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Translator: Silavin & VictorN
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
“Mother Nest…” Cang laughed heartily, “Is that what you call it? Well, that’s apt. Yes, the Mother Nest is indeed here, in the darkness, within this restriction.”
“And this is where Black Ink Clan originated from?”
“Yes!”
Blue Sky Pass’ Old Ancestor pondered for a moment before asking, “What does Senior call the Mother Nest?”
Mother Nest was a term that was introduced by the Humans of today, but it seemed like it had another name from Cang’s reaction.
“Mo,” Cang replied, “It calls itself Mo, the Black Ink itself!”
Many Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters frowned when they heard Cang’s answer. Even Yang Kai, who was still brewing tea, looked at Cang in surprise.
There was nothing wrong with calling the Black Ink Clan’s Mother Nest, ‘Mo’, what was disturbing was the way Cang phrased his statement.
“‘It’ calls itself?” The Blue Sky Old Ancestor looked grim as he asked, “Senior, what do you mean by that? Is it possible that the Mother Nest… is sentient?”
So far, the Human Race had destroyed many Low-Rank to High-Rank Black Ink Nests; thus, the Human Race now had some understanding of Black Ink Nests.
Each Black Ink Nest had its own consciousness, and the Black Ink Clan used the Black Ink Nests’ consciousnesses as carriers to establish Black Ink Nest Spaces. These Black Ink Nest Spaces were in turn created by the Black Ink Nests which bred them. It was a space which transcended distance and could be used to quickly transmit information.
However, whether it was the Low-Rank, Mid-Rank or High-Rank Black Ink Nests, their consciousnesses were all blank. Simply put, they had consciousnesses but weren’t sentient.
From what Cang just said, the Mother Nest seemed to be different from the other Black Ink Nests.
Cang nodded and said, “It naturally has sentience. In the early years, this Old Master would chat with it when I was bored, but as time passed… it became angry with this Old Master and disliked how noisy I was, so it stopped responding.”
The Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were horrified that the Mother Nest was actually a Black Ink Nest with its own sentience! This was truly shocking.
Previously, they had speculated that the Black Ink Nest, having its own consciousness, might one day develop its own sentience, thus becoming a true living being.
However, the Black Ink Nests on the Black Ink Battlefield had existed for at least a few hundreds of thousands of years with no precedent of any of them becoming sentient. That led them to believe that the Black Ink Nest could never become fully self-aware.
Now, they knew that the Black Ink Nest was truly capable of independent thought, but only the Mother Nest.
However, on second thought, this was the source of the Black Ink Clan, so it was not strange that it was sentient.
Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao then asked, “If it has a Will, then why didn’t it attack us when we were trapped in its Black Ink Nest Space?”
As the source of the Black Ink Clan, Mo’s Will was definitely extraordinarily powerful. If it had attacked the trapped Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters at that time, they would surely have suffered heavy losses.
After asking the question, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao herself also said, “Is it wary of Senior?”
Cang smiled faintly and said, “In a sense, yes, it is. If it secretly makes some small moves, this Old Master wouldn’t notice; however, once it makes a big move, I will surely notice and make it suffer.”
Previously, when the Bright King Cave Heaven Old Ancestor self-destructed and ruptured the Black Ink Nest Space, it enabled some aura of the great battle inside to leak out. That was when Cang took action to tear open the Black Ink Nest Space.
If Mo took the initiative to attack, it would only have been exposed sooner.
It wanted to silently finish off the Ninth-Order Masters, which was why it did not take the initiative and only had 50 Royal Lords under its command ambush them in the Black Ink Nest Space.
“What cultivation realm is Senior at now? Have you surpassed the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm? Is there a higher realm above the Ninth Order?” An Old Ancestor finally asked one of the questions that everyone really wanted to know.
From the aura revealed by the jade white hand alone, it was inferred that the strike had exceeded the power that a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master could exert. If not, there would have been no way to tear the Black Ink Nest Space open from the outside.
The Bright King Cave Heaven Old Ancestor had to detonate his Soul to simply crack open the space slightly.
The Ninth-Order Masters speculated that the person with the jade white hand might have exceeded the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm.
Hearing this, Cang smiled, shook his head, and said, “The Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm is not so easily transcended. Strictly speaking, this Old Master’s cultivation realm is still in the Ninth Order, just a little further along than you. As for whether there is a higher realm above the Ninth Order… maybe there is, maybe not. Who would know until one reached that point?”
So, Cang was also a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master!
This was beyond everyone’s expectations. Even though he said that he was in the Ninth Order but a little further along than the others, that was not enough to explain the immense power of his last strike.
Cang seemed to notice the crowd’s doubts and explained, “The strike you sensed was not done by me alone. This Old Master did it with the help of the restriction here.”
This was the condensation of the power of his other nine old friends. Each of them was as powerful as he was, and when the restriction, which contained their strength, was guided by him, even if Cang could not exert all their might, it was still enough to tear open the Black Ink Nest Space.
“Restriction…”
Cang had more than once mentioned the restriction here. In fact, the Old Ancestors were all aware of this enormous restriction. It was the cage that kept the ocean of darkness sealed up.
It was hard to imagine what would happen if the Mother Nest was not shackled by this restriction.
Setting all other issues aside, there must be numerous Royal Lords here in the Mother Nest. Going on the incident in the Black Ink Nest Space alone, there should be at least 50 Royal Lords here, and who could guarantee that there were not multiple times more Royal Lords?
Once an army of Royal Lords escaped from this restriction, they could have struck any Theatre at will, and the Human Race would not have been able to resist.
Cang had been here, imprisoning Mo for millions of years. All the people in the 3,000 Worlds owed him their thanks for his sacrifice.
“Did Senior set up this restriction?”
Cang laughed and shook his head, “I just played a hand in it. This restriction to seal Mo was actually set up by this Old Master and my nine old friends.”
“Then what happened to the other nine Seniors…”
“They have long since passed away, leaving this Old Master alone to guard this place,” Cang sighed.
“Senior, please have some tea.” Yang Kai offered another cup of freshly brewed tea.
He did not know how many years this Senior had been guarding this place, but from the various inferences he could draw, Yang Kai speculated Cang had been here for at least 2 or 3 million years, perhaps longer.
Over such a vast length of time, the Human Race had lost all knowledge of what had happened here.
It was impossible to imagine the loneliness that Cang had endured, all so the Human Race could live on.
He imprisoned Mo, but had to become a prisoner himself.
Yang Kai admired him for his righteousness and sacrifice.
This alone was enough to explain Cang’s position on the Human Race.
At this point in the conversation, the Old Ancestors’ vigilance against Cang was reduced significantly.
After finishing his cup of tea, Cang smacked his lips again as if he was savouring it.
When Yang Kai saw this, he suddenly put away the tea set in front of him and instead took out a bottle of wine before handing it over, “Senior, it looks like tea is not enough to quench your thirst. How about drinking some wine?”
Normally, people would sip on tea, but Cang drank it in gulps. From his mannerisms, it looked like he was more used to draining bottles of wine and feasting.
When Cang saw the wine battle, his expression lit up and he laughed heartily, “That’s more like it, kid!”
He snatched up the wine bottle, popped open the cork, and drank wildly.
After draining 10 bottles, Cang wiped his mouth and laughed, “I’m an uncouth fellow, but I figured I had to act a bit sage-like in front of you Juniors. Damn it, you’re all killing me here!”
The Ninth-Order Old Ancestors were amused to see this kind of reaction.
It turned out that the old man’s stately and wise behaviour was all just a pretence.
Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao smiled, reached out, and with a flick of her hand, hundreds of bottles and jars of wine flew towards Cang as she said, “Since Senior likes wine, these are some of the spirits this Junior has brewed over the years. Please have them if you don’t mind.”
Cang laughed, guided the wine with his hand, and stacked them beside him.
Another Old Ancestor followed up, “I also have some good wine here, please accept it.”
As he said so, he took out a type of gourd bottle and threw it towards Cang. Although the gourd bottle was small, it was obviously a kind of storage artifact with a vast internal space. This one gourd bottle seemed to contain an endless amount of wine.
Many of the Old Ancestors were connoisseurs of wine themselves, and like Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao had home-brewed wine or had wine collections that they could not bear to drink. But now, all of them took them out to offer to Cang.
This was not just to please Cang though, it was more-so them empathising with his plight. He had been alone, standing guard here over the Source Domain for uncountable years. This wine was just a token of their appreciation for all he had done.
“How can you drink wine without meat?” One Old Ancestor laughed, reaching out and taking out a large piece of Monster Beast meat, which had been his treasure for many years. It still looked extremely fresh and dripping with blood. The Monster Qi was also quite compelling, so it was obviously not from any ordinary Monster Beast.
Yang Kai even felt a hint of Dragon Aura from it.
This Monster Beast had Dragon Blood in it. Perhaps it was a Flood Dragon or other Dragon Descendant.
Another Old Ancestor said, “Now we have wine and meat, some fruit is a necessity.”
He reached out a hand, and a plate of crystal-clear Spirit Fruits appeared.
One by one, the Old Ancestors took out their collections which they had accumulated over the millennia, and within a few moments, Cang had all kinds of delicious delicacies set out in front of him. Even in the void, the aroma was overflowing and the atmosphere was joyous.
Cang laughed continuously.
All the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters from every Great Pass were shocked to see that the place where the Old Ancestors gathered had somehow turned into a banquet. They remained dumbfounded and completely did not understand what had happened.
Yang Kai was also dumbfounded that his simple swapping of tea for alcohol had triggered this change.
Unfortunately for him, everyone here was in a Ninth-Order Old Ancestor, while he was the only Seventh-Order Junior. Thus, it was only expected that he did the hard work of pouring wine for each Old Ancestor, serving fruit plates, and roasting the beast meat.
At this point, Yang Kai was cursing Big Head Mi and Big Head Xiang non-stop in his heart.
After three rounds of wine and food, Cang shouted loudly, “In the Primordial Era, Chaos reigned. When the First Primordial Light was born into this world, the Heavens and Earth opened up and the Universe was born. It was naturally a glorious and magnificent sight. At that time, the Universe was simple, pure, and without many disturbances. Although the environment was extremely harsh, all living creatures’ focus was simply to survive. Even if there was fighting and killing, it was only in furtherance of that one goal, survival.”
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Many thanks for the chapter, as always.