Martial Peak
chapter-5577

“Where’s Brother Ou Yang? He’s the most familiar with the Army Commander and he knows about the Soul Rending Thorn the best.” Chen Yuan looked around and soon spotted Ou Yang Lie standing in the corner. He then politely asked Ou Yang Lie, “Brother Ou Yang, you’re here…”

“Go away, I don’t know anything, don’t ask me!” Ou Yang Lie turned around and stormed off.

Chen Yuan scratched his head. He had no idea how he had offended Ou Yang Lie.

After that intense battle, Profound Nether Territory once again fell into a period of calm and quiet. Be that as it may, both the Black Ink Clan and the Human Race knew that this calm was only temporary and the next storm was already brewing.

While the Human Race Army was diligently recovering, the Black Ink Clan’s morale was crumbling.

They still failed to stop the killer even after sacrificing three Territory Lords. This sent Six Arms into a rage while Mo Na Ye was also extremely unresigned.

His original plan was to kill Yang Kai with the combined assault of five Territory Lords, but apparently, this strategy was completely useless. Yang Kai’s ability to escape was top-notch, and he simply refused to face them head-on, giving Mo Na Ye no chance to use this strategy.

Yang Kai was a true thorn in their side. Ever since they had left the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, the Territory Lords had never encountered such a difficult and terrifying enemy.

The Black Ink Clan had no way to deal with the current predicament.

The only thing they could rejoice about was that there was only one Yang Kai among Humans! If there were a few more Human Masters like him, the Black Ink Clan would be in a very dangerous spot.

Although Xiang Shan was strong, the Territory Lords were not too afraid of him as they could see the limits of his strength. On the other hand, Yang Kai was simply unfathomable.

Two years later, Yang Kai emerged from retreat and gathered the Eighth-Order Masters to discuss dispatching troops. Though, there was nothing much to discuss. Having gained such a huge harvest in the last battle, all they needed to do was repeat the same strategy.

Obviously, the Black Ink Clan had no way to counter this strategy; after all, they had no choice but to defend themselves if the Human Race Army attacked them. So long as the Black Ink Clan defended themselves, Yang Kai would have a chance to kill.

It might be a simple strategy, but as long as it worked, it did not matter.

After some orders and arrangements, the Eighth-Order Masters left.

Ou Yang Lie, on the other hand, looked at Yang Kai with a bitter expression before leaving, like a wife who had been wronged, leaving the latter quite puzzled.

The Human Race Army launched another attack. Although they had suffered some casualties in the last battle, the Recruitment Hall in High Heaven Territory had seen a massive increase in those signing up to fight, so the Supreme Headquarters had dispatched reinforcements over the past two years. Yang Kai had also pulled 100,000 more soldiers from the Auxiliary Army, so the Profound Nether Army was even more powerful than last time.

When the Black Ink Clan received word that the Humans were on the march again, a solemn look appeared on the faces of every Territory Lord.

They had lost three Territory Lords in the last Human attack, so who knew how many would die during this one?

Even though the Territory Lords were not confident in taking down Yang Kai, they had come up with various countermeasures to deal with his various methods.

After all, the Territory Lords still held a numerical advantage over the Eighth-Order Masters. Not to mention, several more Territory Lords had come from the No-Return Pass to assist.

A day later, the battle broke out between the two races as they clashed in the void, shaking the universe.

The Human Race Army held nothing back this time and immediately summoned their Evil Purging Divine Spears. After two years of constant accumulation, the Profound Nether Army had the capital to squander Evil Purging Divine Spears for a short time.

One after another, glowing white suns flared up in the void. Even though the Black Ink Clan had the absolute advantage in terms of numbers, they were the ones being suppressed in this battle. Countless Black Ink Clansmen fell under this dazzling light, causing many formations to collapse.

Everyone in the Profound Nether Army knew the battle plan. All Warships were to advance and retreat in an orderly manner. As such, none of the Warships recklessly pursued the enemy and instead focused on maintaining their positions regardless of how great their advantage was.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai was hiding in the shadows amidst this fierce battle, searching for a target like a predator hunting for prey.

The Black Ink Clan was smarter this time though, with no Territory Lords acting alone unlike last time. Obviously, they knew that once they were alone, they would become victims of Yang Kai’s hunt.

All the Territory Lords were acting in groups of threes or even fours. Everyone in the team was covering each other’s back, making it much harder for Yang Kai to sneak attack anyone.

After searching for a long time, Yang Kai finally decided to act.

He was targeting a group of three Territory Lords. Two Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters happened to be fighting them, and these two Eighth-Order Masters had already used five Evil Purging Divine Spears, but all they had managed to do was weaken their opponent’s strength slightly. They had been unable to gain any kind of advantage.

Fortunately, the Territory Lords were also not using their full strength. All the Territory Lords had diverted some of their strength to defend against the sneak attack that was surely lurking behind them, just like in the previous battle.

As such, even though the two Eighth-Order Masters were hard-pressed, they were still able to hold their ground.

When Spiritual Energy fluctuations suddenly appeared nearby, the two Eighth-Order Masters, who were already prepared, immediately used their strongest methods to attack their opponents without a moment of hesitation.

The three Territory Lords had always been on guard, but frustration and indignance could not help appearing on their faces at that instant, unable to figure out why they were so unlucky. There were so many Territory Lords on the battlefield, but Yang Kai just had to target them.

But before they could react, their heads started ringing as they felt excruciating pain as if their Souls were being torn apart. Obviously, they had been hit by Soul Rending Thorns.

Fortunately, the three Territory Lords had their guards up, so while the damage to their Souls might be unbearable, they still retained enough clarity to instinctually retreat. Be that as it may, the already prepared Eighth-Order Masters had timely attacked one of the Territory Lords together, stopping him in place.

At the same time, Yang Kai appeared and swept his Azure Dragon Spear towards the other two Territory Lords.

He had fired three Soul Rending Thorns almost instantly, so the pain in his Soul was even worse than before. He was in so much agony that he felt as if his entire head was about to explode.

As such, Yang Kai was unable to bring out his full strength.

The result was that the two Territory Lords managed to get past him by working together before escaping in the blink of an eye. By the time Yang Kai wanted to stop them, it was already too late.

He could not help but admire the decisiveness of these Territory Lords.

Without any regret, he decisively turned around and charged towards the last Territory Lord who had been stopped.

It was three against one, and the Territory Lord’s Soul was badly injured, so the result was already decided.

The Territory Lord was killed by one of the Eighth-Order Masters in a few breaths.

At the same time, the drums signalling retreat echoed out as the Human Race Army started slowly withdrawing.

Meanwhile, Mo Na Ye was already rushing towards Yang Kai with four other Territory Lords. Although Mo Na Ye and the other Territory Lords had returned empty-handed last time, they were still responsible for keeping an eye on Yang Kai. They did not participate in the battle as their mission was only to kill Yang Kai. Once Yang Kai appeared, they rushed straight towards him. It did not matter whether they could succeed or not, they had to ensure that Yang Kai could not just run rampant.

Yang Kai had also sensed their auras, which was why he didn’t try to pursue the two injured Territory Lords despite having the ability to stop at least one of them.

The Black Ink Clan chased after the retreating Human Race Army, with the soldiers of both races attacking each across the void, leaving blood and corpses littered everywhere. The Black Ink Clan only retreated reluctantly when the Profound Nether Army reached the defence perimeter of their frontline camp.

In the distance, fire was almost spewing out of the eyes of every Territory Lord. They could not wait to charge the Human Army, but owing to the home advantage the other side had, the Black Ink Clan had no choice but to retreat.

The result of this battle was unsatisfactory, as although they had killed many Black Ink Clansmen, they only managed to kill one Territory Lord. The Territory Lords’ strategy for dealing with Yang Kai’s sneak attack might not completely guarantee their safety, but it could still greatly reduce their casualties.

Although Yang Kai had injured three Territory Lords using his Soul Rending Thorns just like last time, he only managed to kill one.

Compared to losing three Territory Lords like last time, the loss of one Territory Lord was within acceptable range for the Black Ink Clan.

The Human Race thus entered another round of recuperation.

After another two years, the Human Race Army attacked for the third time.

…..

After tasting success during their first attack, the Profound Nether Army would attack the Black Ink Clan almost every two years, and basically, the Black Ink Clan would lose Territory Lords every time. Sometimes it was just one, and sometimes two. Only twice did all the Territory Lords targeted by Yang Kai manage to escape alive with heavy injuries.

Luck was quite a big factor those two times as Mo Na Ye and the four Territory Lords, who were responsible for keeping Yang Kai in check, happened to be nearby and had quickly arrived. Seeing that things were not looking good for him, Yang Kai did not stubbornly try to finish his targets.

In any case, there was over a 50% chance that the Territory Lords hit by Yang Kai’s Soul Rending Thorns would not escape death even with Mo Na Ye and his team keeping a vigilant eye out for Yang Kai.

In just a short span of 30 years, the Human Army had attacked over a dozen times and killed some 20 Territory Lords.

Counting the Territory Lords who had died at Yang Kai’s hands previously, the Black Ink Clan had lost almost 30 Innate Territory Lords in Profound Nether Territory alone.

This was an enormous figure.

The entire Profound Nether Territory had basically become the burial ground of the Territory Lords.

The Territory Lords who were slumbering at the No-Return Pass to recuperate were now terrified of being sent to Profound Nether Territory as Yang Kai’s name struck fear into the hearts of all of them.

It wasn’t that the Black Ink Clan had no way to turn things around.

The Human Race’s attacks followed a very set pattern; they would basically attack once every two years. The Black Ink Clan speculated that this was because the Humans needed time to recuperate and reorganize, and also, Yang Kai needed time to heal after using that strange attack.

The Territory Lords were not afraid of the Human Army, they were only afraid of one person, Yang Kai; therefore, after going through the same thing a few times, the Black Ink Clan Army relentlessly pursued the Profound Nether Army when they retreated, trying to take advantage of Yang Kai’s injuries to deal a heavy blow to the enemy.

However, the Universe Fragment where the Human’s frontline camp was located had already become impregnable after decades of preparation. Thanks to various arrangements, the Human Race Army was not completely helpless in facing this assault.

This was especially true now that the Human Race also had Evil Purging Divine Spears in their arsenal. An Eighth-Order Master could kill an Innate Territory Lord with the help of Evil Purging Divine Spears if they got lucky.

The Black Ink Clan’s desire to take down the frontline camp of the Profound Nether Army was no different from a fool’s dream.

The Territory Lords grew even angrier and more frustrated.

Too many Territory Lords had died because of Yang Kai, but they had not been able to do anything about it. They could not catch him, much less kill him. It was as if the entire Profound Nether Territory had become his slaughterhouse. Every time he appeared, Territory Lords would fall prey to his spear, the only difference was whether it would be one or two.

The Black Ink Clan did have many Innate Territory Lords, many more than the number of Eighth-Order Masters, but they still could not bear this kind of loss. If this situation continued, it would not be long before they would lose Profound Nether Territory to the Human Race.