"The Mother Nest..." Cang chuckled. "Is that what you call it? It is apt enough. Indeed, the Mother Nest lies here — within that darkness, held in confinement."
"This is the origin of the Ink Clan?"
"It is!"
The Biluo Pass Old Ancestor considered for a moment before asking, "Senior, what does the Mother Nest call itself?"
The name "Mother Nest" had been coined by the current generation of the Human Race. From Cang's words, it seemed there was another name. A name might not seem like much, but sometimes it could reveal something entirely different.
"Ink," Cang replied. "It calls itself Ink!"
At those words, every Ninth-Order cultivator frowned. Even Yang Kai, who had been busy brewing tea, paused in surprise and looked at Cang with astonishment.
The Ink Clan's Mother Nest being called Ink was not the issue. The issue lay in what Cang had said.
"Its own name?" The Biluo Pass Old Ancestor's expression grew solemn. "Senior, what do you mean by that? Could it be that the Mother Nest... possesses its own intelligence?"
Thus far, the various Human Race armies had destroyed no small number of Ink Nests — Lord-tier, Domain Lord-tier, and even King-tier.
The Human Race had come to understand a fair bit about Ink Nests.
Every Ink Nest possessed its own will. The Ink Clan used that will as a vessel to delve into the Ink Nest spaces formed by the will of the tier above, enabling rapid transmission of information.
But whether Lord-tier, Domain Lord-tier, or King-tier, the will of every Ink Nest was blank — possessed of will, but devoid of intelligence.
Yet from Cang's words, this Mother Nest seemed different from all the others.
Cang nodded. "Naturally it has intelligence. In earlier years, when I was bored, I would even chat with it. Later... it grew annoyed with me, found me too talkative, and stopped responding."
The Ninth-Order cultivators were shaken. The Ink Clan's Mother Nest was an Ink Nest with its own intelligence! That was truly unexpected.
The Human Race had previously speculated that since Ink Nests possessed will, perhaps one day one might give birth to its own intelligence and truly become a living entity. But the Ink Nests on the Ink Clan's side had existed for a very long time, and there had never been such a precedent — leading the Human Race to believe that an Ink Nest could never develop intelligence.
Now they learned that an Ink Nest could indeed develop its own will — but only at the Mother Nest level.
Then again, this was the origin point of the entire Ink Clan. It was not so strange that it could be this way.
Ancestor Xiaoxiao spoke up: "Since it possesses will, why did it not strike at us when we were trapped in its Ink Nest space?"
As the origin of the Ink Clan, Ink's will had to be incomparably powerful. If it had attacked the trapped Ninth-Order cultivators at that time, the casualties would have been devastating.
After asking the question, Ancestor Xiaoxiao realized the answer on her own: "It was wary of you, Senior?"
Cang smiled faintly. "Something like that. If it pulled little tricks in secret and I failed to notice, that was one thing. But if I caught wind of it, it would not have fared well."
Previously, when the Mingwang Pass Old Ancestor had self-detonated his Divine Soul to assault the Ink Nest space, causing the battle's aura to leak out, Cang had immediately torn open the Ink Nest space from the outside.
If Ink had acted openly, it would have been exposed long before that.
Ink wanted to eliminate the Ninth-Order cultivators without a sound, which was why it never took direct action — instead setting its fifty King-tier subordinates in ambush within the Ink Nest space.
"What is Senior's current cultivation level? Have you surpassed the Ninth Order? Is there a realm above the Ninth Order?" an Old Ancestor asked. This was what everyone was most concerned about.
Judging solely from the aura that jade hand had revealed last time, that strike had exceeded the power any Ninth-Order cultivator could produce. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to tear open the Ink Nest space from the outside.
After all, the Mingwang Pass Old Ancestor had needed to self-detonate his Divine Soul just to accomplish that.
The Ninth-Order Human Race cultivators had therefore speculated that the jade hand's owner might have surpassed the Ninth-Order realm.
Hearing this, Cang laughed and shook his head. "The Ninth-Order realm is not so easily surpassed. Strictly speaking, my cultivation is still Ninth Order — I have merely walked further than you in that realm. As for whether there is a higher realm above the Ninth... perhaps there is, perhaps there isn't. Until one walks that path, who can say?"
Cang was also Ninth Order!
That came as a complete surprise to everyone. Even though he had said he had merely walked further along the Ninth-Order path than others, it still did not explain the overwhelming power of that last strike.
Seeming to sense their doubts, Cang explained, "That strike was not my power alone. I also drew upon the formations here."
This was the combined power of nine old friends, every one of them no weaker than himself. With him as the guide, even if they could not unleash everything, tearing open the Ink Nest space was not beyond reach.
"The formations..."
Cang had mentioned the formations here more than once. In truth, the Old Ancestors had already seen them — there were indeed formations here, and of truly enormous scale. It was precisely this layer of formations that sealed away that darkness.
It was hard to imagine what would happen if these formations did not exist and the Ink Clan Mother Nest broke free.
Setting everything else aside, the number of powerful Ink Clan figures around the Mother Nest had to be substantial. Inside the Ink Nest space alone, fifty King-tier experts had appeared. Who could guarantee there weren't more?