Chapter 5348, Great Evolution Pass Arrives Translator: Silavin & Ashish Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys Yang Kai didn’t reply and instead a deep furrow appeared on his brow. [The Old Ancestor clearly said that it’s impossible for the Royal Lord to recover, but then again, the Feudal Lord said that he had sensed the aura of the Royal Lord’s attack three days ago. What’s going on here?] Yang Kai was completely confused. Everything remained calm and peaceful over the next few days. No Black Ink Clansman visited the four Black Ink Nests occupied by the three Squads, and they remain safe and sound, unexposed. Yang Kai had entered and exited the Black Ink Nest Space several times. Now, he could be considered a familiar face there and was able to chat with many of the Feudal Lords freely, but despite his best efforts, he was unable to obtain any useful information. The Feudal Lord who said that he had felt the Royal Lord’s aura had not entered this Black Ink Nest Space since that day, so Yang Kai was unable to find him to ask about the situation further. All this while, Yang Kai frequently contacted Great Evolution Pass to track their progress. According to Great Evolution Pass’ original schedule, they should have arrived at the Black Ink Clan’s defence line a few days ago, but as Yang Kai had taken out Black Ink Clan’s eyes and ears by occupying four Black Ink Nests, Great Evolution Pass could now sneak through without being detected. To do this, however, the Pass had to change course, which delayed them for several days. Today, Yang Kai was sitting in the Black Ink Nest and closely monitoring the surroundings after getting a message. After about the time it takes to boil a cup of tea, he suddenly felt something intruding into his Black Ink Nest’s detection range, and it was something massive! Great Evolution Pass had arrived! Yang Kai instantly scurried outside and looked towards the location where the defence line was disturbed, but he failed to see anything. Not even his Divine Sense could find anything. Only when he activated his Demon Eye of Annihilation that he was able to see through all illusions and finally make out a massive distorted shadow rapidly approaching. They might have captured the four adjacent Black Ink Nests and created a hole in the Black Ink Clan’s defence line, but Great Evolution Pass still needed to disguise itself; otherwise, if a random Black Ink Clansman was passing by, he could easily spot the giant Great Evolution Pass. By the looks of it now, Great Evolution Pass must have activated a fairly large Illusion Array. With this Illusion Array, Great Evolution Pass was completely hidden from ordinary means of detection. Great Evolution Pass was extremely fast, so it quickly passed by Yang Kai’s Black Ink Nest and continued straight towards the Royal City. At the same time, several figures flew out from Great Evolution Pass silently like ghosts one after another. Yang Kai clearly saw everything and promptly used his Divine Sense to guide them over. He had no idea what Great Evolution Pass had planned or why they had sent 500 Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters to him, but obviously, the higher-ups had something in mind. Xiang Shan personally messaged Yang Kai and informed him that the main mission of these Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and the four Special Operations Squads was to exterminate as many Black Ink Clansmen and Low-Rank Black Ink Nests in the outermost ring! Right now, Great Evolution Pass had successfully snuck into the Black Ink Clan’s defence line and was heading straight for the Royal City, but no matter how lax the Black Ink Clan’s security might be, Great Evolution Pass couldn’t remain hidden until they reached the Royal City. Great Evolution Pass would definitely be exposed midway. Nevertheless, it was more than enough already. So long as the Black Ink Clan didn’t have enough time to prepare, Great Evolution Pass’ surprise attack would have been a success. The rest of the battle would depend on their respective strength. Once Great Evolution Pass was exposed, the Black Ink Clansmen setting up the defensive perimeter would be recalled to the Royal City. The three Special Operations Squads and the 500 Seventh-Order Masters’ mission was to kill as many Black Ink Clansmen as possible and weaken the Black Ink Clan forces to lay the foundation for the upcoming battle. These 500 Seventh-Order Masters did not simply represent their own strength, however. All of them were either Squad Leaders or Vice Squad Leaders. Their respective Squad members and Warships were all stored in their Small Universe. These 500 people represented more than 200 Squads! Yang Kai saw many familiar faces among these 500 people, including Qing Kui and Su Ying Xue. After Xu Ling Gong had advanced to the Eighth Order, Yang Kai hadn’t seen them for over two centuries, but he had never expected for them to also advance to the Seventh Order. On second thought though, it was not surprising. Whether it was Qing Kui or Su Ying Xue, both had remained in the Sixth Order for a long time and had accompanied their Honoured Master Xu Ling Gong on the Black Ink Battlefield for several centuries, so it was normal for them to make progress in their cultivation. Now, the two of them had formed a Squad, and as they were quite familiar with each other, they could kill their enemies quite efficiently. Qing Kui reported, “Brother Yang, before we came here, the Army Commander said that you will be in charge of this operation. Our only mission is to kill as many Black Ink Clansmen as possible.” Yang Kai nodded his acknowledgement, “In that case, this Yang has been entrusted with a big mission. This battle is very important, so I hope Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters will give their all in the coming days.” An old Seventh Order assured with a smile, “Don’t worry, this Old Master has been waiting for this day for many years. Even if I die, I will not let the Black Ink Clan have an easy time.” Yang Kai quickly shook his head, “Don’t think like that. Currently, we hold a huge advantage. If you can survive through this, that would be best. The Black Ink Clan has no roots, so their lives are not as precious as ours. Senior Brother, you might not be young, but if you can break through to the Eighth Order, you may be able to live for many more years. Who knows, when you return to the 3,000 Worlds, you may even be able to marry a few beautiful wives and give birth to a few children and enjoy the joys of family life.” The men in the crowd burst into laughter while Su Ying Xue and the other female Seventh-Order Masters couldn’t help but glare sharply at Yang Kai. The old man laughed even louder, “Junior Brother is right, then should this Old Master cherish my life a bit!?” “But of course!” Yang Kai didn’t waste any more time and mobilized his World Force as he stretched his hand out and created a ball of light before him. “I don’t know how much everyone knows about the situation, so I’ll give you a brief overview.” He pointed at the light spot and continued, “This is the Royal City!” As he spoke, he activated his Black Ink Strength as it spread outward from the speck of light, becoming thinner the further it went from the speck of light. “This is the Black Ink Clan’s current defence line, filled with Black Ink Strength.” As he spoke, several light dots appeared at the outermost perimeter. Yang Kai nodded his affirmation, “That’s right, these are all Black Ink Nests. The Black Ink Clan now possesses quite few Territory Lord Black Ink Nests and I estimate that several dozen of them have been relocated to the Royal City. Each Territory Lord Black Ink Nest has a few dozen Feudal Lord Black Ink Nests which were either brought over as well or newly spawned to enhance the defence line, so there are somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 Black Ink Nests in the periphery of the Royal City.” Everyone was slightly shaken. Thousands of Low-Rank Black Ink Nests was quite a huge number. But it was also normal. If there were fewer, the Black Ink Clan would not have been able to set up such a massive defence line. “Currently, the outermost Black Ink Nests are about a month’s journey from the Royal City,” Yang Kai reached out and pointed to one of the specks of light, “This is where we are, and the three closest Black Ink Nests are also under our control.” His explanation was extremely simple and clear. Even though everyone had just arrived here, they instantly understood the general situation. “The Black Ink Clan’s defence line can be seen as a giant sphere, and the Royal City is located in the centre of this sphere. Since the higher-ups want us to take care of the Black Ink Clansmen in the outer ring to have an edge in the upcoming battle, we have to kill as many of these Feudal Lords as we can. The more Feudal Lords we can kill, the more advantage we can gain in the upcoming war.” “There are more than 200 Squads here, so starting from these four Black Ink Nests, we will move outward, eliminating all the enemies along the way. As long as we move swiftly, we will be able to eliminate many of the Black Ink Clansmen before they know what hit them.” “According to our prior investigations, there are basically two or three Feudal Lords guarding each Black Ink Nest. One is responsible for the production of Black Ink Strength to expand the defence line, while the other is responsible for guarding it.” “So, what I’m proposing is that a team of two Squads is the requirement to swiftly crush a nest and kill the enemies guarding it.” Each Human Squad had at least two Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, so if two Squads were to form a team, then four Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters would be moving together, which was the bare minimum to guarantee success. Of course, some teams would have more Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and would naturally be stronger. On top of that, the Humans also had their Warships’ support. As such, it would be a simple matter for two Squads to deal with a single Black Ink Nest. Everyone nodded in agreement. Yang Kai’s expression then became solemn as he added, “A Feudal Lord can also use their Black Ink Nest to increase their strength when in close proximity, so when you engage the Black Ink Clan here, if possible, start by destroying the Black Ink Nest before targeting the Feudal Lords.” “In addition… I’m sure all of you have Evil Purging Divine Spears with you. This spear is extremely effective against the Black Ink Clan, but if you aren’t sure that you can take your opponent out, don’t use it so we avoid revealing its existence. The Evil Purging Divine Spear… must be first used on the Territory Lords.” “We understand,” the old man acknowledged with a nod. “If you understand, then there’s no problem. Let’s split up.” Saying so, Yang Kai quickly began to divide the teams. Right now, they had four Black Ink Nests under their control. With over 200 Squads distributed evenly, each of these four Black Ink Nests would temporarily house 50 Squads. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 It was naturally impossible for all of them to move together. Once the war broke out, all these Squads would split up and attack the Black Ink Nests in the periphery of the Black Ink Clan’s defence line in pairs. Of course, the Black Ink Clan wouldn’t be so stupid as to remain in place and wait to be killed. Once the Royal City transmitted the news of the invasion, the Black Ink Clan would definitely return to defend it. At that time, it might turn into a pursue-and-kill situation, or even a chaotic battle. Xiang Shan didn’t expect Yang Kai and the others to be able to exterminate all the Black Ink Clansmen at the defence line’s periphery, nor did Yang Kai think they would be able to do so; after all, taking out thousands of Black Ink Nests without being noticed within a few days was simply not realistic. They could only do their best to reduce the Black Ink Clan forces. This could be seen as the vanguard battle of Great Evolution Pass, while the main battle was at the Royal City! A short while later, all the Seventh-Order Masters left, leaving only 100 or so people behind on Yang Kai’s side. Qing Kui summoned his Squad’s Warship and told them to rest and recover. With the Battleship’s protection, no one needed to waste their strength to resist the Black Ink Strength’s invasion. Yang Kai didn’t remain idle either. He constantly entered and exited the Black Ink Nest Space to scout for information. Great Evolution Pass had already snuck its way into the defence line, but it would still take it a month to reach the Royal City. Yang Kai didn’t know how long Great Evolution Pass could remain hidden, but the longer it could, the more advantageous it would be for the Human Race. As long as it could avoid detection for half a month, it would not matter if they were exposed after that. Three days, five days, ten days… Yang Kai still had not received any news. Hundreds of Seventh-Order Masters stood ready inside the four Black Ink Nests. When half a month later, there was still no news, Yang Kai let out a long sigh. Great Evolution Pass’ surprise attack had succeeded. The Black Ink Clan had failed to notice even to this point, so even if they discovered Great Evolution Pass in the next breath, it would be too late for them to make proper preparations.