Martial Peak
chapter-5082

As for who would be appointed by Zha Gu to stay in this Black Ink Nest and gather information, Yang Kai couldn’t care less. Zha Gu had several dozen Black Ink Clansmen working for him, but they were generally weak. There were only a small number of High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen who were equivalent to Sixth-Order Humans.

The person responsible for gathering information would be one of those High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen.

“Let’s continue,” Zha Gu said, then led the way for Yang Kai.

Soon, they went further inside and arrived at a room that was so large that it occupied half of the Black Ink Nest’s internal space. Flesh walls were seen squirming around the room, and in the centre was something that looked like a pool. The diameter of the pool was several dozen metres across and it was filled with Black Ink Strength.

Zha Gu approached the pool as he stared at it while speaking solemnly, “The Black Ink Pool can be said to be the origin of life to all Black Ink Clansmen.”

[Black Ink Pool!]

Yang Kai arched his brow as he gazed at the pool and fell into a state of contemplation. He couldn’t figure out the abstrusity of this thing, nor could he understand what Zha Gu meant when the latter said it was the origin of life.

However, he soon realised what he meant.

Zha Gu suddenly fished out a lot of resources from his Space Ring and dumped them into the Black Ink Pool without hesitation. The resources were of varying Orders and were the same ones Human cultivators could use to increase the heritage of their Small Universes.

The moment the resources came into contact with the Black Ink Pool, the Black Ink Strength which was originally as calm as a still lake started roiling. It was like water being dropped into boiling oil.

Besides that, the entire Black Ink Pool seemed to have turned into a hideous beast as a series of chattering sounds were heard, like were invisible teeth that were crunching on those resources.

The various resources were crushed as their powers were absorbed.

Following that, beneath the ground around the Black Ink Pool, energies could be seen moving in all directions.

Yang Kai stared at those moving energies in shock. As they streamed into the flesh walls around the room, bulges started forming on those rough walls. They looked just like tumours.

Life auras were being nurtured in those tumours.

Yang Kai fell into a dazed state.

More and more tumours were formed, and within an hour, by the time Zha Gu finished throwing all the resources into the Black Ink Pool, there were several hundred tumours on the walls. Every tumour contained a new life aura.

Yang Kai felt a crawling sensation on his scalp, but he forced himself to calm down and asked, “Brother Zha Gu, these…”

Zha Gu replied with a smile, “In one or two months, they’ll become residents of my territory!”

[I knew it!] Despite knowing that Black Ink Clansmen were born in Black Ink Nests, Yang Kai was still shaken to the core when he saw it happen before his eyes.

That was how Black Ink Clansmen were born. The auras in those tumours were all new Black Ink Clansmen.

Zha Gu’s words suggested that it would only take one or two months for these Black Ink Clansmen to be born. The speed was truly horrifying.

Moreover, Zha Gu’s Black Ink Nest hadn’t fully grown yet. He said that he didn’t have enough resources with him now, for the resources were needed for other matters. When he had more resources in the future, he would continue growing the Black Ink Nest.

Although the Black Ink Nest wasn’t fully grown, it could still nurture several hundred Black Ink Clansmen at once. According to Yang Kai’s estimation, if the Feudal Lord’s Black Ink Nest was fully grown, and given enough resources, it could nurture more than 1,000 Black Ink Clansmen at a given time.

More than 1,000 Black Ink Clansmen being born every month or two would translate to 7,000 to 8,000 a year. Further down the road, there would be 70,000 to 80,000 new Black Ink Clansmen in 10 years and several hundred thousand in 100 years.

Certainly, a Feudal Lord wouldn’t have an infinite supply of resources to squander on such things, but despite that, it was still a terrifying figure.

It was no wonder that they were unable to kill all of the Black Ink Clansmen. The Humans from different Great Passes would always defeat the Black Ink Clan and kill many of them in every major battle; however, after resting for at most 100 years, the Black Ink Clan would strike again without any discernable decrease in number.

The way Black Ink Nests nurtured new Black Ink Clansmen was the fundamental reason behind this.

Upon that realisation, Yang Kai felt his heart sinking. He asked solemnly, “Brother Zha Gu, how powerful will these Black Ink Clansmen be after they’re born?”

Zha Gu replied, “New Black Ink Clansmen are naturally weak and useless. It will take them several dozen years to grow to be Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. 200 to 300 years after that, a small number of them will grow to be High-Rank Clansmen. As for how far they can go following that, it will depend on their own fates.”

Yang Kai nodded gently. It seemed that even though it would take a shorter time for the Black Ink Clansmen to grow up than the Humans, it wasn’t intolerable. It would take them several dozen years to grow to be Low-Rank Clansmen, which were equivalent to Low-Rank Open Heaven Masters. Such Black Ink Clansmen were essentially useless on the battlefield and would only serve as cannon fodder to deplete the Humans’ energy.

“A competent Feudal Lord should be able to enlist 3,000 Black Ink Clansmen who are able to fight when Sir Territory Lord goes to war. It’s still in the early phase for me, so it will be several hundred to 1,000 years before I can do that.”

Out of the 3,000 Black Ink Clansmen who were able to fight, at least half of them had to be High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen who were equivalent to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth-Order Humans; otherwise, they would only be giving the Humans free Military Merits.

According to the life cycle of the Black Ink Clansmen, it would indeed take Zha Gu several hundred to 1,000 years to meet this requirement; otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough time for his subordinates to grow.

Yang Kai made some calculations in silence. A Feudal Lord with a Fief could conscript 3,000 Black Ink Clansmen when war broke out. There were dozens of Feudal Lords working for Hei Yuan, but only a small number of them had their own Fiefs. In other words, Hei Yuan alone would be able to mobilise about 30,000 to 40,000 Black Ink Clansmen. That was the number of Black Ink Clansmen that a Territory Lord could use.

On the other hand, every Royal Lord had several dozen Territory Lords. Once a Royal Lord called for war, several hundred thousand to a million soldiers could be brought together in every Theatre before they would storm the Great Passes controlled by the Humans.

The Humans from different Great Passes had spent countless years fending off such a large number of Black Ink Clansmen.

The Black Ink Clan were at an advantage because of their larger numbers. On the other hand, the Humans heavily relied on Warships, which were their unique advantage. If this advantage was taken away by the Black Ink Clan, the Humans wouldn’t be able to defend the Great Passes.

At that instant, Yang Kai felt a hefty weight on his shoulders.

Upon learning the abstrusity of the Black Ink Nest’s consciousness and witnessing the process of breeding Black Ink Clansmen through the Black Ink Pool, Yang Kai finally understood the secrets behind the Black Ink Nests.

Next, Zha Gu led him to explore other places in the Black Ink Nest.

Half a day later, they left the together.

Zha Gu was still evidently excited; after all, his dream had finally come true, so it was expected that he was in a joyful mood. That was the reason he led Yang Kai to take a stroll around the Black Ink Nest. He wanted to share his joy with others, but Yang Kai was the only outsider by his side.

“By the way, you can continue refining artifacts over there, Brother Yang.” Zha Gu finally recalled what he was supposed to do. After all, the reason he was able to get this Fief had something to do with Yang Kai’s skills in Artifact Refining.

Upon finishing his words, he pointed in a particular direction.

Yang Kai looked in the same direction and saw a huge Star in the Void.

“It was originally a giant Sun Star, but it’s dead now. However, there still should be a great amount of heat beneath the surface, which will be useful to you when you make artifacts,” Zha Gu explained.

The reason he decided to hatch his Black Ink Nest in this Universe World was that this place was not far from the Sun Star, so he could move back and forth between the two places with ease.

“A Sun Star?” Yang Kai arched his brow. There was no doubt that a Sun Star, even a dead one, would contain the power of the Great Sun.

“En,” Zha Gu nodded, “I know nothing about Artifact Refining, so you can go over and look for a place that is suitable. I’ll not keep you company as the Black Ink Nest in this Fief has just been hatched, so I need to take care of it.”

“It’s fine. I’ll be fine on my own,” Yang Kai nodded.

“Take this. These are the materials for making artifacts provided by a customer. There’s also a list of demands he has come up with. You just have to follow the specifications. When I settle things here, I’ll look for you,” As Zha Gu spoke, he passed him a Space Ring.

After taking the ring, Yang Kai scanned it with his Divine Sense and realised that there were indeed materials for making artifacts inside it. The number of materials suggested that he would have to make more than one artifact, and there was also a jade slip that supposedly contained the customer’s demands.

After bidding Zha Gu farewell, he directly flew towards the Great Sun Star.

In just two hours, Yang Kai arrived at his destination.

When he arrived in the 3,000 Worlds for the first time, Yang Kai came across a dying Sun Star where he obtained the Golden Crow’s True Fire that would be used to condense his Fire Element in his Dao Seal. For that reason, he became tangled up with the Proprietress. All of those memories flashed through his head. Many years had passed in the blink of an eye.

At that time, the Sun Star he saw was dying, but the one before his eyes now died a long time ago.

Although the Great Sun had lost all its vitality, some heat could still be felt coming from the surface. The entire Star was filled with solidified magma, and a pungent smell permeated the place.

There was no doubt that this environment was hostile and the average person wouldn’t be able to survive here for long. With that said, Yang Kai was now a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, so he was able to put up with this kind of environment.

In fact, with the power of the Golden Crow’s True Fire in possession, he didn’t need to rely on any external forces when making artifacts. It was just that by using an external aid he would be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort; therefore, a lot of Artifact Refiners loved using great sources of fire when making artifacts. It was the same case for Alchemists.

After circling around the Great Sun for a bit, Yang Kai soon found a suitable location that looked like the caldera of a volcano that led to the depths beneath the ground. He directly plunged inside, but he was soon blocked by some solidified magma.

He summoned his Azure Dragon Spear and began digging deeper into the ground.

The further he went, the more scorching the air felt. Soon, he directly plunged into an ocean of burning magma.

It went to show that even though the Great Sun died a long time ago, its power still hadn’t fully dissipated.

This kind of power was suitable for refining artifacts.

After breaking through the magma, Yang Kai arrived at the Sun’s core. It was then he activated his power and formed an empty space.

This was the deepest part of the Great Sun where he could use its power with ease. Looking around, he was pleased with this place.