Martial Peak
chapter-5209

None of the Territory Lords had expected to run into the Human Race Army here, but from the looks of it, the Humans were fully prepared for this. It was the Black Ink Clan who had been too careless and only noticed their enemy when they were right in front of them.

On the battlefield, there were terrible consequences to not being the one who held the initiative.

All the Territory Lords turned to Zhe Chong, and one of them asked frantically, “Do we engage them?”

The two Armies were only an hour’s distance apart, so they needed to decide right away whether they were going to fight or flee. The Territory Lords considered Zhe Chong their leader, so naturally, the decision depended on his opinion.

Zhe Chong’s brow twitched, “There could be an Old Ancestor among them!”

In other words, if they were to fight, the Black Ink Clan would suffer massive casualties. Even the Territory Lords might be losing their lives here.

The Territory Lord who asked earlier frowned, “Didn’t we sense the fluctuations from the fight between an Old Ancestor and the Royal Lord just now? Since their Old Ancestor is fighting with Sir Royal Lord, why would their Old Ancestor be here?”

Zhe Chong froze upon hearing that. [That’s right. We did feel the fluctuations from a battle between two of the most powerful Masters coming from a great distance away just now. It was clearly caused by the Human Old Ancestor and our Royal Lord. Since they’re fighting over there, there won’t be an Old Ancestor here then. The Humans couldn’t have sent two Old Ancestors over, right?]

Zhe Chong realised that he had jumped to conclusions just now. When he saw that the enormous fleet of the North-South Army was so similar to the one he had seen over a year ago, he subconsciously assumed that the Old Ancestor would be with them too, causing his fear to override his judgement.

Regardless, even if the enemy did not have an Old Ancestor among them, it was probably still too late for them to flee now.

Zhe Chong was a decisive individual and immediately came to a decision, “Relay my orders, prepare for battle!”

A fleet of 2,000 to 3,000 Warships meant there were some 30,000 Humans. Although this was not even a tenth of the Black Ink Clan Army’s numbers, the Territory Lords knew that numbers alone would never be able to determine who was the stronger of the two. Furthermore, a group of 30,000 Humans implied that there were dozens of Eighth-Order Masters among them.

Meanwhile, there were only 16 Territory Lords on their side.

If they chose to flee instead, it would be giving the Humans a chance to chase after and attack them from behind. Thus, meeting the enemy in battle was the best option. It would minimise the number of casualties and they might even be able to deal a heavy blow to the Humans.

Orders were passed down and the hundreds of thousands of Black Ink Clansmen formed rank in the void. They fused Black Ink Strength together to form a massive Black Ink Cloud that covered a vast swath of the void, hiding them from view.

This was the sight that greeted the Human Army when they arrived an hour later.

All they could see was an enormous Black Ink Cloud that had gathered within the void. There was some movement within the cloud, but there was no sign of the Black Ink Clan.

Mi Jing Lun and Ou Yang Lie stood on the deck of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship with deep, profound looks on their faces. It had to be said that the Black Ink Clan had made a clever move with their defensive action. They formed a Black Ink Cloud to mask their Army, which meant that the Humans had no way of determining what the Black Ink Clan was up to or what they were planning. If the Humans charged forward hastily, they would be wounded and suffer heavy casualties.

Yet if the Humans chose not to strike, they would be doing exactly what the Black Ink Clan wanted. The Black Ink Clan could use this opportunity to arrange their formations and decide on a battle strategy, and the longer the delay, the less of an advantage the Human Army would have.

Confronted with this situation, the Humans had no other choice. The only thing they could do was rely on the power of their Warships to disperse the Black Ink Cloud and force the Black Ink Clan Army to show themselves.

This was likely what the Black Ink Clan hoped for too as this would mean that they could expend a lot of the Human Army’s strength, even though it also meant that they would suffer a lot of casualties on their end.

Mi Jing Lun and Ou Yang Lie exchanged looks before nodding at each other.

The very next moment, an order went out from the Purifying Black Ink Battleship.

The Warships began moving forward again, separating into different lines in the void before coming to a stop at around 1 million kilometres away from the Black Ink Cloud.

Following that, all of the Warships started powering their Arrays. Lights flashed, and a raging surge of energy waves began to fluctuate.

Next, the points of light transformed into a myriad of attacks of different forms, all of which shot straight into the Black Ink Cloud.

The Warships had separated into five smaller fleets at this moment, with each one consisting of 400 to 500 vessels. The small fleets took turns attacking one after the other, allowing for a continuous barrage to be maintained.

Each attack was akin to hundreds of Seventh-Order Masters launching a full-force attack together. The onslaught of attacks kept striking the Black Ink Cloud and causing it to disappear. Blinding lights flashed within the Black Ink Cloud. It was a terrifying sight even from a distance.

There were signs of life auras withering constantly, but at a distance of a million kilometres and combined with the chaos of the energy fluctuations, even the Eighth-Order Masters could not sense everything clearly.

Even so, the withering life auras were clearly a sign of death among the ranks of the Black Ink Clan hidden inside the Black Ink Cloud.

The Humans’ attack went on for a half day!

Throughout the whole time, the Warships did not let up on the bombardment. The artifacts and the Spirit Arrays mounted on the Warships kept shooting straight into the Black Ink Cloud.

However, the Humans were surprised at the lack of a response from the Black Ink Clan Army. They seemed to be lying in wait for the right moment to strike, or perhaps they had even fled the battlefield.

Nevertheless, even though they had the Black Ink Cloud to hide them, the Black Ink Clan could not flee the battlefield with so many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters around.

Thus, the Black Ink Clan Army was certainly still hidden inside the Black Ink Cloud.

They were waiting!

The optimum window for them to strike back would be when the Humans’ strength was depleted from their attacks.

It had to be said that the Territory Lords who led this Army were all remarkably patient. Anyone with a fiery temper would have led the Army out of the Black Ink Cloud to start attacking the Humans by now.

Still, this was the exact opposite of what the Humans wanted.

Half a day later, the enormous Black Ink Cloud that had loomed over the void was beginning to thin out. Even though the Black Ink Clan kept channelling their Black Ink Strength to strengthen the Black Ink Cloud, they could not withstand the constant attacks from the Warships.

They would have long since revealed themselves if it had not been for the large amounts of Black Ink Strength that escaped from the dead bodies of the Black Ink Clansmen, which helped thicken the Black Ink Cloud.

They were at their limit after holding out for half a day though.

The thinning Black Ink Cloud could no longer hide all of the Black Ink Clan Army, and the powerful Eighth-Order Masters were beginning to break through the Black Ink Cloud and survey the state of the enemy inside.

They were dissatisfied with what they found.

A half day’s worth of ceaseless attacks did cause some casualties on the side of the Black Ink Clan, but it was far less than what they expected.

Less than 50,000 had died out of the Black Ink Clan Army which was almost 500,000 strong. It was only a 10% casualty rate.

These were not results to be pleased about as they had expected to clear out at least 30% of the Black Ink Clan.

The Human Warships continued their attacks, but by now, the Black Ink Cloud was thin and wispy, meaning they could launch targeted attacks which made the number of casualties rise seriously.

Evidently, the Black Ink Clan realised this problem too. The Territory Lords gave out an order and 400,000 of the Black Ink Clan Army swiftly retreated out of the Black Ink Cloud before rushing off into the distance.

The Black Ink Clan was trying to escape!

The Human Army was not about to ignore that, so Ou Yang Lie immediately gave the order to pursue.

However, the attempt to flee was merely a feint. As soon as the Human Army entered the wispy Black Ink Cloud, the Black Ink Clan Army suddenly turned around and launched its attack.

The Great Evolution Theatre had been at peace for 30,000 years, but on this day, an explosive battle took place between two Armies just a few days’ travel away from Great Evolution Pass.

Although the East-West Army had already attacked some of the Territory Lords’ territories, that was not the same as this fight.

Ou Yang Lie and the others were a little startled by the Black Ink Clan’s strategy, but that was all.

Mi Jing Lun had already been on guard back when Ou Yang Lie gave the order to chase after the supposedly fleeing Army. Even though the Black Ink Clan had suffered some casualties, the fight had not truly begun and there was no way the Black Ink Clan would flee without a fight when they still had 400,000 soldiers. The Territory Lords who led the Army would surely know that they would be doomed the moment they fled.

He was proven right. The Black Ink Clan did not plan on fleeing. They merely wanted to lure the Human Warships into their Black Ink Cloud so that they could gain a geographical advantage.

Although the Black Ink Cloud was thin and sparse now, it was still a significant help to the Black Ink Clan and a hindrance to the Humans once they were inside.

Purifying Black Ink Pills were readily available for use on the battlefield now, and all the Humans had to do was consume one in advance and they would have a temporary window of time where they did not have to worry about the Black Ink Strength invading them. That being said, as time wore on, the medicinal efficacies would wear off, and things would be less rosy then.

Furthermore, repeated consumption of the Purifying Black Ink Pills in short order reduced their effectiveness.

Those at Blue Sky Pass had done a systematic test and figured out that a Sixth-Order Master could use two Purifying Black Ink Pills within the span of a month. Any more than that and the medicinal efficacies would be greatly diminished.

A Seventh-Order Master could use three pills.

There was a limit to the medicinal efficacies of each Purifying Black Ink Pill as well, making them only effective for six hours at most.

Thus, if the Humans fought against the Black Ink Clan within the Black Ink Cloud, they would need to end the fight as quickly as possible, for the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantaged they would be.

The Black Ink Clan had launched their attack at just the right time. They had perfectly positioned the battlefield within the area that still had the wispy Black Ink Cloud.

Despite that, they were still shocked by the Humans’ reactions. They thought that the Humans would be disadvantaged if the fight happened in such an environment, but how could they have anticipated that the Humans would not be affected at all? As the two Armies clashed head-on, the Seventh-Order Masters swiftly leaped out of the Warships without caring about being affected by the Black Ink Strength at all.

The Black Ink Clan was thunderstruck. They had preconceived notions that the Humans avoided Black Ink Strength like the plague, especially those with lower cultivation. Only some of the Eighth-Order Masters could withstand the encroachment of Black Ink Strength for an extended time in battle.

However, from the looks of it now, even the Seventh-Order Masters could move freely within the Black Ink Cloud without being affected at all.

What was going on?

While the Black Ink Clan was reeling from shock, the Human Squads began to unleash their full strength. The Seventh-Order Masters all stuck close to their Warships and coordinated with the other Squads in their Battalions to launch concentrated attacks. The face-to-face confrontation was quickly decimating the Black Ink Clan Army.

It was 30,000 against over 400,000, which was a huge disparity in numbers, yet to the Humans, being heavily outnumbered was not a problem at all. Throughout the ages, Humans had always battled against the Black Ink Clan under such circumstances, so they amassed a ton of experience.