"This opportunity is rare, Sir. Since you intend to strike by surprise, the optimal approach would be to choose the plan that lets you kill as many Domain Lords as possible." Kong Chengde extended his hand and pointed toward the main battlefield. "On the main front, the Ink Clan has deployed a great many Domain Lords who watch each other's backs. The moment you make your move, the rest will be on guard, and it'll be much harder to achieve anything after that."
Yang Kai considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Senior Brother Kong speaks truly."
The main front was certainly the most important, but the war in Xuanming Domain wouldn't be decided by one or two battles, nor could the Humans expect to crush the Ink Clan in a short time. This was a war destined to drag on.
As Kong Chengde had pointed out, if Yang Kai appeared on the main front, his abilities might let him slay one Domain Lord with thunderous speed, but achieving more would be difficult.
The secondary fronts were different. Each one had only a handful of Domain Lords. Even if Yang Kai revealed himself, whether those Domain Lords could flee would be up to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven cultivators facing them in battle. All they needed to do was fight to the death and hold them in place, and Yang Kai could tip the balance and widen the Humans' advantage.
"Then it'll be this one." Yang Kai tapped the location of that defensive line, turned, and headed for the exit, calling back over his shoulder: "Senior Brother Kong, please send word ahead and have the Garrison Commanders prepare for coordinated support."
Kong Chengde clasped his fists. "Understood!"
Nearby, Wei Junyang watched Yang Kai's departing figure and sighed softly. "I'd love to see what he'd be like once he reaches the Ninth Order."
At the Eighth Order, he had already killed a great many Innate Domain Lords. If Yang Kai could advance to the Ninth, could he crush the Ink Clan's Ink King? If so, the Humans' burden would lighten considerably.
Right now, the most powerful combatants on both sides were tied down — the Humans' two Ninth-Order cultivators and one Giant Spirit God, the Ink Clan's two Ink Giant Spirit Gods and one Ink King. This stalemate was a situation the Humans had deliberately engineered and the Ink Clan had gone along with.
It favored the Ink Clan, since they vastly outnumbered the Humans in both Domain Lords and troops.
The Humans were barely holding the line across over a dozen major domain battlefields, waiting for nothing more than an opportunity — an opportunity for the younger generation to grow. There were already many promising seeds who had entered directly at the Sixth or Seventh Order, and given time, they would become Eighth and Ninth Order cultivators.
But while the Humans were growing, so too was the Ink Clan.
When the Humans produced a new Ninth-Order cultivator, wouldn't the Ink Clan also birth a new Ink King? Without an overwhelming advantage, the Humans would still have no answer for the Ink Clan.
That was why powerhouses whose strength far exceeded their peers were so crucial. If such a powerhouse emerged, they would be an immense deterrent to the enemy.
Looking across all of the Humans, only one person qualified: Yang Kai. At the Seventh Order, he had cut down Lords like they were nothing. At the Eighth Order, he could ride out alone and slay Domain Lords. If he ever reached the Ninth Order, he would surely be able to kill the Ink Clan's Ink King.
Alas, life seldom goes as one wishes. The Ninth Order remained an elusive, distant prospect for Yang Kai.
Wei Junyang strode out of the tent. "I'm heading to the front."
The fighting on the main front was at a fever pitch, and he had only rushed back upon hearing news of Yang Kai's return. Now that a strategy was in place, how could he stay? The Ink Clan's Domain Lords already outnumbered the Humans' Eighth-Order cultivators, and with him away, the others on the main front were under tremendous pressure.
After he left, Kong Chengde turned to a Seventh-Order Open Heaven cultivator beside him. "Send word to Chen Yuan. Tell him the Corps Commander is heading their way and to coordinate the kill."
"Yes, sir!" The Seventh-Order cultivator accepted the order and quickly produced a Transmission Bead, flooding it with spiritual consciousness.
Somewhere in Xuanming Domain, the Ink Clan army surged forward with ferocious momentum, their arrogance reaching the heavens. Tens of thousands of Human warriors held a tight defense around a massive World Fragment, split into several contingents.
Warships streaked back and forth. The World Fragment itself had long been fortified with defensive formations and Artifacts. In the dim void, multicolored lights crisscrossed in every direction as spell after spell bloomed, brilliant enough to illuminate the entire expanse.
This was one of several secondary fronts in Xuanming Domain. The Human forces assigned here were not large, numbering around fifty thousand, with four Eighth-Order cultivators permanently stationed.
On this single secondary front alone, nearly a hundred thousand Human soldiers had been buried over the decades, and one Eighth-Order cultivator had fallen.
But no matter how brutal the fighting, the Humans had held on. Just as they had on the Ink Battlefield, where Human armies excelled at fighting against superior numbers, the warships provided the army with excellent mobility and protection. And when the top-tier fighters were excluded, the Humans' overall strength was still significantly greater than the Ink Clan's — this was the real reason the Humans could hold.
This kind of fighting had already gone on for decades, and might continue for decades more.
Prolonged war bred exhaustion and numbness. Before Yang Kai's return, whether in Xuanming Domain or on other major domain battlefields, the Humans' defensive lines had been on the brink of collapse.
Yang Kai's return, however, had greatly relieved the dire situation.
The biggest reason was that the Humans now possessed the Purification Light. With it, Human warriors could fight the Ink Clan without holding back, no longer fearing contamination by the Ink Force. In the past, whenever the Purification Light ran dry, the Humans had been forced to fight against the Ink Clan with one hand tied behind their backs — as uncomfortable as it sounds.