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Translator: Silavin & Ashish
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
After having been fighting with each other for so many years, both the Human Race and Black Ink Clan knew very well about each other, apart from a few confidential pieces of information that only a few authoritative figures knew about.
For instance, the Black Ink Clan was able to create a Pseudo-Royal Lord borrowing the strength of Innate Territory Lords and a High-Rank Black Ink Nest. This was no secret to the Human Race and Yang Kai had even personally investigated this matter.
Be that as it may, even Yang Kai was unable to figure out how the Black Ink Clan used Innate Territory Lords and High-Rank Black Ink Nests to create Pseudo-Royal Lords specifically. All he knew was that the birth of a Pseudo-Royal Lord was accompanied by the demise of many Innate Territory Lords and a High-Rank Black Ink Nest.
It was only today that this secret was being played out right under Wu Kuang’s nose.
While he was watching on, the Innate Territory Lords entered the High-Rank Black Ink Nests one after another, their auras continuously undulating before disappearing. The High-Rank Black Ink Nests standing tall in the void were like starving beasts that kept devouring all the Innate Territory Lords who walked inside.
As Innate Territory Lords kept pouring in, a tremendous amount of energy accumulated inside each High-Rank Black Ink Nest.
At some point, when a certain number of Innate Territory Lords had walked into one of the Black Ink Nests, the aura of the last Innate Territory Lord suddenly soared, while the accumulated power in the Black Ink Nest rapidly disappeared.
After a while, the Black Ink Nest collapsed and disappeared without a trace. Whereas, the final Innate Territory Lord had now become a Pseudo-Royal Lord, their aura soaring to a whole new level.
One Pseudo-Royal Lord after another was born…
Wu Kuang silently calculated for a moment. In order to create a Pseudo-Royal Lord, at least 12 Innate Territory Lords had to be sacrificed, with at most 16 being required. This number wasn’t fixed, but it was always within this range. Furthermore, every time a Pseudo-Royal Lord was born, a High-Rank Black Ink Nest would be consumed.
Within days, almost 300 Pseudo-Royal Lords had been created. These Pseudo-Royal Lords didn’t stop for a moment and immediately flew straight towards the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, as if they had made a prior agreement.
Wu Kuang sighed in his heart. He knew that his good days had come to an end…
A few days ago, after the Human Race’s second attack on the No-Return Pass, the upper echelons of the Black Ink Clan were gathered in the Main Conference Hall of the No-Return Pass.
The three Royal Lords were standing in the forefront, while the Pseudo-Royal Lords were lined up below. The atmosphere in the hall was heavy and gloomy.
Over the past few years, the Human Race had attacked the Black Ink Clan twice, and each time, the Black Ink Clan had suffered great losses. The first time was one thing as the Human Race had caught the Black Ink Clan off guard by attacking with Universe Worlds. It was a completely new tactic the Black Ink Clan had never seen before, so they could not respond immediately to it.
However, the Black Ink Clan had already made preparations to deal with this Universe World attack before the second battle. They had even shrunk their defensive line, yet they were still unable to reverse the situation.
A Small Stone Race Army of over 100 million had brought great benefits to the Human Race, becoming one of the keystones for their victory.
Since Yang Kai was able to release over 100 million Small Stone Race Soldiers at once, it was evident that he still had more with him.
From the start, the Human Race Army was aggressively attacking, determined to retake the No-Return Pass. Now, with the help of the Small Stone Race, they were like tigers with wings.
After the last battle, even the stupidest Black Ink Clansmen knew that the war was already lost. The No-Return Pass would eventually fall, and the Black Ink Clan here was doomed to extermination…
Over the past few thousand years, the Black Ink Clan had held the initiative and absolute advantage in the war against the Human Race; however, things had taken a sharp turn in the last few decades. The Black Ink Clan found it really hard to accept this change in the status quo.
Among the three Royal Lords, only Mo Na Ye appeared to be in a decent condition, while Mo Yu and Di Ya Luo’s auras were slightly unstable, occasionally coughing to show their injuries.
In these two battles, Mo Yu and Xiang Shan had fought with each other one-on-one twice. The latter was a newly promoted Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and his strength and foundation might be worse than a veteran Royal Lord like the former, but he fought with his life on the line every time. Even if Mo Yu was slightly stronger, he still took serious damage from the near-suicidal Human Master.
The Human Race understood that the Black Ink Clan’s biggest weakness was healing. So, when Human Race Masters fought against those Masters from the Black Ink Clan, they frequently did so by trading injuries.
The goal of this strategy was completely cut and dry. If a Human was injured, they could use pills or Secret Techniques to recover, but if a Black Ink Clansmen was injured, they had to slumber inside a Black Ink Nest to properly heal…
However, in the face of such a shameless strategy, there was nothing the Black Ink Clan could do. They could only try to be more cautious in battle and not allow the Human Race to succeed.
As the popular adage goes, one can be a thief for a thousand days, but one cannot guard against a thief for a thousand days. In a battle, there would always come a moment in a battle when one had no choice but to take risks, no matter how careful they were. This was pretty much the case with Xiang Shan in the last two battles, which had inflicted serious injuries on Mo Yu. Of course, Xiang Shan did not have it easy either. Had he not run quickly enough at the last moment, Mo Yu had the confidence that he could kill him on the spot!
The veteran Royal Lord, Mo Yu, could barely be considered to have beaten the newly promoted Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, so his injuries were worth the price. In contrast, Di Ya Luo was rather miserable. His injuries were caused by the burst of intense Purifying Light Yang Kai had created when he summoned 2 million Small Stone Race Soldiers under the cover of his Space-Time River. At the time, six Pseudo-Royal Lords perished, and if not for Mo Na Ye’s timely rescue, the total number of Royal Lords would now be two.
Two of the three Royal Lords were seriously injured. Their condition could be described in just one word, miserable.
The Pseudo-Royal Lords were in an even more miserable state. At a glance, Mo Na Ye found many familiar faces missing. Compared to the grand assembly over 20 years ago, there were 50 fewer Pseudo-Royal Lords!
In just two battles, 50 Pseudo-Royal Lords had perished. This was an unprecedented loss! No matter how many Pseudo-Royal Lords the Black Ink Clan had, they would not be able to withstand such a rate of attrition.
The Human Race did not need to engage the Black Ink Clan many more times in such high-intensity battles. Perhaps the Black Ink Clan would no longer be able to hold on after three more such fights. When the disparity in top Masters reached a certain extent, it would be impossible for the Black Ink Clan to hold their ground on the battlefield.
The air inside the hall was extremely heavy. The shame and pressure of the battle was weighing down on all the Black Ink Clansmen like a mountain.
“Sir!” Mo Na Ye turned to Mo Yu and asked for his permission to speak.
Mo Yu was sitting upright on his thrones of bones, his face a little pale. Hearing Mo Na Ye’s request, he simply raised his hand a little and weakly gave his permission, “Go on.”
“Yes!” Mo Na Ye respectfully accepted. Although he was already a Royal Lord and had the qualifications to sit on the same level as Mo Yu, he had always maintained a certain degree of deference and respect towards Mo Yu. And why not? After all, Mo Yu had given him enough trust for so many years. When Mo Na Ye was still just a Pseudo-Royal Lord, Mo Yu had allowed him to take complete charge of the Black Ink Clan’s affairs. Although this was partly because Mo Yu was not good at managing things, Mo Na Ye was still quite grateful.
A true King didn’t need to do things personally, but rather knew how to use others to accomplish his goals.
After responding to Mo Yu, Mo Na Ye stood up and swept his gaze over the many Pseudo-Royal Lords.
The faces of the Pseudo-Royal Lords instantly went cold as they realized that Mo Na Ye had made an important decision and was about to announce it. The Royal Lords had probably reached a consensus on this decision, and all they needed to do was obey.
As expected, Mo Na Ye calmly and softly relayed his decision a moment later, that sent all the Pseudo-Royal Lords flying into an uproar.
“The next battle will be the decisive one!”
Having relayed this, Mo Na Ye just shut up and let the Pseudo-Royal Lords argue, his heart filled with grief.
He had not expected the situation to develop to this point.
Originally, he had planned that even if the current Black Ink Clan was not an opponent of the Human Race, they would still try their best to damage the enemy as much as possible. So long as they could achieve this, even if the Human Race managed to take back the No-Return Pass, they wouldn’t be able to threaten the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction.
Even if the entire Black Ink Clan Army at the No-Return Pass was sacrificed, if that guaranteed the Supreme One’s dominion, so what?
Gathering all of their forces and defending the No-Return Pass was the best way to deal with the current situation; in addition, the Black Ink Clan had a certain geographical advantage at the No-Return Pass. As long as they acted appropriately, it shouldn’t have been difficult to accomplish this.
Unfortunately, the intensity and development of the battle had gone beyond imagination.
First, there was the Human Race’s strategy to bombard them using Universe Worlds, which turned the Black Ink Clan Army guarding the pass into a punching bag, and then, there was Yang Kai using the massive Small Stone Race Army to offset the disadvantage of the Human Race’s forces being far outnumbered by the Black Ink Clan’s.
With all these unexpected external factors affecting the battle, the only result awaiting the Black Ink Clansmen at the No-Return Pass was continuously being worn down by the Humans while the Humans wouldn’t suffer much loss.
After at least three and at most five more battles like the one before, it would be impossible for the Black Ink Clan to defend the No-Return Pass.
Rather than being slowly bled to death by the Human Race like this, it would be better to go all out and perhaps even have a chance to severely damage the Human Race Army. Mo Na Ye was not hoping for too much, but as long as they could increase the number of Human casualties by 50% compared to their previous fights, then the price paid by the Black Ink Clan would be worth it.
“Are you done arguing?” After a long silence, Mo Na Ye suddenly shouted, glaring at the Pseudo-Royal Lords, “If you have any doubts, just ask. What are you all arguing about?”
The noisy hall immediately fell silent.
After a long time, one of the Pseudo-Royal Lords asked, “Sir, may I ask if the Supreme One’s Soul Clones will participate in the next battle?”
Mo Na Ye glanced at the Pseudo-Royal Lord and indifferently replied, “Of course they will.”
The Pseudo-Royal Lord’s expression became serious as he saw the determination of the higher-ups.
In both battles, the Supreme One’s Soul Clones had been guarding the No-Return Pass. Although they did provide long-range support, they never left their positions because they had to deter the two Giant Spirit Gods in the Barren Territory. So, their support was extremely limited.
But if these two were to participate in this fight, it would become a true decisive battle.
It was foreseeable that when the two Giant Spirit Gods in the Barren Territory saw the Supreme One’s Soul Clones’ movements, they would respond in kind. Once they rushed over from the Barren Territory, the entire No-Return Pass would become a battlefield. At that time, the High-Rank Black Ink Nests placed here would be completely destroyed.
Without the High-Rank Black Ink Nests, the Black Ink Clan would be like a river without a source; a tree without roots. This was what it meant to go all out; it was the final battle!
Kill the hostage, sever the anchor…
Hello!
Many thanks for the chapter, as always.