Yang Kai had assumed these spiritual projections were also from various battle zones. Laughing Old Ancestor had told him before that not every battle zone had only one Human Race Ancestor and one Black Ink Royal Master.
Some battle zones had more than one Human Race Ancestor or Black Ink Royal Master. If a zone had two or three Royal Masters, then the extra twenty-some spiritual projections could easily be accounted for.
But when he probed the intensity of those spiritual projections, he knew something was off.
Those quiet spiritual projections, despite their restrained presence, were extraordinarily powerful.
Even Yang Kai fell short of them.
Though he was a Seventh-Order Open Heaven, his Divine Sense was at the Eighth-Order level. In this world, the only ones with stronger Divine Sense than him were Human Race Ancestors and Black Ink Royal Masters!
These were the spiritual projections of more than twenty Black Ink Royal Masters!
Yang Kai was horrified.
How could there be Black Ink Royal Masters here, and so many of them?
This was highly abnormal.
After all, the Human Race fortresses in every battle zone had already launched long-range assaults on the Royal Cities. The Royal Masters would surely be stationed in the Royal Cities overseeing the overall situation, possibly even fighting the Human Race Ancestors in fierce combat. They would have no time to sit in Black Ink Nests and manifest their spiritual projections here.
If it were one or two, that would be understandable, but there were a full twenty-some.
During a fierce battle against the Human Race army, let alone a Royal Master, even a Domain Lord was an indispensable force on the battlefield and would not be left idle in a Black Ink Nest.
The other hundred-plus spiritual projections that appeared panicked were not powerful at all — each was only at the Lord level. That was the normal state of affairs.
What was going on? Yang Kai couldn't figure it out.
There was no time for further deliberation. Perhaps his probing had alerted those Royal Masters, because a strand of Divine Sense immediately swept toward him.
Under the overwhelming pressure, Yang Kai's spiritual projection trembled and nearly dissipated. The wound from being slashed by that Ninth-Order Black Ink Servant hadn't fully healed yet — how could it withstand such a brazen assault? Fortunately, at the critical moment, he hastily pulled his soul together and averted disaster.
A message appeared in his consciousness: "Which battle zone are you from?"
This was clearly an inquiry from the other party.
Without hesitation, Yang Kai replied, "Reporting, My Lord — I am from the Great Yan battle zone."
"Great Yan battle zone — how are things over there?"
Yang Kai answered off the cuff, "Not well, My Lord. The Royal Master is locked in a bloody battle with a Human Race Ancestor and is no match. Please, all of you, come to our aid at once!"
After Yang Kai spoke, the other party clearly paused, then asked with some confusion, "Wasn't it said that Mo Zhao has fallen?"
Damn it! Yang Kai's heart skipped a beat. He had only just realized that the situation at Great Yan had already been reported here by other Black Ink forces.
On second thought, it wasn't surprising. So many Black Ink Divine Senses from different battle zones were gathered here, exchanging information. Great Yan would have been no exception.
Mo Zhao's death had been quite a commotion. The Black Ink forces stationed in the Royal Master's Nest at the time would certainly have sensed it.
"Domain Lord-level Divine Sense... No — you're Human!" The strand of Divine Sense suddenly realized. In the next instant, a torrent of power erupted within the Black Ink Nest space.
The very instant the other party grew suspicious, Yang Kai was already preparing to withdraw from the Black Ink Nest space. His response had been inadequate, and the other party was now on guard — there was no reason to linger.
When the opponent's Divine Sense power erupted, Yang Kai had nearly exited the space, catching only the shockwave's edge.
Even so, by the time Yang Kai regained his bearings, his head was splitting and he could feel that his Divine Sense had suffered heavy damage.
He had just been injured by that Ninth-Order Black Ink Servant before this, and the wound hadn't healed yet. To be attacked again by a Black Ink Royal Master — if not for the Warm Divine Lotus's protection, his soul would likely have perished completely.
But Yang Kai had no time to tend to his injuries. He sprang to his feet and rushed outward.
Channeling the Laws of Space, he arrived at the Great Yan Fortress in an instant and headed straight for the grand teleportation formation.
At that moment, the teleportation formation was bustling with activity. Normally, only a handful of Open Heaven cultivators were stationed here, but now there were more than ten.
The formation's light flickered constantly, and with each flash, a jade slip materialized out of thin air — intelligence transmitted from other fortresses.
When Yang Kai arrived, the Open Heaven cultivators gathered there all wore expressions of joy. The transmitted battle reports showed that the Human Race army had gained the upper hand in every battle zone, and several zones were on the verge of breaching the Royal Cities.
Seeing Yang Kai arrive in a hurry with an uneasy look on his face, a Seventh-Order cultivator stationed there quickly stepped forward. "Junior Brother Yang, is something wrong?"
Yang Kai endured the heart-rending pain and said through gritted teeth, "Send word to every fortress immediately. Apart from their visible forces, the Black Ink Clan has at least twenty Royal Masters lying in ambush. Tell the Ancestors to be on guard."
The Seventh-Order cultivator turned pale. "Where did this intelligence come from? Is it reliable?"
Yang Kai said, "I just infiltrated the Black Ink Nest space of a Royal Master-level nest and saw more than twenty Royal Masters' Divine Sense projections stationed there. If they're not joining the fight now, they're definitely waiting for intelligence so they can strike the Ancestors a fatal blow at the right moment."
On the battlefield, hidden Royal Masters posed an enormous threat.
Thirty thousand years ago, the reason the Great Yan Fortress had fallen was that the Black Ink Clan suddenly had an extra Mo Zhao lurking in the shadows. When the Great Yan Ancestor was locked in a desperate fight with the known Royal Master, Mo Zhao had launched a surprise attack, joining forces with another Royal Master to kill the Great Yan Ancestor.
The Ninth-Order Black Ink Servant who had been hiding earlier had planned to do the same. However, the warning transmitted before the Snow Wolf squad's destruction had put Laughing Old Ancestor on his guard, preventing the Ninth-Order Black Ink Servant from succeeding.