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Translator: Silavin & Tia
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Yang Kai did not bother to think too deeply about the matter.
Right now, he was in critical condition. Both his physical body and his Soul had sustained grave injuries. Even his left eye was damaged due to the strain of activating his Demon Eye of Annihilation earlier, so he could not even see clearly at the moment.
Besides, he was not the only person who was seriously wounded. Every member of the three Squads assisting him earlier was also covered in injuries with varying degrees of severity. It was a minor miracle that there were no fatalities. Aside from a few members in Dawn whom he did not know very well, the members of all three Squads had very close relations with Yang Kai, so if any of them had suffered a sudden misfortune, it would have been a devastating loss to him indeed.
Yang Kai’s Divine Sense fluctuated as he communicated to Feng Ying. Feng Ying received his message and nodded lightly in response.
While Yang Kai was recuperating, the others also took the time to treat their wounds. Only those cultivating the Dao of Space had no time to rest.
At the same time, outside the portal to the Universe Cave Heaven, the four Territory Lords headed by Mo Na Ye along with many Black Ink Clan Masters were struggling to shatter the Void. Space before them twisted and contorted under the impact of their violent onslaught, causing countless cracks to appear.
Suddenly, the vague image of a portal seemed to appear in front of them. The other end of the portal was connected to another World that was hidden inside the Void. Overjoyed, the Black Ink Clan immediately increased the intensity of their attacks.
As long as they could break open the portal, they could invade the Universe Cave Heaven. At that time, the Humans inside would have nowhere else to run.
The primary target was none other than the Army Commander of the Profound Nether Army, Yang Kai. If they could kill him here, then they would deal a huge blow to the morale of the Human Race, the others were of no importance.
Yang Kai was certainly worthy of his reputation.
When Mo Na Ye received the messages from Profound Nether Territory and the No-Return Pass, he did not dare to underestimate Yang Kai’s strength. For that reason, he even went so far as to specially request five additional Territory Lords as reinforcements.
Combining the five additional Territory Lords with the five original Territory Lords in Acacia Territory would mean a total of 10 Territory Lords were available for this mission. However, there were only four Territory Lords left! 10 Territory Lords had been reduced to four in just half a day!
Yang Kai had killed four Territory Lords earlier and trapped another two inside the portal, and there was no saying whether those two Territory Lords were dead or alive. If they failed to eliminate Yang Kai here, then the Black Ink Clan would have suffered an enormous loss. On top of that, the Black Ink Clan Army of 100,000 initially deployed outside the Universe Cave Heaven had almost been completely wiped out.
Regardless of the costs, Yang Kai had to die here.
One day… Two days… Three days… Under the continuous barrage of the Territory Lords, the portal in the Void seemed to teeter on the verge of destruction, but never actually shattered apart. The Territory Lords were filled with a mixture of rage and helplessness seeing this result.
Following several consecutive days of effort, the strength of each Territory Lord declined considerably. Even an Innate Territory Lord like Mo Na Ye was exhausted.
[What’s wrong with this portal?] Mo Na Ye was very puzzled at first; then, he abruptly recalled something that made his expression sink sharply! Yang Kai was a Master of the Dao of Space; furthermore, things like the portal of a Universe Cave Heaven were strongly correlated to the Dao of Space.
[He must be stabilising the portal on the other side; otherwise, it makes no sense for it to remain intact for so long! Doesn’t that mean all our efforts were for nought!? Should we continue? Should we give up? Even if we continue, we might not be able to destroy the portal with Yang Kai stabilising it from the other side, but, if we give up now…]
Now that things had reached this point, how could he willingly give up? Thus, he made his decision in an instant, [We will continue!]
Seeing how exhausted they were, Mo Na Ye was certain that Yang Kai was not doing any better. Out of the four Territory Lords, only You Gong was slightly injured while the other three were unharmed.
In contrast, Yang Kai was severely wounded. With such injuries, how long could he last while constantly stabilising the Portal Corridor? He was bound to break down sooner or later, and once the portal was destroyed, he would be easy prey for their picking.
[Let’s see how long he can persist!] Mo Na Ye coldly snorted in his heart.
Raising his hand, he actually killed a large number of Black Ink Clansmen nearby in one blow. An abundance of Black Ink Strength immediately gushed out from the bodies of the deceased Black Ink Clansmen which Mo Na Ye grabbed and condensed into a ball that he stuffed into his mouth to replenish his lost strength.
Seeing this, the other three Territory Lords quickly followed suit.
There were some 20,000 Black Ink Clan soldiers outside the portal at this point, but in the blink of an eye, nearly half of them died on the spot. Meanwhile, the surviving troops trembled in fear. [The Territory Lords have gone insane… To think they are using such barbaric means to replenish their strength!]
Unfortunately, they were powerless to defend against the actions of the Territory Lords and didn’t even dare to entertain the thought of running away.
The days thus passed by quietly.
Inside the Universe Cave Heaven, Yang Kai’s injuries healed at an impressive speed.
At this moment, the Human Race Masters inside the Universe Cave Heaven had divided themselves into three distinct groups. The first group was the Human Race Masters under Yang Kai’s command who came here on a rescue mission, the second group consisted of the 1,000 or so Hunters, and the final group was made up of the trapped Human refugees who were headed by Li Zi Yu.
The people Yang Kai brought here and the people under Li Zi Yu were gathered together in their respective groups, while the 1,000 or so Hunters were somewhat spread out. Small groups of Hunters maintained a certain distance from each other, but nobody found the arrangement odd or inappropriate. The existence of Black Ink Disciples required constant vigilance after all.
That was also part of the reason why Hunters generally did not gather together in large groups. There was no saying where a Black Ink Disciple could be hiding. If they did not practice such vigilance, it would only be a matter of time before they met their untimely deaths during their travels.
Li Zi Yu’s group and the Hunters even took the initiative to stay away from Yang Kai’s group to prevent any unnecessary misunderstandings.
Half a month later, Yang Kai slowly opened his eyes. Most of his physical injuries had healed by now, and although he was not fully recovered, his wounds no longer impeded his combat capabilities. The injuries to his Soul needed more time to heal, but the Soul Warming Lotus would take care of that.
When he looked up, Yang Kai immediately saw the deathly pale complexions of Su Yan and others; moreover, they were swaying unsteadily, as though they were about to collapse at any moment.
The struggle over the past half month had pushed them to their limits. Once they reached that limit, there would be nobody else to stabilize the Universe Cave Heaven. If that happened, it would not take long for the Territory Lords outside to break open the portal.
Yang Kai raised his brow in astonishment as he thought to himself, [The Territory Lords outside are truly persistent. It’s been half a month yet they’re still bombarding the Void!]
Nevertheless, this was the outcome he had hoped to see. Feeling secretly triumphant, he manipulated Space Principles and simultaneously sent a transmission to Su Yan and the others.
In the next moment, Su Yan, Yang Xiao, Liu Yan, and the unknown Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master slumped to the ground while stuffing various Spirit Pills for recovery into their mouths. They were so tired that they didn’t even have the strength to speak anymore. The confrontation for the past half a month had truly pushed them to their limits and beyond.
The constant trembling of the Universe Cave Heaven did not stop; however, Yang Kai had already taken over the task of stabilising it. Space Principles fluctuated around him, maintaining a balance with the external shocks and preventing the destruction of the Universe Cave Heaven.
Compared to the focused demeanour that Su Yan and the others had portrayed, Yang Kai’s performance seemed much more relaxed.
He naturally exceeded them by a great degree when it came to mastery of the Dao of Space as it was his foundational Grand Dao. Even his title as ‘Void Great Emperor’ was derived from his attainments in the Dao of Space.
Yang Kai next turned to look at Feng Ying, who slowly shook her head when she met eyes with him.
Half a month ago, he had instructed her to keep watch over the Hunters to see whether there were any abnormalities among them. He was very vigilant towards the existence of the Black Ink Disciples because others couldn’t identify them unless they took the initiative to reveal themselves.
These Hunters had been roaming around the Black Ink Clan’s territory for many years, decades even in some cases; hence, there was no guarantee that none of them had been defeated and captured by the Black Ink Clan. Black Ink Disciples were valuable tools who could be sent back to acquire intelligence on the Human Race or lure other Hunters into various traps. Such practices were common among the current Black Ink Clan.
Feng Ying had not discovered anything after observing them for the past half a month, so there were either no Black Ink Disciples among the Hunters, or they did not dare to act recklessly for fear of her strength as an Eighth-Order Master.
Yang Kai had been too busy to deal with this matter previously, but he had some time to spare now. There were many ways Yang Kai could settle this issue, but he was short on time and patience so he decided to use the most direct method. Activating the Great Sun and Moon Marks without another word, dazzling yellow and blue lights appeared out of nowhere and merged to form a small, pure white sun.
The white sun that leapt out from where Yang Kai stood in the Universe Cave Heaven exploded out and bathed the entire World in pure white light. A few people turned pale at the sight while others tried to escape into the sky, but under a surge of Space Principles, everyone was locked in place and did not move far.
Inside the white light, an energy that resembled Black Ink Strength suddenly leaked out from several individuals and was purified. At the same time, the Human Race Masters with Black Ink Strength pouring out of their body howled in agony, their expressions contorting in extreme pain. Fortunately, they soon returned to a peaceful state.
A short while later, the white light dissipated and vanished. Many people revealed expressions of guilt among the Hunters. Furthermore, countless looks of astonishment came from all directions.
Yang Kai snorted. Although he had guessed that there would be Black Ink Disciples among the Hunters, he had not expected the number to be so high.
Out of 1,000 Hunters, about 60 of them were actually Black Ink Disciples. Moreover, a large number of them were in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. In some cases, only one or two members of a Squad were corrupted by the Black Ink Strength, while in others, the entire group had been converted into Black Ink Disciples.
What stunned Yang Kai was that nobody among the 10,000 Human refugees in Li Zi Yu’s group had been corrupted by Black Ink Strength, but upon further consideration, it was not that surprising. They had been hiding in this Universe Cave Heaven from the start and had not been in contact with the outside world for more than a couple decades now. Since they did not come into contact with the Black Ink Clan, it was only natural that they were not corrupted by Black Ink Strength.
It was simply bad luck that their whereabouts were exposed. After being trapped for so many years, Li Zi Yu and the others naturally wanted to leave this place and return to Human-controlled territory. In the end, their whereabouts were discovered by the Black Ink Clan when they sent scouts to investigate the situation outside and a siege was subsequently built around the Universe Cave Heaven.
“Purifying Light?” Somebody seemed to recognise the pure white light and muttered.
Those who became Hunters generally did not come from the Cave Heavens and Paradises but from the other Sects; hence, they had never participated in the previous wars or fought with the main Human Army. Naturally, they had never seen Purifying Light before.
Some had heard stories about the past where each Human Army was said to have its own Purifying Black Ink Battleship. These Purifying Black Ink Battleships contained Purifying Light, which could dispel and purify Black Ink Strength. Even a Black Ink Disciple could regain their original self after being bathed in Purifying Light.
Unfortunately, the supply of Purifying Light was exhausted after many long wars and crusades. Before Yang Kai’s return, they had been relying solely on Purifying Black Ink Pills to resist the corrosion of Black Ink Strength. Although the effects of Purifying Black Ink Pill were excellent, there was no denying that Purifying Light was better.
These Hunters, who never had the chance to see the Purifying Light, finally witnessed it for the first time today.
“Old Zhou, what happened to you?” One of the Hunters asked.
The Human Race Master called Old Zhou was part of a four-man team, all of whom were Black Ink Disciples. Needless to say, they once fell into the hands of the Black Ink Clan and were converted into Black Ink Disciples.
Old Zhou looked sorrowful, “Don’t mention it. We accidentally ran into a Territory Lord a year ago and failed to escape.”
“You sure were unlucky,” the person who spoke earlier sighed.
Old Zhou’s Squad was small in number and not particularly strong. Consisting of only two Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and two Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, there was no room for resistance when they encountered a Territory Lord. The reason they survived was that the Territory Lord believed that they were more useful if they were corrupted by Black Ink Strength instead.
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