At Buhui Pass, there was indeed more than one Royal Lord. Apart from the one he had lured away, another had been lying in ambush.
There was no time to dwell on it. The great sun Yang Kai had raised on his spear already slammed into the Domain Lord charging up from below. The massive ink cloud shattered instantly, and the powerful Innate Domain Lord was struck as though by lightning, spewing black blood as he plummeted downward even faster than he had risen, his body scorched and charred.
A single strike, and he was already wounded.
He had heard that Yang Kai had slain a companion of equal strength in three moves, but hearsay was one thing. Only by facing this human killing star firsthand did he understand just how powerless one truly was.
How could the human race produce such a formidable being?
The only thing this Domain Lord was grateful for at this moment was that Yang Kai had not unleashed that soul-damaging secret art on him first. Otherwise, he would already be a corpse.
The shockwave rippled outward, and even the Royal Lord-grade
Fortunately, the aftershock was not too powerful, and the Ink Nest soon stabilized.
Four Domain Lords nearby, arrayed in a Four Symbols formation, closed in together. In moments they would entangle him. Not far away, the Royal Lord's aura was approaching at incredible speed. If those four Domain Lords pinned him down and then he had to face that Ink Race Royal Lord, Yang Kai would find himself in grave danger.
Moreover, he had already faintly detected that the instant he attacked the Ink Nest, more than ten Domain Lords had scattered in every direction, each carrying an array flag. From their movements, it was obvious they were setting up a formation.
The Ink Race's response was nothing if not swift, as if rehearsed countless times. No matter which direction Yang Kai attacked from, he would immediately be caught in their calculations.
Yang Kai knew that now was absolutely not the time to get bogged down. He could not quickly dispatch those Domain Lords in formation — not without resorting to the Soul-Abandoning Thorn. But his soul injury had not fully healed, and he dared not use the Soul-Abandoning Thorn too many times.
If he ended up losing his sanity, that would truly be walking into his own grave.
And so he made a decisive choice. He thrust another vicious spear toward the Ink Nest below, then immediately activated the Laws of Space and teleported away.
The four Domain Lords in formation had already closed in, but in the blink of an eye Yang Kai had vanished without a trace. They stood momentarily bewildered. Monaya also froze, turning to gaze in one direction. The Domain Lords carrying array flags were still rushing toward their designated positions, oblivious to the fact that the enemy had already fled.
Only the Domain Lord who had been wounded by Yang Kai's Golden Crow Cast the Sun let out a furious roar, ignoring his destabilized energy and injuries, and hurled himself headlong into the spear radiance Yang Kai had left behind before departing.
If he did not block that spear radiance, the Royal Lord-grade Ink Nest would be the first to suffer the blow.
His heart was filled with grief and rage, yet there was nothing he could do.
The protective ink cloud he had barely managed to muster was pierced clean through, and the spear radiance blasted a hole straight through his body. The Domain Lord screamed as he tumbled downward, wounded upon wounded, spewing great mouthfuls of blood, his aura feeble and dim.
From the moment he had laid eyes on Yang Kai, he had endured two killing moves in the span of an instant. No other Domain Lord had been more wretched than he. At last he understood why an Innate Domain Lord had been slain by Yang Kai in three moves!
Even if he himself had faced Yang Kai, he might have held out a bit longer, but the outcome would have been no better.
With injuries like his, he would need a hundred or two hundred years of dormant rest to recover.
"Stop him!" Monaya suddenly roared toward one direction.
Yang Kai had not gone far after teleporting away. Instead, he had charged toward another location at Buhui Pass where another Royal Lord-grade Ink Nest stood, intending to strike at it.
That area was also guarded by Domain Lords arrayed in formation. Upon hearing Monaya's command and sensing Yang Kai's aura, they dared not hesitate. They burst from their hiding places, their auras rapidly merging together.
But Yang Kai didn't even spare them a glance. Repeating the same technique, he thrust his spear, and a great sun ascended, a Golden Crow cried out, and the blazing orb hurtled toward the Royal Lord-grade Ink Nest.
This time, no Domain Lord rushed out from within the Ink Nest to intercept. The great sun rumbled toward the nest. Monaya, speeding over at full force, saw the sight and felt his eyes nearly split apart with fury. He bellowed, "You're asking for death!"
Then he commanded the four Domain Lords in formation: "Guard the Ink Nest!"
The four Domain Lords hurriedly activated their secret arts, intercepting the great sun from four directions. Layer after layer of techniques slammed into it, and its radiance rapidly dimmed.
It was not too late after all. When the great sun was destroyed, the Ink Nest merely trembled a few times before settling safely.
All the Ink Race powerhouses breathed a sigh of relief. Monaya was already hurtling toward Yang Kai at maximum speed, while the four formation-arrayed Domain Lords wove around Yang Kai, attempting to use their formation to restrain him at least slightly.
It wouldn't take long. They just needed to hold him for one or two breaths, and Monaya would arrive.
But Yang Kai would never give them that chance. He activated the Laws of Space once more and vanished. This time, he appeared in yet another direction.
From that direction, a great sun soon rose, and the cry of a Golden Crow rang out…
Every Domain Lord was exhausted. For the first time, even Monaya felt a sense of powerlessness. Facing an opponent who moved like a phantom and whose movements were impossible to predict, it didn't matter how many Ink Race powerhouses there were — if they couldn't restrict his movement, they were equally helpless.
All the Ink Race powerhouses were like puppets on Yang Kai's strings, forced to scramble in every direction at his pace. When Yang Kai wanted them east, they had to go east. When he wanted them west, they had to go west…