Martial Peak

Chapter 5438: Huang Xiong

When the Purifying Black Ink Pill was first introduced, Yang Kai did some experiments with the Alchemy Great Grandmasters of Blue Sky Pass.

That pill could indeed allow one to resist Black Ink Strength and eliminate it from their Small Universe, but only if one had not completely become a Black Ink Disciple.

The stronger the cultivator was influenced by Black Ink Strength, the more limited the effect of the Purifying Black Ink Pill.

Whenever a Human was invaded by Black Ink Strength, they would choose the most appropriate method to resolve the crisis. Before a big battle, the Human soldiers would take a Purifying Black Ink Pill, and only if they were unlucky enough to be stained by Black Ink Strength after the pill’s effects wore off would they resort to using Purifying Light.

After Azure Void Pass fell, about 1,000 soldiers were left from the original complement of 20,000 troops, and among those 1,000 soldiers, many had been invaded by Black Ink Strength. 

Therefore, the Purifying Black Ink Battleship here was their only hope.

That was why Division Commander Hai Xing led some soldiers here to try to recover the Battleship, but there had been no news since they left, so Sun Mao and the others presumed that they had encountered a strong enemy and ultimately ended up dead. From this, they also surmised that there were strong enemies still occupying Azure Void Pass, which was why they were hesitant to come here all these years.

Yesterday, they felt the fallout from a great battle coming from the direction of Azure Void Pass, so Sun Mao and the others risked their lives to come over and investigate, only to personally witness Yang Kai killing the fang-toothed Territory Lord.

“Where are Division Commander Huang and the others hiding? Quickly bring me…” Yang Kai wanted to ask them to lead him there and let him help dispel the Black Ink Strength from their bodies until he suddenly remembered that he couldn’t do that anymore.

They needed Purifying Light to dispel Black Ink Strength, but to create Purifying Light, Yang Kai needed Yellow and Blue Crystals.

However, he had consumed all the Yellow and Blue Crystals he had left during his 4,000 years cultivating inside the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon…

At this moment, Yang Kai couldn’t help feeling frustrated. If he had known this would happen, he would have saved some of the Yellow and Blue Crystals, but then he thought about when he was cultivating in the Temporal River. He could feel his strength increasing steadily, so how could he be willing to stop before he was forced to?

He might still be cultivating inside the Temporal River if he had more resources.

Such an opportunity was simply too rare to come by.

“Please invite Division Commander Huang and the others over. I’ll sweep Azure Void Pass to see if there are any more Black Ink Clansmen in hiding,” Yang Kai instructed them.

Sun Mao and the others were instantly elated and left in a hurry.

After they departed, Yang Kai began inspecting Azure Void Pass again. This time, he did a thorough sweep using his Divine Sense to ensure there were no more Black Ink Clansmen inside.

After an incense stick’s worth of time, Yang Kai determined that those three Territory Lords he just killed were the only Black Ink Clansmen stationed here.

But that wasn’t strange. This Great Pass had already been thoroughly destroyed, so it was impossible that the Black Ink Clan would pay much attention to this place. Moreover, three Territory Lords were posted here mainly to prevent any Humans from coming over to retrieve Azure Void Pass’s Old Ancestor’s corpse.

With three Innate Territory Lords working together, they could handle most situations, when there was no Old Ancestor.

The Division Commander Hai that Sun Mao mentioned might have fallen at the hands of those three Territory Lords. 

After finishing his inspection, Yang Kai returned to the central square and bowed again to the Old Ancestor before carefully storing his corpse and the now hornless Ox Monster in his Small Universe.

Immediately after that, he came to where the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was. This Warship was severed in two, but fortunately, the place storing the Purifying Light and Universe Array weren’t too severely damaged; otherwise, the Universe Array wouldn’t have responded to Yang Kai when he used the Universe Transference Law.

The question now was whether the Purifying Light inside had all leaked out. Technically speaking, Purifying Light was just another kind of energy. When designing the original Purifying Black Ink Battleship, Yang Kai had joined forces with several Array Masters to create a sealed space that would ensure the Purifying Light would not leak out.

As for getting in and out of that space, they could use a Space Array.

Now that the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was heavily damaged, if the formations inside were also affected, even if it were a minor flaw, the Purifying Light sealed inside would all eventually flow out and dissipate.

Yang Kai prayed silently for that not to be the case. Since he no longer had any Yellow and Blue Crystals, he couldn’t create more Purifying Light, so if the Purifying Black Ink Battleship no longer had any, Division Commander Huang and the others would fall into a difficult situation.

Standing on the deck, Yang Kai checked the Space Array and found it to be slightly damaged, so he quickly went about repairing it.

In less than half a day, the Space Array was fixed, and Yang Kai stood above it before trying to activate it. He felt relieved and lucky that the Space Array inside of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was intact; otherwise, he didn’t know how he was going to get inside.

The light of the array flashed, and Yang Kai was instantly transported inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship’s main cabin. After giving it a good look, the hope inside him disappeared.

The interior of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was clearly damaged, meaning the seal was broken and there was no longer any Purifying Light.

Moreover, there was a Black Ink Clan corpse here…

When the Black Ink Clan attacked Azure Void Pass, they must have discovered that the Purifying Black Ink Battleship looked different from other Human Warships, so they naturally investigated it.

This dead Black Ink Clansman must be the one who went inside to probe the situation, instantly falling into this space that was filled with Purifying Light. Like an ant that fell into a pot of boiling oil, the Black Ink Clan let out a final attack before dying and damaged the Arrays from the inside, causing the leakage of Purifying Light.

Gnashing his teeth, Yang Kai teleported back outside.

Since the Purifying Black Ink Battleship no longer had any Purifying Light, and he couldn’t produce any, Purifying Black Ink Pills were their last hope.

Now, Yang Kai could only hope that the survivors weren’t too heavily invaded by Black Ink Strength, or else the Purifying Black Ink Pills wouldn’t have much effect on them.

Since the introduction of the Purifying Black Ink Pill, every Great Pass had been mass refining them and would distribute them to all soldiers before a battle.

With a World Tree Clone in his Small Universe and the ability to cast Purifying Light, Yang Kai naturally did not need Purifying Black Ink Pills, so he did not have any on him.

However, he was the one who found the remnant recipe for the Purifying Black Ink Pill, while it was later completed by the Great Grandmaster Alchemists of Blue Sky Pass, so it wasn’t hard for Yang Kai to refine them.

Moreover, he didn’t lack Spirit Herbs. Back when he was still stationed at Blue Sky Pass, Yang Kai had planted large numbers of the herbs necessary to refine Purifying Black Ink Pills in the medicine garden in his Small Universe, leaving his two Wood Spirit helpers to look after them. Over 4,000 years had passed since then for Yang Kai, while time in his Small Universe flowed several times faster than that, so now there was an abundance of all kinds of Spirit Herbs, Flowers, and Fruits in his medicine garden. He had even stockpiled over 1,000 Profound Yin Spirit Fruits, which were normally so rare and in demand that there was never any in stock in the various Great Passes.

Understanding what needed to be done, Yang Kai took out an Alchemy Furnace and got to work.

He had essentially abandoned the Alchemic Dao after ascending to the Open Heaven Realm, but with his experience in the Great Sea Celestial Phenomenon, his mastery of the Alchemic Dao had actually improved greatly.

Though he hadn’t reached the level of Great Grandmaster, or even Grandmaster, Purifying Black Ink Pills weren’t too difficult to refine, so his current skill was more than sufficient.

One furnace of Purifying Black Ink Pills was soon produced, and Yang Kai immediately started on the next. Before this second batch was finished, Sun Mao and the others had already led the 1,000 or so remnant soldiers over.

It had been more than 200 years since they last stepped into Azure Void Pass, so those soldiers who wouldn’t even frown in the face of death all had teary eyes.

Looking at the Inner Sanctum and the gruesome battlefield reminded them of the bloody battle they had fought here 200 years ago, causing them to feel quite emotional.

The one in the lead was a middle-aged man with a stout figure and a firm gait. His face was fair and without a beard while his expression looked fierce without appearing angry. However, the man saw Yang Kai was in the middle of refining pills, so he stayed far back to not disturb him.

This man had an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm cultivation and was the only Eighth-Order Master among the bunch. It was obvious he was the Division Commander named Huang Xiong Sun Mao mentioned before.

They didn’t come forward, so Yang Kai bowed and greeted them first, “Great Evolution Army’s Yang Kai greets Division Commander Huang and Fellow Brothers and Sisters.”

Huang Xiong’s eyes lit up, “Martial Nephew, your name has spread far and wide. I only found out today that not only do you have superb combat capabilities, but you also have high attainments in the Alchemic Dao. How remarkable.”

He didn’t come forward to disturb Yang Kai just now because he was afraid he might disturb the latter, causing him to fail the refinement of the batch of pills he was currently working on, but when he saw Yang Kai appearing at ease while continuing to refine pills, even greeting them, it showed that he obviously had quite some skill in the Dao of Alchemy.

Squeezing out a smile, Yang Kai shook his head, “Division Commander Huang is too polite. I just finished a furnace of Purifying Black Ink Pills. Please distribute them to the others.”

Although it was a happy thing to reunite with his fellow comrades, the current situation made it hard for Yang Kai to truly smile.

He swept his gaze over the 1,000 soldiers before him and found that many of them had been stained by Black Ink Strength. Even Huang Xiong had a faint Black Ink Strength lingering around the surface of his body, and while they were talking, there was even a trace of darkness flashing in the depths of his eyes. 

That was an obvious sign of being seriously invaded by Black Ink Strength. If left unattended, it was only a matter of time before Huang Xiong would be entirely corrupted.

Of course, he wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen because he would either end his own life or sacrifice part of his Small Universe before then. 

Huang Xiong came forward and received the Purifying Black Ink Pills that had just been refined before casually tossing them to the soldiers behind him. As for him, he sat cross-legged beside Yang Kai and silently watched him refine pills.

A while later, Huang Xiong finally spoke up, “Inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship…”

With a slow shake of his head, Yang Kai replied, “The Black Ink Clan sent someone inside to investigate and they damaged the Sealing Arrays. The Purifying Light has all leaked out.”

Although Huang Xiong had already guessed this outcome when he first saw Yang Kai, he still sighed heavily after getting confirmation, “I shouldn’t have let Senior Brother Hai come over. They lost their lives for nothing.”

There were already not many Masters among the survivors here, and the only surviving Eighth-Order Masters were him and Division Commander Hai. More than 10 years ago, when Division Commander Hai brought some soldiers to Azure Void Pass to salvage the Purifying Black Ink Battleship but never returned, Huang Xiong understood that Division Commander Hai must have fallen at the hands of the Black Ink Clan.

Meanwhile, Yang Kai stayed silent because he didn’t know what to say.

Huang Xiong suddenly asked, “Martial Nephew, did you encounter some kind of opportunity? When did you advance to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm?”

As far as he knew, Yang Kai was a Seventh-Order Master who had broken through less than 1,000 years ago.

But looking at him now, not only did Yang Kai break through to the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, he even managed to kill three Innate Territory Lords above Azure Void Pass all on his own.

Only the strongest, most veteran Eighth-Order Masters might be capable of such a feat. Although it seemed like Yang Kai suffered some serious injuries in the process, it didn’t seem to affect him at all as he was casually refining pills here, which surprised Huang Xiong greatly.