There was not even a sound of combat. By the time Ancestor Xiaoxiao's figure became visible once more in her original position, she was holding a captured Domain Lord in her hand.
This time it was a living Domain Lord, not merely a severed head.
Though the Domain Lord's body was enormous—several times the size of Ancestor Xiaoxiao—under the restraint of her illusory grip, he was utterly powerless to break free, left with nothing but frantic struggle.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao fixed her beautiful eyes upon the Royal Lord, whose expression simmered with cold fury. She lifted her smooth chin slightly, her face alight with provocation. "Because I want to!"
As she spoke, she applied pressure. The mighty power of heaven and earth surged, and crushing force bore down upon the captive Domain Lord.
The Domain Lord's body began to twist and distort almost immediately, and the sound of densely packed bones shattering rang out. His eyes went wide with terror as he thrashed wildly, his gaze darting toward the Royal Lord, his desperate voice transmitting through the air: "Royal Lord, save me!"
A flicker of inner conflict crossed the Royal Lord's eyes. In the end, he abandoned any thought of intervening.
Before the armies of two races, under the watchful eyes of countless soldiers from both sides, the Domain Lord that Ancestor Xiaoxiao had dragged back was crushed to pulp by invisible force, his corpse and blood spraying in every direction.
The Ink Clan seethed with outrage—but more than that, they were gripped by fear.
The human Ancestor had struck three times in succession, slaying three Domain Lords. It spoke volumes of her dominance, and yet the Royal Lord had simply watched from the sidelines the entire time, never once lifting a finger.
The situation was bizarre beyond belief.
No Royal Lord would willingly stand by and watch the Domain Lords under his command be slaughtered without attempting rescue. Doing so would be a devastating blow to his own authority.
Unless he was unable to rescue them!
It was becoming increasingly clear that the Royal Lord's injuries were far more severe than any of the Ink Clan's Domain Lords had imagined. Even as the human Ancestor killed three Domain Lords in a row and hurled repeated provocations and insults, the Royal Lord could only swallow his fury.
The Domain Lords dared not make a move.
With the Royal Lord refusing to act, no amount of defensive preparation on their part would matter against a human Ancestor intent on killing.
Since the Domain Lords held still, the forces beneath them did not dare act rashly either.
Everyone could only remain rooted in place, sitting on pins and needles.
But their stillness would not stop the dozen or so Worlds hurtling toward them. A dozen breaths after the third Domain Lord perished, the Worlds finally closed the distance.
At such close range, if they took no action, the three-tenths of the Ink Clan army deployed on the right side of the Royal City would be struck head-on. Setting aside the catastrophic casualties, even the Royal City itself might not survive.
Move and die. Stay still and die.
At last, one Domain Lord could endure no more. He thrust his hand out and unleashed a vicious secret technique toward the approaching Worlds, all while maintaining maximum vigilance against the human Ancestor.
Yet to his astonishment, though the human Ancestor had locked her aura onto him this time, she did not strike again.
Overjoyed, he felt as though he had been handed back his life for free.
Seeing his example, the other Ink Clan warriors followed suit. In an instant, a vast torrent of secret techniques converged into a roaring flood, intercepting the assault of the Worlds.
The human Ancestor still did not react.
The Ink Clan breathed a collective sigh of relief. In their minds, as long as they stayed in place and did not take the initiative to attack, the human Ancestor would not cut them down.
That was not the case at all.
Over a hundred years of Ancestor Xiaoxiao's planning and patience—engaging the Royal Lord in battle time and again, each time pretending her wounds had not yet healed, even suppressing portions of her strength so the Royal Lord would not see through the ruse.
Deceiving a Royal Lord was no simple task. The past century had been grueling for Ancestor Xiaoxiao.
The advantage she had accumulated through one battle after another had been kept carefully hidden, and she had finally seized this opportunity to unleash everything in the hopes of slaying the Ink Clan's Royal Lord.
If not for those Domain Lord reinforcements and tens of thousands of Ink Clan troops that had rushed back from the Royal City, the Royal Lord would already be dead by her hand.
Once the Royal Lord fell, the entire Great Evolution Theater would have no enemy left to stand against them—it would fall completely under human control.
Since ancient times, no one had ever accomplished such a feat.
She could have made history, set an unprecedented precedent. But those few Domain Lords and tens of thousands of Ink Clan soldiers had ruined everything. Though those Domain Lords, those eighth-rank Ink Disciples, and those tens of thousands of troops had all paid with their lives in an extremely short time, Ancestor Xiaoxiao's mood was anything but cheerful.
Failing to kill the Royal Lord meant that no matter how many Domain Lords and Ink Clan warriors perished, it made no difference.
Truth be told, from the moment those Domain Lords led tens of thousands of Ink Clan troops to reinforce the Royal Lord, she had been seething with pent-up rage.
They were the ones who had turned her century of effort into wasted opportunity. A chance like today's would likely never come again. Having suffered such a loss, the Ink Clan Royal Lord would be on guard against her every move from now on.
By the time the Royal Lord had returned to the Royal City and they had clashed again, the Ancestor had known—there was no longer any hope of killing him, unless she was willing to perish alongside him.
If she could not kill the Ink Clan's Royal Lord, then venting her fury on a few Domain Lords dancing about under her nose would have to suffice.