In a one-on-one fight, the Ink Clan's King could hold his own against a human Ancestor. But in a one-on-two scenario, he stood no chance—if he showed even the slightest carelessness, he could very well be slain on the spot.
So the moment he sensed the Ancestor's aura emanating from the newcomer, he immediately understood that this place was no longer safe, and he prepared to flee without delay.
But would the Fengyun Pass Ancestor allow him to have his way? A variety of wondrous secret techniques and divine abilities were deployed with effortless ease, entangling his figure and preventing him from breaking away from the battlefield.
This brief moment of delay was all the Yinyang Pass Ancestor needed. The Yin-Yang Fish formation descended, and in an instant, yin and yang blurred together, heaven and earth were upended. The Ink Clan King felt as though the weight of an entire world had been pressed onto his body. He sank heavily, and before he could react, the Fengyun Pass Ancestor's palm struck him squarely. A terrifying surge of power erupted, and the Ink Clan King let out a muffled grunt.
By the time the Yinyang Pass Ancestor arrived and the two joined forces against one, the Ink Clan King was immediately overwhelmed.
The sudden appearance of yet another human Ancestor threw the Ink Clan into a panic. Every member of the Ink Clan turned their terrified gaze toward the source of the Ancestor's aura, hoping desperately that it was merely an illusion.
But when they saw their King being besieged by two human Ancestors, they could no longer deny it—this was no illusion. The humans truly had gained an additional Ancestor!
The Ink Clan's morale plummeted, their offensive faltering. The clamorous battlefield fell into a momentary, eerie calm.
The Domain Lords were particularly shaken. They silently congratulated themselves that this newly appeared Ancestor hadn't targeted them first, but instead gone to besiege the King.
The King could hold his own for now in a one-on-two fight without immediate mortal danger. But if that Ancestor had come for them instead, not a single Domain Lord could withstand even three of her strikes. At that level, casualties would have been devastating.
Because of one human Ancestor's appearance, the Ink Clan army's fighting spirit plummeted. Just as the Domain Lords hesitated between continuing the assault on the pass or retreating immediately, the barrier that had been enveloping Fengyun Pass suddenly opened wide!
From all four directions—east, south, west, and north—warship after warship surged forth. In an extremely short time, they charged into the battlefield, joining forces with the Fengyun Pass defenders to repel the enemy.
The combined strength of the two Dayan armies—thirty thousand troops—charged out from four directions. Eight or nine thousand appeared at each front. The human forces opposing the Ink Clan essentially doubled in an instant.
Those warships blanketed the sky, leaving the Ink Clan warriors who had been assaulting the pass staring with bulging eyes.
But that wasn't all. The moment those warships surged into the battlefield, the auras of eighth-grade Open Heaven cultivators erupted one after another. The sheer number was enough to fill every Ink Clan member with despair.
Over fifty passes had each dispatched troops to reinforce Fengyun Pass, and each had sent a varying number of eighth-grade Open Heaven cultivators as escorts—some as few as five or six, others as many as ten. Using the miniature cosmos of these eighth-grade cultivators, the various passes had transported their forces here.
When all the dispatched troops had assembled, the number of eighth-grade Open Heaven cultivators in the plaza exceeded three hundred!
Among these three hundred-plus eighth-grade cultivators, several dozen had been appointed as the regional commanders of the Dayan East and West Armies. They were to lead forces to recapture Dayan Pass.
The remaining two hundred-plus eighth-grade cultivators did not return to their respective passes either. They stayed here, waiting for this decisive battle.
Over three hundred eighth-grade cultivators thrown into the battlefield in one stroke—what a spectacle that was.
Something that would have been unimaginable before, now all of humanity witnessed with their own eyes.
Like a hot knife through butter! Crushing everything before them! Utterly unstoppable!
The Ink Clan Domain Lords finally understood why the human Ancestor hadn't come for them. There was simply no need.
The Ancestor had her own opponent—the Ink Clan's King. Two against one could achieve complete suppression, with even the possibility of slaying him. Compared to dealing with Domain Lords, killing the King was naturally far more valuable.
As for the Ink Clan's Domain Lords, the eighth-grade cultivators would handle them.
How many Domain Lords did the entire Fengyun theater of war even have? At most, around seventy or eighty. Even counting reinforcements from the Dayan theater, there were barely a hundred. They had previously been able to match the Fengyun Pass eighth-grade cultivators, even holding an advantage—but now that balance had been shattered.
The several-fold difference in numbers threw the Ink Clan Domain Lords into desperate straits. As the Dayan East and West Armies charged out from all four sides of Fengyun Pass, and as the eighth-grade cultivators began their advance, three or four eighth-grade cultivators surrounded nearly every Domain Lord.
In barely a dozen breaths' time, the aura of a fallen Domain Lord erupted from somewhere on the battlefield! That unlucky soul had been charging at the very front when five eighth-grade cultivators targeted him. He had virtually no chance to fight back before being cut down on the spot.
The fall of the first Domain Lord was like a fuse being lit. After that, across every corner of the battlefield, the tremors of Domain Lords falling rang out in rapid succession.
Not only were the Domain Lords in mortal peril, but the troops under their command were also thrown into disarray. The human counterattack had suddenly become ferocious beyond measure, and their numbers had multiplied. For the Ink Clan, their former advantage had instantaneously transformed into a crushing disadvantage. Warship after warship streaked across the sky, and entire swathes of Ink Clan lives were extinguished.
Certain positions on the battlefield were even cleared of all presence, swept clean by devastating secret techniques, divine abilities, or warship artifacts.
From the moment the Dayan East and West Armies burst forth from Fengyun Pass, barely half the time it took to finish a cup of tea had passed. The Ink Clan had suffered incalculable casualties, and more than a dozen Domain Lords had been slain. The surviving Domain Lords, though not yet dead, found themselves in desperate straits, walking on thin ice.