Martial Peak
chapter-5511

Xiang Shan did not leave them guessing as he answered, “Yang Kai. I’m sure you’ve heard his name before.”

Everyone nodded in realisation.

One of them piped up, “I heard that he’s now in the Eighth Order, right?”

Mi Jing Lun nodded, “That’s right. Yang Kai is now in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm. He’s also the reason why Brother Ou Yang Lie and his group were able to return from the Black Ink Battlefield.

The one who spoke up earlier continued, “Even if he’s now in the Eighth-Order, he has only just recently ascended. There’s a Royal Lord standing guard at the No-Return Pass, not to mention countless Territory Lords as well. How could he do such a thing all by himself?”

Although this person who spoke knew of Yang Kai and heard about his past exploits, he was unfamiliar with Yang Kai, so it was not surprising for him to feel doubtful.

[He’s no ordinary Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. He can easily slaughter Innate Territory Lords and he’s definitely stronger, not weaker than any of you here,] Mi Jing Lun thought to himself.

Ou Yang Lie had told Mi Jing Lun some astonishing things, but as this information involved other matters as well, Mi Jing Lun had classified the reports to prevent information leaks. Not many people knew of these things now, especially regarding just how strong Yang Kai was!

This was a way of protecting Yang Kai to prevent him from getting exposed to the Black Ink Clan and being targeted as a result.

However, judging by what was happening now, even though Mi Jing Lun wanted to protect Yang Kai, Yang Kai was not someone who would keep a low profile. [He has already run off to the No-Return Pass and destroyed High-Rank Black Ink Nests! The Black Ink Clan surely view him as their highest priority target.]

After a moment of silence, Mi Jing Lun said, “Perhaps it might be hard for him to accomplish this alone, but there’s something you shouldn’t forget, everyone. Even if he’s acting alone, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have help.”

“The Small Stone Race Army!” One of the Eighth-Order Masters exclaimed in realisation.

Mi Jing Lun nodded, “Exactly. Previously, Yang Kai travelled to various Great Territories and refined numerous Universe Worlds. He even gave out a lot of Small Stone Race soldiers to the cultivators in those Great Territories for protection, which proved to be a massive boon. Without those Small Stone Race soldiers, many more cultivators retreating from the various Great Territories would have died. According to my calculations, Yang Kai gave out at least 40 million Small Stone Race soldiers, including nearly 100 who had the raw strength of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters!”

Even though it was not the first time these Commanders heard about this, they still could not help but feel thunderstruck when Mi Jing Lun brought it up again.

[40 million from the Small Stone Race…]

[Nearly 100 on par with Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters…]

[Even more that are on par with the Seventh-Order, Sixth-Order, and Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters…]

They were all curious as to how Yang Kai cultivated so many Small Stone Race soldiers, creating a massive and powerful army all on his own.

They had already investigated the origins of the Small Stone Race and learned they were a unique species of living beings that came from a certain Universe World in the New Great Territory, which was adjacent to High Heaven Territory. They were only found in that Small Universe World. In fact, there was no trace of the Small Stone Race anywhere else.

However, they had also studied the Small Stone Race there, discovering that they were not fully sentient and quite weak as well. When compared to the massive Small Stone Race soldiers that Yang Kai gave away, it was as if they belonged to completely separate races.

Less than half of those 40 million Small Stone Race soldiers remained now, the rest had died in the battle against the Black Ink Clan. Even so, for the Humans, the 20-million-strong Small Stone Race Army provided indispensable strength in battle. This was especially the case because the Small Stone Race was not susceptible to the corruption of Black Ink Strength. When in battle, they fought valiantly with no fear of death. These characteristics greatly benefited the Human Army in battle against the Black Ink Clan.

As of now, the Small Stone Race had made a name for itself across all the various battlefields and the Humans had also found a way to control and command them. While this method had not been perfected yet, it was still a lot better than before.

It was no longer the same as the way it was last time when people would simply summon Small Stone Race soldiers and have them freely battle the enemy. Under the original circumstances, once these released Small Stone Soldiers killed off all the Black Ink Clansmen, if they were not collected quickly, they would begin fighting among themselves or simply run away, which made things rather awkward…

The Human Race’s failure to command the Small Stone Race partly contributed to the 40 million-strong Small Stone Race Army’s heavy casualties. Once the Humans figured out how to control them though, the loss rate decreased significantly.

Since Yang Kai could give away 40 million of them, it meant that he still had some on hand. Given his abilities, and with the help of a large number of Small Stone Race soldiers, it was not necessarily impossible for him to destroy a few High-Rank Black Ink Nests at the No-Return Pass.

Right now, the Humans had only barely managed to set up a defence perimeter. They drew in all the forces they had and focused on the fight against the Black Ink Clan on a dozen different battlefields, but they could only defend themselves, not having sufficient leeway to launch a counterattack.

However, Yang Kai was able to wreak havoc at the No-Return Pass all by himself. When comparing themselves to him, these veteran Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters felt somewhat embarrassed.

“What a shame!” Someone sighed.

It was a shame that Yang Kai had become a Fifth-Order Master back then. Even though he consumed a Mid-Rank World Fruit, increasing his innate limit to the Eighth Order, that was still his limit. It would be… hard for him to become a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.

There was no sign of the Universe Furnace, and no one knew when it would show up. Even if it did, chances were it would lead to an even more frenzied bloodshed as the Black Ink Clan would not let the Humans get their hands on the Innate Open Heaven Pills easily.

“That Brat… Why wasn’t he born into a Cave Heaven or a Paradise…” another Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master remarked lamentably.

Back then, it had been clear that Yang Kai could directly ascend to the Seventh Order, but in the end, he was forced to become a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. Everyone knew the reasons behind this situation.

From the looks of it now, the attempt to suppress him back then was a grave mistake, but when considering the Cave Heavens and Paradises’ unspoken rules, they simply had no choice. Naturally, it was also partly due to the selfish motives of certain people.

Still, if Yang Kai had come from a Cave Heaven or a Paradise, who would have tried to keep him down? Quite the contrary, they would have showered him with resources to allow him to quickly reach the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. Based on his rate of cultivation, if he had directly broken through to the Seventh Order back then, he might have already reached the peak of the Eighth Order by now and be set to become a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master in the near future.

He would surely achieve great things the moment he became a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master.

Xiang Shan gently rapped his knuckles on the table, “There’s no point looking back in hindsight now. Why did you bring this up, Brother Mi?”

Mi Jing Lun wore a serious expression as he commented, “When Yang Kai was with the Great Evolution Army, I interacted with him many times. No ordinary cultivator can compare to him. He is a hero who has done many services for the Human Race. Without him, we wouldn’t have Purifying Light, or Purifying Black Ink Battleships, or Purifying Black Ink Pills. Now that he’s alone at the No-Return Pass, what I want to ask is, should we send help over to him?”

After a pause, Mi Jing Lun added, “That boy simply does not know the meaning of the word ‘restraint’, so he definitely won’t stop. I’m afraid that if something happens to him… we might lose an essential talent!”

“Help him? How are we going to do that? Furthermore, all of our frontlines on the battlefield are barely holding on as it is. We can only manage to defend ourselves, so how can we pull a significant force off our lines to send over to him?” An Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master immediately refuted Mi Jing Lun’s idea. He was not trying to go against Mi Jing Lun on purpose, just stating the reality of their situation.

The Human Race’s defense lines had shrunk to a dozen Great Territories, but their situation still did not look too good either.

Many of the others nodded in agreement.

Someone spoke up and said, “If we want to help an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master like him, we would have to reassign several Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, but each Eighth-Order Master is indispensable on the current battlefield. Where would we pull them from?”

Mi Jing Lun stayed silent for a moment before saying quietly, “If we can’t reassign anyone given our current defence perimeter, then why don’t we give up one of the battlefields?”

Everyone’s jaws dropped at his words, and the one who spoke earlier stared at Mi Jing Lun in disbelief, “Brother Mi, do you think the safety of Yang Kai is more important than the loss of an entire battlefield?”

Countless soldiers had shed blood to hold every single one of the dozen Great Territories. The frontlines were formed from their sacrifices and could not be given up so easily.

Mi Jing Lun’s suggestion shocked everyone to the core.

Mi Jing Lun shook his head, “Giving up one of the Great Territory battlefields doesn’t imply that Yang Kai is more important than them. However, we don’t have enough manpower to maintain all of our current battlefields as it is. If we give up on one, we will reduce the pressure we are under. Also, everyone, don’t forget that Yang Kai is the only one who can use Purifying Light.”

The Eighth-Order Masters fell silent, and moments later, the air was filled with Divine Senses as they began discussing among themselves.

Xiang Shan gave Mi Jing Lun a somewhat helpless glance. This had started as an ordinary conference, but Mi Jung Lun was now suggesting that they abandon one of the battlefields. This was no small issue.

If they did decide to do this, it would cause a lot of disapproval and dissatisfaction.

So many soldiers had died in battle, each of them someone’s Brother or Sister from the same Sect. Who among the living did not yearn to avenge these deaths? Who among them was willing to retreat?

Even though they would still be heading into battle against the Black Ink Clan on a different battlefield, it was not the same.

If things didn’t go well today, Mi Jing Lun would become a target of everyone’s anger and reproach.

At this moment, Xiang Shan sorely missed the Purifying Light that Yang Kai had. The Human Race were having a hard time maintaining their current lines partially because of the lack of Purifying Light. The Human Race had nearly exhausted all the Purifying Light they had, with the little they had retained stored up inside just a few Purifying Black Ink Battleships. The Supreme Headquarters had set aside this supply of Purifying Light for special purposes, such as an Army Commander or other critically important characters being corrupted by Black Ink Strength. They did not have the leisure to use it for day-to-day situations.

Although Purifying Black Ink Pills could purge Black Ink Strength when a person had not been fully corrupted, the efficacy paled in comparison to Purifying Light.

Because of this, it felt as if the Humans had their hands tied when fighting against the Black Ink Clan.

[You Brat! Since you’re not dead, hurry back and create more Purifying Light! Why are you messing around at the No-Return Pass?!]

…..

Meanwhile, on the Black Ink Battlefield, Yang Kai snuck over and was now hiding outside the No-Return Pass.

It had been six months since the day he destroyed five High-Rank Black Ink Nests. He had fully recovered from his injuries by now, but upon returning to the No-Return Pass, he saw that it was still heavily guarded.

Along the way, he encountered countless Black Ink Clan search teams with many Feudal Lords and even a number of Territory Lords patrolling around, keeping a vigilant watch over the surroundings.

[The Black Ink Clan is being too cautious!] Yang Kai grumbled to himself.

What he did not know was that after the chaos he caused at the No-Return Pass earlier on, the Royal Lord flew into an absolute rage. It was not just the Territory Lords, but even he who was standing guard at the No-Return Pass, not daring to enter a Black Ink Nest to recover from his injuries because he had to constantly be on alert in case Yang Kai launched another sneak attack.

The Black Ink Clan’s caution made things difficult for Yang Kai.

Originally, he wanted to attack a few more times and destroy as many High-Rank Black Ink Nests as possible, but from what he was seeing now, this was probably the last time he could act.

[In that case, let’s raise some real havoc one last time!]