Diwu had fallen into a complete disadvantage. The sheer physical strength Yang Kai possessed was something he had never experienced before, and the wrist that was being gripped sent waves of searing pain through him.
"Don't keep people waiting so long next time!" Yang Kai roared, slamming his forehead into Diwu's skull. The berserk force struck like an entire world crashing down, leaving Diwu momentarily dizzy and disoriented, the Ink power he had been channeling nearly dispersing entirely.
The sudden turn of events left the Domain Lords arrayed in all four directions stunned. They had expected Diwu to handle the situation with ease, but the outcome left them utterly shocked.
In their panic, they had no choice but to act. One after another, they unleashed their secret arts at Yang Kai, desperate to pull Diwu free.
A barrage of explosions rang out. The protective layer of Ancestral Spirit Power around Yang Kai's body had already been torn apart by Diwu earlier. Now, he was truly relying on the sheer resilience of his physical body to endure the combined assault of four Domain Lords. Even channeling the power of his Small Universe for defense was not enough to fully protect him. In an instant, his skin was torn open and flesh ripped apart, golden blood spraying wildly.
"Have you all had enough?! I've been putting up with you for far too long!"
Yang Kai roared.
On the backs of both his hands, peculiar and extraordinarily bright patterns suddenly appeared.
The Sun Mark. The Moon Mark.
From within those patterns, an exceedingly profound and mysterious power surged forth. Drawn by these two forces, wisps of luminous light began rising from the corpses of the fallen Little Stone Clan scattered across the Ancestral Land.
The light appeared in two distinct colors—yellow and blue—pure and pristine beyond measure. At first, there were not many, but in the blink of an eye, they multiplied into an immeasurable, dense swarm. The entire battlefield was bathed in an ocean of these two-colored radiance.
Three million Little Stone Clan had perished on this patch of earth. Had Diwu observed more carefully earlier, he would have noticed that these were two fundamentally different types of Little Stone Clan—Sun Little Stone Clan and Moon Little Stone Clan, each comprising half the number.
These peculiar beings had been painstakingly cultivated over many years by Brother Huang and Sister Lan, using their own power. Combined with the innate nature of the Little Stone Clan, each of them was essentially a living Yellow Crystal or Blue Crystal—though not as pure as actual Yellow and Blue Crystals, with both Sun power and Moon power concealed within their bodies.
Though every last one of them had been smashed to pieces, their power had not dissipated. It remained condensed within their remains. If other Little Stone Clan were to come here, they could devour the corpses of their fallen kin and grow stronger.
The sacrifice of these three million Little Stone Clan was not in vain.
From the moment Yang Kai had decided to summon the Little Stone Clan, he had been planning for this very moment.
The Ink Clan would never have imagined that the dead Little Stone Clan could wield such devastating power. After all, only some ten-odd Sacred Spirits possessed the Sun Mark and Moon Mark, and no Sacred Spirit had ever deployed such an extraordinary technique in front of the Ink Clan.
Diwu believed he had been sufficiently cautious, but the truth proved that human ingenuity was something he could never fathom.
By the time he recovered from his dizziness, the two-colored light flooding his vision sent a jolt of alarm through his heart. He recalled once more the scene of Yang Kai's rampage at Returnless Pass all those years ago.
The Ink power within his body surged frantically as he tried to break free of Yang Kai's grip, and he bellowed: "Hurry! Attack!"
"Too late!" Yang Kai snorted coldly, channeling the two marks on the backs of his hands to their fullest.
The yellow and blue ocean of light rapidly merged and converged, both colors fading in an instant to become a single, pure radiance. The light gradually coalesced into a massive sphere that blanketed the entire battlefield, transforming it into a scene of breathtaking splendor.
Time seemed to freeze in that moment. Under the embrace of the pure purifying light, the Ink power and Ink masses that had scattered across the battlefield from the massive number of fallen Ink Clan were cleansed in the blink of an eye, as though they had never existed.
The tens of thousands of surviving Ink Clan troops were like ants thrown into a vat of boiling oil—writhing in agony, screaming and struggling, yet powerless to resist the purifying light's erosion. The Ink power within their bodies rapidly dissolved, their auras weakening with every breath. The weakest among them perished on the spot, while the slightly stronger could only cling to life by a thread.
The four Domain Lords in formation unleashed their secret arts once more, hurling them at Yang Kai. Yet those attacks were rapidly dissolved and weakened by the purifying light before they even reached him, and by the time they struck Yang Kai's body, they had long since lost their intended power.
Not only that—they themselves were enduring excruciating agony that tore at both soul and body. The purifying light continuously seeped into their bodies, dissolving their foundations and power.
Before Yang Kai, Diwu suffered the same fate.
His strength was the greatest, and standing right beside Yang Kai, the purifying light here was at its most concentrated. At this moment, this Pseudo Royal Lord looked like a candle melting away—black Ink power flowed ceaselessly from his body, only to be purified clean by the light.
Fortunately, before Yang Kai had activated the purifying light, Diwu had mustered his remaining strength and thrust the hand-blade he had been using against Yang Kai slightly forward.
Though reluctant, Yang Kai had no choice but to quickly create distance, avoiding the fate of having his heart pierced.
Freed from restraint, Diwu immediately soared into the sky, desperately trying to escape the range of the purifying light.
However, space in that instant had become impossibly viscous, as though stretched to infinity. Though the interference lasted only a moment, it subjected him to even greater suffering.
The dazzling light dissipated completely after a mere three breaths, yet in those three breaths, the Ink Clan's losses had been absolutely catastrophic.
Diwu finally broke free of the spatial bonds and escaped the purifying light's reach. Looking down, his heart bled.
Of the tens of thousands of Ink Clan troops who had survived, fewer than two thousand remained alive. The rest had all perished under the purifying light's erosion.
Even those two thousand Ink Clan were in a state of severe decline, their power drastically reduced.
As for those four Domain Lords who had formed the Four Symbols Formation…