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Translator: Silavin & Ashish
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The Black Ink Clan didn’t seem to have many dealings with each other. But thinking about it, all the Black Ink Clansmen inside these Black Ink Nests were extremely wary of the Old Ancestor. If they could hide in their Black Ink Nests, who would be willing to come out?
Even the Feudal Lords who had gone out to collect supplies were on edge.
When Yang Kai had told the second Black Ink Nest’s Feudal Lord, that Jiu Ka Feudal Lord was afraid of the Old Ancestor and had asked him to go, it might have been a casual excuse, but it was clearly not an unlikely scenario.
Otherwise, the Feudal Lord wouldn’t have shown such an expression.
There were still 10 days until Great Evolution Pass arrived!
Today, while Yang Kai was sitting in the Black Ink Nest, monitoring the movements of his surroundings, a Space Beacon on him suddenly had a subtle reaction.
He had a lot of Space Beacons in his possession, basically in sets of two, which corresponded to each other. When they were not in use, he would usually store them in his Small Universe.
But Yang Kai had kept a few on him. These Space Beacons were the ones used to contact the other Special Operations Squads and Great Evolution Pass. He couldn’t put them in his Small Universe, or else, the World Barrier would isolate from the outside world and the others would not be able to contact him.
After a quick check, Yang Kai immediately noticed that the Space Beacon was linked to the Snow Wolves Squad.
The Snow Wolves Squad had gone deeper into the Black Ink Clan’s defence line, and there had been no messages from them since then. In order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, Yao Kang Cheng had taken the initiative to cut off all contact with the outside world.
But today, Yao Kang Cheng suddenly sent a message. Obviously, they must have found something worth reporting.
Yang Kai promptly took out the Space Beacon as a jade slip appeared in front of him the very next moment.
Yang Kai caught the jade slip and scanned it with his Divine Sense. His expression became solemn the very instant.
“Royal Lord!”
There was just an extremely simple message on the jade slip, nothing else.
[Royal Lord? Why did Yao Kang suddenly mention the Royal Lord? Did he want us to be wary of him?]
Furthermore, it was a very short message, as if Yao Kang Cheng was in a rush; otherwise, he wouldn’t have sent such a short message.
It should be brought to notice that recording a message on a jade slip was only a matter of a single flash of thought. It could be considered lightning fast, so why did Yao Kang Cheng only record the words ‘Royal Lord’ and nothing else?
Yang Kai suddenly had a very bad feeling, but he did not try to contact the other party in a moment of worry.
Yao Kang Cheng might have encountered some kind of danger for him to send a message in such a hurry. If Yang Kai rashly contacted him, it might expose the Snow Wolves location.
[Right now, all I can do is wait for him to contact me.]
Yang Kai became sombre as he gripped the Space Beacon, patiently waiting.
One day, two days, three days…
Nothing happened.
Finally, after three days, Yang Kai let out a long sigh of resignation. Since Yao Kang Cheng had not contacted him in these three days, that either meant he was still in danger, or… he had met with some kind of misfortune.
There might not have been any Black Ink Nests in the inner circle of the Black Ink Clan’s defence line, making it comparatively harder to get caught, but it was actually far more dangerous because, if they made any mistakes, it would be difficult to escape.
Yang Kai knew this, and so did Yao Kang Cheng.
Be that as it may, as the Territory Lords did not leave the Royal City unless the situation forced them to, it should not be impossible for the Snow Wolves to escape given their strength, even if they encountered some kind of danger.
Unless they were surrounded by a very large number of Feudal Lords!
When Yao Kang Cheng had sent a message stating that he would take the Snow Wolves Squad deeper behind the defence line, Yang Kai was also considering taking Dawn deeper into enemy territory. After all, Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space and had quite a bit of experience fleeing from mortal danger. It could be said that he was well-versed in the art of escaping.
Unfortunately, Yao Kang Cheng had cut off contact with him before he could suggest this. Yang Kai was unable to reach the former and was left with no choice but to leave him to his own devices.
Originally, Yang Kai thought that even if Yao Kang Cheng was caught, he would not be in any critical danger, but by the looks of it, he had taken things for granted.
Yang Kai used his Divine Sense to activate the Space Beacon, but as he had expected, he received no response.
There could only be two reasons for this. One was that the Space Beacon had been destroyed, and the other was that Yao Kang Cheng had put it in his Small Universe or Space Ring, so he couldn’t reach him.
It was not a big deal if it was the latter. It meant that Yao Kang Cheng was definitely in hiding with the Snow Wolves Squad, but if it was the former… then things were rather disastrous for the Snow Wolves.
What exactly did he encounter?
What did he mean by ‘Royal Lord’?
Did Yao Kang Cheng run into the Royal Lord? If he really did run into the Royal Lord, it was a given for the Snow Wolves Squad to not be able to escape. No matter how serious the Royal Lord’s injuries were, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse. A Royal Lord was not someone that a Seventh-Order Master could challenge.
Even Yang Kai himself might not be able to escape if he really encountered a Royal Lord. There was too big of a gap between them, so the Dao of Space might not necessarily be of any use.
If Yang Kai was in Yao Kang Cheng’s place, facing certain death, or worse, capture, he would have destroyed the Space Beacon, and committed suicide if need be!
Because if he was captured by the Black Ink Clan and turned into a Black Ink Disciple, Great Evolution Pass’ operation would be exposed, and all their plans and preparations would be wasted.
Destroying the Space Beacon would also ensure the safety of the other Squads. Only by embracing death would they be able to prevent the news of Great Evolution Pass’ surprise attack from falling into enemy’s hands.
Every Human soldier was well aware of this and was prepared to lay down their life if necessary.
But how did Yao Kang Cheng encounter the Royal Lord?
Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao had been harassing the Royal Lord now and then over the past two centuries, especially for the matter of Great Evolution Pass’ Core. She even fought with the Royal Lord several times in recent years, making it impossible for the latter to recover from his injuries and forcing him to hole up in the Royal City to protect himself.
Only by borrowing the power of his Black Ink Nest in the Royal City could the Royal Lord contend with Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao.
The Royal Lord couldn’t stray too far away from the Royal City, for doing so would be akin to courting death.
Logically speaking, no matter how rash the Snow Wolves Squad was, they would never approach the Royal City. So, they could not have run into the Royal Lord.
However, the message Yao Kang Cheng sent contained the words ‘Royal Lord’!
What was going on?
Was the Snow Wolves Squad safe? What did ‘Royal Lord’ mean?
Yang Kai felt a headache coming on, but he couldn’t find any clues.
He had to guard the Black Ink Nest he was occupying and could not travel around to investigate.
After pondering for a moment, Yang Kai informed Chai Fang and Ma Gao about the Snow Wolves Squad’s message and told them to be on guard as there was something strange happening on the Black Ink Clan’s side.
Yang Kai sent another message to Dawn, whereupon Shen Ao arrived at Yang Kai’s side with the help of the Space Beacons.
When they met each other, Yang Kai didn’t waste any time and directly stated, “Brother Shen, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of this place and monitor the situation outside. If there is any movement, please inform me immediately.”
Shen Ao nodded “Alright.”
“Also, when you think you’ve almost reached your limit, get someone else to replace you.”
“Understood.”
One had to be connected to the Black Ink Nest to monitor the surroundings, but doing so allowed Black Ink Strength to slowly seep into one’s body.
As a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, Shen Ao’s cultivation was not weak in any way, so if he took a Purifying Black Ink Pill, he could resist such invasion for a while, but not for long.
He had to ask the other members of the Dawn Squad to replace him when necessary. Only by doing so would they be able to monitor the situation outside at all times, so as to prevent anyone from intruding.
This was something Yang Kai had no choice but to ask. If he wanted to find out more about Yao Kang Cheng’s situation, he had no other choice but to place his hopes on the Black Ink Nest Space and see if he could obtain any useful information.
Once his consciousness was connected to the Black Ink Nest, his consciousness would enter the Black Ink Nest Space. In this situation, he would be unable to perceive anything happening in the outside world.
If some Black Ink Clan team came to check on this place, Yang Kai would not be able to hide things from them, and if they attacked him, he might not even be able to react. So, he needed someone to cover for him before entering the Black Ink Nest Space.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have called Shen Ao over.
After making the necessary arrangements, Yang Kai immediately walked towards the centre of the Black Ink Nest.
After a short while, he sat down cross-legged and sighed before opening his Small Universe and connecting his consciousness to the Black Ink Nest, using his World Force as a bridge.
Yang Kai had done this more than once, so he was just traversing a familiar path.
A few days ago, when he had captured the Black Ink Nest, the thought of using this method to obtain some information about the Black Ink Clan did cross Yang Kai’s mind, but it was a little dangerous. Right now, the four scouting Squads’ main purpose was concealment, so not taking any risk was the better choice. So, Yang Kai had not taken any action for the past few days.
However, since the Snow Wolves Squad seemed to be in some sort of trouble, and Yao Kang Cheng’ had sent such a cryptic message, he had no choice but to take the risk and enter the Black Ink Nest Space to investigate.
Nonetheless, he was not afraid of giving himself away. One’s Soul would basically manifest after entering the Black Ink Nest Space, and as each person’s Soul fluctuations were different, even if one could take another person’s appearance, it was impossible to imitate another person’s aura. So, if two people knew each other well, they would be able to recognize each other at a glance.
But who could recognize him in this damned place?
Perhaps one of the Territory Lords may recognize him; after all, Yang Kai had used many Soul Rending Thorns to seriously injury and even kill a number of Territory Lords and Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples in order to seize control of the Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest at Great Evolution Pass. Those who were still alive would definitely remember his Soul Avatar.
Be that as it may, if the Territory Lord didn’t come into the picture, basically no one would recognize him.
Nevertheless, Yang Kai still felt that it was best to be extra careful, because his Soul was extremely powerful. Although he was only a Seventh-Order Master, his Soul was comparable to those in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm or the Territory Lords.
The sudden appearance of a Soul of such calibre would certainly stick out among a group of Feudal Lords and their subordinates.
Yang Kai was here to gather information, so he didn’t want any complications.
As such, Yang Kai suppressed his Spiritual Energy as best he could and entered the Black Ink Nest Space.
As usual, this vast space seemed to be extremely large, but also extremely small, without any specific concept of space.
Yang Kai didn’t take any specific form, just moving about as a kind of amorphous mist. After a brief examination, he found that there weren’t many Soul Avatars in the Black Ink Nest Space, only about 30 in total, and many of them had remained in the most basic form just like him.
30 was quite a normal figure, as this was the space of a Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest. Each Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest should have about this many Low-Rank Black Ink Nests hatched from it.
Most of the people who came here were the Souls of the Feudal Lords under the same Territory Lord, but there were also High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen’ Souls.
The High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen were naturally not the Masters of the Black Ink Nests and had only been ordered to remain here to communicate with the other Black Ink Nests.
It could be said that many of the Soul Avatars left here weren’t the Masters of the Black Ink Nests. Most of them had been ordered to remain here to pass on messages at a moment’s notice and gather information.
This was also the reason why Yang Kai dared to enter this place. If everyone knew each other, he would have been caught the moment he entered.
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.