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Translator: Silavin & Tia
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The figure of the Yin-Yang Pass Old Ancestor stood alone in the middle of the battlefield. Several ignorant and fearless Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen charged towards her; however, her sharp aura alone was enough to cause them to explode into mist before they could even approach her.
Her gaze swept lightly in the direction that Zhe Chong had escaped, and the corners of her mouth curled into a slight smile.
Xiang Shan had asked her to allow one of the Territory Lords to escape so that the Royal Lord would be informed of their presence. She had initially wondered how she could seamlessly succeed at something like that.
For a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master like her, it was not easy for her to pull off such a trick as the gap in strength was too large. If her actions were too obvious, they would only arouse suspicion.
She never imagined that there would be a Territory Lord who did not step into the universe fragments at all. Moreover, he immediately decided to flee as soon as he detected her aura. It was undoubtedly an outcome that she was happy to see, so she simply pretended not to notice his presence.
Out of the dozen Territory Lords, she only needed to allow one to escape. The rest… would die without exception!
Xiang Shan had mentioned that the primary goal of Great Evolution Army was not to recover Great Evolution Pass but to beat the Great Evolution Theatre Black Ink Clan half to death. Only then would they gain the opportunity to build a stable foothold at Great Evolution Pass.
The deaths of 300,000 troops and nearly a dozen Territory Lords was probably not a small loss to the Black Ink Clan of the Great Evolution Theatre.
The more opportunities the Human Army had to weaken the forces of the Black Ink Clan, the lesser the pressure they would face when they arrived at the Great Evolution Theatre in the future.
After confirming that the Territory Lord had escaped into the distance, the Old Ancestor no longer held back and cast a Divine Ability. An enormous Yin-Yang Fish manifested behind her, its black and white colours enveloping the entire battlefield with herself as the centre.
The Human Race Army caught up in the Divine Ability was not affected in any way, but the Black Ink Clan felt like they were sinking into a quagmire. Their figures seemed to become stagnant and the strength of those below the Feudal Lords was reduced by some 30%. Even the Feudal Lords were considerably weakened; only the Territory Lords seemed unaffected.
That was not to say that the Old Ancestor’s Divine Ability was ineffective towards the Territory Lords, it was just that the range she cast it over was too large, so the effects of its suppression on the Territory Lords were minimal.
Even without the suppression from this Divine Ability though, the Territory Lords were caught in a terrible situation.
There were 3 to 5 Eighth-Order Masters surrounding each Territory Lord to begin with, so which one of them withstand the countless Divine Abilities and Secret Techniques that came raining down on them?
Only half of the Eighth-Order Masters were tasked with attacking the Territory Lords. The other 30 were moving back and forth across the battlefield, working together with the troops to reap the lives of the Black Ink Clan to their hearts’ content. Everywhere these Eighth-Order Masters went, their presence would give rise to a reign of terror. The Black Ink Clan were mowed down in droves, like harvesting wheat in a field.
The battle began hastily, and the ambush was rather imperfect, but nevertheless, with the help of the 30 Eighth-Order Masters, the Human Army of 30,000 obtained a crushing victory over the Black Ink Clan.
Even so, the reaction of the Black Ink Clan puzzled many people.
In the beginning, these Black Ink Clansmen had shown no fear towards the Humans regardless of their cultivation. Even the Low-Rank Clansmen had charged towards the Humans without any scruples. Forget the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, many Black Ink Clansmen even dared to attack the Old Ancestor.
The reason for this situation naturally stemmed from the fact that these Black Ink Clansmen came from the Great Evolution Theatre and most of them had never fought with the Human Race before.
Every time Great Evolution Theatre provided reinforcements to attack Wind and Cloud Army, only the Territory Lords who led the Army and some lucky Feudal Lords would return alive. The rest generally died on the battlefield. Consequently, many of the Black Ink Clansmen had never experienced a battle against the Humans before.
However, they were the Black Ink Clan from Great Evolution Theatre. Their ancestors were the only ones who successfully seized one of the Great Passes. Almost all the Black Ink Clansmen below the Feudal Lords believed that the Human Race was extremely weak. That was why the Black Ink Clan Army of 300,000 had bravely fought back despite being ambushed and severely outmatched.
As time passed though, and the number of clansmen decreased, they finally realised that the information passed down from ancient times did not match up to reality.
The Humans were not as weak as the rumours claimed. It turned out that every one of them was extremely strong. Not to mention, they could borrow the power of large artifacts that came in varying shapes and sizes to fight. As long as the defences of these artifacts remained intact, the Black Ink Clan could barely cause any damage towards them.
After about half of the Army had died in battle, the Black Ink Clan finally understood their situation. The Humans seemed to be much fewer in number, but they were still a force they could not compete with.
Unfortunately, the realisation had come too late. Under the command of Xiang Shan and Liu Zhi Ping, the entire universe fragment field had already turned into a perfect encirclement. Aside from the 30,000 or so Black Ink Clansmen who had originally been outside the ambush zone, the remaining Black Ink Clan Army no longer had the opportunity to flee even if they wanted to. What followed next was a one-sided massacre!
All the Territory Lords quickly fell in battle, leaving the surviving Black Ink Clansmen leaderless. They all fought independently, resulting in an extremely chaotic situation.
On the other hand, the Human Army had dozens of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and even an Old Ancestor assuming command. It was only natural that they would hold the absolute advantage.
In just one day, the Black Ink Clan Army was completely obliterated. All the universe fragments in the nearby void had been shattered to dust. Severed limbs and hashed meat were everywhere. Dense Black Ink Strength had condensed together to form an enormous Black Ink Cloud that filled a vast swath of the void. Looking out into the distance, the entire scene resembled a dark shadow.
The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies gathered outside the Black Ink Cloud; however, they did not rush to set off immediately and decided to stop to rest and recover instead.
Since Xiang Shan had decided to alert the enemy of their presence, it stood to reason that he would need to give the Black Ink Clan enough time to react, so there was no need to rush.
The Territory Lord who escaped needed a head-start. Although there was no knowing how he would report the situation back to the Royal Lord, the Royal Lord would surely realise that something was wrong as long as he was not a fool. For example, where did the Human Race Army come from and where were they going?
The battle situation at Wind and Cloud Pass would have been reported to the Great Evolution Theatre’s Royal Lord via the Black Ink Nest by now, so when the Territory Lord who escaped earlier reported the current situation to the Royal Lord, the latter would surely understand the intentions of the Great Evolution Army.
The reason for the Human’s decision to stop and reorganise was to give the Black Ink Clan some time to make the necessary arrangements.
The Great Evolution Army’s losses in this battle were minimal; after all, the difference in combat power between the two sides was immense. Once again, the Warships played a huge role in limiting the number of casualties to the hundreds.
An Army of 30,000 troops had defeated 300,000 enemies, yet they only suffered a few hundred casualties. The losses could be considered negligible.
Meanwhile, Zhe Chong fled at the speed of lightning. Never before had he ever felt death so close to him. He had practically believed that he was as good as dead when he saw the Old Ancestor appearing on the battlefield.
Fortunately, it seemed luck was on his side. The Old Ancestor did not seem to have noticed him in the first place. Following his escape, a few tens of thousands of Black Ink Clansmen outside the Human ambush had scattered everywhere, which provided him with a good cover to conceal his tracks.
Be that as it may, Zhe Chong remained extremely uneasy. He was terribly afraid that the Old Ancestor would pursue him. If that were the case, then he could only resign himself to his death. It was fortunate that there were no signs of pursuit coming from behind.
On any battlefield, fleeing was a huge crime. Zhe Chong was sure he would be punished upon his return, but he couldn’t care less about such things at this moment. He simply wanted to inform the Royal Lord about the current crisis as soon as possible.
The Human Race was acting very differently from the usual. He did not know what they were planning, but he was certain the Royal Lord would know.
After escaping for a month, Zhe Chong finally felt relieved and became certain that the Old Ancestor was not chasing after him; otherwise, he would have been caught by now. The other Black Ink Clansmen who escaped with him had been left behind, but he didn’t care about their survival. At this moment, he was simply trying to return to the Great Evolution Theatre as quickly as possible.
Back at the original battlefield, Great Evolution’s Eastern and Western Armies spent some time recovering. According to the orders passed down from the higher-ups, they would have three days of rest before they resumed marching.
Most of the troops did not understand the meaning behind these orders; after all, they had only departed from Wind and Cloud Pass a few days ago. Although they encountered a big battle, there was no reason to take a rest yet. If that was the case, then why did they rush off from Wind and Cloud Pass in the first place?
Regardless, they didn’t question the order. Many had exhausted their energy during the battle, so they indeed needed some time to recover. Hence, nobody had any objections despite not understanding these strange orders.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai was doing some repair work on Dawning Light.
During the previous battle, Dawning Light had suffered some minor damage, and as a Grandmaster Artifact Refiner who also participated in the Black Ink Clan’s Warship project, it was not a problem for him to repair a few dents and cracks. Unfortunately, some of the damaged Spirit Arrays would require the help of the Array Masters travelling with the Army to fully repair.
Feng Ying was helping by the side while the rest of the members of Dawn were either idling around with nothing to do or cultivating diligently.
While Yang Kai was busy working, a Divine Sense suddenly fluctuated throughout the entire area. A message was transmitted via the Divine Sense, “Squad Leaders of the Western Army Fourth Division are to assemble immediately!”
The Divine Sense covered a large area, which happened to include the area where Dawning Light was located; therefore, Yang Kai and the others heard the orders clearly. The person who sent out the Divine Sense Message was the Eighth-Order Division Commander of Fourth Division.
Just as that Divine Sense vanished, another Divine Sense came out. This time around, it was the Division Commander of the First Division who issued orders to assemble together. The members of these two Divisions happened to be located near Dawn, which was why the orders from both Division Commanders also reached their ears.
Yang Kai couldn’t help looking around. In the next moment, he saw numerous Seventh-Order Squad Leaders emerge from the Warships nearby and gather in the direction of their respective Division Commanders.
“What’s going on?” Yang Kai looked confused.
Feng Ying replied, “Why don’t you go and ask?”
After giving the suggestion some thought, Yang Kai stopped what he was doing and headed towards one of the gathering points.
Two Division Commanders had transmitted messages, that obviously indicated that some sort of special deployment order had come from the higher-ups. It was not just these two Division Commanders though. The other Division Commanders had most likely sent out their own messages via voice Divine Sense, it was just that they were located at different positions, so Yang Kai could only hear the transmissions of these two Division Commanders.
Dawn was a Special Operations Squad, so unlike ordinary Squads, they did not belong to any Division or Battalion. They were under the direct command of the Army Commanders. The same was true for the Old Turtles.
While a Special Operations Squad generally enjoyed many benefits and preferential treatment, it became apparent that they were a slightly isolated existence at times like these. Even if the higher-ups had deployment orders for them, they had no Division Commander to inform them.
Although the Army Commanders would have made the necessary arrangements for them, Yang Kai preferred to understand the situation in advance.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive on one of the Battalion Class Warships.
Warships could generally be classified into three types. The most basic Squad Class Warships were used by ordinary Squads. Next came the Battalion Class Warship that was much larger and more imposing. In addition, the Battalion Class Warships usually carried far more firepower.
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.
Where there not more than 80 eight order realm masters?