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Translator: Silavin & VictorN
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The opening of the first battle of the No-Return Pass was fought at long-range, and although the Humans gained a huge advantage, it did not fundamentally change the situation. To really retake the No-Return Pass, they still had to rely on their soldiers to engage in close-quarter combat with the Black Ink Clan.
The Blood Flame, Wolf Fang, Soaring Cloud, Burning Moon, Azure Dawn, and Jade Cicada Armies flooded over like a raging tidal wave, pouring through the gaps in the Black Ink Clan defence line!
The remaining six Armies continued their assault from the left and right flanks of the No-Return Pass, holding down the Black Ink Clan Masters and Army as best they could.
As the Human Army continued to tighten its encirclement, the battle between the two sides became more and more intense. There were constant sounds of death all across the battlefield from both the Black Ink Clan and the Humans.
Across the vast conflict zone, aside for the few Masters who stood at the pinnacle, the might of an individual became insignificant. However, the synergistic power of combined forces became more than simple numbers would imply. When this was applied on the battlefield a scenario of ‘death by a thousand cuts’ became a reality.
The Black Ink Clan tried their best to stem the attack, but the strain they were under from the outset of the battle caused their response to be weaker than the opponent’s. Their resistance only lasted less than half an hour before the six Human Race Armies broke through the defence perimeter and stormed through the gaps. The Human soldiers soon reached the broken Great Passes, which once belonged to the Human Race but had been abandoned for thousands of years.
Warships sailed through and struck the enemy with Secret Techniques and artifacts while dodging the enemy’s counterattacks with astonishing agility.
This was the first battle of the Human Race Grand Army at the No-Return Pass, so they needed to achieve a spectacular victory! Mi Jing Lun did not expect to retake the No-Return Pass in one fell swoop; after all, that was simply unrealistic. Nevertheless, momentum and morale were key factors in winning any war.
The ultimate goal of the battle was determined even before the Army was mobilized; inflict maximum damage on the enemy while minimizing their own casualties.
With such an objective, the Human Warships did not act as lone Squads, but rather moved as Battalions. Squad worked in units of eight or nine, protecting each other, advancing and retreating together, so that they could maximize the advantages of the Warships and attack the enemy while preserving themselves.
The Masters of the two sides had also taken action against each other. The Eighth-Order Masters, Territory Lords, and Pseudo-Royal Lords all opened up separate battlefields where they aimed to slaughter each other.
The Humans now had many more Eighth-Order Masters than the Black Ink Clan had Territory Lords.
Thousands of years ago, the situation was completely different.
At that time the Eighth-Order Masters struggled to resist the swarm of Territory Lords and fought every battle with all their might to kill the enemy, every time receiving various hard to recover from wounds.
Ou Yang Lie, for example, was afraid to take the Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pill given to him by Yang Kai because of the accumulation of such wounds in his body. He was concerned that he might fail in his breakthrough and waste a chance for a potential Ninth-Order Master.
In the end, he succeeded and reached the Ninth Order, becoming Army Commander of Profound Nether Army.
Back when the situation of the Humans was critical, the Profound Nether Battlefield was nearly captured by the Black Ink Clan because they lacked top Masters.
The main reason why they were able to hold out at the time was because the Eighth-Order Masters were bold enough to put their lives on the line when they went to war. Additionally, they had Battle Formations and Warships to assist them. However, all of this was not enough to counter the Black Ink Clan’s overwhelming numerical advantage.
It was not until Yang Kai stepped in and forced the Black Ink Clan to sign a truce that the situation of the Eighth-Order Masters became better; otherwise, many more veteran Eighth-Order Masters would have died.
Today, after thousands of years of accumulation, the heritage of the Human Race has become unprecedentedly strong. There were numerous rising stars who had become Eighth-Order Masters, and now, Eighth-Order Masters completely outnumbered the Territory Lords and were capable of completely suppressing them!
Moreover, the strength of an Acquired Territory Lords was generally inferior to that of an Eighth-Order Master, not to mention their lesser numbers.
However, the Black Ink Clan also had a great number of Pseudo-Royal Lords on their side.
Each Pseudo-Royal Lord had the ability to deal with a Five Elements or even Six Paths Formation formed by Eighth-Order Masters. Worse, in order to defend against Yang Kai, Pseudo-Royal Lords would group in threes to form their own Battle Formations, making them much more difficult to deal with.
Except for the Ninth-Order Masters who could deal with the Three Fortunes Formation formed by Pseudo-Royal Lords, the Eighth-Order Masters had to assume a Five Elements or even Six Paths Formation to deal with a single Pseudo-Royal Lord.
In other words, three Pseudo-Royal Lords in a Battle Formation would keep around 20 or even more Eighth-Order Masters occupied, which greatly compensated for the lack of Territory Lords.
However, due to their fear of Yang Kai, none of the Pseudo-Royal Lords in their respective Formations dared to use all their strength. All of them reserved some of their strength and diverted part of their attention to guard against Yang Kai’s sneak attack.
Therefore, from how it looked, the Eighth-Order Masters in Battle Formations had the upper hand over the Pseudo-Royal Lords also in Battle Formations.
This situation was quite bizarre.
As soon as the Human Race Army bypassed the Great Passes’ defensive line, they immediately set about annihilating everything they could reach. Soldiers of both sides scattered on the vast battlefield and fought so violently that the void trembled under their collective impact.
Blooms of Evil Purging Divine Spears appeared everywhere, resulting in the Black Ink Clan suffering terrible losses.
The Human stockpile of Evil Purging Divine Spears was fully distributed for this battle as there was no need to worry about supplies anymore.
The Human Race was going all out for this battle!
Not long after the six Human Race Armies attacking overwhelmed the Black Ink Clan defence line, the six remaining Armies on the left and right flanks also broke through the Black Ink Clan’s defence line, circumventing the broken Great Passes and meeting the Black Ink Clan in close quarters.
The whole area outside the No-Return Pass was now embroiled in the flames of war.
“Mo Yu!” A roar suddenly sounded from somewhere in the void, and with that roar, a magnificent figure crashed through the Black Ink Clan’s blockade with unstoppable power.
As Mo Yu said to Mo Na Ye before the battle, once the fighting started, the Ninth-Order Masters would definitely come to him. According to the information that the Humans had, he and Mo Na Ye were the only two Royal Lords; thus, suppressing them would greatly benefit the Humans in battle.
Mo Yu’s prophecy came true when he was approached by none other than Xiang Shan.
Mo Yu was prepared for such a situation, and now that Xiang Shan had called him out, he would not avoid the fight.
After Xiang Shan’s roar, Mo Yu rushed out from the No-Return Pass, his Black Ink Strength surging as it transformed into a huge Black Ink Cloud that covered the sky and enveloped the approaching enemy.
A fierce struggle began within the Black Ink Cloud before swiftly moving outside the No-Return Pass.
A battle between a Ninth-Order Master and a Royal Lord was so intense that if they did not move away from the main battlefield, there would be severe collateral damage to both the Humans and the Black Ink Clan.
“Mo Na Ye!” Another roar came from the Human Race Army. Seeing that Xiang Shan had successfully lured Mo Yu away, Ou Yang Lie was ready to take on the other Royal Lord. According to their original plan, as long as he pinned down Mo Na Ye, then the two Royal Lords would be too busy to coordinate the Black Ink Clan, including the two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods; thus, even if they were not able to kill the two Royal Lords, the entire Black Ink Clan Army would become leaderless.
However, as soon as Ou Yang Lie moved, a group of Pseudo-Royal Lords in a Three Fortunes Formation blocked his way. There were more Eighth-Order Masters in the Profound Nether Army to help, but the Black Ink Clan also had Territory Lords and the other Pseudo-Royal Lords who were moving towards them.
With Ou Yang Lie at the centre, Human and Black Ink Clan Masters engaged in a ruthless melee.
Ou Yang Lie was so angry that he shouted as he fought with the three Pseudo-Royal Lords, “Mo Na Ye, if you have the guts, come out and fight with me alone!”
However, no matter how much Ou Yang Lie shouted, Mo Na Ye remained unperturbed and ignored him as he remained inside the No-Return Pass to oversee the situation.
With a huge potential threat like Yang Kai lurking in the shadows, Mo Na Ye would not care about Ou Yang Lie. From his standpoint, the biggest threat from the Humans was Yang Kai!
While the Human Race Army attacked from three sides, Yang Kai was repeatedly using both Thunder Shadow’s Innate Divine Ability and his own Space-Time River. Needless to say, he made gains almost every time he struck.
All Pseudo-Royal Lords throughout the battlefield were his prey.
Even though the Pseudo-Royal Lords were in Battle Formations and were vigilant of their surroundings, they were still caught off guard when Yang Kai suddenly appeared and struck them.
If they were lucky, they could block Yang Kai’s attacks and save themselves; however, if they were unlucky, as many as three Pseudo-Royal Lords would be caught in his Space-Time River, and the Black Ink Clan knew exactly what would happen once they fell into the raging waters.
Yang Kai weaved through the battlefield, swiftly moving from one success to the next. Each time he found an opening, he dove in to kill the cornered Pseudo-Royal Lords.
Within a short time, more than a dozen Pseudo-Royal Lords had been killed by these successive ambushes!
It could be said that Yang Kai alone had done more than all the other Ninth-Order Masters combined.
This was a huge loss for the Black Ink Clan, and Mo Na Ye was getting desperate, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had been trying to keep track of Yang Kai’s whereabouts, but with such a huge battlefield and Yang Kai’s quick and unpredictable movements, it was impossible to do so.
Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Mo Na Ye knew that things would reach a critical breaking point if he did not do something.
He gritted his teeth and looked up at the lofty Great Pass in the void.
Pure Yang Pass, which Yang Kai took away from the No-Return Pass some 20 years ago had now become the location of the Human Race’s Supreme Headquarters. It was where their Supreme Commander, Mi Jing Lun, remained and directed the fights on the entire battlefield.
After the 12 Armies of the Human Race were fully engaged, Pure Yang Pass became very conspicuous as it remained outside of the battlefield.
Perfect trap >:)
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.