Martial Peak
chapter-5087

A few days later, Yang Kai was cultivating when he felt the large ship shaking a little and decelerating.

Following that, a Black Ink Clansman was heard shouting from the deck, “Get ready! We’re about to reach the Royal City!”

Yang Kai put away his resources and dashed towards the deck. As he looked in the direction where the large ship was headed, a gigantic universe fragment came into his sight.

Hei Yuan’s territory was also a large universe fragment, but it paled compared to the one before his eyes. The universe fragment where the Royal City was located was ten times larger than Hei Yuan’s territory.

At the sight of it, Yang Kai was astonished.

It had to be noted that a universe fragment was basically the result of a Universe World breaking apart. Just by looking at the size of this universe fragment, Yang Kai could imagine how colossal the Universe World must have been when it was whole.

This must have originally been a flourishing World, but now, there was only a universe fragment left, and it was engulfed in thick Black Ink Strength all year long.

As the large ship drew nearer, a massive Black Ink Nest came into view. Despite the fact that the universe fragment was covered in dense Black Ink Strength, it still couldn’t conceal the magnificent nest. Looking at the unimaginably large object, Yang Kai was flabbergasted.

Zha Gu had told him about the different ranks of Black Ink Nests, so he was aware that this was supposed to be the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest, which was a High-Rank Nest.

On the other hand, Zha Gu’s was just a Low-Rank Black Ink Nest. Despite being the lowest rank Black Ink Nest, it could produce more than 1,000 Black Ink Clansmen at any given time as long as enough resources were provided to it.

The Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest in front of them was several dozen times larger than Zha Gu’s Black Ink Nest. Sitting on the universe fragment, the Black Ink Nest looked like an insurmountable mountain.

Given enough resources, such a Black Ink Nest would undoubtedly be able to produce several tens of thousands of Black Ink Clansmen at once.

Black Ink Nests were the foundation of the Black Ink Clan, and this one was also the centre of the entire Royal City.

With the Black Ink Nest as the centre, the vast area surrounding it made up the Royal City.

Before the large ship even got closer to the universe fragment where the Royal City was located, Yang Kai detected a powerful aura that examined them. The person was obviously a Territory Lord who was responsible for keeping the Royal City safe.

Hei Yuan was just standing on the bow as he revealed a bit of his aura.

Soon, the other aura retracted as the person verified Hei Yuan’s identity.

Without the need for any instructions, the large ship flew in a particular direction towards the Royal City. They soon arrived at a square where more than 100 ships of different sizes were anchored. All of them were much larger than the ships owned by the Humans.

Nevertheless, these large ships were apparently made by Human Artifact Refiners. Yang Kai was a fairly skilled Artifact Refiner now, so he could easily figure this out. These large ships were specifically made for the Black Ink Clan by the Human Artifact Refiners.

“All of you, stay here. I’ll see the Royal Lord now,” Hei Yuan said to his subordinates and left the ship.

While standing on the deck, Yang Kai fell into a dazed state.

He initially thought that Hei Yuan would bring him to see the Royal Lord, so he had been apprehensive all along; after all, he wasn’t sure if the Royal Lord had any special skills that would allow him to see through his deception. If that was the case, he would lose his life before achieving his goal.

However, Hei Yuan apparently didn’t have the intention of bringing him to see the Royal Lord. This allowed Yang Kai to feel relieved.

After giving it a thought, he realised that even though he could be considered a treasure as he was a Great Master Artifact Refiner, he still wasn’t important enough to see the Royal Lord directly. It was expected that Hei Yuan wouldn’t bring him along.

Since Yang Kai didn’t have to face the Royal Lord just yet, he set his mind at ease.

Hei Yuan headed towards the giant Black Ink Nest, and he was soon out of sight. Yang Kai looked around and realised that the Black Ink Clansmen who had tagged along all sported solemn expressions. While standing upright, they stared at the Black Ink Nest in a respectful manner.

Besides them, the Black Ink Clansmen staying on the other large ships were in a similar state.

It seemed that the Black Ink Clansmen especially revered the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest.

According to Zha Gu, the Black Ink Nest in the Royal City was the source of all Black Ink Nests in the Yin-Yang Theatre. All the Territory Lords’ Black Ink Nests were bred from this one, and the many Low-Rank Black Ink Nests were then bred from those Territory Lord Black Ink Nests.

Innumerable Black Ink Clansmen were born from the Black Ink Nests of different ranks. Basically, the Black Ink Nest in the Royal City was the source of their lives. That was why they revered this particular Black Ink Nest while they were here.

Yang Kai couldn’t help but fall into his thoughts, [Where is the source of the Royal Lord Black Ink Nests? It is not likely for them to have appeared out of thin air. I asked Zha Gu about it, but he was unable to answer my question.]

All Zha Gu knew was that a Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest was the highest rank one; however, Yang Kai didn’t think that was true. Perhaps there were some secrets that even many of the Black Ink Clansmen were unaware of.

It wasn’t certain how long the meeting between Hei Yuan and the Royal Lord would last, and since Yang Kai was bored, he thought about taking a stroll around the Royal City. However, he wasn’t familiar with this place, so he was worried that he might invite some trouble; after all, his identity as a Human was conspicuous. Furthermore, he had used up all his Black Ink Coins. Even if he came across any good things, he wouldn’t have the money to buy them; therefore, he decided to give up on the idea.

He thus shuffled into the cabin and fished out his resources to continue cultivating.

This went on for a few days.

Finally, there came a moment when he felt Hei Yuan’s aura descending on the deck, so he hurriedly left the cabin.

Hei Yuan was indeed standing on the deck; however, though he was on his own when he left the ship, when he returned, he had another Black Ink Clansman with him.

The Black Ink Clansman was a Feudal Lord, but his aura was more ample than any Feudal Lord Yang Kai had seen before.

Yang Kai saluted Hei Yuan respectfully, “Master.”

“Him?” The unfamiliar Black Ink Clansman looked down at Yang Kai and examined him.

Hei Yuan replied, “Yes, it’s him.”

The Black Ink Clansman nodded, “I’ll take him from here, then. I hope he’s as skilful in Artifact Refining as you’ve described him to be, Sir Hei Yuan.”

Hei Yuan said, “Why would I lie to the Royal Lord?”

Then, he beckoned to Yang Kai, “Yang Kai!”

“Master,” Yang Kai stepped forward.

Like a Senior to him, Hei Yuan instructed, “You will follow him. Remember what I told you before? Don’t tarnish my reputation while you are here.”

Yang Kai cupped his fist, “Don’t worry, Master. I will do my utmost to serve you.”

A satisfied Hei Yuan nodded and turned to look at the Feudal Lord, “You can take him away now.”

The Black Ink Clansman then activated his Black Ink Strength and engulfed Yang Kai with it. After turning into a cloud of black fog, he shot into the sky. He didn’t even bid Hei Yuan farewell before he left.

Nevertheless, Hei Yuan didn’t mind it. Although he was a Territory Lord, the other person was a personal guard of the Royal Lord. There was no doubt that he was weaker than Hei Yuan now, but he would be on an equal footing in the future.

Everything was going well; initially, after he was defeated in the previous battle and lost the resource harvesting area to the Humans a few years ago, Hei Yuan was supposed to be punished. However, after he recommended Yang Kai to the Royal Lord, the latter didn’t even reprimand him, just like he had expected. The Royal Lord only gave him a warning and told the personal guard to come to this place with Hei Yuan and take Yang Kai away.

Since the matter had been settled, Hei Yuan decided to leave. He then told the person controlling the large ship to set off and return to his territory.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai was engulfed in thick Black Ink Strength and dragged along by the Black Ink Clansman at the speed of lightning.

As he was covered in the Black Ink Strength, it was hard for him to identify the exact direction they were travelling, though he had a general idea. As time passed, Yang Kai realised that they were actually moving further away from the universe fragment where the Royal City was located.

This astounded him.

They were trying to build a Warship, and this task couldn’t be carried out by only one person, so there must be a lot of Human Artifact Refiners that had been gathered together. Since this was an important matter, the Black Ink Clan must have set up a secure place to conduct research and experiments.

Yang Kai initially thought that such a place must be in the Royal City. That was the speculation of those from Yin-Yang Pass as well. That was why they decided to let him become Hei Yuan’s Black Ink Disciple so that he could move around the Royal City and gather information freely.

Now, it seemed that the place where the Warship was being developed wasn’t in the Royal City.

The revelation made Yang Kai feel elated.

Since the research centre wasn’t in the Royal City, it meant that he didn’t have to directly face the Royal Lord. This was good news to him; after all, the Royal Lord was too powerful.

While they were on the way to their destination, Yang Kai asked probingly, “Where are we going, Sir?”

The Black Ink Clansman apparently didn’t have the intention of answering his question and simply ordered impassively, “Shut up!”

Yang Kai directly kept his mouth shut.

It seemed that it was difficult to deal with this Feudal Lord, for even Hei Yuan had to be polite to him. It was apparent that his identity was special. If Yang Kai was oppressed by him, he wouldn’t have a way to get his revenge.

Just one hour later, the Feudal Lord suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked around, as though he was trying to find something.

Yang Kai scanned the surroundings and soon detected an anomaly somewhere in the Void.

Although that place didn’t look different from the area around it, there was a weak fluctuation of Space Principles. Yang Kai arched his brow; if he wasn’t mistaken, there was a portal over there.

He soon realised what was going on.

The place where the Warship was being developed wasn’t in the Royal City; instead, it was in a Sealed World that would take a person an hour to reach from the Royal City. This was indeed a good arrangement.

As expected, after looking around for a while, the Feudal Lord stared fixedly at the hidden portal. Following that, he fished out a token and infused his power into it before casting a light at that place.

A ripple spread across the void as the light penetrated a barrier and disappeared into another World.

Yang Kai felt his brow twitching. It was apparent to him that this was a Human’s creation. The people who set up a restriction around here and made this access token were definitely Human cultivators.

After the Feudal Lord was done with all that, he waited patiently.

A moment later, a ripple spread across the void as the portal to the Sealed World opened up. Supposedly, someone from the inside had opened it.

When the portal was large enough, the Feudal Lord grasped Yang Kai’s collar and dashed inside.

The view around Yang Kai changed and he realised that he was now inside a Sealed World.

Just like the Sealed Worlds that had been explored before, this one was full of greenery. It was beautiful and refreshing like a spring day.

The portal that led to the outside world was just behind him; however, he felt his skin tightening at that instant. This couldn’t be helped, as he realised that several dozen auras had locked onto him, one of them being particularly fierce.