Given the Dawn squad's resources and the Dawn's performance, encountering a small group of Ink Clan would be a complete rout. But now every squad member was clearly injured, evidence of a fierce battle — they had probably run into an entire Ink Clan army.
Shen Ao said, "Bad luck. We ran into a Domain Lord."
A Domain Lord! Yang Kai frowned slightly. "What happened?"
Shen Ao quickly gave a brief account of the whole affair.
After Yang Kai had chased after Bai Yi that day, the rest of them had cleaned up the battlefield and then set off in the direction Yang Kai had gone, searching for him. But they couldn't find any trace of him no matter how hard they looked, so they had no choice but to give up.
The Dawn was fitted with a World Array. If Yang Kai wanted to return, he just needed to activate the World Art to come back safely. On top of that, Yang Kai himself was no weakling — well-versed in the Dao of Space, even running into a Domain Lord wouldn't put his life in real danger, so the Dawn squad wasn't too worried.
The Dawn continued roaming the war zone, hunting Ink Clan, while waiting for Yang Kai to return.
As it turned out, their luck was terrible. They accidentally stumbled upon a Domain Lord. The Dawn squad naturally threw everything they had at it, fighting and retreating in tandem — that was how everyone had gotten injured. Even the Dawn itself had suffered considerable damage in that battle, with many of the formations inside the vessel compromised.
Though the Domain Lord was fearsome, the Dawn squad wasn't entirely without the ability to fight back, so the Domain Lord couldn't simply swallow them whole.
At the critical moment, Xu Boliang had suddenly appeared and engaged the Domain Lord in combat.
Since the entire Dawn squad was wounded and the Dawn itself was heavily damaged, they had no choice but to withdraw back to base. As for the outcome of the battle between Xu Boliang and the Domain Lord, they had no idea.
However, less than half a day after they returned to base, Xu Boliang also came back. He had since replaced the previously stationed Zha Hu and was now overseeing all operations.
After Shen Ao finished speaking, Feng Ying said, "Commander Xu appears to have sustained some injuries, but nothing serious. When he returned that day, his aura was a bit unsteady."
After hearing their account, Yang Kai exchanged a glance with Bai Yi, both of them wearing slightly odd expressions.
"What's wrong?" Feng Ying asked, puzzled.
Yang Kai shook his head. "Nothing. Just a bit of a coincidence. The Domain Lord that attacked you — I ran into him too."
Feng Ying was startled. "You saw him too? Did you fight?"
Yang Kai nodded. "A fierce battle. I nearly didn't make it back."
Feng Ying immediately reprimanded him. "Reckless fool! That Domain Lord may have been injured by Commander Xu, but he's still a Domain Lord — not something one or two Seventh-Order cultivators can contend with."
Yang Kai nodded emphatically. "Exactly. It took Bai Yi and me a tremendous amount of effort to finally kill him."
"Killed... killed him?" Shen Ao and the others were struck dumb. Feng Ying's eyes went wide as well — had those words come from anyone other than Yang Kai, they wouldn't have believed it.
"Lucky, really. He first took a hit from my Purifying Light in an ambush, which greatly weakened him. Then Junior Sister Bai Yi assisted me in the fight. It was grueling, but in the end we pulled through without any real harm," Yang Kai explained simply.
Everyone was stunned.
Feng Ying turned to look at Bai Yi, and Yang Kai hurriedly made introductions.
Feng Ying's expression cleared. "So Junior Sister Bai is the one who gave our captain such a hard time. Truly impressive."
Bai Yi flushed slightly. "I had been corrupted by the Ink Force and lost control of my mind and body. Senior Sister, please forgive my past actions. Thanks to Senior Brother's help, I've now been restored to myself."
Feng Ying smiled knowingly. "You probably don't know this yet, but in the Dawn squad, aside from me, every single member was once an Ink Eater that he rescued."
Bai Yi looked up in surprise. "All of them?"
Feng Ying nodded. "Every last one."
Bai Yi's gaze swept across each face, and she suddenly smiled. "It's a privilege to meet all of you, Senior Brothers and Junior Brothers. Bai Yi is truly honored."
Shen Ao said, "Since you're back now, let's just kill more Ink Clan from here on out. It's about time we vented some of that frustration."
Bai Yi softly agreed.
Yang Kai said, "I'll take her to see Commander Xu first. You all focus on recovering. We can talk more later."
No one had any objections.
Yang Kai immediately led Bai Yi to meet with Xu Boliang. Along the way, Bai Yi was visibly nervous — leaving everything else aside, she had fired an arrow at Xu Boliang that day, injuring him and enabling Zhu Feng's escape.
Yang Kai noticed but didn't comfort her. Some things you simply had to face on your own.
That said, after his conversation with Feng Ying and the others, Yang Kai had pieced together the full story of what had happened that day.
The Dawn squad had first encountered Zhu Feng. The two sides fought a fierce battle, and the Dawn squad came out on the losing end — even the Dawn itself had sustained damage. Zhu Feng must have taken his share of punishment from the Dawn as well. Then Xu Boliang had entered the fray, clashing with Zhu Feng and dealing him devastating injuries. At the critical moment, Bai Yi's arrow arrived, and Zhu Feng seized the chance to flee.
After that, Xu Boliang withdrew, and Yang Kai had subdued Bai Yi. At her suggestion, they had headed for Zhu Feng's lair.