<<Previous Chapter | Martial Peak | Next Chapter>>
Translator: Silavin & Jon
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The disciple from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven suddenly said, “There are some Black Ink Clansmen coming over from Great Evolution Pass.”
“How many are there?” The Seventh-Order Master, who had just returned to this place, asked anxiously. It would be bad news to the Humans whenever the Black Ink Clansmen left Great Evolution Pass. Every time they did that, there would be a fight with the North-South Army, though the enemy would always be defeated. Therefore, the Seventh-Order Master became nervous upon learning that some Black Ink Clansmen had left Great Evolution Pass.
The Seventh-Order Master from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven replied, “There are only a few dozen of them.”
The green-robed Seventh-Order Master arched his brow, “It seems that Senior Mi’s speculation was right. They appear to be the Black Ink Clan’s envoys.”
Since they were asked to monitor Great Evolution Pass, Mi Jing Lun had told them the reason they had to do so. Just like Li Xing, they were previously puzzled. The blood feud between the two Races on the Black Ink Battlefield was practically irresolvable. They would always engage in a life-and-death fight every time they clashed, so no envoys had ever been sent to the other side before.
They thought that such a thing was unlikely to happen; however, since Mi Jing Lun had said so, they wouldn’t dare to doubt it.
Now, several dozen Black Ink Clansmen were indeed coming over from Great Evolution Pass, and it was apparent that they were not looking for trouble. The only reasonable explanation was that they were the expected envoys.
“Do we act according to the plan?” The Seventh-Order Master from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven raised his brow.
The green-robed Seventh-Order Master nodded, “En. However, we’re not sure how many Feudal Lords there are. If there are too many of them, we might suffer a setback instead.”
The Seventh-Order Master from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven grinned, “Don’t worry. Senior Mi said that even if we make a move, they won’t have the nerve to fight back. There’s nothing to worry about even if there are Territory Lords among them; after all, to them, we still have no idea about the outcome of the war at the Royal City.”
The other two nodded, then activated their Secret Techniques to cover their figures up and hide their auras. At the same time, they sent a message back to the forward base. Soon, several Human Warships secretly set out to ambush the enemies.
After departing from Great Evolution Pass, the several dozen Black Ink Clansmen rushed forward and it only took them about half a day before they arrived somewhere near the asteroid field.
At this point, the Humans could easily figure out how strong these Black Ink Clansmen were.
There were only a few Feudal Lords, while the rest were all High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. No Territory Lords were present.
It seemed that the Territory Lords were truly afraid of death. They were obviously worried that the Humans would attack them if they came over all of a sudden; therefore, they sent some Feudal Lords first to test the waters.
Since there wasn’t even a single Territory Lord, the Humans who were hiding nearby became at ease.
Just as the Black Ink Clansmen were about to pass by the asteroids, the arrays on the Warships activated. At the same time, Secret Techniques and the powers of artifacts rained down on these Black Ink Clansmen.
Violent energy fluctuations suddenly exploded. Engulfed in a great sense of danger, these Black Ink Clansmen, who were already apprehensive to begin with, were terrified. Flustered, they hurriedly dispersed.
However, under the intense barrage, these Black Ink Clansmen were not spared from misfortune. In an instant, half of them perished.
Before they even managed to steady themselves, the Human Warships had revealed themselves. Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters leapt out and cast their Secret Techniques at the enemies.
The Feudal Lord in the lead dodged the attacks with difficulty while exclaiming, “Wait! We’re not here to fight! Territory Lord Hong Di has ordered us to come here for peace talks with you all!”
His loud voice reverberated across the void.
Naturally, the Human soldiers didn’t bother to respond to him and dismissed his words as nonsense. It seemed that just like what Mi Jing Lun had expected, these Black Ink Clansmen wouldn’t dare to counterattack even if they were attacked. As such, the Humans became even more ruthless with their assault.
These poor Feudal Lords had survived several clashes with the North-South Army, so it could be said that they were elites among the Black Ink Clan. Nevertheless, at this moment, they could only dodge in embarrassment.
Things would only get worse if they kept avoiding the attacks though, and by the time these Feudal Lords realised that the situation could not be salvaged and wanted to counterattack, it was already too late.
Only a cup of tea’s time had passed since the Human soldiers started attacking, but these several dozen Black Ink Clansmen were almost wiped out.
Before his death, the Black Ink Clansman at the front exclaimed, “We’re really here to discuss peace!”
The Humans had never responded to him since the beginning, so he was extremely vexed right until his death.
Although they knew that these Black Ink Clansmen were indeed here for a peace talk, none of the Humans had any pity for them. That was because they knew that these Black Ink Clansmen must have killed Humans before.
On the walls of Great Evolution Pass, the Territory Lords were standing alongside one another as they looked into the distance.
When they saw that the several dozen Black Ink Clansmen were all killed, their expressions turned gloomy.
Even though they were fairly certain that these Black Ink Clansmen would end up in a horrible state, none of them had expected that the Humans would be so ruthless.
With that said, the outcome wasn’t surprising. There was a blood feud between the two Races that stretched back countless years. When one side suddenly wanted to talk peace, the other side certainly wouldn’t easily believe them. It was expected that they would simply attack.
It was for this reason that the Territory Lords didn’t show up in the first attempt. They only sent some Feudal Lords and High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen as a test.
The situation was apparently more troublesome than they imagined.
Hong Di said grimly, “In such a situation, does any one of you have a solution? At a minimum, we have to establish contact with the Humans before we even think about a peace talk.”
If they couldn’t open a dialogue with the Humans, it would be pointless to send more Black Ink Clansmen over.
The Territory Lords fell silent. The incident earlier showed that the Humans would immediately attack when they saw Black Ink Clansmen leave the Great Pass. There was no room for communication, so how were they supposed to discuss anything?
When they learned that their brethren at the Royal City were defeated and the Royal Lord was horrendously injured, they were quite flustered. Over the past 100 or so years, the Human soldiers would attack the Royal City every 20 years. The Black Ink Clansmen from Great Evolution Pass were aware of this; after all, it was easy to transmit information through the Black Ink Nests.
Over the years, even though those from the Royal City would always suffer some losses in each engagement, the losses were not critical. The Royal Lord and the Old Ancestor were equally matched, with neither being capable of killing the other; therefore, they were puzzled as to why the situation had suddenly become so abysmal at the Royal City.
After some inquiries, they learned that the Human Old Ancestor had been concealing the fact that she could recover far faster than anticipated. Over the years, she repeatedly exacerbated the Royal Lord’s injuries, never giving him time to fully heal, while she would make a complete recovery. Finally, after 100 years of plotting, she dropped the pretence and forced the Royal Lord to flee back to the Royal City in embarrassment.
Although the Human soldiers had returned to their forward base, things were not looking good on the Royal City’s side and those from Great Evolution Pass were worried that the Royal City would really be destroyed by the Humans.
Then, they received a piece of news that horrified them.
Barely 10 days after the great battle ended, the Human Army left the forward base they had garrisoned in for over 100 years and headed in Great Evolution Pass’ direction.
That was some shocking news.
There was already a Human Army at Great Evolution Pass’ doorstep, one that had stopped them from leaving this place on multiple occasions. If the Human soldiers from the Royal City joined up with them, the Black Ink Clansmen at Great Evolution Pass would be doomed.
Furthermore, the Old Ancestor was with the approaching Human Army.
It could be said that the moment the Human Armies joined forces, death would become certain for the Black Ink Clansmen from Great Evolution Pass.
The Territory Lords were all incredibly flustered. Fortunately, there was an order from the Royal City that told them to evacuate Great Evolution Pass. Although Hong Di was unwilling to abandon his territory, he could only do so in order to save his life.
However, they still had to come up with a way to leave Great Evolution Pass. Over the years, the Humans would be instantly alerted the moment the Black Ink Clan made a move.
Therefore, if they rashly left Great Evolution Pass, the Humans might misunderstand their intentions, and then a battle would be inevitable.
After pondering on the issue, the Territory Lords concluded that their best option was to negotiate a temporary cease-fire with the Humans first. That was why the several dozen Black Ink Clansmen were sent out.
To them, they had the advantage of knowing things that the Humans didn’t. They were aware of what had happened at the Royal City while the Humans might not necessarily know it; hence, they could make use of this advantage to achieve their objective.
If the Humans found out that those from the Royal City were defeated, and that a fleet of Human Warships was coming over to join them, they might not be willing to discuss peace at all.
From the Humans’ perspective, it would be a wise move to stop the Black Ink Clansmen from leaving Great Evolution Pass and wait for the arrival of their reinforcements before joining forces and wiping them out.
Therefore, a peace talk had to be held and concluded before the Human soldiers from the two sides established contact. Otherwise, the Black Ink Clansmen at Great Evolution Pass would be doomed.
Hong Di swept a glance over these silent Territory Lords and cursed at them in his mind, thinking that they were all useless when their help was needed.
Hence, he could only turn to his Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciple, “Zhou Qi, since you’re a Human, do you have a suggestion to deal with this situation?”
Black Ink Strength was seen swirling around the Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciple named Zhou Qi. His neck was full of abscesses where black pus was seen oozing out. Not only did this person look hideous, his body also stank. It was as though he was a rotten corpse. His smell couldn’t be isolated using any Secret Techniques, so all the Black Ink Clansmen and the other Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples stayed far away from him.
Upon hearing Hong Di’s question, Zhou Qi bent his back and replied, “Sir, when I was younger, I happened to wander around a Universe World where I saw two Human Armies clashing with one another. When the losing side wanted to surrender, they would send a group of people to the other side waving a white flag. When the people on the other side saw the white flag, they knew not to launch an attack. Why don’t we try that?”
“Raising a white flag?” Hong Di was surprised as he had never heard of it before.
Another Territory Lord asked his own Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciple, “Is that true?”
After pondering on it for a moment, the Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciple replied, “I’ve heard of it before; however, every Universe World has its own unique customs, so it might not be a universally accepted sign. I’m not sure if it’ll be effective on the Human soldiers over there.”
Hong Di nodded, “We’ll give it a try to find out if it’s effective. Get me a white flag!”
Following his order, the Black Ink Clansmen started getting prepared.
A while later, a white flag was made. The white flag was truly gigantic, as though they were worried that the Humans wouldn’t be able to see it.
A moment later, another group of Black Ink Clansmen departed from Great Evolution Pass. The Feudal Lord at the front raised the white flag and headed towards the North-South Army’s forward base while feeling incredibly apprehensive.
On the monitoring asteroid, the two Seventh-Order Masters who cultivated Eye Secret Techniques immediately spotted this new group.
The Seventh-Order Master from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven couldn’t help but break into laughter, “They’re coming over with a white flag. Are we going to attack?”
“So what if they’re coming over with a white flag? Just kill them all!” A certain Squad Leader rolled up his sleeves as he was ready to kill.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the Seventh-Order Master, who was responsible for passing on information, shook his head, “The higher-ups have made it clear that we have to eventually negotiate with the Black Ink Clan. It’s reasonable for us to say that we did not know their intentions when we killed their first group of envoys, but now that they’ve made such an obvious gesture, waving a giant white flag, we might ruin the Army Commanders’ plans if we still make a move.”
Thanks for the chapter
Yo