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Translator: Silavin & June
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
It was not something that Yang Kai cared all that much about, though. While it would be good if he had the chance to strike again, he could simply return to the 3,000 Worlds if he did not; after all, he had the secret Void Corridor, which had served him well the past few years.
What he needed to do now was focus on his recovery.
As Yang Kai lay low, the Black Ink Clan went on a frenzied search for him all across the Black Ink Battlefield, but in the end, they failed to find any trace of him.
The Royal Lord was filled with pent-up fury and frustration. He had full knowledge of an enemy who was eyeing the No-Return Pass, and he knew full well that this enemy of his was not his equal in battle, but he could not find where this enemy was hiding, pushing him into a constant state of simmering rage.
The existence of that Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master made him feel as if he had a sword hanging over his head, one that could fall at any moment. As a result of this incident, all of the Territory Lords, as well as the Royal Lord himself, feared entering into a deep sleep to recuperate. They had to put up with their injuries and remain on guard.
Six months after Yang Kai destroyed five High-Rank Black Ink Nests, the Human Race Army’s Supreme Headquarters, in a Great Territory which connected to the Star Boundary, had compiled reports from various Great Territories.
This particular Great Territory previously did not even have a name of its own on the Universe Chart and was simply identified with the code E-39.
Numerous Great Territories like this one existed among the 3,000 Worlds. These nameless Great Territories were usually those where the Martial Dao had not matured much or did not possess any resources worth exploiting. Even though they were often home to several Universe Worlds, the cultivators in those places could not free themselves from the shackles of their Universe Worlds and venture out into the Outer Universe.
Some of these Great Territories were even completely uninhabited.
This had been the case for the Great Territory where the Star Boundary was, but due to the Star Boundary’s soaring fame, along with the fact that the most powerful Sect in the Star Boundary was High Heaven Palace, the Great Territory was at one point re-named High Heaven Territory.
It had been several dozen years since the Black Ink Clan opened the passage between the Barren Territory and Wind Mist Territory and invaded the 3,000 Worlds.
The Human Race Army had retreated from Barren Territory under the orders of Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing, the two surviving Ninth-Order Old Ancestors. The Armies were then broken up and Squads were sent to the various Great Territories to organize the mass evacuation.
By now, the Humans had all retreated and migrated as planned.
With the help of the Human Army, most of the great forces arrived safely in High Heaven Territory; however, significant losses were suffered along the way too. An example of this would be the Swallowing Seas Territory. If it had not been for Yang Kai’s intervention back then, all of the cultivators from the entire Great Territory might have been lost.
Some evacuation fleets encountered Black Ink Clan Armies along the way and were either besieged or eliminated.
Even now, some Human refugees had been delayed for various reasons and were still making their way to High Heaven Territory, but the overall situation had been stabilised.
The Human Race Army was now deployed in a dozen Great Territories around High Heaven Territory to battle against the Black Ink Clan Army. Big and small clashes occurred constantly with the Humans and the Black Ink Clan Army both suffering casualties at an alarming rate.
Many of the Humans’ finest elites now fought in these Great Territories, doing their best to hold the line and push back the enemy.
Since Territory E-30 neighboured the Star Boundary and was the only way into High Heaven Territory from the wider 3,000 Worlds, the Human Race Army turned it into their final stronghold in the war against the Black Ink Clan.
Thus, the Army Supreme Headquarters was set up in one of the Universe Worlds in this Great Territory.
The Human Race had never had a Supreme Headquarters before as on the Black Ink Battlefield, each of the Great Passes functioned essentially independently. No one held overall command. In fact, even in the individual Great Passes, the East, South, West, and North Armies all had their respective Army Headquarters.
However, in the present situation, the Human Race could no longer afford to work separately. They had to establish a place where the entire strategic situation could be overseen and general orders could be issued.
This was how the Supreme Headquarters came to be.
There was a single Supreme Commander and over a dozen Deputy Supreme Commanders at the Supreme Headquarters, all of them the most elite Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, holding positions above the individual Army Commanders.
As Old Ancestors Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing were preoccupied with tying down the Black Ink Giant Spirit God, they could not pay attention to anything else. Therefore, the over dozen or so Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters acted as the heads of the Human Race Army.
The strategies to be used in the fight against the Black Ink Clan, the changes to the defence lines, the assignment of the soldiers, everything was coordinated through the Supreme Headquarters.
Xiang Shan, originally the Army Commander of the Great Evolution Army’s Eastern Army was now a Deputy Supreme Commander, and Mi Jing Lun had assumed the role of Supreme Commander.
On this particular day, the dozen or so Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters had gathered to discuss the current state of the war. After a lengthy discussion, they came up with a new set of plans to implement.
Xiang Shan glanced around at everyone, “If there’s nothing else, then we can adjourn now.”
These Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters did not just remain in this place. They were elites among the Eighth Order, so they would still head out to fight the Black Ink Clans now and again; however, for the most part, the majority of them remained on duty at the Supreme Headquarters so that they could quickly formulate strategies whenever a crisis cropped up.
Just recently, Xiang Shan received a report that a Territory Lord had separated from the rest of the Black Ink Clan Army in one of the neighbouring Great Territories. Thus, he had been working out a way to kill this Territory Lord. Now was the perfect opportunity to strike, so if there was nothing else that needed to be discussed, he wanted to get on with it.
The other Deputy Supreme Commanders were quiet as they had nothing to discuss, but Mi Jing Lun suddenly raised his hand, “Please hold on, everyone. I’ve recently received a rather intriguing report. Please have a look.”
Bolts of light whizzed out of his raised hand.
Jade slips soon landed in each of their hands as one of them queried with his eyebrow and commented, “A series of Black Ink Nests self-destructed?”
The jade slip had a record of multiple reports from various Great Territories about the sudden collapse of numerous Black Ink Nests. Most of these Black Ink Nests were Low-Rank Black Ink Nests, but there were a few Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests among them as well.
A fairly significant number of them had collapsed throughout over 100 different Great Territories.
Xiang Shan was taken aback, looked up, and asked, “When did you get these reports?”
“10 days ago,” Mi Jing Lun replied.
All of the Deputy Supreme Commanders had important tasks of their own, while Mi Jing Lun was in charge of gathering intelligence and reports. He was the first to know of any news that was transmitted back to the Supreme Headquarters.
“Is this information reliable?” One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters asked.
Mi Jing Lun nodded, “En. Some of these incidents were spotted by Hunters roaming through the Great Territories under the Black Ink Clan’s control, while some were even discovered from the dozen frontline Great Territories. We can’t confirm the ones in the Great Territories that fully belong to the Black Ink Clan, but I’ve sent people to check the dozen frontline Great Territories, and they’ve verified the reports.”
The ‘Hunters’ that he mentioned were those who had formed Squads to sneak into the Great Territories under the Black Ink Clan’s control to hunt and kill Black Ink Clansmen.
Some of these Hunters were the remnants of the various Army Squads that previously existed, but most of them were also formed by cultivators from the various Second Class great forces.
Cultivators from the Second Class great forces had never taken part in large-scale wars before and few of them were used to fighting in a structured army; therefore, the Supreme Headquarters decided to just leave them be. The Cave Heavens and Paradises no longer restricted the Second Class great forces and many of the Masters from those great forces had ascended to the Seventh Order.
Thanks to the existence of the Hunters, the Black Ink Clan suffered noteworthy losses every year.
However, Hunters generally worked in small groups no bigger than an Army Squad, or a dozen or so people, which meant that it was extremely dangerous for them if they ran into a real Black Ink Clan Army.
At the same time, being few in number meant they could move about more freely and stealthily, so there were pros and cons.
The Hunters mostly travelled through the Great Territories that the Black Ink Clan had seized and six months ago, a number of Hunters reported witnessing many Black Ink Nests in various Universe Worlds all of a sudden began to wither and die.
At the same time, the same thing had happened in the dozen frontline Great Territories where the main Human and Black Ink Clan Armies were clashing. Quite a few soldiers had seen massive Black Ink Nests falling apart for no apparent reason.
As Supreme Commander of the Human Army, Mi Jing Lun was always kept up-to-date on the latest intelligence, so no one doubted his words.
One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters’ eyes brightened, “Do we have a count of how many Black Ink Nests were self-destructed? How many Low-Rank ones and how many Mid-Rank ones?”
“For now, we’ve confirmed 637 Low-Rank Black Ink Nests and 13 Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests have withered,” Mi Jing Lun replied, “However, this is only what we have found, and what we can find is only the tip of the iceberg.”
There were obviously a lot more Black Ink Nests that had been destroyed than the ones the Humans could discover.
Mi Jing Lun looked around at everyone, “I’m sure you all know what this implies.”
It would not be a big deal if a few Low-Rank Black Ink Nests self-destructed. That would only mean that a Mid-Rank Black Ink Nest had been destroyed somewhere. However, if multiple Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests had self-destructed as well, then the information gleaned from this news was a lot more significant.
Xiang Shan spoke up quietly, “We have not found any High-Rank Black Ink Nests on any of the battlefields, which is why we deduced that the Black Ink Clan left their High-Rank Black Ink Nests back at the No-Return Pass. The Black Ink Clan would consider the No-Return Pass to be a very safe location as we Humans are too busy defending ourselves to attack it. No one would head off to the No-Return Pass to try and mess with them, but from the looks of it now, someone did just that and even succeeded in destroying a High-Rank Black Ink Nest at the No-Return Pass. That’s why the Mid-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Nests self-destructed. But, who is this person?”
“Although we have no way of confirming the situation at the No-Return Pass, based on what Brother Ou Yang Lie said back then, there is a Royal Lord who is standing guard there. No ordinary person can stir up trouble right under a Royal Lord’s nose,” Mi Jing Lun declared.
Ou Yang Lie was with Yang Kai when they returned through the No-Return Pass to the Barren Territory, which meant that Ou Yang Lie knew the situation at the No-Return Pass better than anyone in this room. He had naturally told Mi Jing Lun about what he knew.
“Could it be that one of the two Old Ancestors made a move?” One of the Eighth-Order Masters suggested.
Someone else shook his head and refuted that possibility, “The two Old Ancestors are currently busy subduing the Black Ink Giant Spirit God. They can’t go anywhere else, so they wouldn’t have gone to the No-Return Pass. If they did, it would have meant that they defeated the Black Ink Giant Spirit God and we would’ve heard about it if that was the case.”
The crowd continued making various guesses, but they had no way of verifying any of them. Based on the reports they had, they could only figure out that at least one High-Rank Black Ink Nest at the No-Return Pass must have been destroyed. That would explain why many Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests and Low-Rank Black Ink Nests self-destructed.
That being said, they had no way of knowing who did this or even if it was just one person or a whole team of people.
All of a sudden, Xiang Shan looked over at Mi Jing Lun. Their eyes met and they could easily tell what the other was thinking.
“Could it be… that Brat’s doing?”
They could not think of anyone who could accomplish such a feat, but if it was that Brat, then perhaps it might be possible.
Immediately, one of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters asked, “Brother Xiang, who is this ‘Brat’ you speak of? Who do you believe is capable of doing this?”
Yang Kai being the center of attention again
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.