Martial Peak

Chapter 5635: Scheming Against the Unexpected

No one could maintain their calm when facing a hopeless battle. The Humans couldn’t, and neither could the Black Ink Clan.

The Black Ink Clan soldiers attacking from all directions couldn’t even get within 1,000 metres of Yang Kai. No matter whether it was a Feudal Lord, a High-Rank Black Ink Clansman, or Low-Rank Back Ink Clan member, they perished with a single swing of the spear.

Under such desperation, the Black Ink Clan Army’s morale soon crumbled.

However, the Royal Lord and many Territory Lords were watching them from the outside, so they dared not retreat and could only force themselves to continue charging forward. 

A day later, Yang Kai’s kill count had grown from 100,000 to 200,000. The breath Yang Kai let out was so intensely hot that it seemed like it was about to burn a hole through the void. The hand he held his spear with was still as firm as ever.

A few days later, 200,000 became 500,000.

Half of the million Black Ink Clansmen that came to the Ancestral Land had died, causing the battlefield to reek of blood. Under Di Wu and the other Territory Lords’ gazes, Yang Kai’s speed finally began slowing down. He was sweating profusely, and his complexion seemed a little pale. 

Di Wu was satisfied with what he saw. If he could exchange a million Black Ink Clan soldiers for Yang Kai’s life, he would do it without a frown. Moreover, if he succeeded and returned to the No-Return Pass, rather than punish him, the Royal Lord would certainly reward him.

A million lower Black Ink Clansmen was nothing because as long as they had Black Ink Nests and resources, they could easily produce more such soldiers. On the other hand, how many Innate Territory Lords had died at the hands of Yang Kai over the years?

Innate Territory Lords came from the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, so each one killed meant there was one permanently lost. 

Therefore, a million Black Ink Clansmen couldn’t compare to even one Innate Territory Lord. 

Since Di Wu had great understanding of the Human’s Open Heaven Realm, he knew that a Human’s strength came from his or her Small Universe. The stronger the heritage of the Small Universe, the stronger the Human was. But the strength inside a Human’s Small Universe wasn’t inexhaustible.

Yang Kai had been fighting alone, non-stop for days and had killed over 500,000 Black Ink Clansmen, so he must have consumed a lot of energy.

[It’s time!]

As Di Wu thought so, he didn’t hesitate and flew straight into the mist. Then, he followed a Seventh-Order Black Ink Disciple’s directions and silently advanced towards his target. 

Meanwhile, the eight Territory Lords noticed the situation and mustered their courage to follow behind Di Wu.

Although Yang Kai was killing the Black Ink Clan soldiers, he still noticed these external movements and couldn’t help but frown. It seemed like things weren’t moving according to his plan.

He was feigning lethargy right now. To him, the best outcome here would be to lure a few Territory Lords over so that he could kill them first and weaken the Black Ink Clan’s overall strength. 

But the Royal Lord didn’t act as Yang Kai expected and instead led eight Territory Lords against him all at once. At that moment, Yang Kai felt a huge sense of danger as he quickly revised his plans.

This Trapping Array couldn’t hold him, as he could see through it quite easily, but there was no use in simply overcoming the Trapping Array because the Ancestral Land was still sealed by the Heaven Sealing Earth Locking Grand Array. Since he couldn’t escape, would he have to play the game of cat and mouse with the Black Ink Clan Masters again?

Of course, he wasn’t willing to waste his time doing so. 

What’s more, he understood that it was better to kill a single Territory Lord than a million Black Ink Clan soldiers. 

In an instant, Yang Kai calmed down. Since the Territory Lords dared to come over, he had to let them know the consequences of their actions. If he missed this opportunity, he might not get another one.

Having determined his next course of action, Yang Kai pretended to be even weaker.

The eight Territory Lords had split into two teams and hid within the Black Ink Clan Army, concealing their auras while nearing Yang Kai.

Four of them were mixed within the Army while four remained on the outskirts. 

Meanwhile, the Royal Lord was hiding even further away, silently watching Yang Kai’s every move as if he were a predator hiding in the dark, waiting to pounce.

As the distance between them decreased, the four Territory Lords nearest to Yang Kai began secretly linking their auras. 

Yang Kai knew it was time for him to act, because once those four Territory Lords linked together, they could easily form a Battle Formation. By then, it would be much harder for Yang Kai to kill them.

As the thought came to his mind, Yang Kai’s murderous intent flared up. 

Instantly, whether it was Di Wu or the eight Territory Lords, all of them could clearly sense the sudden change in Yang Kai. He was radiating a dangerous aura and the paleness on his face had vanished. 

That sudden change caught them off-guard. 

Di Wu immediately stared in the direction Yang Kai was standing, and although there was a dense layer of fog between them, he could see a pair of black eyes looking right at him. In the next instant, an endless darkness enveloped him.

Almost instantly, Di Wu felt like he had fallen into an abyss that contained not even the tiniest bit of light. He seemed to be alone in the Universe and even his senses failed to detect anything around him.

It was one of the two core Eye Secret Techniques of the Myriad Demons Heaven, the Black Purgatory Eye.

If Yang Kai had enough proficiency in this Secret Technique, he could engulf Di Wu in such deep darkness that he could never escape and could be easily killed. 

Of course, Yang Kai’s proficiency in this Secret Technique wasn’t nearly high enough for him to do that; moreover, there was a huge gap between their raw strengths, so it only took a moment before the darkness around Di Wu to quickly disappear and the latter to regain his senses. 

The moment light returned however, Di Wu trembled and let out a pained roar. His voice sounded so agonizing that it frightened all who heard it. Also, his Black Ink Strength was being released uncontrollably and all the Black Ink Clan soldiers struck by it perished, wiping out the Black Ink Clan Army within a 10-kilometre radius around him. 

Di Wu felt like a needle had pierced into his head, making him feel immense pain as his body and mind shivered. It was as though that invisible needle was constantly tearing into his Soul. 

At that moment, he felt like his thoughts froze and he became unable to think clearly. 

He finally understood how the other Black Ink Clansmen felt when Yang Kai attacked them with his mysterious Soul Secret Technique, and also why those Innate Territory Lords would get killed right after encountering Yang Kai. 

When he first heard about these stories, he thought those dead Territory Lords were too weak and careless, but now that he had experienced it himself, he realized that those Territory Lords were neither of those things; it was simply because no one could endure such sudden and excruciating pain.

Di Wu shouldn’t have suffered such intense pain because since the Black Ink Clan found out about Yang Kai’s strange Soul Secret Technique, all Territory Lords who encountered Yang Kai would quickly use their strength to protect their Soul.

Only by doing that could they best weaken the effects of this insidious Secret Technique.

Di Wu naturally did so as well, but the Black Purgatory Eye caused him to lose all his senses and disrupted his focus. Although he recovered quickly, he had lowered the defences of his Soul for a brief moment. 

Without protection against the Soul Rending Thorn, the consequences were extremely painful. Even a Pseudo-Royal Lord like Di Wu found it hard to endure.

At the same time Di Wu screamed in pain, four other screams rang out as well.

Those screams came from the four Territory Lords nearest to Yang Kai, who were about to form a Battle Formation. 

Yang Kai used the element of surprise and sent out five Soul Rending Thorns in quick succession, one at Di Wu and the other four at the closest Territory Lords.

That was his limit! Using any more Soul Rending Thorn would cause him to lose consciousness.

Even at this moment, Yang Kai felt dizzy and was seeing stars. 

Fortunately, he had experienced this many times and had long grown used to it. Now, the intense pain in his head even had the effect of keeping him awake.

A Royal Lord couldn’t bear such pain, but Yang Kai was used to it. No one’s success was without reason as only by withstanding constant tempering could a person achieve great things. 

Yang Kai’s figure still floated atop the mountain of corpses, but that was only an after-image as his true body had already reached the Territory Lord nearest to him. Then, he smashed apart that Territory Lord’s head with one spear thrust.

Following that, a second Territory Lord fell!

Yang Kai struck out at the third Territory Lord, but he failed to kill him in one stroke.

Territory Lords weren’t so easily killed. When the four Territory Lords approached Yang Kai, they had paid attention to protecting their Souls, so although the Soul Rending Thorns were powerful, the Territory Lords could greatly decrease the damage they took by taking precautions. 

They would still feel pain and have a blurry conscience, but they wouldn’t completely freeze up and become easy targets.

Still, this scenario was a testament to Yang Kai’s cunning and ruthlessness. 

Before the four Territory Lords could form a Battle Formation, Yang Kai launched a preemptive strike. With most of their focus on linking their auras to successfully form the Battle Formation, they never expected Yang Kai to launch a sneak attack.

They had thought that Yang Kai was completely trapped in the Spirit Array and hadn’t noticed them silently approaching. How could they have known that Yang Kai had been carefully monitoring their every move?

What happened was the outcome when someone schemed against the unexpected.

This was a desperate gambit within a hopeless battle. The entire Ancestral Land had been sealed with no way to escape, and there were many Black Ink Clan Masters here, leaving Yang Kai with no chance of escape or victory on his own; however, the original predicament changed because of the enemy’s Trapping Array. A real Master needed the ability to turn even the enemy’s advantage into their own.

If one only had brawn but no brain, they would forever be a reckless fool. That was why Yang Kai was the Army Commander of Profound Nether Territory while Ou Yang Lie could only be a Division Commander who had to obey Yang Kai’s orders. 

It was this quality that was valued by the Supreme Headquarters and why they entrusted Yang Kai with such an important role. 

In an instant, two powerful Innate Territory Lords had died and their Four Symbols Formation couldn’t be linked. The third Territory Lord regained his senses when being attacked, which was why he barely managed to block Yang Kai’s strike.

However, he was still run through by the Azure Dragon Spear, and when a burst of World Force followed up, his body was still split in two, killing him.

Like a fierce tiger, Yang Kai lunged at the fourth Territory Lord. 

It was only then that the other four Territory Lords outside finally reacted, but after recovering from their initial shock, they seemed hesitant. 

The situation before them was different from what they imagined. Having heard of Yang Kai’s fierce reputation, those four Territory Lords didn’t immediately know how to react. 

Luckily for them, Di Wu had finally gathered his wits, and when he noticed the obvious signs of Territory Lords dying, he was shocked and furious while roaring, “Kill him!”