Martial Peak
chapter-5225

Xiang Shan put on a smile, “I do have an idea that I want to discuss with you.”

Liu Zhi Ping felt somewhat dejected. In fact, she was an intelligent person; however, after leading the East-West Army alongside Xiang Shan all this time, she realised that she was nowhere as quick-witted as the latter.

When it came to military affairs, while she could see one step in front of her, Xiang Shan could already see three to four steps ahead.

Prior to working with Xiang Shan, who was from Blue Sky Pass, she had already heard a lot about him. It wasn’t until she started working with him that she realised the man was truly gifted when it came to military affairs. He was born with this gift, and no one else could imitate him.

There were a total of 2,000 Arrays Masters and Artifact Refiners who were working together, all of them above the Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm. Before this, the soldiers from the East-West Army had no idea how efficient it would be when so many Array Masters and Artifact Refiners worked together, but now they could witness it.

Right after the Universe World was moved to this place, the Array Masters and the Artifact Refiners started collaborating. It took them two days to fully survey the Universe World’s terrain; after that, more than 10 leaders gathered together and came up with a plan.

Three days later, a Grand Array framework was established on this huge Universe World.

Although three days had passed, the Black Ink Clan still remained silent. It was basically confirmed that the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t launch an attack. If they had the intention of attacking the Humans, they wouldn’t have waited for three days, they would have taken action before the Humans could organize themselves.

The Array Masters and the Artifact Refiners, who were initially in a hurry, became at ease now.

Since the framework had been completed, they just had to fill it with different arrays. They also had to continuously modify the connection and coordination between the arrays.

This framework was the result of the planning of all the Array Masters in the East-West Army, and with the help of the Artifact Refiners, the Array Masters could quickly get any artifacts they needed. There was basically no wasted time.

Although a lot of resources had been consumed, no one would worry about that given the circumstances.

Resources and manpower were naturally of utmost importance in a war.

Back then, in order to attract the Black Ink Clan’s attention, Xiang Shan told the Artifact Refiners to craft several tens of thousands of puppets and send them to Great Evolution Pass. Now, he didn’t mind consuming some resources to build this forward base.

As long as they could occupy the Great Evolution Theatre, they would be able to extract as many materials as they pleased in this expansive void. By then, they wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of resources. They would be rewarded handsomely in the future for their hard work today.

Five days had passed in the blink of an eye.

Over 10,000 individual arrays had been arranged on this Universe World, and with their activation, this Universe World, which was initially just an ordinary rock, now exuded a dangerous aura.

They had made such an achievement in just a few days, so it was imaginable that if these Array Masters were given enough time, they would be able to turn this Universe World into a robust fortress.

All this time, the Black Ink Clan still didn’t take any action.

Xiang Shan and the others had already expected it, so they were not surprised.

Violent energy fluctuations could still be felt coming from the depths of the void. Although they were far away from that place, everyone could still detect the dangerous aura that came from this fallout.

Those were the repercussions of the clash between the Old Ancestor and the Royal Lord.

It had been half a month since their fight began, but the battle still hadn’t ended, and no one knew when it would end.

Finally, there came a moment when the continuous shockwaves abruptly stopped and no more energy fluctuations were felt coming from that place.

At that instant, both the Humans and the Black Ink Clansmen couldn’t help but look in the direction where the fluctuations were previously emanating from, their hearts all seemingly stuck in their throats.

The battle between the two top Masters had ended!

Who was the winner?

Was one of them killed?

The outcome of the battle would affect the fate of these soldiers of the two Races greatly.

As they stared intently, a dazzling light was seen approaching them at full speed from the depths of the void. The moment they spotted this ray of light, it was still far away, but in the blink of an eye, it had moved across millions of kilometres and by the time they blinked, it had become much closer.

While the Humans were excited, the Black Ink Clansmen were horrified.

This couldn’t be helped, as a light of such brightness could only belong to the Old Ancestor. The Royal Lord could never emit such brilliance.

Just like what they had expected, as the light approached, the aura of an Open Heaven Realm Master that could overturn the universe spread out imposingly. There was no doubt that it was the Old Ancestor.

The Black Ink Clansmen instantly went on full alert.

They had no idea what was going on with the Royal Lord, but the Human Old Ancestor had returned while the former was still nowhere in sight. It was apparent that he was in a terrible state.

If the Old Ancestor decided to make a move on them, they wouldn’t be able to counterattack without the Royal Lord around.

In an instant, all the Black Ink Clansmen inside and outside of the Royal City were panicking.

However, they were pleasantly surprised to see that the Old Ancestor didn’t have the intention of attacking them. Instead, she dashed towards the Humans’ side and soon disappeared into the Universe World.

The Territory Lords’ eyes brightened when they saw that.

There was no doubt that the Old Ancestor was badly injured; otherwise, she wouldn’t have ignored them.

In that case, the situation wasn’t as terrible as they thought. Since the Old Ancestor was no longer able to make a move against them, what about the Royal Lord?

While they were lost in their thoughts, from the direction where the Old Ancestor appeared from, a cloud of darkness stealthily approached.

Compared to the grandiose display the Old Ancestor made earlier, the Royal Lord’s appearance was somewhat furtive.

These clever Territory Lords instantly figured out that the Royal Lord must be terribly injured as well, just like the Human Old Ancestor; otherwise, he wouldn’t be acting so cautiously.

When the Royal Lord was close enough, the Territory Lords could feel that his aura was indeed unstable. It was obvious that he was heavily wounded.

They hurriedly went over to protect the Royal Lord.

At the same time, they reported to him what the Human soldiers had been doing and asked him to make a decision on what they should do.

While they were at it, the Territory Lords of different stances argued and accused one another, trying to shift the blame for whatever was to come.

The Royal Lord was already furious to begin with, and seeing his Territory Lords endlessly pestering him, his fury erupted like a volcano. As he released his pressure, the Territory Lords instantly shut their mouths.

As he swept a dispassionate glance over them, he couldn’t help but have the urge to kill them all to vent his rage.

He had suffered a huge setback because of the Old Ancestor.

Since he became a Royal Lord, he had only dealt with an Old Ancestor once; therefore, even though he was powerful, he was unable to fully utilise his strength when exchanging moves with a Human of the same calibre.

Moreover, this Old Ancestor was like a rabid dog when fighting him, not caring one bit about defending herself as long as she could bite off a piece of his flesh. As a result, he had been badly suppressed during the entire fight.

There were even several times when he almost lost his life and presently, one of the black wings on his back had turned limp.

That wing had nearly been torn off his back by the Old Ancestor.

A chill ran down his spine as he recalled that moment.

[That bitch is insane!]

Although he had only dealt with a Ninth-Order Master once prior to this battle, and it happened over 30,000 years ago, he knew that the fights between Royal Lords and Old Ancestors almost never resulted in death for either side. No one would really be aiming to kill the other party.

Given how strong they were, no one could intervene in their battles, and no one could guarantee that they would be the last one standing. Each strike might also be fatal; thus, they would act cautiously.

However, this female Old Ancestor was different. She seemed determined to kill him the moment they clashed.

Fortunately, he wasn’t unprepared.

He had speculated that the Humans intended to retake Great Evolution Pass, and upon learning that the Old Ancestor that was in charge came from Yin-Yang Pass, he contacted the Royal Lord from the Yin-Yang Theatre through his Black Ink Nest.

Although he had never exchanged moves with the Old Ancestor who was in charge of the invading Human Army, the Royal Lord from Yin-Yang Theatre was her arch nemesis.

After the conversation, he learned a lot of useful experiences from the Royal Lord from the Yin-Yang Theatre and had at least some understanding of the methods this Old Ancestor could use.

It was thanks to this information that he was able to deal with the Old Ancestor’s violent attacks and preserve his own life.

Despite that, he was still badly battered after the fight.

Having said that, that crazy woman wasn’t in a better state either. It could be said that they were mutually wounded after the battle. He had suffered a setback, but it was negligible in the long run as the other party was in a similar state.

He was already furious to begin with, so upon returning to the Royal City and being bombarded with his subordinate Territory Lords’ arguments, it was only natural he flew into a rage.

The Human soldiers were already at their doorstep, so the Territory Lords should have launched an attack before they established a foothold, but instead, they gave the Humans ample time to rest and even build a forward base.

[Wastes!]

Although he was infuriated, he knew what the Territory Lords were worried about; moreover, it was pointless to blame it on them at this point.

Since they had missed the best chance, it was unwise to launch an attack on the Humans now.

He endured the pain and asked, “Where are the reinforcements from Great Evolution Pass?”

Before he left Great Evolution Pass, he had ordered them to send troops to the Royal City and reckoned that they should have arrived by now.

The Territory Lords gloomily exchanged glances before one of them with a distinctive hunched back, making him look like an old turtle with a hard shell, reported, “Sir, the reinforcements were intercepted by the Humans on their way here. Many were injured or killed, so they had no choice but to withdraw back to Pass.”

The Royal Lord’s brow twitched when he heard that.

[It seems that nothing is going to go well for me.]

When he was still in Great Evolution Pass earlier, he heard from Hong Di that there were some Human soldiers who were hiding outside Great Evolution Pass. Nevertheless, they were unable to find out their whereabouts.

Now, it seemed that the Human soldiers had ruined their plans. With their presence outside Great Evolution Pass, it was impossible for the Black Ink Clansmen there to lend a hand.

In other words, the Royal City was in a state of isolation.

Fortunately, the Humans were divided as well. It wasn’t the worst-case scenario yet for the Black Ink Clan.

The Territory Lord, who looked like an old turtle, said cautiously, “Royal Lord, please make a decision on whether we should launch an attack or focus on defending the Royal City.”