Yang Kai once again arrived at the very heart of the Black Domain, where the Ink Clan prisoner was held captive.
The Ink Disciples were no longer few in number, scattered across one mining star after another. Yang Kai had no way of determining which group of Ink Disciples would come here to throw their lives away, so he could only choose to lie in wait.
Under the gaze of his World Destruction Demon Eye, he could still clearly perceive the dangers lurking in this place. This was the central hub of the massive grand formation — the spot where its power was at its most potent. Even someone as formidable as he would not dare to trespass lightly.
The bizarre force spawned by the massive grand formation raged with particular ferocity here. If Yang Kai had not been using the Heaven and Earth Spring to suppress his Small Universe, he would have been unable to endure in this place for very long. Before he could arrive here safely, the foundational energy of his Small Universe would have been drained completely.
The only reason the Ink Disciples could reach this place was the protection of the power of Ink.
One thing still baffled Yang Kai, however: how did the Ink Disciples navigate through the countless formations that saturated the Black Domain? Within the Black Domain, innumerable grand formations and mining stars together made up the massive grand formation that imprisoned the Ink Clan. Every corner of the Black Domain could conceal unknown perils.
The only reason he had been able to make his way here was the power of his World Destruction Demon Eye to see through illusion. He might not have been able to perceive the inner workings of those formations, but under the Demon Eye's gaze, the presence of a formation left traces that could be detected — all he had to do was avoid them.
Those Third-Order and Fourth-Order Ink Disciples clearly lacked such an ability. Yang Kai could only surmise that Luan Baifeng had charted a safe route for them, enabling them to reach this place and offer everything they had to the Ink Clan.
The day after Yang Kai arrived here, he intercepted a squad of five Ink Disciples. He repeated the same process as before, sweeping them into his Small Universe to suppress them.
Two or three days later, he intercepted yet another group.
Yang Kai had hoped to find some pattern, but after several rounds he realized there was none to be found. The number of Ink Disciples who came and their frequency were entirely without logic — sometimes there were many, sometimes few. Occasionally three or five days would pass with no one showing up, and other times they came every day.
After an entire month, the number of Open Heaven Realm cultivators Yang Kai had forcibly absorbed into his Small Universe exceeded one hundred.
Among them, every single one was Third-Order or Fourth-Order Open Heaven, with the sole exception of the elderly man named You, a Fifth-Order.
Perhaps for the Ink Disciples of the present, even Fifth-Order Open Heaven was a rare and valuable fighting force, which was why they were reluctant to sacrifice one so readily.
But Yang Kai sensed that his cover was about to be blown. In truth, having managed to remain undetected here for an entire month had already exceeded his expectations. He had been mentally prepared at any moment for his identity to be exposed and for a full-scale battle against the Ink Disciples to erupt.
And that day had finally arrived.
One month later, on a day like any other, Yang Kai was sitting in the void with his eyes closed, quietly resting and waiting for the Ink Disciples to walk into his trap. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. At the same instant, a wave of chill swept over him from head to toe, compelling him to instinctively summon the power of Heaven and Earth to shield his body.
It was as though an intangible gaze had pierced the depths of the void and fixed upon him for the briefest instant — the same vast, majestic will he had felt during the sacrificial ceremony, flashing past in the blink of an eye.
In that single instant, the will vanished beyond perception, so fleeting that one might have dismissed it as nothing more than an illusion.
But Yang Kai knew with certainty that it was no illusion.
He had been intercepting the Ink Disciples here, preventing them from walking into the jaws of death, for an entire month. The imprisoned Ink Clan had received no nourishment for all that time. That had undoubtedly disturbed him, which was why he had roused from his slumber for that fleeting moment.
Yang Kai did not know whether the being had slipped back into dormancy, but the one thing he could now confirm was this: the Ink Clan connected to the Langya Blessed Land was none other than the prisoner confined here in the Black Domain.
The will he had sensed on two occasions was remarkably similar — virtually identical, one might say.
This was good news. In other words, it was highly likely that there was only one Ink Clan member in this vast expanse of Heaven and Earth, and no more.
The bad news was that a great battle was imminent. The Black Domain might already hold thousands upon thousands of Ink Disciples, and he stood alone.
The imprisoned Ink Clan had already detected his existence. How could the Ink Disciples remain unaware?
During this month of waiting, he had not simply been biding his time. He had also been thinking a great deal, and now it was time to put his plans into motion.
One by one, he cast out Void Spirit Pearls, seeding them throughout the void.
The tiny pearls were virtually invisible against the vast depths of the void — unless one was specifically looking for them, they would go entirely unnoticed.
Once the pearls were in place, he flickered rapidly and streaked toward the outer edge of the Black Domain.
In less than half a day, he returned. He drew a deep breath, fixed his gaze in a particular direction, and waited for the battle to arrive.
The Ink Disciples did not make him wait long.
A mere two days later, several streaks of light came hurtling in from the distance. And behind those streaks of light came a dense, swarming mass of figures, blotting out sky and earth like a plague of locusts sweeping across the land.
Yang Kai narrowed his eyes slightly. He had still underestimated the speed at which Luan Baifeng was recruiting Ink Disciples.
Luan Baifeng had previously told him that the number of Ink Disciples in the Black Domain was roughly a thousand. But now, that figure had multiplied several times over.