No sooner had Zhong Liang and the other three departed from Feng Ying's courtyard than another visitor arrived.
Yang Kai didn't recognize the man, but according to Feng Ying, he was from the Merit Hall of Biluo Pass. The Merit Hall held a position of considerable importance within the Pass — it was primarily responsible for calculating the battle merits each person had earned in every engagement.
And battle merits, in turn, could be exchanged for a wide variety of cultivation resources in the War Preparation Hall.
Upon learning that someone from the Merit Hall had come, Yang Kai naturally didn't dare to be careless. He hadn't known about it before, but now that he knew the man's identity, he found himself rather curious about how many merits he'd earned in that battle.
To his surprise, however, the man hadn't come to inform him of his merit tally. Rather, he had been dispatched under orders from the four Army Commanders to announce the disciplinary action decided upon for Yang Kai.
On the battlefield, he had disobeyed military orders, disregarded the bigger picture, and endangered himself. After deliberation among the four Army Commanders, it had been decided that Yang Kai would be assigned to clear the battlefield as punishment.
Yang Kai was momentarily stunned.
The man cheerfully handed over a jade slip and clasped his fists. "Brother Yang, I'm just carrying out orders — please don't blame me. But clearing the battlefield isn't all that difficult; it just takes some time. It's not exactly a harsh punishment. The area you're responsible for is all marked in this jade slip — take a look when you get the chance and you'll see."
What could Yang Kai say? He could only accept the jade slip.
The man said nothing more and took his leave.
Yang Kai stood in place and probed the jade slip with his consciousness, finding that it contained a simplified map of the area surrounding Biluo Pass, with his assigned clearing zone clearly marked.
He turned to Feng Ying and asked, "How do I go about this?"
Feng Ying said, "It's nothing special, really. The main task is to deal with all the residual Ink Clouds and Ink Force left on the battlefield — especially those Ink Clouds. If they linger near Biluo Pass, the next time the Ink Clan army attacks, they'll be able to draw on that residual power. Come with me."
So saying, she took the lead.
Before long, the two of them arrived at the War Preparation Hall. The place was bustling with activity, with people constantly coming and going. Many recognized Yang Kai and offered him friendly smiles, while some stepped forward to greet him and get acquainted.
Yang Kai returned each courtesy politely.
Feng Ying found someone at the War Preparation Hall and requisitioned a specialized tool designed for clearing the battlefield, then led Yang Kai away.
Once they had left Biluo Pass and followed the jade slip's markings to a stretch of battlefield, a sweeping gaze revealed that the entire area was littered with Ink Clouds of varying sizes, along with the husks left behind by fallen Ink Clan members.
In a battle of this scale, humanity had certainly suffered casualties as well, but the human remains had already been collected by their comrades. Only the corpses of the Ink Clan remained on the field.
The zone Yang Kai was responsible for covered roughly a hundred thousand li — not particularly large, but not exactly small either.
At this moment, all across the battlefield, others were already at work clearing the Ink Clouds. Yang Kai looked around and saw that the cleaners generally worked in pairs, each holding one end of a large net. They swept rapidly across the void, and everything in their path was gathered into the net, then carried off to a distant location. Once the Ink Clouds within the net had been dealt with, the net-bearers would return, and the cycle would repeat.
Yang Kai suddenly understood. Humanity had developed a specialized Artifact specifically for dealing with Ink Clouds. The Ink Force was extraordinarily tenacious — to date, aside from the Purifying Light that Yang Kai could channel, no other power was capable of dispersing and purifying it.
If humanity wanted to clear the battlefield, it had to find other solutions. The scene before him was the crystallization of human ingenuity accumulated over countless years.
"This is the Ink Gathering Net." Feng Ying produced an object as she spoke — it looked like a small net no more than a foot in length, but once she infused it with her power, it abruptly expanded in size. "You need this to clear the battlefield. And clearing the battlefield has become something of a joke among the soldiers — they call it 'fishing.'"
Yang Kai chuckled at that. Looking at the scene, it really did resemble fishermen casting their nets — except there were no fish here, only Ink Clouds.
The Ink Gathering Net had no other use; it was designed solely to collect residual Ink Clouds from the battlefield.
"Where do the cleared Ink Clouds need to be taken?" Yang Kai asked.
Feng Ying replied, "At minimum, they need to be transported at least a million li away."
That explained it — no wonder the man from the Merit Hall had said clearing the battlefield wasn't difficult, only time-consuming. If the collected Ink Clouds had to be hauled a million li away, the round trip alone would take a considerable amount of time.
Yang Kai made a rough estimate. For a zone of a hundred thousand li, if he went about it this way, it would take at least a month or two.
He had only just broken through to the Seventh Order and was in critical need of stabilizing his realm. Where would he find the time to waste on this?
He immediately waved his hand. "No need for all that trouble."
As his words fell, he flickered to the nearest Ink Cloud, opened the gateway to his Small Universe, and channeled its power to devour the mass with abandon.
In a matter of moments, that enormous Ink Cloud had been drawn into his Small Universe.
Yang Kai darted back and forth, absorbing Ink Clouds of all sizes into himself. Feng Ying watched, somewhat speechless and not a little concerned. Yang Kai possessed the Spring of Heaven and Earth, but she had no idea whether ingesting so much Ink Force would cause him any problems.
However, once she confirmed that Yang Kai was in no real danger, she relaxed.