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Translator: Silavin & Ashish
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Although the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was not small, the location of the Universe Array was not too big. Normally, it could only accommodate a few dozen people, but now hundreds of people were attempting to return through it, causing it to become quite crowded.
No one had expected this either.
Yang Kai thought to himself, [I guess the higher-ups have sent out orders to return to the Great Pass to prepare for the upcoming battle; otherwise, something like this wouldn’t be happening.]
Be that as it may, it was not that big of a deal. It might be a bit chaotic, but the cultivators were all quickly returning from outside so this couldn’t be helped.
If all of them were to remain here, it would only become more crowded.
Yang Kai went along with the flow and soon arrived at the Space Array setup. He stepped into the Array with the others, and activated his strength. The next moment, he appeared on the deck of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship.
Just as before, no one stayed on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship’s deck.
After a short while, Yang Kai finally arrived at an open space and made a quick scan with his Divine Sense, but he failed to locate Dawning Light.
There was also a Universe Array on Dawning Light, so as long as it was within range of the Universe Transference Law, he could sense it.
But since he was unable to locate Dawning Light, the only possibility was that it had been taken into someone’s Small Universe.
[I guess Shen Ao and the others are back already.]
Yang Kai swiftly made his way to Dawn’s courtyard, and as he had expected, he could sense the aura of Dawn’s members from inside, but all of them seemed to be conditioning themselves, preparing for the upcoming battle.
Yang Kai didn’t disturb them and simply returned to his room where he sat down cross-legged and stuffed some pills into his mouth to recover his stamina and energy.
Tens of thousands of soldiers had gathered inside Great Evolution Pass, getting ready for the attack.
In the void, the massive Great Evolution Pass headed straight towards the Royal City without hiding itself.
Since their presence had already been exposed, there was no need to hide anymore.
This was also a way to let the Black Ink Clan know that the Human Race was determined to win this War. The mobilization of Great Evolution Pass represented that the tens of thousands of Human soldiers would not stop for anything. Anyone who dared to stand in their way was destined to die a tragic death.
…
At the same time, in the Royal City…
The Royal Lord was sitting inside his huge Royal Palace, his face pale and gloomy.
Obviously, his injuries were very serious and he had yet to recover.
Several hundred years ago, he had fought with the female Human Old Ancestor repeatedly over 100 years, during which time both sides suffered great losses. He suffered serious injuries in those successive battles, and the same was true for the Old Ancestor. In the end, both had taken a huge hit, and they were no longer able to display their peak in battle anymore.
But he had no idea that the Old Ancestor was just putting on an act. Each time they fought back then, she had fully recovered and was only feigning weakness to get him to lower his guard.
In the final battle of that war, the Old Ancestor suddenly brought out her peak combat strength and thrashed him to the point where he could barely escape. Had several Territory Lords not led a massive number of troops over from the Royal City to rescue him, the Old Ancestor would have killed him that day.
The Territory Lords and the Black Ink Clan Army who had come to rescue him all sacrificed their lives, but the Royal Lord managed to survive.
Even now, the Royal Lord could not understand how the Old Ancestor had managed to recover from her injuries so rapidly. Logically speaking, it was impossible for her to recover so quickly from injuries like those.
Unfortunately, the Old Ancestor did really recover.
In that battle, he fled back to the Royal City where he barely held on to his life by relying on the power of his Black Ink Nest to resist the Old Ancestor who doggedly chased after him.
Nevertheless, his Army had suffered crippling casualties.
It was also because of that battle that the Black Ink Clan in Great Evolution Theatre lost all ability to compete with the Humans.
Fortunately, the Humans had also withdrawn soon after the battle ended to retake Great Evolution Pass and restore it.
While it might have been humiliating, the Royal Lord breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the Human Race Army retreat that day.
At last, he could recuperate in peace.
But to his dismay, things did not pan out as he had expected. The Old Ancestor suddenly returned alone a few days after he entered the Black Ink Nest to recuperate. Shocked, he hurriedly leapt out of the Black Ink Nest, unable to care about anything else but the enemy at his doorstep.
This was just the beginning of his suffering though.
For the next 200 years, the Old Ancestor would return every now and then, either releasing her Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm aura from afar to threaten the Royal City, or she would just directly attack and raise chaos. Many Black Ink Clansmen died at her hands, but there was nothing the Royal Lord could do other than remain near the Royal City where he could take advantage of his Black Ink Nest to repel the Old Ancestor.
Two centuries… It had been a full two centuries, but the Royal Lord’s injuries had not improved at all. The Royal Lord’s eyes burned with rage just recalling her figure.
He had never encountered such a difficult opponent.
Left with no choice, he could only order the Feudal Lords to take their Black Ink Nests and construct a Black Ink Strength barrier around the Royal City.
The Human Race would return someday, the Royal Lord was certain of this, and so were the Territory Lords; thus, they had to take precautions.
The Black Ink Strength defence line could restrict the movements of the Human cultivators, whereas the Black Ink Clansmen would be like fish in water. If a war really broke out one day, this defence line might be able to tip the scales in their favour.
Because of this, the Black Ink Clan had expended an enormous amount of resources, consuming almost everything they had amassed over the previous 30,000 years.
But it was well worth it. The Black Ink Strength defence line covered a vast area around the Royal City, which would require even the strongest Masters several days to cross, providing a safe zone for the Black Ink Clan.
Any Human who dared to cross this defence line would definitely meet a terrible end.
When they received the news that the Human Race had attacked, the Territory Lords and even the Royal Lord weren’t too surprised, but to their shock and horror, another piece of news soon reached their ears.
The Black Ink Clansman who had discovered the movements of the Human Race reported that the Humans were not attacking in a fleet like in the past, but had instead brought the entire Great Evolution Pass with them.
Instinctively, none of the Black Ink Clan higher-ups were willing to believe it.
But when Hong Di Territory Lord personally went out to investigate and saw that massive weapon of war advancing towards the Royal City, no matter how unwilling he was, he had no choice but to believe it.
He had presided over Great Evolution Pass for 30,000 years, so he was incomparably familiar with it, knowing every nook and cranny like the back of his hand.
[Great Evolution Pass… is really coming.]
When they received this piece of news, all the Territory Lords were beside themselves with shock.
Great Evolution Pass could actually move!? How could such a massive object be moved? More importantly, the Black Ink Clan had occupied Great Evolution Pass for 30,000 years but never discovered that it could be controlled.
They knew that Great Evolution Pass was a giant Mobile Palace Artifact, but apart from that, they knew nothing else.
A massive Great Pass like that was attacking, with all its powerful offensive and defensive arrays. It was hard to say how effective the Black Ink Strength defence line that the Black Ink Clan had shed sweat and blood to set up would be against this unprecedented move by the Humans.
Now, even in an environment filled with Black Ink Strength, if the Human soldiers felt like they couldn’t hold on any longer, they could simply return to Great Evolution Pass to rest and recuperate.
All of the Territory Lords stared at Hong Di with a look of blame on their faces.
Hong Di felt indignant about this misplaced anger.
He might have been in charge of Great Evolution Pass for 30,000 years, but at the end of the day, it was still an artifact refined by the Human Race. How could it be that easily controlled without some kind of special technique?
That wasn’t the most important point though. The crucial issue was how Great Evolution Pass managed to sneak past the Black Ink Strength defence line without anyone noticing. There might be some areas in the defence line with weaker surveillance than others, but certainly no gaps big enough to miss the enormous Great Evolution Pass sailing by. They should have received news of the invasion a month ago when Great Evolution Pass intruded past the defence line.
But in reality, they only learned of it half a month after Great Evolution Pass had crossed the defence perimeter.
That’s the most unusual point!
In any case, there was no point in pursuing who was responsible for which failure right now. The Black Ink Clan had already lost an estimated 20% to 30% of the Lords and their subordinates stationed at the outer defence line, as well as at least 1,000 Black Ink Nests. They had suffered extremely heavy losses.
The entire Great Pass was invading, so clearly, the Humans were planning to wage a final battle with them. If they couldn’t stop the Humans this time, the Black Ink Clan in Great Evolution Theatre would be annihilated.
At present, all the Territory Lords were gathered at the Royal Palace. When they arrived, the air in the palace was already so heavy that the Territory Lords did not dare to speak, but soon after, the Royal Lord gave them even worse news than they had imagined.
This was not just happening in Great Evolution Theatre. From the information he had received, all the Human Race’s Great Passes were moving towards the Royal Cities in their corresponding Theatre.
This was not just a battle for dominance of a single Theatre, but a total war between the two Races!
This was truly unprecedented.
Such a large-scale deployment could not have been organized in just one or two years.
The Human Race had clearly been planning this for a very long time!
Now that they were mounting an all-out assault, it was perfectly clear that they were planning to have a decisive battle with the Black Ink Clan. After this war ended, only one race would survive.
The Territory Lords were all shocked. In their minds, the Humans had always been passive and focused entirely on defence. The Black Ink Clan could attack whenever and wherever they wanted, and they could retreat as they pleased. This status quo had not changed for countless millennia.
It was true that the Black Ink Clan would suffer massive casualties every time a war broke out, but the true Masters would almost all survive. The ones who died were the weak and insignificant soldiers. For the Black Ink Clan, even if these weak clansmen perished in droves, so long as they had the Black Ink Nests and ample resources, they could replenish their ranks without limit.
But it was different for the Humans who always had far fewer soldiers. Every single death for them was a significant loss.
As such, the Territory Lords had always believed that someday, they would be able to wipe out all the Humans and take down the Great Passes one by one before ultimately invading and conquering the 3,000 Worlds.
The Black Ink Clan had been coveting the flourishing 3,000 Worlds since forever, where they could enslave countless Black Ink Disciples and feast upon the innumerable complete Universe Worlds. It was the world that the Black Ink Clan most yearned for.
But now, the Human Race had actually launched an attack in every Theatre with the clear intent to wipe them from existence.
After a heavy and depressing silence, Hong Di couldn’t bear it any longer and stated, cupping his fist, “Sir Royal Lord, the Humans are approaching with unstoppable momentum. Great Evolution Pass is also exceptionally sturdy. If it hits the Royal City, the Royal City would definitely be destroyed.”
When the Great Evolution East-West Army invaded the Royal City last time, they had outfitted dozens of Universe Worlds with thousands of Spirit Arrays to use them as giant weapons, causing the Black Ink Clan to suffer greatly. The Black Ink Clan had to split their forces in every battle to defend against the Universe Worlds which were hurled at them, resulting in the deaths of many of their clansmen.
The situation was already bad when it was just Universe Worlds, but now, what was charging at them was actually the Great Pass itself!
Of course, Great Evolution Pass was inferior to the Universe Worlds in terms of pure size. Even the smallest Universe World was countless times bigger than Great Evolution Pass.
But size was not the standard by which to measure a threat.
When the Universe Worlds were used to attack, the Territory Lords could blast them to pieces through joint attacks without much difficulty, so they weren’t a big threat to the Royal City as long as proper precautions were taken.
In contrast, Great Evolution Pass was the sturdiest Human artifact known to exist. Furthermore, it was surrounded by countless barriers, so no one could guarantee that they would be able to destroy it.
If Great Evolution Pass crashed into the Royal City, it would be akin to smashing an egg with a rock. The Royal City would not be able to resist.
Not to mention, there were still tens of thousands of Human soldiers inside Great Evolution Pass. They were not some inanimate statues. They would surely defend and counterattack when the Black Ink Clan tried to attack Great Evolution Pass.
There is a second Royal lord somewhere 🧐
Shit you’re right
Wait what if it’s another royal lord type black ink clansmen from where’ve the royal lords got their nests from.