While Yang Kai was racing through Mu's River of Time and Space, a great battle erupted outside the Primordial Grand Barrier.
After dealing with that Ink Race army, Yang Kai had departed ahead of the others to investigate the situation at the Grand Barrier. The expeditionary force, needing time to rest and tend to the aftermath, fell behind by a few days.
But it took only a handful of days before the expeditionary force set out as well.
Utilizing the spatial formation arrays that the Void Sentinels had prepared in advance, the army split into smaller groups and quickly reached the edge of the Spiritless Land.
This was the location of the last Heaven and Earth Palace.
Something had gone wrong at the Primordial Grand Barrier—the Anti-Ink Army had been swallowed into it. At the breach, enormous numbers of Ink Race creatures poured out and massed in gathering clouds. The Void Sentinels had no way to extend the spatial formation arrays out to the barrier's perimeter; doing so would be tantamount to seeking death.
At the edge of the Spiritless Land, the army regrouped. After several more days, the vast force marched toward the Primordial Grand Barrier.
One month later, the army arrived at the barrier's outer perimeter, and battle erupted almost instantly.
This was a war waged with every ounce of strength the Human Race currently possessed. Millions of soldiers participated, and among them were over thirty Ninth-Order powerhouses.
Once, the Human Race had been sorely lacking in Ninth-Order experts. Before the assault on No Return Pass, including Yang Kai himself, there had been a mere ten.
Yet that triumphant battle at No Return Pass had allowed numerous rising talents to glimpse the threshold of breakthrough. One after another, they advanced.
That time, twenty-three had attempted the breakthrough. Three failed. Twenty succeeded.
With that, the Human Race's Ninth-Order count surpassed the thirty-mark.
On the march, several more had broken through to Ninth-Order. Now, among the Human Race's expeditionary forces alone, there were over thirty Ninth-Order cultivators.
Thousands of years ago, the battle in the Void Domain had left the Human Race's Ninth-Order ranks decimated, with only Xiao Xiao and Wu Qing remaining. Thousands of years of bitter endurance had finally allowed some vitality to recover.
Over thirty Ninth-Order cultivators, millions of soldiers, elite warships weaving across the battlefield—the strength the Human Race had mustered was unprecedented.
But the Ink Race was no pushover.
The Primordial Grand Barrier had held for nearly a million years. All that time, the Power of Ink had been steadily increasing. But its strength had already reached a kind of ceiling, and even with further growth, it could not easily break through its current constraints.
Every drop of that accumulated power had been used to breed Ink Race creatures.
It could be said that the number of Ink Race within the Grand Barrier had built up to a truly horrifying figure. Had Mu not deployed his trump card to plunge the Ink into slumber, the barrier would have been breached long ago, and Ink Race silhouettes would have touched every corner of the void.
It was Mu who had bought the Human Race breathing room, shaping the situation as it now stood.
The Primordial Grand Barrier was still under Wu Kuang's control. Though the breach had widened considerably since before, it remained finite, and that limited the speed at which the Ink Race could escape. Ink Lord-level powerhouses found it especially difficult to pass through; forcing their way would leave them severely weakened. Past events had already proven this.
When the Human Race expeditionary force arrived before the barrier, hundreds of millions of Ink Race creatures had already gathered outside. Though no Ink Lord among them had appeared, the number of Pseudo-Ink Lords was far from insignificant.
Compared to the Ink Race's colossal formation, the Human Race's army of several million looked minuscule.
The great battle erupted. Though vastly outnumbered, the Human Race army, bolstered by the immense combat momentum accumulated through successive campaigns, the seamless coordination between their forces, and the devastating power of their warships, held its ground without giving an inch.
From afar, the Human Race army resembled a small serpent gliding nimbly through a void coiled by a titanic python, continuously tearing strips of flesh from its body.
The entire void was strewn with Ink Race corpses and remains. The Power of Ink that leaked from them converged, forming ever-growing clouds of dark ink.
One by one, the Ninth-Order experts unleashed their full might, slaying the Ink Race's Pseudo-Ink Lords.
The Eighth-Order cultivators were not to be outdone. Forming battle arrays in concert, they charged and fought without restraint through the ranks of the enemy.
From the breach in the barrier, waves of Ink Race reinforcements continued to pour out.
Yet what stunned every Ink Race creature was this: the rate of their reinforcements could not keep pace with the speed of the Human Race's slaughter. The number of Ink Race massed outside the Grand Barrier continued to dwindle.
The Human Race army's morale soared ever higher.
But Mi Jinglun, commanding the central army, wore no trace of joy on his face.
He knew this was only the beginning. As yet, he had seen no Ink Lord-level powerhouse make a move. And through his communication with Wu Kuang, he had learned of Yang Kai's whereabouts—and learned why Ink Lord-level figures had not emerged from the barrier.
Now, he faced a choice.
The Anti-Ink Army was trapped within the barrier. Thanks to Wu Kuang's help, they were temporarily safe. But countless Ink Lords inside the barrier were searching for the Anti-Ink Army's traces. If their location were exposed, the trapped Anti-Ink Army would have no hope of survival!
Wu Kuang had the ability to send the Anti-Ink Army out of the barrier. The reason he had not done so was that with Ink Race forces gathered outside, sending them out would be like sheep thrown to wolves. Better to keep the Anti-Ink Army inside the barrier where he could watch over them to some degree.
But now that the Human Race expeditionary force had arrived, the Anti-Ink Army had a way out. As long as they could coordinate with the expeditionary force, getting them through the breach would not pose much of a problem.
However, doing so would mean confronting yet another issue.
The breach in the Grand Barrier had been torn open many times, and each time inflicted damage that was nearly impossible to repair. If Wu Kuang wanted to send the Anti-Ink Army out, he would have to tear the breach open yet again.