What had originally been nothing more than a casual fabrication to deflect Heiyu's interrogation had turned out to be surprisingly fitting, leading Heiyu to draw his own conclusions. Yang Kai saw no reason to correct him.
"In the battle earlier, I noticed you seemed to have taken some sort of spirit pill that purged the Ink Force from your body?"
"Yes!" Yang Kai nodded.
Heiyu leaned forward slightly. "What spirit pill was that? Show it to me."
Yang Kai put on a conflicted expression. "Reporting to my lord, the pill is called an Ink-Repelling Pill. It was recently developed by the human race. Since it's extremely difficult to refine, I was only given one. I already consumed it on the battlefield and have no more."
"Ink-Repelling Pill!" The corner of Heiyu's eye twitched. "When was it developed?"
Yang Kai paused briefly. "Within the last decade or two."
Heiyu gritted his teeth. "So it's because of these Ink-Repelling Pills that the humans have been able to repeatedly resist the corruption of the Ink Force! That's why, all these years, not a single new Ink Acolyte has been born?"
"Yes."
"Damn it!" Heiyu snarled in fury. He had finally figured out why no new Ink Acolytes had emerged in recent years. They had long suspected the humans had found some way to counter the Ink Force's corruption, but they had never been able to determine what it was. If he hadn't happened to subdue this human called Yang Kai through sheer coincidence, he would have remained in the dark.
After fuming for a moment, Heiyu asked again, "Is this Ink-Repelling Pill easy to refine?"
This was a matter of great importance, and he needed to gather all the details. He would be reporting back to the Sovereign.
Yang Kai answered respectfully, "I don't know much about pill refinement myself, but I've heard people mention it in passing. The Ink-Repelling Pill is not easy to refine at all — even a Grandmaster Alchemist can't succeed every time. The success rate is quite low. Generally speaking, a single human squad is only equipped with one."
Heiyu's expression eased somewhat. Yang Kai's explanation was consistent with what he had observed during the earlier battle. A squad of three Seventh-Order cultivators, yet only Yang Kai had taken one of those so-called Ink-Repelling Pills to purge the Ink Force from his body. The other two Seventh-Order cultivators, despite being corrupted by the Ink Force, had shown no signs of using the pill.
They had fled the battlefield and vanished without a trace.
If a human squad truly only carried a single Ink-Repelling Pill, it wasn't the worst news. What he feared was that the pills were simple to produce and every soldier carried several — in that case, a moment of carelessness on the battlefield could spell disaster for the Ink Clan.
His composure somewhat restored, Heiyu asked again, "How is the injury of your Yin-Yang Pass Patriarch?"
Yang Kai was inwardly startled. If Heiyu hadn't brought it up, he wouldn't have even known the Patriarch of Yin-Yang Pass was injured, let alone how serious it was.
However, considering the situation at Azure Dew Pass before his departure, even without knowing the specifics, Yang Kai could guess that the Yin-Yang Pass Patriarch had clashed with the Twilight Sovereign on this front. The Patriarch's injury was almost certainly connected to the Twilight Sovereign.
If the Patriarch had been hurt, the Twilight Sovereign couldn't have gotten off unscathed either. The question was when this confrontation had taken place.
His thoughts shifting rapidly, Yang Kai replied, "My cultivation is still too low to have caught the Patriarch's eye. The place where the Patriarch is recovering is heavily guarded and I have no way to approach. However, the Patriarch has been recuperating all these years, so he should be nearly healed by now."
Heiyu nodded slightly. "Calculating the time, it's been nearly a century. Even a severe injury should have recovered by now. I'm afraid it won't be long before this war theater sees another major battle."
Only then did Yang Kai learn that the Yin-Yang Pass Patriarch had been recovering for close to a hundred years. That meant a century ago, a massive battle had erupted in the Yin-Yang war theater — one so significant that even human Patriarchs and Ink Clan Sovereigns had clashed directly.
A hundred years had passed in the blink of an eye. Both races had used the time to recuperate, but another great war was now all but inevitable.
That said, the recent clash over the resource zone might push the large-scale war back a few years. After all, both the Ink Clan and the humans had suffered losses among their high-level combatants this time, and they would need time to recover.
At that moment, an Ink Clan Domain Lord walked in through the door. It was none other than Zagu, who cupped his fists and said, "Domain Lord, we are approaching the territory."
Heiyu nodded and waved Yang Kai off. "You may leave."
Yang Kai responded respectfully and withdrew slowly.
Back on the deck, he gazed out into the distant void and spotted an enormous floating continent — so massive it rivalled an entire Universe World.
A hazy layer of dark Ink energy shrouded the continent's perimeter, revealing just how dense the Ink Force within was. For Ink Clan members who lived in such an environment for extended periods, their strength would receive a notable boost.
Yang Kai had survived in the depths of Ink Clan territory for two years, traveling with that high-ranking Ink Clan member to visit numerous domains.
But none of those domains could compare to this floating continent.
He immediately understood that this must be the floating continent belonging directly to Heiyu's domain. Beneath him, individual Domain Lords each controlled their own territories, and these territories combined constituted the full holdings of a single Domain Lord.
The airship sailed straight toward the floating continent, passing through layers of Ink energy-laden clouds before arriving above an enormous city.