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Translator: Silavin & June
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Although Yang Kai did not find any trace of the last remaining Royal Lord, he was certain that he was in the No-Return Pass.
This was currently the most important location for the Black Ink Clan, so where else could their only Royal Lord be if not standing guard there as a precautionary measure?
[Is he trying to heal from his injuries?]
Previously, Yang Kai summoned the corpse of Azure Void Pass’ Old Ancestor, who engaged the Royal Lord in an intense fight. Even though the Old Ancestor was already dead, what he left behind before he died was enough to help Yang Kai to hold the Royal Lord back with the might of a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.
It was impossible for that Royal Lord to escape without any injuries.
The best way for Black Ink Clansmen to heal was to rest inside a Black Ink Nest; thus, that Royal Lord was surely inside his Black Ink Nest somewhere as it had only been some 20 or so years since that fight.
That being said, Yang Kai had no way of ascertaining which Black Ink Nest the Royal Lord was in. After scouting around for days, he could tell that there were over 100 High-Rank Black Ink Nests here.
This was in line with the reports the Human Race had previously gathered. A sizable number of Royal Lords came out of the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restrictions, but most of them had been killed, at great cost to the Human Race.
When the battle at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction ended, only around 100 Royal Lords were still alive, which matched with the slightly over 100 High-Rank Black Ink Nests here.
Now, nearly all of those Royal Lords were also dead, but their Black Ink Nests had been left behind. These were now ownerless, so if the Black Ink Clan were to flourish again in the future, they could use these ownerless Black Ink Nests to become Royal Lords and claim the Black Ink Nest for themselves.
Every High-Rank Black Ink Nest that was destroyed was akin to diminishing the chances of a new Royal Lord coming into existence.
After deducing that the Royal Lord had to be in the midst of tending to his injuries, Yang Kai began scrutinising the No-Return Pass even more closely.
It would take a lot of energy to help the Royal Lord recover, which should be something traceable. Yang Kai wanted to locate the Royal Lord without being noticed as he didn’t want the latter to suddenly pop up when he was in the middle of something.
While there were quite a number of Black Ink Clansmen in the No-Return Pass, the place was not closely guarded. This made sense though as the Black Ink Clan had invaded the 3,000 Worlds and the Humans were in a desperate situation, so how would any of them come running over here?
Furthermore, one had to pass through Barren Territory to get to the No-Return Pass. They would need to reopen the Territory Gate, not forgetting that there was a Black Ink Giant Spirit God there. Thus, the Human Race could not easily get here.
It would not have crossed the mind of any of the Black Ink Clan that an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was just outside the No-Return Pass and eyeing them closely.
Yang Kai did not try to rush things. He was about to do something exceedingly important, so he had to be prudent and patient.
Time flew by in a flash, and soon, several months had passed.
Following Yang Kai’s prolonged observation, he had a fairly good idea about which Black Ink Nest the Royal Lord was in, since a few Black Ink Nests were drawing in far more resources compared to the others. The Black Ink Clan hauled large amounts of resources into these Black Ink Nests every few days.
While resources were also brought to the other Black Ink Nests, new Black Ink Clansmen would also emerge from them at regular intervals. This was true of both the High-Rank Black Ink Nests and the Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests.
Only a few of the High-Rank Black Ink Nests did not create new Black Ink Clansmen.
Where did the significant amount of resources go if no new Black Ink Clansmen were being created? Obviously, the resources were being used by a powerful Black Ink Clansman to heal.
Yang Kai memorised the locations of these High-Rank Black Ink Nests before he started selecting his targets.
He was aware that he might not have many chances to attack, and his first move would be the most successful as the Black Ink Clan would not expect an attack from a Human Race Master at this point in time.
Thus, the more Black Ink Nests he could destroy with his first strike, the better.
To accomplish this, Yang Kai switched hiding spots a few times to observe the dispersion of the Black Ink Nests from all sides.
After many more days passed, he finally settled on a plan of attack.
There was a Great Pass that was approximately 300,000 kilometres away from the No-Return Pass. Yang Kai did not know exactly which Great Pass it was, but he chose it because there were two High-Rank Black Ink Nests there.
The other remnant Great Passes had only one High-Rank Black Ink Nest at most, or several Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests instead. He would reap less of a reward by striking those areas.
Therefore, as long as he acted swiftly enough, he could at least instantly destroy two High-Rank Black Ink Nests. Furthermore, there were a few Universe Fragments near this Great Pass, and one of them had another High-Rank Black Ink Nest.
If luck was on his side, he could destroy three High-Rank Black Ink Nests with his first strike, along with a few Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests.
Since Yang Kai had decided on his target, he no longer hesitated. He did not have to do any preparations and he didn’t have to sneak in either.
With a flicker of Space Principles, in the blink of an eye, he moved from his hiding spot to the top of that Great Pass. He had already summoned his Azure Dragon Spear earlier on, and now, he smashed down with it.
With his Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation, his attack was far from ordinary.
As World Force swirled, the looming shadow of the spear seemed to shroud the entire Great Pass.
Within the Great Pass, numerous Black Ink Clansmen who had only recently emerged from the Black Ink Nests and were cultivating with the help of the surrounding Black Ink Strength perished. Those who were weaker than Feudal Lords all died, and even the Feudal Lords had a hard time defending themselves from the power of that spear. Those that did not die were heavily injured. As for the two High-Rank Black Ink Nests, they exploded and scattered into countless shattered fragments.
All of the Black Ink Strength that had been stored inside the Black Ink Nests burst out as well. From a distance, the Great Pass now looked like two enormous Black Ink Clouds that were rapidly dispersing into the neighbouring space.
The moment Yang Kai’s attack succeeded, he rushed to the third High-Rank Black Ink Nest nearby.
At the same time, within a High-Rank Black Ink Nest inside the No-Return Pass, a formidable Will awakened from a deep slumber and an enormous figure several metres tall lunged towards Yang Kai.
The Royal Lord’s reaction had been incredibly fast, far faster than Yang Kai had expected. The Royal Lord was already approaching him as soon as he landed his first attack.
This meant that although the Royal Lord was still injured, it was not a serious wound; otherwise, he would not have been able to react so quickly.
A flash of imposing aura locked onto Yang Kai and before the Royal Lord even arrived, waves of a powerful Divine Sense surged towards him. It was clear that the Royal Lord was trying to use his Divine Sense to suppress Yang Kai.
An ordinary Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would at the very least be stalled by such an attack if he was lucky enough; however, a flash of coldness emerged in Yang Kai’s mind, and that was enough to entirely rid him of that Royal Lord’s influence. He did not stop moving, and in the blink of an eye, he was in front of the third Black Ink Nest.
The Royal Lord took this in from afar and roared, “Feeble ant, you court death! I will rip your corpse apart!”
One look and he could tell that the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master who suddenly appeared in the No-Return Pass was the one who emerged from the depths of the Black Ink Battlefield several decades ago. This was the same one who charged back from the Barren Territory battlefield and sealed off the Territory Gate.
The memory of Yang Kai was seared into his mind as it was rare for a Royal Lord to suffer this much at the hands of an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.
Over the past few years, the Royal Lord had sent Black Ink Clansmen into the Black Ink Battlefield to search for signs of Yang Kai, but sadly, they found nothing.
The Royal Lord had no idea that when Yang Kai escaped from the No-Return Pass back then, he took Ji Lao San with him through a secret Void Corridor and returned to Black Territory. Thus, the Royal Lord thought that Yang Kai was still hiding somewhere on the Black Ink Battlefield.
He never thought that this Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would appear yet again and destroy two High-Rank Black Ink Nests as soon as he did. It even looked as if he was about to destroy a third one.
How could the Royal Lord allow that to happen?
The High-Rank Black Ink Nests at the No-Return Pass were the Black Ink Clan’s final pillar to rely on. The destruction of any one of them was an unquantifiable loss as it was not merely the loss of a High-Rank Black Ink Nest, but the loss of all the Mid-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Nests that were and could be created from it as well.
The Royal Lord had not fully recovered from his injuries yet, but his wounds no longer affected him much; thus, when he realized who Yang Kai was, he immediately attacked with his powerful Divine Sense. However, what happened next floored him. The Human seemed completely unaffected, and the attack that was supposed to have caught him off-guard and injured him did nothing at all.
In the blink of an eye, Yang Kai was above the third Black Ink Nest. He was about to attack, when a Black Ink Clansman with a slender, pole-like figure appeared from the Black Ink Nest. From his aura, it was clear that he was a Territory Lord.
However, in contrast to a healthy Territory Lord, this pole-like Territory Lord’s aura was noticeably weak. Yang Kai could even see the wounds on his body that had been left by Dao Strengths.
Yang Kai immediately realized that this Territory Lord was injured and had been recovering inside the Black Ink Nest.
Territory Lords also had to remain dormant inside Black Ink Nests when they tended to their injuries, but it would not be easy for them to occupy a High-Rank Black Ink Nest. However, there were a lot of High-Rank Black Ink Nests in the No-Return Pass that were ownerless, so naturally, this Territory Lord could enter one.
While the pole-like Territory Lord was not fully recovered, he was still an Innate Territory Lord and that was enough to pose some challenge to Yang Kai. All he had to do was delay Yang Kai for a short while, and the Royal Lord would be able to come over to deal with the rest.
It was evident that the pole-like Territory Lord knew this as well; therefore, as soon as he appeared, he lunged straight at Yang Kai.
More than one hand was reaching out to Yang Kai. In fact, over a dozen hands were flying towards him. Nine hands grew out on each of the two sides of the Territory Lord’s body.
The 18 hands seemed to envelope all the surrounding space, like a kind of cage.
Faced with this assault, Yang Kai did not retreat and instead charged forward with a flash of coldness in his eyes, unleashing a Soul Rending Thorn.
Yang Kai had long since gotten used to the pain of his Soul being torn apart so his expression did not even twitch as he thrust out his spear.
The pole-like Territory Lord never expected Yang Kai to fight this fervently and launch such a powerful attack right from the start. He was caught off guard and his Soul trembled violently as a needle seemed to pierce right through it. Immediately, he was struck by agony. He was heavily injured in the first place and did not have much strength left in him, so now that he was hit by a Soul Rending Thorn, he lost all ability to fight back.
Yang Kai followed his spear and brushed past the Territory Lord before sending a thrust right into the High-Rank Black Ink Nest in front of him, a Great Sun exploding into existence at the point of the spear.
After striking this blow, Yang Kai shot into the distance without even sparing a moment to look behind him.
The Royal Lord was about to arrive, and if Yang Kai did not leave now, he might not be able to. Furthermore, he sensed numerous other strong auras awakening in the No-Return Pass. Without a doubt, the Black Ink Clansmen who had been recuperating inside the Black Ink Nests must have been awakened as well.
Not too far behind Yang Kai, the pole-like Territory Lord’s head separated from his body and flew upwards as black blood spewed out from his neck…
Once again, the Royal Lord’s Divine Sense surged forward, and at the same time, a ferocious palm slammed into Yang Kai from behind, causing him to stumble as he spat out mouthfuls of blood.
However, he used the force from this attack to flee even further away.
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