Half of the Ink Clan army at Dayan Pass had set out, following the orders of the Ink Clan King and marching toward the Royal City. Tens of millions of li to the flank of this army, a solitary figure trailed silently in their wake.
That person was none other than Ouyang Lie.
Yang Kai and Gong Lian had returned to the Demon-Expelling Warship one after another to relay intelligence. Now, operating alone, his movements were all the more covert.
Moreover, the Ink Clan never imagined that an eighth-grade Open Heaven expert would be monitoring their movements from tens of millions of li away. Ouyang Lie had not a shred of concern about being exposed.
The East-West Army had already begun its assault in the heart of Ink Clan territory. As for the North-South Army, once Mi Jinglun received detailed intelligence, he would undoubtedly lead his forces to intercept the Dayan Pass Ink Clan reinforcements at some strategic location. The problem was that the North-South Army had only recently arrived and was unfamiliar with the terrain of this war theater, making the selection of a suitable battlefield a challenge in itself.
By shadowing the Dayan Pass Ink Clan reinforcements, Ouyang Lie could keep abreast of their movements in real time. When the moment was right, he could personally return to the North-South Army and guide their advance.
On the other side, deep in Ink Clan territory, the East-West Army, led by Xiang Shan and Liu Zhiping, surged forward at full speed. Every warship had been pushed to its maximum velocity, and the enormous fleet carved streaks of light through the void.
Days earlier, the thirty thousand soldiers of the East-West Army had reached the first Domain Lord's territory. Though that territory was garrisoned by a Domain Lord, tens of thousands of battle-ready Ink Clan, and even hundreds of thousands of expendable Ink Clan grunts, they crumbled before the momentum of the East-West Army.
Xiang Shan took action personally, slaying the Domain Lord in less time than it took to finish a cup of tea. Tens of thousands of Ink Clan soldiers were annihilated in a flash, and the hundreds of thousands of grunts were slaughtered to the last.
The Domain Lord-tier Ink Nest was destroyed just as quickly.
The entire Domain Lord's territory became a dead zone. Ink Clan severed limbs and mangled flesh lay everywhere, and the Ink Force released by the mass of Ink Clan deaths coalesced into a vast Ink Cloud that shrouded the void.
They didn't even bother looting spoils of war. After dismantling this Domain Lord's territory, the army immediately pressed onward, continuing its advance into the Ink Clan heartland.
This was truly a moment when speed was the soul of war.
According to the original plan, the Ink Clan King should have already been lured to Dayan Pass. If the East-West Army could seize the King's absence to breach the Ink Clan Royal City and destroy the King-tier Ink Nest, then wiping out every Ink Clan in this war theater would be only a matter of time.
Thus, the East-West Army's sole objective was to destroy the King-tier Ink Nest.
Earlier, during the assault on that Domain Lord's territory, the Grand Ancestor had personally entered the Domain Lord-tier Ink Nest. Following the intelligence Yang Kai had provided beforehand, she had linked her consciousness with the Nest's will to divine the approximate location of the King-tier Ink Nest.
This was the same method Yang Kai had employed years ago when wreaking havoc behind Ink Clan lines in the Yin-Yang war theater — using the Ink Nests to locate other Domain Lord-tier Nests.
He had reported this method to the Grand Ancestor of Yin-Yang Pass, so she naturally knew of it.
What Yang Kai could do, the Grand Ancestor had no trouble replicating — and she accomplished it with far greater ease.
Through that Domain Lord-tier Ink Nest, the Grand Ancestor quickly pinpointed the approximate location of the King-tier Ink Nest, and the direction the East-West Army was now racing toward corresponded exactly to that position.
Along the way, they passed several Territory Lord-tier domains, but the East-West Army didn't waste a single moment on them — they had no intention of attacking.
However, Xiang Shan and the others soon noticed a problem.
These Territory Lord-tier domains were virtually devoid of any meaningful Ink Clan presence.
According to the intelligence Yang Kai had provided earlier, a mature Territory Lord's domain should have had several Territory Lords stationed there, with no shortage of superior and inferior Ink Clan, along with a large force of Ink Clan grunts. When a Domain Lord mustered an army, each Territory Lord could easily rally several hundred subordinates, and through continuous consolidation these forces would swell into a proper army under the Domain Lord's command.
Yet the Territory Lord-tier domains they now encountered not only lacked any trace of Territory Lords — even superior and inferior Ink Clan were almost entirely absent. Only Ink Clan grunts remained, recently spawned from Ink Nests, possessing little strength and lacking the ability to traverse the void.
This was all within expectations.
The Ink Clan's intelligence network was staggeringly fast. Each Ink Nest served as a node for transmitting information. Any news, propagated through the power of the Ink Nests, could be known by every Ink Clan across the entire war theater in an instant.
The news that the East-West Army had appeared in Ink Clan territory and destroyed a Domain Lord's domain had certainly already been spread.
Every Ink Clan in the Dayan war theater surely knew by now.
Xiang Shan and his officers had intended to march at maximum speed toward the Ink Clan Royal City and demolish the King-tier Ink Nest, but it was now apparent that the Ink Clan's response was making that plan difficult to carry out.
The Ink Clan garrisoning these Territory Lord-tier domains along their path had clearly received word and departed for the Royal City, leaving behind only grunts who lacked the power to travel through the void.
It was foreseeable that when the East-West Army arrived at the Royal City, what awaited them would be a vast Ink Clan army.
Inside the Demon-Expelling Warship, Xiang Shan's expression remained unchanged. The Ink Clan's response was faster than anticipated — but this too was within expectations, and it was precisely the scenario the East-West Army had intended to create.