Martial Peak

Chapter 5518: How Useless

Ou Yang Lie suddenly appeared on top of the Universe Fragment at the frontlines of Profound Nether Territory, covered in blood and in complete disarray. Even his aura was in total disorder.

The intense battles against the Innate Territory Lords seemed to have exhausted all of his energy. His mind was dazed and his head felt heavy. He was on the verge of losing consciousness at any moment and he figured it would take over a year for him to recover from his ghastly injuries.

He should be celebrating his escape from the clutches of death, but he had no clue how he managed to survive and why he ended up here.

However, a theory soon formed in his mind when he recalled the familiar voice he heard earlier.

Thus, he gathered all the strength he could muster and looked out into the void.

Immediately, he saw a familiar figure who was battling the Innate Territory Lord who had snuck up on him earlier.

[It really is that Brat!!] Ou Yang Lie was thunderstruck.

Moments ago, he had already come to terms with his impending death, yet in that life-and-death moment, space around him warped. He sensed that he had somehow merged with the Void at that instant, allowing him to survive the attacks from two Territory Lords.

[Space Secret Technique!]

He knew that Yang Kai was the only one who could do this. Yang Kai also had to be the reason why he suddenly appeared on this Universe Fragment. [That Brat must’ve used his Space Secret Technique to move me here!]

[It’s good that he came!]

Ou Yang Lie exhaled slowly before collapsing to the ground, no longer able to hold himself up anymore. All his strength seemed to evaporate at that moment.

As he watched the Innate Territory Lord scrambling around the battlefield to dodge Yang Kai’s fierce attacks, a strange feeling formed in his heart.

[When did I start feeling a sense of relief whenever this Brat shows up?] It felt as if the Humans would surely emerge victorious if Yang Kai was here.

Ou Yang Lie chuckled at the thought of how old men like him seemed so useless. Despite their millennia of cultivation, in the end, they had to rely on a younger generation when it came down to it.

Yang Kai had saved him twice now if he included what happened back at the No-Return Pass!

“Honoured Master, take this pill!” All of a sudden, a voice called out behind Ou Yang Lie.

Ou Yang Lie turned around and saw his treasured Disciple limping over to him with a bottle raised, one that contained valuable Spirit Pills.

Gong Lian was severely injured as well. There was a large gash across his abdomen that had nearly cut him in half. He would not have retreated from the fight if it had not been for such grave injuries.

Ou Yang Lie glanced at his Disciple’s sorry state before glancing at Yang Kai’s magnificence on the battlefield and could not help but exclaim with a sigh, “How useless!”

This Disciple of his was someone whose talents surpassed many others. He would not have taken Gong Lian in if that had not been the case. Gong Lian was now a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master after Ou Yang Lie took him under his wing and put a lot of thought and effort into training him. While Gong Lian was indeed a remarkable talent, that was still nothing in comparison to Yang Kai’s achievements.

[Why did I not consider taking Yang Kai as my Disciple?]

Gong Lian had purposely come over to give his Honoured Master some medicine. He thought that this would lead to a touching moment between the Master and Disciple, so he did not expect to be criticized in such a manner instead and felt rather aggrieved, “Honoured Master, the speed of this Disciple’s cultivation is already fast enough.”

It took him 200 years to become an Emperor, another 100 years to condense his Dao Seal, and yet another 100 years to break through directly to the Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. Then, in less than 1,000 years, he became a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. All in all, he had only been cultivating for about 1,500 years.

Few people in all the 3,000 Worlds became Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters at such a young age.

However, Gong Lian’s Honoured Master just called him useless. The comment made him feel as if he had been stabbed in the heart.

“Haa… never mind. Not everyone is a freak like that Brat. I can’t demand it of you,” Ou Yang Lie sighed once more before taking the Spirit Pill from Gong Lian and consuming it. If his Disciple was considered a genius, then Yang Kai was the most extraordinary genius among all geniuses.

Gong Lian eked out a faint smile, but he felt even more crushed on the inside.

Just then, they sensed the death of yet another Innate Territory Lord. Ou Yang Lie turned to look before loudly exclaiming, “Astonishing!”

As expected, Yang Kai had killed the Innate Territory Lord who snuck up on Ou Yang Lie earlier.

It had not even been 30 breaths of time since Yang Kai’s appearance, but in that short span, he had killed two powerful Innate Territory Lords.

Ou Yang Lie had a feeling that Yang Kai was even stronger now than he was back when they met at the No-Return Pass.

“Look over there, Honoured Master!” Gong Lian noticed something unusual and pointed it out.

Ou Yang Lie followed Gong Lian’s gaze and noticed that the rear of the Black Ink Clan Army was in chaos. A series of Great Suns and Great Moons illuminated the darkness. Under the glare of these lights, countless strange creatures were attacking the Black Ink Clan Army from the back which caused their formation to crumble.

“Small Stone Race!” Ou Yang Lie’s eyes brightened as he quickly figured out that Yang Kai must have brought these creatures here.

In general, the Human Race Masters did know that Yang Kai had many Small Stone Race soldiers with him; after all, the Small Stone Race found in all the various battlefields were handed out by Yang Kai previously.

There were even some Small Stone Race soldiers here in Profound Nether Territory, though their numbers were fairly small. After so many years of fighting, a significant number of the Small Stone Race that Yang Kai had given away back then had died.

The Small Stone Race was useful when it came to dealing with the Black Ink Clan, but they had their weaknesses too. They were hard to control and varied greatly in strength.

Based on the fighting prowess of each of the Races’ armies, when the numbers were equal, the Humans were stronger than the Black Ink Clan, but the Black Ink Clan was a lot stronger than the Small Stone Race.

Therefore, although the number of Small Stone Race was tremendous, many were sacrificed in each battle.

Those at the Supreme Headquarters ran the numbers half a year ago. In total, Yang Kai had given away approximately 40 million Small Stone Race soldiers; however, only about 17 million of them were still alive right now. The remaining 23 million had been slaughtered by the Black Ink Clan.

The loss of 23 million in just a few decades of fighting was deeply alarming. The Human Race would have long been driven to extinction if they suffered such casualties.

There were just over a million Small Stone Race soldiers in Profound Nether Territory; thus, including the one-million-strong Human Army, there were about two million soldiers.

That being said, only 400,000 of the Small Stone Race were deployed to the frontlines of the battlefield while the rest were spread out across the various auxiliary fronts, including the forward outpost.

If that had not been the case, just the 300,000 Humans here might not have been enough to hold the frontlines of the battlefield.

After the fierce battle, it was quite likely that most of the 400,000 Small Stone Race would be sacrificed.

Nevertheless, right now, countless Great Suns and Great Moons were streaking across the sky behind the Black Ink Clan Army, their blinding light illuminating nearly half of Profound Nether Territory.

How many Small Stone Race soldiers did it take for such a display? Millions? Tens of millions?

Ou Yang Lie and his Disciple did not know for sure, but they were certain about one thing. The Black Ink Clan in Profound Nether Territory was in serious trouble!

“Come with me! Let’s charge out at our enemies once more!” Ou Yang Lie’s fervour for battle bubbled up once more, but as he stood up, blood gushed out of his wounds.

Gong Lian jumped in fright, “Don’t do anything reckless, Honoured Master! You’re severely injured right now and can barely exert a tenth of your strength! How can you possibly join the fight? You should be focusing on tending to your injuries right now!”

Ou Yang Lie smacked Gong Lian across the head, “Enough of your nonsense. I know very well what my condition is like right now. I can’t kill any Territory Lords, but I can still kill a few Feudal Lords! Hurry up!”

Saying so, he rushed off without a moment’s hesitation.

Gong Lian was speechless, but since his Honoured Master had rejoined the battle, he could only follow along behind him.

The changes on the battlefield, which included the sudden emergence of a massive Small Stone Race Army behind the Black Ink Clan, caused the entire flow of the battle to change. What’s more, the death of two Innate Territory Lords in a burst of golden light had caught everyone’s attention.

With this sudden change of fortunes, the Black Ink Clan was fully aware that a powerful Master had come to aid the Humans, a Master who could kill Territory Lords as if they were random chickens or dogs.

The other Territory Lords were both shocked and furious. The Black Ink Clan had been planning this operation in Profound Nether Territory for some time now and had even secretly sent out the over a dozen Territory Lords for this purpose. They were right on the cusp of success, but none of them expected a sudden twist at the critical moment. None of the Territory Lords could accept this outcome.

As the streaks of powerful Divine Sense weaved through the void, the Territory Lords could not decide whether to retreat or to continue the attack.

Before they could discuss what to do though, the aura of yet another Territory Lord swelled up before vanishing.

When they looked at where the aura had vanished, they saw the same Eighth-Order Master standing tall with his eyes sweeping across the battlefield condescendingly.

A third Territory Lord had been killed!

All three Territory Lords had been killed in less than a half cup of tea’s time.

The Territory Lords could not hesitate any longer. They were deathly afraid that they would be the next to fall, so they immediately shouted for their forces to retreat.

After receiving the order from the Territory Lords, the Black Ink Clan Army started withdrawing.

Naturally, the experienced Human Race Army could tell what was happening, so even without an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master’s command, the soldiers began chasing down the retreating enemy. All at once, the Black Ink Clan Army was in the unfortunate predicament of being sandwiched between the Human and Small Stone Race Armies.

Yang Kai’s figure continued flickering across the battlefield as well. Wherever his spear passed, Black Ink Clan soldiers met their demise.

He no longer targeted the Territory Lords, not because he did not want to, but because he could not.

Yang Kai had already reached his limit after using Soul Rending Thorns thrice in a short span of time. Right now, his Soul was cracked and in great agony. If he tried to use another Soul Rending Thorn, he could very well lose consciousness, just like he had back at the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon.

If he did not use a Soul Rending Thorn, then with his current strength, it would be hard for him to kill an Innate Territory Lord who was determined to escape.

Since that was the case, he started slaughtering the other Black Ink Clan soldiers instead.

Attacked from two sides, the Black Ink Clan Army suffered calamitous casualties, but since the Small Stone Race only acted according to their instincts, while they were courageous on the battlefield, they employed no form of strategy.

It was fairly easy for the Black Ink Clan Army to break through the Small Stone Race’s siege with just a few sacrifices.

The tides had changed in a flash for the Human Race who were on the brink of doom just moments ago. The void was thick with World Force as the light from all sorts of Divine Abilities and Secret Techniques blazed across the battlefield.

The Human Race were victorious in this battle!

Now, it was only a matter of how many of their enemies they could destroy today.

The Eighth-Order Masters were truly glad and relieved that victory was theirs. Just an hour ago, it seemed certain that the Human Race would lose. They were already considering sacrificing all the remaining Small Stone Race soldiers to buy time for the Human Race’s evacuation, but everything changed with the arrival of one person.

In a flash, the Human Race Army and the Small Stone Race grouped together as they pursued the Black Ink Clan for several million kilometres, slaughtering them as they went.

Suddenly, Yang Kai’s heart jolted and he turned his head as he sensed a familiar aura coming from a certain direction.

He swiftly leapt across the Void, and in the next instant, he appeared before a certain Warship. As he looked up, he was greeted by several familiar faces, including some that looked coquettish, some glamorous, and some dignified…

Those on the Warship had been alarmed by the sudden appearance of this figure, but once they took a good look at him, their hearts settled back into place.

A gentle expression settled on Yang Kai’s face as he smiled at these people.