Martial Peak
chapter-5163

Moreover, his style of doing things was extremely unyielding and had caused the Black Ink Clan Army to suffer great losses many times. His name was a taboo in the Black Ink Clan in this era and many of the Territory Lords present had once lived under his shadow.

There was also one thing that made the Black Ink Clan unable to eat or sleep in peace, and that was Xiang Shan’s aptitude.

According to various Black Ink Disciples’ reports, Xiang Shan’s aptitude was extremely high, and when he broke through to the Open Heaven Realm, he advanced straight to the Seventh Order! In other words, the Eighth Order was not his limit, he had a chance of reaching the Ninth Order and becoming an Old Ancestor.

An Eighth-Order Xiang Shan was already so difficult to deal with, so if he were to break through to the Ninth Order, what would happen?

Because of these considerations, the Black Ink Clan in the Blue Sky Theatre only had one goal 3,000 years ago, which was to destroy Xiang Shan.

During one battle, the Royal Lord severely wounded Xiang Shan even at the expense of taking a fierce blow from the Human Old Ancestor. After that, the Territory Lords swarmed him, wanting to cut weeds and pull out roots, but the Eighth-Order Humans all came to his aid one after another and a chaotic battle ensued.

Although Xiang Shan had luckily escaped death in that battle, his cultivation had fallen from the Eighth Order to the Seventh Order, and he slowly faded from the eyes of the Black Ink Clan. The Royal Lord’s attack might have failed to kill Xiang Shan, but they had achieved their goal, albeit barely.

The Royal Lord was severely wounded by the Old Ancestor in that battle and had to recuperate for 300 years to return to his peak.

Additionally, in that battle, more than 10 Territory Lords had died under the wrath of the Human Old Ancestor!

The battle that had taken place 3,000 years ago was still fresh in their minds as most of the Territory Lords had personally experienced it. How could they forget such a tragic war?

Originally, they thought that the threat of Xiang Shan had been eliminated. They never dreamed that they would once again hear news of him breaking through after 3,000 years.

Had any other Seventh-Order Human been breaking through to the Eighth-Order, they wouldn’t have been too bothered. There had been many new Eighth-Order Humans over the years, and many who had lost their lives in the war. Overall, the number of Eighth-Order Humans had maintained a kind of balance, so one more wouldn’t really affect the overall situation.

But if it was Xiang Shan, they had no choice but to take it seriously!

Counting the time, after 3,000 years of silence, even if Xiang Shan had regressed to a lower Order, it was indeed possible for him to cultivate back up again. Thinking back to the dark times 3,000 years ago, which Territory Lord was willing to experience that again?

Therefore, when the Feudal Lord first reported that a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was breaking through to the Eighth-Order, most Territory Lords didn’t take it seriously, but after hearing the name Xiang Shan, they couldn’t remain calm.

“Are you sure it’s Xiang Shan?”

The Feudal Lord confirmed, “I’m absolutely certain. The Feudal Lord who reported this news had also seen Xiang Shan’s terror from afar in the past and clearly remembered his aura.”

Since the person reporting had said so, there could be no mistake. The Territory Lords looked at each other, and they could clearly see the seriousness in each other’s eyes.

After a long silence, a Territory Lord asked, “Are there any movements at the Human’s forward base?”

“I don’t know, but I can ask,” another Territory Lord replied. Saying so, he sent a message with his Divine Sense.

A moment later, the Territory Lord reported, “Just half a day ago, 2 Eighth-Order Masters emerged from the forward base, making a beeline towards Gu Song’s Territory!”

“It seems that news of Xiang Shan’s breakthrough has been reported back to them. Those Division Commanders must be heading there to guard him.”

“In other words, Xiang Shan’s breakthrough should have been an accident; otherwise, the Humans wouldn’t be scrambling to make arrangements now.”

“It’s still hard to say if this is another of those Humans’ schemes.”

“Whether it’s a scheme or not, we can’t ignore Xiang Shan’s advancement. If he returns to the Eighth Order, he will be the most difficult enemy we have to deal with; none of the Territory Lords can resist him.”

“Yes, we must stop Xiang Shan from breaking through, no matter what!”

“Even if the Humans are plotting something, they won’t be able to do anything with Xiang Shan’s position being so far away. In fact, we might as well beat them at their own game.”

“What do you mean?”

“Wu Jiang, Mao Chi, Zhong Ning, and Hong Hu are not here; send a message to any two of them to intercept those two Eighth-Order Humans and stop them from assisting Xiang Shan. Then send a message to the other two to investigate Xiang Shan’s advancement. If the Humans have not planned any ambushes, they can take action, and everything will be solved. If there is an ambush waiting for them, they should still be able to escape if they work together.”

As soon as he suggested this, the Territory Lords pondered for a moment before one of them nodded in agreement, “Good, we’ll go with that!”

One of the Territory Lords also questioned, “Although that’s the case, we still don’t know where all the Eighth-Order Humans are. If they are all lying in ambush near Xiang Shan, wouldn’t we be walking right into a trap if we send fewer people? The Territory Lords suffered heavy casualties in the last war, so we can’t afford to lose any more.”

The Territory Lord who had made the proposal first suggested once more, “That’s why we should launch an attack on their forward base! We don’t need to achieve anything decisive, just cause a big enough disturbance to figure out the situation at their base. If we can determine the number of Eighth-Order Masters there, we can basically determine the situation on Xiang Shan’s side. At that time, we can inform Wu Jiang and the others, so that they can act appropriately.”

“Attack the forward base?” One of the Territory Lords furrowed his brow, “If a war breaks out, it won’t be so easy to quell, and we will have to pay a certain price. If we win, it’s fine, but if we lose, the Black Ink Clan will completely lose the territory occupied by the Humans. We won’t have enough troops to continue fighting.”

“Compared to Xiang Shan’s breakthrough, it is worth it, no matter what the price is.”

“Since we have different opinions, we might as well vote. Those who agree to attack the forward base, please rise.”

After a moment, more than a dozen Territory Lords stood up. Basically, all of the Territory Lords who were standing had lived during Xiang Shan’s era, and most of the sitting Territory Lords had just recently advanced. From this, it was obvious that the old Territory Lords were all extremely wary of Xiang Shan. They were willing to pay any price in order to kill him. Compared to these Territory Lords, the new Territory Lords of the last 3 millennia didn’t fear Xiang Shan so much. They were satisfied with their current state and didn’t think that a large-scale war with the Human Race was a good idea at this point.

However, most of the Territory Lords had already agreed to fight, so they couldn’t influence the overall situation.

A storm was brewing, and war was about to break out!

Over the past few years, the Black Ink Clan’s various reinforcements had gathered around this Feudal Lord’s Fief, forming a stalemate with the forward base. The Black Ink Clan didn’t dare act rashly, and the Human soldiers in the forward base didn’t have any intention of getting themselves into a large-scale battle; but today, because of a single person’s breakthrough, this stalemate was about to be broken.

The Black Ink Clan began to mobilize their troops and advance towards the forward base.

Although their actions were extremely well-hidden, how could such a large deployment possibly be hidden from the vigilant Humans?

Inside the temporary Army Headquarters of the forward base, a group of Eighth-Order Masters was waiting with Zhong Liang and Liang Yu Long in the lead.

Suddenly, a Seventh-Order Master entered, cupped his fist, and reported, “The Black Ink Clan has started moving.”

Zhong Liang’s eyes flickered with a sharp gleam, “They took the bait!”

The group of Eighth-Order Masters were all excited. They had been worried that the Black Ink Clan would not act, and only once they did, it would mean that their plan could be implemented. This wasn’t surprising though, as the bait they had thrown out was no small matter to the Black Ink Clan.

Be that as it may, no one was certain what the Black Ink Clan’s choice would be without a concrete report, so they had been waiting here on tenterhooks.

A worried look appeared on Liang Yu Long’s face, “I wonder if Senior Brother Xiang’s situation is going well.”

Zhong Liang said, “Since Senior Brother Xiang has agreed to this plan, he must have made some preparations. There’s no need to worry about him, we just need to do our own thing. Send a message to Blue Sky Pass and tell Ding Yao that they can start.”

“Good!” Someone immediately complied.

Two figures shot through the void, both of them in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm. They were flying quite fast, making a beeline towards a certain direction.

While flying, one of them sent a voice transmission, “Brother Zhang, do you think the Black Ink Clan will take the bait this time?”

Hearing this, the Eighth-Order Master surnamed Zhang smiled, “We’ll know if there is any obstruction along the way; however, I’m sure that the Black Ink Clan will not be able to resist. After all, this concerns Senior Brother Xiang. If I were a Territory Lord, I would definitely not allow him to advance peacefully. They finally made him fall to the Seventh Order, so how could they allow him to advance back to the Eighth Order?”

The other Eighth Order asked curiously, “Does Senior Brother Xiang hold such a great deterrence to the Black Ink Clan?”

The Eighth-Order surname Zhang answered, “Brother Sun, you haven’t been on the Black Ink Battlefield for long, so you haven’t seen Senior Brother Xiang’s power with your own eyes. When he was commanding the Western Army, he tossed around the Territory Lords like they were chickens. It could even be said that their faces would be filled with dread at the mere mention of his name.”

The cultivator surnamed Sun sighed, “Alas, I didn’t get to see Senior Brother Xiang’s divine might. I hope his breakthrough this time goes smoothly.”

Zhang Xian added, “Although it will be much more difficult to break through after a drop in one’s Order, it shouldn’t be a problem for Senior Brother Xiang with his aptitude. All we need to do is wait for good news. It just so happens that Blue Sky Pass needs someone to play the opening act, and Senior Brother Xiang was about to break through. After learning of the plan, I volunteered for this duty.”

After chatting for a while, the two of them stopped talking and continued on their way.

Two days later, the two Masters who were speeding forward suddenly came to a stop at the sight of two Black Ink Clouds approaching from the opposite side. The next moment, two huge figures appeared from the Black Ink Clouds, attacking them without saying a word.

The two Eighth-Order Masters naturally wouldn’t just sit back and wait for their deaths. Each cast their own Divine Abilities to fend off the attackers descending from the darkness.

Shortly after, the four figures separated and faced off against one another.

The Eighth-Order surnamed Zhang coldly glanced over and snorted, “Mao Chi, Zhong Yan!”

Having fought with each other for so many years, this man surnamed Zhang naturally recognized who these two Territory Lords were.

After exchanging a glance with the cultivator surnamed Sun, both of them calmed down. As these two fellows had suddenly appeared and blocked their path, it was apparent that the Black Ink Clan had taken the bait; otherwise, there was no reason for these two to come here and stop them.

Everything was going according to the plan!

It was laughable that the two Territory Lords didn’t even notice. Mao Chi was even more valiant and spirited as he coldly shouted with a look of disdain on his face, “This road is blocked!”

The Eighth-Order Master surnamed Zhang sneered, “Shamelessly boasting!”

Without wasting another moment, he summoned his sword with a wave of his hand, sending out a flurry of sword lights towards Mao Chi. On the other side, the cultivator surnamed Sun and Zhong Ning engaged in a one-on-one battle. Neither side held a decisive advantage.

Be that as it may, as far as the two Territory Lords were concerned, so long as they could stop these two Eighth-Order Masters here, that was enough. They really did not care if they could do anything to them or not.

The two of them had also learned the seriousness of the situation from the message sent via the Black Ink Nests. If not for this, they wouldn’t have been lying in ambush here waiting to intercept the Eighth-Order Division Commanders.