Half a month had barely passed before the Spirit Pearl Yang Kai carried on his person reacted. A jade slip popped out and he reached out to catch it, sending a thread of divine sense inside. The message was simple and direct.
"Strike!"
It had been sent from the direction of Great Principle Pass. The fluctuations of the soul belonged to Li Xing, Xiang Shan's adjutant!
Great Principle Pass had been exposed.
There was no great surprise there. A behemoth like Great Principle Pass, even with illusion arrays concealing its movements, could hardly approach within half a month's travel of the Ink Clan's Royal City without encountering some Ink Clan patrols along the way.
But those Ink Clan who had stumbled upon Great Principle Pass were almost certainly dead, which meant the enemy had not yet managed to relay the intelligence.
In other words, the Ink Clan manning the outer Ink Nests were still oblivious to what lay inside.
This was precisely the moment for Yang Kai and the others to act. If they waited any longer and the Ink Clan managed to get word out, the element of surprise would be lost entirely.
Yang Kai rose to his feet after sitting motionless for half a month. Qing Kui and the others all turned to look at him.
"It's time," Yang Kai said in a low voice, simultaneously sending messages to Ma Gao, Chai Fang, Shen Ao, and the rest.
The next instant, over a hundred figures shot out of the Ink Nest, mostly in groups of two or three. Warships were summoned one after another. Squad members stepped out of the Small Universes of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivators and boarded the vessels. With the hum of formation arrays, dozens of warships fanned out in different directions and shot away at top speed.
The scene at Yang Kai's Ink Nest was replicated at the other three.
In that single moment, over two hundred human squads radiated outward from the four Ink Nests, skirting along the outer perimeter of the Ink Clan's defensive line.
Despite the sheer number, not a single squad was out of place.
The great battle was about to begin!
Yang Kai did not leave. He remained stationed inside the Ink Nest, and even as the warships departed, his soul had already entered the Ink Nest's spiritual space.
Without preamble, the moment he stepped into that space, Yang Kai sent his divine sense surging in all directions: "The Mo Lord has an urgent command to relay. I need all of you to gather around me!"
The Ink Clan souls milling about inside the space turned to look at him in confusion.
First, the soul fluctuations Yang Kai projected were only at the Lord rank. If the Mo Lord truly had orders to convey, why would he send someone of such low standing?
Second, even if there really was a secret directive, surely a simple announcement would suffice. Why would they need to approach?
Some Ink Clan found it odd, but the matter involved the Mo Lord, and they did not think too deeply about it.
Moments later, every Ink Clan soul within the space had gathered around Yang Kai.
An Ink Clan Lord asked, "What does the Mo Lord require?"
Yang Kai had casually taken on the appearance of an Ink Clan member, one that more closely resembled a human. He smiled at those around him. "The Mo Lord's order—among you are human infiltrators, and therefore… you all must die!"
The moment those words left his lips, the soul power he had been suppressing erupted without restraint, sweeping outward in every direction.
The Ink Clan heard the words "human infiltrators" and their minds reeled. Before they could even process what was happening after the word "die," the violent wave of soul force struck them head-on.
In an instant, soul power inside the space surged like a towering tidal wave, engulfing every Ink Clan soul within.
Yang Kai was holding nothing back this time. At least seventy or eighty Ink Clan Lords had gathered here—under normal circumstances, it was nearly impossible to corral that many Lords in one place unless a massive battle erupted. And even during a genuine battle, killing so many Lords at once would be far from easy.
The Ink Nest's spiritual space was the perfect arena. As long as his soul power was explosive enough, he had a chance to wipe them all out in one stroke.
The instant his soul power detonated, the seven or eight Lords closest to him had their souls shattered immediately. Yang Kai himself felt his soul reverberate violently, his spiritual form twisting and contorting under the strain.
Though his soul power had reached the Eighth-Order Open Heaven level, dealing with so many Ink Clan Lords simultaneously was no simple matter.
The Lords had not been on guard against him, true enough, but the moment they came under attack, they instinctively fought back. With all of those souls clashing against his, even Yang Kai found himself struggling against the combined onslaught.
The surviving souls, momentarily stunned by the sheer ferocity of the blast, were given a brief window.
In that fleeting gap, seven-colored radiance suddenly bloomed. A lotus of seven hues flew out from within Yang Kai's body, rapidly expanding into a colossal flower that enveloped every Ink Clan soul in the space.
By the time the Ink Clan came to their senses, they were already standing atop the Warm Soul Lotus.
At the very center of the lotus, Yang Kai's spiritual form was twisted in agony, but that did not stop him from cutting down his enemies. Wave after wave of soul power rained down as devastating attacks, crashing onto the Ink Clan souls. In an instant, several more were annihilated.
The remaining Ink Clan were stricken with terror. Even now they had no idea what had transited—only that this clansman who had recently been frequenting the area had suddenly erupted with Domain Lord-level soul power and was slaughtering them all.
Under the crushing pressure of that Domain Lord-level soul force, they were gripped with panic, walking on thin ice.
Watching their companions vanish one after another—either destroyed or grievously wounded—the surviving Ink Clan had no desire to stay. They all tried to flee the spiritual space, seeking to return to their physical bodies.
But then something horrifying happened. On any other day, a mere thought would have been enough to leave the space. Today, however, some invisible force had sealed the exits completely. There was no escape. They could only await the slaughter.