Outside the shattered human fortress, Yang Kai steadied his mind and extended his spiritual sense like a tide, searching the battlefield for any trace of surviving life.
But this battle had ended countless years ago. Even if there had been survivors, could they possibly still be here?
He sensed no living presence.
Passing through the hellish battlefield, he arrived above the fortress and looked down. Inside, the scene was no less desolate—skeletons littered the ground everywhere.
Yang Kai's expression darkened.
Though he had no idea what kind of battle the humans of this fortress had faced, the destruction alone told the story. The Ink Clan army had breached the fortress's defenses, stormed inside, and fought the human soldiers to the death within its walls.
He quickly spotted a Purging Black Ink Ship snapped clean in two. A brief probe revealed faint residual fluctuations of the Universe Formation within.
It was the remnant Universe Formation inside this very ship that had guided him here.
Which fortress was this?
Yang Kai didn't know. He continued searching and soon reached the central plaza.
Every human fortress's plaza served as the army's drill ground, and the battle scars here were unmistakable. Countless Ink Clan corpses lay strewn across it.
The dead Ink Clan warriors were layered one upon another, nearly covering the entire field.
Yet at the center of all those corpses, there was a conspicuously open area. A solitary figure sat cross-legged there in perfect stillness, eyes wide open, expression serene.
Yang Kai's heart clenched as though seized by an invisible hand.
He walked forward slowly, clearing a path through the mountain of bodies, and soon stood before the figure.
Their gazes met, and a bitter ache filled Yang Kai's chest.
He knew which fortress this was.
Qingxu Pass!
While the layouts of the various human fortresses were largely similar, there were still subtle differences between them. Yang Kai had visited Qingxu Pass many times and was reasonably familiar with it.
But after the battle, Qingxu Pass was ravaged beyond recognition.
The one sitting cross-legged at the plaza's center, having passed in peace—that figure, he knew.
The Ninth-Order Human Old Ancestor of Qingxu Pass! The very one who had once gifted him some beef. Xu Linggong had gained his insight and broken through to the Eighth-Order precisely by consuming that beef.
The Old Ancestor of Qingxu Pass—fallen in battle here!
Even in his final moments, he had not abandoned the fortress he was sworn to protect.
Yang Kai's vision blurred.
Beside the Old Ancestor lay the Broken-Horned Bull Demon that had been his companion for countless years. Laughing Old Ancestor had always coveted this bull demon but had never managed to claim it.
Now the bull demon, like the Old Ancestor, was covered in wounds. Its one remaining horn had also snapped off, and its tail was gone entirely.
It lay quietly beside the Old Ancestor, head drooping, utterly lifeless.
Yang Kai blinked, clearing the moisture from his eyes. His expression turned solemn, and he bowed deeply to the Old Ancestor of Qingxu Pass.
To the last, they stood with the fortress!
That was the creed every soldier of every fortress had upheld.
The Old Ancestor of Qingxu Pass had lived up to it!
Tens of thousands of soldiers of Qingxu Pass had lived up to it!
To defend the Three Thousand Worlds, untold numbers of human warriors had perished in the Ink Battlefield over the ages. Even Ninth-Order Old Ancestors were no exception.
Every one of these humans who had fallen fighting the Ink Clan—regardless of cultivation level or status—deserved respect and admiration.
The soldiers' remains should not be left to rot in the open. Yang Kai had not been able to take part in this battle, but since fate had brought him here, the least he could do was gather their remains.
As he rose, he suddenly saw the bull demon lying beside the Old Ancestor raise its head. A voice came from its mouth: "Take the Old Ancestor's body. If you encounter a powerful foe, you can use it to fight!"
Yang Kai was overjoyed. "Senior Bull, you're not dead?"
But the bull demon did not answer his question. It simply said: "Don't hesitate. This was the Old Ancestor's dying wish. If his body can be used to slay enemies, the Old Ancestor will smile even in the netherworld."
With that, the bull demon closed its eyes once more and settled back down.
Yang Kai's expression turned somber. The bull demon had been dead for a long time.
That it had been able to speak must have been the effect of some secret technique.
If a human had come here, the bull demon would naturally have spoken and instructed them to take the Old Ancestor's remains. If an Ink Clan member had come, it would not have gone so smoothly.
That the Old Ancestor's body could be used as a weapon meant he must have left some final arrangement before death.