Thanks to Fu Guang's rescue, the remnants of Yang Kai's army had finally escaped their initial and greatest crisis. In the distance, a large human army had noticed the situation here and was rapidly moving to close in, clearly coming to provide support.
Yang Kai sent a transmission to Ouyang Lie and the others: "I'm leaving the rest to you."
Ouyang Lie, who was guarding the rear, was startled and quickly asked: "What are you going to—"
But when he looked up, Yang Kai was nowhere to be seen on the Purging Ink Ship. He had vanished the moment those words left his lips.
Ouyang Lie's brows furrowed slightly. He had a vague inkling of what Yang Kai intended, and concern stirred in his heart—but worry was useless now. Yang Kai had already gone, and there was no way to stop him. With no other choice, Ouyang Lie flickered from the rear guard onto the Purging Ink Ship, taking over Yang Kai's position and continuing to lead the remnants toward the approaching human army.
Along the way, they cut down a fair number of Ink Clan blocking their path. In short order, the two forces rendezvoused, and after exchanging divine sense communication with the Eighth-Order leading the relief army, Ouyang Lie explained the origins of his group. The Eighth-Order was both astonished and delighted.
Everyone knew that remnants still lingered in the Ink Battlefield. But given the overall strategic situation, there had been no way to bring those remnants along during the evacuation. They had been written off as doomed to perish under the Ink Clan's siege—yet here they were, having broken through Unreturning Pass.
At last, the remnants were finally safe, no longer facing certain annihilation.
Looking back into the distance, though Ouyang Lie could not see Yang Kai's figure, he knew Yang Kai must be heading toward the passageway.
Meanwhile, on a distant battlefield in the Void Domain, several women had formed a formation. Their graceful figures wove in and out, alternating positions as though transforming into a spinning windmill. In the midst of their turns, an untold number of Ink Clan fell beneath this group of women.
Their individual strength was not particularly high—most were at the Seventh-Order Open Heaven level. Yet countless years of living and fighting side by side had made their minds as one, and they had been taught a combined formation technique by a master. Fighting together, they could even contend with a Domain Lord.
Among them, a woman dressed in white gripped a long, cold-water sword. Her temperament was as cool and detached as ice. Suddenly, she pressed a hand to her chest and lifted her gaze toward a certain direction.
"Senior Sister, what's wrong?" Another woman in a green dress asked in alarm, thinking the white-clad woman had been injured.
"My husband!" the woman in white murmured.
In that instant, she had once again felt that long-lost connection.
It had been nearly a thousand years since she had last experienced such a feeling—yet it remained as deeply etched in her heart as ever.
Though her words were soft, they struck the other women like thunder. Their expressions all changed drastically. At the center of the group, a woman whose demonic qi was plainly evident and whose figure was voluptuous and alluring, her beautiful eyes lighting up: "Which direction?"
The woman in white pointed with her hand.
"Move!" The demoness gave the command, leading the women in a charge toward that direction. She was the eye of the formation they had created, and the moment she moved, the others followed suit instantly.
Every one of them felt their hearts blazing with heat.
The commotion here immediately drew one person's attention.
That person moved to block the women's path, frowning: "What do you think you're doing? It's extremely dangerous over there."
Each human army had its own designated defensive zone. Leaving without coordination risked being encircled and cut off by Ink Clan forces.
The leading demoness fixed her with a cold, hard look, her expression far from friendly, and through gritted teeth declared: "He's come back!"
"Who?" the one blocking their path asked with a frown—then, as if suddenly realizing something, her expression sharpened: "Yang Kai has returned?"
"Yes!" the demoness confirmed.
The blocker was both shocked and overjoyed: "How do you know?"
On this chaotic battlefield, even she didn't have clear intelligence. How could these women have learned such news?
Furthermore, based on her own conjectures along with those of the various Ancestors, Yang Kai should have been dead long ago. He had been pursued by a powerful Ink Clan Royal Master with no word of him for five hundred years—what chance of survival could there have been?
It was only after returning to the Void Domain and gathering some intelligence from people in the Void Great World that they had been able to confirm Yang Kai was still alive. They simply didn't know where he was.
The demoness had no patience for conversation, but she knew a brief explanation was unavoidable, so she said: "Su Yan has dual-cultivated with him for many years. Their hearts are linked—as long as the distance isn't too great, they can sense each other."
The one blocking their path immediately turned to look at the white-clad woman: "You sensed him?"
Su Yan nodded, pointing in a specific direction. She was about to speak when her brow furrowed: "He's disappeared again!"
The demoness erupted with fury, snarling at the blocker: "You lost our man. You owe me!"
Ancestor Xiao Xiao didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Over the past few hundred years, she had heard this line countless times. She was, after all, a Ninth-Order Ancestor who had guarded the Ink Battlefield for countless years with great merit. In normal times, every junior treated her with the utmost respect—yet this demoness of the Demon Race showed her no courtesy whatsoever. The moment she had learned that Yang Kai had been serving under Xiao Xiao's command all these years and subsequently gone missing, the demoness had repeatedly demanded that Xiao Xiao "compensate" her.
How could she possibly compensate? She didn't even know where Yang Kai was.
The fighting in the Void Domain had been fierce, and the human soldiers at the Ink Battlefield's various passes had suffered devastating casualties. So after retreating to the Void Domain, the Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands had deliberated and decided to conscript reinforcements from the second-tier forces, stationing them to defend the Void Domain.
Across the Three Thousand Worlds, there were countless second-tier forces. Many among them boasted Fifth-Order and Sixth-Order Open Heaven cultivators, all qualified to contend with the Ink Clan.
In the past, these second-tier forces had been able to stay on the sidelines because the major Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands had held the line at the Ink Battlefield. Now that the weight of defense fell more broadly, they could no longer remain spectators.