"Wait!" Yang Kai called out to him.
The Domain Lord's body went rigid. He turned to look at Yang Kai, forcing a smile: "What else does the Lord require?"
Yang Kai produced a jug of wine and tossed it over: "Give this to Monaye."
Having received benefits from the Ink Clan, he naturally had to return something in kind — only proper etiquette, and besides, he never lacked fine wine in his Minor World.
The Domain Lord caught it and carefully stowed it away. When he looked up again, Yang Kai had already vanished without a trace. He couldn't help but shudder, then hurriedly streaked toward No-Return Pass.
Upon returning to No-Return Pass, he reported the full details of the supply exchange with Yang Kai, then presented the jug of fine wine...
Monaye's eye twitched in annoyance, nearly sickened with disgust!
Last time, Yang Kai had given him a jug of wine too. He hadn't drunk it — he'd smashed it on the spot. But that had been a private gift, with no witnesses, so it hadn't mattered. This time was different. It had come through this Domain Lord's hands, and it was the first time they'd conducted a supply exchange with Yang Kai. Many pairs of eyes throughout No-Return Pass had been watching the proceedings.
If word of this got out and the King heard about it, what would he think? What would the other Domain Lords think?
It would look as though Monaye's relationship with that fellow Yang Kai was on excellent terms, as if they had some secret deal going on behind the scenes. If he didn't explain this clearly, how could the King ever trust him again?
Monaye wished he could storm out of No-Return Pass right now, find Yang Kai, and fight him to the death just to prove his innocence...
After dismissing the Domain Lord, Monaye didn't dare delay. He grabbed the jug of wine and went straight to the King's Ink Nest, recounting everything the Domain Lord had told him word for word. To his relief, the King showed no particular reaction — simply a faint "Noted" before sending him away.
Monaye resolved to be on his guard from now on. Dealing with a shameless and despicable fellow like Yang Kai meant he absolutely could not let his attention waver, or he would very likely end up being schemed against.
Fortunately, the enmity between humans and the Ink Clan ran too deep to ever be reconciled, so Yang Kai's despicable ploy had no real effect. If this were two opposing factions among the human race, such a simple method of sowing discord could very well have produced unexpected results.
On the front lines, soldiers of the human and Ink Clans clashed continuously, while No-Return Pass remained as calm and peaceful as ever. In truth, since the Ink Clan had seized No-Return Pass all those years ago, the only disturbances had been Yang Kai coming alone or leading remnants of human forces to cause trouble on a handful of occasions. Without Yang Kai, No-Return Pass had always been this languid and comfortable. Many Domain Lords who had been gravely wounded on the front lines but somehow survived were quite willing to return here, entering the King-level Ink Nests to slumber and recover.
Five years, and another five years. The Ink Clan repeatedly sent their tallied supplies out of No-Return Pass and delivered them into Yang Kai's hands. However, since that first unpleasant experience, no Ink Clan member dared easily accept the fine wine Yang Kai offered, much to his chagrin.
Every time he exchanged supplies with the Ink Clan, Yang Kai would casually pick a location at random. The void was vast, and since he designated the meeting point on short notice, there was no way the Ink Clan could prepare an ambush in advance.
All in all, things progressed smoothly. After nearly a hundred years, Yang Kai had accumulated quite a haul of valuable materials.
Calculating the time, it was due for his arranged meeting with Ouyang Lie and the others. After receiving less than thirty percent of the supplies from the Ink Clan yet again, Yang Kai wasted no time and headed straight for the human mining operation.
He had previously left Spirit Beads along the route, so the journey was not difficult.
He successfully found Ouyang Lie and the others, and — as expected — received an earful of complaints. A hundred years' worth of pent-up fury was dumped on Yang Kai all at once. Ouyang Lie shouted that he and Big Head Mi weren't doing their jobs properly, taking a veteran general like him — someone who had fought countless battles — and stationing him out here, which was a terrible waste of talent. He demanded that Yang Kai go back to the General Headquarters and petition Big Head Mi to have him transferred back to the front lines.
Yang Kai could only agree to everything, and only then did Ouyang Lie relent.
Tens of thousands of human martial artists had been mining supplies here for a hundred years. Since this area was located deep within the Ink Battlefield — well beyond the region where the Ink Clan's former Royal City had stood — the operation had remained undisturbed despite the passage of a century.
This was a good thing, and exactly what Yang Kai had hoped for. If the tens of thousands of humans mining supplies were ever discovered by the Ink Clan, they would have to relocate, as engaging in battle would be inadvisable. First, their overall strength was not high, and they would be at a disadvantage fighting the Ink Clan. Second, their duty was to mine supplies for the human forces — combat was not their concern.
Gathering all the harvests from the past century, Yang Kai said his farewells to Ouyang Lie and the others. He connected his consciousness to the World Tree, used it to enter the Great Ruins Realm, and from there returned to the Star Boundary.
Without delay, Yang Kai went directly to the Human Race's General Headquarters and handed all the accumulated resources from the past century to Mi Jinglun.
Mi Jinglun received them and examined the contents, shocked: "When have the materials from the Ink Battlefield ever been this abundant?"
He had his own rough estimate of how much tens of thousands of miners could extract over a hundred years. After all, he himself had spent over ten thousand years in the Ink Battlefield and knew the conditions there intimately. But the supplies Yang Kai had brought back were two or three times more than he had estimated.
Originally, based on his calculations, tens of thousands of miners working around the clock — provided they found suitable mining sites — would yield enough to slow, if not balance, the human race's current situation of slowly consuming their reserves. But Yang Kai had brought back so much at once that nearly a hundred years' worth of human consumption was immediately replenished, with some surplus to spare!
This was truly a delightful surprise.