On the battlefield, as the Stone Clan army continued their relentless charges, the situation grew increasingly dire for the Ink Clan. Defenses at numerous positions had already been torn open, and the Human Race army surged through the gaps, driving the Ink Clan back step by step.
On the high-level battlefield, the Pseudo Lord-Ranks had originally been holding their ground, but when Yang Kai utilized Thunder Shadow's innate divine ability to suddenly materialize behind one of them and unleashed the River of Space and Time, sweeping that Pseudo Lord-Rank along with two others linked in formation into the river, the remaining Pseudo Lord-Ranks lost their will to fight.
Mo Na Ye promptly adjusted his strategy. As command after command was issued, numerous Pseudo Lord-Ranks along with the Ink Clan army began contracting their defensive line once more, using this to resist the combined charges of the Stone Clan and the Human Race army.
Setting aside the actual effectiveness for the moment, at the very least, with the available space reduced, the Human Race army found their movements far more constrained than before.
They couldn't coordinate effectively with the Stone Clan army. Previously, the Human Race had been able to follow behind the Stone Clan forces, picking off stragglers and employing ambush tactics, but once the defensive line contracted, a rash advance by the Human Race risked having their formations thrown into disarray by the Stone Clan.
The drawback of the Stone Clan acting purely on instinct was laid bare, but this had been anticipated all along. Compared to the benefits the Stone Clan army brought, such minor drawbacks were simply something that had to be endured.
Alongside their spectacular battlefield gains, the Stone Clan army's casualties were nothing short of staggering.
They possessed no intelligence or thought, acting entirely on instinct, and because every Stone Clan member was born by absorbing Solar and Lunar power, their sensitivity to the Ink Force was extraordinarily keen — a trait Yang Kai had discovered as early as when he first obtained his first batch of Stone Clan creatures.
On the battlefield, whenever a Stone Clan creature sensed the presence of the Ink Force, it was like a cat catching the scent of fish — they would invariably swarm toward it and fight to the death.
Under such circumstances, the Stone Clan army's charges were inevitably accompanied by massive casualties.
By the time Yang Kai charged out of Returnless Pass and headed toward Pure Yang Pass, the Stone Clan army had already suffered roughly ten percent casualties. But in the mere moments that followed, when he fought his way from Pure Yang Pass back into the battlefield, that ten percent had alarmingly become thirty percent.
If the situation continued to develop at this rate, those hundred million Stone Clan creatures would likely not last half a day.
Had the Stone Clan creatures been refined and controlled by the Human Race soldiers, such a situation would never have arisen. However, the number of Stone Clan creatures Yang Kai had brought back from the Chaotic Dead Domain this time was simply too vast — so many that even distributing a few to every Human Race soldier wouldn't make a dent. Rather than letting the surplus Stone Clan creatures sit idle, it was better to throw a batch into battle and catch the Ink Clan off guard.
As matters stood, while the Stone Clan army's losses were undoubtedly severe, the results were excellent. The Ink Clan had never anticipated such a variable appearing in the Human Race's second assault on Returnless Pass. Caught completely unprepared, all their prior deployments and countermeasures failed to produce their intended effects.
A mindless army that knew only to charge and kill could not sustain itself for long. Mi Jinglun had naturally recognized this as well, and so, when he judged the timing was right, he ordered the retreat signal sounded.
The Human Race army withdrew in orderly fashion, and throughout the entire process, the Ink Clan could only watch helplessly as their enemy departed. They had no way of pursuing as they had the previous time, because there were still numerous Stone Clan creatures left uncleaned — until every last Stone Clan member was eliminated, they couldn't even sortie from Returnless Pass.
Thus, this time when the Human Race army retreated, they didn't even need to leave a rearguard.
By the time the Human Race army evacuated the battlefield, Yang Kai had already fought his way into Returnless Pass. Under the watchful eyes of a cluster of Ink Clan Pseudo Lord-Ranks, he swaggered straight through the Domain Gate and returned to the Void Realm.
This scene burned itself into Mo Na Ye's vision, making his already foul mood turn even worse.
Before this, Yang Kai had deployed two million Stone Clan creatures to instantly kill several Pseudo Lord-Ranks and wound Di Ya Luo, then released a force of over a hundred million Stone Clan soldiers. Given all of this, no one dared guarantee whether he still had even more Stone Clan creatures in reserve — or rather, he certainly still had many left. Combined with his own formidable strength, who would dare stand in his way?
Even Mo Na Ye didn't dare face him head-on. As long as Yang Kai didn't pull any tricks on his way back to the Void Realm, Mo Na Ye would count himself lucky.
It wasn't until the Human Race army had vanished from sight and Yang Kai had also returned to the Void Realm that the Ink Clan launched their furious counterattack, surrounding and annihilating the mindless Stone Clan forces down to the last one — though not without paying a price of their own.
With this, the Human Race's second assault on Returnless Pass finally came to an end. For the Ink Clan, the result of this battle was even more humiliating than the last.
The previous time, the Human Race had used the World's End charge to catch the Ink Clan off guard, inflicting devastating losses. This time, while the World's End charge's effectiveness had been diminished, the Stone Clan army Yang Kai brought had become an unexpected force, inflicting even greater losses on the Ink Clan than before.