Martial Peak
chapter-4998

What they just encountered on this battlefield was so sudden that nobody expected it. Even Yang Kai, who had been attacked, did not notice the attack until it appeared right before him, and that was why he was caught unprepared and suffered a big loss.

The Feudal Lord whose body was pierced through by the golden bolt did not die immediately, but he no longer had the strength to continue fighting. He did not even have the strength to escape and could only turn his body back with difficulty to look in a certain direction, a look of hatred filling his eyes as he muttered, “Trivial Black Ink Disciple… You dare…”

Before he could finish his words, the nearby Shen Ao swung his sword again, cutting off his head.

On the other side, after spitting out a mouthful of Golden Blood, Yang Kai stabilized himself and his left eye was instantly filled with a golden light. The pupil of that eye transformed into a vertical golden slit that held infinite might.

With the Demon Eye of Annihilation, he could faintly see a dim golden light flickering between the asteroids several thousands of kilometres away.

That was where the attack had come from!

Taking in a deep breath, he pushed down the churning vitality in his chest and manipulated Space Principles. In an instant, Yang Kai disappeared from where he stood.

Several breaths later, Yang Kai had already appeared on top of a certain asteroid, and his Divine Sense spread out like a tidal wave; however, he found nothing. There was only Death Qi surrounding this asteroid without the slightest vitality.

Only a small trace of aura remained that was dissipating rapidly.

It was clear that the golden light that attacked him earlier had come from here, but as soon as the assailant sent out that attack, they made a quick retreat. So, even though Yang Kai had rushed over after discovering the attack, he was unable to catch the culprit.

Whoever it was had to be a veteran of many battles and knew to immediately flee after failing to kill his target. Such a cunning and cautious opponent would certainly be a great headache to deal with.

Even Yang Kai felt trepidations in his heart when he thought back to the haunting attack he just encountered.

His attacker had even used a Feudal Lord as cover. That attack had passed through the Feudal Lord’s chest before hitting Yang Kai; otherwise, there was no way that Yang Kai would not have noticed it until it was so close.

Fortunately, however, much of the attack’s power was diminished as it passed through the Feudal Lord’s body. If not, Yang Kai’s injuries would most likely have been even worse.

[Who was that?]

Yang Kai had a vague feeling that it had to be a rather important and impressive enemy in this resource-harvesting area.

If that person had been so cunning as to retreat immediately after that blow, then chances were that they were also skilled in the art of concealment. If Yang Kai was unable to find his traces quickly, then locating him again would prove to be difficult.

After standing in silence for a while, Yang Kai looked up into the depths of the void before letting out a grunt and turning back.

He had a hunch that that attack was not the end of it, and that he would definitely meet this enemy again, but the next time, he would definitely be prepared.

On the way back, he was met by Shen Ao and the others, and all of them quickly returned to Dawning Light.

The battle here was over. More than half of the several hundreds of Black Ink Clansmen had been killed. Out of the four Feudal Lords, Yang Kai killed one alone and teamed up with Shen Ao to kill another. While he was chasing the sneak attacker, Dawning Light worked together with Qi Tai Chu and Ning Qi Zhi to kill another.

When the last Feudal Lord saw how bad the situation had become, he immediately fled, along with some of the Black Ink Clan stragglers. However, their numbers were not that high, only around 100 or so in total.

Dawning Light did not pursue them. Even though they were capable of killing them all, their priority was to escort the two battered Warships back to the forward base. So, on Feng Ying’s orders, the three Warships ceased combat.

When Yang Kai returned, the commanders of the two Warships were thanking Feng Ying. These two Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were both Squad Leaders, but their auras were both quite weak. They were clearly both extremely exhausted.

When they saw Yang Kai return, the two Squad Leaders naturally began another round of thanks. If it had not been Dawning Light’s quick arrival today, then the situation would have been disastrous for everyone aboard the two Warships.

In fact, with the strength of their two Squads, they were no match for the Black Ink Clan attackers. The reason why the Black Ink Clan had ensnared them but kept them alive was undoubtedly because they wanted to transform them into Black Ink Disciples, which also gave them some breathing room to persist until Dawn arrived.

“Squad Leader, are you all right?” Feng Ying asked anxiously when she saw Yang Kai return looking slightly pale.

Yang Kai waved his hand, “I’m fine.”

Even though it was not a light injury, it did not harm his foundation, so it couldn’t be considered serious.

“That should have been someone from Divine Feather Paradise,” Feng Ying said with a grave look on her face.

She had seen when Yang Kai was struck by the sneak attack earlier. A golden arrow made use of a Feudal Lord as cover in order to land the hit just as Yang Kai and the Feudal Lord were fighting. Whether it was the timing or the angle, everything was perfect. Such skill was something only achievable by someone from Divine Feather Paradise.

Yang Kai nodded, “I guessed as much.”

Many Cave Heavens and Paradises had their own unique characteristics. For example, Bright King Cave Heaven’s cultivators focused on Body Tempering, Divine Cauldron Cave Heaven was proficient in Artifact Refining. Divine Feather Paradise’s cultivators on the other hand were renowned for their archery.

The cultivators from this Paradise may not be very strong in close combat, but once they were given some distance from their opponents, they were basically invincible in the same realm. That was because they were extremely skilled in archery and also at concealing their auras and evading enemies.

There were some Divine Feather Paradise cultivators in Blue Sky Pass, and they accrued a lot of merits during the last war. Even though Yang Kai had never had any significant dealings with this Paradise before, he did know about them to a degree.

The golden arrow that pierced through that Feudal Lord and then through his own body was undoubtedly an extremely profound arrow technique and was an attack that came from several thousand kilometres away. It was truly unbelievable for an attack of this degree to be possible.

It had to be known that Yang Kai’s body was now so intrepid that ordinary attacks would not be able to hurt him in the slightest, but that golden arrow had pierced straight through him, even causing considerable injuries to his five viscera and six organs.

This was a result achieved with Yang Kai possessing a World Spring in his Small Universe. If it were any other person, then it was likely that even their Small Universe would have been severely shaken. And, if it were to happen on a chaotic battlefield, then it would have hindered their combat strength greatly. It would have taken only a single arrow to render them helpless.

“En, he was a really troublesome one.” One of the Squad Leaders who had come forward to thank them added, “If not for him lurking in the shadows, even if we were no match for the Black Ink Clan, we would’ve at least been able to escape. There would be no way that we would have fallen into such a desperate situation.”

The Warships on the Human side could still run away if they were to encounter superior enemy forces that they could not deal with, but only if they weren’t overly damaged. However, every time their Warships tried to escape, they would be stopped by that Black Ink Disciple hiding in the distance. Both of the Warships were damaged in many places from the attacker’s arrows, causing them to end up in the desperate situation they were in.

Fortunately, Dawn was able to arrive in time to provide them with support and resolve the dangerous situation.

Yang Kai frowned, “There’s something I don’t understand.”

“What is it?” Feng Ying asked him.

“If he attacked us, that meant that he was a Black Ink Disciple. However, if he was a Black Ink Disciple, how could he kill that Feudal Lord?”

The last blow passed through a Feudal Lord’s body before it hit Yang Kai.

Yang Kai had lived among the Black Ink Clan for two years, so he knew very well about the position of Black Ink Disciples in the Black Ink Clan. Generally, no matter how strong they were, Black Ink Disciples had an innate reverence towards the Black Ink Clan. A Low-Rank Black Ink Clansman could even beat and yell at a Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple at will and the Black Ink Disciple would not even dare to make a single complaint.

And yet, the Black Ink Disciple from Divine Feather Paradise had done something completely unexpected.

Clearly, the Feudal Lord had not expected that to happen either, which was why he said those words before he died.

A look flickered in Feng Ying’s eyes, “That is usually true. Unless, the Black Ink Disciple had been specifically instructed by a higher ranking Black Ink Clansman to ignore the life of another Black Ink Clansman in order to kill their enemies at critical moments.”

Yang Kai narrowed his eyes, “In that case, he has to be a Black Ink Disciple under the command of a Territory Lord!”

That made sense. Judging by the power of that attack, that person definitely had to be in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. Cultivators in that realm were not something that an ordinary Feudal Lords could capture or possess. Only a Territory Lord could achieve such a feat.

“That’s the only possibility,” Feng Ying nodded.

“We should be careful on our way back. I have a feeling that that person is not far away. If we let our guards down, then he might strike us again with that powerful attack,” Yang Kai said as he swept his gaze around the void. He had felt like he was being watched since he returned, but no matter how carefully he searched, he could not find anything out of the ordinary.

From that, he could tell that this person’s concealment skills were extremely profound.

Yang Kai’s injuries were not light this time. Even though it did not harm his foundation, he would still need time to properly recuperate. After giving out orders, he returned to his cabin to rest.

The three ships moved steadily towards the forward base with the two damaged ships out front while Dawning Light brought up the rear.

It was not until they could see the asteroid where the forward base was located that Yang Kai, who had been recuperating in his cabin the whole time, suddenly opened his eyes. Just now, the feeling of constantly being watched disappeared without a trace. It seemed like that Divine Feather Paradise Black Ink Disciple did not give up on finishing him off this whole time and had been following their Warship all along.

After returning to the forward base, the two Warships set down for urgent repairs. Even though Dawning Light was also hit, the damage was nothing major and only required some simple maintenance.

Feng Ying personally went to see Cha Hu in order to hand in their mission brief and report their Military Merits before returning.

At the camp, Dawn Squad’s members were all resting and restoring their strength.

Their first battle since arriving at the forward base was not very dangerous, but it was the first time that Dawn had fought together, so it revealed some of the flaws they had. Such flaws were not of much consequence in ordinary times, but they could be magnified during difficult situations and could have led to Dawn’s downfall if they weren’t careful.

So, Feng Ying decided to talk to Yang Kai about them after he recuperated.

At the moment, Yang Kai was healing in his own tent.

The most serious injury he sustained during that fight was the sneak attack from that Divine Feather Paradise cultivator. The rest of the injuries came from him charging into battle on his own.

The Black Ink Clan’s final struggle before death was not enough to harm him in any significant way, but it was not to be underestimated either. After the fight, dozens of wounds, both big and small, were left all over Yang Kai’s body.

In just three days though, Yang Kai had fully recovered and was as mighty as a Dragon and fierce as a Tiger.

This was the perk of having a powerful Dragon Vein. He had thick skin and strong flesh, so any non-critical injuries he incurred were basically ignorable.