Before Yang Kai had come to this Ink Battlefield, Guard-class warships had essentially been the largest warships the Human Race possessed—there had been no such thing as Town-class warships.
When the Human Race's Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators fought the enemy on the battlefield, they primarily relied on their own methods, coordinating with their warships. As a result, the Seventh-Orders would never hide inside warships during battle. This was especially true for the Eighth-Orders—once a battle began, their main task was to keep watch over the Ink Clan Domain Lords within their assigned sectors. Even with warship support, they would only be a burden.
Guard-class warships were essentially the central command hub of each Town. For instance, the Dayan Eastern and Western Armies mobilized this time—each Town possessed a single Guard-class warship, and the Eighth-Order Town Commander would command from aboard that Guard-class warship, issuing all manner of orders.
The Eastern and Western Armies had sixty Towns, which meant sixty Guard-class warships. On each Guard-class warship, in addition to the Eighth-Order Town Commander, there were various support personnel, though the total number generally did not exceed half a Guard's complement—roughly fifty people.
Guard-class warships were larger than Squad-class warships and possessed greater destructive power as well. In battlefield operations, the role a Guard-class warship could fulfill was not much inferior to what the Dawn could achieve.
After Yang Kai arrived on the Ink Battlefield, the Human Race had built even more massive Purification Warships thanks to the Purifying Light. In terms of defense and offensive power, the Purification Warship itself was not vastly superior to a Guard-class warship, but the Purifying Light sealed within it was the Human Race's greatest weapon for dispersing the power of Ink. The Grand Cosmos Array deployed inside it also played a tremendous role. As a result, the Purification Warship carried greater symbolic significance.
The ship Yang Kai had come to this time was the warship serving as the command center of the Qian Yi Town—one of the same commanders who had just sent out the voice transmission.
A Town's forces numbered five hundred, organized under five Guards, each Guard containing eight or nine squads. As a result, roughly forty to fifty Seventh-Order squad leaders had gathered here.
The Town Commander of Qian Yi Town was Xu Yongda—the man personally appointed by Xiang Shan at the Fengyun Pass plaza. Yang Kai had an impression of him.
On the deck, Xu Yongda stood with his hands clasped behind his back as the various squad leaders arrived one after another and took their places in orderly formation before him.
Seeing that Yang Kai had also come over, Xu Yongda merely swept a glance at him and said nothing further. It was clear he knew that the leader of this special squad had simply come to get in on the intelligence.
Before long, Xu Yongda's adjutant sidled up to him and murmured, "Sir, everyone is present."
Xu Yongda nodded and then spoke: "I've called you all here because orders have come down from above." As he spoke, his adjutant waved a hand, and suddenly a variety of supplies of different attributes materialized before them—dozens of items in total, all manner of things.
These supplies varied in grade and attribute, leaving everyone staring at them in confusion.
Xu Yongda stepped forward and pointed at the supplies one by one. "After you return, each of you is to gather these items displayed before you. Any grade will do—bring as much as you can."
The same type of material could differ in grade depending on its formation conditions and age. Those with favorable conditions and sufficient years would be of higher grade, while those without would be lower.
One Seventh-Order squad leader asked doubtfully, "Sir, what are we gathering these for?"
Xu Yongda replied, "The higher-ups have their own use for them. Don't ask so many questions—just gather what you're told. You have half a day. Each squad leader is responsible for their own squad. Collect every item shown here and bring it to this location."
"Yes, sir!" The squad leaders accepted their orders and dispersed.
On this Ink Battlefield, there was an unwritten rule: every warrior, upon leaving their stationed Pass, would leave all their supplies behind at their quarters. During wartime especially, they would generally not carry too many supplies onto the battlefield.
This was to prevent loss in the event of an unexpected encounter outside—if they fell in battle, their belongings wouldn't be lost along with them. By leaving everything at their quarters, even if they perished, the things they left behind could still be put to use by others.
The Human Race on the Ink Battlefield had endured very harsh conditions in the past, with all manner of supplies in short supply. Although the situation had improved considerably, the deeply ingrained mindset from all those years had never changed.
However, the soldiers of the Dayan Eastern and Western Armies were in a different situation this time. They were heading to retake Dayan Pass—and whether they lived or died, they would never return to their original Passes. From the moment they had joined the Eastern and Western Armies, they had become members of the Dayan Army.
That was why, before this campaign, every one of them had already brought all their possessions along. Not only that, but every Pass had distributed large quantities of cultivation resources to these soldiers, ensuring they wouldn't find themselves lacking supplies once they reached Dayan Pass.
For this very reason, the soldiers of the Dayan Eastern and Western Armies could now all be considered quite well-off.
With the higher-ups issuing orders to collect those dozens of items, it was hardly a difficult task. Thirty thousand soldiers could certainly scrape together some, and the quantities would be no small matter.
Setting everything else aside, the supplies piled up like mountains inside Yang Kai's Small Universe—those dozens of items would certainly be well represented among them.
But he couldn't figure out why the higher-ups wanted these things gathered. It seemed like a spur-of-the-moment decision; otherwise, they should have prepared everything back at the Pass rather than collecting supplies en route during the march.
If it was indeed a last-minute decision, then the higher-ups must have come up with something special along the way—quite possibly related to that earlier battle.
His thoughts churned, but Yang Kai quickly returned to the Dawn.
A Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator immediately approached him. "Junior Brother Yang!"
Yang Kai looked up and recognized the man as Li Xing, who had come from the Biluo Pass. Biluo Pass had sent a total of five hundred people on this campaign. Even if Yang Kai didn't know all of them by name, he could at least recognize most by sight.