Restoration of Dayan Pass was in full swing. As a Grandmaster Artifact Refiner, Yang Kai naturally found no shortage of work, receiving orders to collaborate with other Artifact Refiners in crafting various large-scale Artifacts. These would then be coordinated with Formation Masters, who used them as array cores to be deployed across the entirety of Dayan Pass.
Dayan's spatial arrays had long since been fully repaired, allowing a steady stream of news from the outside world to be transmitted through them.
As a Seventh-Order cultivator, Yang Kai had little clearance for classified intelligence, but numerous victory bulletins from various passes were deliberately meant for public circulation by the higher-ups, and naturally spread far and wide.
There were victories in abundance. The Ink Clan's dominance on the Ink Battlefield seemed to have evaporated overnight. On most fronts, clashes between the Ink Clan and humanity ended in devastating defeats for the former. A handful of stalemates here and there made no difference to the overall picture.
By all accounts, the Ink Clan's fortune had run its course. Humanity surged forward on battlefield after battlefield, and many combat zones—much like Biluo Pass—had constructed forward encampments along the axis toward the Ink Clan Royal City, steadily squeezing their room to maneuver.
This was a reversal of a stalemate that had persisted for countless ages. Among the decisive factors, the Ink-Dispelling Ships, the Ink-Expelling Pills, and the Void Yin-Yang Mirror had each played a critical role.
If one were to trace these assets back to their common thread, a single figure stood behind all of them.
With modest means, he had leveraged an entire battlefield. Past and present, there was only one such person.
Yang Kai's days were fulfilling—in truth, the tens of thousands of soldiers at Dayan Pass all lived equally packed days, busy with restoration during work shifts and only managing a bit of cultivation during their rest rotations.
The original plan had called for a century to complete the restoration of Dayan Pass.
In reality, it took nearly two centuries before the full plan was brought to fruition.
The Dayan of today bore no resemblance to the fortress the Ink Clan had once occupied. The expenditure of two hundred years by tens of thousands of soldiers, countless materials, and vast reserves of effort had restored Dayan to its fearsome splendor of thirty thousand years past.
In terms of fortifications, it could hold its own against any human stronghold.
With the restored Dayan Pass and thirty thousand soldiers to man it, even if the Ink Clan recovered its Yuan Qi in full, they would never again breach Dayan's defenses.
Let alone the fact that the Ink Clan could now do nothing but cower near the Royal City, not daring to venture out and provoke conflict.
Over the past two centuries, Elder Xiaoxiao had made a habit of harrying them at intervals, keeping the Ink Clan Royal Lord in a state of perpetual unrest. As a result, rather than recovering, his injuries had actually worsened somewhat.
One had to admit, this was likely the most wretched fate of any Ink Clan Royal Lord in history.
Dayan Pass was fully restored, but a fire still burned in every soldier's heart. Everyone was waiting—for the great expedition to begin.
The expedition had originally been classified information, known only to humanity's upper echelons. But over the years, through deliberate or incidental publicity by leadership, even the rank-and-file had come to understand the path forward for the human race.
The Ink Battlefield had existed for far too long—so long that its origins could no longer be traced. Across those countless ages, the cream of the Three Thousand Worlds' Open Heaven cultivators had marched into this battlefield generation after generation, fighting the Ink Clan, defending humanity's lifeline with their blood and lives.
How many brilliant talents had humanity lost across all those years?
This situation could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. Every generation had strived to change it, to eliminate the threat once and for all.
But they had been powerless.
Now, the balance of the entire Ink Battlefield had shifted. Humanity was no longer on the defensive. They possessed the capital to take the initiative and attack.
If there was a war that could settle the Ink Clan once and for all, then every human soldier on the Ink Battlefield would give everything they had for it.
That required an expedition—a coordinated expedition involving every human stronghold. Only through such unity would there be a chance to net the Ink Clan in one sweep.
Otherwise, if the Ink Clan in even one theater escaped, the consequences would be endless.
Coordinating over a hundred human strongholds was no small undertaking. It demanded meticulous planning and unified action—a preparation cycle measured in centuries at a minimum.
The Evil-Slaying Divine Spears refined by Master Fan, combined with Yang Kai's Purifying Light, would serve as humanity's greatest weapon in this expedition!
Which meant Yang Kai was busy now—extraordinously busy.
During the final decade of Dayan Pass's restoration, batches of Evil-Slaying Divine Spears had already begun arriving through the spatial arrays, delivered into his hands for him to personally seal with Purifying Light.
This was something no one else could assist with, since Yang Kai alone could channel the Purifying Light.
In the years since the Dayan Army had reclaimed the pass, over a hundred human strongholds had been mass-producing Evil-Slaying Divine Spears. Accumulated over three to four centuries, the sheer number was staggering beyond imagination.
Now every last one had been shipped to Dayan Pass, and so what Yang Kai faced was a mountain of Evil-Slaying Divine Spears. His task was to continuously channel the Purifying Light and seal it into each spear, one by one.
Repeating the same task endlessly was monumentally tedious. Yang Kai had long since lost count of how many times he had invoked the Purifying Light. All he knew was that the supply of Yellow Crystals and Blue Crystals in his Small World was steadily dwindling.
At such a time, he was deeply grateful that he had brought back a sufficient quantity of Yellow and Blue Crystals from the Chaotic Dead Domain all those years ago. Had the materials run out now, he would have had no idea where to find more.
Even during the sealing process, new shipments of Evil-Slaying Divine Spears continued to arrive from other strongholds at irregular intervals.
Only after several years did the flow finally begin to taper off.