Therefore, the two passes targeted by the Ink Clan King Lords only suffered losses in the very beginning. Once the Old Ancestors from other passes arrived to provide support, the King Lords could no longer attack the passes with impunity.
The Old Ancestor from Fengyun Pass only sensed two battlefields.
There must have been others further away, beyond even his perception. Those Ink Clan King Lords had split their forces into more than just two groups.
Eleven King Lords fell in these two battlefields. What about the King Lords on the other battlefields?
Had they fallen too?
Couldn't they have fled?
Why couldn't they flee?
The Fengyun Pass Old Ancestor narrowed his eyes slightly, vaguely perceiving the truth.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao soon returned.
The distances between passes had shrunk considerably since before, so even for an Ultimate Realm powerhouse like an Old Ancestor, the cost of using the teleportation arrays was much reduced.
The Fengyun Pass Old Ancestor didn't linger. After Ancestor Xiaoxiao returned, he departed unhurriedly; he still needed to return and oversee Fengyun Pass.
In the great hall, Ancestor Xiaoxiao's aura was slightly unstable. Although she hadn't suffered severe injuries in the previous battle, killing several King Lords always required paying a price.
Fortunately, those King Lords were already heavily wounded and couldn't exert their full strength. Otherwise, the outcome of that battle would have been uncertain.
Below, Xiang Shan reported with a solemn expression: "A total of four passes were attacked by Ink Clan King Lords this time: Qingming Pass, Ziqiong Pass, Linglong Pass, and Xingxiang Pass. Across the four major passes, a total of twenty-one King Lords mobilized, and all were slain."
The Ink Clan King Lords' attacks had been launched almost simultaneously.
The two battlefields sensed earlier by the Fengyun Pass Old Ancestor were precisely at Qingming Pass and Xingxiang Pass. Linglong Pass and Ziqiong Pass were further away, so even the Fengyun Pass Old Ancestor hadn't been able to detect them.
Each of these four passes faced an assault from five or six King Lords. A total of twenty-one King Lords, and in one battle, every single one perished. Not a single survivor.
The victory could not be called anything but resounding.
After all, these were twenty-one King Lords, not Domain Lords, let alone Territory Lords.
Previously, the entire Ink Battlefield had only a little over a hundred King Lords in total. During the recent pacification of various war zones, more than half had been slain, with some remaining. Now, with another twenty-one dead, the number of surviving King Lords was truly small.
Yet this rich harvest brought no joy, only a sense of dread.
The rank-and-file soldiers were unaware of the details; they only knew the Old Ancestors had displayed mighty prowess, slaying twenty-one Ink Clan King Lords outside four passes. But the Old Ancestors who had actually participated in that battle felt something different about those King Lords…
Not one of them had flinched. From the very beginning, they had been prepared to die.
When Linglong Pass was attacked, its Old Ancestor had immediately gone out to meet the enemy, facing five alone. In less than ten breaths, he had nearly been killed by the combined assault of those five King Lords. Normally, even fighting five against one, the Linglong Pass Old Ancestor shouldn't have been pushed into such immediate life-or-death danger. It was with this confidence that he had gone out to face them.
But those five King Lords fought as if trading their lives for his. The Linglong Pass Old Ancestor was caught off guard and instantly fell into a disadvantaged position. Fortunately, the Old Ancestors from other passes arrived in time to rescue him, averting disaster.
One King Lord had even unleashed a powerful secret technique at the moment of death, nearly dragging a human Old Ancestor down with him.
In that battle, all twenty-one attacking King Lords were hunted down and exterminated. The Old Ancestors who participated also sustained multiple injuries.
"The Source Land… is likely not far off." Ancestor Xiaoxiao said gravely, making the same deduction as the Fengyun Pass Old Ancestor earlier.
It was precisely because they were not far from the Source Land that those Ink Clan King Lords had fought to the death to block the human army. They knew they couldn't block them all, so they split their forces, attacking with the mentality of destroying at least one pass if they could.
But they hadn't anticipated that the humans were already prepared, allowing them to respond swiftly and foil their plans.
Xiang Shan frowned: "According to earlier intelligence, forty-five King Lords escaped. Twenty-one have appeared now. The remaining twenty-four are nowhere to be seen. We don't know where they're hiding or what they're plotting."
Ancestor Xiaoxiao said: "Those hidden King Lords are a potential threat. However, no matter what they plan, humanity can only meet force with force and counter any move."
Indeed, this was also what puzzled Ancestor Xiaoxiao.
Forty-five escaped King Lords. Given the Ink Clan's assault strategy on the human passes, they could have split into nine groups.
But only four passes had been attacked, with twenty-one King Lords appearing. The remaining twenty-four had vanished without a trace. Even as the revealed King Lords were slain, they never showed themselves.
Where were those King Lords? If they had all appeared like the others, it would be easier to deal with. Hiding like this in the shadows was truly troublesome.
"No matter where those King Lords are hiding, Dayan cannot let its guard down. Send the order: have all the scout teams return."
The four passes previously attacked had suffered devastating casualties among their scout teams operating outside.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao feared such a situation might occur again, as Dayan's scout teams would be unable to withstand an attack.
Xiang Shan was about to acknowledge the order when suddenly, a sharp, piercing howl echoed from outside Dayan Pass.
Xiang Shan froze, turning his head toward the source of the sound.
That was clearly a signal from a scout team. They had discovered something?
When he looked back, Ancestor Xiaoxiao was already gone, having dashed over the instant she heard the sound.