Martial Peak
chapter-5234

The moment the universe fragment crashed into the Universe World where the Royal City was located, all the Black Ink Clansmen froze.

Che Kong, who had remained in the centre of the Army as he had to prevent the Humans from invading the city, felt his face twitching.

All the Black Ink Clansmen appeared horrified.

They were not afraid that the Universe World where the Royal City was located would be destroyed. Although the universe fragment that crashed was huge, the Black Ink Clan had launched a series of attacks on it; hence, it wouldn’t cause tremendous damage to the Royal City.

They were also not concerned that the arrays on the universe fragment would explode and kill thousands of Black Ink Clansmen.

What they were afraid of was the impact that the crash would bring.

While all the Black Ink Clansmen were terrified, the dormant Will in the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest awakened.

It was the Royal Lord.

In the end, the Royal Lord, who had been recuperating, was alerted.

The Will scanned the entire Universe World and all the Black Ink Clansmen as though he was trying to find out what was going on. Soon after, burning fury exuded from his Will.

A million Black Ink Clansmen trembled like quails without a home in the winter.

The Royal Lord’s fury was obviously targeted at them, blaming them for their uselessness in allowing him to be disturbed when he was in a state of deep sleep.

All the Black Ink Clansmen knew what would happen when a person was interrupted when he was recuperating in a Black Ink Nest. All the progress the Royal Lord had in healing over the last year would now go to waste. That was why the Royal Lord was infuriated.

However, he didn’t give any orders; instead, he quickly slumbered off again.

In fact, he didn’t have time to give them instructions. To him, nothing was more important than his recovery. As long as he could make use of the Black Ink Nest’s power and restore his strength before the Human Old Ancestor did, he would gain the upper hand.

All the Black Ink Clansmen knew that such a thing could never happen again; otherwise, many people would lose their heads when the Royal Lord was done healing.

While they were still ill at ease, energy fluctuations could be felt coming from the Human Army on the left side of the Royal City as countless Secret Techniques and Divine Abilities were launched at them.

At that instant, lights of different colours illuminated the entire void as the horrifying bombardment flew towards the Royal City like a storm.

Every attack was equivalent to a move made by a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.

The arrays and artifacts on the Warships were meant to maximize the Humans’ combat power; therefore, every attack sent out from a Warship was at least on par with what a Seventh-Order Master could produce.

Simultaneously, a massive number of the Divine Abilities cast by the Eighth-Order Division Commanders.

Che Kong roared as the 600,000 or so Black Ink Clansmen on the left of the Royal City intercepted those attacks.

Although the number of Black Ink Clan outnumbered the Humans 20 to 1, and they had fully activated their powers, they still couldn’t intercept all the attacks.

The rays of light clashed with the Black Ink Clan soldiers, and as the powers within the rays of light exploded, many lost their lives.

The Territory Lords and the Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples, who were positioned on the right side of the Royal City to destroy the Universe Worlds, hurried over to provide assistance.

Since all the Universe Worlds had been shattered, the Humans no longer had a trump card; therefore, they wouldn’t have to keep an eye on the right flank any longer.

As the Humans had decided to launch an attack on the Royal City from the left flank, the Black Ink Clansmen were forced to engage in a life-and-death battle with them; however, the moment these Territory Lords and Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples arrived, they were dumbfounded by what they saw.

As the lights of the Secret Techniques and Divine Abilities subsided, the Humans, who were supposed to be just 5 million kilometres away from the Royal City, had actually retreated under the cover of the explosions.

Moreover, they didn’t seem to have the intention of coming back as they were leaving in a hurry.

The Territory Lords were astounded.

Che Kong felt his fury burning in his chest like a volcano that was about to erupt. He was so vexed that he almost coughed up blood. Although he was unresigned, he didn’t dare to order a pursuit and was forced to watch the Human soldiers swagger away.

“Hahaha!” On the mountaintop, Cha Pu, who had witnessed everything, guffawed. He was so ecstatic that he almost cried tears of joy, “What a brilliant move! You all have deceived the Black Ink Clan. It’s indeed terrifying to deal with someone like Brother Xiang.”

He gave such a remark from the Black Ink Clan’s perspective.

Like the Black Ink Clan, he too believed that the East-West Army would make use of the Universe Worlds attack to launch an offensive against the Royal City; after all, it was indeed a good opportunity. Faced with such an emergency, about 30% of the Black Ink Clan’s forces had been forced to move to the right flank to deal with the incoming Universe Worlds. If the Humans had initiated an attack at that point, they would surely have gained the upper hand.

Furthermore, the Human soldiers on the Warships seemed ready to engage in an all-out battle with the Black Ink Clan then and there.

However, none of them could have expected that the East-West Army’s move was just a pretence. Although they appeared menacing by stopping just 5 million kilometres away from the Royal City, they only launched one salvo before running away.

They actually ran away, just like that!

Cha Pu wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

It was like the Humans had arrived at the Black Ink Clan’s doorstep and slapped them in the face; then, before they could react, the Humans had scampered off. The Black Ink Clan was not even able to counterattack. Anyone would have felt extremely vexed if such an incident happened to them.

It was expected that the Territory Lords were not too happy at this moment.

With that said, such a surprising move was the best decision.

The Humans wouldn’t have suffered a setback if they had launched an attack on the Royal City at that point and could even deal a heavy blow to the enemy in a short time before withdrawing.

However, the Humans would inevitably suffer some losses that way. Moreover, the battlefield could be unpredictable. If the fight dragged on, the advantage they had gained by attacking the enemies with the Universe Worlds would gradually diminish. When that happened, they might not be able to retreat so easily.

There were a million Black Ink Clan soldiers, some 30 or so Territory Lords, and 2 to 3 times that amount of Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples. That was more than the East-West Army could handle.

By launching one round of attacks and retreating, the Humans could still achieve their objective while preventing any losses.

This time, the Humans only pretended to have the intention of attacking the Royal City, their only goal was to strike the Black Ink Clan with the Universe Worlds, but what about next time, and the time after that?

With enough time and resources, the Humans could repeatedly use this tactic. On the other hand, as long as the Black Ink Clan couldn’t leave the Royal City, they could only passively defend.

Cha Pu was certain that if the Black Ink Clan diverted too many soldiers to intercept the Universe Worlds next time, the East-West Army wouldn’t mind launching an attack on the Royal City and catching them off guard.

The Black Ink Clan were aware of this as well, so as long as the East-West Army made a move, the majority of the Black Ink Clan would stay back to prevent any potential incursion.

However, with only 30% of their Army available to be mobilised, the Black Ink Clan might not be able to protect the Royal City from the Universe Worlds without suffering from any damage, as proven by what had happened earlier.

The Humans had only mobilised 10 Universe Worlds this time, but that wasn’t necessarily their limit.

Perhaps the Black Ink Clan would be greeted with 15 or even 20 Universe Worlds next time.

The East-West Army had devised a solid plan, and as long as they continued implementing it, it was just a matter of time before they could deal a crippling blow to the Royal City, if not destroy it outright.

Upon learning everything that he needed to know, Cha Pu said, “Martial Nephew, since the battle has ended, I’ll head back and report to Army Commander Mi.”

Li Xing was slightly surprised and asked, “Don’t you want to wait for Sir Xiang’s return, Martial Uncle?”

Cha Pu shook his head, “There’s no need for that. Please tell Senior Brother Xiang that the North-South Army will not let the efforts of all of you go to waste, nor will we allow the Black Ink Clan in Great Evolution Pass to come to this place.”

With a solemn expression, Li Xing nodded, “I’ll definitely pass on your words.”

The next instant, Cha Pu turned into a beam of light and shot off into the void.

Half a day later, all of the East-West Army had returned to the forward base.

On this day, the East-West Army had only launched one round of attacks and did nothing else. Without suffering any losses, they managed to kill some Black Ink Clansmen with the 10 Universe Worlds they had prepared.

Although they couldn’t get an exact count, the Commanders believed that in the end, they must have killed 50,000 to 60,000 Black Ink Clansmen.

Of course, such a number was insignificant compared to the million Black Ink Clansmen they were facing; furthermore, those who lost their lives were weaker Black Ink Clansmen. None of the Territory Lords or Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples were killed, while only a small number of Feudal Lords and Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples, a few dozen at most, had perished. This kind of loss was negligible to the Black Ink Clan. It was nothing more than a flesh wound.

With that said, the casualties of the Black Ink Clan were not their biggest victory. They had achieved their main goal for launching the attack, which was to interrupt the Royal Lord’s recuperation.

After the last Universe World was shattered, a fragment crashed into the Universe World where the Royal City was located. Apparently, the Royal Lord had awakened upon impact. Although the Humans were millions of kilometres away from the Royal City, they could still detect the menacing Will.

The main goal of the East-West Army this time was to disturb the Royal Lord, killing Black Ink Clansmen came second.

Presently, both the Royal Lord and the Old Ancestor were recuperating. The Royal Lord made use of the Black Ink Nest’s power while the Old Ancestor had Yang Kai’s Small Universe. It could be said that both of them had external aids.

Therefore, the person who could recover quicker would gain the upper hand.

Those from the East-West Army couldn’t help the Old Ancestor recover, so they could only set their eyes on the Royal Lord, who could never have thought that the Humans would harass him while he was recuperating inside the Black Ink Nest.

Although they didn’t kill many Black Ink Clansmen, they had attained significant achievements this time.

Presently, the East-West Army couldn’t attack the Royal City because there was a huge gap between their collective powers. By using such tactics, the Humans could gradually shorten the gap and wait for a suitable chance before they launched a real strike on the Royal City. The Black Ink Clan wouldn’t be able to deal with them by then.

This was a long process that couldn’t be rushed.

Better yet, even faced with this provocation, the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t dare to make a move despite technically having superior forces.

They had to protect the Royal City, for once they moved out of position, the East-West Army would have a chance to invade the Royal City and destroy the Royal Lord’s Black Ink Nest.

Therefore, even though they had figured out the Humans’ plan, they still didn’t have a way to deal with it.

The Royal City was like a rope that tied all these Black Ink Clan soldiers to the spot, rendering them immovable. Faced with the Humans’ moves, they couldn’t take the initiative to launch an attack as they could only passively defend the city. It seemed it was fated that they would be led by the nose in this war.