This battle dragged on for days. By the end, Yang Kai could no longer maintain his Dragon Form and was forced to fight in his human shape. Several more days passed before Yin-Yang Pass finally sounded the retreat.
Both sides retreated into a brief respite, their soldiers resting and recovering. As long as the Ink Clan did not withdraw, Yin-Yang Pass would know no peace.
Fortunately, the Ancestor had finally returned. Though she had been gravely injured once again—forced into a regression to youth by the severity of her wounds—the intelligence she brought back sent morale at Yin-Yang Pass soaring.
Twilight, the Royal Lord, had been equally badly wounded during his clash with the Ancestor and was currently slumbering within his Royal-level Ink Nest. In other words, the Royal Lord would not be appearing on this battlefield.
That alone would have been welcome news. But the real significance lay elsewhere: the Ancestor had slain a full five Domain Lords deep within Ink Clan territory.
For the Ink Clan, that was an incalculable loss.
On top of that, Yang Kai had single-handedly destroyed nearly ten Domain Lord-level Ink Nets, causing hundreds or even thousands of Lord-level Ink Nests to wither in turn. He had killed hundreds of thousands of Ink Clan in the process, leaving the Ink Clan heartland in utter chaos. Massive numbers of Lords had gathered around the few surviving Domain Lord-level Ink Nests, standing guard to protect them.
Now *that* was a blow that struck at the very foundation of the Ink Clan.
In every previous siege of a Human Race stronghold, the Ink Clan had sustained their assaults for so long primarily because they could continuously funnel reinforcements from the rear. Now, thanks to Yang Kai's rampage, the number of troops they could dispatch would be drastically reduced. The Ink Clan might not dare commit too many more forces at all, lest they create a dangerous gap in their future strength.
If that was truly the case, then this great battle might be over sooner than anyone expected. Without reinforcements from behind, how could the Ink Clan army withstand the attrition the Human Race could inflict? Once the Ink Clan's forces on the battlefield ran dry, a retreat would be inevitable.
With this knowledge in hand, the soldiers of Yin-Yang Pass were electrified with renewed vigor.
Yang Kai's solo incursion deep into Ink Clan territory—destroying those numerous Ink Nests and rescuing over three hundred Artificers, including three Artificer Grandmasters—was, for the Human Race, a deed of immeasurable merit.
Wu Xinghe and the others had already been released from Yang Kai's Small Universe and were now assigned to the Artificer Hall, repairing the warships that had sustained damage during the fighting.
Wu Xinghe and his companions had originally been Seventh-Order cultivators. At Yang Kai's request, they had voluntarily cut their cultivation back to the Sixth Order so they could hide inside his Small Universe. It was no great matter, however—once they had the Primordial Spirit Fruit, they could easily restore themselves to their former rank.
The great battle raged on with unrelenting intensity. Almost daily, the soldiers of both races clashed in dozens of small-scale skirmishes, and every ten days or so, a full-scale engagement erupted.
Strictly speaking, this was Yang Kai's first time participating in the defense of a Human Race stronghold.
During his previous time at Azure Border Pass, he had taken part as well, but in the early stages he had been stuck behind the walls assisting with the refinement of the Ink-Expelling Warships. By the time he finally managed to sneak out and join the fighting, he had stumbled upon the Royal Lord's trail, which had immediately triggered a decisive confrontation. Because of him, the Ink Clan army had suffered devastating losses, and the battle settled the entire campaign in one stroke.
This time was different.
There were no convenient coincidences or strokes of luck. Though the momentum now favored Yin-Yang Pass, driving the Ink Clan army back entirely would still be an arduous task.
Fortunately, with the Royal Lord absent from the battlefield, the Ink Clan army's coordination seemed sluggish. Many Domain Lords led their own forces independently, unable to form effective cooperation with one another.
The soldiers of Yin-Yang Pass exploited this weakness, gaining significant advantages in battle after battle.
The entire region around Yin-Yang Pass had become an enormous meat grinder.
Every major engagement claimed countless Ink Clan lives. Human Race soldiers suffered casualties as well, but thanks to the warships' protection, the numbers remained relatively low—within acceptable limits.
Yang Kai was technically a soldier of Azure Border Pass and held no official unit at Yin-Yang Pass. Nevertheless, Tang Qiu took the initiative to temporarily assign him to Xu Linggong's squad.
Following the squad into battle again and again, Yang Kai witnessed firsthand the brutality of the battlefield. Though he had experienced wars this horrific many times throughout his growth—when the Great Demon God had ravaged the Star Boundary, every cultivator in the world had been dragged into the conflict, and the Star Boundary had nearly been destroyed, with billions of cultivators facing annihilation. In the end, it had taken the combined might of the Great Emperors to halt the Great Demon God's madness.
Yet no matter how many times he experienced such horrors, each one brought him new, profound impressions.
Because of Yang Kai's presence, Xu Linggong's squad cut down enormous numbers of enemies and earned vast battle merits in every engagement. The prolonged killing had imbued every human soldier with an indescribable aura of killing intent, and once that killing intent erupted on the battlefield, it could strike fear into the hearts of the Ink Clan.
Deploy. Rest. Deploy again. Rest again. The cycle repeated endlessly.
Yang Kai had all but lost track of time. He seized every available moment—either healing his wounds or slaying the enemy.