Even though he sensed that Yang Kai was concealing something, Manaye turned the matter over in his mind but simply couldn't figure it out.
At the Human Race's main camp, Yang Kai returned to find all the Eighth-Grade cultivators waiting for him.
Yang Kai looked up and gave the assembled group a slight nod. "It's settled. From now on, Eighth-Grade cultivators from the Human Race and Domain Lords of the Ink Clan are barred from participating in the battles within the Xuanming Domain."
Before departing, he had discussed the matter of peace negotiations with all the Eighth-Grade cultivators. Some had opposed it, some had been confused by it, but not a single one had been in favor.
Now, in the Xuanming Domain, the Human Race held the dominant position. This should have been the time to settle old scores and exact revenge—especially since in every major battle, whenever Yang Kai took action, he always reaped considerable gains.
Over the past thirty years, the Ink Clan's Domain Lords had suffered devastating losses, while not a single Eighth-Grade from the Human Race had fallen. With this shift in the balance, the Human Race's advantage would only continue to grow. The Eighth-Grade cultivators had already been envisioning a glorious future centuries from now, when the Human Race would crush the Ink Clan's armies in the Xuanming Domain.
No one had expected that, at a time like this, Yang Kai would actually go negotiate with the Ink Clan—especially since this truce only applied at the Eighth-Grade and Domain Lord level. It was tantamount to the Human Race relinquishing its greatest advantage.
But in the end, Yang Kai had persuaded them.
The Human Race needed to train its troops!
Currently, thanks to the nourishing power of the sub-tree of the World Tree from the Star Boundary, a considerable number of talented individuals had already been directly promoted to Sixth-Grade or Seventh-Grade. These people all had the potential to eventually reach Eighth-Grade and Ninth-Grade. If they could grow and mature, they would greatly alleviate the Human Race's declining situation.
Those geniuses who had been directly promoted to Sixth-Grade had already been sent to the battlefield in large numbers.
But the ones promoted directly to Seventh-Grade—every Grotto-heaven and Blessed Land treasured them like precious jewels, keeping them hidden away. They were given abundant resources and cultivated behind closed doors, with the hope that they would one day break through to the Ninth-Grade realm and lead the Human Race out of its predicament.
Even at Lingxiao Palace, Hua Qingsi had held back two hundred elite cultivators.
But was closed-door cultivation truly sufficient?
If breaking through to the Ninth-Grade realm was really that easy, then tens of thousands of years would not have passed with only a little over one hundred Ninth-Grade cultivators in the entire Human Race.
Even if someone managed to reach Ninth-Grade, they would be flowers grown in a greenhouse—never having weathered the storms of the outside world. Their actual combat strength would remain questionable.
Yang Kai's own current achievements had been carved out step by step from mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Every one of the Human Race's current Eighth-Grade cultivators had earned their rank the same way.
So the Human Race needed to train its troops! Those geniuses who had been directly promoted to Sixth-Grade and Seventh-Grade needed to be thrown into the battlefield, to undergo hardship, to understand the true struggles of the Human Race.
But the environment across the various Great Domain battlefields was still somewhat dangerous.
The Ink Clan's Domain Lords were numerous. Sometimes the Human Race's Eighth-Grade cultivators could not contain all of them, and those Domain Lords would charge in without restraint. In such cases, even the most talented elite risked falling in battle.
In truth, over these years, the number of geniuses who had perished because of this was no longer small.
The loss of geniuses directly promoted to Sixth-Grade was one thing, but if Seventh-Grade direct promotions also suffered casualties, that would be truly heartbreaking. The purpose of training troops was to make them stronger, not to have them die in vain.
In the Void Domain battlefield, the Ninth-Grade Ancestors had, in order to create a safe growth environment for the younger generation, sacrificed themselves without hesitation, slaying every single Ink Clan King Lord and even gravely wounding the ink-colored giant divine spirit.
The favorable situation the Human Race enjoyed today—barely holding its ground across more than a dozen Great Domain battlefields—owed an immeasurable debt to the sacrifices of those Ninth-Grade Ancestors.
But it still wasn't enough.
Yang Kai's decision to negotiate with the Ink Clan's Domain Lords was simply an extension of the Ninth-Grade Ancestors' will. The Ancestors had annihilated the Ink Clan's many King Lords; Yang Kai had restrained the Domain Lords of the Xuanming Domain. Together, they were creating a safer environment for the Human Race's younger generation to grow.
This was why the Xuanming Army had spent thirty years on the offensive, why Yang Kai had slaughtered Ink Clan Domain Lords on the battlefield without restraint.
He needed to beat the Domain Lords into submission before he had the leverage to negotiate with them!
This plan had already been set in motion from the moment Yang Kai returned from the Star Boundary—he simply had never told anyone.
Now in the Xuanming Domain, with the Eighth-Grades and Domain Lords standing down, the Human Race could throw its geniuses into this battlefield, letting them walk the razor's edge between life and death, comprehending the profound mysteries of the Great Dao amidst overwhelming terror, and awakening their hidden potential.
It was foreseeable that some geniuses would fall because of this. After all, the Ink Clan was more numerous and better equipped than the Human Race. But for the sake of the Human Race's future, such losses were acceptable. A genius who has already died is no longer a genius.
Between the Star Boundary and the future Myriad Beast Boundary, with two sub-trees of the World Tree continuously nurturing new talent, would the Human Race ever truly lack for geniuses?
Admittedly, this approach meant that the Xuanming Army was tying its own hands—giving the Domain Lords of the Xuanming Domain an easy reprieve. From now on, they would no longer need to worry about being ambushed by Yang Kai during battle.
But this war was not Yang Kai's war alone. It was the war of the entire Human Race—a matter of the species' survival. What could Yang Kai accomplish by himself, no matter how powerful?
He had been directly promoted to Fifth-Grade at the Opening Heaven stage, then consumed a mid-grade World Fruit to gain the capital of Sixth-Grade. His current realm of Eighth-Grade was already his limit.
Without some extraordinary opportunity, there was no way he could advance to Ninth-Grade. As things stood, with the Soul Sacrifice Thorn he could slay Domain Lords, but when facing a King Lord, he still had no option but to flee.