Martial Peak
chapter-5162

Hearing this voice, Wan Zheng Xin felt a headache coming on, “That pig is here!”

Yang Kai’s face also twitched. The Wild Boars’ way of doing things was as unrestrained as ever. They could have acted stealthily, but no, they had to make a huge scene, like they were afraid that the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t know of their arrival.

It was the Wild Boars’ signature style to always rush forward without a second thought. Under the leadership of their Squad Leader, Zhu Yu Ming, the entire Squad had taken this as their way of life.

From another side, someone immediately started cursing, “You freaking pigs, can’t you think a bit before you act!? Why would you purposely alert the enemy!? Arghhh… you drive this Old Master crazy!”

Another cold snort came from another side, “If these pigs knew how to think, they wouldn’t be pigs!”

Immediately, chortles of laughter and people cursing in disdain rang out across the void. To the Black Ink Clansmen’s shock, who were lingering in the vicinity, three Human Warships started attacking from three different directions. Fearsome artifacts and Secret Techniques blasted out from each of these three ships, raining down on the Black Ink Clansmen.

The Black Ink Clansmen were dumbstruck for a moment. Without their knowledge, they had been surrounded. Originally, all of their attention had been focused on the Human breaking through on the asteroid, and the two Human Squads guarding him. The sudden appearance of the other three Squads had thrown their thoughts into chaos.

Although they put up a brave fight under the coordination of some of the Feudal Lords, these suddenly appearing Human Squads were clearly different from the ordinary. Not only were they much bigger, but the proportion of Seventh-Order Masters in them was also extremely terrifying. Furthermore, the power each Warship could display was far more fearsome than what average Human Warships could.

These were the Special Operations Squads of the Human Race!

Having fought with the Humans for so many years, the Black Ink Clan naturally had some understanding of the Special Operations Squads. They knew that there weren’t many Special Operations Squads on the Human Race’s side, just 5 in the Blue Sky Theatre, but each one was capable of defeating a Feudal Lord Army.

The Black Ink Clan came to the conclusion that if they wanted to take care of such a Squad, they would need the Territory Lord to personally act, or at least 20 Feudal Lords.

This was for one Squad, and right now, there were 5 such Squads here. Although there were many Black Ink Clansmen, they were mostly weaker Low-Rank and High-Rank Clansmen. They were simply unable to contend with these Special Operations Squads.

Under the leadership of their respective Squad Leaders, the three Squads rampaged through the void, with the Wild Boars acting the fiercest.

In just a short time, all the Black Ink Clansmen present in the vicinity had been slaughtered, leaving mangled corpses floating about everywhere.

The outcome was decided.

Wan Zheng Xin heaved a sigh, “Junior Brother Yang’s foresight was on point, the Old Turtles and Water Snakes were indeed hiding nearby, but unfortunately, all their plans were destroyed by that pig.”

Yang Kai chuckled, “You can’t say that. Those two Squads probably wanted to wait for the Black Ink Clan to gather more troops before starting the bloodbath, but although Senior Brother Zhu acted a bit rashly, this isn’t a bad outcome either.”

Wan Zheng Xin nodded, lamenting a little, “When will the Wild Boars change their style?”

Yang Kai and Wan Zheng Xin had no intention of taking part in such a one-sided battle as right now, the most important thing was to protect Xiang Shan, not fight for Military Merits.

What’s more, this was only the beginning, things would surely become grimmer with time. Whether it was Yang Kai or Wan Zheng Xin, after being Squad Leaders for so many years, they both understood the principle of conserving their strength before the battle.

Just as the three elite Human Squads made their appearance, far away, the Black Ink Clan Territory Lords were gathering in a hall on a giant asteroid in the depths of the void.

The Black Ink Clan had suffered heavy losses in the last large-scale war, especially in regard to Territory Lords, of whom several dozen had been killed. It could be said that they had lost an arm and a leg, infuriating the Royal Lord.

Immediately after, the Human Race Army stormed out of the Great Pass to launch a crusade. With morale at a record low, the Black Ink Clan lost vast swaths of territory to the Human Expeditionary Force, only halting their advance three Territory Lord territories away from the Royal City.

This was something that had never happened before. The Human Race and Black Ink Clan had been fighting on the Black Ink Battlefield for countless years, but the Black Ink Clan had never suffered such a great loss before. It had always been the Black Ink Clan who attacked the Human Race Great Passes, whereas the Human Race were always passive. The Humans might launch a raid every now and then, but this time, it was completely different.

What was even more frustrating to the Black Ink Clan was that the Human Race had actually built a forward base camp at the very front of the territory they had conquered. By the looks of it, they were planning to completely settle in there.

How could the Black Ink Clan tolerate this?

If the Human Race succeeded, the entire Black Ink Clan of the Blue Sky Theater would lose all face. In the future, they wouldn’t be able to hold their heads up high in front of their fellow clansmen in other Theatres.

Over the past few decades, the Black Ink Clan had also mounted counterattacks, but their efforts had been fruitless. With so many of their Territory Lords dead, it was difficult for them to suppress the Eighth-Order Humans. Although the Black Ink Clan held the advantage in terms of overall numbers, that was only among the weaker Realms, while their top Masters were now completely outnumbered. The majority of the Black Ink Clansmen were far too weak. If the troops they sent out were too small in number, any Human Squad would be able to wipe them out, and if they deployed a bigger Army, they would be met by a fierce assault from the Human Race’s forward base.

Thus, the Black Ink Clan was caught in a dilemma.

The lack of action by the higher-ups caused the lower-ranked Black Ink Clansmen to bitterly grieve and spontaneously gather their forces to fight against the Human Race. On the other hand, the Humans had been hunting down these scattered groups over the past few decades. How could the Black Ink Clan not try hunting them down in return? This kind of scattered battle had basically become a kind of tacit agreement between the Masters on both sides. No one knew how long this situation would last, and no one knew what kind of variables would appear in the future.

The Human Race forward base had many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters gathered, forcing the Territory Lords to form a coalition in order to prevent the Human Army from continuing their conquest or simply picking them off one by one.

This asteroid was originally a Feudal Lord’s Fief, and was only a few million kilometres away from the Human Race’s forward base. In the vastness of the void, such distance was quite short, almost within fighting distance. If one stood at the edge of this asteroid, they could even vaguely see the Human outpost.

Because it was quite close to the Human Race’s forward base, this place had become the frontline for the Black Ink Clan’s resistance.

At this moment, many Territory Lords were gathered here, not to discuss some battle plan or anything, but to wait for that variable that would change the situation, hoping to break the stalemate.

The Territory Lords had already been waiting here for several decades, but that was nothing more than a snap of the fingers to them.

Suddenly, a Feudal Lord rushed out from the Fief’s Low-Grade Black Ink Nest and hurried into the main hall. He put his fist before his chest and respectfully reported, “Sir, I bear an urgent report!”

One of the Territory Lords opened his eyes and asked, “Is there any movement at the Human’s forward base?”

The Feudal Lord quickly replied, “It’s not about the forward base, it’s in the depths of the void, near Sir Gu Song’s Territory.”

Gu Song’s Territory was the territory of a Territory Lord, and it wasn’t very close to this place, but it happened to be a space where the two races were fighting.

“What’s going on over there?” The Territory Lord asked.

The Feudal Lord replied, “There’s news that a Human is breaking through to the Eighth Order there!”

As soon as he reported this, the other Territory Lords, who had remained silent all the while, opened their eyes as one of them leaned slightly forward, “Someone is advancing to the Eighth Order over there? Is the news accurate?”

The Feudal Lord replied, “It’s absolutely accurate. A Feudal Lord observed the situation at close range. There are indeed signs of a Human breaking through from the Seventh Order to the Eighth Order.”

The reason why this news had reached this place so quickly was naturally because of the Black Ink Nest’s network ability; otherwise, it would have been impossible for it to arrive so quickly.

“Damn it, is the Human Race going to gain another Eighth-Order Master?” One of the Territory Lords indignantly cursed. After the last war, the balance between the number of Territory Lords and Eighth-Order Masters had been broken. If the Humans gained another Eighth-Order Master, it would put even more pressure on the remaining Territory Lords.

One of the Territory Lords coldly snorted, “The Humans are taking us more and more lightly, actually trying to advance to the Eighth Order at that position. They’ve gone too far!”

“The advancement of the Human Race depends heavily on opportunities. When an opportunity is before them, they won’t be able to suppress it even if they want to. Forcefully suppressing it will only lead to terrible consequences. Since that Human chose to advance in that location, they must have had no other choice.”

“Is there any point in discussing this? Are we just going to sit back and watch the Humans gain another Eighth-Order Master?”

“What else can we do? Don’t tell me you want to go and stop him? Not to mention the distance, even if we can make it in time, who can guarantee that this isn’t some Human plot? Didn’t we suffer enough last time?”

The group of Territory Lords fell silent. Even the Territory Lord who had just spoken didn’t say anything. The insidious and cunning schemes of the Humans were too deeply ingrained into the Black Ink Clan’s hearts. They had suffered heavy casualties because of the Humans’ schemes in the last war.

It was an extremely important matter for a Human to advance to the Eighth Order. If they wanted to break through, they would have made careful arrangements beforehand, so how could they have advanced so far off in the void? Thus, when the Territory Lords heard about this matter, their first reaction was that the Human Race was plotting something, possibly having set up a trap to lure them out and kill them.

But if they didn’t do anything about it, it would be quite frustrating; after all, this was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. If they could kill him before he broke through, they would be able to deal a big blow to the Human forces.

At this moment, the Feudal Lord who had come in to report the situation spoke again, “There is one more thing I must inform Sirs about.”

“What is it?”

“According to the Feudal Lord who relayed the news, the one who is breaking through might be Xiang Shan!”

As soon as he reported this, all the Territory Lords were shocked.

A Territory Lord with a braid behind his head asked darkly, “Are you sure it’s that Xiang Shan?”

Three millennia ago, the name Xiang Shan had a great deterrence on the Black Ink Clan. It was not surprising either, as when he was the Army Commander of the Western Army, he had killed 7 Territory Lords relying on his deep heritage and fearsome strength.

This was an almost insurmountable achievement.

It had to be said that neither the Humans nor the Black Ink Clan would lose Eighth-Order Masters or Territory Lords in a battle very frequently. Even in large-scale wars, having more than 2 or 3 such Masters fall would be considered unusual. It would be considered a great achievement if any Eighth-Order Master was able to kill 1 Territory Lord in 1,000 years, but during his tenure as Western Army Commander, Xiang Shan had killed 7!

That was an astonishing feat.