While he was still worrying, Ancestor Xiao Xiao suddenly spoke up: "Reports from every battle zone indicate that each battle zone has only one Royal City, and each Royal City contains only one King-Rank Ink Nest!"
Yang Kai was confused at first, then his eyes narrowed: "No exceptions?"
The ancestor shook her head. "No exceptions! Moreover, no additional Kings have participated in the fighting!"
Yang Kai fell silent for a moment, then sighed: "That's not good news."
The ancestor said nothing, lowering her gaze in deep thought.
After Yang Kai had reported what he discovered inside the King-Rank Ink Nest, Ancestor Xiao Xiao had relayed the information through Da Yan Pass to all the major strongholds, warning the Ninth-Order Human Race cultivators to be on guard against possible hidden threats.
But until now, as one battle zone after another had been pacified and the Ink Clan had suffered devastating losses—with even several Kings slain—no additional Kings had appeared on the battlefield.
Every King that had participated in this great battle was one of those who had been locked in combat with the Ninth-Order Open Heaven cultivators at the various strongholds all along. Not a single unfamiliar face had shown up.
No unexpected disruptions on the battlefield was a good thing, otherwise the human armies would never have been able to pacify the fighting so quickly.
But those twenty-odd Kings were not illusions.
They had not been hiding in the shadows, waiting to ambush the Ninth-Order humans.
In fact, each battle zone's Royal City contained only one King-Rank Ink Nest—not even the Great Battle Zone was any different.
There had been two Kings in that zone. With two Kings, there should have been two King-Rank Ink Nest, yet there was only one!
It seemed as though those two Kings had been sharing a single King-Rank Ink Nest, or one of them simply didn't have one of his own.
This was anything but good news for the human race.
Over a hundred battle zones corresponded to only a little over a hundred King-Rank Ink Nests.
But how many divine senses had Yang Kai seen inside the Ink Nest space?
One hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty!
As many divine senses as there were meant as many King-Rank Ink Nests as there were!
This meant that those twenty Kings who had been sitting on the sidelines hadn't participated in this great battle, and their Ink Nests had not been discovered by the humans either.
Where were they hiding?
Was the earlier speculation about the Mother Nest true? Were they truly guardians of the Mother Nest?
And where was the Mother Nest?
A sudden unease welled up in Yang Kai's chest. The war between the two races was far from over.
Setting aside everything else, the several dozen Kings who had fled from the various battle zones were a latent threat in their own right. Now it was confirmed that at least twenty-odd more Kings and their corresponding King-Rank Ink Nests remained hidden. All of these needed to be dealt with. Left unchecked, given the nature of the Ink Clan, it would likely only take a few years before they made a comeback.
Yang Kai couldn't help but feel frustrated.
He had thought that after this great battle, the Ink Battlefield could finally be brought to a complete end. Who would have guessed there would be such a surprise?
The waters of the Ink Clan ran deeper than anyone had imagined.
He suddenly recalled the words Mo Zhao had shouted before his death—"Ink will be eternal." As a King, Mo Zhao must have known some of the Ink Clan's secrets. He would naturally understand that even if the Ink Clan forces in the various battle zones were no match for the humans, the Ink Clan would not fall easily.
Yang Kai had silently mocked him at the time. The guy was already dead—what was the point of crying out about Ink being eternal? What a joke.
But now it seemed that everyone had underestimated the Ink Clan! Including the ancestors.
Still, the threat remained, and the fact was that the Ink Clan had been defeated across the major battle zones.
When the victory report from the Great Battle Zone arrived, all of Da Yan Pass was immersed in a jubilant atmosphere.
Ancestor Xiao Xiao had left, presumably to discuss important matters with the higher-ups of Da Yan Pass. Yang Kai retracted his Small Universe and quietly recuperated.
Several days later, Yang Kai sensed a distinct spatial fluctuation emanating from the Teleportation Hall, followed by the appearance of Xiang Shan's aura.
Xiang Shan had previously led over a dozen Eighth-Order cultivators from Da Yan to reinforce other strongholds, and they had finally returned.
But more than a dozen had left, and only seven or eight had come back. Several were missing.
Those Eighth-Order commanders who had not returned would likely never be able to return.
This filled Yang Kai with bitter frustration. Too many people had died. When would the Ink Clan threat be resolved once and for all?
It also made him feel his own weakness even more acutely.
He had thought that after this battle he could finally return in peace to the Three Thousand Worlds, go back to the Star Boundary, serve his two elders, take a beautiful wife, stroll with Qiushui, and embrace the starry skies. But now it seemed he needed to advance to the Eighth Order as quickly as possible!
A sense of urgency quietly took root in his heart. The human race was likely about to face a tremendous crisis, and without reaching the Eighth Order, he couldn't guarantee his own safety.
Yet cultivation in the Open Heaven Realm was fundamentally a matter of time—a process of slow, grinding accumulation, day after day.
Even though his Small Universe was home to countless living beings and received nourishment from the sapling of the World Tree—meaning the flow of time inside differed from the outside world, and his cultivation speed was much faster than most—he still couldn't advance to the Eighth Order overnight.
In the days that followed, Yang Kai did not lose himself in the celebratory reports streaming in from the various strongholds. Instead, he frantically refined every type of cultivation resource, bolstering the foundation of his Small Universe.
The entire Dawn Division was infected by his intensity. None of them wasted a moment, devoting themselves entirely to their own cultivation.
Half a month later, several figures suddenly surged out from within Da Yan Pass. A voice then rang out in Yang Kai's ears: "Follow me!"