Martial Peak

Chapter 5445: Hidden Guidance

Based on the information that the Black Ink Clan had, there were at most five Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters remaining among the Human survivors, so the appearance of a never before seen Eighth-Order Master came as a bewildering situation to the Royal Lord.

However, he was in charge of overseeing the No-Return Pass and could not leave easily. Since his subordinate Territory Lords were unable to catch this Human, he had no choice but to set the matter aside.

After suffering such a loss, he believed that this Eighth-Order Human surely would not recklessly appear again.

But he was wrong…

The very next day, the same Eighth-Order Master came over again, charging in boldly towards the No-Return Pass with great momentum and an aura which seemed to indicate he hadn’t suffered any injuries at all.

From afar, this Human acted extremely provocative with his Divine Sense and also hunted down a good number of Black Ink Clan teams who were bringing back resources from the outside, robbing them of all their goods.

The Royal Lord was furious and reprimanded the two Territory Lords who were chasing him that day severely. According to their report, the Eighth-Order Human was severely injured after their beating and would not be able to show his face again in a short time.

Yet, just one day later, he showed up again.

If not for the trust he had in his subordinates, the Royal Lord would have seriously wondered if these two had been lying to him.

The two Territory Lords also could not keep their heads up after being chastised by the Royal Lord. At once, they vowed to bring their Armies to take the head of this Eighth-Order Master. So, once all their troops were gathered, together with three more Territory Lords, they left the No-Return Pass, splitting up so they could encircle him.

The Eighth-Order Human was seemingly unaware of their plans as he fought his way forward and engaged one of their groups for a time before the other suddenly swarmed him from the opposite side.

Flustered, the Human hurriedly fled.

Even as he fled, many Black Ink Clansmen were cut down, but the Eighth-Order Human also took numerous hits and coughed up blood incessantly. His condition could only be described as miserable.

However, the united efforts of five powerful Innate Territory Lords still lost him during the chase.

This Human looked half-dead, but he was still ridiculously quick. It was not known what sort of extraordinary Secret Technique he cultivated, but as soon as he noticed that something was wrong, a blood mist would explode from his body and he would then disappear without a trace.

The five Territory Lords returned to the No-Return Pass in disgrace, which naturally made the Royal Lord very unhappy. Still, the matter was already in the past, so what could they do now?

Everyone thought that the injuries of that Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master were so severe that he must not be far from death. He surely had to find a place to recuperate and would not stir up any trouble again.

And yet… that was exactly what he did!

Just one day later, this Human showed up again, mighty as a dragon and fierce as a tiger, picking fights outside of the No-Return Pass and continuing to hunt down the Black Ink Clansmen bringing back recently mined resources.

All the Territory Lords were flabbergasted and even the Royal Lord himself had a vague feeling that something was not right.

After sustaining such heavy injuries, an Eighth-Order Master couldn’t recover back to peak condition in such a short amount of time. This could mean that his injuries were feigned, or… the Eighth-Order Human who came to pick a fight the other day was not the same person at all.

There was no way for his injuries to be faked though. No matter how strong an Eighth-Order Human was, they would not be able to emerge from an ambush of five Territory Lords unscathed.

That meant that there was a high possibility that it was a different person.

There were rumours of twins appearing on the Human side, or Human Masters who practiced some profound Illusion Techniques to disguise themselves as other people, but what was the point of doing that?

The Black Ink Clan couldn’t understand; however, the provocation of this Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was hard to ignore, so each time, troops were deployed to surround him.

But each time, they returned empty-handed.

The Black Ink Clan started by mobilizing two Territory Lords, but that number continued to increase until a full 10 were sent out, even setting up a hidden ambush outside of the No-Return Pass. Despite taking such drastic measures, they were still unable to take down this annoying Human.

On one occasion, the Royal Lord was even prepared to set out himself, but as if the Eighth-Order Master could sense this, he quickly escaped, leaving the Black Ink Clan feeling frustrated as if they had thrown out a heavy punch only to hit the clouds.

In just one short month, the Eighth-Order Master with the same appearance made several dozen raids on the No-Return Pass, wiping out hundreds of Black Ink Clan mining teams. If they included the casualties incurred when they tried to encircle him, then as many as 50,000 Black Ink Clansmen had died at his hands in just one month, among which there was no lack of Feudal Lords.

The Territory Lords, on the other hand, were unscathed; however, the loss that they incurred from just one Human did no favours to their pride. All of them hated this Eighth-Order Human to the marrow of their bones, and anytime he dared to show his face, he was chased down by numerous Territory Lords and given a good beating!

The results of his plan thus far were just as expected. Yang Kai had no idea whether or not this would be effective, but the decisive factor to gain results was effort. There were surely some remnant Human soldiers observing the situation here, perhaps even hiding nearby, waiting for their chance to move.

However, with such a strong force in their way, it was simply impossible for these scattered Human soldiers to break through the blockade of the Black Ink Clan and return to the 3,000 Worlds.

With nobody to rally and lead them, they would die here sooner or later.

Yang Kai left some subtle hints each time he clashed with the Black Ink Clan, but he had no idea whether the Humans in hiding would pick up on them.

All he could do was hope they were smart enough.

Yang Kai could not be too obvious under the eyes of the Black Ink Clan. It would be truly foolish of him if he were to treat them as idiots.

So, from the start, he didn’t dare to reveal his true strength, only using the power of an ordinary Eighth-Order Master to deal with the Black Ink Clan’s encirclements before escaping at the last moment using Space Principles.

As for the Black Ink Clan’s suspicions that he had cultivated some sort of miraculous Escape Technique that made him burst into a cloud of blood mist, that was merely a show to cloud their eyes.

Yang Kai also didn’t dare to kill any of the Territory Lords because, if he were to expose such strength, the Royal Lord would not be able to sit still and would have to personally come out to eliminate him.

He worked hard to keep the situation manageable.

It was hard for Yang Kai to maintain this cycle as the injuries he sustained were not fake. It was true, after all, that he was being encircled by many Innate Territory Lords at once.

However, his restorative powers were so great that as long as his injuries were not critical, he would be able to recover rapidly, giving rise to the suspicion the Black Ink Clan had of him having a twin.

Outside of the No-Return Pass, two figures were lurking on a small shattered asteroid.

Both of them were only in the Seventh Order, but even though they both cultivated profound Secret Techniques that concealed their auras, they did not dare to approach the No-Return Pass too closely, lest they reveal themselves.

They had been hiding here for three days now after having recently changed their hiding spot several times in recent days. This was because the Black Ink Clan had now put up their guard and also increased the strictness of their patrols outside of the No-Return Pass due to the recent disturbance from their repeat uninvited guest.

The two Seventh-Order Humans had nearly been exposed on several occasions, but the absence of a Master among the patrolling Black Ink Clansmen allowed them to slip away each time.

At this moment, they were watching the Eighth-Order Division Commander being chased by the Black Ink Clan towards the depths of the void, soon disappearing from sight.

It was a scene that they had seen many times before as it was a performance that was put on almost every day.

After the No-Return Pass regained its peace, the two would quietly communicate with each other through their Divine Senses.

“Did you get a good look at which Division Commander that was?” The slightly older one of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters asked.

The younger one shook his head, “It was too far, I couldn’t see. What about Brother Zhou?”

The Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master surnamed Zhou sighed, “Me neither.”

They were in a rather remote location, but with their mere Seventh-Order strength, they did not dare to spy on them too openly, so it was naturally difficult for them to get a complete picture of the situation.

What’s more, even if they could see the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master’s face, they might not be able to recognize him. There were many Division Commanders among the Great Passes, and they rarely interacted with any of them, so how could they recognize all of them?

After a moment’s silence, the Seventh-Order Master surnamed Zhou muttered, “There’s something strange about that Division Commander’s actions.”

The younger one nodded, “Indeed.”

His actions were so risky that the slightest mistake could mean death. Many times, they thought that this Division Commander was going to meet an unfortunate end; after all, the Territory Lords who chased him out from the No-Return Pass were quite numerous.

However, he would always escape and make an appearance the very next day.

His actions seemed meaningless and also quite dangerous, which was a fact that they found quite strange.

Even stranger than that, this Eighth-Order Division Commander always brandished his power recklessly, making it all but impossible to not notice him even from afar.

Even across such a great distance, these two would always sense this Eighth-Order Division Commander the moment he appeared.

If something seemed unusual, there must be some reason behind it. No Eighth-Order Division Commander was a fool, so there had to be a reason for his strange actions.

The Seventh-Order Master surnamed Zhou suddenly thought of something and said excitedly, “Brother Ge, is the Division Commander trying to tell us something?”

The Seventh-Order Master surnamed Ge also had the same suspicion for a time now and nodded, “Does Brother Zhou think so too?”

The one surnamed Zhou said, “If he’s trying to tell us something, the only logical conclusion is he is trying to gather us somewhere… He surely knows that there are other survivors like us monitoring the No-Return Pass, which is why he is taking the risk to show up here so that they could lead us to a gathering place.”

The one surnamed Ge was roused by his words, “Then, which direction does Brother Zhou think that Division Commander is trying to point towards?”

The one surnamed Zhou narrowed his eyes as he replied, “I don’t know if you noticed, but that Division Commander will most frequently escape in a certain direction each time he gets chased by the Territory Lords. Many times, he also moves in that same direction for unusually long periods of time.”

Certain things felt foggy if not mentioned, but once brought up, then it became simple and clear.

The two of them exchanged glances, then they turned their heads in unison to a certain direction. That was exactly the place where Yang Kai’s actions were pointing towards!

Both their spirits were lifted. After a brief exchange, they quietly snuck out of their hiding place and flew in that direction.

On a certain day half a month later, after escaping from the Territory Lords chasing him, Yang Kai landed on a certain asteroid, taking a break to recover.

A short while later, he took out a Space Beacon that served as a link between him and Huang Xiong.

He would basically take the Space Beacon out and communicate with Huang Xiong for a while whenever he was free to confirm the situation on the other side.

During these days, the Purifying Black Ink Battleship had been peaceful without any unusual occurrences.

Some Black Ink Clan teams were searching the area, but the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was so well hidden that these Black Ink Clan soldiers were unable to find anything.

However, just after taking the Space Beacon out today, he could feel Space Principles fluctuating. Clearly, Huang Xiong had been trying to get in contact with him.