Blooded Dragon, so he had a natural feeling of belonging with this land.
However, Yang Kai soon frowned.
It was because this place was occupied by many Black Ink Nests of all sizes, most of them Low-Rank but three of them Mid-Rank. There were no High-Rank ones, fortunately.
All the High-Rank Black Ink Nests were placed at the No-Return Pass and were guarded by the only remaining Royal Lord.
Despite having already known that the Ancestral Land wouldn’t remain unaffected by the war, Yang Kai still felt enraged when he witnessed this scene.
It felt as though thieves had overrun his home, and not only did they steal his belongings, but they even took his home for themselves.
How could Yang Kai endure this?
These thieves wanted to take over the Ancestral Land, but it seemed like they weren’t very successful because, in any Universe World outside, one Low-Rank Black Ink Nest would be enough to cover it in Black Ink Strength, turning it into the Black Ink Clan’s territory.
But here, even though all the Black Ink Nests were pumping out Black Ink Strength, the area they managed to cover was quite limited. One Low-Rank Black Ink Nest could only cover about a 100-kilometre radius with Black Ink Strength, and the further away from the Black Ink Nest, the thinner the Black Ink Strength became.
The Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests were stronger but, even they could only cover about a 10,000-kilometre radius.
While such distances were not small, compared to the billions upon billions of kilometres diameter of the Ancestral Land, it was actually quite insignificant.
It seemed like there was an invisible force restraining the Black Ink Strength from spreading.
Obviously, it was the Ancestral Strength which could restrain and even dissolve Black Ink Strength! Though it wasn’t as effective as Purifying Light, with the vast Ancestral Land supporting the Ancestral Strength, it could uninterruptedly resist the corruption and spread of Black Ink Strength without much difficulty even after a couple of millennia.
Judging from the scene before him, Yang Kai became even more certain that the Divine Spirits had some link to the Primordial Light.
It was because of the Ancestral Land’s resistance that so many Black Ink Nests had appeared here; otherwise, why would the Black Ink Clan arrange their Black Ink Nest in such a way?
“A Human?” A shocked and puzzled voice sounded.
Yang Kai lowered his head to look in the direction of the voice and saw a Feudal Lord looking up at him from one of the Low-Rank Black Ink Nests.
Since Yang Kai didn’t hide himself, the Feudal Lord immediately discovered him when he entered the range of the Ancestral Land.
When their four eyes suddenly met, the Feudal Lord was certain that the other party was a Human. He immediately grinned and revealed a vicious smile before bellowing, “Kill him!”
[Where did this Human come from? How insolent of him to appear here!]
The Black Ink Clan had been occupying this vast land for many years, but had never seen any Humans come over; after all, this place was too far from the Great Territory Battlefields while also very close to the Black Ink Battlefield, so even Hunters wouldn’t easily venture this deep into their territory.
In this place, the Black Ink Clan didn’t live a comfortable life because some kind of mysterious energy was suppressing their Black Ink Strength and preventing it from spreading. If they had a choice, the Black Ink Clan here would rather fight on the battlefield than remain here.
Previously, there were Territory Lords that had tried to destroy this vast land, but even when an Innate Territory Lord used all his strength to bombard its surface, much of their strength would dissipate before it even struck the ground, which made it impossible to do any real damage.
Unfortunately for them, their progress was still very slow despite their long years of effort.
Now that a Human had appeared here, it naturally stimulated the Feudal Lord’s predatory instincts. He thought of capturing this Human and turning him into a Black Ink Disciple to be commanded at will.
Once the Feudal Lord gave the order, numerous Black Ink Clansmen from the surrounding hundred-kilometre radius charged over, including some Feudal Lords. Those Feudal Lords didn’t have their own Black Ink Nest and could only obey the Feudal Lord who gave out the order.
Instantly, Black Ink Strength surged, and a dense stream of figures flew at Yang Kai, swiftly surrounding him.
That first Feudal Lord stood above his Black Ink Nest and watched this scene with interest, but suddenly, he had a bad feeling and frowned as he noticed that the other party was behaving a little too calmly.
Moreover… he couldn’t sense this Human’s cultivation.
Once that thought flashed across the Feudal Lord’s mind, a burst of light suddenly appeared in the middle of the encirclement. Following that, every Black Ink Clansmen that went over froze in place like they were struck by lightning.
Then, the sound of spurting fresh blood sounded, and all at once, every Black Ink Clansman, no matter their strength, fell to pieces, literally.
The Feudal Lord’s pupils contracted as he turned around to retreat towards his Black Ink Nest without hesitation.
When the Human attacked, the Feudal Lord immediately sensed his cultivation.
An Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master!
Although the Feudal Lord didn’t know why this Human came here, he knew this wasn’t someone he could mess with.
However, just as he turned around, an oppressive force appeared above him. This pressure was like a mountain, rendering him immobile. He barely managed to raise his head to see a palm coming down on him, followed by complete darkness. Then, he didn’t know what had happened next.
In the sky, Yang Kai slowly withdrew his palm. A large palm print had appeared on the ground, and not only did it crush the Feudal Lord, but also the Black Ink Nest below him was smashed to pieces.
That movement wasn’t big, but it wasn’t small either. Soon, even more Black Ink Clansmen were attracted by the noise.
Inside the area covered by the Black Ink Nests, numerous Black Ink Clansmen were alerted by the movement and came over to investigate. When they discovered Yang Kai’s aura, they immediately became excited.
Their lives in this vast land were too bitter and boring as there was nothing to do but resist the suppression of the strange force. It was unheard of for a Human to barge in here, so how could the Black Ink Clansmens’ violent desires not be stimulated?
Soon, numerous Black Ink Clansmen arrived from all directions.
Yang Kai laughed out loud, “Very good!”
If these Black Ink Clansmen didn’t take the initiative to attack, Yang Kai couldn’t start a killing spree because of the agreement between the two Races. Back in Azure Sun Territory, it was also those three Territory Lords who struck first, justifying him to kill them.
Facing the incoming Black Ink Clansmen, Yang Kai charged forward. Instantly, Yang Kai was like a tiger in a herd of sheep, utterly unstoppable. Though he was surrounded by countless Black Ink Clansmen with Black Ink Strength surging everywhere, none of them was his match.
In a blink of an eye, Yang Kai had moved thousands of kilometres away from his original spot, and unleashed a reign of terror in his wake, destroying Low-Rank Black Ink Nests and leaving fresh corpses.
Although Yang Kai didn’t exert too much of his strength, he could still kill these Black Ink Clansmen with a single punch or palm. He was almost at the peak of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, and the strongest among these Black Ink Clansmen were Feudal Lords, so how could they hope to stop him? To put it bluntly, Yang Kai could ruthlessly kill all these Black Ink Clansmen with a single sweep of his Dragon Breath. The huge difference between their strength was not something these Black Ink Clansmen could make up for with numbers alone.
A loud roar suddenly came from the distance, “Yang Kai, stop!”
Yang Kai was instantly frustrated, [Did my identity get exposed so quickly?]
It wasn’t because Yang Kai didn’t take care to hide his strength, but that the Black Ink Clan had been tracking him. Before this, he had been visiting one Great Territory after another in search of the Primordial Light. He didn’t even leave out the Universe Worlds taken over by the Black Ink Clan and personally went over to investigate each and every one of them.
It could be said that the Black Ink Clan knew his whereabouts at all times because everywhere he went, the Black Ink Clan in that Territory would use their Black Ink Nests to report it as soon as possible.
This meant that it was only after Yang Kai entered the Chaotic Dead Territory that the Black Ink Clan lost track of him.
The Black Ink Clan seemed to know that he had been searching for something recently, but they had no idea what it was. Also, orders had been passed down from the No-Return Pass saying that the Black Ink Clan was not to interfere no matter what Yang Kai did. History had proven that if not provoked, Yang Kai would maintain the agreement, so the best option was to just let him be.
All the Black Ink Clansmen in all of the Great Territories had received these orders, so many who were overseeing each Great Territory were on edge, afraid that Yang Kai would suddenly appear in their territory and lash out.
Of course, the Ancestral Land had received the order from the Royal Lord as well.
Everything happened so suddenly that the Feudal Lords didn’t have much time to think about it, but how could the Territory Lord overseeing this place not know what was going on? When he sensed the eruption of battle, he immediately used his Divine Sense to scan the place and realized Yang Kai had come.
There were three Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, so three Innate Territory Lords had been dispatched here to act as supervisors.
The Territory Lord who just spoke up was a black-faced individual that seemed to resemble a Human at first glance, but he was taller and much bulkier than a Human.
However, some Masters were skilled in Body Tempering amongst the Humans and had figures that weren’t much worse than this Territory Lord’s.
Since those Black Ink Clansmen and Black Ink Nests killed and destroyed by Yang Kai were all under his jurisdiction, he was naturally furious and called out. But Yang Kai didn’t seem like he was going to stand down, so the Territory Lord became even more furious and threw out a punch from afar while roaring, “I said stop!”
Yang Kai’s palm slammed down again and destroyed another Low-Rank Black Ink Nest before he faced the punch coming from afar without any intention of dodging and accepted it. Instantly, his body trembled, and a shimmer of light appeared across his body. He wasn’t the slightest bit injured by the attack.
He then turned his head to look at the black-faced Territory Lord charging at him and asked, “Did you just attack me?”
Both of Yang Kai’s eyes lit up as a trace of cunning flashed in their depths, making him seem overjoyed.
The black-faced Territory Lord was beyond furious at first, but when he met those eyes, he couldn’t help but be reminded of what happened in Azure Sun Territory. He silently cursed himself for letting his anger take over and cause this situation.
Hurriedly stopping, the Territory Lord stammered, “It wasn’t me… I didn’t…”
Since the Black Ink Clan invaded the 3,000 Worlds, this Territory Lord had been ordered to oversee the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land and used Black Ink Strength to corrupt this piece of land, so he had not battled a Human Race Master in several millennia.
However, with the use of his Black Ink Nest, he could still gather information from battlefields without having to leave this place.
There were quite a lot of Masters amongst the Humans, and there were even a few that were stronger than Innate Territory Lords, but no matter how strong, all Humans had their limits, except for one who defied all reason.
During these recent years, a single Eighth-Order Master named Yang Kai undoubtedly shone the brightest. From what this Territory Lord heard from the No-Return Pass, Yang Kai had gone to the No-Return Pass alone, killed several Territory Lords, and destroyed many High-Rank Black Ink Nests before escaping from the pursuit of the Royal Lord.
Later, news came from Profound Nether Territory, saying that the number of Territory Lords killed directly or indirectly by Yang Kai had reached over 30.
News that came from the Acacia Territory said that 10 Territory Lords had worked together to besiege Yang Kai, but seven of them died while in the end, Yang Kai and the over 10,000 Human refugees mysteriously escaped.
Fortunately, after Yang Kai returned to Profound Nether Territory, he made peace with the Territory Lords there, allowing them to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
300 years later, Yang Kai appeared in Twin Poles Territory and killed four Innate Territory Lords in a single battle, forcing the Black Ink Clan there to retreat to their camps in panic. The Black Ink Clan didn’t dare to come out and were even forced to take the initiative to offer peace.
In the subsequent peace talks, the Black Ink Clan established numerous restrictions on Yang Kai and finally restrained the Humans’ most terrifying killing star.
During the 1,700 years after that, there were no signs of the killing star on the battlefields, so the Territory Lords didn’t have to be on edge anymore because the Black Ink Disciples they corrupted occasionally all confirmed that Yang Kai had been in retreat all this time.
Once those 1,700 years were up though, Yang Kai exited his retreat and instantly killed three Acquired Territory Lords in Azure Sun Territory. Later, no Territory Lord dared to challenge him as he was allowed to wander around freely.
Following that, Yang Kai began his long journey… until this day when he appeared in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land.
Despite the fact that the black-face Territory Lord hadn’t fought with a Human Master in many centuries, he knew that he wasn’t this killing star’s opponent. Amongst all Innate Territory Lords, his strength only ranked somewhere in the middle, and he personally knew several Territory Lords who were stronger than him that had died at Yang Kai’s hands.
If those Territory Lords had died, would he be able to survive if Yang Kai attacked him?
He attacked in a moment of anger and didn’t consider the situation too seriously. Moreover, his attack from a distance had only been intended to get Yang Kai’s attention and stop him from killing more of his subordinates. Therefore, Yang Kai only had to dodge slightly to not get hit by that punch.
The reason Yang Kai didn’t dodge was not that he couldn’t, but that he didn’t want to.
Those three Acquired Territory Lords from the Azure Sun Territory died because they had no eyes and accidentally offended this killing star…
[I have also offended him today…] The black-faced Territory Lord instantly felt chills enveloping his whole figure.
“You dare to attack me? Good, very good! Then I’ll attack you too!” Yang Kai had a wicked grin as he raised his large fist and acted like an angry child who stubbornly wanted revenge.
[This time, I can finally have a good battle. I’ve been in retreat for so many years, and, regrettably, I have no way of testing out my current strength. Those three Acquired Territory Lords in the Azure Sun Territory were only the appetisers. If I want to test out my full strength, I have to find an Innate Territory Lord, but none of them have dared to challenge me so far.]
The black-faced Territory Lord immediately turned around and ran without intending to fight Yang Kai. A Black Ink Cloud rolled in and encased the Territory Lord’s figure while he screamed frantically, “Save me!”
He was naturally screaming towards the other two Territory Lords overseeing this place. Those two had also swept over the moment they sensed the fallout, but they had frozen in place after hearing the black-faced Territory Lord screaming Yang Kai’s name.
Most Territory Lords weren’t that fearless; in fact, many feared death greatly, so if they could stay out of this mess, they were more than happy to do so.
“Accept three of my moves! If you can survive, I will let you off! Refuse, and no one can save you today!” Yang Kai’s voice was like a gust of cold wind blowing from the depths of Hell, making that Territory Lord shiver even more.
However, besides being terrified, the Territory Lord also felt a sense of hope.
[If it’s just three attacks, I might be able to resist them! After all, I’m still an Innate Territory Lord, so of course, I’m not weak! No matter how powerful this killing star is, he’s being too arrogant!]
Thinking so, the black-faced Territory Lord decisively stopped, and his voice echoed from inside the Black Ink Cloud, “Really?”
The Territory Lord knew he couldn’t escape because, according to rumours, Yang Kai had astonishing attainments in the Dao of Space and was unmatched when it came to fleeing and chasing. Therefore, trying to outrun this Human was impossible.
Also, it wasn’t realistic to hope that the other two Territory Lords would come to his aid because they were trying to stay out of this situation. Otherwise, they would have come forward and helped him long ago.
His only hope now was that Yang Kai meant what he said.
Yang Kai approached the black-faced Territory Lord while speaking slowly, “I can even keep the promise I made with the Black Ink Clan, so what’s there for you to worry about?”
That made sense.
Although this killing star had caused the Black Ink Clan to suffer a huge loss, he had integrity. Since they made peace, he had never voluntarily broken the agreement. He only attacked those Territory Lords in Azure Sun Territory because they attacked him first. The Black Ink Clan couldn’t complain about him acting in self-defence.
“Deal!” The black-faced Territory Lord gritted his teeth and accepted the challenge. He had three attacks to decide his fate, and he didn’t believe that he would be that useless. All sorts of intel on Yang Kai appeared in his mind, and he immediately used his Divine Sense to protect his Soul.
[This guy has a special artifact that can injure others without them noticing,] Amongst all those Territory Lords Yang Kai killed, many of them were killed because of that special artifact.
Therefore, the black-faced Territory Lord felt that his Soul was the most important thing to protect.
If it were 2,000 years ago, the Territory Lord’s decision would have been a smart one, but now that Yang Kai’s strength had increased significantly, and he was itching to test the extent of his power, he naturally wouldn’t be using the Soul Rending Thorn.
The black-faced Territory Lord was only giving himself false hope when he used his Divine Sense to protect his Soul.
In the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, there were several helpless and furious Black Ink Clansmen looking upwards, watching as one of their Territory Lords was about to resist three moves from Yang Kai to decide his fate.
The Black Ink Clan felt helpless because they weren’t strong enough and couldn’t interfere in this matter. When Yang Kai killed those Black Ink Clansmen just now, he showcased such great strength that the Feudal Lords here knew they couldn’t compete with him.
As for why they were furious, that was because even though Yang Kai’s reputation resounded throughout the 3,000 Worlds, it was far too arrogant of him to say that he would let an Innate Territory Lord live if he resisted three attacks from him.
No matter how strong Yang Kai was, wanting to kill an Innate Territory Lord in three moves was too presumptuous.
The other two Territory Lords were also watching nervously while their Divine Senses flickered as they silently conversed with each other. According to their understanding of the black-faced Territory Lord, they estimated the probability of him still being alive after three attacks was quite high.
Like the black-faced Territory Lord, they thought that since they were Innate Territory Lords, they could withstand three attacks no matter how strong Yang Kai was. They confidently believed that they could return to their Black Ink Nests to recuperate as long as they didn’t die on the spot.
However, despite their silent conversation, they didn’t intend to interfere with this matter as they didn’t want to draw fire to themselves.
Even if they banded together now to face Yang Kai, the chances that they would all then die were extremely high.
Immediately after the black-faced Territory Lord protected his Soul, the Black Ink Cloud around him expanded to a 1,000-kilometre radius. While the Black Ink Cloud hid the Territory Lord’s aura, it also moved towards Yang Kai.
The Territory Lord wanted to seize the initiative to attack!
As an Innate Territory Lord, he had his own principles and pride; therefore, he couldn’t sit back and wait for his doom when facing such an aggressive enemy. He understood that in battle, the one who attacked first had the advantage.
The dense Black Ink Cloud spanning 1,000 kilometres in all directions was enough to confuse any enemy’s senses; moreover, this was a Black Ink Cloud condensed by an Innate Territory Lord, so if Yang Kai wanted to kill him, he would have to dive into the Black Ink Cloud first!
With a bold strike from the Territory Lord, the distance between them quickly decreased.
Inside the Black Ink Cloud, the black-faced Territory Lord was still guarding against Yang Kai’s mysterious Soul attack, but all he saw was Yang Kai stomping one foot forward hard before squatting slightly. Both his hands were clenched into fists that were placed on either side of his waist, with his left fist forward and right fist curled back.
It was just an ordinary stance one took before making the most standard of punches.
However, no matter how ordinary this stance was, it still had great power when it was executed by an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. More importantly, the Eighth-Order Master before him right now was the publicly acknowledged strongest of them all!
Instantly, the entire atmosphere in the Ancestral Land changed. It was like the World itself had transformed into an Ancient Ominous Beast, making every inch of the space dangerous and filled with murderous intent.
The Black Ink Clansmen below instantly felt chills as though there was a sword hanging above their heads, ready to drop at any moment.
On the other hand, the two Innate Territory Lords watching from afar stiffened as their expression turned stern. At that moment, they suddenly had a terrifying feeling as though a vicious beast was eying them, and any sudden movements would lead it to strike.
And all of this was just from the residual power Yang Kai was giving off.
They found it hard to imagine how much pressure the black-faced Territory Lord was currently facing as he was the actual target of Yang Kai’s wrath. They previously felt there was a high chance their black-faced companion would make it out of this duel alive, but they were quickly losing confidence in that prediction.
As for the black-faced Territory Lord himself, he was currently feeling a sense of unparalleled crisis. Even though he was hiding inside a huge Black Ink Cloud while constantly changing his position, that feeling didn’t fade in the slightest.
Refusing to just stand there waiting for death, he exerted more power and used a Secret Technique to instantly triple his speed.
It was at that moment that Yang Kai finally moved. His right fist slowly moved forward, seemingly pushing through unbearable resistance as he thrust it forward. As his fists continued to slowly extend out, space itself seemed to compress layer upon layer.
When Yang Kai’s fist finally fully extended, the entire World rumbled in response.
The 1,000-kilometres-wide Black Ink Cloud that was charging at him abruptly stopped just 100,000 kilometres away from him. The originally fiercely roiling Black Ink Cloud instantly froze and became perfectly still, as if a rushing river had suddenly turned to ice. Even the tiniest of waves were frozen in place.
“Hey!” At that moment, Yang Kai let out a low growl.
That growl was like a trigger as the “ice” exploded, and the 1,000-kilometre Black Ink Cloud was instantly shattered into wisps of black mist that revealed the black-faced Territory Lord hidden inside.
In fact, it wasn’t the Black Ink Cloud dissipating, but rather the space which encompassed it fragmenting. That was because the strength coming out of Yang Kai’s fist was filled with incredibly dense Space Principles.
Like the broken fragments of a smashed mirror, many pieces of the Void brushed past the black-faced Territory Lord’s body, leaving all sorts of deep cuts on him. He was just fortunate that he possessed incredible strength and durability, or else he would have been cut into pieces by the Void Cracks then and there.
Even if he did keep his life though, he was as haggard as could be.
Looking into Yang Kai’s eyes across the gap between them, the black-faced Territory Lord was filled with terror and reluctance. Unleashing a fierce roar, he tried to break free of the Space Principles’ entanglement, but like a mortal caught in a swamp, the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. Forget charging out to meet Yang Kai, just moving forward at all proved almost impossible.
Yang Kai drew back his right fist with a calm expression.
At the same time, he thrust his left fist out.
But this time, his left fist moved extremely fast, so fast that even the other two Territory Lords who were watching closely couldn’t tell just how this punch was delivered.
While they were still in a daze, the punch was already sent out.
Their hearts were already stuck in their throats after witnessing how frightening the power of the previous fist was. They didn’t know what this punch could do.
However, from what they saw, this fist seemed extremely ordinary, as though Yang Kai hadn’t even exerted half as much strength as before. What’s more, the black-faced Territory Lord didn’t appear to have suffered any further injury.
But soon, they discovered something was wrong. When Yang Kai delivered his first blow, the black-faced Territory Lord was still pushing his strength wildly despite the awkward situation because he was desperately trying to defend himself.
With his Innate Territory Lord strength, it wouldn’t be hard for him to break free of his current situation. With just one or two breaths of time, he could escape from the shattered space; however, Yang Kai clearly wasn’t going to give him that chance. During a battle between Masters, life and death could be decided in the blink of an eye, let alone one or two breaths.
After the second fist attack was delivered, the black-faced Territory Lord stiffened in place and stopped moving altogether. A multicoloured river of light seemed to have appeared in a flash as time constantly warped in the local space.
“Ha!” Yang Kai released a guttural shout.
[Success.] Yang Kai stood up straight and unclenched his fists, placing one on his dantian as he exhaled lightly.
The Dao of Time and the Dao of Space were the most powerful Grand Daos he mastered and were also the most mysterious and unpredictable. With his almost peak Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm strength, using these two Grand Daos had become even easier for him.
Back at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, Yang Kai had reaped many, many benefits but was unable to completely digest them.
If the three-attack challenge hadn’t restricted that black-faced Territory Lord, he wouldn’t have been in such a haggard state. Yang Kai was sure that in a battle with no constraints, he could kill this Territory Lord in 10 moves, but by goading his opponent into a duel of sorts, Yang Kai managed to release all his strength at his target without having to worry about other distractions. Though it seemed like a good plan, it was actually quite foolish.
Moreover, this was the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. Yang Kai was now a Pureblood Dragon Clan member and an extremely powerful Ancient Dragon. In this place, every Divine Spirit was protected and favoured by the World itself. The previous two punches he delivered not only housed his own strength but also received a boost from this land.
Just like how Yang Kai could borrow the Star Boundary’s power to defend against enemies stronger than himself, he could also borrow the Ancestral Strength in the Ancestral Land.
Therefore, that black-faced Territory Lord could not withstand two attacks!
Taking advantage of the terrain and the opponent’s mental state was perfectly normal in battle. The black-faced Territory Lord only had himself to blame for being unlucky.
As the space had been frozen and the time had been distorted, anyone who barged inside here would feel their minds become stagnant and their bodies become stiff; however, Yang Kai was an exception.
Using Space and Time Principles to capture an Innate Territory Lord was still a difficult task as all Innate Territory Lords could easily escape the interference caused by these two strengths and restore their freedom in short order.
However, the Space-Time Strength Yang Kai used to warp both Space and Time all at once was far more difficult to resist and break free from. Therefore, despite being an Innate Territory Lord, getting out of this trap would require much effort and time on his part.
Yang Kai raised his finger and slowly pointed it at the Territory Lord’s forehead.
“M-Merc…” Before the black-faced Territory Lord finished his first word, Yang Kai’s finger had already touched his forehead.
The Territory Lord felt his head tremble violently, and when Yang Kai withdrew his finger, there was a blood-red hole in the Territory Lord’s forehead. His eyes quickly dimmed and Black Ink Strength leaked out of the hole but was quickly trapped by the surrounding Space-Time Strength and was unable to disperse.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai’s expression looked calm, even somewhat bored as he felt that this Territory Lord had lost before he could really experiment with his new strength.
The two Territory Lords watching from afar were now feeling like someone had pulled their Souls from their bodies. Their knowledge of Yang Kai came from the intel they received from elsewhere, so they only knew he had killed quite a lot of Territory Lords by relying on a special Soul-type artifact. As such, there would always be slight Spiritual Energy fluctuation every time he attacked.
But this time, they didn’t sense Yang Kai using any kind of Soul-type attack. He only used two seemingly ordinary punches to easily incapacitate an Innate Territory Lord who was just about as powerful as they were on the spot before casually walking over and executing him with a poke to the forehead.
This Human was far stronger than those reports described!
Such a strong Human Master was the Black Ink Clan’s greatest misfortune!
Once the two Races started their final conflict in the future, there was no telling how many Black Ink Clansmen would die at this Human’s hands.
“I’ll give you a cup of tea’s time to scram; otherwise, this King doesn’t mind none of you ever leaving here!” Yang Kai glanced over and ordered.
Once he said those words, the Black Ink Clansmen, who were still in a state of shock, became frantic and immediately sped off. Even the two Territory Lords shivered and quickly flew towards their Black Ink Nests.
Ordinary Black Ink Clansmen could easily leave this place, but they couldn’t because their Black Ink Nests were still here. If they lost their Black Ink Nests, they wouldn’t have a place to recuperate after being wounded.
Moreover, each Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest was extremely important to the Black Ink Clan.
The Feudal Lords with Low-Rank Black Ink Nests had similar thoughts.
At that moment, Yang Kai roared, “Everything in the Ancestral Land is mine, you dare try to take my things away!?”
With a loud clap of thunder, the Feudal Lords who were trying to remove their Black Ink Nests abruptly halted.
The two Territory Lords exchanged bitter looks as they felt unresigned. Still, they knew they couldn’t take their Black Ink Nests away now.
Soon, all the Black Ink Clansmen in the Ancestral Land had curried away, leaving only their Black Ink Nests of various sizes behind.
Even after leaving the Ancestral Land, the Black Ink Clan didn’t dare to stop as they were afraid the killing star might suddenly chase after and slaughter them ruthlessly.
Under the two Innate Territory Lords’ lead, the Black Ink Clansmen ran for their lives.
In the meantime, Yang Kai floated above the Ancestral Land, silently feeling the land’s slight changes.
If he were to say that the feeling he had when arriving at the Ancestral Land was like coming home, now he felt like this World had given him a trace of recognition.
Was it because he chased away the Black Ink Clan who came here and committed such outrage? Yang Kai didn’t know the answer, but the feeling of being recognised by the Ancestral Land didn’t seem false. With his current Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation and the Dragon Vein from his 70,000 metre-long Ancient Dragon Form, he could feel even the subtlest change in the World around him.
Suppose that the Ancestral Land was a Matriarch, and all the Divine Spirits were her children. This land had nurtured generation after generation of Divine Spirits from the Primordial Era to now.
Therefore, the Ancestral Land had many, many children.
When the Black Ink Clan invaded the 3,000 Worlds, even the Ancestral Land couldn’t escape their grasp, so the Divine Spirits were forced out, leaving the Ancestral Land, their Matriarch, alone and without anyone to rely on.
The Black Ink Clan, who moved into the Ancestral Land, were the ruthless invaders of this land. They hatched numerous Black Ink Nests here, trying to turn this place that had been here since ancient times into their territory. Perhaps they could even crack the secret behind why the Divine Spirits could resist Black Ink Strength and find a solution in time.
As the old and lonely Matriarch couldn’t stop them on her own, she could only silently resist. That was until Yang Kai came and chased all the Black Ink Clan away.
Like any Universe World, the Ancestral Land had its own Will and acknowledged Yang Kai’s actions.
Yang Kai wasn’t a true pureblood. He started out as an ordinary Human, but was lucky to gain the Golden Divine Dragon’s Source through an opportunity in his youth. Coincidentally, that Golden Divine Dragon Source originally belonged to the Third Generation Dragon Emperor.
After so many years of constantly refining his bloodline and cultivating in the Dragon Pool, Yang Kai had managed to purify his bloodline and become a real member of the Dragon Clan. Now, he also had the right to enter his name in the Dragon Tome.
However, Yang Kai was still nothing more than an adopted son to the Ancestral Land. In comparison to her biological children, Yang Kai naturally wouldn’t be given as much attention and favour. It was the same with Humans. Even if their children were good-for-nothing, they were still their blood-related children.
What Yang Kai did today successfully helped him move closer towards the biological son level from the adopted son level.
This period was when the Ancestral Land was at its loneliest and most helpless. Even the Divine Spirits found it hard to do anything, but Yang Kai, the adopted son, came and chased away all the invaders.
That was why Yang Kai immediately felt the slight change between this land and himself after he drove out the Black Ink Clan. He felt as though this land was more affectionate to him, and there was even the feeling of the omnipresent Ancestral Strength entering his body.
Such a feeling made Yang Kai raise an eyebrow. [The one who nurtured numerous Divine Spirits. I guess Matriarch would be a fitting way to address it. I wonder if she really exists…]
If chasing away the Black Ink Clan could cause such a change, what about removing all the Black Ink Nests and dispelling all the Black Ink Strength?
Yang Kai couldn’t help but feel some anticipation; so, he didn’t hesitate as playing tricks with the World’s Will was unnecessary. It was better to simply be straightforward.
Moreover, even without the favour of the Ancestral Land, Yang Kai would still remove the Black Ink Nests and Black Ink Strength here.
With a wave of his hand, all the Black Ink Nests were uprooted from their positions and thrown inside Yang Kai’s Small Universe to be suppressed and sealed. Then, Yang Kai used Purifying Light to dispel all the Black Ink Strength still lingering in the land.
Yang Kai’s hard work, or rather his filial piety, wasn’t in vain because, following the removal of Black Ink Nests and Black Ink Strength, the connection he felt with this land became even closer. When all the Black Ink Nests and Black Ink Strength were cleaned out, Yang Kai could feel that he had surpassed the level of a biological son and jumped straight into being the Matriarch’s favourite son!
It was as if what was left was for the Ancestral Land to reveal its kind smile and compliment Yang Kai for being a good boy.
The sky cleared as Ancestral Strength flowed into Yang Kai’s body from all directions, making his Dragon Vein stir to life.
This made Yang Kai feel elated because he felt all his efforts weren’t in vain.
At first, he was thinking about finding an opportunity to visit the Dragon Pool someday to continue refining his Dragon Vein, but now it seemed like he didn’t have to go through that trouble because it seemed that cultivating in the Ancestral Land would have a similar effect.
The Ancestral Strength inside the Ancestral Land was the most primitive Divine Spirit power that any Divine Spirit could absorb and refine, just like how any cultivator could refine World Energy.
That was also why those Divine Spirits scattered outside instinctually wanted to return to the Ancestral Land. While being here, they could greatly improve their strength and bloodline. It was especially so for young Divine Spirits because living in the Ancestral Land could greatly shorten their growth period.
Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to cultivate though, because the aim of his journey here wasn’t to refine his Dragon Vein but to find clues about the Primordial Light.
Now that he was here, he still didn’t have any idea about how to find those clues.
Worse, looking around probably wouldn’t be of much use because the clues about the Primordial Light couldn’t be seen.
After one month, Yang Kai had almost circled the entire Ancestral Land, but still couldn’t find anything.
But that was reasonable because, if there were any unique clues, it was impossible for those Divine Spirits living here not to know about them.
Yang Kai couldn’t help but feel defeated, and wondered if his approach was all wrong.
While strolling around, Yang Kai suddenly came to a huge empty area. This was where the Ancestral Strength was the strongest, seeming to be the centre of the entire Ancestral Land. It wasn’t the geological centre, but rather the core of its power.
Also, this was the exact place where the Third Generation Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress sealed that Black Ink Giant Spirit God. They had even sacrificed half of the Ancestral Land’s territory and used the Sacred Treasures from 16 of the Divine Spirit Clans to form a Grand Array to transform this place into one giant seal.
This place continuously extracted Ancestral Strength to grind away the Black Ink Giant Spirit God’s Black Ink Strength; therefore, this place was considered the centre of the Ancestral Land, making it the optimal location to suppress the Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
Yang Kai sat down cross-legged, thinking of whether it was plausible to put his hopes on the Primordial light to defeat the Black Ink Clan.
According to what he knew, the Burning Light and Serene Glimmer certainly had a high possibility of being forces separated from the Primordial Light. The Divine Spirits might also have a connection to the Primordial Light, but Yang Kai had no clue about what that connection was.
The Primordial Light no longer had the same appearance as before, and no one knew what was left of it after separating the Burning Light and Serene Glimmer.
Yang Kai estimated that he had to find something like a medicinal catalyst to help Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan fuse together and rebuild the Primordial Light.
Without even mentioning whether he could find a catalyst he had no clue about, even if he did somehow accomplish that, would he really be able to use that to fuse Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan back together?
And if he was, would Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan still exist in this world?
That thought had been on his mind since he left the Chaotic Dead Territory.
Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan had been nothing but good to him. Purifying Light was something essential for the Humans to defend against the Black Ink Clan, and the Small Stone Race Soldiers nurtured by the two of them had provided the Humans enormous help during many instances.
In the Humans’ eyes, even though those two had been living in the Chaotic Dead Territory all this time, and never descended the mountain to directly help them, they had still made massive, irreplaceable contributions to the war effort.
If wiping out Mo required sacrificing Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan’s lives, Yang Kai would never agree to it, no matter the reason.
He never had a chance to think carefully about this matter before, or perhaps he had unconsciously been avoiding doing so, but now that he calmed down and began to ponder the issue, he suddenly felt as though had betrayed Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan.
Could those two not have thought of what would become of them if Yang Kai ever found the fusion catalyst?
Of course they had. When Yang Kai went over and saw them trying to fuse together, though it seemed like they were playing around, would they have even attempted such a monumental thing without considering the consequences?
They had provided so much assistance to the Human Race, but never asked for anything in return, so how could Yang Kai just discard them after all they had done? If the only way for the Human Race to survive was to betray their greatest benefactors, repaying kindness with enmity, would they even be worthy of continuing to exist?
Once Yang Kai changed the way he thought about this matter, the issues that had been plaguing him for so long melted away. Relying on external forces and the benevolence of others to end this tragedy was nought but an act of desperation born from weakness.
Even without the Primordial Light, was there really no other way to completely eradicate Mo?
Cang and the others could use the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction to seal Mo, which meant that Mo wasn’t omnipotent. The Human Race couldn’t do anything about Mo now purely because they weren’t strong enough!
If the Human Race could transcend their current limits, they wouldn’t even have to bother about all this complicated Primordial Light or Darkness.
In the end, the fundamental problem was strength!
It wasn’t enough to be in the Eighth-Order or Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm. Humans had to at least reach the Creation Realm, like Mo, to be able to defeat it. Cang and the others couldn’t reach that peak, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t.
New talents appeared in each generation, and though the great achievements of their forefathers were admirable and worthy of praise, that did not mean the descendants should stop striving to outdo them.
Perhaps the Ancestral Land felt her favourite son’s strong desire for power, or maybe realizing it could not escape unscathed from a disaster that threatened her whole family, the Matriarch who had always been fair to every Divine Spirit, finally revealed her doting side to Yang Kai.
The entire Ancestral Land suddenly began shaking, and an unimaginable amount of Ancestral Strength from all directions flowed towards Yang Kai like a torrent and poured into his body.
Yang Kai’s figure trembled, but he was only surprised for a moment before calming down. He then opened his heart and mind to accept the World’s gift.
He was currently almost at the peak of the Eighth Order, but Ancestral Strength wasn’t of any help to his Open Heaven Realm cultivation; instead, it was extremely beneficial to his strength as a Divine Spirit.
Yang Kai could feel his Dragon Vein surging. Following the Ancestral Strength entering his body, he felt like he had lost control of the suppressed Dragon Force within him and tiny Dragon Scales began appearing on his outer skin.
Two lumps had appeared on his forehead as well, and Yang Kai felt as if something was about to pop out of them. Even his bottom felt a little itchy.
Yang Kai hadn’t activated the Dragon Transformation Secret Art, his body was simply showing signs of Dragon Transformation on its own. This was something that didn’t happen even when he was cultivating inside the Dragon Pool.
The Dragon Pool was the Dragon Clan’s Origin and sanctuary, and was useless to other Divine Spirits besides the Dragon Clan; however, Ancestral Strength was an energy that could benefit any Divine Spirit.
If Yang Kai had to compare, the Ancestral Strength was undoubtedly more primitive and wild.
With a loud dragon roar and a bright golden flash, a 70,000 metre-long giant Golden Dragon suddenly appeared where Yang Kai had stood. Since he couldn’t suppress it, he would just allow nature to take its course.
Instantly, Ancestral Strength began flooding in more rampantly. The Golden Dragon shook its head and flicked its tail while its Dragon Scales trembled as it felt its whole body itching. It could also clearly feel its size increasing rapidly, and following that increase, it felt elated.
Since Yang Kai entered the Dragon Pool to cultivate and reached his 70,000-metre Ancient Dragon Form, his Dragon Clan bloodline had been developing very slowly. It had been nearly 3,000 years since then, but his Dragon Form hadn’t even grown another 1,000 metres. The main reason was that he had no time to purify his Dragon Vein. Also, besides cultivating inside the Dragon Pool, it was extremely hard for a Dragon to continue growing after its Dragon Vein reached Yang Kai’s level.
Previously, Fu Guang was healing his injuries inside the Dragon Pool, and after he came out, Yang Kai was still in his retreat; therefore, he didn’t have the time to head over to the Dragon Pool.
Now that Ancestral Strength was pouring into his body, Yang Kai’s Dragon Form was clearly growing, and at breakneck speed just like when he was cultivating in the Dragon Pool back then.
Though this didn’t help him in increasing the Order of his Open Heaven Realm cultivation, the increase of his Dragon Vein was also an increase in his strength.
Yang Kai instantly felt like this trip was worth it, and he finally stopped obsessing over finding the Primordial Light.
While the wind was blowing and the Ancestral Strength was surging inside the Ancestral Land, two Innate Territory Lords led the large group of Black Ink Clansmen that had escaped back to the No-Return Pass.
Sitting on a tall throne was the only Royal Lord of the Black Ink Clan. His face was pale and colourless, which gave others a demonic but also feminine feeling. He had his chin propped on his hand while listening to the two Territory Lords’ fearful and trepidatious report.
Huge bones formed the throne he was sitting on, and every one of them was glowing with colourful lights and flowing with various Dao Strengths.
These weren’t any ordinary bones, but rather the bones of Divine Spirits.
After so many years of battles, the Divine Spirits also suffered casualties. Some of those dead Divine Spirits would have their corpses collected and buried by their allies, but some would be taken away by the Black Ink Clan and have their bones extracted to add to the Royal Lord’s throne.
Building such a huge throne must have taken over 10,000 large bones, so one could guess how many Divine Spirits had died in battle during these years. Even many Dragon and Phoenix Clan members died in battle, especially during the battle when the No-Return Pass was breached.
During the final battle in the Barren Territory, even the Dragon and Phoenix Clan Leaders had perished.
Although the Royal Lord didn’t release his aura and was simply listening quietly, the two Territory Lords below felt like they were standing on pins and needles. Retreating without a fight was considered a dereliction of duty. They were responsible for guarding the Ancestral Land, but after one of their fellow Innate Territory Lords was killed, they chose not to fight with Yang Kai, and ran away, instead. They even discarded their Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests. Such crimes were enough for them to lose their heads.
Of course, an Innate Territory Lord was a precious asset to the current Black Ink Clan, and many of them had died in battle over the years, so there was a huge decrease in their numbers. The Royal Lord wouldn’t easily execute these two and would most likely just send them to the six battlefields that had Masters from both races so that they could atone for their sins.
On the two sides of the Main Hall were two rows of Innate Territory Lords. Though the Black Ink Clan had quite a lot of Acquired Territory Lords now, they were either battling the Human Race Masters on the battlefields to fine-tune themselves, or devouring Black Ink Strength inside Black Ink Nests as they cultivated their strength.
The only ones free were the Innate Territory Lords because their abilities were fixed right after birth.
At this moment, most of those Territory Lords had sympathetic expressions on their faces. They had also heard of Yang Kai’s reputation during these years, so they knew that it was already lucky to be able to survive after an encounter with that killing star. Of course, it was also because that fellow was worried about the agreement between the two races and didn’t dare to break it easily; otherwise, these two Territory Lords might have already been killed.
Once the two Territory Lords finished their report, they looked up at the throne, waiting nervously for their fate to be decided.
After a long time, the Royal Lord asked, “What you mean to say is, Yang Kai has entered the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, yes?”
“Indeed,” a Territory Lord with two large wings on his back, which made him look like a huge bat, answered respectfully.
“Why did he go there?” The Royal Lord asked as he was reminded of the appearance of the Human who escaped from him around 2,000 years ago.
That Territory Lord answered, shaking, “I don’t know.”
The Royal Lord frowned. To think of it, he had encountered Yang Kai twice.
The first time was when Yang Kai led the Remnant Army to attack the No-Return Pass. During that time, he used the Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor’s corpse and the strength of the Ox Monster to forcefully kill many Black Ink Clansmen to open a bloody road and send the remnant Humans to the Barren Territory.
The other time was when Yang Kai came back from the Black Ink Battlefield alone. That time, he destroyed seven High-Rank Black Ink Nests, killed numerous Innate Territory Lords, and finally escaped all on his own.
Back then, the Royal Lord flew into a rage because of that, but couldn’t do anything about it.
He soon heard the news about Yang Kai from the frontline battlefields and knew that Yang Kai had killed numerous Territory Lords. That fellow was now the biggest hidden trouble for the Black Ink Clan.
If the Royal Lord hadn’t learned that Yang Kai could never break through to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he would have ordered his death no matter the cost. That was because Yang Kai was already such a menace when he was an Eighth-Order Master, so how terrifying would he be if he managed to reach Ninth-Order? Perhaps by then, even the Royal Lords might not be his opponent.
It was because the Black Ink Clan knew that Yang Kai was destined to be unable to reach the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm that they slightly suppressed their intentions to kill him and maintained their peace agreement with the Human Race, though the bigger reason was that both sides needed time to accumulate strength.
Once the Black Ink Clan had nurtured enough Royal Lords, Yang Kai would no longer be able to affect the overall situation despite being a menace.
Of course, the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t give up a chance to kill Yang Kai, either.
Therefore, when the Royal Lord heard that Yang Kai had entered the Ancestral Land, which the Black Ink Clan previously controlled, he thought that this might be an opportunity.
During these recent years, Yang Kai seemed to be searching for something which had brought him from one Great Territory to another. However, neither the Black Ink Clan nor the Humans knew what he was searching for.
But no matter what it was, it would surely be bad news for the Black Ink Clan.
If they could besiege and kill Yang Kai in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, his plans would all be in vain, and he would no longer restrict the Black Ink Clan. At that moment, they could boldly break the treaty between the two Races and restart the wars in every Great Territory! They had to reduce the Human Race’s territory so that they wouldn’t have the ability to accumulate more strength. That way, the Black Ink Clan could wipe them out someday.
No matter how strong that Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was, he couldn’t defeat a Royal Lord. Unfortunately, Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space and was unmatched when it came to escaping. He would run away when he knew he couldn’t win, which made others unable to do anything to him.
That was how he escaped from the Royal Lord.
When dealing with such a person, the Royal Lord understood the need for a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking technique to block all escape routes before going for the kill.
Suddenly, the Royal Lord thought of something and looked down at the two Territory Lords before ordering, “Return there and see what he’s up to.”
The two Innate Territory Lords felt bitter hearing this order, but although they were frightened, they didn’t dare to disobey the Royal Lord’s command, so they could only master up their courage and head back the way they came.
One month later, the two Territory Lords appeared outside the Ancestral Land. They had bitter expressions as they hesitated, secretly hoping that Yang Kai had left; otherwise, they didn’t know how to explain their appearance if they bumped into him. They couldn’t say that they were here to visit him, right?
Even though they were nervous, they weren’t too afraid because if Yang Kai wanted to maintain the agreement between the two Races, he wouldn’t openly attack them. Therefore, this trip might be dangerous, but it wasn’t life-threatening.
Carefully approaching the Ancestral Land, the two Territory Lords soon sensed something strange. The Divine Spirit Ancestral Land seemed to have changed drastically from how it was when they were last here. An inexplicable energy was surging and permeating the entire World, and even the wind and clouds were churning.
At first, they were carefully hiding their bodies and aura lest they be exposed, but after looking at the current state of the Ancestral Land, they became bolder. Then, they released their Divine Senses to look around and gradually discovered what was happening.
All that energy seemed to be moving in one direction. There was a vague golden light shining in that direction and a huge being hibernating amidst the clouds.
When they looked through the clouds, they could vaguely make out a figure of a curled-up Dragon Clan member.
It was Yang Kai!
With all the intel the Black Ink Clan had gathered, the fact that Yang Kai could transform into a True Dragon was no longer a secret; after all, there were many Black Ink Disciples who were loyal to the Black Ink Clan hiding in the dark now.
Those two Territory Lords looked at each other and revealed ecstatic expressions. They suddenly realised why the Royal Lord wanted them to return here.
Silently retreating, they hurried back to the No-Return Pass.
This time, it didn’t take them a whole month to reach the No-Return Pass. When they got back, they once again bowed down before the Royal Lord’s throne of bones and reported everything they saw and heard to him.
The Royal Lord sneered, “As I had expected!”
When he first heard that Yang Kai went to the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, he made several guesses. Now, it seemed like he had gone there to cultivate. According to what he heard, it was said that the power inside the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land was very beneficial to Divine Spirits.
“Did you two expose yourselves?” The Royal Lord asked.
The bat-winged Territory Lord shook his head, “No. Yang Kai was entirely immersed in his cultivation and didn’t sense anything.”
“Very good.” The Royal Lord nodded in satisfaction while tapping his fingers on the back of his throne while looking down at the two, “Qing Fu, Mu Yu, don’t complain that this King didn’t give you a chance to make up for your crimes. The two of you are to immediately enter the Black Ink Nest together for Source Fusion!”
Once those words were said, all the Territory Lords became pale.
The two Territory Lords, Qing Fu and Mu Yu, shivered as they looked up at the Royal Lord with terrified eyes. Mu Yu even screamed frightenedly, “Sir, please have mercy!”
It was as though the so-called ‘Source Fusion’ was a death sentence.
Even though Qing Fu didn’t say anything, he had a depressed and desperate look on his face.
However, the Royal Lord didn’t show any change in expression; instead, he looked at them calmly before declaring, “If you live, that is your good fortune. If you die, that is your fate. Go!”
The Humans had many sayings for when one returned home, each describing it as something glorious after enduring difficulties or achieving something astonishing that brought honour to the family.
However, Source Fusion in the Black Ink Clan had nothing to do with returning with honour. The only similarity with those sayings was that it was somewhat related to going home.
To the Humans, one’s homeland was their place of birth; in that sense, the Black Ink Nests were the Black Ink Clan’s homeland because they nurtured all Black Ink Clansmen.
To the Black Ink Clan, Source Fusion was both punishment and glory; moreover, only Territory Lords could perform Source Fusion.
Technically speaking, Source Fusion was a type of Secret Technique that only the Black Ink Clan could use, and to use it, they must have a High-Rank Black Ink Nest.
A Territory Lord would enter the High-Rank Black Ink Nest and use the Source Fusion Technique to fuse their body and essence with the Black Ink Nest. Though any Territory Lord could easily perform the technique, it had never been used since ancient times.
That was because when the Territory Lord fused their body with the Black Ink Nest, there was a huge possibility that they would be devoured by the Black Ink Nest and cease to exist.
Despite the fact that there were quite a lot of Territory Lords in the Black Ink Clan, they were all pillars of the various battlefields, so it wasn’t easy to sacrifice any of them.
Of course, with such a high risk, the reward naturally wouldn’t be small.
If the Territory Lord who performed the Source Fusion Technique could withstand the Black Ink Nest’s devouring and instead assimilate the Black Ink Nest, they would achieve earth-shattering changes.
Simply put, the relationship between the Territory Lord using the Source Fusion Technique and the Black Ink Nest was that they had to devour each other. Only one between them would survive.
Since the day of their birth, an Innate Territory Lord’s abilities were fixed and had no way of increasing.
This limitation, however, wasn’t completely impossible to overcome as they could have a chance to greatly increase their strength by performing the Source Fusion Technique, even though the chances of success weren’t high.
High-Rank Black Ink Nests were derived directly from Mo; therefore, one could see the Black Ink Clan as Mo’s creations. If the creation devoured the Source Qi from their creator, they would gain unimaginable benefits.
By using the Source Fusion Technique, an Innate Territory Lord would have the chance to become a Royal Lord! Of course, such a Royal Lord would inevitably be weaker than an ordinary Royal Lord and could only be called Pseudo-Royal Lord.
Such a Secret Technique needed the Black Ink Clan to sacrifice many Territory Lords to succeed, and even if they did, they would lose a High-Rank Black Ink Nest. Each High-Rank Black Ink Nest was connected to dozens, if not over 100 Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests, and thousands of Low-Rank Black Ink Nests which birthed and served massive Black Ink Clan Armies.
Back when Yang Kai destroyed a few High-Rank Black Ink Nests in the No-Return Pass, the Black Ink Clan had been distressed about it for many years. Additionally, that incident thwarted several plans the Black Ink Clan had for some Great Territories.
In short, the Black Ink Clan was loath to lose any High-Rank Black Ink Nests.
These were the reasons why no Territory Lord had even performed this Secret Technique and why the Humans had no idea about it despite having waged war against the Black Ink Clan for so many millennia.
If it weren’t for the importance of killing Yang Kai, the Royal Lord would never have been willing to make such a sacrifice. However, that killing star had now become a dangerous obstacle to the Black Ink Clan’s plans, so if they could remove him, the situation between the two Races would change entirely. At the very least, the Black Ink Clan would no longer have to obey the so-called peace deal between the two races.
It would be best if one of these two Territory Lords could succeed, but it didn’t matter if they didn’t because their failure would contribute to the next Territory Lord’s chances of success.
When it came to the Source Fusion Technique, the more Territory Lords that failed to consume the High-Rank Nest, the greater the chances the following Territory Lords who performed the Secret Technique would have of succeeding. Therefore, as long as the Black Ink Clan was willing to make enough sacrifices, they would eventually succeed.
However, the Black Ink Clan weren’t sure what the odds of success were because there had never been a Territory Lord who had used this technique. Even the Royal Lord only had a rough estimation that the initial chances of success were around 10%, and would increase by about that much for successive attempts.
In other words, even if things went smoothly, they still had to sacrifice around a dozen Territory Lords before a Pseudo-Royal Lord could be born.
Of course, those estimations didn’t account for the amount of Territory Lords, Feudal Lords, and ordinary Black Ink Clansmen that the destruction of a High-Rank Black Ink Nest would implicate.
Such a huge sacrifice for such a small reward was obviously not cost-effective for the Black Ink Clan outside of extremely special circumstances.
However, sending Territory Lords was no longer a viable method to deal with Yang Kai, so a Royal Lord was required. Unfortunately, there was only one Royal Lord in the entire Black Ink Clan currently, and he had to oversee the No-Return Pass and couldn’t leave at will.
The Royal Lord clearly remembered the incident where a pure white Dragon Clan member boldly barged into the No-Return Pass roughly 1,000 years ago. According to the intelligence they possessed, the Black Ink Clan naturally knew that this Divine Dragon was stronger than any Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master!
Luckily for them, that White Divine Dragon didn’t attack the No-Return Pass and seemed to just be passing by as he dashed off into the depths of the Black Ink Battlefield. That Dragon Clan member disappeared and hadn’t returned since then, and no one knew what he was up to.
However, the mere existence of this kind of Master made it impossible for the Black Ink Clan to leave the No-Return Pass undefended!
A Pseudo-Royal Lord was also a Royal Lord!
Therefore, no matter what price they had to pay, the Black Ink Clan had to kill Yang Kai in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land.
Qing Fu and Mu Yu felt devastated as they left. Though they were reluctant to die in such a way, it was in the Black Ink Clan’s nature to obey those superior to them. Since the Royal Lord had given the order, they could only abide.
After finding a High-Rank Black Ink Nest, the two Innate Territory Lords looked at each other and saw the despair in each other’s eyes. They smiled bitterly at each other before flying into the Black Ink Nest.
When they arrived at the innermost part of the Black Ink Nest, the two Territory Lords sat cross-legged and began performing the Source Fusion Technique.
At that instant, the fleshy walls of the Black Ink Nest squirmed as the two Territory Lord’s bodies gradually sank downwards as if they were in a swamp.
Their figures disappeared in a few short breaths as the Black Ink Nest completely devoured them. Only their auras remained, trying to resist the Black Ink Nest from within.
As time passed, the two Territory Lords’ auras weakened before finally disappearing.
Back inside the Main Hall, the Royal Lord and many Territory Lords were monitoring the situation. When they were certain that the two Territory Lords’ auras had completely disappeared, many of the Innate Territory Lords sighed. It seemed like the Source Fusion Technique really wasn’t something that could be easily used.
But the sacrifice these two made was destined to not be wasted as they soon heard the Royal Lord asking, “Is there any of you who is willing to perform Source Fusion with this Black Ink Nest?”
It was almost like asking if any of them would be willing to die.
Having witnessed Qing Fu and Mu Yu’s end, none of the Innate Territory Lords below dared to volunteer to perform Source Fusion with the Black Ink Nest. Therefore, it was complete silence after the Royal Lord asked his question.
Finally, after a long time, a Territory Lord came forward and declared, “Sir, I am willing to try!”
Coming forward while everyone was silent made this Territory Lord stand out greatly and many gazes of all sorts landed on him.
The Royal Lord sitting above them revealed a gratified expression. Although many Black Ink Clansmen were afraid of death because of the personality they were born with, there were still some who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of their Race.
Nodding, the Royal Lord said, “If that’s what you wish, Di Wu, I’ll give you a chance.”
“Yes!” The Territory Lord called Di Wu cupped his fist and waited to receive further orders.
“Is there anyone else?” The Royal Lord turned to look around, but didn’t get any response, so he was a little frustrated and began calling out a few Territory Lords’ names with no trace of politeness.
The faces of those few Territory Lords instantly became ashen as they came forward with difficulty.
Meanwhile, the other Territory Lords watched the scene and secretly analysed the situation. Then, they realised that those Territory Lords had either lost to Human Race Masters or made blunders on the battlefield that harmed the Black Ink Clan. It seemed like the names the Royal Lord called out weren’t at random, which made a few Territory Lords feel relieved.
“Di Wu stays behind while the rest of you go ahead. Black Ink Eternal!”
Though the few Territory Lords couldn’t put their feelings into words, their expressions still became stern as they yelled, “Black Ink Eternal!”
After that, they turned around and set off.
Moments later, the auras of the chosen Innate Territory Lords disappeared one after another inside the High-Rank Black Ink Nest, obviously indicating that they had failed. Although it all failed, those auras were hung on for longer and longer, which meant that the Source Fusion Technique was getting closer to success.
At that moment, the desire in those Innate Territory Lords still on the scene were ignited.
An Innate Territory Lord was indeed strong, and ordinary Eighth-Order Masters weren’t their opponents, but it had always been a point of frustration that their abilities were fixed with no way of increasing in the future.
Right now, the Innate Territory Lords could still occupy a pivotal place in the war against the Human Race, but once the final battle between the two Races began, there would surely be quite a lot of Royal Lords and Ninth-Order Masters. By that time, what was the use of being an Innate Territory Lord when they couldn’t even save themselves from danger?
They also wanted to have greater power and become Royal Lords, even if they were only Pseudo-Royal Lords!
In the meantime, six Territory Lords had gone through Source Fusion with the Black Ink Nest, which meant the chances for succeeding was growing increasingly higher. Perhaps one of them might be able to devour the Black Ink Nest, break through their innate shackles and transcend to the next level.
While they feared death, they also craved power. If the Innate Territory Lords in the hall could be said to be avoiding the Source Fusion Technique before, they were now feeling a little excited.
After the eighth Territory Lord had fallen, the Royal Lord asked again, “Who else is willing to give it a try?”
The Territory Lords were now far more enthusiastic than before.
Of course, the Royal Lord knew what they were thinking, but he still nodded lightly while looking at them with a gratified expression. However, he didn’t let the Territory Lords take action together this time. The ones before were to build a foundation, and now that it had been built, it was time to carefully collect his harvest.
Under the Royal Lord’s command, the first Territory Lord in line entered the Black Ink Nest and performed the Source Fusion Technique. Half a day later, his aura disappeared.
Following that was the second Territory Lord, then a third…
Each Territory Lord was able to last much longer than the previous one, which meant they were creeping closer to success.
However, it wasn’t until the 13th Territory Lord failed to return that the other Territory Lords below the throne began looking at the Royal Lord with burning gazes! Anyone could see that success was near. Perhaps it would be the next one or the one after that…
Since the Royal Lord hadn’t said anything, none of them dared to move, and those whose names were called out were looking at the Royal Lord with anticipation filling their eyes.
On top of the throne of bones, the Royal Lord gently tapped his fingers, seemingly hesitant about something. After a long time, he finally opened his eyes and looked down at the Territory Lords, “Di Wu, you go.”
That order was directed at the first Territory Lord that had volunteered.
Di Wu was pleased and grateful for the Royal Lord’s favour, so he cupped his fist and quickly said, “I won’t disappoint you, Sir!”
Turning around determinedly, he strode out of the Main Hall.
The rest of the Territory Lords looked at each other before smiling bitterly because they couldn’t stop Di Wu, nor did they dare to blame the Royal Lord for being biased.
Since Di Wu was the first to stand up and volunteer when the Royal Lord asked who was willing to perform the Source Fusion with the Black Ink Nest, he had shown that he was braver than the other Territory Lords. The Royal Lord naturally appreciated and favoured such a Territory Lord. In addition, it was obvious that the Royal Lord had chosen Di Wu to receive the benefits in the end, all along.
The previous Territory Lords who went to perform the Source Fusion Technique were all sacrifices to pave the way for Di Wu.
Now that the Royal Lord had instructed Di Wu to head over, it undoubtedly meant that the Royal Lord also felt that success was at hand. If Di Wu didn’t move now, he might not get a chance to.
Several Divine Senses were probing at what was happening inside the High-Rank Black Ink Nest as Di Wu entered and quickly performed the Source Fusion Technique, letting the Black Ink Nest Devour his body while leaving behind his aura.
This time, his aura endured for a long time without weakening, constantly resisting the Black Ink Nest’s devouring. His aura stayed longer than any of the previous Territory Lords.
Meanwhile, the other Territory Lords had complicated feelings as they continued to sense what was happening. They both anticipated Di Wu’s success, but also hoped he would fail.
If he succeeded, he would be the first Pseudo-Royal Lord that emerged from using the Source Fusion Technique, a momentous occasion for the Black Ink Clan. But if he failed, the other Territory Lords present would have a chance to obtain that glory for themselves.
Several days later, the long battle between auras suddenly quieted down, and the Royal Lord sitting on the throne relaxed his furrowed brow before grinning, “Success!”
The Territory Lords below hurriedly offered congratulations.
It was indeed a success. Di Wu had undoubtedly devoured the High-Rank Black Ink Nest and even absorbed part of the strength from the 13 Territory Lords before him. In short order, he would break through the Innate Territory Lord’s restrictions and become a Pseudo-Royal Lord.
That time wouldn’t be too long either.
No one in the Black Ink Clan was sure whether their decision to sacrifice a High-Rank Black Ink Nest and 13 Innate Territory Lords in exchange for a single Pseudo-Royal Lord was worth it. Still, if they could use this newly acquired strength to kill Yang Kai, it would be a huge strategic win for them.
Now that everything was prepared, it was time to start planning their attack.
The Royal Lord released a burst with his Divine Sense, and several Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples soon came to the Main Hall before bowing down.
While leaning forward to look at an old man among the Black Ink Disciples, the Royal Lord asked, “How is your research progressing? Is your Four Gates Eight Palaces Great Pagoda Array usable yet?”
That old man replied, “Reporting to Sir Royal Lord, we have already perfected it long ago and have refined many Array Boards and Banners.” Then, the old man’s expression became serious, “My Lord, are you planning on using this Array?”
In recent years, quite a lot of Humans were corrupted by Black Ink Strength and turned into Black Ink Disciples, but very few were proficient in the Dao of Spirit Arrays. The few standing before the Royal Lord were the Array Masters among the Black Ink Disciples that had high attainments in the Dao of Spirit Arrays.
More than 2,000 years ago, the Royal Lord began gathering these specialists in the No-Return Pass, providing them with protection and any materials or resources they required while giving them a single order, to develop a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array that they could use when needed.
Although the Royal Lord didn’t specify who they would use that Spirit Array on, the Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples weren’t fools.
It wasn’t enough to just deduce a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array however, refining Array Boards and Banners had also cost numerous resources, and powerful Masters were also needed to set up and maintain the Grand Array.
Considering the massive investment, the Royal Lord must want to use this Grand Array for a special purpose. That target must be a tricky enemy who was great at escaping.
Among all the Eighth-Order Masters in the Human Race, there was only one who the Black Ink Clan would take so seriously.
However, such a huge Array wasn’t easy to arrange. The person they were trying to trap could easily escape if they alerted him and he found out about the Grand Array before it was fully activated.
That was why they hadn’t used this Grand Array despite it already being ready to deploy.
They didn’t expect the Royal Lord would gather them here today.
After listening to the old man’s answer, the Royal Lord nodded calmly, “Very good. Yang Kai has trapped himself inside the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land and seems to be immersed in cultivating. This is a perfect chance to deal with him.”
“The Divine Spirit Ancestral Land!” That old man seemed surprised, “Sir, are you going to use this Grand Array to seal that place?”
“Can it be done?” The Royal Lord looked at that old man with a serious expression.
How could that old man dare to say no? Judging by the Royal Lord’s behaviour, he might perish on the spot if he said no.
So, the old man quickly replied, “Yes. If Yang Kai is indeed immersed in cultivation, there is a high chance for success. But the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land is an incredibly vast place, and this Old Master doesn’t have enough strength to seal it entirely. I must trouble Sir to allocate some Territory Lords to cooperate with me.”
“How many do you need?”
“Eight. No, 10 Territory Lords!”
The Royal Lord replied flatly, “I will give you 20 Innate Territory Lords. This plan can only succeed and not fail!”
When the old man heard this, he was taken aback. It was no small deal using 20 Innate Territory Lords to deal with one Human, but it also showed how cautious the Black Ink Clan was of that Human.
He had also heard of Yang Kai’s reputation, but no matter how strong Yang Kai was, he would not be able to escape after being trapped inside this Grand Array. Therefore, the old man accepted the order, “Yes, Sir!”
Afterwards, the Royal Lord called out 20 Territory Lords and gave them an order, “You will accompany them and offer whatever assistance they require to set up the Grand Array. However, don’t act recklessly before Di Wu arrives. Once Di Wu arrives, he will take charge.”
All the Territory Lords accepted their orders, “Yes, Sir!”
“Go,” With a wave of the Royal Lord’s hand, the 20 Territory Lords and several Seventh-Order Array Masters immediately left the Main Hall and flew away.
Looking outside the Main Hall, the Royal Lord appeared gloomy. Although he couldn’t personally kill Yang Kai to vent his rage, this small displeasure was nothing before the Black Ink Clan’s plans for total conquest.
In fact, if they hadn’t lost more than a dozen Territory Lords to the Source Fusion Technique already, he wouldn’t have only sent 20 Territory Lords but 30!
When dealing with someone like Yang Kai, there were only two options before them, leaving him alone, or attacking him with overwhelming force to ensure he died.
Once this battle was over, the Black Ink Clan would no longer have any worries, and that agreement between the two Races would become meaningless.
The Black Ink Clan Masters immediately left the No-Return Pass, but soon after, a Black Ink Clan Army consisting of a million troops followed behind under the leadership of many Feudal Lords.
They were also heading for the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, but weren’t in a rush to get there, so the Territory Lords departed before them. After all, no one knew how long Yang Kai would remain in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. It would be a total waste of effort if they arrived too late and Yang Kai had already left.
As they were moving quickly, it only took the group of Masters 20 days to pass through the Divine Ability Sea and arrive at the outskirts of the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land.
Even though they had the advantage in numbers, they didn’t dare to expose their whereabouts and auras lest Yang Kai notice them.
Next, they let a Territory Lord who was skilled in concealment go forward to scout the place.
Soon, that Territory Lord returned and told the others what he discovered. Strange things were happening inside the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. The wind and clouds constantly churned, causing a huge commotion, but Yang Kai was obviously still immersed in his cultivation and unaware of his surroundings.
That news made the other Territory Lords feel relieved.
In the meantime, that Seventh-Order old man laughed mockingly, “That fool is courting death by creating such a huge commotion while cultivating, but the commotion gives us cover while we prepare.”
“Enough nonsense. Hurry up and tell us what we have to do,” one of the Territory Lords asked impatiently.
Black Ink Disciples never had much of a status among the Black Ink Clan; therefore, the group consisting of only Innate Territory Lords naturally would look down on them. However, the Territory Lords didn’t act outrageously because they still needed these Black Ink Disciples to arrange the Grand Array.
That was because the Black Ink Clan had little to no aptitude in the Dao of Spirit Arrays.
“Yes, Sir.” That Seventh-Order Old man nodded and bowed before instructing them politely, “Please, come with me.”
While saying so, he took the lead and flew away.
He had already told the Territory Lords the basics of the Grand Array and even gave them a jade slip each to let them better understand it. These Territory Lords might be powerful, but it was difficult for them to understand anything about Spirit Arrays. That was why these Territory Lords still didn’t know much about the Four Gates Eight Palaces Great Pagoda Array, despite having 20 days to study it already.
If possible, that old man would rather work with the other six Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples to set up the Grand Array, not these Innate Territory Lords; however, he needed these powerful Territory Lords to enhance the Spirit Array’s power, so he was stumped.
For now, his only choice was to teach them while hoping these Territory Lords wouldn’t be too ill-tempered.
Under the Seventh-Order old man’s guidance and directions, the Territory Lords stood in pre-arranged positions while holding an Array Banner each. Then, the old man followed down the line and placed several Array Boards before arranging for the other Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples to stand in the critical Nodes.
This arrangement took them more than 10 days. The old man was tuckered out and secretly grateful to the Royal Lord for sending 20 Territory Lords over.
At first, he thought they would only need a few Territory Lords for this Spirit Array, but after arriving here, he discovered that he had greatly underestimated how vast the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land was.
In the end, they used 12 Innate Territory Lords and every Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple to seal this place up.
Luckily for them, Yang Kai, who was cultivating in the Ancestral Land, had no idea of the changes being made outside and was still immersed in his cultivation.
Once everything was ready, the old man secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He went over and stood at one of the critical Nodes of the Grand Array and with a serious expression, pulled out an Array Banner and channelled his strength into it.
Instantly, World Force surged.
Around the Void, the Grand Array’s Nodes and Array Boards hummed simultaneously while the anxious Territory Lords also inserted their strength into their Array Banners.
Following the activation and trembling of each Array Banner, the Array Boards also quickly released their aura and intertwined with them. Invisible energy appeared and passed through the place where the Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples and 12 Innate Territory Lords stood.
After 10 days of hard effort, they succeeded in activating the Grand Array.
Instantly, the Void where the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land was located was entirely enveloped by the Grand Array, isolating it from the outside world.
It was only then that the old man responsible for setting up the Spirit Array finally felt relieved. He was terrified of the possibility that Yang Kai might realise the Grand Array was being assembled before it was done. If that happened, they wouldn’t be able to trap him. Now that the Grand Array had been activated though, no matter how proficient Yang Kai was in the Dao of Space and escaping, he would have no way to flee.
The only way out was to destroy the Grand Array, but now that it enveloped the entire Ancestral Land, that would be no easy task.
The old man’s expression became stern as he used the Array Banner in his hand to inform everyone, “The Grand Array’s successful formation has caused a substantial change in the surrounding Void, so Yang Kai must have already noticed it. Sirs, please be on guard.”
If others were trapped inside the Four Gates Eight Places Great Pagoda Array, they might not sense any changes; moreover, they went with a more stable plan and used 12 Innate Territory Lords to activate this Grand Array and seal the entire Ancestral Land to guard against any unexpected events.
However, Yang Kai was different. He was proficient in the Dao of Space, and this was a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array that would isolate the inside from the outside. Such a huge commotion wouldn’t be able to escape Yang Kai’s senses.
The Territory Lords felt anxious after hearing the old man’s warning and raised their guard up while using their Divine Sense to scout their surroundings, afraid that Yang Kai might suddenly appear and attack them.
After waiting for an entire day though, they didn’t notice any suspicious movements.
They waited another day, but it was still very quiet.
The Territory Lords used their Array Banners to converse with each other secretly and were dumbfounded by what Yang Kai might be planning.
One of the Territory Lords couldn’t help asking, “Are you sure that guy is still here?”
It wasn’t their fault for doubting because if Yang Kai was here, how could he remain so idle? According to how domineering he usually treated the Black Ink Clan, he would definitely have caused a huge scene if he noticed he was sealed inside this place.
Even if he didn’t cause a commotion, he would at least show his face and not be as quiet as he was now.
There were several Territory Lords with the same doubts.
Soon, another Territory Lord’s voice came from the Array Banners, “He should be here. When I scouted this place earlier, I felt a strange change in the Ancestral Land, which is clearly his doing.”
“Did you actually see him?”
“I didn’t,” Since the Territory Lord didn’t dare to expose his whereabouts, he was very careful when scouting ahead and didn’t dare to investigate too deeply. What if he accidentally alerted Yang Kai while scouting, causing him to get suspicious and leave? He wouldn’t be able to handle the consequences.
“Let’s just wait. Maybe he’s lurking around in the dark.”
The group of Territory Lords calmed down and continued to wait.
But several more days passed and there were still no signs of Yang Kai. By now, all the Territory Lords had grown anxious. All the signs pointed to the possibility that Yang Kai might no longer be inside the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. If that was really the case, all their efforts would be for nought.
Another silent conversation was exchanged, and they decided to send someone out to investigate. They had been afraid of Yang Kai sensing their presence before, but now that the Grand Array was active, they had already revealed themselves. Therefore, it didn’t matter if they went over to investigate the situation.
However, they couldn’t reach a conclusion on who would be going.
All of them were aware of Yang Kai’s reputation, and any Territory Lord who encountered him back then had a high chance of dying once he struck out. Now, they even used a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array, which was clearly meant for him, so how could Yang Kai show mercy when they encountered each other?
Therefore, all the Territory Lords passed the responsibility among them as no one was willing to enter the Ancestral Land.
Luckily for them, the Black Ink Clan Army from the No-Return Pass, that had departed after them, had now arrived. So, the Territory Lords picked out a Feudal Lord and ordered him to lead 3,000 soldiers into the Ancestral Land.
That unlucky Feudal Lord felt bitter but couldn’t do anything but follow his orders.
Moving forward carefully, the troops soon arrived in the sky above the Ancestral Land, but before landing, the Feudal Lord sensed a suppressive force coming at him from all directions.
He had never felt this kind of sensation, and under this suppression, he found that he couldn’t circulate his Black Ink Strength as smoothly as before. Even his Feudal Lord aura had slightly decreased.
Such a change surprised him, and he quickly stopped moving before looking around.
He noticed the 3,000 Black Ink Clan soldiers he brought with him also wore uncomfortable expressions.
[Is this the suppression of the Ancestral Strength?] The Feudal Lord’s expression turned gloomy as he wondered.
Of course, he knew that the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land had Ancestral Strength; after all, the Black Ink Clan had occupied this place for thousands of years and had sent back comprehensive reports describing the Ancestral Strength in the Ancestral Land that had a certain amount of resistance to Black Ink Strength. Therefore, the Black Ink Clansmen with lower strength would feel more uncomfortable being in this place.
However, the Feudal Lord didn’t expect the suppression to be this intense. He was barely at the outskirts now and hadn’t even entered the Ancestral Land. What would happen if he dove deeper inside?
Though he was worried, he didn’t dare to disobey the orders given to him by the Territory Lords, so he could only muster up his courage and lead the Black Ink Clan soldiers to continue forward.
As the Feudal Lord expected, the closer they got to the Ancestral Land, the more obvious the suppression of their strength was. His Feudal Lord aura was constantly weakening as if there was a mysterious force suppressing the strength inside him.
When he finally arrived at the Ancestral Land, his expression had already turned extremely stern. He summoned his strength but realised that his current output was only on par with that of a High-Rank Black Ink Clansman. That omnipresent, extremely dense Ancestral Strength had actually suppressed his strength by an entire Realm.
If this was his condition, the other 3,000 Black Ink Clansmen would naturally be in an even worse state.
The lower the strength, the more obvious the suppression. There were already some Black Ink Clansmen who couldn’t stand the pain and released suppressed roars.
Meanwhile, the Feudal Lord was terrified and immediately knew that there was something off about this piece of land.
He suppressed the discomfort he was feeling and began looking around. Then, he led his army away after not finding anything.
It wasn’t until they left the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land that the feeling of suppression gradually faded. The Feudal Lord reported what happened to the Territory Lords, making all of them frown.
[Is the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land’s suppression really so powerful? How did Qing Fu and Mu Yu stand living in this place back then?]
Unfortunately, those two had undergone Source Fusion with a Black Ink Nest; otherwise, the other Territory Lords would have asked them to come over because they would certainly learn more about this situation.
“They’re dead, but there are a few Feudal Lords that escaped alive at that time. So, we’ll know the answer after asking them,” one of the Territory Lords said.
It was a plan. Among the millions of soldiers that followed them here, there were a few Feudal Lords who had previously guarded the Ancestral Land. Those Feudal Lords were called over and asked about the previous situation here. After finding out that things were completely different now, the Territory Lords were certain that, while there was previously Ancestral Strength here as well, it wasn’t nearly as dense as it was currently. It was clear that the Ancestral Land had gone through a dramatic change they knew nothing about, which was likely caused deliberately.
In other words, Yang Kai was still inside the Ancestral Land, but no one knew where he was hiding or what he was doing.
Should they keep searching for him?
Now that they had a Black Ink Clan Army that consisted of millions of Black Ink Clan soldiers, there was a huge possibility of finding Yang Kai in his hiding spot if they scattered enough people around the Ancestral Land. However, what would they do with him after finding him?
Another round of discussion later, the Territory Lords decided to just lay low and wait.
They were now very sure that Yang Kai was still inside the Ancestral land, and as long as he was here, he couldn’t run away.
Moreover, the Royal Lord had ordered them to wait for Di Wu to arrive and take over, so they would do just that. After Di Wu successfully performed the Source Fusion Technique, he became a Pseudo-Royal Lord. Now, all he needed to do was to absorb the power from the Black Ink Nest and all 13 Innate Territory Lords sacrificed before him, and he would have enough power to defeat Yang Kai.
Once a decision was made, all the Territory Lords felt relieved and waited silently.
In the meantime, Yang Kai had sunk deep into the Ancestral Land, but this wasn’t by his own doing. At first, he was just an adopted son to the Ancestral Land, the so-called Matriarch, and then he advanced into a true son after contributing something. Later, he became the Ancestral Land’s favourite son. Following that, the Ancestral Land might have sensed Yang Kai’s desire for power and decided to help him with all it could.
Yang Kai transformed into a 70,000-metre Ancient Dragon before beginning to absorb and refine as much Ancestral Strength as he could from the Ancestral Land. While refining his Dragon Vein, he was so immersed in his cultivation that he didn’t notice that his body had involuntarily sunk into the ground and arrived deep below the surface of the Ancestral Land. Yang Kai didn’t even notice signs of his body fusing with the Ancestral Land.
This phenomenon was naturally not the same as the Black Ink Clan’s Source Fusion Technique, which required devouring one another. It was as though the Matriarch had opened her arms to welcome Yang Kai into her embrace because she was trying to inject that huge amount of strength into his body.
With the constant refining of his Dragon Vein, Yang Kai noticed that the effects here were even more outstanding than those he had while cultivating in the Dragon Pool.
As Yang Kai had entirely sunk into the ground, not only did he not notice that the Black Ink Clan had set up a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array called the Four Gates Eighth Palaces Great Pagoda Array, but the Black Ink Clan who came in to look around for him also wouldn’t be able to find him.
Time passed by and Yang Kai’s fusion with the Ancestral Land was becoming stronger, like he was about to become one with it. At a certain point, his perspective seemed to entirely change, becoming both ancient and wide.
As his Dragon Vein continued to be refined, he felt a strange power seeping into his body and gradually resonating with the entire Ancestral Land.
It was the purest form of Time Dao Essence.
The Dragon Clan’s Bloodline Talent was the Dao of Time. If a Dragon Clansman’s bloodline reached a certain level of purity, they would naturally become proficient in the Dao of Time and gain the ability to use Time Principles.
Yang Kai possessing a Dragon Vein might have been a huge factor as to why he could reach such high attainments in the Dao of Time back then.
Now, the Time Dao Essence of this World seemed to have caused some kind of strange change.
Though Yang Kai still retained his consciousness, it had expanded greatly as he felt himself fuse with the Ancestral Land. The sensations of his body faded away, as he then saw a strange phenomenon.
He witnessed several Black Ink Clansmen investigating something in the Ancestral Land before leaving quickly. This wasn’t strange in and of itself, but what was odd was the scenes seemed to be occurring in reverse. Yang Kai even saw some Black Ink Clansmen walking backwards…
Next, he saw a Grand Array, which enveloped the entire Void around the Ancestral Land, disperse before several Black Ink Disciples began running around with a number of Territory Lords seemingly disassembling it.
Another two Territory Lords suddenly appeared outside of the Ancestral Land, but left after investigating what was inside. Those two Territory Lords seemed like the two he had previously released.
Yang Kai also saw the Territory Lord he killed revive from the dead. He even witnessed himself withdrawing his finger from that Territory Lord’s forehead before their battle played out in reverse.
All these scenes rapidly appeared and disappeared, but Yang Kai’s emotions remained as tranquil as an ancient wall. It was like he was a bystander who was observing what had happened in the Ancestral Land. Even watching himself kill that Territory Lord didn’t draw any kind of reaction from him.
At that moment, Yang Kai suddenly realised that he was going back in time.
The Dao of Time was profound and mysterious. Since ancient times, there were very few cultivators who cultivated this Grand Dao. Cultivators of the Dao of Time were even fewer than cultivators of the Dao of Space.
Only the Dragon Clan, who had their Bloodline Talent, would reliably become extremely gifted in the Dao of Time.
Back when Yang Kai was outside the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, he used his Sun and Moon Divine Wheel to shatter Space-Time and glimpse the future. Later, everything that happened proved that what he saw was real.
However, that opportunity was an accidental coincidence. Yang Kai had tried using the Sun and Moon Divine Wheel again, but never saw the future in that way again.
That experience led him to understand that if he could master the Dao of Time to its extreme, he might be able to peer into the future. Moreover, the ability to foresee the future was definitely a great method to avoid danger.
The truth was that, once a cultivator’s cultivation reached a certain level, they would naturally have a bit of prophetic ability, allowing them to sense danger and crisis before they happened. But without the Dao of Time, they couldn’t see the future and would only have vague intuitions.
Since the Dao of Time could allow a cultivator to foresee the future, of course, it could allow them to see the past. Time flowed from the beginning of the Universe, through ancient times to the present, and continued flowing towards the end of all things. Therefore, if one glanced at where the river was flowing, they could see the future, while looking back would allow one to see the past.
Though Yang Kai’s attainments in the Dao of Time weren’t low, possibly even among the best in the vast world, when it came to mysterious matters such as the past, the future, and even the nature of time itself, he was still fairly clueless about them.
Just like this time, he had unknowingly triggered the rewinding of time in the Ancestral Land.
This rewinding of time wasn’t like he was travelling to the past, because the flow of time in the Ancestral Land remained unchanged. After Yang Kai fused with the Ancestral Land, he simply became a bystander who was observing the reverse flow of time in this land.
Such a strange encounter must have some sort of connection with him being a Dragon Clan member and the fact that the Ancestral Land was pampering him. All these factors combined led to this astonishing development.
Yang Kai should have been extremely happy to encounter such an opportunity, but he didn’t feel any changes in his emotions. It was as if he had completely turned into the Ancestral Land and had become restrained and emotionless. Also, this act of rewinding time was just this piece of land silently reminiscing about the past.
But all of that didn’t stop Yang Kai from receiving benefits.
Following each passing breath, Yang Kai found his understanding of the Dao of Time increasing slightly. This kind of comprehension differed slightly from what he received by refining Temporal Rivers back in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon. Temporal Rivers were filled with Time Dao Essence and Strength, so Yang Kai naturally could increase his attainments in the Dao of Time by refining and absorbing them into his Small Universe. However, that was only refining external energy.
By fusing with the Ancestral Land, Yang Kai was now experiencing this mysterious land reminiscing about its past like he was thinking back to his own life’s experience. Of course, those were illusions as the one with these memories was the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. Yang Kai’s current situation was more like using his body to replace that of the Ancestral land, but this change didn’t hinder Yang Kai from obtaining benefits.
Yang Kai silently comprehended what was happening, and his emotions completely calmed, disregarding the changes in time and other things happening outside.
Inside the Ancestral Land, that dense Ancestral Strength kept surging and flowed towards one spot.
Meanwhile, the Black Ink Clan Army outside the Ancestral Land stood there with their guards up. The 20 Innate Territory Lords and several Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples treated this situation seriously and kept the Grand Array activated, sealing everything inside.
Time gradually passed, and about two years later, an extremely fierce aura sped over from the far-off void, causing the Innate Territory Lords to look in that direction with shocked expressions.
Di Wu had finally arrived!
He had absorbed the power of a High-Rank Black Ink Nest and 13 Territory Lords who had sacrificed themselves to it. Naturally, he needed quite some time to refine everything and consolidate his new strength.
Fortunately for him, the others had sealed this place with a Grand Array so that Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to escape; therefore, he wasn’t in much of a hurry.
Also, this counted as the first time the Black Ink Clan produced a Pseudo-Royal Lord with the Source Fusion Technique, so the other Territory Lords were naturally curious about Di Wu’s condition.
After they briefly probed Di Wu, the Territory Lords all turned grim.
That was because Di Wu had a blaring aura. By comparing only their auras, Di Wu seemed to have the strength of a real Royal Lord, but all of the Territory Lords knew that this was just an illusion.
The reason Di Wu’s aura was so pronounced was that he could not control it.
Royal Lords didn’t wantonly release their aura because they could perfectly control their strength. Therefore, the rampaging aura was a sign that Di Wu couldn’t actually handle his current power properly.
It was obvious from this situation that no matter how strong an Innate Territory Lord was, and what methods they used to bypass their innate shackles, there was still an absolute limit. Even though Di Wu had received a power that was far above his original strength and had two years to adapt to it, it was still hard for him to fully control himself. Perhaps it would be impossible for him to gain full control over that power in his lifetime, or else he wouldn’t be regarded as a Pseudo-Royal Lord. Rather, he would be a true Royal Lord.
Despite knowing all that, the Innate Territory Lords were still envious of Di Wu because their strength had been fixed since their birth. Who wouldn’t want to become stronger?
Especially when there was an unavoidable final battle between the Black Ink Clan and Humans brewing. More power meant better protection for oneself when facing the catastrophe that was about to sweep through the entire Universe.
It was a pity that the others could only admire Di Wu because the birth of a Pseudo-Royal Lord meant that a High-Rank Black Ink Nest and more than a dozen Innate Territory Lords had to be sacrificed through the Source Fusion Technique. The Black Ink Clan could not create a large amount of Pseudo-Royal Lords unless they were in a desperate situation, and even then, it was doubtful if such sacrifice would be worth the gains.
A while later, a deep, dark cloud arrived before them. Even the Innate Territory Lords couldn’t see Di Wu’s appearance because he was enveloped in extremely dense Black Ink Strength. The shocking momentum and murderous intent coming from the Black Ink Cloud made the Territory Lords even warier.
When Di Wu was still a Territory Lord, he was more of a staid individual, but now, he was like a caged Ominous Beast that had broken free, wanting to devour every person he saw.
“Where is he?” Di Wu’s raspy voice came from within the cloud.
The Territory Lord nearest to him quickly pointed in a specific direction, “He should still be inside the Ancestral Land.”
Once that was said, the Black Ink Cloud immediately shot towards the ground. A short while later, a violent vibration seemed to have come from below, accompanied by Di Wu’s angry roar, “Come out!”
The World shook, and the wild shockwave made the Void itself tremble. Even the Grand Array was slightly affected, forcing the Territory Lords to channel more strength to stabilise it quickly.
Inside the Ancestral Land, the Black Ink Cloud seemed like a rampant child as it continuously released the huge power it suddenly acquired.
Soon, Di Wu, who was inside the Black Ink Cloud, noticed something strange.
He clearly felt a dense ill-will coming from all directions, like the World itself was rejecting his presence.
It wouldn’t have bothered him if that was all, but this strange Will also had the power to suppress his strength!
Ancestral Strength!
Of course, Di Wu wouldn’t be unaware of the most primitive strength of the Divine Spirits. It was just that he had never visited the Ancestral Land before and never anticipated that the Ancestral Strength here would be so dense.
Being a Pseudo-Royal Lord, even if he couldn’t completely control his strength, dealing with an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Master like Yang Kai shouldn’t have been a problem.
However, the dense Ancestral Strength here suppressed almost half of Di Wu’s strength, leaving him only slightly stronger than he originally was as an Innate Territory Lord.
Knowing Yang Kai’s ferocious reputation and ridiculous strength, Di Wu wasn’t confident that he could win against him with such a limitation placed on him.
He came here with full confidence, but now he was suddenly worried, which was quite embarrassing. In this situation, not only might he fail to kill Yang Kai, but he was actually at risk of being the one killed.
Looking around, he had a serious face as he prepared himself for Yang Kai’s sudden appearance.
Luckily for him, there weren’t any movements around him.
Frowning, he began investigating his surroundings.
He found that all the Ancestral Strength on this land was gathering in one direction.
[Is that bastard still cultivating?] Di Wu vaguely muttered to himself after reaching his own conclusion.
Under normal circumstances, he would have interrupted Yang Kai’s cultivation no matter what because, as an enemy, he couldn’t just sit and watch Yang Kai become stronger. That killing star was already too strong, so what benefit would there be to let him grow stronger?
However, Di Wu currently had another plan.
Since Yang Kai was busy devouring the Ancestral Strength to cultivate, perhaps he should just let him be; after all, this land couldn’t have an infinite amount of Ancestral Strength. Therefore, the longer Yang Kai cultivated, the less Ancestral Strength there would be. Once all the Ancestral Strength here had been depleted, there would be nothing suppressing the Black Ink Clan’s strength, and by that time, he could exert his full power.
Although Yang Kai would also become stronger, as long as he didn’t break through to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm, Di Wu was confident that he could defeat Yang Kai.
Could Yang Kai break through to the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm?
The answer was no. This man had reached his limit at the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm; the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t mess up such a critical piece of intelligence, or else they wouldn’t have agreed to negotiate with the Humans.
Once he decided, Di Wu didn’t remain any longer and flew up into the sky, heading back towards the Grand Array.
When he returned, many pairs of eyes fell on him, which made him feel a little embarrassed. Luckily, he was hiding inside a thick Black Ink Cloud, so the other Territory Lords couldn’t see his face.
“I haven’t mastered my current strength, so I’ll let him live a while longer and head over to kill him once I’ve become better familiarised with myself!”
It was clearly an excuse, and the Territory Lords all knew what Di Wu was thinking. They secretly snickered, but didn’t dare to show anything on the surface, “Sir Di Wu, you’re the one in charge. We will keep a close watch on Yang Kai’s movements.”
Di Wu nodded lightly, “Inform me immediately if there are any changes!”
After saying that, he shot to the side and silently began familiarising himself with his strength. Despite spending two years devouring the strength from the Black Ink Nest and 13 Territory Lords, this wasn’t strength he had built up through his own efforts, so it was somewhat incompatible with him and rioted regularly. That was also one of the reasons he could not stop releasing his aura.
If he let Yang Kai continue to cultivate, he could also gradually polish the strength that didn’t belong to him and make himself stronger.
At the same time, in the depths of the Ancestral Land, Yang Kai was still looking into the past while fusing with the Ancestral Land’s aura. But a moment ago, there seemed to be a kind of external force that almost interrupted his cultivation.
Fortunately, the interruption ended as swiftly as it arrived.
In the meantime, the Ancestral Land’s time had rewound to almost thousands of years ago, and Yang Kai saw incidents that happened then.
Once again, he saw himself moving around the Ancestral Land.
That scene was when he first arrived at the Ancestral Land. Back then, the Kun Clan had forced him to open the land that had been sealed for ages, and it was also the first time he saw a Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
Everything was going backwards as the time rewound while Yang Kai, the bystander, watched everything that made the Ancestral Land what it was today.
At the same time, the omnipresent Ancestral Strength was still continuously flowing into his Dragon Form, causing his Dragon Vein to constantly grow stronger.
His original Dragon Form was 70,000 metres long, and his Dragon Clan bloodline was extremely pure. At that point, it would have been difficult for him to refine his Dragon Vein further without massive amounts of time. That was why his Dragon Form only grew about 1,000 metres after leaving the Dragon Pool.
In such a state, only by returning to the Dragon Pool to cultivate would he have any possibility of quickly improving his Dragon Vein.
But now, his Dragon Form was obviously changing as he continued to absorb more Ancestral Strength. As his Dragon Vein grew stronger, so did his attainment in the Dao of Time, which then increased the speed at which time was being rewound.
For the first two years, the Ancestral Land only rewound through some 40,000 or so years. In the following two years, 50,000 years passed by. Two more years later, 60,000 years…
Yang Kai had now witnessed historical moments that happened in the Ancestral Land over multiple millennia and soon even reached the incident during the Late Ancient Era where the Third Generation Dragon Emperor and the Phoenix Empress made a blood sacrifice to seal the Black Ink Giant Spirit God.
After watching that incident, Yang Kai became even more silent.
This review of time was now significantly longer than when he was cultivating in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, as he had only spent some 4,000 years there. This journey back through the Ancestral Land’s past had lasted millions of years already, and he might need to spend a similar amount of time to return to the present!
Outside the Ancestral Land, the Black Ink Clan’s Four Gates Eight Palaces Great Pagoda Array was still operating. Since no external forces were attacking this Grand Array, the Territory Lords only had to keep it active, which didn’t require much strength at all, so they didn’t feel tired.
However, they didn’t dare to slack off. It had now been several decades since they first set up this Grand Array, but they hadn’t seen any traces of Yang Kai. Only the continuous surging of Ancestral Strength below indicated that Yang Kai was still cultivating.
At the same time, Di Wu had been familiarising himself with his strength. After the time he ignorantly barged into the Ancestral Land and caused a commotion, he didn’t dare to step foot into the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land again.
He couldn’t use his full strength under the suppression of the rich Ancestral Strength and was afraid of encountering Yang Kai under such conditions; therefore, he could only stall for time, hoping that the Ancestral Land would someday be depleted of Ancestral Strength.
During these dozens of years, though he didn’t personally head back inside, he had ordered the Territory Lords to head inside the Ancestral Land to check the situation. However, the reports he received were disturbing. Even though several dozen years had passed, the Ancestral Strength was showing no signs of being depleted. It was as if this mysterious energy was completely inexhaustible.
The Royal Lord had sent people over from the No-Return Pass to check on them a few times. Di Wu didn’t dare lie, so he reported everything that happened honestly. The Royal Lord wasn’t upset with him though and only instructed him to wait for the perfect opportunity. When the time came, he had to kill Yang Kai in the Ancestral Land. In that sense, the Royal Lord wasn’t worried about waiting.
After getting the Royal Lord’s reply, Di Wu felt more assured and was filled with determination as he waited.
100 years passed, but the situation inside the Ancestral Land remained unchanged. By now, Yang Kai had rewound through untold ages. Currently, he was witnessing an abundance of Divine Spirits in the Ancestral Land. There were even some species that Yang Kai had never seen or heard of before. This was during the Early Ancient Era when the Monster Race ruled the Universe and the Divine Spirits’ glory had faded. Despite that fact, the Ancestral Land was still a paradise for the Divine Spirits.
Rewinding further, he witnessed an unimaginably huge battle that happened in the Ancestral Land. That battle was an internal struggle between Divine Spirits. Those large bodies were as tall as the sky and broad as the Earth, and during that period, the Ancestral Land was actually far broader than what it was now.
That war resulted in many Divine Spirit species, and an enormous amount of Divine Spirit Sources, shattering. Even a vast stretch of the Ancestral Land was destroyed.
Further back was the Primordial Era.
This was the time when the Divine Spirits ruled, and it was also when they were at their prime. They were so strong they were practically invincible. If they hadn’t gone through that internal war, the Monster Race wouldn’t have had a chance to rise up.
Yang Kai suddenly had a strange feeling, like he was witnessing something unfathomable. That feeling started vague, but as time passed and the longer he witnessed the Ancestral Land’s reverse evolution, the more that feeling became obvious.
At this moment, the rewinding of time was extremely fast, and many scenes were rushing by as though they were only flashes of memory. If Yang Kai hadn’t become one with the Ancestral Land and was currently relying on it to look back in time, he wouldn’t have been able to see those scenes at all.
It wasn’t until one moment that all the Divine Spirits on the Ancestral Land had completely disappeared, and the entire land was filled with an ancient and barbaric aura that a bright light flashed across the land before everything returned to stillness.
Yang Kai felt his heart skip a beat as he suddenly felt anxious. Then, for the first time, he took the initiative to activate the Time Principles to affect the huge Ancestral Land.
The rate of time rewinding slowly and gradually came to a stop.
It was then that Yang Kai was able to get a closer look at this land.
The Ancestral Land of this Era was different from all other Eras because this was what it looked like before Divine Spirits and Ancestral Strength existed.
In this era, the Ancestral land was only a vast, empty expanse. Such an ordinary World could be found everywhere in the 3,000 Worlds of this time.
Yang Kai didn’t see the bright light from before and knew he had gone too far back in time. After that realization, he couldn’t help but feel anxious as he vaguely felt he had missed something of critical importance.
It was meaningless to continue looking back in time as the Ancestral Land was now just an ordinary continent. Yang Kai wouldn’t be able to get any new information if he just let things proceed.
How this continent became the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land was the most important piece of information, and that bright light that flashed past just now…
Yang Kai immediately surged his Time Principles, making the Ancestral Land lock onto that specific time and dig into the memories branded deep inside it.
Slowly, time began to flow again, but this time, it wasn’t flowing backwards but forwards from the point at which Yang Kai had stopped!
The vast and barren land was quiet and without any vitality except the lush green forests.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the sky and illuminated everything. The light was so bright that it lit up every part of the continent that would be the Ancestral Land.
When Yang Kai was rewinding the time, he caught a glimpse of the Primordial Light, but it flashed by so fast that even he couldn’t be sure he could capture its true appearance. That was why he decided to use Time Principles to take a closer look.
Never had he seen such a bright and powerful light. It was as if all the colours in existence had combined into this ball of light but didn’t fuse. Every colour was radiating its own glow.
This scene made Yang Kai subconsciously think of the Primordial Light he had been searching for!
Yang Kai suddenly had the urge to laugh. He had spent hundreds of years visiting one Great Territory after another, trying to find any trace of the Primordial Light only to come up empty. Then, he came to the Ancestral Land and decided to abandon his search. However, he didn’t expect that he would be able to see the Primordial Light while looking into the Ancestral Land’s past!
How could he have stumbled upon such fortune?
After thinking about it, Yang Kai thought this was a pre-ordained result.
Since the Primordial Light had a close connection to the Burning Light, Serene Glimmer, and all Divine Spirits, of course, Yang Kai would see something related to it in the Ancestral Land’s past.
This was also why Yang Kai came to the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land in the first place. But he didn’t expect that the connection would be so direct and that he would manage to see the Primordial Light’s actual form while rewinding time.
This was certainly the most important moment for this World, so Yang Kai focused all his attention and carefully observed what happened, not daring to miss the slightest detail.
He had a feeling that he might be able to solve many mysteries surrounding the Primordial Light today.
However, an external force suddenly attacked at that moment, surprising Yang Kai and almost severing him from this strange situation.
Yang Kai was shocked and quickly calmed himself down before focusing his attention on controlling Time Principles to make time flow forward faster.
He didn’t know what was happening outside and only knew that he had seen the Black Ink Clan set up some sort of Grand Array outside the Ancestral Land when he just began peering into the past. Therefore, he suspected that the external attacking force might have something to do with the Black Ink Clan.
If he didn’t speed things up, there was a huge possibility that he would be completely interrupted and forced out of this mysterious state, which was naturally something he couldn’t accept.
It had been extremely difficult for him to come this far, so she couldn’t stop at the cusp of success, only to return empty-handed.
He quickly felt rage rising up inside him, but the destabilization of his mood seemed to disrupt his state of mind even further, so he quickly calmed himself and discarded all distracting thoughts.
Soon, he saw the bright light sweeping down from the void. Thousands of colours flickered within the light, making for a beautiful sight. That light was flawless, just as one would expect from the first light in this World.
However, Yang Kai soon noticed that the Primordial Light was extremely unstable. The countless colours within the light were in conflict with each other, and even the light’s true form showed signs of collapsing.
After observing it for a while, Yang Kai realised that this was the Primordial Light after it had separated out the powers of the Yang and Yin. It already had some deficiencies, so it was no longer in its perfect state!
Before coming here, the Primordial Light had lost the power of the Yang and Yin. After countless years of confusion and silence, those two most fundamental energies would transform into the Burning Light and Serene Glimmer. Since those two had conflicting powers, they then unconsciously created the Chaotic Dead Territory.
How could the Primordial Light maintain stability when it had lost its two most fundamental energies?
In a blink of an eye, the Primordial Light ruthlessly crashed down onto the most primitive continent from billions of kilometres away. At that instant, the light enveloped every inch of the Ancestral Lad, and the thousands of different colours splashed out across the World.