Looking across the entire battlefield, the Ink Clan's forces seemed to have pushed the art of defense to its absolute limit. No matter how ferocious the Human Race's assaults, they simply hunkered down and weathered the storm—no sign of the previous two engagements where they'd mount counterattacks amid their defense.
This made Yang Kai sense something was off.
True, this posture of completely forgoing offensive intent and funneling all their strength into defense was an effective way to minimize their own losses. But the Ink Clan weren't fools—they knew this was merely clinging to survival. Because as a result, the risks borne by the Human Race army were drastically reduced. After a battle like this, the Ink Clan's casualties might not be enormous, but the Human Race's would be even smaller.
This approach was actually worse than the previous two major engagements, where the Ink Clan had counterattacked even while defending, which had at least made the Human Race exercise caution.
After all, the Human Race was no eager to sustain heavy casualties either—it would bode poorly for the coming expedition plans.
How could someone as shrewd as Mo Na Ye resort to such a foolish tactic? Yang Kai was genuinely baffled.
But there was no time for him to dwell on it. Over on the other side, Diaro was already charging toward him with over a dozen Pseudo Lord-Ranks in tow. Though in the last battle, Yang Kai had used the sacrifice of the Stone Clan to devastating effect against the Ink Clan powerhouses besieging him—slaying several Pseudo Lord-Ranks on the spot.
That trick, however, wasn't impossible to guard against. Last time, the Ink Clan had been completely unprepared. No one had anticipated that Yang Kai would deploy such an enormous number of Stone Clan warriors, and they'd been caught completely off guard. This time, forewarned and on guard, they wouldn't let him pull the same stunt so easily.
Yang Kai tangled with the Ink Clan powerhouses for a time, showing only the standard level of combat one would expect from a newly ascended Ninth-Order Open Heaven. He never managed to find a good opening to break through. Left with no alternative, he cut his way out of Returnless Pass and streaked toward Pure Yang Pass.
Having learned from past experience, the Ink Clan had clearly received advance instructions. Yang Kai's breakout from Returnless Pass went entirely smooth—even unopposed. They parted before him as he approached, actively making way to avoid provoking his killing moves.
At that, Yang Kai was utterly speechless.
He arrived at Pure Yang Pass without incident, where Mi Jinglun was already waiting for him. He handed over the spatial ring he'd prepared in advance, but couldn't help asking: "That much in supplies, and you've already burned through all of it?"
The supplies he'd given Yang Kai last time hadn't been a small amount—not by any stretch. They were the fruits of nearly three million soldiers mining together. For a single person's use, even a Ninth-Order Open Heaven cultivator refining them nonstop would take around a hundred years to work through them all.
That quantity of supplies was enough for one of the Human Race's armies to fight a localized campaign.
"I go through it a bit fast," Yang Kai replied casually. He checked the spatial ring's contents and found that this batch was more than double what he'd received last time. His heart soared with satisfaction as he carefully stowed it away.
Hearing that response, Mi Jinglun was stunned to his core.
Enough resources for a normal Ninth-Order to cultivate for over a century—and Yang Kai had consumed it all in two years. Under the current circumstances, there was obviously no way those resources had been wasted for nothing.
In other words, Yang Kai had very likely refined all of it.
He was intensely curious about how exactly Yang Kai cultivated, but he held back from asking. After all, everyone's path of Cultivation was different, and Yang Kai's ability to consume resources at such a manic pace was no bad thing for the Human Race. It meant his strength was surging upward just as madly.
"The Ink Clan seems to have changed some of their tactics," Mi Jinglun shifted the topic. "What's your read?"
"Desperately clinging to life?" Yang Kai offered.
Mi Jinglun shook his head. "Someone as shrewd as Mo Na Ye knows perfectly well that this is treating the symptom, not the disease. The Ink Clan's current response will only lengthen the time it takes the Human Race to seize Returnless Pass. Originally, perhaps five major engagements might have been enough to take it. Now, it might take ten or even more. But when the final battle finally comes, the price the Human Race has to pay will be lower."
In the war for the Human Race to capture Returnless Pass, the time spent and the cost paid existed in inverse proportion. The longer the time, the lower the cost—especially now that the Ink Clan had adopted an all-defense posture, reducing the threat they posed to the Human Race to virtually nothing.
If the Ink Clan truly intended to struggle for survival, this was emphatically not the strategy they should employ. They should attack the Human Race at all costs. That way, perhaps two or three engagements would settle the matter.
Even without adopting such a desperate strategy, they should at least follow their previous approach of defending while counterattacking—that would be the sensible course.
Yang Kai could see this, and Mi Jinglun naturally could too.
"Then there's only one possibility," Yang Kai said, his tone certain.
"What possibility?" Mi Jinglun asked.
Yang Kai chuckled. "Senior Brother, if you already have a theory, why bother asking me?"
Mi Jinglun waved his hand. "Say it anyway. I want to see if we're thinking the same thing."
Yang Kai nodded. "Buying time!"
Mi Jinglun's expression turned grave. "Looks like we're on the same page."
He too felt the Ink Clan was stalling for time. Stalling on its own was meaningless—it was merely prolonging the inevitable. But if the Ink Clan had some other agenda behind it, that was something to be wary of.
"How are things progressing with the Void Guard?" Yang Kai asked in a sharp tone.