After a brief wait, the warrior who had been dispatched with the message received a reply. After checking it, he looked up and said, "Senior Brother Jing, Uncle-Master Tang is not in the pass. It seems he had something to come out for. The Military Affairs Office suggested we arrange accommodations first—Uncle-Master should be back within a few days."
Jing An nodded upon hearing this. "Very well. We'll follow their instructions."
He turned to Yang Kai and said, "Junior Brother Yang, please come with me."
With that, he took the lead, and Yang Kai followed closely behind.
Before long, the two arrived at a secluded courtyard. It occupied a modest area and appeared to be a place originally meant for housing outsiders. Biluo Pass had similar accommodations, though they were seldom used in normal times.
Despite having been uninhabited for some time, the courtyard was clean and tidy.
"Junior Brother Yang, please rest here for a few days. Once Uncle-Master Tang returns, I'll report your arrival immediately," Jing An said.
"Thank you, Senior Brother Jing!" Yang Kai cupped his fists in a courteous bow.
Jing An smiled. "If you find yourself bored, feel free to walk around and pass the time."
After seeing Jing An off, Yang Kai entered the side chamber and sat cross-legged.
Originally, the Commander had given him a Patriarch's token to present if anyone questioned his identity, but it seemed that wouldn't be necessary after all.
That Tang Qiu was absent from the pass was somewhat unexpected. Clearly, something major had come up in Yin-Yang Pass, something important enough to require his personal involvement.
That said, Yang Kai did know a few people inside Yin-Yang Pass.
He promptly took out his communication tool and sent a message.
However, there was no response whatsoever. This meant that the person he was trying to reach was either not in Yin-Yang Pass or was in closed-door cultivation, having severed all contact with the outside world.
Either way, Yang Kai wouldn't be reaching them for the time being.
The person he had contacted was Xu Linggong. Unable to reach him, he then tried reaching out to Qing Kui and Su Yingxue.
Surprisingly, neither responded either.
Yang Kai's brow furrowed slightly. Based on this, it seemed quite likely that none of them were inside the pass. Otherwise, it would be unusual for all of them to be completely unreachable. Su Yingxue and Qing Kui were Xu Linggong's disciples after all—if something required them to leave, it would make sense for them to go together. It was even possible they had left alongside Tang Qiu.
Since he couldn't reach anyone, Yang Kai didn't push the matter. This trip was primarily to infiltrate the Ink Clan's territory within the Yin-Yang Battle Zone and gather intelligence—catching up with acquaintances was secondary.
Remembering the jade slip the Commander had given him before his departure, Yang Kai took it out to examine, having nothing better to do.
The jade slip contained some basic information about Yin-Yang Pass and the Yin-Yang Battle Zone, clearly intended to help Yang Kai get up to speed on the situation here as quickly as possible.
Every human stronghold maintained roughly comparable overall strength, with similar layouts and structures.
The human warriors stationed at Yin-Yang Pass also numbered over thirty thousand. These elite Open Heaven Realm cultivators from the various Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands had accumulated over such a vast span of time to reach this scale. During that period, people were continuously dying in battle, while the Three Thousand Worlds behind them kept sending reinforcements.
It could be said that each Cave Heaven and Blessed Land had sent generation after generation of elites into the Ink Battlefield. Those remaining in the Three Thousand Worlds constituted only a small fraction—which was why Yang Kai had previously felt that the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands' true reserves didn't quite live up to their reputation.
So many elites had been sent to the Ink Battlefield that what was left behind naturally wasn't much.
Just like Biluo Pass, Yin-Yang Pass was also divided into four great corps.
Eastern Corps Commander: Tang Qiu. Southern Corps Commander: Wu Qing. Western Corps Commander: Liu Zhiping. Northern Corps: Fei Yushan.
When Yang Kai came across Liu Zhiping's name, he paused for a moment. The name clearly belonged to a woman. It wasn't that women were inferior to men—rather, among Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators, women were simply fewer in number. To hold the position of Corps Commander, this Liu Zhiping's strength was evidently extraordinary. She was certainly among the very best of the Eighth-Order, possibly having already reached the peak of the Eighth-Order, limited only by her aptitude from advancing to the Ninth-Order.
The corresponding Ink Clan presence in the Yin-Yang Battle Zone was ruled by the Twilight King—the entire Yin-Yang Battle Zone could be considered his domain.
The Biluo Battle Zone corresponded to the Men Xie King. It was the same principle.
In each battle zone, the humans stationed a Patriarch-level powerhouse while the Ink Clan had a King, the two sides holding each other in check.
The Twilight King commanded over a hundred Domain Lords—considerably more than Yin-Yang Pass's Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators. And this was just a single battle zone. Across the entire Ink Battlefield, the number of Ink Clan powerhouses was beyond counting. If not for this, the human struggle wouldn't be nearly so arduous.
The jade slip didn't contain much information—after all, it was only the most basic overview. Yang Kai finished reading it quickly. With nothing else to do, he took out a set of Seventh-Order resources and began refining them for cultivation.
He sat there for half a month straight.
No one came to see him during that time, and Tang Qiu didn't send any message summoning him. This deepened the furrow on Yang Kai's brow—he couldn't figure out what Tang Qiu had encountered that had delayed him for so long. Jing An had said it would only be a few days before Tang Qiu returned, yet that deadline had clearly passed.
Still, Tang Qiu was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, so nothing too serious was likely to have happened.
Sitting around waiting wasn't going to help. After some thought, Yang Kai decided to go out for a walk and take in the local atmosphere of Yin-Yang Pass.
Yin-Yang Pass was entirely peaceful, with no signs of battle breaking out. Presumably, they had recently repelled an Ink Clan offensive, and the Twilight King's forces—much like those facing Biluo Pass—were in a period of recovery.
There weren't many people moving about inside the pass. During times of peace like these, it was the perfect opportunity for cultivation, and many Open Heaven cultivators were seizing the chance to enhance their reserves in preparation for the next battle.