Xiang Shan said no more and changed the subject. "Where's Yang Kai?"
Mi Jinglun said gravely, "There have been some issues at the Primordial Heavenly Restriction…"
He proceeded to relay the intelligence Ouyang Lie had brought back along with Yang Kai's instructions. As Xiang Shan listened, his brow furrowed deeply, and he came to realize the gravity of the situation.
A flaw had appeared in the Primordial Heavenly Restriction. The Ink Clan had managed to escape through it — who knew how many Innate Domain Lords had slipped out. Back at the Unreturned Pass, the Ink Clan's strength would surely surge. And once the number of Innate Domain Lords grew, the Ink Clan would become far more composed and flexible in their decisions and arrangements.
Setting everything else aside, the mere fact that they could forge Pseudo Sovereigns meant the human race had to remain vigilant!
In the past, the Ink Clan had rarely created Pseudo Sovereigns. The cost was simply too steep, and the birth of one Pseudo Sovereign, relative to the resources expended, had little impact on the broader war between the two races.
But now, with more Innate Domain Lords — and those Domain Lords having brought back numerous Sovereign-level Ink Nests from the Primordial Heavenly Restriction — the Ink Clan would no longer be so stingy about forging Pseudo Sovereigns.
On top of that, the Heaven and Earth Furnace was about to manifest. The Ink Clan, determined to prevent human powerhouses from seizing the opportunity, would undoubtedly throw every obstacle in their way.
The storm was gathering. The great tribulation was at hand!
The appearance of the Heaven and Earth Furnace — for the human race in its current state — was an opportunity, yes, but was it not also a crisis?
Still, something of this magnitude could not possibly escape Yang Kai's perception. No matter where he was now, once the entrance to the Heaven and Earth Furnace fully materialized, he would surely enter it. With the two of them — Yang Kai and Xiang Shan — joining forces, the situation might not turn out too badly.
"Blood Crow of the Xuanming Army requests an audience with Senior Brother Mi!"
A sharp shout suddenly echoed from outside the great hall.
Xiang Shan and Mi Jinglun exchanged a glance, both somewhat surprised. Xiang Shan had some recollection of the name Blood Crow. The fellow's origins were, after all, rather unusual. Moreover, he had once been a member of Yang Kai's Dawn Squad. In the Dayan Army, Xiang Shan had paid considerable attention to Yang Kai's Dawn Squad and naturally knew of Blood Crow.
After a moment of surprise, Mi Jinglun's eyes lit up. "How could I have forgotten about him!"
So saying, he rose to his feet and went out to meet him directly.
Moments later, Mi Jinglun and Blood Crow entered together. One radiated a calm and gentle aura, while the other was ostentatious to the extreme — his blood energy so thick it seemed almost solid, pervading his entire body and forming a visible curtain of crimson blood around him.
Xiang Shan's brow furrowed…
Blood Crow's cultivation felt extremely strange to him — it seemed like the Seventh Stage, yet also like the Eighth Stage. But regardless of whether it was the Seventh or Eighth, at that level of strength, one should be able to control one's power freely. Blood Crow clearly could not. His aura wasn't being deliberately flamboyant — rather, his power was somewhat beyond his own control.
If Xiang Shan remembered correctly, this fellow cultivated a technique called the Great Evolution Indestructible Blood Illumination Scripture — an evil and forbidden art. Back in the day, he had wreaked havoc in the Shattered Heaven, even claiming the lives of many disciples from the Grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands. Eventually, he had been captured alive by the Old Fisherman of Bright King Heaven and thrown into the Ink Battlefield to redeem himself.
Information about Blood Crow flashed rapidly through his mind, and Xiang Shan mentally stamped him with the label of "heretic and outsider."
He did not much care for people like this. Were it not for the fact that the current war between the human race and the Ink Clan took precedence, if he had encountered such a person in peacetime, Xiang Shan would surely have intervened to carry out heaven's justice.
Yet at that moment, Mi Jinglun was enthusiastically ushering Blood Crow inside. Upon spotting Xiang Shan, Blood Crow clasped his fists in a casual salute. "Greetings, Brother Xiang."
He hadn't called him Senior Brother, but Xiang Shan didn't mind, merely nodding in acknowledgment. After all, when it came right down to it, he truly had no right to demand such a title from Blood Crow.
He invited Blood Crow to sit, and only then did Mi Jinglun ask, "Is there something you've come about?"
Though he already had a guess in mind, when Blood Crow actually spoke those words, Mi Jinglun could not help but be overjoyed.
Blood Crow said coolly, "The Heaven and Earth Furnace — I've been there."
…
Outside the Primordial Heavenly Restriction, atop the Ink-Repelling Platform, the six thousand-strong Ink-Repelling Army had held an absolute advantage throughout a thousand years of confrontation with the Ink Clan, suffering virtually no casualties. After all, the Ink Clan within the Primordial Heavenly Restriction had only charged at the Ink-Repelling Army to tie down their energy and distract Wu Kuang's mind. Thus, despite a thousand years of battle, not a single Ink Clan member had managed to escape through the gap that Wu Kuang had voluntarily kept open.
At that moment, the void was tranquil. The gap remained, but no more Ink Clan members were rushing out to throw their lives away.
The flaw the Ink Clan had painstakingly opened within the Restriction had been exposed and repaired by Wu Kuang. They could no longer sneak out, so why waste their forces fighting the humans for nothing?
Wu Kuang, for his part, had not sealed the gap either. Having been opened once, closing it again might very well produce some adverse effect on the Restriction. It was better to leave it as it was.
As a result, the Ink-Repelling Army found itself rather bored and idle. Fortunately, they could still cultivate.