Chapter 5334, Begin
Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

After burying Senior Zhao Yi Huan’s remains, Grandmaster Ma Fan personally went to the Monument of Heroes to engrave his name on it.

Yang Kai accompanied him.

The remains were brought back by him, so he naturally had to finish what he started.

Yang Kai’s heart sank when he laid his eyes on the numerous names on the Monument of Heroes.

It had only been a few centuries since he arrived at the Black Ink Battlefield, but even so, he had experienced the loss of countless peers.

In the battle against the Black Ink Clan at the Royal City, Qi Tai Chu could be said to have died under his command!

Even if he was proficient in the Dao of Space and was invincible amongst his peers, he could not save Qi Tai Chu’s life in such a chaotic battlefield.

This was his greatest regret on the Black Ink Battlefield so far, and he didn’t want to experience such a thing ever again.

That was why he had to become stronger!

Yang Kai silently prayed that no new names would be added to the Monument of Heroes and that all the soldiers joining the crusade would be able to return safely.

Suddenly, a humming sound reverberated from somewhere inside Great Evolution Pass before it began to violently shake, causing Yang Kai to lose his footing.

Immediately after, figures hurriedly flew high up to investigate in all directions, one after another.

The next moment, an invisible shockwave quickly spread out from somewhere.

Yang Kai’s expression became serious as he turned to look at Grandmaster Ma Fan.

Grandmaster Ma Fan stated in a heavy voice, “The Core has been activated.”

Only now did Yang Kai come to realize what happened. At that moment, he had thought that the Black Ink Clan had come to attack.

To his surprise, it was the Core he had brought back being activated.

As for Great Evolution Pass, with its Core installed, it was completely different from before.

If the Great Evolution Pass of the past was an inanimate object, then the current Great Evolution Pass gave Yang Kai the feeling of a living being, as if it had transformed into a giant beast.

And this giant beast was currently starving. Only the lives of the Black Ink Clan could satiate it.

The tremors disappeared as quickly and suddenly as they came, and Great Evolution Pass returned to normal after just a few breaths.

Like it was a sleeping dragon that suddenly poked its head out of its cave, looked around for a moment, and then withdrew.

Everyone could feel that the Great Evolution Pass had changed.

“The crusade is about to begin, get ready,” Grandmaster Ma Fan stated before flying towards the source of the tremors. He was extremely curious about Great Evolution Pass’ Core and naturally wanted to study it too. If one day the core was damaged, a Great Grandmaster Artifact Refiner like him would be needed to repair it.

Watching Ma Fan’s figure grow smaller and smaller, Yang Kai’s heart began to rapidly beat in excitement.

[The crusade is finally here!]

Whether or not the Humans could finally live in peace depended on the results of this crusade. If they could really purge the Black Ink Clan from the Black Ink Battlefield, there would no longer be any threat to the 3,000 Worlds. Generations of elites would no longer have to leave their homes for the battlefield where their only fate was death.

Yang Kai’s figure flickered as Space Principles fluctuated and he disappeared from his spot.

The concept of a crusade was not something new. Humans had been thinking of launching a crusade for a long time, but this idea had become impossible to implement for various reasons.

First and foremost, the corruption of the Black Ink Strength could not be resolved.

The Humans had countless eras of experience in defending the Great Passes and resisting the Black Ink Clan’s invasion, but if they were to actively go on offence, too many variables would come into the equation. No one could guarantee that a crusade would be successful, and if things didn’t go as planned, the entire Black Ink Battlefield’s defence line would very likely collapse. At that time, even with the Dragon and Phoenix Clans defending the No-Return Pass, they still wouldn’t be able to resist the Black Ink Clan’s invasion and danger would befall the 3,000 Worlds.

It wasn’t until Yang Kai entered the Black Ink Battlefield that real plans for a crusade were gradually formulated.

It was as if he had appeared specifically to make the Human Race’s counterattack possible.

Black Ink Strength, which had given a headache to the upper echelons of countless generations, had been easily resolved after his arrival. Whether it was the Purifying Light or the Purifying Black Ink Pills that were developed later, Humans finally had the means to resist the corruption of the Black Ink Strength. Owing to these two methods, not a single Human had been corrupted by Black Ink Strength in the last few centuries.

Not only that, but many Black Ink Disciples who had appeared on the battlefield had been captured and rescued.

After solving the problem of Black Ink Strength, what the Humans needed to consider next were resources.

Resources were of critical importance in any war. Cultivators needed resources to heal their wounds, cultivate, arrange Spirit Arrays, refine Warships, and so forth.

The Black Ink Battlefield was extremely rich in materials as there was an enormous amount of dead Universe Worlds to mine them from.

Be that as it may, it had been extremely difficult for the Humans to extract these resources. They could only mine a few resources within the range of the Great Passes after every war, and the time they had was never more than a few decades because they had to retreat before the arrival of the Black Ink Clan’s next attack.

A large portion of the resources that the Humans used were sent from the 3,000 Worlds.

As such, the Humans at the various Passes would ration everything, from cultivation resources to food and clothing. Every single piece of material was hard won, and every Open Heaven Pill was extremely precious.

Those, who had never been to the Black Ink Battlefield would find it difficult to imagine that a group of High-Rank Open Heaven Realm cultivators would be living such frugal lives.

But this problem was also solved by Yang Kai’s arrival.

The proliferation of the Void Yin-Yang Mirrors made it extremely easy for the Great Passes to mine resources. This mysterious set of artifacts seemed to have been specially invented for the Black Ink Battlefield.

During the war to regain Great Evolution Pass, Xiang Shan had ordered the Artifact Refiners of the East-West Army to refine tens of thousands of puppets just to attract the attention of the Black Ink Clansmen at Great Evolution Pass. The amount of resources he had spent was enormous.

He would have never dreamed of doing something like this before the appearance of the Void Yin-Yang Mirrors.

As the problem of Black Ink Strength and the resources had been taken care of, all that was left was to compare the strength.

In terms of numbers, the Black Ink Clan had an innate advantage. Every Great Pass had a population of around 30,000 Human soldiers, but in the corresponding Theatres, the Black Ink Clan Army always numbered in the millions. Although the vast majority of Black Ink Clansmen had quite low strength, there was no lack of Masters like Territory Lords.

If the Humans didn’t have enough strength, the crusade would only be an empty threat.

Feudal Lords were not of much concern and many died in every war, but killing a Territory Lord was a whole different concept.

The Evil Purging Divine Spear was born for this purpose!

This weapon would play a crucial role in the crusade. To hide this tool, the Great Evolution Army, despite being equipped with such weapons, had never used the Evil Purging Divine Spears no matter how many casualties they suffered in the mission to retake Great Evolution Pass.

Because once it was used, the news would quickly spread to the other Theatres and the Black Ink Clan would have their guards up against it. By then, the Evil Purging Divine Spear’s effectiveness in the other Theatres would become much more limited.

This was a trump card that the Human Race had painstakingly developed and hidden, and it would definitely give the Black Ink Clan a huge unpleasant surprise.

The birth of the Evil Purging Divine Spear was also related to Yang Kai.

Although this artifact was created by Grandmaster Ma Fan, the Purifying Light in every Evil Purging Divine Spear was personally sealed there by Yang Kai.

Considering everything, this crusade was almost driven by a single person, transforming an idea into reality.

How could the Human Ninth-Order Old Ancestors not value Yang Kai? This was why they had paid such a price to reach an agreement with the Dragon Clan to send him to the No-Return Pass.

Even if he was invincible amongst his peers, the strength of a Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was still insufficient in the grand scheme of things. Only with his new Ancient Dragon Form could he have sufficient strength to protect himself on the battlefield.

Yang Kai still didn’t know what price the Ancestors had paid to obtain the chance for him to enter the Dragon Pond.

Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao didn’t say anything, nor did he ask as it was meaningless to do so. Killing more of the Black Ink Clansmen on the battlefield was the best way to repay the Ninth-Order Masters.

..…

Yang Kai once again began sealing the Purifying Light into the Evil Purging Divine Spears.

He had already sealed Purifying Light in a lot of spears, but more had been amassed over the years. Now that the crusade was imminent, it was naturally better to have as many of these spears as possible to deal with the Feudal Lords and Territory Lords.

Almost all the Artifact Refiners of the other Great Passes had toiled hard to refine these spears and send them to Great Evolution Pass.

After having sealed the Purifying Light, Yang Kai sent batches of these spears back.

While Yang Kai had his hands full, the soldiers of Great Evolution Pass were not idle. Currently, a large number of Universe Worlds had been gathered at the periphery of Great Evolution Pass and tens of thousands of soldiers were mining resources without rest.

If a war broke out, these calm and peaceful days would come to an end. Naturally, they had to take advantage of this opportunity to accumulate more resources.

Time slowly passed by.

In the blink of an eye, another year had passed.

Outside Great Evolution Pass, the members of the Dawn Squad were bustling about on a Universe World, including Yang Kai.

Yang Kai was already finished with the accumulated Evil Purging Divine Spears two months ago, but he hadn’t gone to rest and had instead come over to help.

If they were to send him even more Evil Purging Divine Spears later, he would naturally seal Purifying Light after they had reached a certain amount.

Suddenly, a staggering aura welled up from inside Great Evolution Pass. Even though it was hundreds of thousands of kilometres away, this aura was still majestic and imposing.

The aura belonged to none other than the Old Ancestor.

All the busy people instantly stopped whatever they were doing and looked towards Great Evolution Pass.

On the other side, Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao’s voice rang out clearly, “Great Evolution Army, gather inside the Pass!”

After relaying the orders, the aura disappeared as if it had never existed.

Yang Kai looked at the nearby Shen Ao as his expression slightly changed.

Shen Ao let out a long sigh, “It’s time!”

Yang Kai slightly nodded in agreement.

The crusade was about to begin!

“Let’s go!” Yang Kai shouted, leading his Squad towards Great Evolution Pass.

In the void, the other Squads who were mining the Universe World also started gathering towards Great Evolution Pass like birds returning to their nest.

In less than an hour, tens of thousands of Great Evolution soldiers had gathered in the central square before the Monument of Heroes.

Although a staggering amount of people had gathered here, not a single sound could be heard. There was only a deafening silence and a fearsome aura permeating the square.

Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao happened to be standing right before everyone, dressed in plain clothes. On her left was the Eastern Army Commander Xiang Shan and the Western Army Commander Liu Zhi Ping. On her right was the Southern Army Commander Ou Yang Lie and the Northern Army Commander Mi Jing Lun.

Behind them were the Eighth-Order Division Commanders. There were a total of 74 people.

Originally, there were 73, but Xu Ling Gong had advanced to the Eighth Order 200 years ago, so now there was one more.

It might seem like a lot, but one had to remember that when the Great Evolution Army was first established, the four Armies had a total of over 60,000 soldiers and 120 Eighth-Order Masters.

To retake Great Evolution Pass, dozens of Eighth-Order Masters had died, and nearly half of the Great Evolution Army’s soldiers below the Eighth-Order had fallen.

Over the past 30,000 years, besides the day Great Evolution Pass was breached, the casualties suffered in the war to regain Great Evolution Pass were undoubtedly the highest and most tragic.