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Translator: Silavin & Sara
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The Black Ink Clan had claimed the No-Return Pass for many years now. It had been thousands of years since the Human Race Army withdrew, and after being in the Black Ink Clan’s possession all these years, this place that once belonged to the Humans was now the Black Ink Clan’s stronghold and core base.
All of the High-Rank Black Ink Nests had been gathered here, along with countless Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests. A large number of Black Ink Clansmen stood guard, including the only two true Royal Lords.
Of the two Royal Lords, Mo Yu did not take charge of things. Ever since he got Mo Na Ye to help him deal with the Black Ink Clan’s matters, he spent nearly all of his time inside his Black Ink Nest, strengthening himself.
It had been ages since he last fought against a Human and no one knew just how strong he was now.
News of the situation on each battlefield was transmitted back to the No-Return Pass through the Black Ink Nests.
Mo Na Ye was inside a Grand Hall reading the reports sent in from all the different places. His long bout of gloominess finally eased when he saw the Humans’ casualties across all the fronts.
Previously, he had mounted an attack on Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing to help the Black Ink Giant Spirit God regain its freedom. He thought it would have been an extremely easy task, but alas, the Humans summoned a powerful weapon in the form of a real Giant Spirit God.
Not only did he fail in his mission, but he also freed up the two veteran Ninth-Order Masters. As for the Black Ink Giant Spirit God that he had been banking his hopes on, the newly-summoned Giant Spirit God kept it occupied; thus, the plan backfired on him.
Whenever Mo Na Ye recalled this, his heart would throb in pain. It was as if anything he did would end in defeat if Yang Kai was involved.
After returning from the failure of that incident, Mo Yu had given Mo Na Ye a harsh scolding. Thankfully, Mo Na Ye was also a true Royal Lord now and Mo Yu could not actually do anything to him, but even so, it was enough to make him depressed.
In recent years, Mo Na Ye did not get personally involved in the fighting. He simply stood guard at the No-Return Pass and watched over the Black Ink Clan Army that was fighting against the Humans from afar, and he did manage to produce fairly good results.
This was especially true for E-5 Territory, which he had been targeting. After all the battles over there thus far, the Red Flame Army had lost many of their Masters, including a lot in the Eighth Order.
If this continued, it would take less than a century for the Red Flame Army to be beaten half to death by the Black Ink Clan.
Mo Na Ye did not dream of wiping out the Humans in one fell swoop as he knew that none of the Human Race’s Armies could be underestimated. Even if they did not have a Ninth-Order Master with them, there were still a lot of powerful Masters, including the Divine Spirits who were especially tricky in a fight. Thus, if he wanted to decimate the Red Flame Army, he had to take things one step at a time.
Although the Humans continually added new rising stars to their ranks, as long as the Black Ink Clan acted decisively enough, they could kill off more Masters than what the Humans could produce and the time would eventually come when the Red Flame Army could no longer hold out.
To carry out this strategy, the Black Ink Clan had to make a lot of sacrifices too. Not a single Innate Territory Lord was left behind at the No-Return Pass or the front lines of other battlefields. Under the command of both Mo Na Ye and Mo Yu, all of the Innate Territory Lords who snuck out from the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction had been turned into Pseudo-Royal Lords using the Source Fusion Technique.
A huge number of Innate Territory Lords had been sacrificed to create a sizeable number of Pseudo-Royal Lords, which was the reason why the Black Ink Clan could still hold out against the Humans; otherwise, how would they be able to maintain the fight on the battlefield when the Humans had Ninth-Order Masters while they did not have any Royal Lords with them?
Furthermore, after all the years of accumulation, the Black Ink Clan was about to witness the birth of new Royal Lords!
During the early days when Mo Na Ye first assumed command over the Black Ink Clan, he had already selected a large group of Territory Lords who had the potential to become Royal Lords and kept them hidden inside the No-Return Pass to cultivate. At long last, he was about to reap the fruits of his labour.
So long as more Royal Lords were born, the Black Ink Clan would be able to make up for the disadvantages they faced due to the Ninth-Order Masters, and when that happened, the Human Race’s situation would become even more disastrous!
[Do the Humans think they’re winning just because they reclaimed a few Great Territories? What a joke!]
Mo Na Ye set down the reports in his hand and leaned back against his chair. He tapped his fingers on his desk with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
He was considering whether he should increase the number of Pseudo-Royal Lords in E-5 Territory to put the Red Flame Army under even more pressure. Right now, the Black Ink Clan was in a position to do so as there were many Pseudo-Royal Lords at the No-Return Pass who were restless and could not stay put. They often came to him to ask for the chance to join the fights, though he rejected them all.
What he wanted was to kill as many of the Humans’ most powerful Masters as possible to weaken them overall. There were often Eighth-Order Masters of the Red Flame Army who willingly sacrificed their lives to injure Pseudo-Royal Lords and force them to leave the battlefield.
Mo Na Ye was more than happy with this situation as he did not care about the deaths of any of the Black Ink Clansmen weaker than Territory Lords. All that mattered was that the Territory Lords and Pseudo-Royal Lords remained alive. Even if they were heavily injured, they just had to return to the No-Return Pass and rest for some time where they would easily be able to make a full recovery.
However, before he could make up his mind, a Territory Lord under his command came barging in.
Mo Na Ye looked at the Territory Lord and frowned. Judging by the look on the latter’s face, he could tell that something bad must have happened.
He was unperturbed by this though. Out on the battlefield, things could change at any moment, and while he had been receiving mostly good news from the front lines, there would still be times when things did not go their way.
After all his years of commanding the Black Ink Clan Army, Mo Na Ye had long since developed the ability to maintain his composure even in the face of the most devastating situations.
His fingers stopped tapping as he asked coolly, “What is it?”
The Territory Lord eyed Mo Na Ye with a worried look and held out a jade slip with both hands, “It’s a message from E-5 Territory! The situation on the battlefield has changed!”
“E-5 Territory?” Mo Na Ye’s eyes flashed with surprise.
The reports he was reading just now had been from E-5 Territory, and according to them, everything was going swimmingly for the Black Ink Clan. The Pseudo-Royal Lords had prepared a strategy to target the Red Flame Army’s leaders and there was a high chance they would be able to kill one of the Army Commanders. Once they succeeded, the Red Flame Army would not only be losing a strong and experienced Eighth-Order Master but the Eastern Army would be left leaderless as well. It would be a huge boost to the Black Ink Clan’s plan to destroy the Red Flame Army, so why would things change all of a sudden?
Mo Na Ye raised his hand and took the jade slip before using his Divine Sense to study it.
The very next breath, Mo Na Ye leapt out of his chair with his eyes the widest they could stretch. He was filled with shock and disbelief as he cried out, “That’s impossible!”
Even when Xiao Xiao used the World Bead and let out the long-slumbering Giant Spirit God, Mo Na Ye had not been as flustered as he was now, and it was all due to how unbelievable the battle report he received was.
He could not believe his eyes and seemed to think he had misread it as he quickly took another look. Alas, his eyes were perfectly fine. The report stated that Yang Kai had suddenly appeared in E-5 Territory before slaughtering Jiang Chi and capturing Hu Yu, along with four other Pseudo-Royal Lords. The Black Ink Clan Army had fled in defeat as they suffered massive casualties. They had gathered back at their main base and were on high alert for possible skirmishes.
[Yang Kai showed up at the E-5 Territory? This must be a bad joke! He’s supposed to be confined inside the Universe Furnace! How could he show up at E-5 Territory?]
Mo Na Ye did not want to believe this, but he scrutinised the report that clearly described everything Yang Kai had done. [He was able to capture five Pseudo-Royal Lords because he used a strange Dao Strength River…]
The so-called Dao Strength River was not at all unfamiliar to Mo Na Ye. Back inside the Universe Furnace, he had gotten into a fight with Yang Kai and knew just how frightening that Dao Strength River was.
During that fight, if Meng Que had not sacrificed his own life to help Mo Na Ye, the latter could very well have been killed by Yang Kai. However, even with Meng Que’s help, Mo Na Ye was only able to prolong the fight for a little while longer before fleeing in defeat and narrowly managing to stay alive.
Mo Na Ye had never seen any other Human using a Dao Strength River apart from Yang Kai.
[Is it really Yang Kai?] Even Mo Na Ye’s heart was quaking, [Why would it be him? How could it be him?]
Mo Na Ye could not figure it out at all, [Isn’t that Bastard supposed to be confined inside the Universe Furnace? Didn’t he have to wait until the next time the Universe Furnace opened to have the chance to come back out? It has only been a few centuries and there has been no sign of the Universe Furnace opening up again, so how did he come out?]
Mo Na Ye was uneasy and his mind was riddled with chaotic thoughts.
It took quite a while before he was able to regain his composure.
Based on the report, it had to have been Yang Kai who showed up at E-5 Territory. He was the only one with a Dao Strength River and only he could capture five Pseudo-Royal Lords alive. No other Ninth-Order Master could do such a thing.
After giving it some more thought, Mo Na Ye realised it was true that there had not been any proof to confirm that Yang Kai was confined inside the Universe Furnace, he had only thought so for two reasons. The first was that, when the Universe Furnace closed up again, he did not see Yang Kai who should have reappeared with him, and that had given him the chance to avoid disaster. Secondly, it was based on the news the Black Ink Clan gleaned out of the Black Ink Disciples.
The Humans also thought that Yang Kai was stuck inside the Universe Furnace; otherwise, there was no reason why he did not show up after so many years since the Universe Furnace’s closure.
However, no one could be sure whether or not he was indeed confined inside the Universe Furnace as no one saw it for themselves.
Moreover, even if Yang Kai had been stuck inside the Universe Furnace, it was not necessarily true that he had to wait for it to open up again before he could escape… [That Bastard always has some mysterious trick up his sleeve that allows him to do things no one else can.]
Mo Na Ye rubbed his temples, feeling like his head was about to explode. His cheerful mood from earlier had vanished entirely.
All along, he thought he would no longer have to deal with Yang Kai, the thorn in his side. Over the last few centuries, he accepted the possibility of Yang Kai being locked up inside the Universe Furnace as fact; however, now that the battle report was right before his eyes, the terror that had been buried deep inside his heart was pouring out again.
He was not afraid of any of the other Ninth-Order Masters, be it the newer ones or the two more experienced ones; Yang Kai, the one behind his suffering and numerous defeats, was the only one he was truly wary of.
There was no point for him to continue with his earlier considerations now. Since Yang Kai had shown up at E-5 Territory, things were not going to go according to the Black Ink Clan’s plans anymore. As someone who fought against Yang Kai inside the Universe Furnace, Mo Na Ye knew Yang Kai’s strength better than anyone else.
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.