It could be said that on this Ink Battlefield, the reason the Human Race had been able to hold their ground for so many years without falling was due in large part to the Palace Artifacts. They were the most effective means of resisting the erosion of Ink Force.
The Ink Clan hadn't left the Palace Artifacts alone, either — they had attempted to craft their own, but Palace Artifacts were not something just anyone could forge. The Ink Clan simply didn't possess the talent needed to create them.
Every warrior skilled in artifact refinement was carefully protected at their respective passes. No matter the circumstances, they were never allowed to set foot on the battlefield. Without stepping onto the battlefield, they couldn't be corrupted by Ink and turned into Ink Servants to forge Palace Artifacts for the Ink Clan.
On the battlefield, the two races clashed. In the early stages, the Ink Clan army had been able to hold its own against the Humans to some degree, but as time passed, the balance slowly tilted. The Palace Artifacts charged and collided, and the figures of Seventh-Order Open Heavens cultivators darted through the fray. The Ink Clan army collapsed like an avalanche, with vast swathes of Ink Clan perishing with every passing moment.
Under these conditions, individual strength could no longer alter the broader situation. Only united resolve could determine the outcome of a battle. The Ink Clan's side lacked command and coordination, while the Humans advanced and retreated in orderly fashion, supporting one another.
In less than half a shichen, the Ink Clan army had already suffered over half its losses. There had been quite a few Ink Clan Lords who could still issue orders and direct their forces, but Uncle-Master Zhong had a sharp eye — he targeted those Ink Clan Lords and struck ruthlessly. After he took down over a dozen of them in succession, the Ink Clan's side descended into complete chaos. Facing the Human Race's furious assault, they could only keep retreating, leaving behind a field of corpses.
The giant dragon Yang Kai had transformed into had worked itself into a killing frenzy. One dragon, one spear, rolling and surging through the Ink Clan army's ranks — wherever the enemy was thickest, he charged. Countless Ink Clan fell to the Azure Dragon Spear. As time wore on, the killing intent radiating from his body had nearly solidified into something tangible. Wherever he passed, the Ink Clan scattered in retreat.
Suddenly, a deep, resonant horn blast reached his ears. The next instant, a sharp voice rang out beside him: "Yang Kai, fall back!"
He looked up and saw Feng Ying inside her battered sword dragon formation, her face pale as she waved him over. Having used her Dao Manifestation to battle the Ink Clan for so long, her energy was significantly drained.
Yang Kai shook his enormous head, pivoted, and charged toward her. The Azure Dragon Spear swept out along the way, clearing a cluster of Ink Clan from her vicinity.
"Where are we going?" Yang Kai's voice rumbled from his dragon form.
Feng Ying gazed at the massive dragon head with a complicated expression. She could clearly sense the staggering killing intent radiating from Yang Kai. She had no idea how many Ink Clan he had killed in this brief time to amass such an aura — the killing intent was so dense it pricked her skin with cold even from a distance.
"We're heading back!" Feng Ying explained.
Yang Kai turned his head to look, only then noticing that after the horn had sounded, the Human forces had already begun to withdraw. It seemed the horn had been a retreat signal.
The army was pulling back. Though he hadn't had his fill of killing yet, he couldn't very well stay behind alone. He gave a slight nod.
Two dragons, one large and one small, raced after the Human army toward Biluo Pass. The difference was that Yang Kai had taken on a true dragon form, while Feng Ying's was a sword dragon Dao Manifestation.
They encountered no resistance along the way. The occasional straggler from the Ink Clan was swiftly cut down by the pair.
At Biluo Pass, the defensive barriers had already been activated. One by one, the Palace Artifacts swept inside. Uncle-Master Zhong was waiting outside, and only after the two of them arrived did everyone enter together.
The barrier sealed shut once more, isolating the interior from the outside.
Yang Kai had already retracted his dragon form. He looked back with a trace of regret on his face. "We could have wiped them all out."
The Ink Clan army had been completely unable to mount an effective defense just moments ago. The Human forces had been surging with momentum — in his view, they could have cleared every last Ink Clan from this stretch of battlefield. He didn't understand why the retreat horn had been sounded, wasting such an opportunity.
Feng Ying stood beside him, slowly shaking her head. "Ink Clan reinforcements from other battlefronts are on their way. The longer we delay here, the worse it gets for us. Besides, this environment isn't suitable for our people to keep fighting."
As if to corroborate her words, Yang Kai looked left and right to see two Ink Clan armies closing in from both flanks, each with considerable numbers. He immediately understood — if the retreat hadn't happened when it did, and those two armies had managed to encircle them, the Humans would not have necessarily come out ahead.
Moreover, on the battlefield at this moment, the countless Ink Clan deaths had caused the released Ink Force to coalesce into large and small clouds of dark energy that filled the void.
He himself wasn't afraid of such things, and the Human Seventh-Order Open Heavens cultivators did have a certain degree of resistance to them — but they couldn't sustain prolonged combat in such an environment.
This kind of environment was indeed unfavorable for the Human Race.
Having realized this, Yang Kai couldn't help but bare his teeth in frustration. The overall conditions of the Ink Battlefield were just too hostile to the Humans. It was no small feat that they had endured year after year, generation after generation, holding their ground at pass after pass, blocking the Ink Clan's invasion of the Three Thousand Worlds.
"Are you alright?" Feng Ying asked with concern. Shen Ao and the others nearby were all staring at him, their expressions stunned — as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
It was mainly because Yang Kai's performance earlier had been so spectacular. Having traveled with him until today, only now did they discover the guy was actually a giant dragon. That two-thousand-zhang golden dragon body rolling and fighting through the tide of Ink had been an overwhelming visual impact.
And before that, when he had taken on his dragon form and used his own body to shield hundreds of fellow warriors, beaten until his form was riddled with damage — now, having reverted to human shape, he was covered in wounds. Not a single patch of exposed skin was intact, and his entire robe had been stained golden by his own blood.