Chapter 5339, The Gap in the Defensive Line
Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

It was quite dangerous. It was not dangerous for Dawning Light to be exposed as Dawn was strong enough to eliminate everyone on the Black Ink Clan ship. However, once they were exposed, things would become complicated for the other three Squads, especially the Snow Wolves Squad which was deep behind enemy lines. The Snow Wolves were in a very dangerous position, and once the Black Ink Clan started investigating more carefully, they would have no place to hide.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm.

But what puzzled Yang Kai was why there were still Black Ink Clansmen roaming about outside. Where did they come from and what were they doing?

With a flash of thought, his left eye turned into a golden vertical eye. Thanks to the Demon Eye of Annihilation, Yang Kai’s vision pierced through the layers of Black Ink Strength and followed after the ship.

It was not just him observing, Bai Yi was also spying on the enemy, obviously having the same concerns as him.

Under the watchful eyes of the two, the ship headed straight for the nearest Low-Rank Black Ink Nest. When it was halfway there, they ran into a team of Black Ink Clansmen who had come to investigate the situation, whereafter they joined up and continued towards the Black Ink Nest.

Soon, the ship arrived before the Black Ink Nest.

A tall Feudal Lord walked out from the Black Ink Nest and chatted with another Black Ink Clansman who came down from the ship. After receiving a Space Ring from the other party, the Feudal Lord nodded before returning to the Black Ink Nest.

The large ship didn’t stop for long. After handing over a Space Ring, it turned around and once again brushed past Dawning Light before disappearing off into the void.

Aboard Dawning Light, Yang Kai and Bai Yi had seen everything clearly and looked at each other, exchanging glances.

Bai Yi voiced her guess in a low voice, “Resources!”

Yang Kai nodded in agreement, “It has to be.”

Shen Ao and the others, on the other hand, were all confused. A confused Ning Qi Zhi immediately asked, “What are you two going on about? What’s up with that Black Ink Clan ship? And why did it come out so quickly?”

No one else in Dawn had cultivated a powerful Eye Secret Technique, so they couldn’t see what transpired under the shroud of the Black Ink Strength.

Bai Yi shot a glance at Yang Kai, and seeing that he had no intention of explaining, she replied, “The Black Ink Clansmen on that ship are responsible for harvesting and delivering resources. Naturally, they went to continue mining.”

Realization immediately dawned upon Shen Ao, “The Black Ink Clan must have consumed an unimaginable amount of resources to set up such a massive defensive line. Not only are these Low-Rank Black Ink Nests in the periphery consuming tremendous resources, but even the Mid-Rank and High-Rank Black Ink Nests in the Royal City must be consuming resources. Even if the Black Ink Clan has amassed mountains of resources over the years, they might be struggling to make ends meet now. They must be sending these ships out to mine more.”

“En,” Bai Yi nodded in agreement, “The Black Ink Clan must be sending out members to mine resources like the ones on that ship, and none of them are very strong. The Black Ink Clansmen on that ship were basically all Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen, with a few High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen overseeing them.”

The Feudal Lords were all stationed near the Royal City or in the defence line, so such a dangerous task like mining resources could only be left to the High-Rank and Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. If the Old Ancestor really attacked, they would be the first ones to die.

“Why didn’t we see them before?” Ning Qi Zhi furrowed in confusion.

Yang Kai conjectured, “The Black Ink Clansmen mining resources must come and go in a hurry, and we’ve been travelling around the periphery, so it’s not strange that we haven’t seen them.”

If they had remained in one place to monitor a specific Black Ink Nest, they would have seen many Black Ink Clan ships returning from mining resources, but Dawning Light had been drifting about searching for flaws in the Black Ink Clan’s defensive line, so it wasn’t a surprise they had missed such a quick exchange.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

The Black Ink Clan didn’t patrol outside the defensive line, so the Squads didn’t encounter any danger. On the other hand, they saw Black Ink Clan ships returning from mining resources twice.

It wasn’t until a month later that Yang Kai, who had been standing on the deck observing the defensive line the whole time, had a change in expression. The next moment, his left pupil turned golden as he focused his attention towards the interior of the Black Ink Clan’s perimeter.

After silently observing for a while, he let out a long sigh of relief.

At last, he had finally found a gap which he could exploit.

Perhaps it was because the defensive line outside the Royal City was too large, or perhaps it was because there weren’t enough Black Ink Nests, but the number of Black Ink Nests were noticeably sparser in the defensive line where Dawning Light was currently at.

In this spot, so long as he could somehow take down the three adjacent Black Ink Nests, the gap would be wide enough for Great Evolution Pass to pass through unnoticed.

Of course, Great Evolution Pass would need to coordinate with them; otherwise, the nearby Black Ink Nests would definitely notice such a massive object passing through; after all, the Feudal Lords weren’t blind.

After thinking about it for a while, Yang Kai took out a jade slip and recorded a message on it with his Divine Sense before handing it to Shen Ao, “Send it back to Great Evolution Pass and ask them about their status.”

The position he was eyeing was different from the route planned for Great Evolution Pass’ surprise attack. It was slightly to the left, so if Great Evolution Pass wanted to attack from this position, they would have to change course.

Yang Kai had no idea if Great Evolution Pass would be able to change course or not, so he first sent the message to ask. He would only take action if they could; otherwise, there would be no point in taking down these three Black Ink Nests if Great Evolution Pass could not come here.

The entire plan hinged on Great Evolution Pass’ cooperation and coordination.

Shen Ao quickly sent the jade slip back to Great Evolution Pass through a Space Beacon.

Yang Kai had to wait a bit to receive the reply, a full three hours, in fact. Obviously, Great Evolution Pass’ side needed some time to calculate everything.

Traces of Xiang Shan’s Divine Sense could be felt on the jade slip sent by Great Evolution Pass, with the message reading, “Great Evolution Pass can change course, but it will take a few more days. Be careful.”

It wasn’t an easy task to change the course of a massive Mobile Palace Artifact like Great Evolution Pass. It was completely different from the Warships, which could nimbly and swiftly change direction with the coordination of a few Mid-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters.

The change in the course of Great Evolution Pass required the combined efforts of the Old Ancestor and many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. What’s more, even making a small detour required a massive amount of space to act as a buffer.

Fortunately, Great Evolution Pass was still a month away from Yang Kai’s position at its current speed. If it had been even a bit closer, Great Evolution Pass might not have been able to cooperate.

Xiang Shan’s affirmation meant that his plan was feasible. The problem now was how to approach the Black Ink Nest and quickly eliminate the Black Ink Clansmen guarding it without alerting the enemy.

These Black Ink Nests were only guarded by Feudal Lords, so destroying them was not an issue.

The difficult part was how to prevent the Black Ink Clan on guard from passing on the news.

Communication between Black Ink Nest was far too convenient, and Dawn would inevitably be exposed once they took action. If they failed to immediately kill the Feudal Lords and seize control of the Black Ink Nests, word of the attack would immediately spread.

No matter how convenient the Dao of Space was, it wasn’t much use in this situation.

After pondering the issue for a while, Yang Kai felt that he could only use the Black Ink Clan’s mining teams.

He had seen these teams approach the Black Ink Nests directly, and with his current strength, so long as he was close and found his target, he could instantly kill the Feudal Lord in charge.

He would need to take some risks, but they were still within acceptable limits.

Under this command, Dawning Light slowly stopped and waited quietly.

Yang Kai wasn’t sure when the Black Ink Clan mining teams would return, but as there were so many of them, one would surely appear soon.

After about 10 days, Yang Kai suddenly opened his eyes and stared off into the void.

A Black Ink Clan ship was rapidly approaching from that direction, and judging by past examples, it would enter the defensive line and transfer the resources to the Black Ink Nest.

After observing the route of this ship, Yang Kai’s Divine Sense undulated as he issued a command.

The next moment, Dawning Light, which had remained motionless for more than 10 days, began drifting again like a rogue asteroid.

In a flash, it happened to be blocking the way of the Black Ink Clan ship.

A High-Rank Black Ink Clansman was standing on the deck, vigilantly scanning the surroundings. Fear was clearly visible on his face.

This was not surprising as the Human Old Ancestor had been attacking Royal City quite frequently recently. Although they were a fair distance from the Royal City, no one knew from which direction the Old Ancestor would appear. If she appeared somewhere nearby, they would not be able to take even a casual attack from her.

As such, he would always be on edge every time he returned from outside.

The reason the Black Ink Clan mining teams came and left in a hurry was firstly because they were entrusted with a crucial mission, and secondly and most importantly, they were terrified of running into the Old Ancestor.

In contrast, mining resources outside was relatively safe.

At the very least, since they were far away from the Royal City and with no signs of the Human Army attacking, there was no threat to them.

After observing for a moment, the High-Rank Black Ink Clansman breathed a sigh of relief. There were no signs of explosions coming from the Royal City, so the Old Ancestor was probably not here.

[Strangely enough, that Old Ancestor seemed to have calmed down quite a bit and has not shown her face for a while. Just a few years ago, she would come every two or three months. Rumour has it that the Royal Lord had flown into a rage over this, and many of his close aides lost their lives due to his rampage.]

He secretly rejoiced that he was not on duty at the Royal City; otherwise, he would have to live a life of constant fear.

An asteroid happened to be blocking their way, but the High-Rank Black Ink Clansman didn’t care.

In the vast void, asteroids like these were fragments of shattered Universe Worlds and could be found everywhere; it was quite a normal sight.

Be that as it may, the Black Ink Clan ships weren’t very sturdy as the Black Ink Clan’s craftsmanship wasn’t very good. The ships at most could be used as big flying artifacts, a far cry from Human Warships which were extremely sturdy. Even an asteroid like the one in their way could damage the ship if they simply rammed into it.

While the High-Rank Black Ink Clansman was feeling faintly envious of the Human Race’s ability to refine Warships, he suddenly noticed something amiss.

Gazing at the asteroid, he was surprised to find that it was constantly changing its direction.

[What’s going on?]

Before this High-Rank Black Ink Clansman could figure out what was wrong, a cold and grim face suddenly appeared in front of him.

He didn’t even sense when the other party had arrived.

[A Human face…]

[Enemy attack!]

The High-Rank Black Ink Clansman’s reaction was quite quick. He realized what was going on in the blink of an eye, and instinctively raised his fist as he was about to shout.

But the surrounding space instantly froze. His hand, which had barely twitched, was frozen in place.

Not only that, an immense pressure came bearing down on him, under which he was unable to muster the strength to utter a single word.

Immediately, a large hand covered his face as everything went black before his eyes and he fell unconscious.

The space around the ship vibrated, and by the time Shen Ao and the others arrived, all the Black Ink Clansmen aboard the ship had been terminated.