Martial Peak

Chapter 5695: Where Did They Come From?

The sudden outbreak of the battle not only destroyed the High-Rank Black Ink Nest, but also caused most of the Innate Territory Lords hiding within to be killed or injured.

The five surviving Territory Lords were shocked by the sudden turn of events and violently pushed the Black Ink Strength in their bodies, transforming into Black Ink Clouds that fled in different directions.

This Human Race Master was not somebody these wounded Territory Lords could defeat. If they continued fighting him, the only outcome waiting for them was complete annihilation.

“Solidify!” A shout reverberated through the void. The voice seemed to have a certain effect on the Space Principles of the region, causing the local space to become incredibly dense and heavy.

Like flies caught in sticky sap, the five Black Ink Clouds instantly froze in place. They fought and struggled against the restraints around them, moving forward at a snail’s pace as a sense of horror filled their eyes.

While urging his Space Principles, Yang Kai hurled the Azure Dragon Spear. Following an explosive Dragon Roar, the spear pierced through one of the Territory Lords who stood locked in place, causing him to explode into a cloud of blood mist. Then, the Azure Dragon Spear circled back and was caught firmly in the palm of Yang Kai’s hand.

A cracking sound filled the air as the local space shattered. Having realised how dire the situation was, the four remaining Territory Lords had desperately stimulated their power and broken free from Yang Kai’s Space Solidification Technique. Four Black Ink Clouds began escaping again, but most of them were coughing up blood as they tried to run; after all, they had to pay a high price to quickly break free from the restraints of space.

Only after escaping a hundred thousand kilometres in the blink of an eye did one of the Innate Territory Lords take the time to glance behind him. He could not see the Human Race Master anywhere, but before he could heave a sigh of relief, he abruptly noticed something strange ahead of himself and quickly glanced in that direction.

What entered his vision nearly frightened him to death as his mind went completely blank. A figure had mysteriously materialized right in front of him. This figure blocked his path and leisurely stabbed at him with a spear. The aura of death washed over him at that moment.

The Territory Lord let out a furious roar, and the Black Ink Strength in his body swept forward like the raging river. The immense strength of the spear stabbing forward stagnated for a moment; however, the stalemate lasted less than a breath before various mysterious Dao Strengths manifested along the length of the spear, causing the already dense murderous intent to explode violently. The defences formed from the Black Ink Strength that the Territory Lord desperately mobilized were as vulnerable as paper against this attack.

The spear thrust forward before swiftly being retracted as the burst of Black Ink Strength dissipated into nothingness. The Human Race Master was no longer standing in front of him, but the Territory Lord knew that the Human had simply gone to hunt down the rest of his clansmen.

The Territory Lord stood quietly in the void with a look of complete disbelief on his face. [How… How can a Human Master like that exist? I can’t believe he killed so many Innate Territory Lords like he was slaughtering chickens and butchering dogs! Just who is he!?]

His questions remained unanswered. In the last moments of his life, the Territory Lord detected violent energy fluctuations coming from somewhere not far from his current position. These fluctuations were obviously the final resistance of one of his companions. Immediately after that, his body exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

Faced with an undefeatable enemy like Yang Kai, dispersing and choosing to flee in different directions had been the best choice; unfortunately, against the strange and unpredictable Space Secret Technique, the Innate Territory Lords would not have had a happy ending even though there was nothing wrong with their tactics.

Yang Kai would have needed to pay a certain price to defeat all of them if they had chosen to rally together and fight to the death; however, he had no trouble killing them without receiving any damage if he was only hunting them down one by one.

A short while later, Yang Kai moved to his last target, only to see Ou Yang Lie fighting one of the Innate Territory Lords. Ou Yang Lie was bombarding the Innate Territory Lord indiscriminately as his World Force surging violently around him. Each attack landed squarely and drew blood, causing the Innate Territory Lord to retreat steadily with a despairing expression.

Out of the remaining five Territory Lords, Yang Kai had killed one on the spot and then hunted down another three. He had ignored the last remaining Territory Lord as the latter had fled in Ou Yang Lie’s direction. Yang Kai was certain that Ou Yang Lie would not ignore this Territory Lord and, sure enough, he was greeted with the scene of their battle as soon as he returned.

Ou Yang Lie had been holding back for too long. It had been over 1,000 years since Big Head Mi dispatched him to protect the resource-gathering team on the Black Ink Battlefield, before which he was essentially living an idle life for thousands of years on the Profound Nether Battlefield. Aside from relocating them from place to place, Ou Yang Lie had remained on guard duty all the time for the past 1,000 years. His days might have been leisurely, but such a boring life was nothing more than a different kind of torture for a combat veteran like himself who lived his entire life on the battlefield.

He had been yearning to return to the fight, and even if he died in battle in some remote corner of the void, it would still be better than living such a tedious and monotonous life. How could Ou Yang Lie possibly take his first battle after several thousand years casually? He was eager to vent all his frustrations that had accumulated over all these years of peace.

Not to mention, his opponent was an Innate Territory Lord. Ou Yang Lie had often suffered at the hands of Innate Territory Lords when the war was still raging in Profound Nether Territory. Every battle would leave him covered in wounds, some of which were even life-threatening. It was only thanks to his strong will and vitality that he survived for so long.

The boredom and depression that had accumulated for several thousand years could finally be released today!

Yang Kai did not step forward to provide support, but simply chose to watch quietly from the side. Under Yang Kai’s gaze, Ou Yang Lie pushed the Innate Territory Lord to the brink of despair until he turned to flee in panic, his black blood gushing out of his wounds.

At that moment, Ou Yang Lie summoned his Divine Manifestation. It was his way of paying tribute to his formidable opponent by unleashing the most ferocious move in his arsenal! The aura of the Innate Territory Lord weakened rapidly until it eventually faded into nothingness!

Ou Yang Lie stood in the void amidst the splattering black blood, enjoying the long-lost sensation of combat, burning murderous intent flooding from his body. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and roared, “Great!”

Sure enough, fighting against powerful enemies was what he desired the most!

Turning around, his gaze landed on Yang Kai’s figure. The fighting spirit that threatened to explode from within his body gradually subsided and he finally raised the question that had been bugging him for some time, “Junior Brother, were they already injured beforehand?”

If the Innate Territory Lord had been at his peak, Ou Yang Lie knew that he could not have killed his opponent with his own strength alone. During the battle, he noticed that the strength displayed by the Innate Territory Lord was seriously compromised, it was far weaker than the other Innate Territory Lords he had encountered in Profound Nether Territory. Thinking back to the battle record Yang Kai displayed earlier, it was only natural for him to come to this conclusion.

Yang Kai nodded solemnly, “They were all severely wounded.”

Ou Yang Lie had trouble understanding the situation, “How did they get hurt? Who hurt them? Besides… why were they hiding and recuperating in this random place?”

Yang Kai shook his head slowly. Although he had deliberated deeply over the matter, there were simply too many questions about this matter. Leaving aside who had harmed these Innate Territory Lords, the most important question was why they were hiding and recuperating here.

Innate Territory Lords generally preferred sleeping and recuperating from their injuries at the No-Return Pass. Not only were there many High-Rank Black Ink Nests at the No-Return Pass, but Royal Lord Mo Yu was also overseeing that place; hence, the security at the No-Return Pass was incomparable to this random stretch of the void.

This incident was a good example. Ou Yang Lie had accidentally discovered the High-Rank Black Ink Nest, and Yang Kai had happened to appear by his side thanks to their agreed 100-year meeting. As a consequence, 15 Innate Territory Lords and a High-Rank Black Ink Nest were destroyed.

Such a loss was not small even for the Black Ink Clan. The Black Ink Clan couldn’t be so careless, especially since the affairs of the Black Ink Clan were currently being managed by Mo Na Ye, who was by no means a fool.

Even ignoring all of these strange points, why would 15 injured Innate Territory Lords squeeze themselves into a single half-hatched High-Rank Black Ink Nest to recuperate from their wounds? This kind of arrangement was extremely detrimental to their recovery speed. The benefits they could obtain would be severely reduced when there were so many of them in one place after all.

“Has there been a schism in the Black Ink Clan? Is that Pseudo-Royal Lord called Mo Na Ye trying to establish his own force?” Ou Yang Lie suddenly wondered out loud. If that was the case, then it could just barely explain why these Innate Territory Lords had been hiding here.

Yang Kai shook his head, “Mo Na Ye… probably has no such intentions, or the ability, for that matter.”

Mo Na Ye was just a Pseudo-Royal Lord with a true Royal Lord like Mo Yu above him. Even if Mo Na Ye had the intention of establishing his own force, the other Innate Territory Lords would never obey him.

From Yang Kai’s long years of experience with the Black Ink Clan, it was undeniable that power struggles existed and some Black Ink Clansmen had their own agendas; however, the Black Ink Clan as a whole was extremely united against external forces. It was impossible for Mo Na Ye to do something stupid like setting up his own force.

What puzzled Yang Kai even more was the origin of these Innate Territory Lords. Where did they come from?

For the last 1,000 years, Yang Kai had more or less remained on guard outside the No-Return Pass because the Black Ink Clan was supposed to hand over part of their supplies to him at regular five-year intervals. Seeing as he generally had nothing more important to do, Yang Kai would generally use his spare time to monitor the movements of the Black Ink Clan at the No-Return Pass.

The only times Yang Kai left his position was when he had to meet with Ou Yang Lie and the others, and he was never gone for long. Most of the time, Yang Kai left for half a month or so. The longest he was away did not exceed one month. Once the supplies were delivered to the Supreme Headquarters, he would return immediately.

During this period, Yang Kai had never detected any Innate Territory Lords leaving the No-Return Pass and venturing deep into the Black Ink Battlefield. It was too far-fetched to believe that these Territory Lords had left the No-Return Pass during his brief absences and came here to treat their wounds. The Black Ink Clan should not have the ability to monitor his movements in the first place, so they had no way of knowing when he wasn’t lurking about.

More importantly, the Black Ink Clan had no reason to do something like this. There were many High-Rank Black Ink Nests at the No-Return Pass, so why would these 15 Territory Lords need to hatch a new High-Rank Black Ink Nest in such a remote place? Why would they need to huddle together in such a cramped space?

[Could it be that… these Territory Lords did not come from the No-Return Pass?]

Yang Kai suddenly turned around and flew towards the dead Universe World. Ou Yang Lie did not understand the reason for Yang Kai’s actions, but he hurriedly followed along. It did not take long before the two of them came to the location where the Black Ink Nest originally stood. The area had been transformed into a large crater when Yang Kai previously unleashed the full strength of his Golden Crow Casts the Sun, disintegrating the several thousand-metre-tall Black Ink Nest and blasting away the land around it.

Floating above the crater, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense poured out like the surging tide and he soon made a discovery. With a flash of his figure, he landed at a certain spot and picked something up from the ground.

Standing beside Yang Kai, Ou Yang Lie took a look over his shoulder and made a soft exclamation, “A Seventh-Order Wood Element material… The quality is pretty good… There are more here…”

While speaking, he reached out and grabbed a stone that was the size of a head. The stone glittered with a golden light, and Metal Element Energy surged from within. It was evident that the stone was not an ordinary object.

“A Sixth-Order Metal Element material…” He frowned at the sight.

Yang Kai and Ou Yang Lie found numerous cultivation materials of different Elements in the vicinity; moreover, the quality of these materials was very high. It was clear that these cultivation materials had not come from this Universe World. On the contrary, they had been scattered from the destroyed Black Ink Nest.

These materials had probably been accumulated in the Black Ink Nest. It was just that Yang Kai had arrived before these Territory Lords had the opportunity to utilise these materials. When the Black Ink Nest was destroyed, these materials were naturally scattered in all directions.