Martial Peak

Chapter 5634: Trapping Array

A Warship was the largest reliance a Human Squad had when fighting against the Black Ink Clan. Whether it was back at the Black Ink Battlefield or on the current Great Territory Battlefields, when both Races fought, the Humans were outnumbered. 

The only reason the Humans could persevere was that the average strength of their soldiers was greater than that of the Black Ink Clan’s, and they had Warships.

Each Warship was essentially a mobile fortress with numerous artifacts that could greatly enhance the offensive and defensive capabilities of its crew. If the Humans didn’t have Warships, they would have been wiped out long ago. Without mentioning anything else, it was difficult for Humans to resist the corruption of Black Ink Strength when they were either too weak or injured; however, a Warship could offer such Humans safety and protection. 

After so many years, the Humans had used countless resources to build and maintain their Warships. It could be said that the number of resources used on Warships was larger than the amount cultivators used to cultivate. 

Every time there was a large-scale battle, Warships were damaged and destroyed. Once a Warship was destroyed though, the Human soldiers would have to face the Black Ink Clan’s attack and the corruption of Black Ink Strength without this additional layer of protection. When that happened, the survivors would often use Battle Formations to greatly increase their chances of surviving.

Three Humans could create a Formation called the Three Fortunes Formation. Add one more person, and it would be the Four Symbols Formation. Five people would form the Five Elements Formation, and so on and so forth until one reached the Nine Palaces Formation. 

Under normal circumstances, the more Humans in a Battle Formation, the stronger it would be.

When Yang Kai was on the Black Ink Battlefield, he led the many Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters of Dawn Squad to form the Eight Desolations Formation several times to kill their enemies, producing outstanding results. 

However, such Battle Formations could not be formed on a whim as they needed a long period of joint practice. Additionally, the people forming a Battle Formation had to be familiar with and trust each other because once it was formed, not just their auras, but their very lives would become linked. If one suffered, all suffered, and if one prospered, all prospered. If there wasn’t enough trust between partners, it would be impossible to even form a Battle Formation, much less bring out its full strength. 

On the Great Territory Battlefields, there were significantly fewer Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters than Territory Lords, but the reason the Humans could stubbornly resist the Black Ink Clan’s continuous onslaught was that they made good use of Battle Formations. 

The Black Ink Clan generally wouldn’t use such Formations because they didn’t trust each other like how the Human cultivators would. Rather than wasting their time and effort in forming Battle Formations, they preferred fighting alone because they could more freely use their strengths. 

Yang Kai had never encountered a situation where the Black Ink Clan used a Battle Formation, and never expected to see it happen today. 

More importantly, it was four Innate Territory Lords that formed this Formation, which illustrated the Black Ink Clan’s determination to kill him. In the face of the huge pressure of confronting Yang Kai, these four Territory Lords had set aside all their reservations and banded together to defeat this formidable enemy.

These four Territory Lords with linked auras charged forward, and though Yang Kai could see at a glance that their Battle Formation wasn’t tightly bonded, he didn’t want to be entangled with them for too long. 

With a sweep of his spear, Yang Kai thrust out more than a dozen times in the direction of those Territory Lords to slow down their approach. Then, he quickly flew downwards before immediately shooting away. 

Those four Territory Lords immediately changed directions and chased after him. 

The Royal Lord also quickly changed directions, trying to cut Yang Kai off. Despite there not being much difference in their speed, Yang Kai was proficient in Space Techniques, so it wasn’t easy for the Royal Lord to block him. 

After flying around the Ancestral Land several times, the Black Ink Clansmen sadly found that although they had taken advantage of the time Yang Kai was cultivating to seal him here, there was nothing they could do about him if he didn’t fight them head-on. On the contrary, Yang Kai had managed to discover the Black Ink Clan’s strength with his constant probing.

This made Di Wu furious. 

At that moment, a voice entered Di Wu’s ear. It was from the Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple responsible for setting up the Grand Array. Once Di Wu heard what was said, he revealed a happy expression and nodded subtly.

While Yang Kai was moving around the Ancestral Land, the Killing Array linked to the Grand Array surrounding the Ancestral Land didn’t stop and was constantly sending lightning bolts towards him. It was a pity that this Grand Array’s primary function was to act as a Heaven Sealing Earth Locking barrier. Though it had a Killing Array embedded inside, it wasn’t very powerful, so Yang Kai could easily dodge its attacks. 

With Yang Kai’s current strength, only a Grand Array set by a Great Grandmaster in the Dao of Spirit Arrays could completely incapacitate him. A Spirit Array set up by a few Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples with mediocre achievements in the Dao of Spirit Arrays naturally wasn’t as profound.

As the chase continued, the Ancestral Land suddenly became covered in mist. This mist wasn’t that dense in the beginning, but as time passed, it became denser and denser until visibility became essentially zero. Even Divine Sense was restricted to only being able to extend 100 metres from an individual.

All of that was because the Grand Array had changed. Since the Killing Array was useless, they had switched it for a Trapping Array. 

Yang Kai couldn’t help but slow down and carefully probe his surroundings. There were sounds of wind blowing, birds chirping, and a vague sound of a cry and howl. Knowing that all these were disturbances generated by the Spirit Array, he couldn’t help but snicker.

Everyone, including the Black Ink Clan, knew that Yang Kai was proficient in the Daos Time and Space, but very few knew he had dabbled in the Dao of Spirit Arrays. 

Of course, his attainments in the Dao of Spirit Arrays weren’t particularly high and were all gained from his experiences in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon. Back then, there were Grand Dao Rivers of all kinds flowing inside the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, and Yang Kai had absorbed and refined many of them. Yang Kai had taken so many Dao Rivers with different Great Daos filled with Dao Essence into his Small Universe that talents in all kinds of different Grand Daos were now born in the Void Continent. 

If Yang Kai only relied on these shallow attainments, he wouldn’t be able to see through this Trapping Array, but that wasn’t all he had to rely on.

He closed both eyes, and when he opened them next, a golden cross flashed across his left pupil. 

The Demon Eye of Annihilation was an Eye Secret Technique he inherited from Myriad Demons Cave Heaven. It could see through all illusions and was rumoured to be able to see the past and tell the future once cultivated to its extreme.

Yang Kai didn’t have any intentions of seeing the past and looking into the future, but the Demon Eye of Annihilation’s ability to see through illusions was the perfect thing to unravel Spirit Arrays. 

With this Secret Technique active, Yang Kai was able to see through the mist and get a clear view of his surroundings. Even though he hadn’t reached the point where he wasn’t affected by the mist at all, it was enough to help him in this situation. 

If the Black Ink Clan had placed their hopes on this Trapping Array to restrict his movements, they had made the wrong choice. 

Yang Kai wasn’t in a hurry to reveal his secrets though, so he wore a gloomy look on his face and slowed down his actions so that he could test the Black Ink Clan and learn more about their situation. 

Soon, he saw the Royal Lord had stopped near the border of the Grand Array, seemingly ordering some kind of attack while looking in his direction with murderous intent filling his face. 

But Yang Kai noticed the Royal Lord didn’t intend to charge right at him, which surprised him as he didn’t know what the other party was worried about. 

Di Wu was indeed worried.

Despite knowing that Yang Kai wasn’t a true Divine Dragon, when they exchanged moves earlier, he had fully experienced how strong Yang Kai was. Adding on to the invisible suppression from the Ancestral Land, Di Wu wasn’t confident he could kill Yang Kai without being injured. 

To a Black Ink Clansman, being injured was a troublesome thing. They could endure minor injuries, but they would have to hibernate inside a Black Ink Nest if they got seriously wounded. 

Di Wu couldn’t accept the idea of having to hibernate and recuperate after his first battle as a Pseudo-Royal Lord.

Moreover, Yang Kai had a strange method to attack one’s Soul, and he had yet to use it, so Di Wu thought that he had to wear down Yang Kai’s strength and means before he could deal the finishing blow. Otherwise, if he were attacked with that technique, he couldn’t be sure whether he could make it out of this conflict alive. 

In the meantime, Yang Kai saw four figures quickly arrive beside Di Wu. They were the four that formed the Four Symbols Formation. 

Soon after that, another four Innate Territory Lords appeared. 

This scene shocked Yang Kai. He didn’t notice the other four Territory Lords before and couldn’t help but secretly exclaim at how determined the Black Ink Clan was!

When he was circling the Ancestral Land earlier, trying to investigate the Grand Array, he saw at least 10 Innate Territory Lords maintaining its operation from the outside. 

Adding on the eight Territory Lords before him, and perhaps a few that were still hiding, didn’t that mean the Black Ink Clan had sent a Royal Lord and more than 20 Territory Lords to deal with him?

When faced with such a line-up, even a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would find it difficult to handle, let alone an Eighth-Order Master like himself. 

Yang Kai soon learned that wasn’t all though, for the Black Ink Clan had also apparently deployed a massive Black Ink Clan Army as well. 

Moments later, the Black Ink Clan Army mustered their courage to charge into the mist under the Black Ink Clan Masters’ orders. It was obvious that they were planning to exhaust Yang Kai using these cannon fodder. What’s more, there might still be other arrangements on the Black Ink Clan’s side that Yang Kai was unaware of as of yet. 

Inside the mist, Yang Kai pretended to be disoriented as he walked around in circles, acting like a headless fly.

When he tried to escape the mist by flying into the sky, he couldn’t. Also, he failed when he tried to dive down and hide inside the Ancestral Land. 

This Spirit Array was actually quite good, which showed that those few Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciples did have some talent in the Dao of Spirit Arrays, or else the Royal Lord wouldn’t have looked so highly upon them. 

Just as Yang Kai was looking dazed and dizzy, the Black Ink Clan Army that had charged into the mist surrounded him. Immediately afterwards, the Feudal Lords followed the instructions of the Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple operating the Spirit Array and swarmed towards Yang Kai. 

A battle immediately broke out. 

A long spear swept back and forward, sending out spear strikes like a dense rain. Immediately after, black blood spurted everywhere as bodies exploded into pieces. 

With Yang Kai’s current strength, how could that army of Black Ink Clan cannon fodder defeat him when the strongest among them were just Feudal Lords? To put it bluntly, with sufficient time, Yang Kai alone could wipe out these 10 million Black Ink Clan troops.

Group after group of Black Ink Clansmen were killed, and the speed at which lives were lost was unimaginably fast. On the ground, the fresh black blood had gathered into a pool, which then became a river, and soon began to look like an ocean, one filled with the broken corpses of Black Ink Clansmen.

Yang Kai killed methodically, without feeling any kind of joy or frustration. 

Since the Royal Lord was willing to sacrifice these Black Ink Clansmen, Yang Kai was more than willing to oblige. The more Black Ink Clansmen he killed here, the fewer the Humans had to face on the battlefields. 

10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000…

Yang Kai’s spear never stopped. In the beginning, Yang Kai moved around to more efficiently slaughter his enemies, but as time wore on, he could no longer be bothered exerting himself like that and simply stood in place while allowing the Black Ink Clan Army to come to him. The scene resembled water splashing onto a rock that was blocking a river, which was an astonishing sight to see.

So many had died so quickly that the Black Ink Clan Army would have broken and routed if not for the Territory Lords and Royal Lord overseeing them, forcing them to continue.