Chapter 5343, Collecting Resources
Translator: Silavin & Ashish

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

On the deck, Blood Crow casually tossed two Space Rings to Yang Kai.

Yang Kai caught them and examined them. One Space Ring was quite ordinary. It didn’t have anything particularly eye-catching, containing the normal amount of wealth a Feudal Lord would possess.

The other Space Ring, on the other hand, was quite eye-catching.

[This guy… was loaded!]

The second Space Ring was filled with all kinds of resources, enough to dazzle even Yang Kai. Although Yang Kai had already seen marvelous things and mountains of treasure before, he couldn’t help but be shocked by the wealth of this Feudal Lord.

The Feudal Lords he had met before weren’t nearly this rich.

Blood Crow clarified, “Those don’t belong to him. The first Space Ring was his, and the second one was taken from the Black Ink Nests.”

“What do you mean?” Yang Kai raised his head and asked. He had some guesses, but nothing conclusive.

Blood Crow belched before continuing, “This guy came from the Royal City and was tasked to collect the resources from the Black Ink Nests. Let’s put it this way, the Black Ink Nests in the periphery belong to individual Feudal Lords. These Feudal Lords will send out their subordinates to mine for resources. A part of these resources will be used by themselves to produce Black Ink Strength and expand the defence line, while the rest will be kept aside. The Royal City periodically sends people to collect these remaining resources.”

Yang Kai finally understood the gist of the matter.

Right now, resources were extremely important to the Black Ink Clan. Whether it was for expanding the defensive line, or re-supplying the Mid-Rank Black Ink Nests or even the High-Rank Black Ink Nest, they all required massive amounts of resources.

Even though the Black Ink Clan had amassed a tremendous amount of resources over the millennia, since they were trapped in the Royal City, they had to find a way to replenish their reserves.

And that source was the mining done by the Black Ink Clansmen in the outer ring!

[No wonder the Feudal Lord suddenly came here alone. It turns out that he was here to collect resources. Judging by the items in the second Space Ring, he must have gone to many other Black Ink Nests.]

“What else?” Yang Kai asked.

Blood Crow answered, “There are about 20 or 30 people in charge of collecting resources like him, all of them scattered in different directions. As you know, the Black Ink Clan’s defence line is quite wide, and quite a distance out from the Royal City, so they need so many people to carry out this task. The Territory Lords won’t bother to do something as tedious as this, so that leaves the Feudal Lords.”

Yang Kai lightly nodded. It was understandable.

Moreover, this should not be the only reason. The Territory Lords were also afraid of Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao and had no idea when she would suddenly appear to attack. They would feel much safer in the Royal City than outside on their own.

If a Territory Lord ran into Old Ancestor Xiao Xiao while away from the Royal City, they would just die in vain.

“Interesting!” A grin appeared on Yang Kai’s face as he suddenly thought that he could make good use of this opportunity.

Originally, he had planned to use the same method as last time to take down the two adjacent Black Ink Nests. But doing so entailed too many uncontrollable variables. Luck played quite a big role in them seizing this Black Ink Nest unnoticed.

If they played the same trick again and again, and for some reason, the Black Ink Clan became vigilant, the risk of being exposed increased dramatically.

But this new information had given Yang Kai a chance to employ another method.

He could just pretend to be a Feudal Lord sent by the Royal City to collect resources.

Yang Kai turned to Shen Ao and ordered, “Send a message to Chai Fang and Ma Gao. Tell them to stop sneaking around outside and come here. Also, try to contact Yao Kang Cheng and have them withdraw as well.”

“Yes!” Shen Ao quickly took out some Space Beacons and sent the messages.

Holding the Space Ring in his hand, Yang Kai started stroking his chin, pondering. When Bai Yi and the others saw his eyes darting around, they immediately understood that he was scheming something, so they didn’t disturb him.

Soon after, Shen Ao raised his head and reported, “Chai Fang and Ma Gao have sent their replies. They will arrive in half a day, but I still can’t get in touch with Yao Kang Cheng.”

Yang Kai furrowed his brow. Yao Kang Cheng’s actions were bordering on recklessness, but since he could not get in touch with him, Yang Kai could only hope that everything was going smoothly for him and his Squad.

“You guys stand guard outside in turns. Meanwhile, I’ll keep on the lookout in the central area,” Yang Kai ordered before entering the Black Ink Nest.

On the deck, Blood Crow patted his stomach before turning around and returning to the cabin as he still needed to properly refine the Blood Essence he consumed. A chill ran down everyone’s spine at the sight of this.

Half a day later, Yang Kai, who was keeping an eye out from inside the Black Ink Nest, vaguely sensed a foreign body intruding the Black Ink Nest’s detection range and immediately sent a message, having the rest of Dawn go on high alert.

But shortly after the first disturbance, Yang Kai felt another body intruding on the defence line.

Yang Kai knew that it was the Old Turtle and Profound Wind Squads.

As he had expected, a team of people stealthily made their way over shortly after.

Their leader was none other than Chai Fang.

Chai Fang was quite smart. He knew that the Warship would be too conspicuous, so just like Dawn, he put away the Warship and took everyone below the Seventh-Order into his Small Universe when they entered the perimeter. He only arrived with a few Seventh-Order Masters.

Bai Yi, who was guarding the entrance, had already noticed them and guided them inside.

When he saw Yang Kai sitting by the Black Ink Pool, Chai Fang couldn’t help but be in awe. He immediately cupped his fist and congratulated, “Brother Yang, this Chai admits defeat!”

Their Squad had also been wandering around the periphery for many days. They too were thinking of taking down a Black Ink Nest and hiding inside the Black Ink Clan’s defence line.

But it was easier said than done. Although the Old Turtle Squad was quite strong, it was still difficult for them to silently capture a Black Ink Nest.

On the other hand, Dawn had accomplished just that. Needless to say, Yang Kai deserved the most credit for succeeding in this difficult task. No one was his opponent in the same Realm, so he could quickly crush a Feudal Lord, which was critical to moving about undetected.

“That’s very kind of you.” Yang Kai continued, “Please wait a moment, the Profound Wind Squad will be arriving soon.”

Chai Fang lightly nodded and led his Squad to Dawning Light. After thinking about it for a moment, he also let out his Squad members from his Small Universe.

Unlike Yang Kai, whose Small Universe had a robust foundation, his Small Universe felt slightly bloated after keeping so many Open Heaven Masters inside. If he were to run into an enemy and be forced to fight, Chai Fang would have some trouble circulating his World Force, which would lead to a sharp drop in his strength. Under such circumstances, he just might lose a fight he should have easily been able to win.

The Profound Wind Squad also arrived in a short while. Everyone had gathered except for the Snow Wolves. After asking around, Chai Fang, and Ma Gao finally learned that Yao Kang Cheng had led his Squad deeper into the Black Ink Clan’s defence line.

This made them feel a bit uneasy. Although there were no Black Ink Nests in the inner ring of the defence line and it might be harder to be detected, there was always a chance. If they ran into a large group of Black Ink Clansmen, things could become quite dangerous for them.

Nonetheless, things were out of their hands as they could not reach them.

Without mulling over it much, Chai Fang went straight to the point, “Brother Yang, why have you summoned us here? What orders do you have?”

Yang Kai answered, smiling, “I don’t dare to give you orders, but I do need your help.”

Ma Gao nodded after hearing this, “Brother Yang, if there’s anything you need, feel free to speak. Since we are all tasked with scouting, we should naturally help each other.”

“Then I’ll cut to the chase. It’s like this, I’ve observed from the outside that, although the Black Ink Clan is completely invested in constructing this defence line using the Black Ink Strength, because they have expanded it too much too quickly, it’s not very tight. As long as we can capture three adjacent Black Ink Nests, we can blind the eyes of the Black Ink Clan and Great Evolution Pass will have a chance to quietly sneak past and head to the Royal City unnoticed.”

While speaking, he tapped the floor, “This is the first one. We will need to take down two more nearby, but Dawn needs to remain here in case anything goes wrong. So, I need your help to capture the other nests.”

Ma Gao and Chai Fang glanced at each other before nodding their compliance. The former added, “Since Brother Yang has summoned us here, surely he must have some kind of plan, right? What do you want us to do?”

Yang Kai started explaining, “I do have a plan. Originally, I was planning to use the same trick I used to capture this nest, but now I have a better idea. Previously, a Feudal Lord came here…”

Next, Yang Kai explained what happened with the recently arrived Feudal Lord.

Ma Gao raised his brow, “Collecting resources…”

Chai Fang was not all brawns and no brains, rather he was quite sharp, so he immediately understood what Yang Kai had in his mind, “Brother Yang wants to disguise himself as a person collecting supplies and openly approach the other two Black Ink Nests?”

Yang Kai nodded, “Rather than sneaking around and possibly raising the opposite party’s guard, it would be better to act boldly.”

“Indeed, I’m sure that it would never occur to the Black Ink Clansmen on guard that the person approaching them so blatantly actually had ill intentions towards them.” Ma Gao agreed, “But Brother Yang, there is still a problem. According to what you said, the one collecting the supplies was a Feudal Lord. If you were to disguise yourself, you can at best disguise yourself as a Black Ink Disciple, which would still be suspicious.”

Yang Kai had disguised himself as a Black Ink Disciple more than once. Apart from him, no one else could do this because they did not possess Black Ink Strength, but Yang Kai was different. His Small Universe even had a Black Ink Nest inside, so it wasn’t difficult for him to withdraw some Black Ink Strength.

Yang Kai explained with a smile, “About 20 to 30 people are collecting supplies, and I don’t think that all of them would be Feudal Lords. If some Black Ink Clansman asks, I have an excuse. So long as I can get a chance to approach the Feudal Lord overseeing the Black Ink Nest, we’ll already be halfway to success!”

For Yang Kai, the only problem was how to approach the Black Ink Nest. As long as he could get close to the Black Ink Nest without raising any alarms, the rest was easy. When he led his Squad here, he had completely disregarded the Black Ink Clansmen in the vicinity and charged straight into the Black Ink Nest as he was afraid that the Feudal Lord in-charge of the nest would sound the alarm.

Fortunately, the other party was a bit lax, probably never having expected a Human to be so courageous as to directly charge into his Black Ink Nest.

But Yang Kai couldn’t place his hopes on the carelessness of others for the next two Black Ink Nests. It was better to have everything under his control.

The Black Ink Clan troops stationed at every Black Ink Nest were quite strong, with more than one Feudal Lord standing guard. Since Yang Kai needed to focus on dealing with the Master of the Black Ink Nest, he needed help to take care of the other Black Ink Clansmen.

Since Dawn had to stay here, he was left with no choice but to ask for the Old Turtle and Profound Wind Squads’ help.

“Since Brother Yang has considered things thoroughly, we will cooperate with you. As for how we should act, I hope Brother Yang has planned everything,” Ma Gao quickly agreed.

“But of course,” Yang Kai had formulated a complete plan and quickly explained it to them.

Ma Gao and Chai Fang kept nodding again and again when they heard the plan. They found it to be quite feasible. It would be a piece of cake to take down the two adjacent Black Ink Nests if all went well. In fact, if they had enough manpower, they could capture as many as they wanted.

But if they captured too many, they might expose some flaws. So, it was not necessarily a good thing to take things that far.

After a brief discussion, Yang Kai got up and stated, “We shouldn’t delay. I’ll leave now, everyone, wait for my signal.”

Ma Gao and Chai Fang nodded before exhorting, “Brother Yang, be careful.”

Yang Kai waved and flew out of the Black Ink Nest, heading straight towards the adjacent region.