The armies of the two races surged toward each other, both brimming with killing intent.
Tens of thousands of kilometers away, the Ink Expulsion Ships serving as the vanguard had already begun their assault. The myriad arrays mounted upon them hummed to life, Artifacts radiating brilliant light that transformed into streaks of multicolored radiance, streaking across the void and bathing the space beyond Returnless Gate in a dazzling spectacle.
Each beam of light carried devastating destructive force, detonating amid the Ink Clan army and carving out swath after swath of empty ground.
The remnant force's sole Ink Expulsion Ship had been brought out from Azure Void Gate. Every arrangement aboard it could be considered a distillation of the gate's remaining essence—its power was several times greater than that of an ordinary Ink Expulsion Ship.
The more than one thousand human soldiers stationed aboard it existed virtually entirely in service to the ship. Until the Ink Expulsion Ship was breached, they would not enter the fray personally; they need only unleash the might of the arrays and Artifacts.
No Ink Expulsion Ship had ever been outfitted with such lavish provisions.
Such formidable armament meant ferocious offensive capability.
The first volley stunned the Ink Clan side. The ten Ink Clan Domain Lords all recognized that this ship was something altogether different from the norm.
They had seen human Ink Expulsion Ships before, but those were nothing compared to the threat this one posed.
After only a brief consultation, five Domain Lords, shielded by the Ink Clan forces under their command, charged straight toward the Ink Expulsion Ship.
No matter where this remnant human force had come from, they clearly depended heavily on this vessel. If they could destroy it, the humans' strength would plummet, and those several thousand cultivators would be at their mercy.
Five Innate Domain Lords joining forces against a single Eighth-Order human—virtually a guaranteed victory.
Before long, leveraging the sacrifices of their subordinates, the five Domain Lords had closed to within thirty thousand kilometers of the Ink Expulsion Ship. At that range, their formidable Innate Domain Lord strength was more than sufficient to pose a genuine threat.
But before they could make their move, a streak of light suddenly burst from the Ink Expulsion Ship—it was the Eighth-Order human stationed aboard, charging out to meet them.
The Domain Lords were perceptive individuals and immediately recognized him as the same human who had been provoking them outside Returnless Gate for the past two years.
They made the same mistake as the Domain Lord Yang Kai had previously slain.
They underestimated his strength, assuming he was merely gifted in evasion while his true combat ability was nothing remarkable.
Thus, facing his charge, the five Domain Lords paid him little heed. Each activated their own secret arts and divine abilities, intending to blast both the Eighth-Order human and the Ink Expulsion Ship to smithereens.
Yet in that very instant, the Eighth-Order human's figure blurred, and he vanished from where he stood.
The next moment, three Domain Lords screamed in unison, as though struck by some unbearable agony, their faces contorting in pain.
In the span of a heartbeat, the aura of three powerful Innate Domain Lords plummeted drastically.
The remaining two, though unaware of what their companions had suffered, were alarmed nonetheless—for in that fleeting instant, they had clearly sensed violent fluctuations of spiritual power.
Before they could assess their companions' condition, the soldiers aboard the Ink Expulsion Ship, already primed by Yang Kai's orders, simultaneously activated the might of their arrays and Artifacts, unleashing a devastating barrage upon the three Domain Lords.
Had the three been at their peak, such attacks might have done them little harm. But at this moment, their spiritual sense was damaged and their minds unsteady.
The entire Ink Expulsion Ship—hundreds of arrays, hundreds of Artifacts—unleashed its power in three concentrated streams, each Domain Lord receiving two to three hundred individual strikes. Every single one carried force equivalent to a Seventh-Order Open Heaven's full-power blow, and a dozen or more rivaled Eighth-Order strikes in power.
The void itself seemed to tear apart in that instant.
Violent energy tides surged outward, not only battering the Ink Clan army into near-immobility but also forcing the Ink Expulsion Ship's defensive shields to flicker wildly under the shockwave's impact.
Amid the chaos, three powerful auras were extinguished in succession.
The three targeted Innate Domain Lords had actually died, just like that!
As the dust settled, Yang Kai reappeared, his spear flickering as he swept the remaining two Domain Lords into his offensive.
Veins bulged at his temples and his eyes were saturated with blood-red. Indescribable pain tore through him, making it feel as though his very soul was being ripped apart. He gritted his teeth and endured, his attacks growing even more vicious.
Ten Domain Lords led an army of three hundred thousand Ink Clan troops against them, while the human side had only four Eighth-Order cultivators—nowhere near enough to hold the line.
So no matter what, they had to close the gap in strength first.
And in moments like these, the Soul-Sacrificing Needles were the perfect trump card.
Having experienced his previous battle against the Goat-Headed Royal Lord, Yang Kai understood his soul's limits. If he invoked Soul-Sacrificing Needles four times in succession, he risked losing lucidity again, just as last time.
He had been lucky before—despite his consciousness sinking into oblivion, he had fought on instinct and ultimately slain the Goat-Headed Royal Lord. He had no memory of the process itself, only that his Dragon Pearl had been damaged afterward, which told him what must have happened.
Only a strike from the Dragon Pearl could kill a Royal Lord; it was his most powerful technique.
He couldn't count on such fortune holding forever, so this time he activated only three Soul-Sacrificing Needles, targeting three Domain Lords respectively.
Combined with the Ink Expulsion Ship's devastating barrage, the gambit succeeded in a single blow.