People continued to descend onto the deck one after another, each wearing haggard expressions. Many were drenched in blood, their auras feeble — they were clearly at the end of their rope.
Without the protection of a Palace Artifact, there was no way this group could have left the battlefield alive. It could be said that the human race's Palace Artifacts had, on numerous occasions, dramatically reduced their casualties.
No wonder the
However, Palace Artifacts were exceedingly difficult to forge, and certainly not just any
Since time immemorial, the Ink Clan had never possessed the methods to forge Palace Artifacts — precisely because they lacked such talent.
"Please, follow me." The Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator glanced back over his shoulder, then withdrew his gaze and gestured for
The two nodded and stepped forward. The rest remained aboard the Dawn.
Before long, in a grand hall, Yang Kai and Feng Ying met the Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator stationed here — Cha Hu. He belonged to the Southern Army and did not appear particularly tall, but his bearing carried an unmistakable air of authority even in repose. When Yang Kai and Feng Ying entered, someone was in the midst of reporting a matter to him.
Cha Hu listened quietly, issued a command, then waved the man away.
Yang Kai promptly clasped his fists. "Yang Kai of Dawn, greets Commander Cha!"
Cha Hu raised his eyes to look at him and smiled. "How did the Corps Commander let you out? And those others were willing to let you go as well?"
Yang Kai replied solemnly, "This disciple made a wager with Corps Commander
Cha Hu's eyebrows shot up. "Brother Zhong lost?" He did not ask what the wager had been, but regardless of what it was, for Yang Kai to have bested Zhong Liang could not have been easy.
He tapped his finger lightly on the table and, after a moment, said, "My thinking differs somewhat from that of the other Corps Commanders. Since you've come to this forward base, I will treat you the same as everyone else — no special treatment. What others are required to do, you will also do. If you disobey orders, I will not go easy on you."
Yang Kai immediately clasped his fists again. "That is exactly what this disciple wishes."
"Good." Cha Hu gave a slight nod, a glimmer of approval in his eyes. "In that case, go rest and await orders for now. Though I doubt you'll get much of a rest — the struggle for the resource production zones is fierce. You may be called upon to reinforce them at any moment."
"Understood!" Yang Kai replied in a firm voice. After a pause, he added, "Commander Cha, would the base benefit from having a World Gate Formation set up?"
With a World Gate Formation in place, it would be far more convenient for the base's warriors to travel back and forth, and could prove life-saving at a critical juncture.
If necessary, Yang Kai could even store some Purifying Light here.
Cha Hu shook his head. "No need. The Southern Army's Ink-Expelling Warship is stationed nearby. You'll all head over there shortly and leave your imprints."
Yang Kai understood at once and withdrew with Feng Ying.
He had been somewhat worried about what would happen if the warriors at the base were corrupted by the Ink Force — after all, clashes with the Ink Clan were hardly uncommon here, and the warship he had just seen had nearly been blown apart.
Now he learned that the base actually had an Ink-Expelling Warship on site.
That meant the other three bases likely each had an Ink-Expelling Warship as well. On reflection, it made perfect sense — what he could think of, the Corps Commanders and Commanders certainly could too. Before, there had been no Ink-Expelling Warships to speak of, but now that they had them, it was only natural to put them to good use.
With an Ink-Expelling Warship stationed at each base, the losses on the human side could be dramatically reduced.
Once outside, a Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivator came forward to guide them, saying he would lead Yang Kai and the others to the Ink-Expelling Warship to leave their imprints.
Yang Kai immediately gathered the members of Dawn, and they set off together.
The Ink-Expelling Warship had been placed in a highly concealed location, surrounded by complete restriction arrays and heavily guarded. With such arrangements, safety was assured unless the Ink Clan launched a full-scale assault.
And should things ever reach the point where resistance was futile, someone would naturally pilot the Ink-Expulling Warship back to Biluo Pass. Cha Hu's presence here served a dual purpose: securing the base and guarding the Ink-Expelling Warship.
Before long, every member of the Dawn squad had left their imprint aboard the Ink-Expelling Warship. This way, as long as they were within a certain range, should they encounter an overwhelming threat, they could activate the World Gate Art and instantly return to the warship.
However, convenient as the World Gate Art was, it came with certain drawbacks.
First, depending on the distance between the caster and the World Gate Formation, the shattering of space would subject them to varying degrees of pressure. The greater the distance, the greater the pressure. If the distance exceeded what one could withstand, then even if the teleportation succeeded, there was a high chance of suffering serious injury — or even being crushed by the void itself, body and soul annihilated.
This was no mere hypothetical in the Three Thousand Worlds. It had happened more than once.
Every major Domain's World Gate Hall had received corpses transported back from failed teleports — and every such corpse had arrived mangled beyond recognition, flesh and blood mashed together as though compressed by some terrifying force. These deaths were all caused by distances that exceeded the limits of what the individual could endure.