The Ink Clan army continued its march, sweeping past the spot where the Dawn Squad was hidden and pushing deeper into the Floating Continent region.
From Yang Kai's vantage point, the Ink Clan host resembled a massive ink-black dragon plunging headlong into a death trap.
The ink-black dragon's head soon entered the central zone, followed by the body.
Everything was going smoothly.
Just as the ink-black dragon's tail was about to slip into the Floating Continent region, an Ink Clan Lord marching at the very front suddenly raised a hand. Dense Ink Force surged forth and shattered a floating continent that blocked the path.
It was a casual strike, nothing more—the floating continent debris was simply in the way.
Yet that single blow shook the heavens.
When the floating continent fractured, several Human Race warships materialized like ghosts. Figures swarmed across their decks.
The Ink Clan Lord was completely stunned!
The Human warriors aboard those warships were equally speechless. They had been lying in ambush perfectly well, using the floating continent as cover to conceal their presence and auras. Without the slightest warning, they had been exposed?
When the floating continent shattered, they had assumed the Ink Clan had discovered them. But when their eyes met, the Human warriors realized this was nothing more than a coincidence—otherwise, the Ink Clan Lord who had struck wouldn't have been so astonished.
Whether intentional or accidental, however, their squads were now exposed. Just as the team leaders were debating how to handle the situation, a long howl suddenly echoed through the void, reverberating in everyone's minds.
It was the signal to attack!
The team leaders wasted no more time. With a single command, the warships unleashed their full might—Artifacts and formation arrays blazing to life. Massive beams of light, brimming with terrifying destructive power, thundered into the Ink Clan vanguard. The dazed Ink Clan Lord hadn't even begun to process what was happening before the light consumed him, instantly wounding him grievously. The low-rank and high-rank Ink Clan around him suffered even heavier casualties.
It wasn't just those few squads. The moment the attack signal rang out, every Human warrior hidden on the far side of the floating continents erupted into action.
Overwhelming torrents of secret arts and Artifact power, multicolored brilliance of every hue, transformed the dead-silent void into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic world in an instant.
In this world, death was the eternal melody.
Caught off guard by the sudden assault, the Ink Clan was thrown into panic. The three-hundred-thousand-strong army had been marching peacefully along this route—the very path the Ink Clan always took when attacking Great Evolution Pass. The ten Domain Lords commanding the army had traversed it countless times and never encountered anything unexpected here. Yet today, an entire Human army had been lying in wait!
How could a Human army be ambushing them here? The Domain Lords were shaken with disbelief.
Ever since Great Evolution Pass had fallen to the Ink Clan, the Humans of Azure Wind Pass had been in a perpetually suppressed state. Those Humans couldn't possibly venture more than fifty million li from Azure Wind Pass, let alone come all the way to a place like this.
The distance from here to Azure Wind Pass was far beyond a hundred million li!
Where had these Humans come from? If they had come from Azure Wind Pass, what were the Ink Clan forces stationed there doing?
But if they hadn't come from Azure Wind Pass, their origin was utterly inexplicable.
The Ink Clan's Nest did possess unimaginable advantages in transmitting information, but an army on the march couldn't exactly carry a Nest with them. Communication across the void was extremely inconvenient. How could this Ink Clan army possibly know that the Ink Clan near Azure Wind Pass had been nearly wiped out? They were still following their original plan, marching toward what they believed was a reinforcement of the Azure Wind Pass Ink Clan.
In the brief instant the Domain Lords were frozen in shock, the three-hundred-thousand-strong Ink Clan army had already suffered nearly ten percent casualties!
The sheer number of Humans left the Domain Lords shaken. Though they couldn't tally the exact count, judging by the densely packed warships, were there not at least tens of thousands lying in ambush here?
The Domain Lords were furious.
When had the Humans grown so audacious as to dare such a thing? The Ink Clan forces dispatched from the Great Evolution theater possessed an arrogance unique to their kind.
Great Evolution Pass was the only pass the Humans had ever lost—and the only pass the Ink Clan had ever taken. That alone was enough for the Ink Clan of the Great Evolution theater to hold themselves in high regard.
Over thirty thousand years of subtle conditioning and the erosion of the prevailing atmosphere had convinced the Ink Clan of the Great Evolution theater that the Humans were nothing special. The Ink Clan across the various other theaters were practically useless—they couldn't even capture a single Human pass.
So despite the sudden ambush and their considerable losses, the Ink Clan didn't panic. Every one of them felt that once they counterattacked, the Humans would crumble like paper. After all, the disparity in numbers spoke for itself.
The Human warriors leaping out from behind the floating continents soon discovered to their astonishment that these Ink Clan, far from retreating after being attacked, were charging straight toward them with fearless ferocity!
Pushing through the devastating firepower of warship after warship, they simply charged forward!
There was no formation, no strategy—just a mad rush, with casualties piling up along the way.
At the rear of the Ink Clan army was a grand and ornately designed massive tower ship. This tower ship was no Palace Artifact—merely an ordinary flight Artifact.