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Translator: Silavin & Sara
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
As soon as Yang Kai pointed out the reality of the current situation, Mo Na Ye knew Yang Kai had managed to trick the Black Ink Clan into doing what he wanted again. He purposely sealed the Territory Gate to make them wary of the possibilities which led to them recalling all the Pseudo-Royal Lords who were out fighting. All of this left Mo Na Ye feeling both furious and bleak.
Yang Kai stood outside the Territory Gate and opened his arms, “Right now, I’m the one who has the upper hand. Your Pseudo-Royal Lords are retreating from all the different battlefields, but I can seal up the Territory Gate at any time and slaughter all of them. Even though you can force open the Territory Gate again, it’ll take some time. Moreover, I can seal up more than one Territory Gate!”
If Yang Kai headed off right now to kill the returning Pseudo-Royal Lords, he would undoubtedly seal off all the Territory Gates along the way. Mo Na Ye would not be able to go after him no matter how much he wanted to.
With Yang Kai’s present mastery over the Dao of Space and his current strength, it was laughably easy for him to seal off a Territory Gate. However, it would take the Black Ink Clan time and a lot of time and effort to break one open again.
The amount of work required of both parties was worlds apart. Yang Kai could use this to his advantage and the additional time he had thanks to that would be enough for the Black Ink Clan to lose a majority of their Pseudo-Royal Lords.
“What do you want?” Mo Na Ye asked darkly.
Yang Kai flashed a faint smile, “Now that’s how you do business.” It was easy to deal with someone as smart as Mo Na Ye. Yang Kai did not need to give a detailed explanation. Mo Na Ye could grasp the situation quickly which saved the need to waste one’s breath. If Yang Kai had been dealing with a hot-headed fool with a fiery temper instead, they might have come to blows by now.
That was not what Yang Kai wanted.
“As long as your new generation of Royal Lords hasn’t emerged, the Pseudo-Royal Lords are your strongest forces. You can’t afford to lose any of them; after all, you don’t have any more Innate Territory Lords, so every single Pseudo-Royal Lord who dies can’t be replaced,” Yang Kai slowly remarked, “How’s this? I won’t back you into a corner. For every single Pseudo-Royal Lord, I want a million sets of Fifth-Order materials. You can count how many Pseudo-Royal Lords you have remaining and give me the equivalent amount.”
“Are you insane!?” Mo Na Ye stared at Yang Kai in shock. He was thunderstruck by the Human’s attempt at open robbery.
Even though he only asked for Fifth-Order materials, a million sets was far too much. Furthermore, this was only in exchange for a single Pseudo-Royal Lord. At the very least, there were around 100 of them out on the battlefields, so wasn’t that like asking for 100 million sets of Fifth-Order materials?
Though Mo Na Ye knew Yang Kai would surely have high demands, he never expected the latter to be this greedy and he certainly could not accept it.
“These materials mean nothing to the Black Ink Clan, but the same can’t be said for the Pseudo-Royal Lords,” Yang Kai commented coolly, “You better think carefully before you answer.”
Mo Na Ye gritted his teeth, “It’s too much!” Truth be told, Mo Na Ye was more than willing to use these materials to exchange for the lives of the Pseudo-Royal Lords, but the price that Yang Kai asked for was too far outside the limits of acceptability. After all, the materials taken from them would be used to help the Humans grow stronger. The more the Black Ink Clan gave, the stronger the Humans could become.
All of a sudden, Mo Na Ye realised that this could very well be the real reason why Yang Kai showed up at the No-Return Pass!
Mo Na Ye knew of the Humans’ lack of resources. The Black Ink Clan had the entire Black Ink Battlefield to supply them with everything they needed to provide for their Army, but what did the Humans have? They only had the resources amassed by the major Sects throughout all their years of existence, but no matter how much they had saved, they would still use everything up someday.
When that happened, the Humans would no longer have any resources and the cultivation of their Masters would slow down dramatically. They might not even get any new Open Heaven Realm Masters anymore.
Therefore, the Humans had to find a way to overcome their dwindling supplies. This explained why Yang Kai named such an exorbitant price.
His earlier deal with the Black Ink Clan was merely his way of slowly setting up the stage and putting pressure on them…
Thinking about it now, Mo Na Ye realised that the earlier deal did not benefit the Black Ink Clan in any way; instead, they ended up allowing Yang Kai to take a Great Pass basically for free.
“That’s my only condition. I won’t accept any attempts to bargain. You have a stick of incense’s worth of time to discuss this. If you can’t accept it, then so be it. I will immediately head off to slaughter all your Pseudo-Royal Lords. Let me see how many of them manage to make it back alive. Oh. I’ll start with the Territory Gate that connects Shattered Heaven to the 3,000 Words. That’ll make for an excellent battlefield!” Yang Kai took a hard line and left no room for haggling.
Mo Na Ye’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and the other Pseudo-Royal Lords were seething with rage as well. They kept throwing questioning looks at Mo Na Ye. It was as if they would rush forward to eviscerate Yang Kai the moment the Royal Lord gave the order.
Meanwhile, Mo Na Ye’s expression kept changing. Everyone could see that he was trying to quell his murderous intent. In the end, he did not give the order as he somehow kept a lid on his fury.
He was only able to control himself because he knew nothing would come out of it even if he did give the order to attack. They could not do anything to Yang Kai when the Territory Gate was right behind him. The moment the Black Ink Clan even tried to do anything, Yang Kai could immediately jump through the Territory Gate.
Truth be told, Mo Na Ye was not averse to giving away those materials in exchange for the safety of the Pseudo-Royal Lords; however, he was infuriated by the amount Yang Kai asked for and the refusal to let them bargain even when they did so earlier!
However, he could not deny that Yang Kai was targeting the Black Ink Clan’s weakness. If he did do as he said just now, a lot of Pseudo-Royal Lords would be meeting their doom.
The Pseudo-Royal Lords who were retreating from the battlefields had to pass through the Territory Gate at the Shattered Heaven. It was a passage that could not be avoided, and Yang Kai only had to lie in wait there. By doing so, he would surely be able to kill them off.
If the Black Ink Clan at the No-Return Pass wanted to head over to help the Pseudo-Royal Lords, they had to pass through the Barren Territory and travel across the entirety of the Shattered Heaven. Not only would the journey take them far longer than it took Yang Kai, but just the act of needing to break open the sealed Territory Gates would waste a lot of their time as well.
By the time they did manage to get there, it was probably going to be too late.
Furthermore, they had to leave some Masters at the No-Return Pass to stand guard there, so they could not send out all of their forces.
A single Human had the entire Black Ink Clan in a chokehold! All of the Black Ink Clansmen were drowning in humiliation.
After sending a resentful glare in Yang Kai’s direction, Mo Na Ye used his Divine Sense to discuss the deal with Mo Yu.
Yang Kai calmly waited by the Territory Gate without rushing them; after all, he did say he was giving them a stick of incense’s worth of time to discuss the deal. Moreover, he was certain they would agree to his demand. Although he was asking for a lot, it was not an amount they could not deliver. They simply did not want to hand over all these resources to the enemy.
However, materials came second when weighed against the lives of those Pseudo-Royal Lords.
Still, there were no guarantees in life. If the Black Ink Clan was going to be stubborn about it and refuse to accept his ridiculous demand, then he had no choice but to head on over and kill off the Pseudo-Royal Lords.
Now that he was using the Space-Time River to seal Pure Yang Pass, Yang Kai could not use it in battle, and without its help, it would not be easy for him to kill all those Pseudo-Royal Lords. Furthermore, the returning Pseudo-Royal Lords would be travelling in groups, which would make it even harder for him to kill them.
If he had to do it, he could only succeed a few times. As more and more Pseudo-Royal Lords returned from the various battlefields, he would have to stop. No matter how strong he was, there was still a limit to what he could accomplish alone.
[Hopefully, Mo Na Ye makes the wiser choice!] Yang Kai glanced at Mo Na Ye, and the latter just so happened to be glancing over at him too. Their eyes met and Yang Kai flashed the Royal Lord a cordial smile.
Mo Na Ye averted his eyes with a disgusted expression.
The discussion continued. At first, it was only between Mo Na Ye and Mo Yu, but soon, the Divine Senses of many other Pseudo-Royal Lords joined in. From their expressions and reactions, it was clear that they were split on the issue.
Yang Kai did not bother paying any attention to them and just remained ready to step into the Territory Gate at any given moment.
Before the time was up, the Black Ink Clan came to a decision.
Yang Kai gathered his thoughts and crossed his arms before calmly asking, “So?”
Mo Na Ye took a deep breath. He looked like someone who was weighed down by abject humiliation as he growled lowly, “We accept the trade you’ve asked for!”
Yang Kai’s brow twitched a little, “Is it too late for me to ask for more now?”
He had clearly underestimated the amount of resources the Black Ink Clan had. As it was, he thought he was already asking for the lion’s share of what they had. He even considered the possibility of compromising just a tiny bit if the Black Ink Clan insisted on haggling with him. [Who would’ve thought that they’d agree just like that?!]
After giving it some thought, it made sense. The Black Ink Clan had been in control of the 3,000 Worlds and the entire Black Ink Battlefield for millennia, which was more than enough time for them to gather an enormous amount of resources as they had more than enough underlings to do the mining.
Yang Kai felt an inexplicable sense of regret, like he had somehow suffered a great loss.
“Yang Kai!” Mo Na Ye roared, “Don’t go too far!”
Yang Kai waved his hand, “I was joking! It’s just a joke. Don’t get all worked up!”
Mo Na Ye threw him a baleful glare. It took quite some time before he could calm himself down again, “We need time to gather everything!”
“Three days!” Yang Kai had already considered this. He was not going to let the Black Ink Clan drag things out for too long, “I want to see everything in three days. Also, let me warn you right now. Don’t even bother trying to trick me. I know full well how many Pseudo-Royal Lords you have out there!”
“Three days isn’t enough time. You’re asking for a lot,” Mo Na Ye countered with a frown.
Yang Kai snorted, “All of your resources are right here. You just need to sort through them. You can do that in three days. But, of course, I don’t mind if you wish to drag it out even longer. However… if any of the Pseudo-Royal Lords return before I get what I want, don’t blame me for not showing any mercy!”
He was standing right outside the Territory Gate, so if the Pseudo-Royal Lords returned, they would surely pop up in front of him. How could any of them survive if he attacked them the moment they came through?
Mo Na Ye’s face twitched as he growled, “Fine. Three days!”
“You’re a decisive one!” Yang Kai complimented.
“We don’t have that many Fifth-Order materials, so we’ll make up for it with others. Naturally, we’ll make sure we meet the necessary amount,” Mo Na Ye added.
After all, even the Black Ink Clan could not bring out nearly 100 million sets of Fifth-Order materials. It made sense that they had to replace some of them with other kinds of materials.
Yang Kai was not going to make things difficult for them on this account, so he nodded before replying, “Sure, but nothing less than Fourth-Order materials. I won’t accept anything below that!”
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.