What's more, they could perceive that the Heaven and Earth Great Force within his Small World was refined to an extraordinary degree, far beyond what an ordinary Seventh-Order cultivator could possess.
This was almost certainly the effect of the World Tree's subsidiary tree—it had the ability to temper and refine one's Heaven and Earth Great Force.
This was also the fundamental reason why Yang Kai's Small World was vastly different from other Seventh-Order cultivators, allowing him to crush opponents of the same rank in combat.
The more refined one's Heaven and Earth Great Force, the more powerful the force one could unleash.
Though they felt some envy, no one was consumed by jealousy.
The World Tree subsidiary tree was a remarkable treasure, but it could only realize its fullest potential in Yang Kai's hands.
Even if the other Eighth-Order cultivators had obtained it, it would merely boost their strength to some degree. It was nothing like Yang Kai's case, where the time flow within his Small World differed from the outside world, amplifying the subsidiary tree's effects to their absolute limit.
These Eighth-Order and even Ninth-Order cultivators were the mainstay of the Human Race in the present era, but Seventh-Order cultivators like Yang Kai were the hope of the Human Race's future.
That was why, back at Azure Fracture Pass, when Yang Kai had obtained the World Tree subsidiary tree, Ding Yao and the others had not taken it from him, but instead allowed him to keep it.
The Old Ancestor's face was still pale. Even with recuperation in this place, supplemented by the nourishment of the Warm Divine Lotus, the soul injuries she had sustained were not so easily healed.
However, her condition was considerably better than when she had first returned from the Ink Nest space.
At this moment, Ancestor Xiaoxiao was recounting her experiences within the Ink Nest space to Xiang Shan and the others. The four great army commanders listened with expressions of deep gravity.
Although intelligence from various other passes had already trickled in, none of it came close to the level of detail that Ancestor Xiaoxiao was now providing.
Twenty-two Human Race Ninth-Order cultivators had entered the Ink Nest space together to gather intelligence. Who could have predicted that they would be ambushed by fifty Ink Clan Domain Lords the moment they set foot inside?
In that cataclysmic battle, neither the Human Race Ninth-Order cultivators nor the Ink Clan Domain Lords had held anything back. In the end, four Domain Lords were slain, and two Ninth-Order cultivators self-detonated!
In the span of a mere few dozen breaths, six supreme powerhouses from both races had perished.
"The Human Race deliberately left behind twenty-two Domain Lord Ink Nests. The Ink Clan must have guessed long ago that we intended to infiltrate the Ink Nest space, which is why Domain Lords were lying in ambush beforehand," Ancestor Xiaoxiao said, breathing slightly labored.
Xiang Shan frowned. "The battle reports we received earlier indicated that the Domain Lord from Yin Yang Pass had fled. Did you sense his aura within the Ink Nest space, Old Ancestor?"
Over a hundred Human Race theaters of war had been pacified, but not all the Domain Lords had been slain. Half had been killed, and the other half had escaped.
No one knew where they were hiding now.
The Domain Lord of Yin Yang Pass was among those who had survived.
Yin Yang Pass had originally been under Ancestor Xiaoxiao's jurisdiction. She had fought that Domain Lord for tens of thousands of years, and they knew each other inside and out.
But later, when Wu Qing of the Southern Army at Yin Yang Pass had advanced to the Ninth Order, Ancestor Xiaoxiao had come to Great Evolution Pass. Yin Yang Pass was now under Wu Qing's watch.
He was, after all, a newly promoted Ninth-Order cultivator. Among the ranks of Ninth-Order powerhouses, his strength was not particularly formidable. Against that veteran Domain Lord, he lacked the ability to slay him. In the battle to pacify the Yin Yang theater, the Domain Lord had been overwhelmed by Wu Qing and several Eighth-Order cultivators fighting together, and had fled into the void, his whereabouts unknown.
The reason Xiang Shan had asked this question was his suspicion that the Domain Lords ambushing them in the Ink Nest space might be those who had escaped from the various theaters of war.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao shook her head at his words. "I did not sense his aura."
Xiang Shan's expression grew grave. "Then the situation is truly serious… Over the past few days, I have been sending messages to the passes where the other Old Ancestors participated in the earlier battle, asking whether they recognized any familiar auras among those Domain Lords. Every single one of them said they did not."
In other words, none of the fifty Domain Lords from before had been acquaintances of any Old Ancestor.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao said, "Those Domain Lords were all unfamiliar faces! They possessed tremendous strength, but the way they wielded their power was clumsy and unrefined. They lacked extensive combat experience."
Although the battle had lasted only a few dozen breaths, Ancestor Xiaoxiao was a person of extraordinary caliber and had naturally picked up on certain telltale signs.
At the time, occupied with fighting and fleeing for their lives, they had no leisure to examine these details. But now, upon reflection, the suspicions were mounting.
She understood what Xiang Shan was implying.
Fifty Domain Lords who had never been seen before, plus those who had previously fled from the various theaters of war—combined, that was a full one hundred Domain Lords!
What a terrifying force that represented.
What made it even more incredible was that powerhouses of the Domain Lord caliber apparently lacked significant combat experience! It was as though all their strength had been painstakingly cultivated through solitary training, never tempered by the crucible of battle.
And yet, that was precisely how it had been. If those Domain Lords had not been so lacking in combat experience, the Human Race would never have been able to stabilize their formation so quickly.
To say nothing of the fact that if, at the very start, they had concentrated their power to target one or two Ninth-Order cultivators, they could have obliterated them in an extremely short time.
But they had not done that. Instead, they had simultaneously channeled their soul power, sweeping outward in every direction.
Such a fighting style was exceedingly foolish.
"Moreover, I suspect… the strength the Ink Clan is hiding extends beyond what we have seen." Ancestor Xiaoxiao's fine brows furrowed slightly.
Liu Zhiping asked in a low voice, "There are even more?"
One hundred Domain Lords was already a problem of the highest order. If there were still more, how could the Ink Clan threat ever be resolved?
"The Ink Clan had their own calculations. That Ink Nest space was not indestructible. Fifty Domain Lords, combined with the soul power of over twenty Human Race Ninth-Order cultivators rampaging within that space—that was likely the absolute limit it could sustain. Any more, and the space itself would have become unstable."