From the moment the Ink Clan launched their massive invasion of the Three Thousand Worlds and seized the various Great Domains, up until the appearance of the Qiankun Furnace, no battle had ever broken out between the human Ninth Rank and the Ink Clan's King Lords.
The devastating war in the Domain of Void years ago had claimed nearly all of the supreme combatants on both sides. The Ink Clan was left with only a sole survivor, Mo Yu, who had been stationed at the Unreturning Pass ever since.
The humans were slightly better off—Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing, two Ninth Ranks, still remained. However, they were occupied restraining the Ink Colossus and couldn't spare themselves. With these three never meeting, there was naturally no clash between supreme-level fighters.
The older generation of warriors had it easier—they had witnessed the ferocity of battles at that level before. But the newer generation of human cultivators had never had the chance. Throughout their entire growth, the human Ninth Ranks had existed only as legendary figures!
Yet here and now, clashes between King Lords and Ninth Ranks were erupting one after another. First Ouyang Lie faced off against Xiao You, then Yang Xue engaged Mo Naye.
And now, Yang Kai had swapped in for Yang Xue, locking Mo Naye in a fierce battle.
The aftershocks of their confrontation swept in all directions, sending waves of instability rippling through the void.
Only now did the human experts truly witness the power of a Ninth Rank. The strength Yang Kai displayed was clearly far superior to Yang Xue's. The moment he engaged Mo Naye, he had him completely suppressed. His Azure Dragon Spear darted back and forth, the River of Time and Space coiling above it, the myriad forces of the Three Thousand Great Daos shifting and transforming in endless display. Mysterious and unpredictable techniques poured forth one after another, beating a King Lord like Mo Naye into a state where he could barely defend himself, let alone fight back.
Human morale soared!
The critical, desperate moment had passed. Yang Xue, a Ninth Rank herself, had come to their aid. Though she was alone and couldn't turn the tide on her own, at the very least the situation along the defensive line had stopped deteriorating.
With Xiang Shan and a host of veteran Eighth Ranks leading formations and charging into battle, fighting with boundless ferocity, breaking through the human defensive line was no longer easy for the Ink Clan.
Over on Ouyang Lie's front, seeing the shift, he steadied his mind and fought with a firm, steady approach. He had been battling Xiao You and those eight Domain Lords without suffering any real losses, though he hadn't gained much advantage either—mainly because the human situation had been dire earlier, with all manner of upheavals making it hard for him to focus entirely on the fight.
Now, with his mind settled, he found a strategy to defeat his enemies. He allocated a small portion of his attention to dealing with Xiao Xiao and devoted the bulk to the eight Domain Lords who had formed two separate formations.
If he could shatter those formations and kill the Domain Lords one by one, Xiao You alone would be no match for him. After all, Xiao You had been heavily wounded by Yang Xue earlier and couldn't unleash his full strength.
Across every battlefield, the fighting instantly intensified, growing far more ferocious than before.
Then a light laugh suddenly echoed from somewhere in the void, tinged with a hint of surprise and an unmistakable sense of relief.
Mo Naye was laughing!
No one knew what he found so amusing. His situation was clearly dire—under Yang Kai's relentless onslaught, he seemed on the verge of losing his life at any moment—yet he could still manage a laugh.
Across from him, Yang Kai pressed his attack without pause, coldly saying, "Something funny? You'd better watch your teeth don't get knocked out!"
Mo Naye defended and parried, slowly shaking his head. "Brother Yang, you're strong, but... weaker than I expected!"
The words sounded contradictory, but it was the truth.
The moment Yang Kai had broken through the shackles of the Eighth Rank and ascended to the Ninth, Mo Naye had thought he was surely dead!
Against any other human Ninth Rank, even if outmatched, Mo Naye had been confident he could escape. But against someone like Yang Kai, who had mastered the Dao of Space, defeat meant only one thing—death.
So when he had seen Yang Kai ascend to the Ninth Rank and one-shot a pseudo-King Lord with a single thrust of his spear, Mo Naye had already prepared himself to die at any moment.
Yet after actually exchanging blows, he had been surprised to discover that Yang Kai wasn't as overwhelmingly powerful as he had imagined!
After all, back when Yang Kai was only at the Eighth Rank, slaughtering those Domain Lords and Innate Domain Lords had been as easy as slaughtering chickens and dogs. The Ink Clan's Domain Lords and Innate Domain Lords had possessed virtually no ability to fight back against him—often being cut down before they could even register his face.
It had seemed much the same when he was at the Seventh Rank killing Lords.
In Mo Naye's imagination, once Yang Kai reached the Ninth Rank, no King Lord of the Ink Clan would stand a chance against him. That was why he had always regarded Yang Kai as the gravest threat, and between Xiang Shan and Yang Kai, he would have far preferred to eliminate Yang Kai.
His many schemes and arrangements had all been built around waiting for Yang Kai to show himself.
But in the end, all those plans had come to nothing—Yang Kai had ascended to the Ninth Rank regardless.
And now, after clashing with him in actual combat, while it was true that Yang Kai's momentum was overwhelming and his killing techniques came in relentless waves, beating Mo Naye until he could barely lift his head, this version of Yang Kai still fell within the bounds of what one could call normally powerful. It wasn't the kind of strength that defied all reason.
What had to be considered was that Mo Naye was far from his best condition either. Before rushing here, his injuries hadn't fully healed. After that, he had spent a prolonged period clashing with the Eight Trigrams Formation led by Yang Kai, accumulating further wounds, and then he had fought Yang Xue...
The Mo Naye of this moment was not operating at his peak.
Yet even facing such a diminished Mo Naye, Yang Kai had been unable to secure a quick victory. That was the problem.