Zhong Liang nodded with a solemn expression. "That's correct. Whatever you're all thinking is the truth of the matter. That's precisely why I've gathered you all here."
"That's impossible!" Tian Xiuzhu's composure cracked ever so slightly. "The Ink Force's corrosive power is extremely potent. The moment it invades one's Small Universe, one loses their very nature. Over the years, it's not as though we haven't tried—even the Ancestors have been searching for a solution, and yet none has ever succeeded. This… how can this possibly be?"
It wasn't that he didn't want to believe. It was simply that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.
"Seeing is believing!" Zhong Liang said in a deep voice, feeling somewhat more balanced now. When he had first learned of this, he hadn't believed it either, and his composure as an Eighth-Order Supreme Master had wavered. But the old fogies in front of him were making even less of a showing of themselves, which secretly amused him.
It wasn't that he wanted to mock them—he was simply in a good mood.
He turned to look at the Ink Servant he had brought back. "How do you feel?"
The Ink Servant had been standing in a daze ever since the Ink Force had been purged from his body, his brow deeply furrowed. It seemed he still hadn't fully grasped the situation. But everything he had done while under the control of the Ink Force, he remembered with perfect clarity. Looking back now, he couldn't fathom how he had been so utterly bewitched, how he had so willingly followed an Ink Clan member and attacked his own human compatriots.
He knew it was the Ink Force that had corrupted him, but guilt still flooded his heart.
At Zhong Liang's question, the man raised his eyes to look at him, his expression bizarre—as if he couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. "Reporting to the Elder—this disciple feels as though he just woke from a long dream."
Zhong Liang nodded. "Now that the dream is over, be more careful in the future."
"Yes!"
"Open your Small Universe. The Elders wish to inspect it," Zhong Liang ordered.
The man complied without hesitation, throwing open the gateway to his Small Universe. In the next instant, the waiting Eighth-Order Supreme Masters channelled their divine senses, pouring into his Small Universe one after another to conduct their inspection.
The Eighth-Order Supreme Masters were thorough, leaving no corner unexamined. After quite some time, the threads of divine sense they had sent probing into the Small Universe slowly withdrew.
Many of the Eighth-Order Supreme Masters still wore expressions of disbelief, but even more had joy written plain on their faces.
Throughout all of history, humanity had struggled against the Ink Clan for countless years. While they had managed to hold every pass and prevent the Ink Clan from breaching into the Three Thousand Worlds, the price paid was generation after generation throwing themselves forward—falling in battle!
The Ink Clan was like bamboo shoots after rain: cut one batch down, and another would sprout up. They could never be eradicated completely!
No warrior who walked out of the Everlasting Ice Fortress could ever return, because no one could guarantee that they hadn't been corrupted by the Ink Force. If even one Ink Servant were sent back, it would surely spell disaster for the Three Thousand Worlds.
The Ink Force—this was the crux of the matter! It was an insidious, tenacious power. Even a Ninth-Order Ancestor could not purge the Ink Force once it had invaded an Ink Servant's body. Against Ink Servants, there was only one solution: kill them, to eliminate the threat for good.
And yet, they had just witnessed with their own eyes a method that could easily purify and expel the Ink Force from an Ink Servant's body, restoring them to their original nature and freeing them from the Ink Force's corruption!
How could this not fill them with excitement and elation?
Everyone recognized the preciousness of this technique. It had the potential to reshape the decades-long stalemate between the two races.
Taking a deep breath, someone turned to look at Lu An. "Brother Lu, since when does the Yin-Yang Heaven have such an ability? How come we've never heard you mention it?"
Yang Kai was considered a member of the Yin-Yang Heaven. Though not born there, he was at least the Yin-Yang Heaven's son-in-law, so the speaker's assumption wasn't unreasonable.
Moreover, when Yang Kai had deployed the technique earlier, he had clearly channeled the power of Yin and Yang, gathering it in his left and right hands, and when his palms came together, Yin and Yang had converged as one.
This bore a certain resemblance to how some of the Yin-Yang Heaven's secret arts were executed.
Lu An shook his head with a serious expression. "I don't know either." He genuinely wasn't certain whether this was a technique of the Yin-Yang Heaven. After all, he had been on the Ink Battlefield for several thousand years now. It was entirely plausible that the younger generation of disciples had developed some new secret art in recent times.
Hearing the two of them speak, Yang Kai cupped his fists. "Reporting to the Elder—this secret art does not originate from the Yin-Yang Heaven."
Tian Xiuzhu chuckled. "It doesn't matter where it comes from. As long as it can purge and purify the Ink Force, it's a fine technique. If this art could be spread and taught to all, what would our human race have to fear from the Ink Clan?"
Immediately, someone else nodded. "Indeed! For so many years, we have been plagued by the Ink Clan. If everyone could master this technique, there would be no more fear of Ink Force corruption. No one would ever be converted into an Ink Servant again. We could march straight into the Ink Clan's stronghold, purge and purify all the Ink Force, and wipe them out once and for all!"
The speaker's face flushed crimson as he spoke, as though he could already see that glorious scene, his heart surging with excitement.
The others were equally moved by the future he described, their expressions filled with fervent anticipation.