Martial Peak
chapter-5206

In accordance with the order from the Royal Lord, half of the Black Ink Clan Army was dispatched from Great Evolution Pass to head towards the Royal City. At the same time, a figure quietly followed the Army from approximately 50,000 kilometres away. That person was none other than Ou Yang Lie.

Yang Kai and Gong Lian had returned to the Purifying Black Ink Battleship in quick succession to deliver information to the other side, so Ou Yang Lie was acting alone.

Now that he was on his own, his movements were even more covert than before. In any case, the Black Ink Clan were completely unaware that an Eighth-Order Master was monitoring their movements from so close, so he had no reason to worry about his presence being discovered whatsoever.

The East-West Army had already taken action in the Black Ink Clan territory. As for the North-South Army, Mi Jing Lun would surely lead it to intercept the Black Ink Clan’s reinforcement Army from Great Evolution Pass after receiving a detailed report. It was just that the North-South Army had only just arrived here not long ago. Given that they were not familiar with the terrain of this Theatre, choosing a suitable battlefield would be difficult.

By following the march of the Black Ink Clan’s reinforcement Army from Great Evolution Pass, Ou Yang Lie would be able to grasp their movements instantly. When the timing was right, he could then return directly to the North-South Army and guide the Army in the right direction himself.

On the other side, the East-West Army headed by Xiang Shan and Liu Zhi Ping was sailing rapidly through Black Ink Clan territory. The speed of the Warships had been adjusted to the highest, so the huge fleet streaked across the void like a river of lights.

The 30,000 troops of the East-West Army arrived at the first Black Ink Clan territory several days ago. This Black Ink Clan territory was guarded by a Territory Lord, tens of thousands of strong Black Ink Clansmen who were battle-worthy, and hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous Black Ink Clansmen who were not worth counting as combat forces. Be that as it may, these forces were as vulnerable as a piece of paper in front of the imposing East-West Army.

Xiang Shan had personally taken action, and within just a half cup of tea’s time, the Territory Lord was beheaded and the Black Ink Clan’s combat forces were annihilated. As for the miscellaneous Black Ink Clansmen, they were swiftly mopped up with very few escaping. Likewise, the Mid-Grade Black Ink Nest was also destroyed quickly.

The entire Black Ink Clan territory was turned into a dead zone, and the severed remains of the Black Ink Clan could be seen everywhere. Moreover, Black Ink Strength that spilled out into the void due to the deaths of so many Black Ink Clansmen condensed into huge Black Ink Clouds that covered the entire void.

The Human Race Army didn’t even stop to loot the battlefield. They immediately moved forward after razing this entire Black Ink Clan territory and continued their march deeper. This was the time to focus on speed.

According to the original plan, the Royal Lord should have been lured to Great Evolution Pass, so if the East-West Army could take the opportunity of the Royal Lord’s absence to obliterate the Royal City and destroy the High-Rank Black Ink Nest, then it would only be a matter of time before they ruthlessly wiped out the entire Black Ink Clan in this Theatre. That was why the East-West Army’s only goal was to destroy the Royal Lord Black Ink Nest.

During the attack on the previous Territory Lord’s territory, the Old Ancestor had personally entered the Territory Lord’s Black Ink Nest and followed the information Yang Kai provided earlier to communicate with the consciousness of the Black Ink Nests in order to ascertain the location of the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest.

Yang Kai used this method to locate the positions of the Territory Lord Black Ink Nests when he was raising chaos in the rear of the Black Ink Clan in the Yin-Yang Theatre back then. He later reported this information to the Yin-Yang Pass Old Ancestor, so it was only natural that she knew about this method. Seeing as it was something that Yang Kai could accomplish, there was no reason she would fail. Furthermore, she had a much easier time than him in this task.

With the help of the Mid-Grade Black Ink Nest, the Old Ancestor quickly located the approximate location of the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest. Fortuitously, the direction in which the East-West Army was now marching happened to be this exact location.

The East-West Army encountered some Feudal Lord Fiefs along the way, but they did not delay their progress. In fact, they showed no intent to attack whatsoever. Nevertheless, Xiang Shan and the others soon discovered a problem. There were practically no Black Ink Clansmen worth mentioning in these territories.

According to the information provided by Yang Kai earlier, there would always be several Feudal Lords overseeing a mature Feudal Lord Fief. In addition, there should be no shortage of High-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen, with even more Black Ink Serfs. In this way, a Feudal Lord could easily gather hundreds of subordinates whenever the Territory Lords summoned their Armies. Meanwhile, the Armies of the Feudal Lords would continuously merge together and grow stronger to become an Army under the command of the Territory Lords.

However, the territories the East-West Army crossed were not only devoid of Feudal Lords, but even High-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen were nowhere to be seen. There were only weak Black Ink Clan Serfs who were born from the Black Ink Nest not too long ago and had no strength to traverse the void.

This situation was within the East-West Army’s expectations.

The rate at which the information spread throughout the Black Ink Clan was far too fast. The Black Ink Nests were basically nodes in a giant information network that the Black Ink Clan could use to deliver messages instantaneously amongst themselves. Whenever there was any news, the Black Ink Clan could swiftly relay the information throughout the entire Theatre by borrowing the power of this network of Black Ink Nests.

News of the East-West Army’s appearance in the Black Ink Clan and the destruction of a Territory Lord’s territory had already become widespread. The Black Ink Clan in the entire Great Evolution Theatre were surely aware of those incidents by now.

Xiang Shan and others originally wanted the Army to march forward as quickly as possible so that they could rush to the Royal City and destroy the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest, but judging by the current situation, the Black Ink Clan’s response had made this plan somewhat difficult to implement.

The Black Ink Clan in those Feudal Lord Fiefs along their way must have received the news and all rushed towards the Royal City. That was why only miscellaneous serfs with no real strength were left behind. It could be predicted that the East-West Army would be greeted by a mighty Black Ink Clan Army when they arrived at the Royal City.

Inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, Xiang Shan’s expression was the same as usual. The Black Ink Clan had responded faster than he predicted, but this situation was also within his expectations. Besides, it was also a situation that the East-West Army had deliberately created.

If they wanted to recover Great Evolution Pass, then they needed to deal a severe blow to the Black Ink Clan first. That was the only way to give the Great Evolution Army enough time to restore the various defences in Great Evolution Pass; otherwise, it would be a useless endeavour to simply occupy Great Evolution Pass.

The situation would be rather unfavourable for the East-West Army if the Black Ink Clan wanted to confront them at the Royal City; however, it should not be a huge issue as long as the Black Ink Clan from Great Evolution Pass did not come and add trouble from their rear.

A scout came to report that a Territory Lord’s territory was found ahead; however, after the scouts investigated the area, the situation in this domain was the same as the Feudal Lord Fiefs they encountered before. All the powerful Black Ink Clansmen were gone, and only the miscellaneous serfs without much strength were left behind.

After the scout withdrew, Xiang Shan finally spoke, “It looks like the Black Ink Clan is planning to confront us at the Royal City.”

Liu Zhi Ping nodded lightly, “Since that’s the case, it’s better if the Old Ancestor travels ahead. The Black Ink Clan Army is coming from various directions to gather in the direction of the Royal City, and the Royal Lord will also need some time to travel from Great Evolution Pass to the Royal City. If the Old Ancestor leaves now, she might stand a chance to destroy the Royal Lord Black Ink Nest before the enemy can muster a resistance.”

Although the East-West Army was marching rapidly, their speed could not compare to the speed of the Old Ancestor travelling on her own.

It was just as Liu Zhi Ping mentioned. The Black Ink Clan Army was gathering from various directions towards the Royal City, so it would take them some time to assemble. Moreover, the Royal Lord was currently absent from the Royal City, so the Old Ancestor would be unparalleled and unmatched if she rushed there right now.

The Old Ancestor sitting next to Liu Zhi Ping smiled at those words though and shook her head, “No. Although I have roughly determined the position of the High-Rank Black Ink Nest with the help of the previous Black Ink Nest, it is still unclear how far away or exactly where it is located. Even if I move alone, it will take some time for me to search for the target. Besides, the Royal Lord is on his way back to the Royal City. What if the East-West Army encounters him when I am absent?”

The East-West Army had 60 Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and 30,000 troops. While they were not afraid of being completely wiped out by the Royal Lord, or even repelling him, the casualties they would suffer would be extremely severe if the Old Ancestor was absent. If nothing else, at least 10 Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were likely to lose their lives just to force the Royal Lord back.

The Great Evolution Army had a total of 60,000 people, but they would need their forces to guard Great Evolution Pass in the future, so minimizing their losses was pivotal to their long-term strategy.

Liu Zhi Ping immediately fell silent and said nothing more after listening to the Old Ancestor’s reasoning.

Xiang Shan said, “In that case, let’s proceed with the original plan. The East-West Army will ignore the Black Ink Clan and charge straight towards the Royal City. Since the Black Ink Clan wishes to confront us there, we should heed their wishes.”

In the battle between the Human Race and the Black Ink Clan, strategy was the biggest factor that determined the success or failure of the war. Nevertheless, being strong enough to defeat one’s enemies was the ultimate guarantee of victory.

The words had just left Xiang Shan’s mouth when the Old Ancestor sitting beside him abruptly turned to look in a certain direction. Her bright eyes seemed to penetrate across tens of thousands of kilometres of space. Immediately after that, she smiled and said, “I can’t believe he found us!”

Xiang Shan’s expression turned serious, “Is it the Royal Lord?”

The Old Ancestor nodded lightly, “En.”

“Is he simply passing by? Or, are his actions intentional?”

The Old Ancestor pondered in silence for a while before grinning, “He did not bother to conceal his aura. It would seem that his actions were intentional. Very smart of him!”

It was evident that the Royal Lord was worried that the Old Ancestor might charge directly towards the Royal City, and based on time and distance, he might not be able to stop her if that were to happen.

As such, from the moment he departed from Great Evolution Pass, while the Royal Lord had been heading directly in the direction of the Royal City, most of his attention had been fixated upon finding the Human Race Army. With the help of the Black Ink Nests scattered all over the Theatre, it was not difficult for him to roughly follow the movements of the Human Army, which was why he came to confront them directly.

If the Old Ancestor had not gone directly to the Royal City, then that would be the best-case scenario. He could intercept her along the way and gain more time for the Armies of the Black Ink Clan to gather. If she had gone directly to the Royal City, then it would be too late for him to rush back now, but since the Human Army would no longer have her protection, then they were no threat to him. He could massacre them and severely damage their forces to make up for the losses of the Royal City.

That was undoubtedly the most sensible approach, and by taking it, it could be inferred that this Royal Lord was no fool.

The Old Ancestor had clearly considered the same reasoning, which was why she had disagreed with Liu Zhi Ping’s previous proposal asking her to go on ahead of them. While speaking, she stood up, “Since he is looking for me, I will go and greet him.”

Xiang Shan quickly said: “Old Ancestor, please be careful!”

To which she snickered, “He’s the one who should be careful!”

Having guarded Yin-Yang Pass for tens of thousands of years, she had fought with a Royal Lord countless times. Under normal circumstances, both Supreme Masters would hold back in their attacks since neither of them stood a decent chance of killing the other. Naturally, there were occasions when they lost their tempers and fought ferociously, but in the end, both parties would at most be severely injured from the fight. They would then need to rest and recuperate until their next battle.

However, today was different. If the Human Race wanted to retake Great Evolution Pass as quickly as possible, then they would need to struggle desperately in this fight. It could be said that the Old Ancestor was planning to face the Royal Lord with the sole intention of bringing the battle to a draw where both sides were severely injured.

When Xiang Shan first made his plans, he had intended to lure the Royal Lord out of the Royal City so that the Royal Lord could not use the power of the Black Ink Nest to heal his wounds. It would now seem that the plan was not going to work. If the Royal Lord wanted to set the battlefield at the Royal City to obtain the geographical advantage there, then there was nothing the Great Evolution Army could do to stop him.