The Human Race also suffered no small number of casualties. In such a large-scale battle, casualties on both sides were inevitable, and warships were constantly being blown apart.
Fortunately, the Human Race had prepared for years, and the captain of every squad had a backup warship on hand.
A warship blown apart would immediately be replaced by a backup, allowing the fight against the Ink Clan to continue.
In the past, the Human Race hadn't had this luxury. The forging of every warship consumed vast amounts of resources, and the Human Race soldiers lived frugally, rationing their cultivation resources. Where would they find spare resources to build backup warships?
But ever since the Void Yin-Yang Mirror became widespread across the major passes, resources were no longer a problem for the Human Race.
Add to that the plunder from capturing Ink Clan strongholds one after another, and now the Human Race's resource supply was practically unlimited.
This was also the reason the overall strength of Human Race soldiers had improved markedly over the past few hundred years.
With resources flowing freely, there was no longer a need to be so miserly about cultivation.
At Dayan Pass, apart from elite squads like Dawn, every other squad had its own backup warship.
The reason elite squads didn't need one was that their warships were custom-built by grandmaster artificers, and the various formations and Artifacts aboard had been upgraded with countless war merits. If conditions were so dire that even an elite squad's warship was destroyed, the Human Race would be on the verge of defeat. In such a scenario, having a backup warship would make little difference.
The cry of a Golden Crow rang across the battlefield as a Great Sun rose, illuminating all directions. Even the Ink Force couldn't obscure its light. When the Great Sun detonated, swathes of Ink Clan soldiers were reduced to dust.
Yang Kai caught his breath lightly, raising his spear and surveying his surroundings. He could see the Eighth-Order Commanders in various battle circles beginning to falter, and Ink Clan armies converishing beside warships that swept back and forth through the fray.
The battle was incredibly deadlocked.
Before the expedition had begun, everyone had known this would be a brutal fight. Achieving victory would be no easy matter.
Tens of thousands of Dayan soldiers were fighting tooth and nail for the future of the Human Race, all for the sake of lasting peace to come. They would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives.
However, the appearance of the Ninth-Order Ink Disciple had been completely unexpected. Without that Ninth-Order Ink Disciple's interference, the situation might not have deteriorated this far.
Although the Ink Clan's King Lord could draw upon the power of the Ink Nests to contend with the Old Ancestor, without the Ninth-Order Ink Disciple's help, the Old Ancestor would have had ample ability to restrain the King Lord while simultaneously dealing with those Domain Lords.
If the Old Ancestor could pin down several Domain Lords, then the Eighth-Order Commanders could break the current stalemate.
But now that was impossible. Under the combined assault of the King Lord and the Ninth-Order Ink Disciple, the Old Ancestor had no capacity to do anything else.
Yang Kai gritted his teeth and turned his gaze toward the Ink Clan's King City.
The Ninth-Order Ink Disciple — he couldn't deal with that.
Even the Domain Lords — in his current state, he could at best hold his own against one if he gave it everything he had. That would be pointless. Better to play to his strengths and slaughter the Ink Clan's Territory Lords instead.
But if he could destroy the Ink Nests inside the Ink Clan's King City, stripping the Domain Lords of their ability to draw upon the Nest's power, the current stalemate could be broken just the same.
Once the Domain Lords' Ink Nests were destroyed, they would no longer be able to draw on that external power, and the Eighth-Order Commanders' situation would improve significantly.
Perhaps... if there was a chance to destroy the King Lord's Ink Nest as well, the Old Ancestor might even have an opportunity to slay the King Lord.
But penetrating the Ink Clan's King City to destroy those Ink Nests would be no simple task. Even amid the chaos of the battlefield, Yang Kai could clearly sense the auras of multiple Ink Clan Domain Lords emanating from the direction of the King City.
Ink Nests were such crucial assets — how could the Ink Clan not leave Domain Lords to guard them?
According to the Human Race leadership's earlier estimates, the Ink Clan had over seventy Domain Lords in total, roughly matching the number of Eighth-Order Commanders, along with more than twenty Eighth-Order Ink Disciples.
But the number of Domain Lords and Eighth-Order Ink Disciples that had actually taken the field was far fewer.
At least twenty-odd Domain Lords had remained behind in the King City, guarding the Ink Nests.
Such a force was immensely powerful. Given the current situation, guarding the Ink Nests was virtually foolproof.
The reason so many Domain Lords had been kept behind was to guard against the Eighth-Order cultivators among the Human Race's Dayan forces. Just as the Human Race had estimates of the Ink Clan's high-level strength, the Ink Clan had estimates of the Human Race's Eighth-Order numbers as well.
The Human Race still had powerhouses who hadn't taken the field — would the Ink Clan dare go all out?
Both sides kept significant strength stationed at key positions, lest the other launch a raid.
Though Yang Kai wanted to head to the King City and cause trouble, with so many Domain Lords stationed there, he didn't dare rush in rashly.
And just as he was weighing all of this, Xiang Shan's voice transmission suddenly reached his ear: "King City! The Ink Nests!"
Yang Kai's eyes lit up. This was an order for him to head to the King City and destroy the Ink Clan's Ink Nests.
It seemed he wasn't the only one who had thought of a way to break the deadlock — Xiang Shan had as well.
No — with Xiang Shan's abilities, he had probably thought of it long ago and had simply been deliberating on how to execute the plan. Now that he was sending the order, he must already have a strategy in place.
This Eighth-Order Commander, who had lain dormant for three thousand years, had displayed unparalleled strategic genius the moment he emerged. Over two hundred years ago, Dayan's Eastern and Western Armies had, under his leadership, routed the Ink Clan forces and established a tremendous advantage for the Human Race in the Dayan theater — an advantage that persisted to this day and formed the foundation for Dayan's ability to launch this expedition.
Yang Kai admired Xiang Shan greatly.
Leading armies in battle was something Yang Kai couldn't do — solo deep strikes were his forte.
Right now, all of the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators were being watched, and none could slip away to make trouble at the Ink Clan's King City. A Seventh-Order like Yang Kai was the perfect candidate. Moreover, he was no ordinary Seventh-Order — given the chance, he could absolutely succeed.
The Ink Nests themselves had virtually no defensive capability. If Yang Kai managed to get close, he could destroy several with ease.