It turned out Yang Kai had not betrayed his trust — he ground out a hard-won victory in the third battle.
But before Nu Yan could collect his wager, a sudden upheaval occurred.
A torrent of violently surging power erupted without warning above the territory, and at the same time, an oppressive sensation descended upon everyone present. In an instant, it felt as though an entire world had been slammed onto their shoulders, forcing their bodies to hunch involuntarily.
Countless Ink Race warriors blanched.
Heaven and Earth's might surged and churned across the sky.
In the dueling arena, Yang Kai — drenched in blood — snapped his head upward, and what he saw tightened his expression. High above, the power of Heaven and Earth was gathering like clouds, so dense that it was visible to the naked eye.
Yang Kai was stunned. He had encountered many Seventh-Order and Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators, but he had never seen Heaven and Earth's might this rich and pure.
Back in the Black Domain, he had been present when the Eighth-Order Ancestors combined their strength to besiege a member of the Mo Royal Clan. The Eighth-Order Ancestors' attacks had been formidable indeed — yet compared to what he now witnessed, they were a candle before the sun.
He had no idea what was causing this phenomenon, but that visible mass of Heaven and Earth's might was unmistakably the work of some supremely powerful expert unleashing a secret technique.
"Enemy attack!" A thunderous roar echoed across the heavens, emanating from the direction of the Lord's palace.
After a moment of shock, Yang Kai's surprise gave way to elation.
This upheaval was an enemy assault — and the Ink Race's enemies could only be the powerhouses of the Cave Heavens and Paradises. In other words, someone from the Cave Heavens and Paradises had actually fought their way in here?
What alarmed him was the sheer audacity of these experts. When he had first arrived, he had consulted the World Map — this territory, though close to the front lines, still qualified as Ink Race heartland. How could the Cave Heavens and Paradises' experts hope to fare well, venturing this deep?
What delighted him was that he had been waiting in vain for a chance to follow Nu Yan to the battlefield, only for the Cave Heavens and Paradises to come to him instead. This might be his opportunity to break free of Nu Yan's control and return to the stronghold with their experts.
Above the territory, wind and clouds converged. In the blink of an eye, a colossal azure-hued hand had already taken shape. The hand blotted out the sky and covered the earth — it appeared slow and ponderous, yet it descended with terrifying speed.
Before the countless Ink Race warriors in the territory could react, the great hand seized the massive Ink Nest that sat like a giant flower bud.
The azure fingers clenched tight, and with a force that could uproot mountains, the entire Ink Nest was wrenched from the ground. Dense streams of Ink Force erupted and sprayed outward as the hand crushed it into powder under the shockwave of Heaven and Earth's might.
In the dueling arena, Yang Kai watched, transfixed, his blood stirring with excitement.
What he had just witnessed exceeded anything he had imagined. He had seen Eighth-Order Ancestors strike before, and none of them had been remotely this ferocious. In other words, this was a Ninth-Order Grand Ancestor!
No wonder they had dared to charge in here — if it was a Ninth-Order Open Heaven expert personally taking action, that was an existence on par with the Mo Royal Clan. The imprisoned Royal Clan member in the Black Domain, weakened as she was after countless years, had already inflicted devastating losses upon the Cave Heavens and Paradises. It was hard to imagine how powerful she must have been at her peak. And a Ninth-Order Grand Ancestor who could rival the Mo Royal Clan would be no less formidable.
But his elation lasted only a heartbeat. The next moment, his expression turned bitter.
That was because the colossal azure hand, having destroyed the Ink Nest, continued its downward sweep without pause. The palm was nearly half the size of the entire territory, conjured from incredibly pure and dense power of Heaven and Earth. A slap like that — even Yang Kai could not guarantee he would survive it.
To die under such a strike would be the height of injustice.
Fortunately, the Ink Race did not simply wait for death. After the warning cry from the Lord's palace, Ink Force immediately began to churn and converge, forming a titanic figure that towered between heaven and earth. The figure raised its palm to meet the descending hand.
The figure was not solid — it too was an avatar of Ink Force, clearly the territory's Lord.
And seeing the Ink Nest destroyed, countless Ink Race warriors went berserk. Without any need for orders, every last one of them — regardless of rank — launched their attacks skyward, hurling wave after wave of violent strikes at the azure hand.
Ink Slaves unleashed secret techniques and activated Artifacts, and in an instant, the sky was ablaze with a kaleidoscope of colored light.
The colossal azure hand pressed relentlessly downward. The countless attacks struck its surface, sending ripples spreading across the palm. Though they continuously eroded its power, they were utterly incapable of halting its descent.
The towering figure from the Lord's palace was the first to fall. Though it fought back with all its might, it was merely a Lord-level Ink Race warrior — equivalent to a Seventh-Order cultivator among martial artists. How could it hope to withstand the strike of a Ninth-Order Grand Ancestor?
Before the hand had even fully descended, the great figure was already buckling. It roared in furious defiance but was quickly blasted apart, and the Lord himself was gravely wounded in an instant.
It felt like a single instant, yet it could have been a thousand years.
The colossal hand slammed down with earth-shattering force. Wherever its palm fell, Ink Race warriors and Ink Slaves alike perished — only a lucky few survived, clinging to life amid the ruins. Countless worlds collapsed, their power scattering into the void.
As the ground heaved and the mountains shook, the entire territory disintegrated.
The violent shockwave of the attack rippled outward, setting the very world trembling and destabilizing the poles.