Dawn finally came to a halt within the designated region, which was already quite far from Biluo Pass. Traveling by flight alone, even a Seventh-Order cultivator like Yang Kai would need around ten days to make it back.
This location was essentially at the outer limit of Biluo Pass's Heaven and Earth Grand Array's range—any further and they'd be outside its reach. The distance was ideal. If they spotted the Ink Clan's army, they could rush back in time for the pass to prepare its defenses. Even if they ran into danger, they still had a chance to activate the Heaven and Earth Escape Art and flee. It was a place where they could fight or withdraw as they pleased.
Yang Kai parked Dawn on a fragment of a destroyed Heaven and Earth, shut down most of the active formations, and had the squad's formation specialists set up concealment and protective arrays.
With that in place, even if Ink Clan forces happened to pass nearby, they might miss them entirely without careful probing. This would serve as the Dawn Squad's temporary base of operations.
For any other squad, these preparations would have been considered mission complete—all that remained was to lie low and monitor the surrounding area.
In truth, this particular assignment wasn't all that dangerous. They simply needed to scout the Ink Clan army's movements.
However, Dawn Squad was different from other squads—not only because of its extraordinary roster, but because of Dawn's unique capabilities.
Dawn itself housed a Heaven and Earth Grand Array personally laid by Yang Kai, and within that array, several purifications of Purifying Light had been sealed away. Strictly speaking, Dawn was essentially a miniature version of a Purging Ink Vessel.
With Dawn at their disposal, Dawn Squad's operational range could expand considerably—and the increase was multiplicative, something no other squad could hope to match.
Once the basic arrangements were made, Yang Kai issued a series of orders, directing several Seventh-Order cultivators to each lead two or three powerful Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators and push further into the void along different headings. This way, any Ink Clan army movements would be detected that much sooner.
No one raised objections. The Seventh-Order cultivators each selected two or three companions and set off in different directions.
Someone strong still needed to remain at Dawn, so Yang Kai kept Bai Yi behind. With her strength, combined with the other squad members and Dawn's support systems, they could handle anything short of a large Ink Clan force.
Yang Kai himself took Miao Feiping and set off in a particular direction.
Since their primary goal was reconnaissance, Yang Kai didn't choose to sprint through the void. That would have made them far too conspicuous. Instead, he flew at a moderate pace, which did a much better job of concealing their energy fluctuations.
In this vast expanse of the void, they were just two insignificant specks—who would pay them any mind without a thorough search?
"Nervous?" Yang Kai glanced back at Miao Feiping. Ever since they'd left Biluo Pass, the young man had been a bundle of tension and anticipation, and it had been over ten days now with no change.
"Huh?" Miao Feiping had been lost in thought. Startled by Yang Kai's question, he hurried to reply. "No, not nervous… well, maybe a little. The senior brothers told me Ink Clan come in all sorts of strange and bizarre forms. I'm really curious—what do they actually look like?"
Yang Kai chuckled. "Just like your senior brothers said—all sorts of strange and bizarre!"
Miao Feiping had been released from Yang Kai's Small World to advance to the Open Heaven Realm barely a year ago. His understanding of the Ink Battlefield, the human passes, and the Ink Clan was extremely limited. He'd lived in the void world and had no shortage of fights, but those had all been against his own kind. Being suddenly dropped onto this battlefield to face an alien race was naturally unsettling, especially after hearing the senior brothers' accounts of Ink Clan intelligence—every story made it seem like the Ink Clan were all three-headed, six-armed fiends straight out of a nightmare.
"Uncle-Master." Miao Feiping asked respectfully. "The senior brothers say that at the same rank, Ink Clan cultivators are somewhat weaker than us humans, and the gap is even more pronounced at lower cultivation levels. Is that true?"
"That's exactly right." Yang Kai nodded slightly. "This disparity arises from the difference in how the two races grow. Our human cultivators develop through vast accumulation of time and personal enlightenment. The Ink Clan are different—they're born from Ink Nests. Given sufficient resources and time, their numbers are essentially inexhaustible. Their growth does require some time, but compared to human cultivation, it's far shorter, and it's largely reliant on external means."
Miao Feiping realized with a start. "So their foundations are unstable?"
Yang Kai mused for a moment. "You could put it that way, though it's not the whole picture. The gap in strength between the two races narrows as rank increases. Between a King and an Ancestor, the difference is negligible. Between an Eighth-Order Commander and a Domain Lord, it's not significant either. Of course, in a one-on-one fight, any human Eighth-Order Commander can thoroughly defeat any Ink Clan Domain Lord."
Miao Feiping looked troubled. "Even so, the Ink Clan have their Ink Nests—they're born with strength comparable to Open Heaven cultivators from the very start. How could we ever manage to wipe them all out?"
Yang Kai smiled. "Who told you the Ink Clan are born with Open Heaven-level strength?"
"Isn't that the case?" Miao Feiping was visibly surprised.