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Translator: Silavin & June
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
“Good! It appears that they are also aware of the severity of the situation and will not be a hindrance,” Zhong Liang replied solemnly, “Pass down my order. With the reinforcements from the other three armies, we will launch a full offensive!”
The four armies of Blue Sky Pass were organised into four defensive lines. This was a traditional formation that had not changed in hundreds of thousands of years. There were of course instances where one Army would require help from another, but in general, each Army functioned separately in order to hold their own defence line and repel the Black Ink Clan.
This time, however, in order to save Yang Kai from the chaotic battlefield, Zhong Liang couldn’t care less. So, he notified Ding Yao, Liang Yu Long, and Shen Tu Mo to send some of their forces here to assist him so he could bring Yang Kai back.
The other Army Commanders were shocked when they heard the news. They cursed Yang Kai for being so foolish to sneak out to the battlefield. Worse, no one knew where he was, or even whether he was still alive or not.
Still, as the only user of Purifying Light, his existence was critical to the entire Blue Sky Pass and even the Human Race as a whole. He could not be allowed to die.
The other three Army Commanders severely reprimanded Zhong Liang as they responded to him, blaming him for his lack of supervision. They then immediately made adjustments to their forces to send a portion of them back to the Inner Sanctum so that they could rush from there to the Western Army defence line to rescue Yang Kai, who was on the Western Army’s battlefield.
This was the safest option; otherwise, it would be too tough for reinforcements from the three Armies to fight their way to the Western front.
There were always more than 30,000 people in Blue Sky Pass, and each army contained around 8,000 each. The size of the force was more than enough to deal with the Black Ink Clan’s siege, but as a result of the Army being split up, the battle at the other three fronts grew increasingly tense.
The three Army Commanders did not hesitate to send around 30% of their forces to provide reinforcements, which essentially doubled the amount of troops there were on the Western front.
These Masters, who had returned, were presently gathered in Blue Sky Pass’ main square. The mission was unknown to them, but each Division Commander had already been given instructions.
‘Do whatever it takes to locate Yang Kai on the battlefield and ensure that he is brought back safely!’
In the meantime, the Eastern, Southern, and Northern Armies all gave up on their advantages on the battlefield and pulled back to the area around Blue Sky Pass. By shrinking their outer perimeter, they ensured that even with fewer forces, they could hold the line, especially with the assistance of Blue Sky Pass’ own defensive armaments. However, this mission had to be completed quickly to avoid any accidents taking place.
The Black Ink Clan saw what happened, and the Territory Lords in charge of the Black Ink Clan Army were perplexed by this. They had no idea why the Human forces had abruptly reduced by so much; however, given this opportunity, they would undoubtedly make the most of it. In mere moments, Blue Sky Pass was tightly surrounded on three fronts.
As for the Western Army, Zhong Liang, who had already ascertained Yang Kai’s whereabouts, instantly killed his way out of the Inner Sanctum, directing Feng Ying in that direction.
But, as soon as Zhong Liang emerged, he was met by a Black Ink Clansman with a powerful aura. The tall and imposing figure was obviously a Territory Lord with immense Black Ink Strength.
Because Zhong Liang foresaw this scenario, he had borrowed men from the other three Armies.
The lethality and deterrent of Eighth-Order Masters was outstanding on the battlefield, so the Territory Lords would obviously not remain silent once such a Master appeared. Those with weaker cultivations would have no means to intervene in a battle between such powerhouses.
Similarly, the Eighth-Order Masters on the Human side would do the same once a Territory Lord was sent out by the Black Ink Clan. The two parties had essentially come to an unspoken agreement about such things after battling for so long.
“Go!” Zhong Liang commanded Feng Ying as he cast a gaze across the battlefield and fixed a glare on the Territory Lord who was heading in his direction.
Feng Ying nodded. Though she had killed a Territory Lord once before, that was only because that Territory Lord was already seriously exhausted and injured, and had been further wounded by Yang Kai’s Purifying Light. If she really encountered a Territory Lord herself, she would definitely not be his opponent. Furthermore, she had something more important to do, which was to bring Yang Kai back safely.
“Be careful, Martial Uncle!” Holding a razor-sharp sword, Feng Ying charged into the battle. From behind her came a powerful clash of power as Zhong Liang engaged the Territory Lord somewhere in the void.
As soon as the two Masters clashed, a radius of several thousand kilometres around them was evacuated as neither side dared to approach them. This was a battlefield solely for the two of them!
Warships and Masters surged towards the Black Ink Clan’s lines as a dozen Eighth-Order Masters also rushed out from behind the surging Western Army.
The Humans became increasingly aggressive, stunning the Black Ink Clan. For many months now, the Humans had been entirely on the defensive and never launched counter-attacks unless they had a decisive advantage.
This was certainly not the situation right now, though, so the Black Ink Clan were quite confused about the Human Master’s thinking.
The Black Ink Clan still responded swiftly when they noticed several Division Commanders being sent out against them. Territory Lords from the Blank Ink Clan’s rear appeared one after another to meet the enemy.
Eyes from the two sides of Great Experts clashed in the void, unleashing endless murderous intent.
Only a moment later, the Eighth-Order Division Commanders and the Territory Lords clashed. Divine Abilities and Secret Techniques bloomed, and the universe trembled as figures transformed into streams of light and surged towards one another.
However, the Human side was undoubtedly at a disadvantage due to the imbalance in the numbers, with some Division Commanders having to engage two Territory Lords at once. Zhong Liang experienced a similar situation. He was quickly met by a Territory Lord as soon as he stepped onto the battlefield, but it was not long before another Territory Lord emerged and joined the fight.
The Human side had always had a disadvantage when it came to numbers against the Black Ink Clan though, so all the Eighth-Order Masters had experienced fighting two enemies at once.
Deep into the battlefield, Yang Kai silently slaughtered enemies around him.
He came to advance to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm, and for this reason, he deliberately made up an excuse to deceive Feng Ying and used others to sneak out of Blue Sky Pass.
However, when he arrived on the battlefield and became completely immersed in the fight, he had no time to ponder on his breakthrough. All he could do was focus and give it his all in battle.
He cooperated with the four Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters nearby and it was not long before the number of Blank Ink Clansmen that died at his hands became countless.
Initially, the old man was worried that Yang Kai couldn’t keep up with their pace and intensity, but as time passed, he surprisingly found that though Yang Kai was a mere Sixth-Order Master, his headcount was not lesser than theirs. Moreover, he seemed to have no trouble keeping up with and even coordinating with them.
They worked together as if they had been comrades for years.
This realization made the old man and others feel relieved, and soon they simply considered him another Seventh-Order Master.
Yang Kai, fighting on this battlefield, soon discovered a peculiarity. Under the premise of them being in the same realm, the average strength of a Black Ink Clansman was weaker than that of a Human Master.
Yang Kai, for instance, easily butchered many High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen that were equivalent to Sixth-Order Masters; however, none of these enemies was on par with the Sixth-Order Masters he knew.
In Void Land, there were plenty of Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters with varying depths of heritage. As a result, their strength varied greatly as well. Nevertheless, none of the High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen here would be a match for even the weakest Sixth-Order Master in Void Land.
In fact, Yang Kai first became aware of this issue when he was following Feng Ying back to Blue Sky Pass; however, at the time, he paid little attention to it. Back then, before he could even take action, the majority of Black Ink Clansmen would be dealt with by Feng Ying and the others while he focused on saving Black Ink Disciples. Thus, at that time, he only at best cleaned up the leftovers.
Prior to that, Yang Kai had pretended to be a Black Ink Disciple for two years, so he had not fought any of them during that time.
It was only now that Yang Kai was able to confirm his original suspicions.
Even so, until now, he had only fought those below the Black Ink Feudal Lords, so he did not know whether this trend was consistent among the stronger Black Ink Clan Masters.
“Watch out, the Feudal Lords are going to launch an attack!” A cry was heard from the beautiful woman.
Yang Kai’s heart clenched upon hearing that. Wasn’t this the moment he had been looking for?
This was the first time he participated on the defensive side of the war between the two races, so he didn’t know much about the situation on the battlefield. On the other hand, the old man and his comrades were very clear that the higher ranking a Black Ink Clansman was, the less they cared about their lower clansmen’s life or death.
Every time the two races fought, the Black Ink Clan would send forth its weaker members to wear down the Human Army. Only after grinding down the Human’s strength would the real Masters from the Black Ink Clan show up in an attempt to catch the enemy off guard.
The old man and the others had been fighting for about two hours already, yet they had not encountered a single Feudal Lord during this time. It was clear what the enemy was up to.
As soon as the word came out, a figure suddenly rushed out from a dense Black Ink Cloud close to the old man.
The old man frowned before extending his hand and directly charging towards the approaching enemy.
The Feudal Lords, who had been hiding all this while, all took action simultaneously, emerging from the Black Ink Clouds to launch an ambush. The middle-aged man, young man, and beautiful woman were instantly pinned down. To top it all off, the middle-aged man was actually caught between two powerful enemies.
Several Feudal Lords rushed towards the warship and began bombarding it. However, the Humans had long gotten used to dealing with such tactics. Furthermore, warships were all refined with this exact situation in mind, so even without any High-Rank Master on board, with the aid of powerful defensive and offensive artifacts, the weaker Human Masters could still hold off such an assault.
The Black Ink Clan immediately became fiercely entangled with the Battalion, Yang Kai was accompanying.
Suddenly, a rather slender female Black Ink Clansman leapt out of a large group of enemies and sent a palm strike out at Yang Kai.
Caught off guard, Yang Kai was sent tumbling by this sudden attack. The next moment, he frowned as he realised that this female Black Ink Clansman was actually a Feudal Lord!
Apparently, she had hidden in the group of Black Ink Clansmen previously while concealing her strength, causing Yang Kai to not notice her until she struck.
Yo
Thanks for the chapter
I’m still a bit confused about this hole “pass” situation. Shouldn’t a pass be blocking off the enemy from further advancing? But if those passes are always surrounded by the enemy on all sides, clearly the enemy could just go by them further towards the no-return pass?