Chapter 5172, Gathering Strength Translator: Silavin & Ashish Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys Yang Kai was dumbfounded after hearing this. Just to prevent one man from advancing to the Eighth Order, the Black Ink Clan was willing to break the status quo that had been maintained for decades. It would undoubtedly have been arrogant if anyone else had said this, but since it was Xiang Shan, it was not far-fetched. Yang Kai turned in the direction of the forward base, wondering how the battle was going, but with the current state of Dawn, it was impossible for them to participate right now. Xiang Shan reassured with a smile, “Rest for now. If we hurry back in a few days, we might be able to finish the job.” The void became calm and peaceful. After a few days, everyone’s condition had significantly improved. Every Squad Leader gathered their men and put away their respective Warships before activating the Universe Transference Law under Xiang Shan’s leadership and returning to the forward base. By now, the battle at the frontlines had come to an end, and as before, the Black Ink Clan had once again suffered a great loss. Although the Black Ink Clan had the absolute advantage in numbers, the Human Masters had long been accustomed to facing enemies that outnumbered them. Be that as it may, the reason why this battle had ended so quickly was because the Black Ink Clan no longer wanted to continue fighting. In fact, when the Territory Lords sensed the death of Wu Jiang, they knew that their plan had failed. Although they didn’t know what had happened to Wu Jiang and Hong Hu, they had clearly fallen into the Human Race’s trap once more, which resulted in the demise of yet another Territory Lord. The reason they quickly pushed this war was to occupy the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters so that Wu Jiang and Hong Hu could succeed in their task. Now that they had failed, there was no point in continuing to fight. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 Without knowing what other tricks the Humans were hiding up their sleeves, the Territory Lords didn’t want to take any more risks; as such, they decisively retreated over 10 million kilometres! The soldiers of the forward base chased for a while and managed to eliminate quite a lot of Black Ink Clansmen, but under the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters’ command, the Human Army did not go too far and returned after just a couple of days. By the time Yang Kai and the others returned, they were facing a situation where they didn’t have a chance to participate. According to postwar statistics, some 200,000 Black Ink Clansmen were killed in this war, several hundred of whom were Feudal Lords, but no additional Territory Lords had been eliminated. It wasn’t a particularly good result, but considering that the Humans were fighting the Black Ink Clan at the forward base and not the Great Pass, it was still acceptable. After this battle, the situation calmed down. The Black Ink Clan had completely given up over half of their territory. In fact, if the Humans were to travel between Blue Sky Pass and the forward base, they would no longer see any traces of the Black Ink Clan, nor would they see the Black Ink Clansmen and Humans ‘hunting’ each other anymore. Blue Sky Pass had achieved great success in their campaign against the Black Ink Clan. When the news spread to other Passes, it immediately caused morale and envy to soar. Nonetheless, everyone knew that Blue Sky Pass’ success could not be repeated. The basis for this victory was the battle outside Blue Sky Pass fought a few decades ago. In that battle, Blue Sky Pass had used a century-long plan to kill over 30 Territory Lords at once, dealing a heavy blow to the Black Ink Clan. Blue Sky Pass had Yang Kai find and open portals to the Universe Paradises and Universe Cave Heavens, where these traps were set up, but other Passes had no such person with similar skills. On top of that, the crusade and establishing a functional forward base in the Black Ink Clan’s territory required two Universe Arrays to act as transit points, allowing the Humans to rapidly attack the Black Ink Clan as well as retreat to Blue Sky Pass. If the Expeditionary Force advanced deeper without these transit points, the Black Ink Clan would eventually exhaust their strength, resulting in mass casualties. Right now, Yang Kai was the only one who could arrange Universe Arrays. Blue Sky Pass’ victory was closely tied to Yang Kai’s existence, and there was only one of him, so the other passes could not reenact the same feat. Furthermore, the Black Ink Clan forces in the other Theatres had become much more vigilant after this news spread. Now, the Black Ink Clan was extremely cautious when they were besieging the Great Passes. They were afraid that they would repeat the same mistake they had made at Blue Sky Pass and fall into the traps and schemes of the Humans. But no matter how the Black Ink Clan at other Great Passes investigated, they failed to find any similar traps outside the Great Passes, which put them at ease. From the moment the Human cultivators stepped into the Black Ink Battlefield, they would have to undergo a great battle every 100 years or so. Furthermore, they were unable to relax even after the battle as they had to collect resources, recover their strength, and make preparations for the next war. The special environment of the Black Ink Battlefield also trapped the Human Race at the Great Passes, making them unable to move forward or retreat. Even if they went looking for cultivation resources, they were unable to venture too far or risk being ambushed. However, this situation at Blue Sky Pass had changed a little. The loss of the latest battle had caused the Black Ink Clan to completely give up on the idea of reclaiming their lost territory. Now, whenever the soldiers of Blue Sky Pass went out, as long as they didn’t venture beyond the forward base and into Black Ink Clan territory, they basically didn’t encounter any enemy forces. The vast void had become Blue Sky Pass’ backyard where the Humans could roam freely. In this peaceful situation, the soldiers of Blue Sky Pass could focus on cultivating to increase their strength. This peaceful cultivation period lasted for two centuries! No one could quite get accustomed to the quiet atmosphere and everyone was feeling extremely uneasy. No battle had broken out for the last 200 years, which was simply unbelievable in a special environment like the Black Ink Battlefield, but this was the result of the many great victories in the Blue Sky Theatre. Furthermore, judging by the Black Ink Clan’s attitude, this peace might last even longer. The Black Ink Clan could not recover from the massive casualties they had suffered in only two centuries. Most of the Human Race soldiers rarely had a moment of peace, but now that they had plenty of resources and time, they worked hard to cultivate and their strength increased rapidly. In the last two centuries, the number of Seventh-Order Masters had increased by almost 300. But not everyone was able to relax. Compared to the leisure most ordinary soldiers enjoyed, the busiest people of Blue Sky Pass were undoubtedly the Alchemists and Artifact Refiners. The crusade carried out by Blue Sky Pass was just a test, and after it concluded, the higher-ups discovered many issues. The first problem they faced was the supply of Purifying Black Pills. These pills were critical to ensuring that their soldiers would not be corrupted by Black Ink Strength. Although there was still the Purifying Light to rely on, only Yang Kai could replenish it, and the total supply was limited. As such, once a large-scale crusade began, Purifying Black Ink Pills would be the best weapon to deal with Black Ink Strength. These pills were needed in massive quantities, enough so that each soldier had at least a few dozen of them. Therefore, over the past 200 years, Blue Sky Pass’ Alchemists had been refining Purifying Black Ink Pills day and night. Not only was Blue Sky Pass acting like this, but so were the other Passes. Besides the Purifying Black Ink Pills, there was also the problem of Warships. During the crusade, many Warships suffered serious damage and could not be repaired promptly. The Fifth-Order or Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters would be exposed to danger without the protection of the Warships; as such, the Artifact Refiners were also working hard to refine more. The goal was to at least ensure that every Squad had a backup Warship, so that when the first was inevitably disabled or destroyed, they would have a spare. The entire Blue Sky Pass had nearly 40,000 soldiers, and each Squad had 12 to 15 members or so. The Artifact Refiners thus had to refine some 3,000 extra Warships to meet the requirements. This was a huge project; compared to the Alchemists, the Artifact Refiners had to work even harder. Be that as it may, all this effort was worth it as in the near future, all of this hard work would pay dividends. Yang Kai had been cultivating all the while. Two centuries of accumulation was enough to raise his strength by another step. Although he was still far from reaching the Eighth Order, he had made great progress compared to 200 years ago; after all, other cultivators could only rely on refining the Open Heaven Pills and various cultivation materials, but his Small Universe was special. Even if he didn’t refine any resources, his foundation would still continue to grow. The accumulation over time made his rate of growth extremely impressive. Coupled with the World Tree Clone in his Small Universe, Yang Kai’s refining speed was much faster than an ordinary Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, and his World Force was both purer and denser than ordinary. He was not in retreat all the time. In fact, no one could cultivate in retreat for a long time in a place like the Black Ink Battlefield. Every decade or two, he would take Dawn out on patrol. Although the Black Ink Clan had completely abandoned a large part of their territory and no one would run into any Black Ink Clansmen while patrolling the rear, they still had to maintain vigilance and could not lower their guard just because of that. Every Squad had to take turns patrolling, so Dawn was no exception. In addition to patrolling, they still had to mine resources in turns. A large number of resources had been discovered in the territory currently occupied by the Humans in the Blue Sky Theatre. Naturally, these resources needed to be harvested. Fortunately, the soldiers could move these Universe Worlds to the nearby forward base or Blue Sky Pass with the help of the Void Yin Yang Mirrors, which saved them a lot of time. Occasionally, after cultivating in retreat for too long, Yang Kai would exit to relax on his own, either going to the Pill Hall to help refine Purifying Black Ink Pills or the Refining Hall to help refine the Warships. He had some level of attainment in both Alchemy and Artifact Refining, but compared to those Great Grandmasters, he was naturally far too lacking. Although he couldn’t preside over a project, he could offer some help. He even took some time to visit Myriad Demons Pass. After spending a massive amount of Military Merits, Yang Kai was able to obtain private tutelage from Myriad Demons Heaven’s Old Ancestor on the mysteries of the Demon Eye of Annihilation and Black Purgatory Eye! After his last battle with Hong Hu, Yang Kai realized that he still had too few trump cards. Although he was strong and could easily crush a Feudal Lord, facing a Territory Lord was a bit difficult. The Sun and Moon Divine Wheel’s power was extraordinary, but Territory Lords had methods to deal with it. He could not summon his Dragon Bead right off the bat either, while Purifying Light was related to too many secret projects so he could not use it whenever he wished. After thinking about it for a while, Yang Kai still felt that he should put more effort into the Myriad Demons Cave Heaven’s two Eye Secret Techniques. The various opportunities he had obtained from these two Eye Secret Techniques had not been a result of his own cultivation. Although he had received some guidance from an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master from Myriad Demons Heaven before coming to the Black Ink Battlefield, he had made minimal progress. He could not tap into the full power of these two Eye Secret Techniques. Under such circumstances, the guidance of the Old Ancestor of Myriad Demons Heaven was extremely valuable to him. Although it cost a lot of Military Merits, Yang Kai didn’t regret it. Yang Kai spent an entire month at the Myriad Demons Pass, where he learned all kinds of profound knowledge from the Myriad Demons Heaven Old Ancestor, making it a fruitful trip.