Hearing Che Kong say this, Hong Di furrowed his brow slightly and said, "We cannot be careless. The humans are full of cunning tricks. Having traveled so far to launch this assault, they certainly haven't come without contingencies."
A Domain Lord scoffed, "Hong Di, have the humans beaten the courage out of you? The battle hasn't even begun yet—why boost the humans' morale while diminishing our own?"
Hong Di shook his head calmly. "I'm not trying to bolster the humans' spirits. It's simply that in every past battle, whenever we underestimated the humans, it was always the Ink Clan that suffered for it."
The Domain Lords frowned. Thinking about it more carefully, that did seem to be the case. In the past, they had never taken the humans seriously, but look at the situation now. Da Yan Pass had been reclaimed by the humans, and two hundred years ago, the Ink Clan near the Royal City had been beaten so badly they could barely hold their heads up. If the human army hadn't withdrawn voluntarily, the Ink Clan at the Royal City might not have even been able to leave it.
In that moment, they couldn't help but temper some of their contempt.
What the Ink Clan noticed, the humans naturally noticed too—perhaps even more clearly, since they were all inside Da Yan Pass and knew its current state better than anyone.
Having broken through three defensive lines, Da Yan was now charging at the Ink Clan's fourth defensive line. However, under the interception of several hundred thousand Ink Clan warriors, Da Yan had already lost its initial unstoppable momentum.
It was like sinking into a quagmire!
That was how Da Yan's soldiers felt at this moment.
Shen Ao sidled up to Yang Kai and whispered, "Captain, I don't think we can keep this up. Da Yan's speed is dropping, and the Ink Clan's Domain Lords haven't made their move yet. Once they do, I'm afraid we'll be intercepted and brought down before we even reach the Royal City."
Yang Kai nodded slightly, glancing left and right. "The higher-ups should have a plan. Let's wait and see."
There were deployments on all four walls of Da Yan.
The formations and Artifacts arranged on each wall were roughly the same, and now human warriors were stationed beside every formation and Artifact.
Da Yan was charging in a straight line, and the warriors currently engaging the Ink Clan's four defensive lines were those on the wall facing directly toward the Royal City.
In other words, the deployments on the other three walls hadn't yet played much of a role—they had killed at most a few Ink Clan warriors trailing from the sides or behind.
At this point, Da Yan was only utilizing twenty to thirty percent of its power!
After more than two hundred years of preparation and countless resources spent, the deployments on those three walls couldn't just be for show—they were bound to come into play.
While Yang Kai was mulling this over, the interception from the Ink Clan's fourth defensive line grew ever more ferocious. Da Yan shook continuously, and the protective light barrier enveloping it trembled without cease.
As if sensing Da Yan's waning momentum—or perhaps receiving orders from the Domain Lords stationed behind them—the Ink Clan army blocking Da Yan launched even more savage attacks.
"Switch formations!" A sharp command suddenly rang out from deep within Da Yan—it was Xiang Shan's voice.
The next instant, Da Yan hummed with a deep vibration as dense energy surged outward, and the entire stronghold shook as though the earth itself were trembling.
It seemed as though a grand formation had been activated!
Then, Da Yan Pass—which had been barreling straight toward the Royal City—began to slowly rotate under the push of some mysterious force.
The rotation started slowly. After all, Da Yan was enormous, and even with the aid of a formation, turning it was no simple task.
But as time passed, the speed was clearly increasing.
Yang Kai's eyes lit up as he finally understood the plan.
This assault on the Ink Clan's Royal City couldn't rely solely on the power arranged on one wall of Da Yan. Only by rotating the stronghold like this could the deployments on the other three walls be put to use.
Before long, the wall that had been facing the Royal City had rotated to the left, and warriors on another wall—which had been poised and ready this entire time—met the Ink Clan forces blocking their path.
Having held back for so long, the prepared warriors frantically unleashed their power.
On the wall, formation patterns lit up one after another, resonating across the distance. The formations amplified the might of the Artifacts, and beam after beam of sky-piercing light blasted into the Ink Clan army—unstoppable!
In that instant, half the void was illuminated!
The Ink Clan warriors in front were decimated.
Outside the Royal City, witnessing this sight, the expressions of numerous Domain Lords shifted.
Hong Di let out a quiet sigh. He had long suspected the humans had contingencies, but he hadn't expected them to be like this.
Just as none of the Domain Lords had anticipated that Da Yan Pass could be maneuvered to travel, they also hadn't expected it could rotate to attack the enemy.
If it had been a smaller Artifact, they might have considered this possibility. But that something as colossal as Da Yan could rotate was somewhat beyond their expectations.
This way, although the number of attacks launched at the Ink Clan with each rotation wouldn't increase by much, the humans on Da Yan could maintain peak fighting power at all times.
In an instant, their combat strength had more than doubled.
Da Yan continued to rotate. After three rounds of concentrated fire from the warriors on the wall facing the Royal City, that wall had already been turned aside. Warriors on another wall took over the assault, maintaining an unbroken barrage.
The fourth defensive line, which had seemed capable of grinding down Da Yan's offensive, was suddenly on the verge of collapse. Its breach was now only a matter of time.
The Domain Lords held their ground. Their position was the last line of defense, with the Royal City directly behind them. Until the situation became clearer, they didn't dare make any rash moves, lest their formations fall into disarray and the humans break through.
In the void, as Da Yan continued its rotation, the formations and Artifacts on each wall erupted in succession, each time with full force, each attack overwhelmingly fierce.
The surviving Ink Clan warriors continued to fall, their auras extinguishing one after another.