Yang Kai listened with his jaw hanging open.
To stop a single person from advancing to the Eighth Order, the Ink Clan was willing to shatter a balance that had been maintained for decades? If anyone else had said so, it would have been arrogance plain and simple, but from Xiang Shan, it was entirely plausible.
He turned his head toward the direction of the forward camp, wondering how the battle there was progressing. In its current state, Dawn wouldn't be able to join the fight anytime soon.
Xiang Shan smiled. "Get some good rest. If we head back in a few days, we might still catch the tail end."
The void was silent, and for a time, no one spoke.
It took a full several days before everyone's condition improved considerably. They gathered their squads, recovered their warships, and under Xiang Shan's leadership, activated the Universe Art to return to the forward camp.
By the time they arrived, the great battle at the front was already winding down. The Ink Clan had suffered another crushing defeat.
In terms of numbers, the Ink Clan held an overwhelming advantage — but since when had the Humans ever fought with superior numbers? Facing enemies tens of times their count was something long since second nature.
However, the reason this battle ended so quickly was that the Ink Clan was unwilling to keep entangling with the Humans. In truth, the moment the Domain Lords sensed the aura of Wujiang's demise, they knew the plan had failed. Though they had no idea what exactly had befallen Wujiang and Hong Hu, it was obvious they had once again fallen for the Humans' scheme, resulting in yet another Domain Lord's death.
The hastily launched war had been meant to tie down the Humans' Eighth-Order cultivators, paving the way for Wujiang and Hong Hu to succeed on their end. Now that their side had already failed, continuing the fight was pointless.
Unsure of what other cards the Humans might still have to play, the Ink Clan Domain Lords were unwilling to take any further risks. They decisively led their forces in a retreat.
That retreat spanned tens of millions of li!
The soldiers of the forward camp gave chase for a time and managed to carve off quite a bit of Ink Clan flesh and blood. However, under the Eighth-Order cultivators' restraint, the Human army did not press too deep. Once they reached a certain point, they returned in triumph.
This was the scene that greeted Yang Kai and his group upon their return — they didn't even get a chance to make a move.
Post-battle statistics showed that only just over two hundred thousand Ink Clan soldiers had been killed in this battle. Over a thousand Ink Clan Lords had fallen, though no Domain Lords perished.
Such results were not particularly bountiful, but given that the Humans had been fighting the Ink Clan from a position as far forward as the forward camp, they were entirely acceptable.
After this battle, the larger situation had stabilized. The Ink Clan had completely abandoned more than half their territory. In fact, when Human soldiers ventured out now — starting from Biluo Pass and ending at the forward camp — they could no longer spot a single Ink Clan member. The days of hunting each other through the void, as in the past, were gone for good.
Biluo Pass had achieved tremendous success in the fight against the Ink Clan. When the news spread to the other passes, it sent morale skyrocketing among their garrisons, filling them with envy.
But everyone knew that Biluo Pass's success could not be replicated.
The foundation for all these victories had been laid decades ago in the battle outside Biluo Pass. In that battle, Biluo Pass activated the traps of its century-long grand plan, annihilating over thirty Domain Lords in one stroke and dealing a devastating blow to the Ink Clan's vitality.
Only because Biluo Pass had Yang Kai — who could locate and open the portals to those Universe Paradises and Universe Cave Heavens — could they have set up so many traps. No other pass possessed such capability.
Moreover, for the Humans to mount their expedition and drive the nail of the forward camp deep into the Ink Clan's heartland, they had needed two Universe Grand Formations as relay points — an advance to strike at the Ink Clan, a retreat back to Biluo Pass. Without them, an isolated force pushing too deep would inevitably be whittled down by the Ink Clan.
The Universe Grand Formation was something that only Yang Kai could currently set up.
Biluo Pass's victories were inextricably linked to Yang Kai, but there was only one Yang Kai. The other passes simply could not follow suit.
Furthermore, once the news had spread, the Ink Clan across various war zones had grown more vigilant. Now, when they besieged Human passes, they were cautious at every turn — terrified of suffering the same fate as their kin in the Biluo Pass war zone, being lured into a web of traps and annihilated in one fell swoop.
Fortunately, no matter how they probed, the areas outside the other Human passes seemed free of traps, which finally put the Ink Clan across different war zones at ease.
Ever since the Human soldiers had set foot in the Ink Battlefield, they had been through a great war nearly every hundred years. Even between wars, they were seldom at peace — they needed to gather cultivation resources, conserve their energy and build up their strength, and prepare for the next great war. And so the cycle repeated, over and over.
The Ink Battlefield's unique environment had also trapped the Humans within their various passes, unable to roam freely. Even when searching for cultivation resources, they could not stray too far from their own garrison.
But for Biluo Pass, this situation had begun to change.
The Ink Clan's crushing defeat in the last great war had led them to completely abandon any intention of reclaiming their lost territory. Now, when Biluo Pass soldiers ventured out, as long as they did not push beyond the forward camp, they would essentially never encounter a single Ink Clan member. The vast void had practically become Biluo Pass's personal garden, free for the taking.
In this tranquil state, the soldiers of Biluo Pass began to rest and recharge, accumulating their strength.
This period of recuperation lasted a full two hundred years!
Everyone found it utterly strange.