The intelligence he'd received earlier was somewhat inaccurate. For the true Ink Clan, Ink Insects were not particularly precious commodities.
Perhaps the Ink Clan had to pay some price to send Ink Insects out from here, which was why the ones that ended up in the Ink Disciples' hands were so rare and valuable. That was the only reasonable explanation.
While Yang Kai was mulling over the matter of the Ink Insects, a voice suddenly sounded beside his ear: "Well, well — look who it is?"
What caught Yang Kai slightly off guard was that this voice belonged to a woman, and it was remarkably crisp and pleasant. The moment he heard it, his mind immediately conjured the image of a beautiful, slender young maiden.
But Yang Kai would never assume that the owner of this voice was merely a beautiful young girl.
The deepest reaches of this prison had always held an Ink Clan member. Besides himself, there was only that one Ink Clan entity here — so the identity of the voice's owner needed no explanation.
Yang Kai did not rashly respond. He knew nothing of what the Ink Clan was truly capable, and speaking carelessly would only put himself at a disadvantage.
He scanned his surroundings with cold eyes but could see nothing. Beyond the ten-zhang radius illuminated by the pure white light, endless darkness seethed, as though it might pounce at any moment and swallow the light whole.
"Little one, how did you find the nerve to stand before me? Aren't you afraid I'll devour you?" The Ink Clan entity's voice continued, and Yang Kai had never heard such a lovely voice — it was like an invisible little hand gently tickling his heart, producing an indescribable sensation of comfort. This only heightened his vigilance.
Back when he was in the Langya Blessed Land, Yang Kai had performed a sacrificial rite within Yuan Du's Small World, and the two had sensed each other's existence.
For Yang Kai, he would never forget that magnificent will that had suddenly descended. And for the Ink Clan entity, it would naturally never forget Yang Kai's aura either.
He was the one who had ruined her plan!
"What's the matter? Too scared to speak?" The Ink Clan entity giggled, her voice silky and sweet.
Yang Kai ignored her entirely, trying to trace the voice's origin to pinpoint the Ink Clan entity's location, but the voice drifted unpredictably — now near, now far — making it impossible to determine where it came from.
As he searched, Yang Kai's gaze suddenly fixed on a particular spot in the darkness. There seemed to be something different there.
The pure white light in his hand blazed brighter, sweeping toward that direction.
Wherever the light passed, the darkness retreated. Before long, Yang Kai could make out the scene there.
Under the illumination of the pure white light, a massive secret arts chain — as thick as a barrel — stretched faintly across the void. One end was anchored somewhere in the emptiness, and the other connected to the center of the prison.
The chain felt somewhat familiar to him, immediately bringing to mind the colossal Ink Titan that had been sealed within the Ancestral Land.
In the Seal of the Ink Land, that enormous Ink Titan had been pierced and bound by chains of secret arts, and those chains had been manifested from the Ancestral Land's Ancestral Spirit Power.
Over the endless years, even a being as powerful as the Ink Titan had been drained of strength and life, reduced to a lifeless husk that posed no further threat.
The chain before him clearly bore the same design philosophy as the seals in the Seal of the Ink Land.
The pure white light slid along the chain outward, quickly reaching its end — where the chain plunged into the void, its beginning nowhere to be seen.
Yang Kai then traced the other end.
"A little mystery between us would be best, don't you think?" The Ink Clan entity spoke again, her tone warm and familiar, as though she and Yang Kai had known each other for ages.
As soon as the words fell, ink-black darkness surged in from every direction, pressing relentlessly over the white light. A sizzling hiss rang out, and the white radiance dimmed rapidly before flickering out like a candle flame.
The world plunged once more into endless darkness. Enveloped within it, it was as though dawn would never come again.
Within his Small World, the energies of the Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals were being devoured by Yang Kai at a frenzied pace.
A more brilliant, more ferocious white light erupted from Yang Kai's hand, quickly coalescing into a miniature sun.
Yang Kai thrust the small sun forward. In an instant, radiant light flooded in every direction, illuminating the vast expanse of the prison.
The Ink force, alive and predatory, surged madly toward the small sun. But the power gathered at such great cost from the Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals lasted fewer than three breaths before it was extinguished.
Yet in that brief flash of light, Yang Kai had seen everything within the prison.
An enormous creature — well over a hundred zhang tall, shaped like a spider — lay coiled in the heart of the cage. Its body was that of a spider, but its head bore the face of a stunningly beautiful woman, capable of every delicate expression. When their eyes met, the woman's gaze was ice-cold and furious, as though having her grotesque true form seen had driven her to the verge of humiliation.
Her massive body was pierced through by chain after chain of secret arts. These chains possessed an extraordinary binding force, locking her immovably in place, unable to so much as stir.
Those chains were unmistakably the manifestation of the supreme grand formation shrouding the Black Domain. It was precisely these secret arts chains that had kept this Ink Clan entity imprisoned here for countless ages.
The light faded, and the world was swallowed by darkness once more.
Yang Kai suddenly let out a cold laugh. "You're truly repulsive!"
Anyone who heard this Ink Clan entity's voice would assume it belonged to a beautiful young maiden. But only those who had actually seen its true form would know that it was nothing more than a disguise.