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Translator: Silavin & Jon
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
When Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao was injured, she could make use of Yang Kai’s Small Universe to speed up her recuperation. On the other hand, the Royal Lord had his Black Ink Nest, so it could be said that both of them had an external aid in this regard.
However, in comparison, the Humans were already aware that the Royal Lords could use their Black Ink Nests to help with their recuperation, while the Black Ink Clan did not know that Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao had a similar advantage.
This simple disparity of information could be used to trick the Black Ink Clan.
From the Royal Lord’s perspective, it had only been some 30 years since he started using the Black Ink Nest to help with his recuperation, and he hadn’t fully recovered. Needless to say, the Old Ancestor had to be recuperating as well.
However, on this day, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao appeared out of nowhere and launched an attack on the Royal City; moreover, she appeared to be at the peak of her power. This made the Royal Lord feel puzzled as he wondered how the Old Ancestor managed to recover so quickly; therefore, the moment they exchanged moves, he was taken aback.
Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao’s plan was simple, which was to make use of the fact that she had fully recovered to continuously suppress the Royal Lord.
While she had fully recovered, the Royal Lord was still wounded. If nothing unexpected happened, she could exacerbate the Royal Lord’s wounds after the fight.
Then, she would come back and seek Yang Kai’s help. When her wounds had healed, she would look for the Royal Lord for their next fight.
By repeatedly doing so, she believed that the Royal Lord wouldn’t be able to take it anymore after 100 years as his wounds would never heal properly. In the middle of his recovery, he would be injured by Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao again, which would exacerbate his condition as the days went by. In such a way, there would come a day when he would be defeated by her.
By then, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao could easily take him down without worrying that he would use some kind of Secret Technique that could drag her down with him; however, the moment she realised that the Royal Lord could make use of the Black Ink Nest to strengthen himself, she knew that her plan wouldn’t work.
The Royal Lord indeed hadn’t recovered, but with the Black Ink Nest’s help, he could still display stunning power.
Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao could even feel that as long as they fought near the Royal City, she would be at a disadvantage even if she went all out.
Hence, upon that realisation, she decided to hold back some of her strength and pretend that she was still wounded.
Such a sudden change might have exposed her real condition, but to the Royal Lord, that was the way it should be, so the risks were minimal.
After the previous battle, they were mutually wounded. Only 30 or so years had passed, and he was still recuperating, so how was it possible that the Old Ancestor had fully recovered?
Then, the Old Ancestor decided on the spot to raise chaos on both sides of the Royal City.
Since she was unable to kill the Royal Lord, she decided to deal with the Black Ink Clan soldiers to create a chance for the East-West Army to slaughter the enemy.
In fact, in order to make a scene on both sides of the Royal City, the Old Ancestor had to pay a huge price. When she was dealing with the third Black Ink Disciple, she was directly struck by the Royal Lord’s attack. For the rest of the battle, she had to suppress her pain to made sure that no one noticed.
Then, she decided to lure the Royal Lord away so that the latter couldn’t keep drawing energy from the Black Ink Nest.
When she reached the depths of the void and exchanged moves with the Royal Lord, she still held back some of her power to feign weakness and injury. In the end, the two top Masters fought an intense, but not life-threatening battle.
That was the reason she managed to retain her original form when she returned.
One had to know that when she came back to the forward base previously, she immediately turned into a three-year-old child, and it wasn’t until much later that she regained her consciousness.
It could be said that she was already in a better state this time.
“I thought I’d concealed it well. It never crossed my mind that you’d figured it out.” The Old Ancestor thought that it was such a shame.
Yang Kai chuckled, “I was fully aware of your condition because you recuperated in my Small Universe; however, the Royal Lord definitely wouldn’t have noticed, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
“You have a point.” The Old Ancestor nodded lightly, “Now, it seems that the Black Ink Nests do not only help the Black Ink Clan cultivate and heal, but they can also empower them as long as they are nearby.”
Knowing what she was trying to say, Yang Kai asked, “Are you worried about Great Evolution Pass?”
The Old Ancestor nodded, “There are Black Ink Nests in Great Evolution Pass, so I suppose they might be able to help the Territory Lords strengthen themselves. Send a message to them and tell them to be careful and not invade Great Evolution Pass when they see an opportunity.”
Upon receiving the order, Yang Kai replied, “Understood. I will report it to the Army Commanders.”
“I’m exhausted, so I’ll start healing now.” Upon finishing her words, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao sat down on the bed with her legs crossed.
The next instant, her figure started shrinking. Barely several breaths of time later, she transformed from an adult to a young child that appeared some seven or eight years old.
She looked just like the young girl in the Marketplace in Yin-Yang Pass when Yang Kai saw her for the first time.
It suggested that she was indeed in a better state than last time.
Since the Old Ancestor had to recuperate, Yang Kai left the log house respectfully.
At the entrance of the valley where Yang Kai had spread out his Small Universe, two Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, who were responsible for standing guard, exchanged glances as they had received a message from Yang Kai via Divine Sense.
One of them nodded, “I’ll inform the Army Commanders about it now.”
A moment later, aboard the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, Xiang Shan, Liu Zhi Ping, and the others listened to the report from the Seventh-Order Master. It was only then that they learned that the Black Ink Clan could use their Black Ink Nests to strengthen themselves in combat.
Then, they promptly told someone to head to Great Evolution Pass to share this piece of information with the North-South Army.
Although the North-South Army wasn’t supposed to launch an attack on Great Evolution Pass, they still had to immediately share such information with them. However, since it was a long journey, it would be at least a month later when the North-South Army received this intel.
After the East-West Army’s first clash with the Black Ink Clan in the Great Evolution Theatre, they went on to coexist peacefully for the next 20 years.
During this period of time, the Humans never made a move. They had also stopped harassing the Black Ink Clan with Universe Worlds.
This silence only made the leaders of the Black Ink Clan feel ill at ease.
That was because it suggested that the Humans were trying to accumulate enough strength before launching an even more violent assault than last time.
The Territory Lords had the urge to take the initiative and launch an attack on the Humans; however, the Royal Lord had given an order, so they wouldn’t dare to make a rash move.
In the beginning, with Che Kong as the leader, some of the Territory Lords still thought that it was better to defend the Royal City than to launch an attack.
Nevertheless, as time passed, even Che Kong felt that he had made a mistake by being too conservative.
He should have derailed the Humans’ plan before they gained a strong foothold. Now that the Humans had set up a forward base, and the Royal Lord was badly injured, there wasn’t a chance for the Black Ink Clan to initiate an attack.
It was too late now though, so they could only obey the Royal Lord’s order and defend the Royal City at all costs.
No war broke out on the East-West Army’s side for 20 years.
On the other hand, over the past 20 years, the North-South Army had clashed with the Black Ink Clan in Great Evolution Pass on several occasions.
There were about 700,000 Black Ink Clansmen in Great Evolution Pass, including more than 20 Territory Lords and about 50 Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples. It was a force to be reckoned with.
The Black Ink Clan had made countless arrangements in Great Evolution Pass over the last 30,000 years, and given their collective power, it wasn’t hard for them to deal with a mere 30,000 Human soldiers.
The North-South Army had never shown any intention of attacking Great Evolution Pass. Be it the irritable Ou Yang Lie or the measured Mi Jing Lun, they both knew that it was no different from asking for death if they tried to assault Great Evolution Pass in such a situation.
The Humans had limited manpower, so they couldn’t afford to suffer any unnecessary losses; therefore, the North-South Army had set up camp about two days journey from Great Evolution Pass, just close enough to monitor the situation and ensure they could intercept any Black Ink Clansmen that tried to leave the Great Pass.
This made the Black Ink Clansmen feel vexed.
After the battle at the Royal City 20 years ago, the Black Ink Clansmen in Great Evolution Pass realised that they couldn’t keep hiding in this place to enjoy the temporary peace. Once the Royal City was destroyed, they couldn’t possibly stay safe in Great Evolution Pass.
Therefore, after the Black Ink Clansmen learned about the battle, they began trying to leave Great Evolution Pass and head to the Royal City to provide reinforcements.
Given the fact that there were 700,000 Black Ink Clan soldiers, more than 20 Territory Lords, and about 50 Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples, if they went all out, the Humans would not be able to stop them.
However, if they really did that, it would be akin to giving up Great Evolution Pass.
Certainly, Territory Lord Hong Di wouldn’t agree to it; after all, his Black Ink Nest was located in Great Evolution Pass, so this place was practically his domain.
As such, over the years, the Black Ink Clansmen had been trying to come up with a solution to this problem. On one hand, they had to retain control of Great Evolution Pass, on the other hand, they had to send some people to the Royal City to help their clansmen.
For this reason, these Black Ink Clan in Great Evolution Pass would try to circumvent the North-South Army and head to the Royal City every few years.
Their first attempt took place half a year after the battle broke out in the Royal City.
That time, they had sent about 400,000 Black Ink Clan soldiers with more than 10 Territory Lords leading the way. They decided to set off on their journey from the back of Great Evolution Pass, even though that meant they had to make a large detour.
The number of the Black Ink Clansmen was the outcome of the Territory Lords’ discussion. This number was neither big nor small, but they would be of great help to their clansmen if they managed to reach the Royal City while those that had stayed back were sufficient to protect Great Evolution Pass.
However, the Humans discovered their plan.
Moreover, they seemed to have already expected it as they despicably set up a lot of Spirit Arrays on the universe fragments where the Black Ink Clansmen would have to pass by.
When the Black Ink Clan Army arrived at the area that was full of those universe fragments, they were caught off guard by the Spirit Arrays that exploded all around them.
The Human soldiers, who were supposedly two days journey from Great Evolution Pass, suddenly appeared from the depths of the void. The auras of dozens of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters formed into a horrifying pressure and made them feel suffocated.
Before both parties even clashed, the Black Ink Clansmen had lost their will to fight. That was because they had already suffered a huge setback in the previous battle with the Humans.
Their exchange of moves this time couldn’t be considered intense and the Black Ink Clansmen had no choice but to retreat back to Great Evolution Pass.
The North-South Army didn’t go all out or initiate a pursuit this time, so both parties didn’t suffer any major losses.
After that, the North-South Army and the Black Ink Clan skirmished on several occasions, each time only testing each other out as the leaders of both parties acted with restraint.
The longest fight they ever had only lasted for half a day, after which they respectively retreated. The shortest fight only lasted a cup of tea’s time.
During these clashes, perhaps 10,000 Black Ink Clansmen would lose their lives while it was rare of any Humans to be killed.
After years of confrontation, the Black Ink Clansmen finally came to the realisation that they could not leave Great Evolution Pass and head to the Royal City to help their clansmen before they could destroy the Human Army at their doorstep.
Given such a situation, they could only keep on confronting one another and wait for any turn of events in the Royal City.
That change soon happened.
20 years had passed in the outside world, but the Old Ancestor, who had recuperated in Yang Kai’s Small Universe for the past 80 years, had fully recovered once again.
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