Martial Peak
chapter-5166

The next moment, the vicinity of Old Turtle Squad’s Warship was all cleared up.

The Black Ink Clansmen who pushed away had not suffered any casualties and resumed their offence on the Old Turtle Squad once more after a brief pause, but why would the Old Turtle Squad take them seriously?

The giant Warship turned around and rushed towards the asteroid, smashing all of the Black Ink Clansmen who tried to stop it to pieces.

In the blink of an eye, the Old Turtle Squad’s Warship flew past Dawn and the Water Snakes and stopped near the asteroid.

Standing at the bow of the ship, the burly Chai Fang formed various hand seals with a solemn look on his face, his World Force surging madly.

All 50 members of the Old Turtle Squad were acting in concert with him. They took their respective positions and performed their respective tasks; their hand seals constantly changing.

“Eight Profound Gates, open!”

“Boundless Heavens, open!”

“Immovable as Mountains, Yin-Yang Perception, open!”

Along with Chai Fang’s shouts, the Old Turtle Squad’s Warship shone with a dazzling radiance. Every time it glowed, the halo of light assumed a tangible shape, not only enveloping the Warship, but the entire asteroid beneath it as well.

At the top of the Old Turtle’s Warship, the tortoise shell-like object suddenly ballooned, transforming into a massive barrier that surrounded the entire asteroid.

In the blink of an eye, the Old Turtle Squad created an impenetrable barrier around the asteroid.

Every Warship of Blue Sky Pass’ five Special Operations Squads possessed its own specialities. The Old Turtles’ Warship had the strongest defence, and not only could its defences cover itself, but it could even form a large defensive region by sacrificing its mobility.

Over the years, many Human Squads had managed to escape death with the protection of the Old Turtle Squad. Besides Dawn, the Old Turtle Squad was the most popular Squad in Blue Sky Pass because fighting alongside them provided an extra layer of safety and security.

At this moment, the Old Turtle Squad had displayed their full defensive capabilities. For this reason, the entire Warship had completely sacrificed its mobility and offensive abilities. In other words, the Old Turtle Squad was now nothing more than an immobile target!

Nonetheless, it was more than enough. The defensive state of the Old Turtle Squad was Yang Kai’s greatest reliance when it came to protecting Xiang Shan. Furthermore, the protection of the Old Turtle Squad was far stronger than the combined strength of Dawn and the Water Snakes.

From the beginning, Yang Kai and the others had planned for the Old Turtle Squad to only be responsible for defending, but Chai Fang refused. It was a rare opportunity to rack up some kills, so who would be willing to watch from the back? That was why they had been rotating to guard this place.

But now that the situation had developed to this point, Dawn and the Water Snakes could no longer guarantee Xiang Shan’s safety, so they had no choice but to rely on the turtle shell of the Old Turtle Squad.

They would let the Black Ink Clan take a bite at it, but even the best teeth would crack on this turtle shell.

On another side, seeing that the Old Turtle Squad put up their defences, Dawn and the Water Snakes’ Warships no longer had any worries and started a bloodbath. First, they exterminated the Black Ink Clan forces surrounding the asteroid, and then they rushed towards the void, leaving a bloody trail behind them.

In terms of defence, the Old Turtle Squad was second to none; even the other four elite Squads couldn’t come close. But in terms of killing, the Old Turtle Squad was undoubtedly the slowest.

Now that they had switched between defence and offence, Dawn and the Water Snakes did not have to worry about guarding Xiang Shan, so their killing speed increased dramatically.

Most of the 80,000 Black Ink Clan soldiers were cannon fodder, and more than half had already fallen in the battle. Now that Dawn and the Water Snakes had joined the battle, the Black Ink Clan was losing troops even more quickly.

In the distance, a gloomy expression appeared on the faces of Wu Jiang and Hong Hu.

Even though they knew that this ragtag bunch could do nothing to the Special Operations Squads of the Human Race, how quickly the situation developed still took them by surprise. The performance of these five Special Operations Squads was simply too amazing.

The two Territory Lords also secretly rejoiced. Fortunately, there were only five Special Operations Squads in Blue Sky Pass. If every Human Squad was so difficult to deal with, there would be no room for the ordinary Black Ink Clansmen to survive.

Although they hadn’t achieved their goal, the two Territory Lords were able to determine something from the current situation.

There really weren’t any Eighth-Order Masters lying in ambush here, or else they would not have sat still when things got serious. After all, there had been several times when the Humans’ situation had gotten quite dangerous. They might have resolved it in time, but that was mostly due to luck.

Although the two Territory Lords had made their own conclusion, they still patiently waited for news from the front lines. Only when they got confirmation would they act.

[It should be about time.]

As expected, after another half a day, just when the Black Ink Clan Army they had gathered was about to be completely wiped out, a Feudal Lord rushed to them and reported, “The Eighth-Order Humans stationed at the enemy forward base have all appeared, none of them is missing!”

Wu Jiang raised his brow, “Good!”

After decades of confrontation, it wasn’t as if the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and Territory Lords hadn’t fought each other before. They might not have fought many times, but they were already well aware of each other’s ins and outs. The Eighth-Order Humans were divided into two groups. One group was stationed at their new forward base, occupying about 80% of their numbers, while the other group was still nowhere to be seen. The Black Ink Clan speculated that these remaining Eighth-Order Masters should be guarding Blue Sky Pass.

After all, the Humans attached great importance to Blue Sky Pass, so it was impossible for there to be no Masters guarding it.

Blue Sky Pass was situated too far from here, so as long as they could determine the location of the Eighth-Order Masters they knew to be stationed at the forward base, they could determine if there was any ambush here or not.

Now that it had been verified that the Eighth-Order Masters of the forward base were all fighting on the front lines, they no longer had any concerns.

Hong Hu was obviously more on the cautious side though and asked, “What about their Old Ancestor?”

The Feudal Lord reported, “I don’t know, but there’s no news from the Royal City. I guess that the Royal Lord and the Old Ancestor are still locked in a confrontation.”

Several decades ago, when the Humans began their crusade, the Old Ancestor left Blue Sky Pass and entered the heart of the Black Ink Clan territory. He didn’t do anything, he just stared down the Royal Lord, preventing him from doing anything rash.

The Black Ink Clan also had no idea where the Old Ancestor was hiding; the Royal Lord surely knew, but he never informed his subordinates. It was likely that he also knew that if the Territory Lords were to rashly participate in the battle of this level, they would only be courting death.

The attitude of the Old Ancestor was very clear. So long as the Royal Lord did not make a move, he would not be making a move. Everything was left to their subordinates. The Old Ancestor’s actions had undoubtedly provided a huge buffer for the forward base to strengthen their hold; otherwise, if the Royal Lord had taken action, the forward base wouldn’t have been able to survive.

“Let’s begin, I can’t wait any longer!” Wu Jiang impatiently urged.

The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters had already appeared at the forward base, and their Old Ancestor was held back by the Royal Lord. In light of this, there was only Xiang Shan and five Human Squads here, so there was nothing to hesitate about. In this situation, if the two Territory Lords couldn’t take care of Xiang Shan, they should simply commit suicide.

Although Hong Hu felt somewhat uneasy, he knew that there was no reason for them not to make a move now. After a moment of silence, he agreed with a nod, “Then let’s move.”

Wu Jiang’s figure flickered as he rushed towards the asteroid.

Hong Hu followed closely behind, intentionally or unintentionally distancing himself from Wu Jiang. It wasn’t that he was scheming anything, it was just his nature.

He knew that the reason why Wu Jiang was so anxious was because he had suffered a great loss at Xiang Shan’s hands three millennia ago. Wu Jiang nearly died at Xiang Shan’s hands in a battle 3,000 years prior, and although he ultimately managed to survive, it had taken him a long time to recover. Since then, Wu Jiang had been constantly thinking about taking Xiang Shan’s life to wash himself of this shame.

However, Xiang Shan’s Order fell and he disappeared from the Territory Lords’ sight after a few years.

Xiang Shan naturally participated whenever the two races fought, but when a battle of such a large scale was joined, the Territory Lords’ responsibility was to keep an eye on the Eighth-Order Masters. Who would be in the mood to search for a lone Seventh-Order Human on such a large battlefield?

If it weren’t for the news of Xiang Shan’s advancement, no one would have thought that the former Western Army Commander, who had made the Territory Lords all tremble in fear, would still be alive.

The hatred that had been brewing for three millennia, once it started boiling, instantly filled Wu Jiang’s mind. His momentum shot through the sky as he charged straight towards the asteroid from millions of kilometres away.

In the midst of this chaotic battle, Yang Kai suddenly felt a sense of crisis completely enveloping him. He promptly looked up and saw an enormous Black Ink Cloud shooting over from the distance. The aura of the Territory Lord inside the Black Ink Cloud was like a bright light in the night, making it extremely obvious.

“A Territory Lord is attacking!” Dongfang Wen Bing suddenly roared, realizing what was happening.

The main reason Wu Jiang was charging so aggressively and had no intention of hiding was probably because he wanted to sow chaos.

“Formation!” Zhu Yu Ming shouted. This time, he didn’t dare to recklessly charge forward. The gap between a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and a Territory Lord was too great. Without a Formation’s support, no one here could defend against the might of the Territory Lord.

In an instant, the Open Heaven Realm Masters of the four Squads released their auras and connected with one another, instantly assuming a Formation!

Because there were many Secret Arts and Techniques in the Open Heaven Realm with no common origin, it was difficult to create a Formation without extensive practice and deep knowledge gained over a long period of time. Be that as it may, a hastily created Formation was still better than fighting alone.

Fortunately, there were also simple Formations that could largely ignore the effects of one’s origin and cultivation.

Almost every Open Heaven Realm Master on the Black Ink Battlefield was required to practice this kind of formation.

Ten Facets Formation!

The biggest feature of this Formation was that it was quite easy to set up and had a high degree of tolerance for error. To activate this Formation, one needed at least three members, while at most there could be ten. In other words, as long as there were three people, they could arrange this Formation, and so could four, five, six, up to ten.

Depending on the number of people participating, the Formation formed had different names.

Three people linked together to form the Three Fortunes Formation, four people formed a Four Symbols Formation, five people formed a Five Elements Formation… and finally, ten people formed a Ten Facets Formation.

Although it didn’t have the power of a profound Formation that was specially cultivated from youth using matching Secret Arts and Techniques, it was extremely suitable for a place like the Black Ink Battlefield. Many times, in the great battle, Warships would be destroyed and the Open Heaven Realm Masters who were stranded outside would find themselves without protection. In times like these, all it took was three of these Open Heaven Realm Masters to rally together and they could make a Formation, greatly increasing their chances of survival.

Before now, Yang Kai and the others didn’t have any intention of forming a Formation because none of their opponents were individually very strong, despite being vast in number. Their efficiency in fighting alone was much higher when in forming a Formation which concentrated their strength.

However, now that a Territory Lord was attacking, the difference in strength was too great and only by making a Formation could they protect themselves.

Dawn had six Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, so they quickly formed a Six Paths Formation, while the Wild Boar Squad, Breeze Squad, and Water Snake Squad, which had even more Seventh-Order Masters, formed Seven Stars Formation, Eight Desolations Formation, and even the Ten Facets Formation.