"Look over there!" Beside him, Ouyang Lie sent a transmission while pointing Yang Kai in a direction.
Yang Kai turned his head to look, and the moment his gaze landed, he spotted a dead World. He couldn't tell how long it had been dead, but the might of Heaven and Earth no longer lingered, and the Great Dao of the world had long since collapsed and withered away.
Dead Worlds like this were a dime a dozen across the Ink Battlefield. In the distant past, they might have flourished, might have harbored hundreds of millions of living beings within — but today, all that remained was silence. For both the Human Race and the Mo Clan, such dead Worlds held one final value: the mining of whatever residual resources remained inside.
What Ouyang Lie wanted Yang Kai to look at was naturally not the dead World itself, but something situated upon it.
It was a peculiar existence several hundred zhang tall, towering like a small mountain, its surroundings suffused with a dense aura of Ink Force. It was rooted deep into the dead World, seeming to have fused with it as one.
An Ink Nest! Yang Kai's eyes narrowed.
There was actually an Ink Nest here! And judging by its scale and the churning Ink Force around its perimeter, it was at minimum a Domain Lord-tier Ink Nest, and quite possibly a King Lord-tier Ink Nest.
How could there be an Ink Nest like this here? A massive question arose in Yang Kai's mind.
Ouyang Lie's voice rang in his ear once more: "Ten years ago, several other Eighth-Order and I brought those tens of thousands of warriors to relocate our mining operation nearby. While investigating the situation here, we stumbled upon this thing by chance."
Because they couldn't afford to reveal themselves, and had no idea how many Mo Clan powerhouses lurked in the area, Ouyang Lie and the others decided to lie low and observe. Ouyang Lie stayed behind to await Yang Kai's arrival, while the rest led those tens of thousands of warriors away from this region to continue mining resources elsewhere.
He had waited for ten years. After all, it had always been Yang Kai who sought them out — Ouyang Lie and the others had no way to contact him at all.
Ouyang Lie had been counting down the days the whole time. Fortunately, Yang Kai had appeared right on schedule.
Yang Kai focused his senses and observed carefully, determining that the Ink Nest was most likely a King Lord-tier one. The reason it didn't match the scale expected of a King Lord-tier Ink Nest was probably that it hadn't finished incubating, and moreover, the Ink Force generated within it wasn't radiating outward but was instead being condensed inside the Nest as much as possible, to avoid unnecessary waste.
He transmitted a question: "Senior Brother, was this Ink Nest in the same state when you first discovered it?"
Ouyang Lie nodded slightly: "It hasn't changed at all."
"Have you seen any Mo Clan members going in or out?"
Ouyang Lie shook his head: "Haven't seen a single one."
That was rather strange. An Ink Nest that was most likely King Lord-tier standing in this godforsaken place, with no traces of Mo Clan members entering or leaving — could it have been abandoned by the Mo Clan long ago?
That didn't make sense either. Ink Nests were peculiar entities with powerful connections between one another. If a King Lord-tier Ink Nest had truly been abandoned here, the Mo Clan would have had little trouble locating it.
Yet over the past ten years, Ouyang Lie had not seen a single Mo Clan member enter or leave this Ink Nest. In other words, the Mo Clan knew of this Ink Nest's existence but had simply never bothered with it.
An Ink Nest of this size couldn't possibly be empty inside — at the very least, there should be some Mo Clan foot soldiers stationed there for surveillance and resource extraction. But this particular Ink Nest didn't seem to have even foot soldiers.
"Junior Brother, shall I go take a look?" Ouyang Lie offered. He had wanted to do exactly that for a long time now, but not knowing the situation inside the Ink Nest, he didn't dare act rashly. With Yang Kai finally here to watch his back, he could go explore without worry.
Yang Kai slowly shook his head: "I'll go!"
The situation was unclear, and they had to prepare for the worst. If there happened to be a King Lord-tier powerhouse stationed inside, Ouyang Lie charging in would be walking straight to his death.
As for Yang Kai himself, even if he truly provoked a King Lord, he was confident he could escape.
Ouyang Lie nodded upon hearing this: "Then I'll cover you from out here!"
"Senior Brother, be careful!" Yang Kai admonished. Then, gazing toward the Ink Nest, he took a single step forward, and his figure vanished into the void.
Regardless, the situation inside this Ink Nest had to be scouted. Once the decision was made, there was no need to hesitate.
An instant later, under Ouyang Lie's watchful gaze, Yang Kai's figure abruptly appeared above the Ink Nest. A dazzling great sun blazed to life and soared into the sky, illuminating the void in all directions. Even from a million li away, Ouyang Lie could feel the immense might behind this strike.
A resplendent golden sun, the cry of a Golden Crow, descending straight toward the Ink Nest — the burst of radiance in that fleeting moment almost turned the void bright as daylight.
The several-hundred-zhang-tall Ink Nest melted away like snow under a blazing sun. At the same time, Ouyang Lie detected over a dozen powerful auras surging up from within the Ink Nest one after another.
Feeling the strength of each of those auras, Ouyang Lie's heart eased slightly. The situation was grim, but not so dire as to be beyond control.