Several days' journey from Fengyun Pass, the Ink Clan army of three hundred thousand had stumbled into a human ambush and been utterly destroyed. Of the ten Domain Lords who had marched with the army, nine had fallen. Only he, by sheer luck, had escaped with his life.
But over a year of fleeing had left him utterly spent. An enormous sense of danger pressed down from behind, giving him the constant illusion that someone was pursuing him.
Yet no matter how he probed, there was no trace of any pursuers.
When he finally laid eyes on the towering fortress ahead, Zhechong had never felt it look so welcoming. The moment he stepped through the gates of Dayan Pass, the heart he had been holding up for so long finally settled.
Over thirty thousand years. Since the Ink Clan had conquered Dayan Pass, every army dispatched from here to reinforce the two nearby battle zones had ended up dying near Fengyun Pass or Qingxu Pass. Not once in all that time had an army been ambushed by humans along the way and nearly annihilated to a man.
During the long road back, Zhechong had turned the matter over and over in his mind but could not make sense of it. Where had the humans at Fengyun Pass found the manpower and the energy to stage an ambush in such a place? By all rights, they should have been too busy defending against the Ink Clan's siege to spare a single soldier.
In the end, he had arrived at one possibility — and that possibility unsettled him.
Dayan Pass had originally been one of the human fortresses, painstakingly expanded over countless generations by the elites of the Dayan Blessed Land. Thirty-odd thousand years ago, it had been no different from any other human stronghold. Tens of thousands of human warriors, led by the Dayan Ancestor, had held this ground and refused to let the Ink Clan cross a single step.
But now, the entire Dayan Pass was shrouded in dense Power of Ink. And at the central plaza of the fortress, a colossal Ink Nest stood rooted in place.
The Ink Nest resembled a bud of ink-black petals, on the verge of blooming. As it subtly pulsed — expanding, contracting — vast quantities of dense Power of Ink spilled outward from within.
The structure stood hundreds, perhaps a thousand zhang tall, its base nearly engulfing the entire plaza. Seen from a distance, it looked like a pitch-black mountain.
It was clearly a Domain Lord–level Ink Nest.
Ink Nests were the foundation of the Ink Clan. The presence of a Domain Lord–level Ink Nest here meant that this territory belonged to a particular Domain Lord, one who stationed himself here permanently.
That was only natural. As the first — and only — fortress the Ink Clan had ever conquered, Dayan Pass could not simply be abandoned. Even if nothing else, maintaining a Domain Lord here was essential for bolstering morale.
And the Domain Lord who had been stationed at Dayan Pass was the most powerful being in this entire battle zone: Domain Lord Hongdi.
Rumor had it that this Domain Lord was only a single step away from the rank of King Master. But that rumor had persisted for tens of thousands of years, and to this day, there was no sign that Hongdi had made any advancement.
Though he had not broken through, Hongdi was indeed a supremely diligent cultivator. Even though he was stationed at Dayan Pass, he spent virtually all his time inside the Ink Nest, channeling its power to aid his cultivation. His subordinates speculated that Hongdi was likely attempting to take that final step and join the ranks of the King Masters.
In truth, in the years right after the Ink Clan had seized Dayan Pass, Hongdi had not been the only Domain Lord stationed here — several had been assigned simultaneously.
That was because the Ink Clan had been guarding against a human counterattack. But thirty-odd thousand years had passed, and the humans seemed to care very little about Dayan Pass. They had shown no intention of retaking it, so the Ink Clan had gradually stopped worrying.
All Domain Lords except Hongdi — the strongest among them — had returned to their respective territories.
Keeping the most powerful one behind had been a precautionary measure on the Ink Clan's part.
They knew the humans would launch a counterattack eventually. It was simply a matter of when.
Dayan Pass had since become Hongdi's personal domain, though the fortress was still lively enough. After all, the Ink Clan armies reinforcing the Qingxu and Dayan battle zones typically assembled here before setting out.
Three-odd years ago, an army of three hundred thousand had departed from here, marching straight toward the humans' Fengyun Pass.
So when Zhechong suddenly appeared at Dayan Pass, Hongdi was quite startled.
Not because Zhechong had returned so quickly — but because he had returned alive. Hongdi, thanks to his position at Dayan Pass and the intelligence afforded by the Ink Nest, was able to obtain information with relative ease.
Zhechong was equally surprised, because he had visited Dayan Pass many times before and almost never encountered Hongdi. The man was perpetually in seclusion, deep in cultivation. Many of the other Domain Lords maliciously joked that perhaps he had died inside the Ink Nest — why else would no one have seen him for so many years?
The two Domain Lords met in a grand hall. Compared to the road-worn Zhechong, Hongdi was visibly more vibrant and composed.
The Ink Clan had none of the human customs of serving tea to guests. Once they had each taken their seats, Hongdi regarded Zhechong and probed cautiously, "Did anything noteworthy happen during the army's march?"
He had not asked where the three hundred thousand troops had gone, or why only one of the ten Domain Lords had returned. One glance at Zhechong's haggard appearance told him enough. The question was merely for confirmation.
Zhechong nodded hastily. "Several days' journey from Fengyun Pass, on a floating continent, we walked into a human ambush. The humans had a Ninth-Order Ancestor overseeing the operation, along with fifty or sixty Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators. Our army couldn't hold — it was nearly wiped out. I was the only one who escaped by luck!"
Hongdi listened and gave a slight nod, his expression one of "just as expected." Then again, a three-hundred-thousand-strong Ink Clan army running into the humans' kind of lineup — survival was practically impossible. Zhechong having made it back at all was genuinely fortunate.
Zhechong was shocked. "You already knew about this?"