On the front-line floating continent of the Xuan Ming Domain, Ouyang Lie appeared abruptly. He was in an absolutely wretched state—drenched in blood, his aura in complete disarray.
The repeated battles against the Innate Domain Masters had nearly drained him of all his strength. His consciousness was hazy, and he could have passed out at any moment. With injuries this severe, recovery would take at least a year or two.
Surviving such a close brush with death was something to be grateful for, yet he had no idea how he had managed to stay alive, nor how he had ended up here.
Recalling the familiar voice he had heard at his ear moments ago, a faint suspicion took shape in his mind.
He mustered what little strength he had and gazed out into the void.
The first thing he saw was a familiar figure locked in fierce combat with the Innate Domain Master who had ambushed him.
It really is this kid! Ouyang Lie's heart surged with shock.
Just moments ago, he had already accepted his own death—prepared for his body to perish and his Dao to dissipate. But in that critical instant between life and death, the space around him had been twisted. He had clearly felt himself transported into an entirely different space, and it was precisely that which had saved him from the combined assault of two Domain Masters.
Space manipulation!
Only this kid could pull off something like that. As for why he had suddenly appeared on this front-line floating continent, it was obvious that the same person had used spatial means to teleport him back.
He's here—that's all that matters!
Ouyang Lie let out a long breath and collapsed onto the ground, finally unable to hold himself up any longer. His imposing aura plummeted rapidly.
Gazing toward the battlefield, he watched as the Innate Domain Master struggled to fend off Yang Kai's onslaught, stumbling from one desperate defense to the next. A strange feeling welled up in Ouyang Lie's heart.
Since when had this kid's arrival become so reassuring? It was as if, with him present, defeat was simply out of the question.
He smiled to himself in distraction. They really were useless, all these old fogeys. After cultivating for so many years, in the end they still had to rely on a junior.
Counting that time at the Gate of No Return, this kid had already saved his life twice!
"Master, take your medicine!" A voice came from beside him.
Ouyang Lie turned his head to find his prized disciple crawling up next to him, one hand raised high, holding up a jade vial that clearly contained healing pills of considerable value.
Gong Lian was gravely wounded as well. A massive gash across his waist and abdomen nearly bisected him—if his injuries hadn't been so catastrophic, he wouldn't have retreated.
Ouyang Lie glanced down at his disciple's battered state, then looked over at Yang Kai's commanding presence on the battlefield, and couldn't help but sigh. "Truly useless!"
This disciple of his was extraordinarily talented—otherwise he never would have caught Ouyang Lie's eye in the first place. After taking him in and nurturing him for years, the boy had already reached the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm, which was genuinely impressive. But compared to Yang Kai, what did that amount to?
Why hadn't he thought to take Yang Kai as his disciple back then?
Gong Lian had crawled over with good intentions to bring his master medicine, expecting a heartwarming scene of disciple and mentor bonding. Instead, he received this kind of evaluation. "Master, this disciple's cultivation speed has been fast enough."
Two hundred years to reach the Emperor realm, another hundred to condense his Dao Seal, then a hundred more to advance to the Sixth-Order Open Heaven. After that, less than a thousand years to reach the Seventh-Order. All told, he had been cultivating for roughly fifteen hundred years at most.
A Seventh-Order Open Heaven at this age—there were precious few such individuals across the entire Three Thousand Worlds.
Yet in his master's mouth, he was merely "truly useless." Gong Lian felt the sting deep in his heart.
"Oh well, forget it. Not everyone can be a freak like that kid. I can't expect too much of you." Ouyang Lie sighed again and finally took the healing pill from Gong Lian's hand, opening it and swallowing the contents. If his disciple could be called a genius, then Yang Kai was an absolute monster.
Gong Lian forced a smile, feeling the sting even more.
Just then, the distant battlefield erupted with the unmistakable signs of another Innate Domain Master's demise. Ouyang Lie looked up and shouted in excitement, "Well done!"
Just as he had expected—it was Yang Kai who had slain the Domain Master that had ambushed him.
From the moment Yang Kai had appeared to now, barely thirty breaths had passed. Thirty breaths, and two powerful Innate Domain Masters had been cut down.
He somehow felt that this kid had grown even stronger than the last time he had seen him outside the Gate of No Return.
"Master, look over there!" Gong Lian had spotted another anomaly and pointed.
Ouyang Lie followed his gaze and saw that the rear ranks of the Ink Clan's army had suddenly descended into chaos. Through the dense curtain of Ink Force, blazing suns and crescent moons rose into the sky one after another. Bathed in their radiance, countless strange creatures surged forward from behind the Ink Clan's lines, tearing apart their formations.
"The Stone Clans!" Ouyang Lie's eyes lit up, quickly realizing that Yang Kai must have brought them.
That Yang Kai possessed a vast number of the Stone Clans was something the human race's powerhouses all knew to some extent. After all, the Stone Clans were active on virtually every battlefield now—all of them had been gifted by Yang Kai in the past.
The Xuan Ming Domain battlefield had its share as well, though not particularly large. After so many years of fighting, many of the Stone Clans Yang Kai had originally sent out had been killed or wounded.
The Stone Clans were indeed useful against the Ink Clan, but their sole drawback was that they were difficult to command, and their strength varied wildly.
If comparing the average combat power of each faction's armies, the human forces far surpassed the Ink Clan, and the Ink Clan far surpassed the Stone Clans.
So despite the Stone Clans' enormous numbers, every major battle resulted in devastating casualties.
The General Affairs Bureau had conducted a count half a year ago. The total number of Stone Clans Yang Kai had gifted over the years amounted to roughly thirty million. But of those, only about thirteen million remained. The other seventeen million had been destroyed by the Ink Clan across the various battlefields.