Chapter 5146 – One Battle to Settle the War
Translator: Silavin & VictorN
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Before the Warship was destroyed, all the Squad members transferred over to Dawning Light, relying on Feng Ying and the others to cover them during the evacuation. Thankfully, there were no casualties.
The two Squads converged on Dawning Light, but their overall strength did not increase. The reason was that all the artifacts and arrays on Dawning Light were being actively used by their regular personnel. The additional hands allowed them to rotate more frequently to rest, but did not enhance the instantaneous lethality of Dawning Light.
Now, the whole Universe Paradise’s situation was not looking good.
This Universe Paradise was left behind after the death of a Seventh-Order Human Master, so although it had become an independent Sealed World now, it had its limits. Before Dawn entered, there were already cracks in the World Barrier of this Universe Paradise caused by the fallout of Zhou Xing’s attacks.
It was because of those cracks that Yang Kai could peek inside and detect that there was a Territory Lord within. That led to Yang Kai deciding to enter with Dawn to render aid.
Now that Yang Kai and Zhou Xing were engaged in a fierce battle, the violent energy surges caused the entire Universe Paradise to become increasingly unstable. Little cracks could be seen all over and, obviously, this Universe Paradise would collapse soon.
If they remained within the Universe Paradise when it collapsed, then it was very likely that they would be pulled into the Void. When that happened, there was no telling where they would end up.
It was with this in mind that the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters had to be sent into the Universe Cave Heavens, which were more stable. This way, the Eighth-Order Division Commanders and Territory Lords could fight for a longer time without worries. If they were in Universe Paradises, they would collapse not long after they started fighting.
This Universe Paradise was facing the risk of collapsing at any moment.
Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space, and was not afraid of the impending collapse. Even if he was really sent to the Void, he would be able to find his way back fairly easily. There was even a chance that he could exile Zhou Xing to the Void and simply leave him trapped there to die alone.
However, there were still two Squads here, so he couldn’t do that.
Thus, after a few more exchanges with Zhou Xing, Yang Kai immediately dashed towards Dawning Light while using the Divine Sense to send a message, “Go! Now!”
After such a long delay, the situation outside should have been settled; thus, there should be a few Eighth-Order Open Heaven Masters available.
Dawning Light had taken up position near the portal, so when Yang Kai’s order came, Junior Brother Zhou immediately took out his Control Jade and shot a light into the sky. The portal opened and Dawning Light sped out, followed closely behind by Yang Kai.
The hundreds of Black Ink Clansmen who were following Dawning Light saw this and followed after with Zhou Xing being the last to leave before the portal closed again.
However, before Zhou Xing could stabilize himself, a bright light came down on him, instantly destroying all his defences and inflicting a huge wound on his body.
Zhou Xing roared in pain and anger, turning his head to look at who had attacked him, only for his eyes to shrink as he shouted, “Zhong Liang!”
Not only was Zhong Liang there, but also Ding Yao and Liang Yu Long. The three of them surrounded him in a triangle. Zhou Xing’s heart sank into the abyss as he knew there was no escape for him.
These three Army Commanders were all peak Eighth-Order Masters.
When the Humans Squads took action, these Eight-Order Masters used their own Control Jades to pull a Territory Lord into their respective Universe Cave Heavens. Even though their strength was greater than the Black Ink Clan Territory Lords, it was impossible to kill their opponent so quickly in a fair fight.
However, Blue Sky Pass had arranged multiple Spirit Arrays in these Universe Cave Heavens, which gave the Eight-Order Masters a significant advantage.
Those Spirit Arrays all cost an enormous amount of resources and were arranged by the Array Great Grandmasters, so any Territory Lord who fell into them would see their strength suppressed.
With their superior strength, geographical advantage, and the assistance of several Spirit Arrays, it was not surprising that Zhong Liang and the others killed their opponents in short order.
The three of them had just emerged from their respective Universe Cave Heavens when they were informed by Shen Ao of what had happened. The only reason they didn’t force their way in was they weren’t certain what kind of repercussions that would cause for those inside the Universe Paradise.
When Dawning Light and Yang Kai appeared, followed by hundreds of Black Ink Clansmen, the three Army Commanders swiftly slaughtered the mixed fish before turning their attention to Zhou Xing.
The strength of this Territory Lord was considered average at best, so how could Zhou Xing be a match for the three Army Commanders? Zhong Liang and the other two of them did not even utter a word before using their respective Secret Techniques to attack Zhou Xing from all sides.
Not far away, Yang Kai and others watched from afar aboard Dawning Light. Not only them, but many other Squads, who had already cleaned up their opponents, observed the show. These Squads had shown up one after another, surrounding the whole battlefield layer after layer.
“Zhou Xing is doomed,” Feng Ying said softly. Under the combined attacks of three Army Commanders, even the strongest Territory Lords would not be able to survive, so Zhou Xing’s fall was simply a matter of time.
Yang Kai’s attention was not on Zhou Xing and the three Army Commanders though, but instead focused on somewhere far away.
Hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, powerful explosions were taking place. For him to be able to sense the shockwaves this far away meant that the strength of those fighting was overwhelming.
Outside Blue Sky Pass, there were no forces close to where the battle was taking place; thus, it was obvious the fight in the distance was between the Old Ancestor and the Royal Lord.
It was unknown when and how the two began to fight. At least Yang Kai did not notice it before now. However, even Eighth-Order Masters could not intervene easily in this kind of battle. Thus, Yang Kai also did not think of going to watch.
The Royal Lord and Old Ancestor were old rivals, and this battle was likely to end in a mutual loss.
Portals continued to open around them, and from those portals emerged the victorious Squads. Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters also appeared one after another, while some Territory Lords appeared immediately after them.
It was not that these Territory Lords managed to kill the Eighth-Order Masters to get out of the trap; after all, there were Spirit Arrays arranged in the Universe Cave Heavens to make it impossible for them to escape even if they killed the Eighth-Order Division Commanders fighting against them. However, when the fight dragged on for too long, the Universe Cave Heaven itself would become unstable, making a collapse imminent.
Therefore, the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master had no choice but to open the portal to leave so as not to get caught up in the collapse. When that happened, the Territory Lord could naturally follow them out.
Those Territory Lords who were lucky to have survived all immediately used whatever means they had to escape. They knew that after the Humans had activated these traps, which took them 100 years to set up, the Black Ink Clan was done for. Sticking around was akin to courting death; thus, they had to escape. It was only by escaping that they stood a chance to survive and recover from this disaster; therefore, they held no desire to fight anymore and only sought the opportunity to flee.
Of course, those Eighth-Order Heaven Realm Masters who failed to kill their respective opponents inside their assigned Universe Cave Heaven would not let their prey go easily and continued to chase them across the void.
Under the attacks of the three Army Commanders, Zhou Xing was only able to last less than a half cup of tea’s time before Ding Yao smashed his head with his fist.
More and more Squads emerged from different portals, largely intact. Thankfully, Junior Brother Zhou Squad’s unlucky encounter was a unique case.
Also appearing were many lone Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, appearances of which meant the fall of a Territory Lord.
It was a glorious result.
The Human Race had been resisting the Black Ink Clan for so many years, and the two sides had fought countless times, but never had there been such a decisive victory.
They could see that about 20 Territory Lords had been killed, and that was not counting those who were still fighting and had not shown up. There would certainly be more as time passed.
In the past, killing more than 20 Territory Lords in one battle was simply unimaginable. The most Territory Lords that had been killed in a single battle was 5, and that was at the cost of 2 Eighth-Order Division Commanders.
Considering the strength of the Territory Lords, while it wasn’t too difficult for the Eighth-Order Masters to defeat them, killing them was a much more difficult task.
If not for the Universe Cave Heaven traps, which had been set up in advance, how could Blue Sky Pass achieve such overwhelming success?
Yang Kai was also overwhelmed. When he first helped Blue Sky Pass find the portals for the Universe Paradise and Universe Cave Heaven, he knew that they could give Black Ink Clan a nasty surprise, but he did not expect it to be to this magnitude.
If Blue Sky Pass had such great success, then Yin-Yang Pass would also have good results; after all, he also helped them to open up the Universe Cave Heavens and Universe Paradises around their Great Pass.
Even so, the news of this enormous defeat would certainly be circulated around the Black Ink Clan. Thus, it was unrealistic for Yin-Yang Pass to expect results of this magnitude.
With so many Territory Lords killed, there were naturally hundreds of times more dead and injured weaker Black Ink Clansmen.
One battle had changed the entire course of the war! The Black Ink Clan in the Blue Sky Theatre had suffered an enormous defeat. What awaited Blue Sky Pass, was a period of peace for at least 1,000 years or more, during which the Black Ink Clan would not be able to attack.
However, was this enough to satisfy Zhong Liang and the other higher-ups?
This was the best opportunity for them to add insult to injury to the Black Ink Clan.
Thus, two days later, Blue Sky Pass gathered 30 Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and 20,000 troops led by several Army Commanders to advance deeper into the void towards the Black Ink Clan’s territory.
Blue Sky Pass did not go all out this time, still leaving behind a large contingent to watch over the Great Pass. Additionally, there were some Universe Cave Heaven fights that had not yet concluded that required a few Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters to watch over.
30 Eighth-Orders and a 20,000 strong Army was almost half of the combat strength of Blue Sky Pass. They could not take out more soldiers.
Since Yang Kai had brought Purifying Light, Zhong Liang and the others had been planning for this crusade; however, any foray into the enemy’s territory was of great importance and would take time to prepare for.
Now that the opportunity had come, they were eager to push back against the enemy, who was seriously weakened, and aim for the Royal City!
Naturally, Blue Sky Pass held little expectation that this campaign would be enough to wipe out the Black Ink Clan entirely. As long as the Royal Lord was not dead, the Royal City would not fall. This was just a kind of experiment for the future. At the same time, it was also to establish a precedent and prove that it was possible to take the fight to the Black Ink Clan!
This was a long-established plan; however, except for the Eighth-Order Commanders, no one below them in rank knew about it. Thus, after hearing about the crusade, numerous Open Heavens Realm Masters were very excited.
The Human Race have been trapped in various Great Passes for years, and finally, they had the chance to launch a real counter-attack.