The Twilight King Lord had evidently activated her Royal Clan Secret Technique.
The Royal Clan Secret Technique was unique to the Ink Clan's King Lords. It was not to be used lightly, for while its power was tremendous — enough to overwhelm even an Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator, transforming them into Ink Disciples in the blink of an eye — it came at an enormous cost to the King Lord who wielded it.
Thus, on the battlefield, with an Ancestor present to oversee the fighting, Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators had no need to fear being caught off guard by a King Lord's secret technique and turned into Ink Disciples. Such a move would only invite the human Ancestor's intervention. But without an Ancestor's protection, any Eighth-Order cultivator who encountered a King Lord could only pray for mercy.
Sure enough, after activating the Royal Clan Secret Technique, a faint flush crept across the woman's face. The overwhelming pressure that had been bearing down on Yang Kai since her appearance — making it nearly impossible to breathe — weakened noticeably.
Yet even diminished, the woman before him remained an unshakably formidable existence.
"So you truly do carry the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth. That wretched girl from the Yin-Yang Pass was quite generous after all." The woman showed no surprise at seeing Yang Kai unscathed. On the contrary, she seemed to have expected it all along.
After all, an Ink Disciple suddenly turning traitor spoke volumes. Only a human warrior who bore the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth could resist the corruption of the Ink Force, withstand the power of the Royal Clan Secret Technique, and infiltrate as an Ink Disciple to sow chaos.
However, every prior encounter the Ink Clan had had with warriors possessing the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth had involved Eighth-Order cultivators. There had never been a precedent for a Seventh-Order one — let alone the fact that when Black Abyss had ink-corrupted this particular human, he had personally witnessed him sever his Small Universe twice, fight to exhaustion, and attempt self-destruction.
Black Abyss had been deceived, and so had she. Neither had anticipated that the humans would be so audacious as to have a Seventh-Order cultivator carry the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth, pose as an Ink Disciple, and nearly succeed in the deception.
Yang Kai had no idea who the "wretched girl from the Yin-Yang Pass" was, but before he could dwell on it, his entire body went rigid. In an instant, he was frozen in place.
The woman reached toward him with a slender, jade-like palm, her voice cold: "You think that carrying the Four Pillars of Heaven and Earth means I can't do anything to you? Since Nie An is dead, you'll be taking his place from now on!"
With those words, she seized downward.
Boundless darkness instantly blotted out the light before his eyes. A terrible crisis engulfed his entire being, yet Yang Kai was utterly powerless. Against the grasp of an Ink Clan King Lord, he had no means of resistance.
Then, at that very moment, Yang Kai felt a surge of warmth from his forehead, as though something was breaking free from within him. In that instant, the horrifying pressure that had been pinning him in place shattered, and he regained his freedom.
The Twilight King Lord let out a sound of surprise.
As a dazzling radiance bloomed, Yang Kai clearly saw a point of light fly from his forehead to meet the woman. In the blink of an eye, that light coalesced into a humanoid figure.
It was an elderly man with hair and beard of pure white, clad in a plain black robe, his feet bare. His entire body was enveloped in a gentle white luminescence, giving him a hazy, almost ethereal appearance.
Yang Kai was stunned. "The Ancestor?"
The figure that had suddenly materialized — shrouded in radiant light and looking almost unreal — was none other than the Ancestor of Azure Beyond Pass.
Yang Kai could not be mistaken. He had been granted an audience with the Ancestor during his time at Azure Beyond Pass and had seen him once before.
But how had the Ancestor come to be here? Yang Kai was utterly bewildered.
However, he quickly realized that this was not the Ancestor's true body, but rather a projection — something akin to a Dharma Body.
The figure wrapped in that misty white light bore no sensation of flesh and blood.
In a flash of insight, Yang Kai understood everything. On the day he had been granted his audience, just before he was about to leave, the Ancestor had said that the dead had earned merit, and so had the living. After speaking those words, the Ancestor had tapped a finger against his forehead and then let him leave.
Yang Kai had never understood the significance of that finger's touch. He had examined himself carefully afterward and found nothing out of the ordinary.
At the time, he had speculated that the Ancestor had bestowed upon him a life-saving measure. After all, he controlled the Purifying Light, which was of tremendous importance to humanity. It was only natural for the Ancestor to grant him special treatment. The measure would remain dormant, he theorized, only activating when his life was truly in danger.
Yet later, when he had infiltrated Zhu Feng's secret lair alongside Bai Yi and fought a desperate battle against the Domain Lord, he had repeatedly skirted death. In the end, he had been forced to expel his own Dragon Pearl in a final gamble to slay Zhu Feng. The situation had been extraordinarily dire, yet the Ancestor's hidden measure had never manifested.
He had come to believe he was wrong — that the Ancestor's touch had not been a life-saving failsafe at all, but carried some other mystery that simply had not yet been triggered.
Until now. Just when he had almost forgotten about it entirely, the measure was finally activated. The Ancestor's Dharma Body descended!
Yang Kai was overjoyed. It seemed his guess had been correct. The Ancestor had indeed bestowed a life-saving measure upon him, but it was one that could only be triggered upon a direct encounter with a King Lord. At no other time would it have been activated.
His thoughts racing as he pieced everything together, the Ancestor's Dharma Body was already closing in on the Twilight King Lord. The Ancestor's voice rang in Yang Kai's ears: "I have only enough power for a single strike. Run!"
In the next instant, the Dharma Body collided with the Twilight King Lord, intercepting her devastating blow. The clash of their terrifying forces sent visible shockwaves rippling outward. The void trembled. Heaven and Earth shuddered.
Yang Kai's body was flung outward at tremendous speed by the horrifying impact.