Martial Peak

Chapter 5298, Going to the No Return Pass

Translator: Silavin & June

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

The renovation and reconstruction of Great Evolution Pass was in full swing. As a Grandmaster Artifact Refiner, Yang Kang was extremely busy too. He collaborated with other Artifact Refiners to refine different large-scale artifacts, and then installed these artifacts as Array Cores in various areas all across Great Evolution Pass.

Now that the Pass’ Space Arrays had been fully repaired, many messages from the outside world could be transmitted through it.

As a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, Yang Kai didn’t have many qualifications to have access to any confidential information, but much news of victory was actually purposefully disclosed by the higher-ups, so everyone would eventually be aware of them.

There was plenty of news of victory, as the Human Race’s disadvantage on the Black Ink Battlefield appeared to have vanished overnight. The battle between the Black Ink Clan and the Human Race resulted in a resounding triumph for the latter in most of the recent battles as opposed to the constant stalemates of the past.

On the whole, the Black Ink Clan’s forces seemed to be on the back foot. The Human Race joyously marched across the battlefield in celebration, and just like at Blue Sky Pass, forward bases were constructed in the direction of the Black Ink Clan Royal Cities to reduce the Black Ink Clan’s capacity for movement.

This was the change in the situation that had been in a deadlock for countless aeons. On the battlefront, the Purifying Black Ink Battleships, Black Ink Pills, and Void Yin-Yang Mirrors all played critical roles.

If one traced back all of these innovations, it could be seen that there was one person behind them.

Even taking the entire history of the Great War into account, this individual was without a doubt the one who caused the greatest change on the Black Ink Battlefield.

Yang Kai’s days were incredibly busy, but equally fulfilling; it was even fair to say that the lives of the tens of thousands of soldiers in Great Evolution Pass were all fulfilling. On usual days, they would be busy repairing the Pass. Then, they would cultivate during their breaks.

Originally, it was estimated that Great Evolution Pass’ repairs would take 100 years.

But in reality, everything was only finished after almost 200 years.

The Great Evolution Pass of this day was completely different from when it was occupied by the Black Ink Clan previously. It took about 200 years, tens of thousands of people from the Great Evolution Army, and enormous amounts of energy and resources to restore it back to the state of more than 30,000 years ago.

It could be said that Great Evolution Pass was not any weaker than any of the Great Passes now.

With the current Great Evolution Pass and the Great Evolution Army, the Black Ink Clan would never retake it, even if their foundation was restored.

Not to mention, the Black Ink Clan could only turtle around the Royal City, too afraid to cross the Humans.

For the past 200 years, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao occasionally disturbed the Royal Lord, forcing him to remain on alert at all times. After such a prolonged period, rather than his injuries showing signs of improvement, they had worsened.

He was, without a doubt, the most miserable Royal Lord among all other Royal Lords.

Though Great Evolution Pass had been restored, the soldiers remained in a state of heightened tension. Everyone was waiting for the crusade to begin.

The crusade was initially a secret, which only the highest-ranking members of the Human Race were aware of; however, over time, the soldiers of the lower rankings became aware of the direction the Human Race was taking. Naturally, after the ‘seemingly’ unintentional disclosure by the higher-ups.

The war with the Black Ink Clan had continued for far too long, so long that it was impossible to trace it back to when it began. Throughout these endless years, the elite Open Heaven Realm Masters of the 3,000 Worlds were deployed to this battlefield one after another to wage war with the Black Ink Clan generation after generation. All their sacrifices were to protect the Human Race’s last line of defence.

Throughout these years, the Human Race had suffered countless losses.

This situation could not persist indefinitely. Every generation strived to make a difference and eliminate all possible future problems; yet, there was nothing they could do about it.

But now that the stalemate situation had been broken, the Human Race was no longer on the defensive and had what was necessary to take the fight to the enemy.

If they had an opportunity to end the Black Ink Clan once and for all, the Humans on the Black Ink Battlefield would sacrifice anything to seize it.

For this reason, a crusade was required, and it must be a joint crusade of all Humans in every Great Pass. Only with this, could the Black Ink Clan be eradicated.

Otherwise, if any single one of the Black Ink Clansmen escaped from the battlefield, the war would continue.

This cooperation and coordination between over 100 Great Passes was not an issue that could be addressed overnight. The planning alone would take at least 100 years.

Additionally, Yang Kai’s Purifying Light accompanied by the Evil Purging Divine Spear that Grandmaster Ma Fan created would be the greatest weapon to support the Human Race in this crusade!

That was another reason why Yang Kai was so busy these days.

During the last 10 years of Great Evolution Pass’ restoration, a great number of Evil Purging Divine Spears were delivered through the Space Array and given over to him. Once he received the spears, Yang Kai would need to personally seal Purifying Light into each and every single one of them.

There was no way to seek the assistance of others in this matter because only he had the ability to use Purifying Light.

More than 100 Great Passes refined Evil Purging Divine Spears in enormous quantities during the years when the Great Evolution Army was reclaiming and restoring Great Evolution Pass. The number was simply uncountable after the accumulation of over 300 years.

All of these Evil Purging Divine Spears were transported to Great Evolution Pass, so what was presented before Yang Kai was a literal mountain of them. As a result, he had to drive the Purifying Light to seal it into those spears non-stop.

It was terribly dull doing the same thing over and over again. Yang Kai had no idea how many times he had used Purifying Light too; all he knew was that the amount of Yellow and Blue Crystals in his Small Universe kept decreasing.

At this time, he was grateful that he had taken enough Yellow and Blue Crystals from the Chaotic Dead Territory; after all, he had no idea when or even if he could acquire more if they ran out.

During this period of sealing Purifying Light, Evil Purging Divine Spears were still occasionally transported from other Great Passes.

It was until a few years ago that the number finally began to reduce.

Only after another few more years did Yang Kai finish dealing with all the Evil Purging Divine Spears.

Yang Kai hadn’t counted, but he could feel that there were at least tens of millions of Evil Purging Divine Spears sealed with Purifying Light. As a result, almost half of the Yellow and Blue Crystals in his Small Universe had been used up, showing how huge the consumption was.

There were two types of Evil Purging Divine Spear; one designed for use against Feudal Lords, and the other for Territory Lords.

The former was easier to refine and also required lesser Purifying Light; as such, almost 90% of all the spears were of this rank.

The latter was no more than 10%, but that was sufficient.

Tens of millions of Evil Purging Divine Spears were divided among the 100-plus Great Passes, with each one receiving almost 100,000 spears. If such a number couldn’t make the crusade a success, then the Human Race should just give up any hope of defeating the Black Ink Clan.

In Great Evolution Pass, Yang Kai was summoned to the abode of Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao.

Some time ago, he finished dealing with the Evil Purging Divine Spears, and he had been cultivating in retreat ever since.

The crusade was quickly approaching, so he was keen to enhance his personal strength, because only after he grew powerful enough would he be able to make a real difference in the approaching battle.

However, he received a summon from Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao after only a few days of retreat.

When he saw the Old Ancestor, he realised that, as rumoured, the Old Ancestor was not in a good mood.

In recent years, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao had been disturbing the Royal City regularly. Despite the fact that she went and returned whenever she pleased, she was still not in a pleasant mood for some reason.

Yang Kai arrived and said cautiously, “Old Ancestor, you asked for me?”

“En. I want you to travel to the No-Return Pass,” Old Ancestor replied.

“The No-Return Pass?” Yang Kai was taken aback when he heard the words, “What for?”

He had heard about the No-Return Pass many times before. Although this was the Human Race’s final line of defence, it was personally defended by the Dragon and Phoenix Clan, with numerous other strong Divine Spirits among them.

According to the information Yang Kai had acquired, a former Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress collaborated back in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land in a great war against the Black Ink Clan. At the cost of their own lives, supplemented by the 16 Sacred Treasures of different Divine Spirit Clans, they managed to suppress and seal a Black Ink Giant Spirit God. At some point after that, the Dragon and Phoenix Clans left the Ancestral Land to take up the role of guardians of the No-Return Pass.

Even after so many years, they hadn’t returned to the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land.

Not only that, but ancient Human Great Experts set innumerable restrictions on the periphery of the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land to segregate the inside and outside and completely prevent the Black Ink Giant Spirit God from escaping.

Back then, when Yang Kai and Xia Lin Lang were chased after by Cheng Yang, they strayed into that Divine Ability Sea and experienced a lot of hardship.

Upon arriving at the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land, there were no signs of the Dragon Clan nor the Phoenix Clan, but a branch of the Phoenixes did remain, headed by Qing Luan, Yuan Chu, Yue Zhuo, and Hong Hu.

Countless years passed as the Ancestral Land’s Ancestral Strength wore down the power of the Black Ink Giant Spirit God, eventually turning him into a lifeless corpse, but to do so, much of the Ancestral Strength produced in the Ancestral Land had to be siphoned away.

It was only after Yang Kai arrived in the Ancestral Land and helped unlock the Demon Sealing Land, that the Ancestral Land’s Ancestral Strength began to be restored, making it more suitable for the Divine Spirits to live in.

Su Yan, Zhu Qing, Shan Qing Luo, and the others from Void Land who had Divine Spirit bloodlines were currently cultivating in the Ancestral Land. All of them had Divine Spirit Sources, and cultivating there would undoubtedly bring them great benefits.

Hundreds of years ago, as ordered by Xiang Shan, Yang Kai left the Great Evolution East-West Army to circle behind Great Evolution Pass and search for the Great Evolution North-South Army. At that time, Yang Kai was able to sense the No-Return Pass from afar.

That was all due to his Golden Divine Dragon Source. The Dragon Pool was located at the No-Return Pass, and anyone with a pure enough Dragon Source and sufficient strength could sense the location of the Dragon Pool.

The feeling Yang Kai had at that time was the constant connection between his own Dragon Source and the Dragon Pool.

It was said that the Dragon Pool was the origin of all Dragon Sources, their birthplace so to speak, the root of the whole Dragon Clan.

When Yang Kai initially first stepped into the 3,000 Worlds, seeking out the Dragon Pool was one of his main goals; after all, it was only through finding the location of the Dragon Pool, that he could further cultivate his Dragon Source.

This thought, however, faded as he became stronger over the years.

Unexpectedly, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao actually requested him to travel to the No-Return Pass at this moment.

He had no idea whether there was another deeper intention to it.

“You’ll know why when you get there. No need to ask so much,” the Old Ancestor responded.

Yang Kai hesitated, “But Old Ancestor, the crusade is approaching. If I leave at this time…”

“You don’t need to worry about the crusade. You’re just in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. There won’t be much difference with or without you. Even if you miss it, what would it matter?” Sneered the Old Ancestor.

Yang Kai went speechless.

Perhaps the Old Ancestor thought that her words were a bit too harsh; thus, she clarified, “The crusade is still in its preparatory stage. As long as you don’t take too long, you won’t miss it.”