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Translator: Silavin & Jon
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
Yang Kai became slightly at ease. He had been paying close attention to Xiang Shan; after all, the key to winning this battle was whether Xiang Shan could make it to the Ninth Order in time.
As he felt the aura coming from Xiang Shan surging, he believed that the latter would achieve a breakthrough soon.
He had no idea why it took Xiang Shan such a long time to make it to the Ninth-Order. Previously, he stood guard for Ou Yang Lie when the latter attempted a breakthrough, but it was done fairly quickly.
Before his arrival, Xiang Shan had been refining the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill for quite a while. Now that such a long time had passed, it was a mystery as to why Xiang Shan hadn’t broken through yet.
He speculated that it had something to do with the fact that Xiang Shan’s Order dropped previously, which might have had some unexpected consequences.
Nevertheless, the most difficult time had passed. As long as Yang Kai could hold on for a while longer until Xiang Shan made it to the Ninth Order, the Humans would be able to strike back.
The birth of a new Ninth-Order Master would shatter the deadlock. By then, they might even be able to kill Mo Na Ye and the other Royal Lord.
“Hahaha!” Someone was heard laughing in the middle of the fight. A startled Yang Kai lifted his gaze and saw Mo Na Ye looking at him with a faint grin.
There seemed to be some underlying meaning behind the smile and Yang Kai’s heart clenched as he had a bad premonition.
[Why is this guy laughing under such circumstances?] Both parties had been enemies for millennia, so they understood each other quite well.
Mo Na Ye was a patient and cunning strategist, making him an extreme outlier within the Black Ink Clan. Yang Kai hadn’t suffered a fatal setback when dealing with Mo Na Ye, but he would never underestimate the latter.
At this point, Mo Na Ye shouldn’t be laughing; instead, he should be trying his best to break the Eight Trigrams Formation. So, why did he seem so amused?
His smile was meaningful, as though he was confident about winning even now, mocking Yang Kai for being ignorant.
A sense of danger abruptly rose within Yang Kai.
Alarmed, he realised that he might have missed something, and thinking back, there were some details he had failed to notice before.
He had already felt that something was amiss before now. Since Mo Na Ye was able to face off against the Eight Trigrams Formation for such a long time, it proved that he could’ve destroyed the Six Paths Formation led by Yang Xiao previously; however, he didn’t do that.
Before Yang Kai’s arrival, Yang Xiao and the other five had been dealing with Mo Na Ye on their own.
Initially, Yang Kai thought that Mo Na Ye was worried about injuring himself; after all, it would be troublesome if a Black Ink Clansman was injured in the Universe Furnace World, especially a Royal Lord.
Nevertheless, Mo Na Ye was a shrewd individual, so how was it possible that he would worry about getting injured at such a critical moment? He certainly knew that he had to destroy the Six Paths Formation led by Yang Xiao as quickly as possible so that the Black Ink Clan would win this battle.
At that time, as long as Mo Na Ye was willing to pay a certain price, Yang Xiao and the others wouldn’t have been a match for him, so why did he choose to stall for time?
Many ideas flashed across Yang Kai’s mind, but though he knew that something was amiss, under the tense circumstances, he couldn’t distract himself to ponder it properly.
“Laugh all you want, it won’t change anything!” Yang Kai snorted. Since he didn’t know what the problem was, he had to be patient and play it by ear.
Mo Na Ye laughed again. While warding off Yang Kai’s attacks, he said impassively, “I suppose Xiang Shan is going to break through soon.”
Just like Yang Kai, he had been paying close attention to Xiang Shan. Although he had no idea when Xiang Shan would achieve a breakthrough, the disturbance over there couldn’t be concealed. As such, he could roughly sense how things were going.
Yang Kai’s bad premonition intensified. It was odd that Mo Na Ye was still in the mood to talk about Xiang Shan at this point.
While remaining silent, Yang Kai strengthened his attacks.
Mo Na Ye went on to say, “Yang Kai, you are a wonderful opponent. I’ve always respected you whether I was a Territory Lord, a Pseudo-Royal Lord, or even a true Royal Lord. The Human Race has managed to hold on for such a long time mainly because of you. If not for your hard work over the past few thousands of years, the Humans would’ve already been defeated. Unmistakably, you are my greatest opponent. It’s fortunate that you can never become a Ninth-Order Master; otherwise, we would have been in deep trouble.”
He spoke loudly during the fight to ensure that everyone could hear him.
All of them were puzzled as to what Mo Na Ye was trying to achieve. Why was he in the mood to chat about such irrelevant matters in a life-and-death battle?
Mo Na Ye seemed oblivious to everything and kept speaking, as though he wouldn’t be able to say it again if he missed this chance. Staring at Yang Kai in pity, he muttered, “Just like what you Humans say, you were born in the wrong era. You have to bear the shackles and sins that this era has inflicted on you. Those from the Cave Heavens and Paradises forced you to ascend to the Fifth Order back then, which resulted in the Eighth Order being your limit. Now, they have to rely on you to save the Human Race. Do you not resent them at all?”
His hypnotic voice seemed able to bewitch others.
In all directions, many Human Race Masters, especially those who came from the Cave Heavens and Paradises, appeared guilty. Those from the Cave Heavens and Paradises had indeed made a mistake. Although only several Sects made a move, they represented the collective decision.
Nevertheless, they had no choice but to do so at that time. They had suffered a terrible crisis in the past, so they wouldn’t allow any rogue cultivator to directly ascend to the Seventh Order. Regardless of their intentions, they were compelled to suppress Yang Kai.
After all, a Seventh-Order Master might make it to the Ninth-Order one day. Meanwhile, all the Ninth-Order Old Ancestors from the Cave Heavens and Paradises were on the Black Ink Battlefield. If Yang Kai became a Ninth-Order Master and decided to cause trouble, the Cave Heavens and Paradises wouldn’t be able to contain him.
Over the years, many people thought that if they hadn’t suppressed Yang Kai and let him directly ascend to the Seventh Order back then, given his aptitude and opportunities, he would’ve made it to the Ninth Order by now.
Undoubtedly, that would’ve been a huge boon to the Human Race.
Nonetheless, things had come to such a point where it was pointless to regret anything. When Yang Kai decided to directly ascend to the Fifth-Order back then, his future was set.
Yang Kai snorted, “Are you trying to sow discord between us? Do you think such petty words will work on me at this point?”
Mo Na Ye sighed, “I’m not trying to sow discord, I’m just curious. It seems that I’m not mistaken. Although those from the Cave Heavens and Paradises owe you much, you’re still willing to sacrifice yourself for them.”
After a pause, he went on to say, “Over the years, I’ve constantly been thinking about how to kill you. Unfortunately, there has never been a good opportunity as you are too adept at running away. Your Space Secret Techniques have been a constant headache for me. The previous battle was undoubtedly the best chance so far, but it was disrupted by the Universe Furnace. If not for the Universe Furnace’s sudden appearance, you would’ve lost your life.”
Yang Kai frowned, “What’s the point of you saying all this now? Or are you saying you are certain you can kill me now?”
Something was definitely off. Mo Na Ye was speaking and acting like everything was within his control, so he was undoubtedly up to something; however, Yang Kai didn’t have time to figure out what he was plotting. Since he couldn’t find out what was on Mo Na Ye’s mind, he could only try to glean as much information from him as possible through conversation.
Mo Na Ye seemed to have realised his intention, so he said with a smile, “I’ve been plotting against you for years, but only this time could be considered successful. Please don’t blame me for being verbose, Brother Yang. I should probably stop the small talk now; otherwise, Xiang Shan will really break through.”
All of a sudden, his expression turned cold as he looked grimly at Yang Kai, “Did you know? I was waiting for you to appear, all along. I knew that you would show up. You were the one who set off this fight, so how was it possible that you wouldn’t come? Fortunately, you arrived just in time!”
At that moment, a sense of crisis engulfed Yang Kai, but he had no idea what Mo Na Ye was going to do.
Many ideas flashed across his mind like lightning and he soon thought of something, but it was too late.
Mo Na Ye stared fixedly at him and shouted dispassionately, “Black Ink Eternal!”
Suddenly, Yang Kai turned to look at Xiang Shan and shouted, “Senior Brother Xiang, watch out!”
At the same time, he saw two Eighth-Order Masters leaving their Battle Formations from two different directions and charging towards Xiang Shan while casting lethal moves.
Yang Kai widened his eyes in disbelief.
Black Ink Disciples!
He finally realised what he had failed to take note of. The Black Ink Clan had planted two Black Ink Disciples among the Humans! They had been hiding all this time, waiting for a chance to attack Xiang Shan.
Therefore, Mo Na Ye wasn’t worried about Xiang Shan becoming a Ninth-Order Master, because he knew that the latter would never succeed. He even felt free to chat just now because everything was within his control.
Many Black Ink Clansmen were startled by the turn of events. Similarly, the Humans were caught off guard. No one could’ve expected that their companions, who had been fighting alongside them all this time, would betray them as they were on the brink of victory.
All of them had been negligent.
It wasn’t a surprise that Black Ink Disciples existed. During the fight against the Black Ink Clan in the past, many Humans would be captured by the Black Ink Clan and turned into Black Ink Disciples. The situation was especially bad on the Black Ink Battlefield.
However, after Yang Kai brought Purifying Light with him and then received 10 sets of Great Sun and Great Moon Marks from the Burning Light and Serene Glimmer, the Humans no longer had to worry about Black Ink Disciples hiding amongst their ranks.
There was a Purifying Black Ink Battleship, which contained a large amount of Purifying Light, in every Human camp. Whenever the cultivators returned to base, they had to pass through the Purifying Black Ink Battleship before they were allowed to enter.
The Humans also had Purifying Black Ink Pills. One only had to consume such a pill before they fought with the Black Ink Clan to prevent themselves from being corrupted by Black Ink Strength.
The Black Ink Clan had occupied the 3,000 Worlds for many years, and although they had turned a large number of Hunters into Black Ink Disciples, those people were generally weak.
Many younger cultivators had never even seen Black Ink Disciples before. Also, Eighth-Order Black Ink Disciples were extremely rare, even back on the Black Ink Battlefield.
To turn an Eighth-Order Master into a Black Ink Disciple, a Royal Lord had to personally make a move.
As such, whenever the Eighth-Order Masters formed Battle Formations to deal with the enemies, they became less vigilant. No one would think that their companions might be Black Ink Disciples.
Even Yang Kai had not seen this coming; however, everything made sense if these people were not Eighth-Order Masters when they were turned into Black Ink Disciples.
Eighth-Order Masters were not the only ones who had entered the Universe Furnace World this time. There were also many Seventh-Order Masters! They were there not here for the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills but for the Ordinary Grade ones.
Good move
This old master salutes my fellow cultivators