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Translator: Silavin & Ashish
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
“They’re gone?” Zhong Liang was speechless. The Western Army had come here with such great fanfare, but now the Black Ink Clan Army had disappeared. [What the Hell? If I returned empty-handed, wouldn’t I be laughed to death by Ding Yao and the other old farts?]
Right then, he suddenly turned his head, looking towards a certain direction in the void. Not just him, but all the other Eighth-Order Division Commanders also sensed something and looked around.
Yang Kai also seemed to have sensed something, but at the end of the day, his foundation wasn’t as deep as the Eighth-Order Division Commanders so his perception wasn’t as strong.
Feng Ying was confused, seeing this, and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Zhong Liang happily clapped his hands, “They didn’t run away, they actually delivered themselves to us. Interesting!”
An Eighth-Order Division Commander nodded lightly, “They split up into three groups. Are they trying to surround this place?”
Another Eighth-Order raised his brow, “Judging by the way they are acting, it seems they are aware of our ambush. Since they know there’s an ambush here, why are they being so rash?”
The Eighth Order who had spoken earlier postulated, “Perhaps they only know that there is an ambush, but they don’t know the extent of our deployment. Maybe they think that their Army of 200,000 is enough to take us down?”
“I think that’s the case; otherwise, there’d be no reason for them to willingly fall into this trap.”
Yang Kai’s expression changed as he reported, “Martial Uncle Zhong, not long ago, when I was in a skirmish with the Black Ink Clan, I vaguely felt a Territory Lord spying on me, but that Territory Lord didn’t do anything and soon disappeared. This Junior was still puzzled, but now that I think about it, that Territory Lord must have come here to investigate and noticed something.”
Zhong Liang nodded in agreement, “We are 10 days away from Blue Sky Pass, a considerable distance by all accounts. The Black Ink Clan would have never thought that we would have sent so many people here. They must be thinking that even if there is an ambush, there wouldn’t be too many of us, which is why they are acting so rashly.”
He chuckled happily, “In any case, this situation is advantageous to us. Since the Black Ink Clan wants to see Hell so badly, how can the soldiers of our Western Army not grant their wishes? Division Commanders, have the Squads on standby. When I give the order, you will attack the enemy with me!”
All the Eighth-Order Masters readily accepted the order before dispersing.
While they were speaking, the three groups of Black Ink soldiers had already arrived by the universe fragment and very soon, finished surrounding it. The Western Army soldiers on the universe fragment had naturally noticed this and this surprised them. They were here to ambush the Black Ink Clan Army, yet, suddenly, it looked like they were surrounded.
Be that as it may, they were not afraid. The Western Army deployed more than 8,000 troops for this operation. The Eighth-Order Division Commanders alone numbered over a dozen. Although the Black Ink Clan occupied the advantage in overall numbers, most of them were High-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. The Human Masters had nothing to fear.
Realizing that a great battle was about to break out, all of them palmed their fists in excitement. In their eyes, the Black Ink Clan Army of 200,000 was just a pile of Military Merits up for grabs.
“Is this the place?” On the deck of a large ship, a Territory Lord looked down at the universe fragment while standing at the bow.
Wu Ying, who was standing beside him, affirmed with a nod, “En, this is it.”
The Territory Lord carefully looked around before lightly nodding, “There are indeed traces of Spirit Arrays, which only Humans use. It seems they are all hiding inside. Apparently, they are too afraid to show their faces.”
Wu Ying slightly furrowed his brow, voicing his concerns, “There were no Spirit Arrays when I first came here, so how come there are Arrays here now?”
The Territory Lord, who had just spoken, sneered, “The Humans are like that; they like to rely on external forces, but this is not Blue Sky Pass, so how powerful can hastily arranged Spirit Arrays be? With our army of 200,000, we can break them with a snap of our fingers! Pass the order, we should end this battle quickly so as to avoid delaying the attack on Blue Sky Pass.”
Wu Ying nodded and just as he was about to send a message to the Territory Lords of the other two groups the universe fragment below glimmered.
Suddenly, a gap appeared in the barrier that was covering the entire universe fragment in their direction before a large Battalion Rank Warship charged out from inside. A figure stood at the head of this Warship with his hands behind his back, staring ahead with a cold gaze. That sharp gaze immediately caused Wu Ying’s old wounds to ache.
He was all too familiar with that figure. It was none other than Zhong Liang.
Wu Ying was extremely taken aback by the fact that the Humans actually took the initiative to attack, but soon, his surprise turned into shock as he looked closely behind the Battalion Rank Warship. Smaller, but more manoeuvrable Squad Rank Warships appeared one after another.
One ship, two ships, three ships…
In an instant, an enormous number of Squad Rank Warships and Battalion Rank Warships filled his vision as the auras of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters spread across the void.
Wu Ying was shocked, “Have… have the Humans gone crazy?”
The number of Human ambushers on this universe fragment far exceeded his expectations. After having fought the Humans so many times, Wu Ying could instantly tell from the size and number of these Warships that the Humans had mobilized an entire Army for this operation.
Blue Sky Pass only had a total of four Armies, and one of them had come all the way here? Were the Humans not worried that they would not be able to return to Blue Sky Pass if they got tied down?
Regardless of what his thoughts on the matter were, Wu Ying had no time to ponder on them right now, because Zhong Liang’s figure swiftly rose from the ship and shot straight towards him, leaving a streak of light in his wake. Before he even arrived, he fired a fearsome Divine Ability at him.
Wu Ying and the Territory Lord beside him both turned pale in shock and quickly dodged. They could dodge, but the ship they were standing on couldn’t. It was directly smashed to pieces, and the Black Ink Clansmen aboard suffered heavy casualties.
One after another, figures rushed out from the Human Army, all of them in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm. The next moment, bursts of World Force swept through the void as each Territory Lord was targeted. In the blink of an eye, an earth-shattering battle had broken out and the shockwaves from the clash instantly killed many of the nearby Black Ink Clansmen.
Immediately after the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters engaged the enemy, the Warships began firing dazzling beams of light straight into the Black Ink Clan camp. Each beam warped space along its path, and every Black Ink Clansman that was even close to the attacks were either reduced to mist or severely injured.
In the blink of an eye, the Black Ink Clan had suffered huge losses.
Wu Ying was in an extremely tight spot as he suddenly found himself fighting three Eighth-Order Human Masters by himself! He was already not an opponent of Zhong Liang alone, but now there were two others with Zhong Liang. He fell into mortal danger after just a few breaths.
There was not that big of a gap in the strength between the average Eighth-Order Master and an ordinary Territory Lord. Even if an Eighth-Order Master was slightly stronger than a Territory Lord, this gap was still limited. Only a selected few had the prowess to kill a Territory Lord alone. These people were all top Eighth-Order Masters.
Originally, the number of Territory Lords was about the same as the number of Eighth-Order Masters on the Human Race side, with the Black Ink Clan generally having a few more.
But the Black Ink Clan Army of 200,000 had split into three groups in order to completely surround this universe fragment. Correspondingly, the dozen or so Territory Lords had split into three groups, leaving just five or six Territory Lords in each. They mainly did this to prevent the Humans from escaping.
But contrary to their expectations, the distribution of their forces had become the biggest flaw in their encirclement, giving the Humans an opportunity to take them down one by one.
The Western Army had convened its entire force and commenced the attack without warning. Wu Ying’s group was the first to bear the brunt of this assault, and it was already in full swing before the other two groups could even react.
Right now, the Western Army was facing only 70,000 or so Black Ink Clan soldiers. Although the other two groups of Black Ink Clansmen were rapidly moving to assist, it would still take them some time to arrive. The Western Army was clearly planning to slaughter as many as possible in this short time where they held the absolute advantage.
All the Territory Lords were fighting one-against-many battles, and Wu Ying’s situation wasn’t even the worst fighting three Eighth-Order Masters; for instance, the one who was standing beside him just now was actually fighting five Eighth-Order Masters alone. For a moment, Wu Ying wondered whether he should be thankful that his luck wasn’t the worst.
Obviously, the Humans had attacked with full force in order to finish off a few Territory Lords and decide the trend of the battle!
The battle had already broken out, and naturally, this had not gone unnoticed from the other two Back Ink Clan groups, but even though they responded immediately, it would still take them a dozen breaths to arrive and provide assistance.
A dozen breaths was enough to decide life and death.
Suddenly, one of the Black Ink Clan Territory Lord’s auras vanished!
From the corner of his eye, Wu Ying watched the giant figure of his comrade, who was fighting five against one, sway and fall. His head was nowhere to be seen and black blood was gushing out of his neck.
His comrade may be dead, but he simply didn’t have the time to grieve, because under the siege of the three Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters led by Zhong Liang, he too was in imminent danger.
In the distance, some of the Territory Lords who had a good relationship with Wu Ying were rushing over to try to help, their faces filled with anxiety and anger. Wu Ying also tried his best to move in their direction, but every step he got closer came at the expense of several serious injuries.
After just three steps, Wu Ying felt his body lighten and the world spin around him. The concealment technique he had been relying on to survive on the battlefield was completely useless here.
[The Humans… are truly treacherous!]
Turmoil was the best portrayal of the current Black Ink Clan Army’s situation.
They had tried to besiege the Human Race’s ambushers, and every Territory Lord felt that they would be able to make a great contribution today; after all, there was a big fish like Zhong Liang among the ambushers.
But at the last moment, they realized that the fish they were after was actually a giant shark.
The Black Ink Clan Army was caught completely off guard and had lost three Territory Lords in less than a dozen breaths. They were finally able to prevent any other Territory Lord from dying after the other two teams joined the battle. As the Humans were already prepared, and the Black Ink Clan had been taken by surprise, the momentum of the battle had already been set.
Now, all that was left was to see how many of the 200,000 could escape.
Still, fleeing from the fully prepared Western Army was not an easy task. It was quite easy to be injured and even lose their lives in such situations.
The Territory Lords were well aware of this, so they didn’t immediately think to flee; instead, they ordered the various Feudal Lords to gather as many forces together as possible while they were battling with the Eighth-Order Masters.
A fleet of squad-rank and battalion-rank Warships quickly appeared on the battlefield, each of them protected by several Seventh-Order Masters. On the Warships, the glimmer of Spirit Arrays activating lit up the void. Every time an Array was triggered, it would reap the lives of many Black Ink Clan soldiers.
Needless to say, the Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen were nothing more than cannon fodder in every battle between the Black Ink Clan and the Human Race, so they suffered the most casualties as they were unable to resist the might of the Human Warships.
Although the situation of the High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen was better, it wasn’t by much. The entire void seemed to have transformed into a millstone of flesh and blood, constantly grinding away the lives of the Black Ink Clan.
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