Meng Qi waved his hand upon hearing this. "There's no need to blame yourself. For the likes of us, dying like this is still preferable to being treated as slaves by the Ink Clan, serving at their every whim — that is true suffering worse than death. In the future, if you encounter any Ink Servant, show no mercy. If you can kill them, do it without hesitation and grant them liberation. Ever since we entered this Ink Battlefield, we've long since made peace with this."
Yang Kai fell silent…
Meng Qi continued, "If… I mean if, you manage to safely reach the passageway guarded by the Grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands, you must keep your lips sealed about the Void Passage. Unless you meet the Ninth-Order Grandmaster stationed there, no matter who asks, you must not reveal a thing!"
This was clearly a precaution against knowledge holders being corrupted by the Ink. And a Ninth-Order Grandmaster was not so easily corrupted. Throughout countless years of conflict, examples of Eighth-Order Open Heavens being corrupted were common, but there had never been a single case of a Ninth-Order Grandmaster falling.
"This junior will remember!" Yang Kai nodded solemnly.
Meng Qi regarded him and let out another sigh. Although Yang Kai possessed the Heaven and Earth Spring, so there was no worry about him being corrupted, and his strength far surpassed that of an ordinary Sixth-Order, Meng Qi did not believe Yang Kai could leave the Ink Clan's territory and return safely to the passageway guarded by the Grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands. The journey ahead was fraught with peril at every turn — the slightest lapse in attention could cost him his life.
Yang Kai asked, "Senior, do you need me to deliver any message to the Linglong Blessed Land?"
Meng Qi's gaze grew slightly vacant. After a moment's thought, he shook his head. "No need. There's nothing I need to tell them. From the day I was corrupted by the Ink, I was already dead."
He looked up at Yang Kai. "It's getting late — you should go. This secret realm also contains great Heavenly Dao forces that are immensely attractive to the Ink Clan. The only reason they've allowed Ink Servants to enter and search first is because there are certain things in here useful to us. In a few more days, the Ink Clan itself will move in to devour this realm's Heavenly Dao forces, and the secret realm will certainly collapse."
Yang Kai frowned upon hearing this. "Are there Ink Clan forces waiting outside the secret realm?"
Meng Qi nodded. "Several Lords! So the moment you step out, it'll be a crisis. How you resolve it is up to you. The Ink Clan is quite interested in unmastered servants like you. But if you can demonstrate sufficient usefulness, you may be able to preserve your life. Otherwise, you'll simply become their food."
Yang Kai's head ached immediately. Coming face to face with Lord-level Ink Clan the moment he exited the secret realm was no fun at all.
Meng Qi then briefed him on the route to leave, before waving his hand. "Go! There's no time to waste!"
Yang Kai opened his mouth, but in the end swallowed a thousand words of farewell and said no more. He rose to his feet and bowed deeply to Meng Qi. "Take care, Senior!"
Meng Qi nodded, closing his eyes without another word.
Yang Kai turned and left. Exiting the mountain cave, he oriented himself and flew off in the direction Meng Qi had indicated.
After travelling only a short distance, Yang Kai's figure suddenly halted.
Behind him came the sound of a world collapsing, as the great forces of the Heavenly Dao dissipated in an instant and vanished.
He knew — Meng Qi had ended his own life. To protect the secret of the Void Passage, death was his only option.
This secret realm was quite large. Although Meng Qi had described the exit route, Yang Kai was not familiar with the area, and after wandering and circling about, it took him a full two days to reach the realm's entrance.
Along the way, he encountered quite a few Ink Servants flying to and fro. What surprised Yang Kai was that their cultivation levels were remarkably uneven.
The strongest among them, like Meng Qi, were at the Seventh-Order, while the weakest were still Fifth-Order!
This left Yang Kai baffled. In theory, the Grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands knew full well how powerful and bizarre the Ink Clan was. Over the years, the Open Heavens cultivators dispatched to the Ink Battlefield would never have been too weak — Fifth-Order Open Heavens clearly wouldn't have been qualified.
Sixth-Order was the minimum threshold!
But on second thought, the appearance of Fifth-Order Ink Servants might be related to a situation similar to Meng Qi's.
Meng Qi had once sacrificed a portion of his Personal Small Universe, which caused his strength to plummet. Although he barely managed to maintain his Seventh-Order realm, he no longer possessed Seventh-Order caliber. If he continued to sacrifice parts of his Small Universe, his rank would very likely drop further.
Those Fifth-Order Ink Servants might have been born in exactly this way. They could have originally been Sixth-Order or even Seventh-Order Open Heavens, but repeated sacrifices of their Small Universe had eroded their foundations ever thinner until their ranks fell to their current state.
This was the only reasonable explanation.
Facing these Ink Servants, Yang Kai did not go out of his way to cause trouble. Though he very much wanted to use the Purification Light to disperse the Ink force within their bodies and restore them to their original selves, doing so would only invite unnecessary complications.
Fortunately, the Ink Servants had no intention of attacking each other either. Although they served under different Ink Clan masters, they had entered this secret realm solely to seek treasures useful to themselves. Without orders from their Ink Clan masters, conflicts among Ink Servants were rare — after all, they served no purpose.
The reason Meng Qi had tried to kill him earlier was primarily out of fear that Yang Kai would expose the existence of the Mysterious Female Spirit Fruit. That fruit was extraordinarily rare and immensely useful for repairing a damaged Small Universe.
The Ink Clan itself also wished for their Ink Servants to grow ever stronger, so they could accomplish great deeds in the great battles to come.
Otherwise, why else would the Ink Clan allow their Ink Servants to enter this secret realm to search first? The moment they discovered it, they would have come to devour the Heavenly Dao forces.
The entrance was a spatial rift — not too small, roughly the size of a house. Stepping through it, one would emerge on the Ink Battlefield.