At this position, if the master and disciple were discovered by the Ink Clan, even with Ouyang Lie, an Eighth-Order, among them, escape from this place would be out of the question. The Ink Clan's Domain Lord stationed at Great Abyss Pass could arrive in an instant and strike them down.
Gong Lian was thoroughly unhappy. He felt his master was courting death.
Yet as a disciple, he really had no grounds to criticize his master's decisions. All he could do was exercise as much caution as possible.
Because they were so dangerously close, even though both their auras and forms were concealed, Ouyang Lie didn't dare casually glance toward Great Abyss Pass. He worried that an inadvertent look might alert some powerful Ink Clan expert.
So from beginning to end, he left it to his disciple to scout the situation in Great Abyss Pass's direction.
Gong Lian's innate special ability not only granted him an extremely keen sense of approaching danger, but also suppressed his own presence to an absolute minimum when he wished to observe something. As long as he was careful enough, even a Domain Lord wouldn't notice him.
These days, Gong Lian had been living a miserable existence.
A man who had always been lazy and easygoing, he was now compelled to monitor Great Abyss Pass's movements around the clock, reporting every shift in the wind to his master. He didn't even have time to zone out anymore.
After all, that spaced-out, mind-drifting reverie was the greatest pleasure of his life. In that state, he could empty his entire body and mind, achieving an unparalleled sense of satisfaction.
"Brat!" Ouyang Lie suddenly jabbed his disciple with an elbow, since the younger man had gone still for quite some time. "Spacing out again?"
Gong Lian flinched and flatly denied it. "No way, absolutely not! I was scouting the Ink Clan's movements around Great Abyss Pass. Master, stop slandering me all the time — at least give your disciple a little trust."
Ouyang Lie knew his disciple's habits perfectly well and didn't call him out on it. He simply asked, "Any changes over there?"
"Nothing major. It's just that the four walls of Great Abyss Pass seem to have a lot more Ink Clan experts on them now. It almost looks like…"
"Like what?" Ouyang Lie pressed.
"Like they're guarding against something?" Gong Lian said uncertainly.
Ouyang Lie twitched his mouth. "They have nearly a million troops garrisoned here. Naturally they've always been on guard against a Human Race army attacking the Pass."
"It's different." Gong Lian shook his head. "They had troops stationed before, but not like this — not with this level of mobilization. The feeling I'm getting now is as if the Human Race army is about to appear at their gates and they're already making preparations for a major battle."
Ouyang Lie's eyebrows shot up. "The Ink Clan is preparing? Has something happened with Brother Mi's forces?"
But that shouldn't be the case. If Mi Jinglun's forces had made any move, he would surely have found a way to send word. He wouldn't just leave them in the dark without so much as a heads-up. But if it wasn't the Northern and Southern Armies making trouble, could it be the Eastern and Western Armies?
Ouyang Lie quickly asked, "Which direction is the Ink Clan's current defensive deployment focused on? Left or right?"
If left, they were guarding against the Eastern and Western Armies. If right, against the Northern and Southern Armies.
Gong Lian replied, "From my vantage point, it's the left. That side alone has over a dozen Domain Lords on the wall, all standing there scanning the distance."
Ouyang Lie's brow furrowed. The Ink Clan at Great Abyss Pass was indeed guarding against the direction the Eastern and Western Armies would approach from. But if that was the case, why hadn't the Eastern and Western Armies made contact with them until now? Were they about to assault the Pass? Xiang Shan couldn't be that reckless.
Even if Xiang Shan was unreliable, the Old Ancestor was there overseeing things.
Just as he was growing increasingly suspicious, Gong Lian suddenly furrowed his brow. "Master, I feel something coming this way."
"Something? The Ink Clan's Domain Lord?" Ouyang Lie tensed.
Gong Lian shook his head. "Not the Ink Clan's Domain Lord. No sense of danger. But whatever is approaching has an extremely powerful aura… incredibly powerful!"
Ouyang Lie had no idea what his disciple was talking about, but he knew the boy wouldn't make things up without reason. He cursed the fact that, at this position, he didn't dare make any overt movements; otherwise he could have released his Divine Sense to investigate.
But there was no longer any need for him to do so. Moments after Gong Lian spoke, Ouyang Lie himself detected the powerful presence his disciple had described.
It was indeed formidable. Even across this vast distance, the aura pierced through the void and reached them.
What confused Ouyang Lie, however, was that while the aura was strong, it was also somewhat chaotic — as though countless streams of presence had been fused together into one.
At that thought, Ouyang Lie's expression changed dramatically.
Unlike the cautious, unclear picture Ouyang Lie and his disciple were getting, at this very moment, on the towering ramparts of Great Abyss Pass near Winds of Fortune Pass, over a dozen Domain Lords stood shoulder to shoulder. With their Domain Lord-level perception, they could clearly sense the earth-shaking momentum of the Human Race army gathering in the void half a day's journey away.
That momentum was like an unsheathed sword, plunging forward with unstoppable resolve — a terrifying spectacle.
Though the Domain Lords had been spouting bold words in the great hall earlier, after personally feeling this surge of power, every one of them wore a grave expression.
The Human Race had gone mad! They were charging straight in without the slightest attempt at concealment, as if the Ink Clan weren't even worth taking seriously.
With the Human Race army bearing down, the Ink Clan certainly couldn't sit idle. One command after another rang out from the Domain Lords, and countless Ink Clan soldiers sprang into motion.
In an instant, all of Great Abyss Pass was engulfed in the ominous calm before a storm, the oppressive, murderous atmosphere shrouding the entire fortress.
……
"Master! Something's terribly wrong — it's the Human Race army!" Roughly half an hour later, Gong Lian suddenly let out a sharp cry.
Ouyang Lie's face was grim, and he said nothing. In truth, he had already guessed as much before this. That tremendous yet chaotic aura could only be the advance of a massive army.