Martial Peak
chapter-4976

Yang Kai first concentrated on the battle between the Human Old Ancestor and the Black Ink Royal Lord.

The two figures clashed with one another several hundred thousand kilometres away, and the intense fallout from their attacks generated shockwaves that were visible even from Blue Sky Pass’ outer walls. No one dared to go near them and both armies had intentionally shifted away.

Even though they were hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, Yang Kai could still feel the frightening fallout of their battle.

This was the power of a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and a Royal Lord, it was simply astonishing.

With his current ability, Yang Kai couldn’t tell which side had the advantage. He only felt that they were evenly matched.

Within a short period of time, the two figures gradually drifted away, eventually fading out of sight entirely.

It was a pity that he wouldn’t get to watch these two Masters battle it out till the end; nonetheless, Yang Kai could tell from what just happened that the Old Ancestor had the upper hand.

After all, only when the Old Ancestor had the upper hand would their battlefield be brought far away to avoid involving others.

On the contrary, if the Royal Lord had the upper hand, he would have brought the battle closer to the Human Armies, so that the Old Ancestor’s movements would be restricted.

This outcome was no surprise once he thought about it though.

Although Yang Kai personally verified on the battlefield that the Black Ink Clansmen were noticeably weaker than Humans in the equivalent realm, the discrepancy seemed to get smaller the higher one’s strength was, to the point where it was basically indistinguishable for Old Ancestors and Royal Lords. After all, all Royal Lords endured countless years of accumulation and combat to achieve their strength, effectively eliminating the drawbacks from their prior rapid cultivation.

In the previous battle, both the Royal Lord and Old Ancestor had been injured, so it was already clear that they were roughly equal in strength.

In fact, the battle between the Royal Lord and Old Ancestor had repeated itself over and over again as the Black Ink Clan repeatedly launched attacks against the great pass. Under normal circumstances, such battles would persist for years, if not longer.

However, an accident had happened that disrupted the normal rhythm of these battles.

Yang Kai snuck out of Blue Sky Pass, intending to break through to the Seventh Order in battle. When Zhong Liang became aware of this, he hastily borrowed men from the other three Armies in order to gain complete control of the Western front and force Yang Kai to return. As a result, the Black Ink Clan’s Western forces collapsed and were swiftly forced to retreat.

This put the Black Ink Cloud, where the Royal Lord was hiding to heal, in danger.

Coincidentally, Yang Kai’s Divine Manifestation revealed the Royal Lord’s whereabouts and interfered with the latter’s recovery at a critical moment. As a result, not only did the Royal Lord’s injuries not heal, they worsened.

The Old Ancestor’s injuries had definitely not fully healed either. Once a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was injured, it would be difficult for them to recover. Nonetheless, it was far better to interrupt one’s own healing than to be interrupted by someone else while healing.

In this way, the two peak Masters, who were initially on par with each other, now had a small gap between them. This showed when the Old Ancestor managed to shift their battlefield away from Blue Sky Pass.

If nothing went wrong, the Old Ancestor would certainly win this battle. As to whether the Royal Lord could be killed, it was impossible for Yang Kai to judge.

When the battle between the strongest Masters left his range of perception, Yang Kai shifted his gaze to the wider battlefield.

The situation here was even more lopsided.

The Black Ink Clan had essentially given up trying to hold their group and were in full retreat. As a result, casualties continued to pile up on the Black Ink Clan’s side as the Human Armies pursued them relentlessly, creating a one-sided slaughter.

Although the battle was not finished, victory had essentially been decided.

Yang Kai had been on the front lines of the Western Front for a day or so now; thus, he had no idea what was going on in the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Fronts. He had no idea that his revelation of the Royal Lord’s location had forced the Black Ink Clan to abandon their advantage on the other three battlefields to provide assistance, resulting in them being pursued by Ding Yao’s, Liang Yu Long’s, and Shen Tu Mo’s Armies. In this process the Black Ink Army suffered huge losses, laying the groundwork for Blue Sky Pass’ victory.

The injured Human cultivators constantly returned to the Inner Sanctum, carrying news from the front lines. Within one day, the Black Ink Clan Army had been forced to retreat 300,000 kilometres, and this increased to 1 million kilometres by the end of the next day. Yet, the Human Armies continued to pursue and destroy them.

It wasn’t until the third day of pursuit that the Human Armies disengaged and returned from battle. The Black Ink Army had suffered nearly 50% casualties in this battle, so it was not an exaggeration to say their foundation had been severely damaged. Since ancient times, the number of such overwhelming victories could be counted with one’s fingers.

This was a true victory that filled Blue Sky Pass with a joyous atmosphere.

Everyone understood that this battle would lead to at least 100 years of peace and stability.

In the next 100 years, the Black Ink Clan would not have the power to launch another large-scale attack.

The Old Ancestor had yet to return, and it was unknown how the battle with the Royal Lord had gone. The Eighth-Order Masters gathered briefly to discuss and came to the conclusion that half of them would stay back to take charge of the great pass while the rest would seek out two peak Masters.

It wasn’t that they were worried that the Old Ancestor would lose, but rather that they wanted to seek an opportunity to help the Old Ancestor slaughter the Royal Lord. If this could be achieved, the Blue Sky Theatre on the Black Ink Battlefield would be stilled for at least 1,000 years.

After all, only when another Royal Lord was born from the Black Ink Clan could they afford to launch an offensive against Blue Sky Pass again.

It wasn’t easy for a Royal Lord to appear. Similar to Ninth-Order Old Ancestors, it would be a thousand to several thousand years between the appearance of such a Master. Both Royal Lords and Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were the strongest of both races.

A few days later, the Old Ancestor returned, accompanied by the Eighth-Order Masters who had gone to assist him. Most were unaware of the outcome of the battle between the two strongest Masters; however, with a deliberate announcement, everyone quickly learned the truth. The Black Ink Royal Lord was seriously wounded by the Old Ancestor and had fled to the depths of the Black Ink Clan’s territory, where he would not be able to completely recover for at least 100 years.

When the news broke, Blue Sky Pass celebrated.

This was not the best result, but it was still quite welcome. Everyone knew that a Royal Lord could not be killed so easily.

There had never been such a fierce battle in the Blue Sky Pass. During all previous battles, it took a long period of time to gradually wear down the Black Ink Clan until they were forced to retreat.

This process might take a few years, a few dozen years, or perhaps even 100 years, but this time it only took them half a year, and the Black Ink Clan Army did not voluntarily retreat but were forced to.

The Masters of Blue Sky Pass were all complimenting the wisdom and heroism of the four Army Commanders, especially Western Army Commander Zhong Liang who received compliments like snow falling from the sky.

If he hadn’t borrowed men from the three other fronts to sweep clean the Western Front, it wouldn’t have been possible to expose the Royal Lord’s whereabouts and ensure their great victory.

In the eyes of those who were unaware of what actually happened, they thought that Zhong Liang’s decision was a brilliant tactical move, gathering troops on the Western Front and forcing the Black Ink Clan to abandon the other three fronts to provide reinforcements, giving Ding Yao and the rest a chance to pursue them from behind.

There were also rumours in the Inner Sanctum that Zhong Liang had long predicted that the Royal Lord was hiding somewhere on the Western Front to recover, which was why such a decision was made.

Receiving this flurry of compliments and praise, Zhong Liang’s face flushed brighter each day. Others assumed that he was in high spirits, but those who knew what actually happened understood that he was just embarrassed.

Talk of brilliant strategy and decisive commands were all just crap. If Zhong Liang really had such ability, he would have already led the whole Army to destroy the Black Ink Clan once and for all.

But, Zhong Liang could not explain to them, so he had to endure these compliments which caused his cheeks to burn every single day.

After the battle, Blue Sky Pass could not rest though. There was a lot to do, including cleaning the battlefield. Due to the deaths of so many Black Ink Clansmen, innumerable Black Ink Clouds of all shapes and sizes had appeared all over the battlefield. Those had to be cleaned up, or they would have difficulty moving about. In addition, the clouds would serve as a cover for the Black Ink Clan Army in their next attack, so they had to be dealt with.

Some specialised individuals would count the casualties and record Military Merits. Each Army Commander was naturally also quite busy.

Many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters assembled in the Main Conference Hall to address a variety of issues after the war.

Other than the few that were injured and needed immediate treatment, all other Eight-Order Masters were present.

None of them liked to procrastinate, so they only spent half a day finishing their discussion.

“There is one last thing to discuss. Please share your views freely,” Zhong Liang cleared his throat and said.

The others turned to look at him.

“All of you know the reason why this battle experienced such rapid changes,” Zhong Liang continued as he rubbed his nose.

“Of course, it was because of Brother Zhong’s incredible insight and brilliant strategy, redeploying our forces so wisely to corner the enemy!” Ding Yao opined enthusiastically, “This Ding is truly impressed. The main credit for the victory of this battle belongs to the Western Army. The Northern, Southern, and Eastern Armies were just supporting characters.”

The crowd burst into laughter.

As the saying goes, never air your dirty laundry in public. Zhong Liang glared at Ding Yao and knocked on the table, “You’re not young anymore. Stop joking around.”

Ding Yao chuckled lightly before falling silent.

Zhong Liang then continued, “Whether Yang Kai caused trouble or helped gain victory in the battle, please share your views.”

Everyone became quiet as soon as the words were said. Blue Sky Pass was the centre of a massive battlefield. It was not like the Sects of the 3,000 Worlds, where merits and demerits were subject to opinion. Rewards and penalties here were a military matter, so there was no room for favouritism and strict adherence to rules and regulations was necessary to maintain discipline.

Seeing that no one was talking, Zhong Liang turned to one of them and spoke, “Brother Lu, Yang Kai can be considered part of Yin-Yang Heaven. Please offer your opinion.”

Lu An, who got called out, laughed wryly before replying, “Brother Zhong, as you’ve just said, Yang Kai can be considered part of Yin-Yang Cave Heaven. If I were to speak my opinion, I would definitely stand on his side. So, I don’t think I should say anything.”

“It’s fine for you to speak. If you have a point, it’s alright even if you take his side,” Zhong Liang insisted.

Seeing his persistence, Lu An pondered for a while before stating, “Before Yang Kai came, the corruption of Black Ink Strength had always been a problem that troubled the Human Race. But after he came here, he easily solved it, and according to what I know, the number of people who were personally rescued by him was no less than 3,000. This action alone has preserved the life and strength of 3,000 of our Blue Sky Pass’s soldiers. Is that not a tremendous merit?”

Everyone nodded in agreement, as this was an undeniable truth. Yang Kai had treated nearly people from all four Armies, from every Division, and almost every Battalion.

“Subsequently, he helped create the Purifying Black Ink Battleships together with Brother Dong Guo from Divine Cauldron Heaven, Fan Xun of Mo Sha Heaven, and several others. Besides that, he arranged Universe Arrays on each of the Purifying Black Ink Battleships and filled them with a large amount of Purifying Light. Which of the four Armies did not receive great boons from this Purifying Light during the latest battle? This can also be considered a huge merit!”