A sliver of sword light flickered into existence, bearing not the slightest hint of overwhelming power, and slashed down toward the King Lord's head.
A palm drifted forward, equally feeble in appearance.
A length of bamboo staff tapped lightly toward the King Lord's skull.
Several more divine abilities of varying forms bloomed in rapid succession.
The King Lord, who had been surveying the battlefield with supreme arrogance, faltered for just an instant. First, several divine abilities struck his body, sending it shuddering violently. Then the bamboo staff connected with his head, punching a bloody hole clean through it. And when the sword light finally fell, the King Lord's head went spinning into the sky!
Densely concentrated Ink Power gushed from the King Lord's headless corpse, surging forth like a fountain alongside his Ink Blood.
A King Lord—slain!
Over a dozen human Ninth-Orders had struck in unison, and the King Lord had been killed on the spot before he could even fully emerge from the breach.
It wasn't that this particular King Lord was weak. The truth was that the humans had prepared well in advance, and their execution had been ruthlessly swift and decisive. Moreover, any King Lord wanting to walk out had to pass through this narrow breach, leaving them with absolutely no room to evade the combined assault of the human Ninth-Orders.
Put any human Ninth-Order in the same position and they likely couldn't have withstood a joint attack from over a dozen King Lords either.
The terrain advantage at the breach was the only edge the humans currently possessed, and the Old Ancestors naturally intended to exploit it to the fullest.
But before the Ninth-Orders could celebrate, wave after wave of powerful auras belonging to King Lords surged out from the breach, one after another.
The instant death of their comrades had absolutely no deterrent effect on them. Even knowing the dangers that lay ahead, they charged out through the breach without a moment's hesitation.
The over a dozen human Ninth-Orders holding the breach showed no mercy. Divine abilities flew in every direction, and in the blink of an eye, two more King Lords were slain the moment they set foot outside.
Yet even more King Lords poured out. Using the sacrifice of their fellows, they quickly broke through the Ninth-Orders' defensive line and charged straight into the depths of the battlefield, ignoring the human Ninth-Orders behind them entirely.
More King Lords were still waiting to emerge, so they couldn't afford to fight near the breach. They needed to draw the human Ninth-Orders away.
From fortress after fortress, figures of Ninth-Order experts shot into the air, intercepting the King Lords who had broken through.
At the breach, King Lords continued to fall, but equally many fought their way out.
Even Ninth-Orders fought with manic ferocity in a situation like this, unleashing killing blows without the slightest restraint.
Across the battlefield, zones of overwhelming power soon appeared—areas that ordinary people could not approach.
In just half a day, over a hundred King Lords had surged out through the breach! Although a full twenty had been cut down on the spot, roughly eighty had still broken free.
Those eighty King Lords each required a corresponding human Ninth-Order to keep them in check.
Very few Ninth-Orders remained inside the fortresses to hold the line. Every one of them wore a grim expression, because King Lords were still charging out of the Primordial Heaven Grand Seal's breach in an endless stream.
No one knew how many King Lords lurked within that darkness. If the number grew too large, even the human Ninth-Orders would struggle to cope. Once the King Lords exceeded the limit of what the Ninth-Orders could handle, the human army would be in dire peril.
Half an hour later, the defensive line of over a dozen Ninth-Orders at the breach finally collapsed. Almost every one of them was wounded, and they no longer had the strength to seal the gap. As they retreated in haste, a dozen or more King Lords burst through the breach and gave chase.
Cang, stationed inside the Primordial Heaven Grand Seal, watched with a heavy expression, tracking the balance of power between the human Ninth-Orders and the Ink Clan King Lords from beginning to end. If things truly spiraled beyond control, he would seal the breach immediately.
At this moment, the balance between the two sides had already reached its absolute limit. Every human Ninth-Order had been deployed and was locked in a desperate struggle against the King Lords. The situation had been pushed to the very boundary of what the humans could endure.
If even three or five more King Lords appeared, the balance on the battlefield could shatter.
Cang was prepared to seal the Primordial Heaven Grand Seal at any moment.
By now, the power Mo had accumulated over a million years had already been vented considerably, and the pressure on Cang had eased noticeably. It still wasn't enough, but how could he worry about that now? If the human line truly collapsed, his million-year seal would have been for nothing.
But then—from within the breach, no more King Lords appeared.
Cang's brow furrowed slightly.
He didn't believe Mo's forces numbered only that many King Lords. In that endless darkness, he could still sense powerful forces lying dormant—there were clearly many more King Lords hidden inside.
Yet Mo had stopped sending them out.
Cang pondered for a moment and grasped Mo's intentions.
Right now, not only did he want to maintain the balance of the battle—Mo was maintaining it too. Mo understood Cang's thinking perfectly. If it released more King Lords and the human army lost all hope of victory, Cang would inevitably seal the breach, and Mo would never escape.
The current equilibrium was exactly what Mo was working to preserve. Though its forces suffered continuous casualties, there was still a thread of hope.
But... what was the point of this? Such a balance would ultimately do nothing to help Mo break free. Why go to all this trouble?
Cang couldn't figure it out.
The Mo of a million years ago had indeed been naive, as innocent as a child.
But after a million years of imprisonment, could Cang still regard Mo as a child? During that million-year span, Mo had been sealed within the Primordial Heaven Grand Seal, yet through the uncanny nature of the Ink Nests, it had been able to observe everything in the outside world.
A million years of growth—even the most innocent child could become as cunning as a fox.