They had fought their way back from the heartland of the Ink Clan this time, bringing over three hundred people with them. All of them had once been Ink Disciples. Three hundred might not sound like much, but by Biluo Pass's standards, that was the manpower of three Garrisons — no small number at all.
Five hundred could form a whole Garrison, so three hundred was more than half a Garrison's strength. Of course, among the Ink Disciples they had brought back, those of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven were few. Most were Fifth or Sixth-Order.
As the two spoke, two streaks of light came hurtling toward them from a distance. Yang Kai looked up to see that one of the figures had faint ripples of Ink Force surging around his body, while the other flew alongside as an escort.
Having gone through this before, Yang Kai immediately understood that one of the two had been corroded by Ink Force and the other was accompanying him here.
The newcomers swept a glance over the area from above and promptly descended toward Yang Kai. "Are you Yang Kai?" the escort asked urgently.
Yang Kai nodded, his hands blossoming with radiance of two colours as he stepped toward the one afflicted by Ink Force. "Leave him to me."
The escort glanced at Feng Ying. Only after she gave a slight nod did he step back.
A white light enveloped the afflicted individual. A sharp hissing sound rang out as the Ink Force was dispersed and purified. In just a few moments, it was done.
The two of them carefully inspected the condition of his Small World within and were both surprised and delighted. Just like the first batch who had arrived, they were overcome with gratitude, offered their thanks, and then headed back to the battlefield.
More and more human Open Heaven cultivators corrupted by Ink Force began arriving at the central drill ground, escorted by their companions. Yang Kai had been stationed here precisely to help purge the Ink Force, so naturally he turned no one away.
Moreover, the method of purification wasn't complicated to use, nor did it require an exorbitant amount of power. As soon as someone was brought here, Yang Kai could restore them to their original state within a few breaths.
In the beginning, not many came, and every person who arrived was fraught with worry — equal parts hope and nervousness. After all, no one had ever experienced this before. Though the Eighth-Order Garrison Commanders at every Garrison had already explained the situation and assured them it was unlikely to go wrong, no one could truly rest easy without seeing it for themselves.
Once they saw it with their own eyes, their minds were put completely at ease.
But as time passed and several days went by, the number of people coming to Yang Kai for treatment suddenly increased sharply, and none of them carried the worry that the first arrivals had. Those escorting their companions merely looked at Yang Kai with curiosity.
Yang Kai stayed busy non-stop, treating at least several dozen people a day — on peak days, possibly over a hundred.
After half a month of this, Yang Kai finally found a moment to spare. He looked at Feng Ying in puzzlement. "Is the corruption of our people by the Ink Force really this severe? I was told the Palatial Artifacts provided protection."
If that was the case, then before his arrival, the losses the human forces sustained from a single major battle would have been staggering. By his rough estimate, the number of people he had treated over these past half-month amounted to several hundred — and that was only those corrupted by Ink Force, not counting those who had fallen and died on the battlefield.
Feng Ying had noticed something was off as well. She had been in constant communication with forces outside and shook her head at his words. "It wasn't like this before. While people were indeed sometimes corrupted by Ink Force on the battlefield, it was never this frequent. The way it is now — that's because of you."
"Because of me?" Yang Kai looked dumbfounded. What did this have to do with him? Then something dawned on him, and he said thoughtfully, "Could it be that..."
Feng Ying nodded. "Word about what you can do has already spread across the battlefield. Everyone knows there's someone inside the Pass who possesses a miraculous ability to dispel and purify Ink Force. So when they fight the Ink Clan, they no longer hold back as much — they've cut loose."
In the past, Ink Force corruption was incurable, so everyone on the battlefield had been cautious and restrained, avoiding it as much as possible and prioritising their own survival.
Now, however, Yang Kai's appearance had shifted the dynamics of the battlefield.
The Eighth-Order Garrison Commanders had explained Yang Kai's existence and the power of his Purification Light from the very start, but no one had actually witnessed it, and no one had personally verified it. Who could know whether it was true or not?
It wasn't that they distrusted the Eighth-Order Garrison Commanders — it was just that the claim was too extraordinary to believe.
But as the first people who had been treated returned to the battlefield, the news began to spread. The more people Yang Kai cured, the more fiercely the word propagated.
Those people came from every Garrison and every division across Biluo Pass. Their comrades had personally witnessed them being corroded by Ink Force and returning to the Pass, only to see them reappear on the battlefield in peak condition a short while later. A few questions were all it took to learn about the treatment available inside.
There really was someone inside the Pass who could use a miraculous ability to dispel Ink Force that had invaded the body. The Eighth-Order Garrison Commanders had told the truth. Morale surged instantly, and the human forces across all five divisions — East, West, South, North, and Central — had no more reservations. They threw themselves at the Ink Clan without holding back. Naturally, the number of those corrupted by Ink Force increased as a result.
In the past, when humans fought the Ink Clan, even with the Palatial Artifacts as a safety net, there had always been a sense of restraint. Now there were no such misgivings. Not only had morale soared, but their combat effectiveness had risen dramatically as well.
When Yang Kai learned the truth, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But what could he say? All he could do was remain stationed here, steadily purging the Ink Force from every person who was brought to him so they could return to the battlefield once more.
The shift among the human forces was felt keenly by the Ink Clan.
No one knew exactly how it had happened, but the humans had suddenly become as though injected with chicken blood — their fighting spirit blazing. On the battlefield, Ink Clan casualties left behind ink clouds of all sizes, and those ink clouds had always served as tools the Ink Clan could exploit. The humans would keep well clear of them.
But that was no longer the case. The ink clouds could no longer intimidate the humans. Before, when an injured Ink Clan member retreated into an ink cloud, there had been a high probability of shaking off their pursuers and surviving.