Martial Peak
chapter-5188

Yang Kai turned to face the crowd and ordered, “You all heard it, right? Separate yourselves into two groups and take turns heading over.”

Having received their orders, the members of Dawn quickly grouped themselves into two teams. Following that, the first group of 20 or so, led by Feng Ying, flew away in the direction of the central Army.

In fact, it would have been easier for them to leave their Imprints on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship while they were still at Wind and Cloud Pass because all 30,000 soldiers were already gathered there. Xiang Shan and Liu Zhi Ping would only have had to summon their respective Purifying Black Ink Battleships before letting the soldiers take turns leaving their Imprints.

However, when all soldiers from all Great Passes were gathered together, the priority was to organize Great Evolution’s Eastern and Western Armies. Once both Armies were completely formed, they immediately charged out of Wind and Cloud Pass to engage the Black Ink Clan. There was simply no time for them to take care of such things.

After they successfully defeated the Black Ink Clan, the Great Evolution Army immediately set out. Xiang Shan deeply understood the principle of ‘in war, speed is everything,’ so he naturally wouldn’t delay the start of the campaign by having the soldiers leave their Imprints on the Purifying Black Ink Battleships while at Wind and Cloud Pass.

As a result, such things could only be done during their voyage.

Though it was more tedious, the benefit was that they wouldn’t be wasting any time, and if they had made suitable arrangements, it wouldn’t delay their speed either.

About half a day later, Feng Ying and the others returned, letting the other half of Dawn’s members head over to the two Purifying Black Ink Battleships.

Another half a day passed, and the second team of Dawn members also returned to the ship. Just like that, all members of Dawn had left their Imprints on the two Purifying Black Ink Battleships.

The days during their deployment to Great Evolution Pass were dull, so everyone decided to cultivate on their own.

Four days after the Army’s departure from Wind and Cloud Pass, Yang Kai, whose eyes were closed while adjusting his breathing on the ship’s deck, suddenly felt something and turned his head to look in a specific direction.

What he saw was a stream of light coming from behind the Army and heading right towards them. The speed at which the stream of light was moving had already surpassed the speed ordinary cultivators could comprehend, and even Yang Kai’s Instantaneous Movement couldn’t surpass such speed.

The stream of light should be heading in the direction of the central Army, but then, as if it had sensed Yang Kai’s gaze, it changed directions and landed on Dawning Light.

The stream of light dispersed and revealed a stunning figure.

Yang Kai was taken aback but quickly got up and saluted, “Greetings, Old Ancestor!”

There were other members in charge of operating various arrays on the deck, and at first, they were curious about the young woman who had suddenly appeared and why she came here, but when they heard how Yang Kai addressed her, all of them paled in shock and quickly rose to their feet to greet her.

[This uninvited guest is actually the Old Ancestor!]

Although they had heard about Yin-Yang Pass’ Old Ancestor being a woman, the others had never met her before. It was then that they realised that this Old Ancestor was different from how they had imagined her and that she was actually a beautiful young woman.

Now that they thought about it, they wondered if a woman’s cultivation was incomparable to a man’s or something along those lines because the higher the cultivation realm, the smaller the ratio of women to men became. It was especially true for the Old Ancestors. There were only around 20 women among all the Old Ancestors, with the rest being men.

In the presence of an Old Ancestor, even an unruly and untamed Squad like Dawn, who had achieved many Military Merits on various battlefields, became respectful and didn’t even dare breathe loudly.

The Old Ancestor swept her gaze across Yang Kai’s figure, and there seemed to be a flash of divine light in her eyes when she commented in surprise, “Looks like your cultivation has increased rapidly.”

With her level of vision, she could see that Yang Kai’s strength had significantly increased compared to 200 years ago. The speed at which his cultivation had increased was not typical for an ordinary Seventh-Order Master; however, she soon remembered the various mysteries of Yang Kai’s Small Universe and felt that his huge advancement was quite reasonable.

While thinking of that, she was looking forward to seeing how long Yang Kai would take to advance to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm. In the Black Ink Battlefield, though Seventh-Order Masters could take charge of a Squad, they weren’t considered the backbone of any Army.

“Thanks to you, Old Ancestor, there haven’t been many huge events recently, so I have been in retreat all this while,” Yang Kai replied respectfully.

The Old Ancestor nodded lightly, “A fast increase in cultivation might not be a bad thing, but your foundation must remain stable.”

“Junior understands,” Yang Kai nodded with a serious expression.

Then, the Old Ancestor added, “The fact that your Small Universe can help me heal my injuries is also one of the considerations I had when requesting you for this campaign. During the process of retaking Great Evolution Pass, I will have to fight against the Royal Lord there a number of times, so I will be depending on you when the time comes.”

Nodding, Yang Kai responded, “That won’t be a problem. If the Old Ancestor needs my help, I will definitely do my best to assist.”

The Old Ancestor reached out and patted his shoulders before chuckling innocently, “Enough with the Old Ancestor nonsense. I’m just someone with a cultivation that is a little higher than yours.”

Yang Kai leaned forward from the slap and couldn’t help but stifle a grunt, knowing that he might have said the wrong thing. It looked like no matter how high a woman’s cultivation realm was, references to their age were still taboo.

So, he quickly changed the topic, “By the way, how long will it take for us to reach Great Evolution Pass?”

Withdrawing her hand, the Old Ancestor looked in the direction where the Army was heading and explained, “The distance between each Great Pass is quite large. Judging by the speed the Army is moving, it might take one or two years for us to reach Great Evolution Theatre.

Yang Kai was shocked, “That long?”

The Old Ancestor smiled, “Why do you think the Great Passes aren’t able to send large numbers of reinforcements to each other in times of need? The distance between each Pass is too great, and every Great Pass has its own enemies to face. If reinforcements are sent out, they won’t be able to call them back if the enemy suddenly appears, which will put them in a bad situation. Suppose the distance between each Great Pass was closer, the situation at Black Ink Battlefield wouldn’t be as anxious as it is now. Of course, another reason is that we can’t advance too quickly as we need to maintain formation and keep a wary lookout for ambushes”

While nodding to indicate his understanding, Yang Kai asked, “How’s the situation with the Royal Lord of the Wind and Cloud Theatre?”

The person before him and the Old Ancestor of Wind and Cloud Pass had jointly fought with a Royal Lord, and when the latter fled, the two Old Ancestors had given chase beyond the horizon.

In such a high-level battle, it would be perilous even for Eighth-Order Masters to interfere.

However, now that she had returned, it meant that the battle was over, and judging by her appearance, Yang Kai guessed that the Yin Yang Pass Old Ancestor hadn’t been injured.

Since the one before him wasn’t injured, the Royal Lord might be in quite a miserable situation.

As he had expected, the Old Ancestor said, “The Royal Lord has been badly injured and will need a few hundred years of recuperation before he can restore his strength, but Senior Brother Zhang and I found it inappropriate to push him too far, lest he decide to use drastic measures, so we let him go.”

The Senior Brother Zhang she was referring to should be the Old Ancestor from Wind and Cloud Pass.

In a two-against-one, they had the upper hand, but if they wanted to kill the Royal Lord, they would need to pay a huge price, so no matter whether it was the person before him or the Old Ancestor from Wind and Cloud Pass, they both quit after gaining an advantage.

After the battle at Wind and Cloud Pass, the Black Ink Clan Army suffered a great loss. About 70% of their Territory Lords were either dead or heavily injured, and their Royal Lord was seriously wounded, so the Black Ink Clan in that Theatre could be considered as completely crippled.

This was also the main reason why Wind and Cloud Pass could contribute 15,000 soldiers to the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies.

As for Azure Void Pass, their situation would probably a bit worse compared to Wind and Cloud Pass, but not by a large margin.

The number of troops there was on par with Wind and Cloud Pass, but they only had one Old Ancestor; therefore, they weren’t able to do as much damage to the Royal Lord as the two Old Ancestors at Wind and Cloud Pass had.

While watching their Squad Leader talking to an Old Ancestor, all the members of Dawn were shocked.

Although every Great Pass had an Old Ancestor assuming command, these figures were all like hidden Dragons who show their tails but never their faces, so ordinary people wouldn’t even have the chance to meet them. Even back at Blue Sky Pass, the members of Dawn had only seen the Old Ancestor from afar and never had any close contact with him.

But today, an Old Ancestor came to Dawning Light and was now chatting casually with Yang Kai.

It seemed like he was the only Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master who had such a privilege.

While they were chatting, the Old Ancestor suddenly raised her head and looked in the direction the Army was heading in before raising an eyebrow, “Someone dares to seek the gates of death? Interesting.”

After saying that, the Old Ancestor didn’t waste any time and shot right into the sky. Then, from afar, her voice sounded in Yang Kai’s ears, “Prepare for battle!”

Yang Kai was stunned at first, but quickly reacted and echoed, “Prepare for battle!”

With his command, everyone immediately assumed their post and Dawning Light turned into a stream of light as it flew forward.

Aboard the main Purifying Black Ink Battleship, where the central Army was located, Xiang Shan was listening to a scout reporting their findings at this moment.

When deploying such a large Army, the Commanders naturally arranged for scouts to survey the area ahead of the main force. They were heading straight for Great Evolution Pass, and it was unlikely that they would encounter any Black Ink Clan Army because of the vast distance between the two Passes, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

However, a moment ago, the scouts actually came to report that they spotted a Black Ink Clan Army.

According to their observation, the Black Ink Clan Army had about 300,000 members with about a dozen Territory Lords, and they were heading straight for Wind and Cloud Pass.

Also, after calculating the speed of both Armies, the scouts estimated that the two would meet in about an hour.

Just as the scout finished reporting, the Old Ancestor arrived at the Purifying Black Ink Battleship. Xiang Shan and the others stood up and greeted her.

After the Old Ancestor sat down, Xiang Shan reported, “The scouts have just reported that there is a Black Ink Clan Army of approximately 300,000 heading right for us.”

When the Old Ancestor heard that, she nodded, “I’ve sensed them too. They’re obviously reinforcements sent over from Great Evolution Pass.”

In the 30,000 years after the Black Ink Clan took over Great Evolution Pass, they would occasionally send reinforcements to help the Black Ink Clan Armies in the Wind and Cloud and Azure Void Theatres. Although it was a long distance to travel and the effectiveness of these reinforcements wasn’t very high, the Black Ink Clan had never stopped doing it.

It was also due to these reinforcements from the Great Evolution Theatre that Wind and Cloud Pass and Azure Void Pass suffered more pressure than the other Great Passes.

About two years ago, this Black Ink Clan Army departed from the Great Evolution Theatre and travelled to aid the Black Ink Clan Army besieging Wind and Cloud Pass. The 300,000 Black Ink Clansmen were expected to arrive at the Wind and Cloud Theatre in a few days, at which point they would join the battle, adding tremendous pressure onto Wind and Cloud Pass.

Unfortunately for them, the battle at Wind and Cloud Pass had ended before they got there. Also, since it was hard to communicate with others in the void, this reinforcement Army had no way of knowing the drastic changes that occurred at Wind and Cloud Pass and was still moving forward according to their previous plan.

The two sides were heading in opposite directions, so they would inevitably encounter each other.

“Old Ancestor, please issue your command!” Xiang Shan asked for instructions from the Old Ancestor.

The Old Ancestor smiled and replied, “Marching and planning for battles aren’t my strong suits, so everything on this trip will be up to you and Liu Zhi Ping’s will. Just treat me as a soldier with a higher cultivation, and you don’t have to ask for my opinion if you have an idea.”

Most Old Ancestors acted as more of a deterrent than as a commander for their Armies in battle, and formulating strategies was generally the responsibility of Army Commanders and Division Commanders. Therefore, many of the Old Ancestors weren’t as proficient as those actively doing the job, so rashly intervening might not necessarily yield better results than when the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were allowed to take charge.

Without a doubt, the Old Ancestor from Yin-Yang Pass had great self-awareness, and her choosing not to intervene made Xiang Shan feel less restrained and have a place to show his talent.