Slaying an Ink Giant Spirit in a virtually unscathed state — such a feat was unheard of not only in this era but across all of recorded history.
It was worth noting that in ancient times, an Ink Giant Spirit had once breached the Ancestral Ground of Sacred Spirits. In that era, the Ancestral Ground had been home to countless powerful Sacred Spirits, yet even so, the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress of that generation had been forced to sacrifice sixteen Sacred Spirit Relics — and themselves as catalysts — to deploy a grand formation that bound the mighty enemy, hoping to gradually wear down the Ink Giant Spirit's power with the Ancestral Ground's Ancestral Spirit Force.
At such tremendous cost, all they had managed was to contain it, not slay it.
Set against that, today's battle stood out all the more.
Of course, the main reason was that the two bursts of Purifying Light had dealt devastating damage to the Ink Giant Spirit's Yuan Qi. The Ancestral Spirit Force of the Sacred Spirits' Ancestral Ground did carry a trace of the ability to suppress the power of Ink, but it was far inferior to the Purifying Light.
Though Yang Kai had sustained barely any injuries, his expenditure had been enormous — especially that final strike with his Dragon Pearl, which had left him utterly spent.
The Dragon Pearl was the crystallization of a Dragon Clan member's lifetime of cultivation. Like the Inner Core of a demon beast, it was not something to be used lightly unless one was driven to the absolute brink. Once the Dragon Pearl was deployed, it was either the enemy's death or one's own — a desperate, do-or-die move.
Since Yang Kai had ascended to become a true dragon and obtained his own Dragon Pearl, he had deployed it in battle on several occasions. Each time, the cost had been staggering, and this time was no different. After unleashing that Dragon Pearl strike, he could no longer sustain his dragon form and quickly reverted to his human shape, his face deathly pale, his entire body feeling hollowed out.
His Dragon Vein power in particular — normally, even in human form, he could channel it at will. But now, the Dragon Vein power in his flesh and blood had fallen nearly silent. Upon inward inspection, the Dragon Pearl was dull and grey, no longer radiating its previous golden brilliance.
It would take a long period of rest before his Dragon Vein power recovered. Until then, all techniques related to it would be unusable.
He instructed A Da to go assist A Er, then hastily stuffed a handful of recovery Spirit Pills into his mouth, turned, and charged toward Returnless Pass.
The Ink Clan's defensive lines were already riddled with holes. At every front on the battlefield, the humans held an overwhelming advantage. Under the radiance of secret techniques and Artifacts, vast swathes of the Ink Clan fell.
Humanity's victory was assured. All that remained was the time needed to end this war.
In the span of a single breath, Yang Kai had swept past the front lines where both armies clashed and landed squarely inside Returnless Pass. As spatial laws surged around him, his figure flickered unpredictably, darting through every corner of the fortress.
Wherever he appeared, clusters of Ink Nests were destroyed.
A Da and A Er had already inflicted widespread damage on Returnless Pass's Ink Nests when they had first broken in from the Void Domain, but the Ink Clan had possessed a great number of nests, so many had survived.
Now, under Yang Kai's assault, every remaining Ink Nest was annihilated.
If any Pseudo Lords had still been stationed here, they might have been able to put up some resistance. But under Mo Na Ye's orders, every Pseudo Lord had been dispatched to the front lines. Aside from a handful of Ink Clan remnants who had fled back, Returnless Pass held no powerhouses — none who could hope to stand against Yang Kai.
In barely the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Returnless Pass lay in utter ruin. Every Ink Nest — whether Lord-rank, Domain Lord-rank, or Territory Lord-rank — had been destroyed without a single one left standing. Even the Ink Clan stragglers who had retreated here suffered heavy casualties.
Yang Kai pressed on without pause and vanished in a flash.
On a distant battlefield, Mo Na Ye and Mi Jinglun were still locked in fierce combat. The situation was extremely unfavorable for Mo Na Ye. Ordinarily, having advanced to Lord-rank several centuries before Mi Jinglun's rise to the Ninth Order, Mo Na Ye should have possessed deeper reserves. Yet in truth, he was being completely suppressed.
The reason was obvious — the upheavals on the battlefield had unsettled his mind, especially Yang Kai's sudden outburst and the death of the Ink Giant Spirit, both of which had dealt severe psychological blows. A wily old fox like Mi Jinglun knew exactly how to seize such opportunities, building upon each small advantage until it snowballed into the current state of affairs.
Of course, at Mi Jinglun's current level of cultivation, even holding the upper hand, killing Mo Na Ye was far from easy. He even had to be extremely wary of a desperate counterattack. In a battle between powerhouses of this caliber, the slightest carelessness could reverse the outcome entirely.
So Mi Jinglun had been meticulous from the very start of their engagement, fighting steadily and never overextending for a quick kill.
But then, in a single instant, his offensive suddenly erupted into a wild onslaught. At the same moment, Mo Na Ye keenly spotted an opening. After a split-second of hesitation, his retreating figure lunged forward, seizing the gap between two of Mi Jinglun's secret techniques to throw a devastating punch.
Panic flashed across Mi Jinglun's face. He instinctively tried to defend, but it was already too late.
The fist was about to connect with Mi Jinglun's head when Mo Na Ye's body shuddered violently, as if struck by a immobilization spell. He froze in place.
His fist hovered less than a foot from Mi Jinglun's face, the savage force whipping the latter's robes and rippling the skin across his cheeks.
Facing death itself, the panic vanished from Mi Jinglun's eyes — replaced by a gaze of deep, knowing calm.
"So it was you all along!" Mo Na Ye let out a bitter laugh directed at Mi Jinglun, though those words were not meant for him.
Behind Mo Na Ye, Yang Kai's figure had materialized at some unknown point. The Azure Dragon Spear had already pierced clean through Mo Na Ye's chest. Along the spear shaft, the Power of the Great Dao swirled while spatial laws surged, locking the void in place. Even someone as powerful as Mo Na Ye could not break free in the short term.
Three powerhouses — one human, two Ink Clan — formed a straight line suspended in the void. Yang Kai at the rear, Mo Na Ye in the middle, Mi Jinglun at the front. For a moment, all was silent.