"Move!" the burly Domain Lord barked, not daring to dissolve their formation. Though it was virtually certain Yang Kai had already departed, who knew whether that fellow might double back for another strike? The four Domain Lords had no choice but to maintain their Four Symbols formation, pouring everything into shielding the dozen-odd clan members as they fled toward the No Return Pass.
An Innate Domain Lord stationed within the King Lord-class Ink Nest relayed the situation to Monaye, who was tens of billions of li away.
Upon learning everything that had transpired, Monaye lavished praise on the four Domain Lords and broadcast the news of successfully repelling Yang Kai. He urged every Domain Lord escorting clan members to follow suit, and morale among the Mo Clan's Domain Lords surged overnight!
For all the countless clashes between the powerhouses of No Return Pass and Yang Kai over the years, this was the first time they had seized the initiative. Two Innate Domain Lords had perished, true, but judging by the outcome, it was a worthwhile trade.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai had already used the Laws of Space to leap vast distances away, a trace of helplessness stirring in his heart.
Had he deployed the Soul Sacrifice Thorn, he was confident he could have shattered the four Domain Lords' formation and slaughtered every Mo Clan Domain Lord present. But the price would have been steep — he would need to spend the next one or two centuries recuperating in seclusion. The cost-benefit simply didn't add up.
So once he saw the four Domain Lords hold their ground unmoved by his threats, he let it go and withdrew without hesitation.
After all, there were numerous batches of Mo Clan Domain Lords retreating toward the No Return Pass right now. There was no need to wipe out this particular group. Other opportunities would come. Rather than burn the Soul Sacrifice Thorn and wound himself, he would do better to find another chance to kill even more Domain Lords.
He tore through the void, teleporting and shifting, the span of billions of li compressed to nothing under the pull of the Space Dao.
A month passed like this before Yang Kai halted in a stretch of empty void, gazing from afar at a group of Domain Lords making their way toward the No Return Pass.
This was the third batch he had encountered in the past month. But every single group had Domain Lords from the No Return Pass arrayed in protective formation around them, leaving him with the frustrating sensation that there was no way to strike.
By his calculations, these Domain Lords — whom Monaye had stationed outside to recuperate in earnest — were indeed due to rendezvous with the escorting Domain Lords dispatched from the No Return Pass around now.
Which meant that ambushing these Domain Lords was becoming increasingly impractical. Unless he was willing to forcefully invoke the Soul Sacrifice Thorn to break their formations — a one-shot gamble he was reluctant to attempt unless absolutely cornered.
No opportunities left? Yang Kai frowned in thought.
Then he turned his gaze toward the depths of the Ink Battlefield.
There were still opportunities — and plenty of them!
Based on his earlier tests near the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction, the Mo Clan's Innate Domain Lords managed to slip out two or three times nearly every month. These Domain Lords gathered in groups of fourteen or fifteen before setting out toward the No Return Pass.
By that reckoning, roughly once every six months a batch of Domain Lords departed from the direction of the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction — two batches per year.
The Primordial Heaven Great Restriction was extraordinarily far from where Monaye had stationed them. For severely wounded Domain Lords, the journey would take at least a dozen years to reach the designated location safely.
In other words, there were currently many Domain Lords who had slipped out of the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction heading toward the No Return Pass. They were all still en route, not yet having reached the positions Monaye had assigned them to incubate Ink Nests.
Previously, when he had been searching for these Domain Lords' traces across the vast Ink Battlefield, it required a fair amount of luck — after all, he had no idea where they were hiding. But if he went to intercept the ones still on the road, he wouldn't need luck at all. All he had to do was head in a straight line toward the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction, and he would very likely run right into them.
Of course, things might not go as smoothly as he imagined. Those Domain Lords on the road had Ink Nests with them and could communicate with Monaye, who had almost certainly anticipated their situation and made arrangements.
Still... it was worth a shot! He didn't need to intercept every last one. Even a single batch would mean fourteen or fifteen Innate Domain Lords!
Having made up his mind, Yang Kai picked his direction, took a single step, and vanished on the spot.
Two months later, in a stretch of void that fell within the territory of an ancient battlefield. Long dormant, the battlefield was about to see killing intent reignite once more. Yang Kai had tracked down a squad of Innate Domain Lords heading from the direction of the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction, and he descended upon them without a shred of courtesy. In a fierce battle, Yang Kai single-handedly broke through the combined might of over a dozen Domain Lords, annihilating the entire squad while suffering only minor injuries.
After a brief rest, Yang Kai set out once more.
Finding the first squad's position made everything easier. He simply calculated forward from that location by roughly half a year's travel time, and he was virtually guaranteed to find traces of the next batch of Mo Clan Domain Lords — they departed from the Primordial Heaven Great Restriction on a six-month cycle.
But what took those heavily wounded Domain Lords half a year to traverse, Yang Kai could cover in just over ten days.
Sure enough, a mere ten-odd days later, Yang Kai arrived at another part of the ancient battlefield. His divine sense surged outward, probing in every direction as his figure flickered back and forth.
He found them before long.
This batch of Domain Lords had apparently received Monaye's warning. Rather than rushing onward, they had hidden themselves within a nearby void fragment. Already weakened from their severe injuries, their auras were feeble to begin with — and with deliberate suppression on top of that, they were even harder to detect. Had Yang Kai not searched with sufficient thoroughness and cast his net wide enough, they might genuinely have slipped past him.