On the Ink Clan's side, with the colossal ink spirit absent,王主-level powerhouses were essentially the peak of their force—and they were no soft persimmons to be squashed at will. The fact that Fu Guang could hold his own against two of them simultaneously without falling behind, even gaining a slight upper hand, was testament to his immense strength.
On the Retreating Ink Platform, the Retreating Ink Army fought desperately to hold back the enemy. Powerful auras erupted one after another as cultivators charged ferociously into the massed ranks of the enemy, while warships shuttled back and forth across the battlefield.
The situation still appeared to be within manageable limits, but from within the Primordial Great Sealing Formation, more and more Ink Clan members continued to pour out—including no few innate Domain Lord powerhouses. As time went on, the pressure on the Retreating Ink Army would only grow greater.
Fifty Eighth-Rank cultivators stood quietly atop the walls of the Retreating Ink Platform, not participating in the battle.
They had been selected to compete for the fortune of the Heaven and Earth Furnace. Ordinarily, they should have rushed into it the moment the opportunity arose, but the Ink Clan's offensive had disrupted the original plan.
Then again, this was entirely expected—how could the Ink Clan possibly allow the humans to seize such benefits without a fight? They had anticipated this the very instant the projection of the Heaven and Earth Furnace appeared.
The Holy Dragon thrashed through the air, murderous intent surging, as it repelled two王主 who had flanked it for a coordinated strike. Its dragon roar echoed across the void.
"If not now, then when?"
Fu Guang had noticed that the fifty Eighth-Rank cultivators still hadn't moved and couldn't help but urge them forward.
Another Eighth-Rank voice reached them from the battlefield through a transmission: "Opportunity knocks only once, brothers and sisters! Enter the Heaven and Earth Furnace at once! Don't worry about what's happening here—as long as the Retreating Ink Platform stands, the Retreating Ink Army will not retreat!"
On the walls, the fifty Eighth-Rank cultivators on standby still showed no movement. The entrance to the Heaven and Earth Furnace was already open, and it wasn't far from them—just a single leap would carry them into the furnace's inner world, where the fortune that could help them ascend to the pinnacle of the Martial Dao awaited.
It wasn't that they were unmoved. They had simply already weighed their priorities.
Yang Xiao let out a hearty laugh: "Seizing fortune is ultimately for the sake of killing enemies. With a great foe before us right now, why chase what's far when what's near is at hand? Let's have our fill of slaughter first!"
As he spoke, he flashed forward and plunged into the battlefield. Yang Xue said nothing, and almost the instant Yang Xiao moved, she followed alongside him, both striking toward an Ink Clan Domain Lord who was concealing its form, attempting to ambush a human powerhouse.
One figure after another leaped from the walls—not heading toward the Heaven and Earth Furnace, but straight into the thick of battle, charging into the enemy ranks.
In the distance, Fu Guang saw this and let out a quiet sigh. He made no further attempt to persuade them.
The Retreating Ink Army was small in number—only six thousand when it was first established. Those mere six thousand included four hundred and eighty Eighth-Rank powerhouses, and they wielded the Retreating Ink Platform, a formidable offensive treasure. But the reason they had been able to reliably guard the breach in the Primordial Great Sealing Formation for all these years, repelling the Ink Clan's assault after assault, was precisely this spirit of wholehearted, unified cooperation.
The sudden intervention of fifty Eighth-Rank cultivators quickly tipped the balance in the Retreating Ink Army's favor. The Ink Clan seemed genuinely surprised—faced with such a tremendous fortune, the human powerhouses had shown absolutely no interest, leaving the Ink Clan in an awkward position of their own making.
In the past, when they assaulted the Retreating Ink Army, they had been willing to send wave after wave of Ink Clan fodder to their deaths, even sacrificing several王主 in the process—all to divert the attention of Fu Guang and Wu Kuang, thereby allowing innate Domain Lords to sneak out through the Primordial Great Sealing Formation one by one.
The sacrifices had been enormous, but the gains were significant. All told, well over a thousand innate Domain Lords had successfully slipped out.
However, ever since Wu Kuang had repaired the flaw in the Primordial Great Sealing Formation, the Ink Clan on this side had settled down. They knew that sending fodder to die served no purpose—the humans had tight formations guarding the breach they had deliberately opened, with human powerhouses controlling its size, making it nearly impossible for the Ink Clan to amass enough force to overwhelm the human defenses in a single push.
Unable to break through in one decisive assault, adding troops incrementally would only squander their strength for nothing.
So in recent years they had remained quiet—until the appearance of the Heaven and Earth Furnace.
To prevent the Retreating Ink Army's powerhouses from entering and claiming the fortune within, the Ink Clan launched yet another offensive. They had expected things to improve, but the Retreating Ink Army's response left them deeply disappointed.
Faced with a fortune practically within arm's reach, the human powerhouses showed zero interest, focusing solely on killing the enemy. This left the Ink Clan caught in a dilemma with no good options.
Sending more troops would only waste lives, but if they didn't reinforce, the Ink Clan forces already outside the Primordial Great Sealing Formation would be slaughtered to the last—including two王主!
It was a truly impossible situation.
Outside the Primordial Great Sealing Formation, the Retreating Ink Army and the Ink Clan were locked in a tactical stalemate. But in the Void Domain, it was the Ink Clan's home ground.
The Void Domain also bore a projection of the Heaven and Earth Furnace, and it was a place the human armies could scarcely reach. Aside from Yang Kai passing through on rare occasions, this domain had been virtually untouched for thousands of years.
The Ink Clan had long since stationed countless legions here. When the entrance to the Heaven and Earth Furnace opened, after a brief moment of hesitation and probing, the Ink Clan forces—led by several of their strongest—leapt in one after another, vanishing into the furnace's inner world.
Meanwhile, in the projection space within the Ink Battlefield, Mo Naye had spent nearly two years in a state of constant anxiety. Having not seen Yang Kai's shadow again in all that time, he finally confirmed that Yang Kai had truly left this place. He had no idea how Yang Kai had escaped or what that vortex was that had swallowed him, but this was nothing but good news—at least he no longer had to worry about Yang Kai suddenly popping up to kill him.
His life was no longer in danger, but the injuries he had sustained此前 were far from light, and there had been no way to treat them while he was trapped.
When the projection of the Heaven and Earth Furnace solidified and its entrance manifested, Mo Naye felt the universe itself twist and the void shift around him. By the time his senses returned, he found himself standing in a vast and boundless stretch of empty space.