The Human Race's first expedition against Never-Return Pass truly began in earnest the moment the army split into multiple fronts.
All previous engagements had been nothing more than long-range skirmishes. Though the Human Race had gained enormous advantages in those encounters, it proved little. To actually seize Never-Return Pass, the soldiers would need to fight the Ink Race in close quarters.
Blood Flame, Wolf Fang, Cloud Summit, Burning Moon, Azure Haze, Jade Cicada — six great armies in total, their colossal fleets converging like a tidal wave as they surged straight toward the gap in the Ink Race's central defensive line.
The remaining six armies continued to strike at the flanks of Never-Return Pass from both sides, pinning down the Ink Race's attention and reserves.
As the Human Race's forces pressed ever closer, the clashes between the two sides grew increasingly ferocious. Across the vast expanse of the void battlefield, the sounds of lives being extinguished rose continuously from both camps.
On such a grand and sweeping battlefield, apart from the handful of powerhouses who had already reached the absolute pinnacle, individual strength seemed hopelessly insignificant. When an entire race's strength was fused into a single fist, the old proverb of enough ants being able to bring down an elephant had become stark reality.
The Ink Race fought desperately to hold their ground, but their deficiencies in the Artifact department rendered their attacks short and feeble. They held for less than half an hour before the six Human Race armies charging down the center broke through the Ink Race's blockade, flooded into the gap in their defenses, and set foot upon the dilapidated passes — structures that had once belonged to the Human Race but had been abandoned here for thousands of years.
Warship after warship cruised and weaved through the void, their decks constantly unleashing the power of Secret Arts and Artifacts while nimbly dodging enemy attacks.
This was the first battle of the Human Race's expedition against Never-Return Pass, and so it had to be fought beautifully and won beautifully. Mi Jinglun had no delusions that Never-Return Pass could be taken in a single engagement — that was an unrealistic fantasy. Thus, before the armies had even set out, the ultimate objective of this battle had already been decided.
Minimize their own casualties while inflicting the maximum possible damage on the enemy.
Under this defined objective, the Human Race's warships did not operate in small squad units. Instead, they moved at Guard-level, with several squad-sized groups forming a single formation that protected one another, advancing and retreating in unison. This way they could maximize the advantages of their warships — attacking the enemy while preserving themselves.
Powerhouses from both sides also entered the fray in succession. The Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators, the Ink Race's Domain Lords and Pseudo King Lords, each carved out their own battlegrounds and fought without respite.
In terms of high-end combat power, the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators now far outnumbered the Ink Race's Domain Lords.
It was worth remembering that thousands of years ago, on every front, the situation had been completely reversed. Back then, the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators had been forced to throw everything they had into every battle just to hold off the Ink Race's Domain Lords, and after one great battle after another, which of those veteran Eighth-Order cultivators didn't carry a body full of hidden injuries?
Take Ouyang Lie for example. Due to the accumulation of internal injuries, he had not dared to casually take the Supreme-Grade Open Heaven Pill that Yang Kai had gifted him, fearing that if his breakthrough failed, it would waste a precious slot for ascending to the Ninth Order.
Fortunately, he had succeeded in the end and was now a Ninth-Order cultivator, commanding the Xuanming Army.
Back when the Human Race's situation had been dire — when the Xuanming Domain battlefield had nearly been overrun by the Ink Race — it was precisely because their high-end combat power had been lacking.
The reason they had managed to hold on at all was mainly that the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators had been willing to fight and willing to risk everything, casting aside their own lives when they went into battle. They had also been aided by battle formations and warships. The Ink Race, by comparison, had fared much worse.
It wasn't until Yang Kai later intervened and forced the Ink Race into signing a ceasefire agreement that the lot of the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators had improved considerably. Otherwise, after so many years of large-scale warfare, those veteran Eighth-Order cultivators would have been fortunate if even a fraction survived.
Now, after thousands of years of accumulation, the Human Race's foundations had grown stronger than ever before. Rising talents advancing to the Eighth-Order were numerous and commonplace, a far cry from the lean days of old. In terms of the numerical comparison between Eighth-Order cultivators and Domain Lords, they could completely crush the Ink Race.
Furthermore, ordinary Domain Lords were generally weaker than Eighth-Order cultivators, and they didn't have the numbers to match the Human Race either. In a direct clash, how could they possibly stand a chance?
But the Ink Race still possessed a considerable number of Pseudo King Lords.
Each Pseudo King Lord was capable of single-handedly confronting a Five Elements or even Six Harmonies Formation composed of Human Race Eighth-Order cultivators. And to guard against Yang Kai, these Pseudo King Lords had grouped themselves into triads in their formations, making them even harder to deal with.
Apart from the Human Race's several Ninth-Order cultivators, who could individually match the Three Talents Formations assembled by the Pseudo King Lords, the Eighth-Order cultivators needed to gather at least four Five Elements or Six Harmonies Formations to take on these Pseudo King Lords.
In other words, three Pseudo King Lords working together could pin down more than twenty of the Human Race's Eighth-Order cultivators, which went a long way toward compensating for the Ink Race's shortage of Domain Lords.
However, also because of Yang Kai, none of these triad-forming Pseudo King Lords dared to use their full strength. Every one of them held something back, reserving a portion of their energy to guard against a potential ambush from Yang Kai.
So in terms of the overall situation on the battlefield, the Eighth-Order cultivators in their formations facing off against the Pseudo King Lords in their own formations actually had the upper hand in most cases.
This was a peculiar turn of affairs.
From the moment the Human Race's armies set foot on the defensive line of passes that the Ink Race had fortified in advance, the battle descended into a grinding stalemate. Soldiers from both sides spread across the vast battlefield, clashing in furious combat that sent tremors rippling through the void and destabilized the cardinal directions.
Beams of light from Evil-Breaking Divine Lances bloomed one after another, and almost every time a beam erupted, an Ink Race powerhouse suffered a grievous wound — or perished entirely.