Yang Kai was not at all surprised that this private army of the Ink Clan had learned of the situation so quickly and set up an ambush here in advance — he had even anticipated it.
Compared to the human race, the Ink Clan transmitted intelligence at an incomparable speed.
On Zhagu's territory, Yang Kai had been able to glimpse the secrets of the Ink Nests. The entire Ink Clan used those Ink Nests, large and small, as its foundation to construct a vast intelligence network, through which any event occurring anywhere among the Ink Clan could spread with astonishing speed.
Now that the Twilight King Master had learned of the news from the secret realm, with the power of the Ink Nests at his disposal, he could spread that information across his entire territory in short order, and the Ink Clan stationed within his domain would naturally respond swiftly.
A mere lord's private army was beneath Yang Kai's notice given his current strength. A ragtag force with only a handful of lords presiding over it — if Yang Kai so wished, he could slaughter every last one of them.
However, Yang Kai had no intention of engaging. The Twilight King Master's aura had locked onto him across the vast emptiness of space, and he dared not waste a single moment, let alone squander even a shred of energy. Whenever possible, he would avoid fighting any Ink Clan member, as it would only slow his escape.
And so, before that private army could even rush up to him, Yang Kai activated the Laws of Space once more and vanished in a flash.
Hundreds of Ink Clan members were left behind, their faces blank with bewilderment.
But this was merely the beginning. Over the next half day, Yang Kai encountered Ink Clan private armies blocking his path at nearly every turn. However, he had firmly resolved not to engage these Ink Clan forces, focusing solely on his escape. Even when the Ink Clan detected his trail, there was nothing they could do about it.
Unless they could seal off the heavens and earth in advance to leave him with nowhere to flee — but the void was vast and boundless. Even though the Ink Clan could roughly track Yang Kai's escape trajectory, they had no way to set up any traps ahead of time.
His flight was tumultuous and thunderous.
Yang Kai was no stranger to this kind of escape. Along his path of growth, it seemed that such desperate pursuits happened with alarming frequency, and every single time, it was the Laws of Space that helped him break free.
He could no longer recall when the last time this had happened, but every time he found himself in such a situation, it was because he had encountered an unbeatable opponent.
As time passed, every Ink Clan member within the Twilight King Master's territory appeared to have been mobilized. Having suffered repeated setbacks earlier, the Ink Clan had changed their strategy — no longer gathering in one place, they instead split into squadrons of varying sizes, dispersing throughout the void to wait for Yang Kai to reveal himself.
In this way, no matter how unwilling Yang Kai might be, he was still inevitably going to clash with certain Ink Clan squads he stumbled upon head-on. After all, when he activated the Laws of Space, he could never be certain that no Ink Clan members were waiting at his destination.
Fortunately, the Ink Clan forces he encountered were never large in number and lacked any real powerhouses. With a bit of effort, he cut them down cleanly.
Under normal circumstances, such minor delays might not have been a problem. But with a King Master-level powerhouse personally pursuing him from behind, these delays were nothing short of fatal.
He could feel it — with each passing moment, the Twilight King Master was drawing closer! Even though he had no idea where the Twilight King Master actually was, the aura pinning him down was growing denser by the second, weighing his entire body as though something were pressing on him from all sides. Even activating the Laws of Space was no longer as smooth as before, as if the entire void had turned thick and viscous.
Yang Kai's expression remained calm, but inwardly he was laughing bitterly.
As expected, a powerhouse of the King Master tier was simply someone he could not contend with at this point. The vast chasm in both strength and rank was not something the Laws of Space could bridge.
While fleeing, he flipped his hand, and an ancient coin materialized in his palm.
This thing had been given to him by that little girl from Yinyang Fort who spent all her time loitering in the marketplace. According to the girl, she had taken it from the Old Ancestor, and throwing it out at a critical moment might just save his life.
Yang Kai naturally couldn't put much stock in a little girl who did nothing but eat all day long. But since this item had come from the Old Ancestor of Yinyang Fort, it certainly possessed extraordinary power.
Moreover, as the Old Ancestor, he would surely know everything that happened within Yinyang Fort. Yang Kai didn't believe that a little girl who had never cultivated a day in her life could steal anything from the Old Ancestor.
In other words, the Old Ancestor must have been aware when the girl gave him this ancient coin — and might even have instructed and guided her to do so.
Why would the Old Ancestor give him this ancient coin? Yang Kai turned the question over and over in his mind, and the answer seemed clear: it was meant to be a life-saving measure. After all, he had undertaken this journey at Yinyang Fort's behest, and he could be considered half a disciple of Yinyang Heaven. It was only natural that the Old Ancestor of Yinyang Fort would look after him in some way.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why, during all the days he had spent at Yinyang Fort, the Old Ancestor had never once shown his face. The Ink Clan warship was a matter of tremendous importance — the Old Ancestor could not possibly have been indifferent. His absence was undoubtedly because he had already made arrangements.
And this ancient coin was perhaps part of those arrangements.
Yang Kai had examined the ancient coin before, but had found no secrets within it.
But in his current situation, this ancient coin was the only thing he could place his hope in. Silently, he prayed that this thing would actually prove useful — otherwise, today he might truly be heading to the underworld alongside three hundred of his fellow cultivators.
The aura behind him drew ever closer, and Yang Kai gradually began to feel the majestic will that belonged exclusively to a King Master. He had felt this will more than once before — back in the Black Prison, and outside the walls of Biluo Fort.
Yet those two previous experiences had been far less profound than this one.