With a wet hacking cough, Feng Ying spat out a mouthful of blood, her complexion visibly sallow.
They had been locked in fierce combat for so long that her Divine Ability Manifestation could no longer be sustained. Otherwise, she wouldn't have voluntarily dismissed it just now. And killing this Ink Clan Lord had exacted a considerable price from both her and Yang Kai.
The lingering radiance of the Great Sun still lingered, erupting like a miniature sun and scattering the vast swath of ink clouds ahead.
Yang Kai and Feng Ying braced each other as they staggered to their feet, about to make their way toward a nearby tower ship to rest and recuperate, when a sudden chill washed over his entire body.
From deep within the ink clouds that the Great Sun had been dissolving, it seemed as though a pair of icy eyes had locked onto him. At the same time, a will stirred from its slumber.
That will was vast and boundless, profound as an abyss, and it radiated a sensation of sheer terror. Every hair on Yang Kai's body bristled in an instant, and his heartbeat skipped a beat.
He whipped his head around toward the source of that will and saw what appeared to be an enormous figure flickering in and out of visibility within the dense ink clouds.
That figure had been concealed in these ink clouds for an unknown length of time. Until now, it had not leaked even the faintest trace of its aura, so no one had detected it. Moreover, this area had originally been deep within the Ink Clan army's territory, so the humans had no way of discovering anything here. However, the defeat on the western front had forced the Ink Clan army into a continuous retreat, and the area where the ink clouds dwelled had gradually become part of the battlefield.
By the most extraordinary coincidence, Yang Kai's Golden Crow Forging the Sun Divine Ability Manifestation had scattered these ink clouds, exposing the figure hidden within.
That will was like a slumbering dragon awakening. As it stirred, heaven and earth trembled, and the chaotic, cacophonous battlefield seemed to fall deathly silent.
Yang Kai had once felt a similar will in Black Prison — the will of an Ink Royal. However, that Royal in Black Prison had been sealed for countless ages, its strength drastically diminished, nowhere near comparable to what he sensed now.
If the will in Black Prison had been a fading sun dipping below the horizon, then what he felt at this moment blazed at its absolute zenith.
"The Ink Royal!" Feng Ying cried out in alarm, her already pale face draining of every last shred of color.
The Ink Royal — that was a powerhouse on par with a Ninth-Order Grand Elder. On the Ink Battlefield, only a Grand Elder of the Ninth Order could match one in combat. The forces from Biluo Pass had previously led by a Grand Elder deep into the Ink Clan's heartland, wreaking havoc and destroying a great deal of Ink Clan territory — even quite a few Ink Nests had been razed.
Enraged, the Ink Royal had marshaled its forces to give pursuit, and that was what had triggered this entire war.
As Yang Kai had learned afterward, the Grand Elder stationed at Biluo Pass had indeed clashed with the Ink Royal, but neither had gained a decisive advantage. Both were injured. The Grand Elder was currently secluded within the Pass, diligently recuperating, and had not shown himself. As for the Ink Royal, it had also vanished, and no one knew where it had gone.
Zhong Liang had also said that this war would hinge on which side's supreme combatant recovered first. Whoever regained their strength first would hold an enormous advantage and would be the one to win the war.
Everyone on the human side had assumed the Ink Royal had surely found some safe, secluded location to heal its wounds.
No one had imagined that the Ink Royal would actually play a game of hiding in plain sight — lurking just tens of thousands of kilometers from Biluo Pass, concealed within a mass of ink clouds.
Theoretically, though the Ink Royal's hiding place was not especially deep, it was essentially beyond disturbance. His location lay at the heart of the Ink Clan army. Unless the humans could manage to rout the Ink Clan forces entirely, he could continue his recovery in peace.
Based on past experience, such a war would last at least several years, or even decades or centuries. By then, his injuries would have long since fully healed.
But the war's progression had exceeded all his expectations. On the western front, Zhong Liang had borrowed reinforcements from the other two battle lines, seizing an overwhelming advantage. The Ink Clan army had been beaten into a wild retreat covering tens of thousands of kilometers. And the two who had been charging at the very forefront of the battlefield all along — Yang Kai and Feng Ying — had actually fought their way to the vicinity of his hiding spot.
More coincidental still, a single Golden Crow Forging the Sun Divine Ability had actually forced him to reveal his form and disrupted his recuperation.
A cascade of unforeseen accidents had produced the current situation. Neither the humans nor the Ink Clan had anticipated this.
The moment the Ink Royal's will awakened, it instantly saturated the entire battlefield. The ceaselessly raging war fell silent. Every fighter, human and Ink Clan alike, froze for a split second.
Ding Yao, Liang Yulong, Zhong Liang, Shentu Mo — all of the Eighth-Order Commanders — felt the Ink Royal's aura with absolute clarity in that instant and whipped their heads toward its source, their faces filled with utter disbelief.
The Ink Royal whose whereabouts they had been unable to pin down this entire time — it was on the western front? This was truly the case of searching high and low for something only to find it right under one's nose.
They had previously considered where the Ink Royal might have hidden to recuperate after being wounded by the Grand Elder. But the void was vast, and the Ink Royal needed only to find any safe spot and the humans would never discover it.
Who could have guessed that, in the end, it had been right beside them all along.
Dense ink clouds had masked its form and concealed its aura. The Ink Clan army stationed in the area had provided the perfect cover. Forget the Eighth-Order Open Heavens — even the Grand Elder himself probably hadn't conceived that the Royal would resort to such a stratagem.
Zhong Liang suddenly understood certain things, and the doubts that had lingered in his mind ever since receiving news of the Ink Clan's withdrawal from the three battle lines were resolved in a flash.
He finally knew why the Ink Clan army — which had held the upper hand on the three battle lines — had suddenly withdrawn, and why it had marched toward the western front.
This was clearly to protect their sovereign!