Never mind that he was only Eighth-Order—even if a Ninth-Order were here, there would be no certainty of resolving the Ink Giant Spirit before them.
But what could be done would be done!
"I'll come with you!" Honghu said.
Yang Kai shook his head. "You should have heard what Elder Lu said just now, Senior Honghu. I need someone who can relay the news from here. Right now, besides the two of us, there's no one else around. If we both fall here, who will carry the message out? Senior, I'll have to trouble you to make the trip."
Honghu opened her mouth but found herself at a loss for words.
She had been about to say that there was still Kun Ao, except Kun Ao had been ambushed by Lu An and Ye Ming and lay gravely injured and unconscious. Whether he would even survive was questionable, let alone be capable of carrying any message.
"Before I came here, I already asked a member of the Dragon Clan to head toward the Void Domain battlefield, but time is running short. Senior, go quickly!"
Honghu gritted her teeth and gave a heavy nod. "Watch yourself."
Without further hesitation, she turned and charged out of the Demon Sealing Ground. Finding the unconscious Kun Ao, she grabbed him and burst out of the Ancestral Land of the Sacred Spirits.
At that moment, Ji Laosan finally arrived at the Void Domain battlefield via the Shattered Heaven gateway and immediately sought out the Ninth-Order Ancestor stationed nearby.
"Senior, has any Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivator on the Void Domain battlefield been Ink-corrupted?" Ji Laosan asked urgently, mindful of Yang Kai's instructions.
The Ninth-Order Open Heaven cultivator was puzzled as to why Ji Laosan would suddenly bring this up, but he was aware of certain events, and nodded. "Several years ago, a Royal Lord did infiltrate the battlefield and activate a Royal-grade secret art that Ink-corrupted several Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators."
The Royal Lord who had cast the Royal-grade secret art had paid for it with his life.
This was precisely why the Ink Clan's Royal Lords did not use the Royal-grade secret art lightly. Though the art was effective—once deployed, even Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators struggled to resist it—each activation damaged their Yuan Qi.
After Ink-corrupting several Eighth-Order cultivators, that Royal Lord had been spotted by a nearby human Ninth-Order, who seized the opportunity and cut him down with a single sword strike.
Though several Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators had been lost, slaying one of the enemy's Royal Lords meant that, on balance, humanity had come out ahead.
This Ninth-Order Ancestor still remembered who had been among the Ink-corrupted: Lu An of the Yin-Yang Heaven, Ye Ming of the Azure Nether Blessed Land, and an Eighth-Order of the Return to Origin Blessed Land.
No one could understand why that Royal Lord had taken such a risk. After years of warfare, both the human Ninth-Orders and the Ink Clan Royal Lords had suffered considerable losses. The current numbers on each side were less than thirty percent of their peak strength—the rest had all fallen in battle.
Under these circumstances, every single Royal Lord and Ninth-Order was an indispensable force. Neither the humans nor the Ink Clan dared to instigate large-scale battles between their top-tier fighters anymore; both feared taking too many losses.
"How do you know about this?" The Ninth-Order Ancestor looked at Ji Laosan in confusion. By Ji Laosan's own account, he had been brought by Yang Kai through the Void Corridor of the Ink Battlefield directly into the Black Domain, then traveled from the Black Domain through the Shattered Heaven to reach the Void Domain battlefield. He should have known nothing of the situation here.
Ji Laosan's face had gone ashen. The situation here was exactly as Yang Kai had predicted, and a wave of despair washed through him.
He hurriedly recounted how he and Yang Kai had pursued the Ink Disciples in the Shattered Heaven earlier, discovering that two Eighth-Order Ink Disciples had entered it.
The Ninth-Order Ancestor's expression darkened immediately.
Several Eighth-Order cultivators Ink-corrupted years ago, and now two Eighth-Order Ink Disciples had appeared in the Shattered Heaven. This was no coincidence. It was likely just as Yang Kai had speculated—the Void Domain battlefield already had a passage connecting it to the outside world. Whether that passage led to the Shattered Heaven remained to be determined.
Not daring to delay, the Ninth-Order immediately sent out transmissions, relaying this information to the other Ninth-Orders.
In an instant, spiritual senses darted through various communication artifacts, converging in a nameless space.
This was something humanity had developed by drawing inspiration from the Ink Nests—a combination of a formation array and an artifact, designed for transmitting messages and facilitating communication. Though it still had many shortcomings, covering the entirety of the Void Domain battlefield was no problem.
Within that nameless space, soul projections materialized one after another. The news spread quickly from the Ninth-Order who had reported it, and all the surviving human Ninth-Orders wore grave expressions.
After a brief exchange of spiritual senses, the Ninth-Orders quickly reached a consensus.
The most pressing matter now was to locate the breach connecting the Void Domain battlefield to the outside world. Only by finding it could they address the problem accordingly.
The Void Domain's existence was both artificial and semi-natural. It had been created by earlier generations of humanity, who had emulated the methods of Cang and his companions to carve out a pocket domain.
This domain had originally contained more than one gateway. However, the predecessors had either destroyed or sealed all but one—the gateway connecting to the Shattered Heaven.
The breach that had appeared must be one of the original gateways. But it had been so long that these Ninth-Order Open Heaven cultivators had no knowledge of where the ancient gateways had been.
With no other option, they sent out requests for the disciples of the various Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands to search their archives for any ancient records that might be relevant.
They also contacted the Phoenix Clan, asking them to use their mastery of the Space Laws to investigate whether any spatial energy fluctuations existed within the Void Domain.
After all, if there truly was a breach, there would inevitably be some faint spatial energy fluctuations. Having the Phoenix Clan investigate was the most convenient approach.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. The numerous Phoenix Clan experts searched the entire Void Domain and found nothing, but several Cave Heavens and Blessed Lands reported that they had located some records pertaining to the Void Domain's gateways.