Martial Peak
chapter-5170

When Yang Kai hurriedly returned from the distance, what he saw next left him dumbfounded.

Hong Hu’s hammer strike caused his vitality and World Force to be thrown into turmoil and sent him flying tens of thousands of kilometers away. Even with his powerful Dragon Vein, he was seriously injured.

After stabilizing himself, he immediately rushed back, but he had never expected to see the scene before him.

Led by Ding Yao, five Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters had formed a strange Formation around Hong Hu, trapping him. No matter how Hong Hu struggled, he was unable to break free. Ding Yao and the others were sticking to him like maggots on rotting bones, constantly maintaining a certain distance from him.

On the other side, Wu Jiang was also being besieged by four Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. The battle here was far more intense than Hong Hu’s, causing space to split apart and the void to tremble.

Yang Kai even saw Xiang Shan in the mix, but at this moment, he was already an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.

Less than 10 breaths had passed since Yang Kai was sent flying and his return, but the situation had changed drastically. Fortunately, this change was extremely beneficial to Yang Kai’s side, allowing him to finally let his racing heart rest.

Turning his head to look, he instantly teleported to the Old Turtle Squad’s Warship and stood next to Chai Fang.

The Old Turtle Squad’s Warship was in a very bad state. The entire Warship was in tatters with practically all of its Spirit Arrays having exploded. Even the great turtle shell artifact on top of the Warship was covered in deep cracks. After returning, the Warship would have to undergo an extensive repair before it could return to the battlefield.

Also, Chai Fang and the others’ auras were somewhat weak; obviously, they had suffered varying degrees of injuries.

“Is this the arrangement of the Seniors?” Yang Kai asked with a frown.

Although he didn’t know why things had suddenly changed so drastically, Yang Kai had some guesses judging by the current situation.

“That should be the case,” Chai Fang nodded and resentfully complained, “But they kept us in the dark.”

“How did they get here?” Yang Kai asked again.

Chai Fang silently pointed down.

Yang Kai gazed down and instantly understood, seeing the Purifying Black Ink Battleship left on the asteroid.

[They thought to use a Purifying Black Ink Battleship like this? The way the Eighth-Order Commanders think is truly unrestrained and creative.]

Although he didn’t know who came up with this idea, it was pretty obvious that this Purifying Black Ink Battleship had been stored in Xiang Shan’s Small Universe. At the critical moment, when they were finally summoned, Ding Yao and the others who had been back in Blue Sky Pass were able to use the Purifying Black Ink Battleship’s Universe Array to instantly arrive here to assist.

Although this place was far from Blue Sky Pass, Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were strong enough to withstand the pressures of transferring across such distance through the Void.

It would not have worked if Seventh-Order Masters tried to teleport here from Blue Sky Pass as they would have been crushed during the transit.

Of the two battlefields, one was five on one, while the other was four against one. Regardless of which one it was, the Humans had the absolute advantage. It was quite obvious that Hong Hu and Wu Jiang Territory Lord would not survive this encounter.

But when Yang Kai saw how Ding Yao and the others were moving, it didn’t seem like they were trying to kill Hong Hu. On the other hand, Lu An and the others attacking Wu Jiang were using all kinds of lethal moves, overwhelming Wu Jiang and reducing him to a sorry state.

Judging by the Battle Formation used by Ding Yao and the others and their behaviour, it seemed apparent they wanted to capture Hong Hu alive.

Seeing this, Yang Kai immediately recalled the Feudal Lord imprisoned in the basement of the forward base as Grandmaster Ma Fan’s image involuntarily flashed in his mind.

He immediately understood what was going on.

Capturing a Feudal Lord alive was not difficult as any Eighth-Order Master could do so; however, Yang Kai had never heard of a Territory Lord being captured alive. After all, only an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master could fight against a Territory Lord.

Just because there was no precedent didn’t mean the Human Race couldn’t do it, but Blue Sky Pass didn’t meet the conditions in the past to accomplish this. A Territory Lord’s Black Ink Strength was extremely rich and powerful, so even an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would be at a risk of being corroded by it. Also, what would the point of capturing a Territory Lord alive be? It would be a waste of time and effort only to produce a prisoner that would have to constantly be guarded by powerful Masters.

Relatively speaking, defeating a Territory Lord in battle was easy, killing them was hard, and capturing them alive was all but impossible.

Nonetheless, the current situation was different. The Human Race already had a way to deal with the corruption of Black Ink Strength. On top of that, the research on the Evil Purging Divine Spear had made great strides with Grandmaster Ma Fan’s efforts. Obviously, experimenting on Feudal Lords was no longer able to satisfy Grandmaster Ma Fan’s needs; he needed a Territory Lord to perform more comprehensive experiments to improve the Evil Purging Divine Spear further.

Having been encircled by Ding Yao and the others, Hong Hu seemed to be the target of this operation. As for Wu Jiang, he could only be killed. Territory Lords were tenacious, so one was more than enough to experiment on; there was no need to bring two back.

The members of the Special Operations Squads returned one after another, even their respective Warships flew over. The Breeze Squad even brought back their heavily damaged Warships.

The Breeze Squad’s Warship had been sent flying by Hong Hu and suffered extensive damage not long ago. It was unclear how many were dead and how many were injured, so Breeze’s Squad Leader Wan Zheng Xin was extremely worried. However, at that time, he was still preoccupied with Wu Jiang and had no time to check up on his Squad members.

Until now.

After a quick count, the Breeze Squad had suffered fatalities while all the others had been injured, with more than ten having suffered serious wounds. Even the Warship was severely damaged and in a much worse state than the Old Turtle’s Warship.

Although three of his Squad members had fallen and a dozen or so were heavily injured, it was still an acceptable result. They were already extremely fortunate that they had only suffered such a small loss after taking the full powered sneak attack of a Territory Lord; any ordinary Squad would have been completely wiped out from such a blow.

No one tried to comfort him, as on the Black Ink Battlefield, who hadn’t experienced a few life and death battles? Those who had died had returned to dust, and those who had survived continued moving forward. Everyone had only two choices, either they sacrifice their life to the Black Ink Battlefield, or win this war that had lasted for countless millennia and return home in glory.

Everyone was silently adjusting their breathing as they observed the battle between the two groups of great experts.

Wu Jiang’s situation became worse and worse; his entire body was covered in wounds as black blood covered his body. He was unable to escape and was powerless to resist the siege of the four Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, so only death awaited him.

On the other side, the range where Hong Hu could move was further suppressed. Ding Yao and the others were originally tens of thousands of meters away from him, but now they were only a few thousand meters away. It was obvious that once the distance between them shrank to a certain extent, he would lose all ability to resist.

Hong Hu obviously knew this as well and had been desperately struggling, but it was clear he was on his last leg.

There weren’t many opportunities to witness a battle between Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and Territory Lords without any other worries, so all the members of the various elite Squads were watching intently, hoping to gain some insights.

An hour later, a blade of light cut into Wu Jiang’s body as a roar of unwillingness escaped his lips and his eyes bulged in fury. A small crack soon appeared on his forehead as Xiang Shan’s figure brushed past him before his body split in twain.

An invisible wave of aura silently spread out into the depths of the void from the fall of a Territory Lord.

Lu An, Xiang Shan, and the other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters all let out a sigh of relief. Fighting a Territory Lord who knew he was going to die was really exhausting. After Wu Jiang realized that he had no hope of escaping alive today, he had desperately lashed out in an attempt to drag at least one of them down with him, and it wasn’t like he didn’t have a chance to succeed. Any negligence on the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters’ part during the battle would give him that very chance.

Fortunately, the four Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were all extremely cautious and didn’t give Wu Jiang any chance to take one of them down with him. As such, the price they paid was marginal.

The moment Wu Jiang died, Mao Chi and Zhong Yan, who were fighting with the two Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, surnamed Zhang and Sun in the depths of the void far away from this place, felt something and exchanged a look of surprise.

They couldn’t understand how Wu Jiang had perished.

[Hong Hu and Wu Jiang should be together. Wu Jiang had fallen, so where is Hong Hu? Those two went to kill Xiang Shan, so did they fail? Did the Humans ambush them?]

Mao Chi and Zhong Yan had no idea what was happening on the other side, but their task was only to tie down these two Eighth-Order Division Commanders and prevent them from assisting Xiang Shan.

Now that Wu Jiang had fallen and Hong Hu’s situation remained unclear, there was no need for them to continue fighting with these two Eighth-Order Humans.

Without any need for discussion, the two Territory Lords made a feint before breaking away from the Eighth-Order Humans. They then promptly summoned Black Ink Clouds and quickly disappeared.

The two Eighth-Order Masters surnamed Zhang and Sun didn’t have any intention of giving chase. Although they had the upper hand in this battle, it was impossible for them to kill their opponents. Even without a full force deployment, it was easy to determine victory or defeat when both sides’ numbers were equal, but it was difficult to kill their foes.

The Eighth-Order Master surnamed Zhang turned his head in a certain direction and thoughtfully made a guess, “They should have succeeded.”

The Eighth-Order Master surnamed Sun nodded in agreement, “The shockwave from the death of a Territory Lord was very weak, almost undetectable, but it was definitely there.”

“Let’s head back.”

The two of them had originally been bait and had not intended to assist Xiang Shan from the start. They had simply come out from the forward base to draw the attention of the Territory Lords; otherwise, it would really be unreasonable for the forward base to show no response at all when Xiang Shan was breaking through.

Now that Xiang Shan’s side had succeeded and the Territory Lords fighting them had also escaped, there was no need for them to remain any longer. A battle should still be raging at the frontlines, so if they rushed back now, they might be able to end things there.

The two left dazzling streaks of light as they flew towards the forward base.

Elsewhere, in the Royal City, the dormant Royal Lord’s aura suddenly awakened as a majestic Will spread into the void for millions of kilometers in the blink of an eye with the Royal City as its center.

But the next moment, another majestic Will spread out from a certain place in the void. This invisible Will transformed into a tangible force as it ruthlessly clashed with the previous Will.

The violent burst of energy only lasted for a moment before everything returned to calm. Only a certain part of the void suddenly became fragmented and chaotic. It was the spot where the two Wills clashed.

“Sooner or later, I will exterminate your Human Race!” The Will of the Royal Lord in the Royal City flared with thick malicious intent.

The Old Ancestor remained in a lotus position in the void and indifferently responded, “Try it!”

The Royal Lord’s Will no longer responded and slowly fell dormant while the Old Ancestor also closed his eyes and his Will was withdrawn.