Although he had successfully obtained a child nest, given the special connection between a Domain Lord-level Ink Nest and a Lord-level Ink Nest, Yang Kai couldn't be certain that this child nest would actually be usable.
He would have to try it to find out.
He stored the child nest inside his Small Universe but didn't rush to incubate it, instead suppressing it somewhere within for the time being.
Shortly after, he left the Ink Nest with Feng Ying and stepped outside.
"Captain, should this Ink Nest be destroyed?" Feng Ying asked.
Yang Kai nodded. "Naturally. We can't leave it for the Mo Clan — that would be doing them a favor."
Feng Ying drew her sword. A massive sword light cleaved down through the center, and the Ink Nest split in two in an instant. Dense streams of Ink Force poured from the ruptured surfaces, and the structure visibly withered away.
Yang Kai had been monitoring the child nest within his Small Universe the entire time. After a moment, he couldn't help but sigh. "Just as I expected!"
The child nest he had expended considerable resources to obtain withered rapidly the moment the Domain Lord-level Ink Nest was destroyed. Though he had already anticipated this outcome, witnessing it firsthand still brought a pang of disappointment.
It seemed that a mysterious, intrinsic bond existed between a Domain Lord-level Ink Nest and the Lord-level Ink Nest it spawned — a connection that even the barrier of a Small Universe could not sever. When the source, the Domain Lord-level Ink Nest, was destroyed, the child nest could not survive either.
The only way to preserve the child nest would have been to leave the Domain Lord-level Ink Nest intact where it stood.
But that was obviously unrealistic. No matter how overwhelming the expeditionary army's momentum might be this time, there was no way to exterminate every last Mo Clan member in the Biluo Theater. As long as the Mo Clan wasn't completely wiped out, they would eventually return. Leaving the Domain Lord-level Ink Nest here would only benefit them in the long run.
He composed himself, then sent his Divine Sense sweeping outward to survey the surroundings. The area was completely empty — the clan members who had stayed behind to plunder resources had evidently already departed. Yang Kai wasted no more time and called out to Feng Ying: "Let's go."
The two of them activated the World Passage Art one after the other, passed through the World Passage Grand Formation, and quickly returned to Dawn.
The expeditionary army's military might could only be described as unstoppable. Along their march, faced with the overwhelming pressure of the expeditionary host, the Mo Clan simply could not mount any effective resistance. The vast majority fled at the first sign of the army, and while a few did put up a fight, they suffered devastating losses due to the vast disparity in strength.
In the half year since the expeditionary army had set out, they had successively captured four Domain Lord-level territories and directly destroyed four Domain Lord-level Ink Nest, while over dozens of Lord-level territories had fallen as well.
This was with the army advancing in a single concentrated thrust. Had they been willing to take detours, the gains would have been even greater.
However, after half a year, the expeditionary army finally encountered a hard-fought battle.
Three Domain Lord territories away from the Mo King's City, the Mo Clan had once again mustered an army of several hundred thousand. Leveraging the advantage of a Domain Lord's territory, they made a desperate stand against the expeditionary force.
The Mo Clan's counterattack was ferocious. The expeditionary army's relentless advance had undoubtedly challenged their long-held arrogance. For countless ages, it had always been the Mo Clan laying siege to human pass strongholds — never before had they been pushed so deep into their own territory by humans.
Three more Domain Lord territories ahead lay the Mo King's City itself. If the humans actually reached the city, the Mo Clan in the Biluo Theater would lose every shred of face they had.
Though the Mo Clan's Domain Lords had suffered grievous losses outside Biluo Pass, they had not been entirely wiped out. The total number of Domain Lords had always exceeded the number of Eighth-Order Commanders somewhat, and accounting for those who had remained behind and those who had escaped the slaughter outside Biluo Pass, the Mo Clan in the entire Biluo Theater still had at least forty Domain Lords.
Standing in the expeditionary army's path was a Mo Clan army led by more than twenty of those Domain Lords.
Over the span of three short months, nearly a hundred engagements — large and small — erupted between the two sides, with both suffering casualties. The expeditionary army displayed a tenacity and valor that horrified the Mo Clan. An army of several hundred thousand was battered and broken, then reformed, then battered and broken again, then reformed once more, in an endless cycle.
On terrain like this, the Mo Clan held a significant advantage. Their reinforcements didn't need to traverse great distances — they could easily converge from all directions, even seizing opportunities to encircle the expeditionary army's main camp.
Both sides engaged in a contest of wits and courage over that single Domain Lord's territory, battling in fierce, blood-soaked engagements until the vast expanse of the void became a graveyard for the Mo Clan.
It took a full year before that Domain Lord's territory was finally conquered. Over that year, the number of Mo Clan killed easily exceeded a million. The surrounding void was almost entirely engulfed by dense Ink Force, with massive clouds of ink shrouding heaven and earth.
Setting aside the countless expendable Mo Clan foot soldiers, even among the Domain Lords, two more had been slain during that year.
The Mo Clan retreated to the next Domain Lord's territory, and it could be imagined that what awaited the expeditionary army there would be even fiercer counterattacks and resistance.
This was the same situation Yang Kai had encountered when causing havoc at the Yin-Yang Pass. The deeper the advance, the more concentrated the force the Mo Clan could rally — and naturally, the greater the resistance would become.