The war between the Human Race and the Ink Race suddenly grew more intense. Across countless burning battlefields, clashes of all sizes erupted one after another, and a single major battle could rage for months before finally subsiding.
Under such high-intensity warfare, both the Human Race and the Ink Race suffered enormous casualties. The Ink Race in particular—their numbers far exceeded the humans', but precisely because there were so many of them, the toll from each great battle was staggering.
The Ink Race's higher echelons, however, never shed a tear over such losses. Unlike the Humans, who needed considerable time and resources to cultivate a half-decent Open Heaven Realm expert, the Ink Race was born from the Ink Nests. As long as raw materials were supplied, their ranks could be replenished endlessly.
The vast majority of Ink Race troops below the superior ranks were nothing more than cannon fodder—always the first to be thrown into battle, used to bleed the Human Race's strength.
In the Yulin Domain, a great battle was underway. Human warships converged into a massive fleet, splitting the battlefield and flanking the Ink Race army. On the main front, the fighting raged like an inferno.
Beyond the main battlefield, separate arenas had been carved out by the higher-ups of both races—Human Eighth Rank experts clashing with Ink Race Domain Lords, and Ninth Rank experts dueling Pseudo-Sovereigns.
To some extent, the outcomes of these elite engagements directly influenced the main battle below. If a race's powerhouse gained the upper hand, it would suppress the enemy forces on the primary front.
Two Human armies were deployed against the Ink Race in the Yulin Domain: the Qingyang Army under Luo Tinghe's command, and the original Yulin Army that had long held this territory.
After the Qingyang Domain had been reclaimed, the Qingyang Army had redeployed here. With both forces united, their strength had grown considerably.
Reclaiming the Yulin Domain should not have been difficult in principle. However, the mass emergence and deployment of Ink Race Pseudo-Sovereigns had muddied the waters considerably.
A single Pseudo-Sovereign was no match for a Ninth Rank expert, but the sheer number of them made the difference.
This was not the first time the two sides had clashed. Over the years, they had fought each other many times, and both the Human and Ink Race had grown familiar with their opponents.
But this time, something changed.
Midway through the battle, a powerful aura suddenly surged from somewhere on the battlefield. From that direction came the unmistakable tremor of an Ink Race powerhouse falling.
The development threw the Ink Race's elites into confusion—they feared the Humans had produced yet another Ninth Rank. It was only when they identified the figure as Xiang Shan that their doubts subsided.
No new Ninth Rank had emerged from the Human Race. Xiang Shan had simply come to reinforce this front.
The Ink Race was not entirely unprepared. The commander presiding over this theater immediately dispatched Pseudo-Sovereigns to intercept Xiang Shan while sending word outward. If Xiang Shan was here in the Yulin Domain, that meant the great-domain battlefield he had been holding was now without a Ninth Rank—a golden opportunity the Ink Race could exploit to deal a devastating blow to the Humans.
In that battle, the Ink Race paid a heavy price. Under the combined efforts of Xiang Shan and Luo Tinghe, several Ink Race Pseudo-Sovereigns teetered on the brink of death.
Yet in the end, the effort fell short of success.
And Xiang Shan could not linger here for long. Once the battle concluded in a hasty fashion, he immediately returned to the Blood Flame Army's great-domain battlefield, where another engagement had already erupted. Without him—a Ninth Rank—anchoring that front, the situation was sure to be dire.
Battles like these played out ceaselessly across the great-domain battlefields everywhere. The armies of both races dragged each other back and forth, turning domain after domain into a meat grinder.
Though the Human Race's fierce offensive failed to reclaim any further territory, it inflicted unimaginable losses on the Ink Race. Never mind anything else—the cannon fodder the Ink Race threw into battle had noticeably thinned out.
If nothing unexpected occurred, this stalemate might persist for years, perhaps decades, until one side finally buckled under the strain.
An unexpected development soon arrived, heralded by the awakening of a single powerful figure.
In Buhui Pass, Mo Naye—who had returned from the world within the Cosmos Furnace—had slumbered inside an Ink Nest for nearly a hundred years, recovering from his wounds.
He finally stirred.
His first act was to pay a visit to Sovereign Mo Yu, seeking an update on the war between the two races. Upon learning that the Humans had already reclaimed six great domains and were now locked in battle with the Ink Race on the remaining fronts, Mo Naye felt a mild twinge of surprise.
Inside the Cosmos Furnace, the Human Race had produced four new Ninth Rank experts in one stroke, along with a large number of Eighth Rank Open Heaven cultivators. Their strength had surged dramatically—such battlefield gains were hardly unexpected.
What surprised him was that the Ink Race could still hold the remaining great-domain battlefields at all, without being overrun by the Humans.
He had assumed those fronts had all been lost.
"My lord, where is Yang Kai at present?" Mo Naye asked. Though he had ascended to the rank of Sovereign himself, he still addressed Mo Yu as a subordinate, harboring no intention of challenging the older Sovereign for power simply because his own strength had grown.
Hearing this form of address, Mo Yu was well pleased. Truth be told, when Mo Naye had first returned from the Cosmos Furnace, Mo Yu had been genuinely startled—Mo Naye had somehow advanced to Sovereign. He looked wretched beyond belief, but there was no mistaking it: he was undeniably a Sovereign.
And at that time, Mo Naye had appeared frantic and disoriented, as if someone were chasing him from behind.