Chapter 5354, Five Lines of Defence
Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

There was more than just one line of defence outside the Royal City. In fact, there were a total of five lines of defence. Moreover, every single line of defence contained a large number of Black Ink Clansmen.

That was especially true for the outermost line of defence, where at least a million Black Ink Clansmen were stationed. They were densely packed and crowded together with so many of them assembled they seemed to fill the void. Hence, they gave off an imposing pressure when seen from afar.

The Black Ink Clan Army had suffered terrible losses during the war 200 years ago. Nevertheless, 200 years had passed since then. The Black Ink Clan had recovered some of their foundation during this period, so there were now more than a million among them who could fight.

In fact, the Black Ink Clansmen stationed at the outermost line of defence were not even included among these numbers. That was because they were miscellaneous Serfs who could not even compare to the Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. Their role was just to sacrifice themselves to whittle down the strength of the Human Race Army.

Only the Black Ink Clan could so easily choose to abandon such a large number of clansmen because they could afford the losses. Besides, the Great Evolution Army was aggressively marching forward, so if the Royal City could not be defended, then these miscellaneous Serfs were bound to die anyway. They might as well be useful before they die.

The higher-ups among the Black Ink Clan had no mercy for these Serfs; after all, they were even willing to sacrifice their own lives to defend the Royal City, much less these weaklings.

Due to their inferior strength and low sentience, these Black Ink Serfs had absolute loyalty towards the powerful Black Ink Clansmen and were not afraid of death.

The distance between both parties grew closer and closer.

Four hours later, the Great Evolution Army was only a few million kilometres away from the Black Ink Clan’s first line of defence. The Human Race soldiers standing on the city walls could clearly see the enormous formation formed by the millions of Black Ink Clansmen. Thus, they couldn’t help feeling slightly intimidated.

Nevertheless, they approached closer and closer.

At a certain moment, a furious roar rang out from the depths of the Great Evolution Army, “Kill!”

In the direction of the Royal City, the Human Race soldiers who were raring for battle immediately activated and poured their World Force into the Spirit Arrays and artifacts under their command. The void trembled and hummed incessantly. In the next moment, countless blasts of light burst out from Great Evolution Pass and rained down on their enemies ahead.

At the same time that the Humans made their move, the millions of Black Ink Clan Serfs charged towards the Great Evolution Army without fear of death.

They were weak. The strongest among them were comparable to Dao Source Realm Humans, but most of them were even weaker than that. Even so, they charged forward fearlessly and ferociously despite facing the formidable offensive of the Human Race.

The bombardment from the various Spirit Arrays and artifacts rained down upon the miscellaneous soldiers of the Black Ink Clan, and it didn’t take much effort for a large number of them to evaporate into nothing.

Black Ink Strength grew more concentrated in the aftermath.

Be that as it may, the attacks from the Human Race Army continued to pour down like a fierce torrential rain. The speed of the entire Great Evolution Pass did not reduce in the slightest even though the streams of lights blasting out from its walls swept across the void and wantonly slaughtered the Black Ink Clan.

It was a one-sided massacre.

The Black Ink Serfs who weren’t even considered real soldiers couldn’t even come within 100,000 kilometres of Great Evolution Pass. They were all blown to bits halfway through their forward charge.

However, none of the Human cultivators cheered for joy. They knew that this was just the beginning and the real battle had yet to commence.

Every time Great Evolution Pass advanced another 100,000 kilometres, the number of Black Ink Serfs would reduce sharply by about 100,000 as well. The first line of defence had essentially been broken, but more Black Ink Serfs followed close behind, and judging from their demeanour, they seemed determined not to back down no matter what.

Their efforts eventually paid off. During the last 100,000 kilometres, the Black Ink Serfs finally breached the 100,000 kilometres defence perimeter of Great Evolution Pass and some of the Black Ink Clansmen were even able to launch Secret Techniques at the Great Evolution Army.

Fortunately, the Defensive Arrays of Great Evolution Pass were active and such weak attacks couldn’t even cause ripples to spread across the outer layer of the Pass, resulting in no damage at all.

The violent energy gradually subsided, and the continuous offensive became increasingly sporadic. Eventually, there was no further movement. The entire process took no longer than an hour. The Black Ink Clan’s first line of defence formed by over a million Serfs had been completely annihilated!

If the two armies were to face each other in the open, the Human cultivators would not have had such an easy victory even though their enemies were just sacrificial pieces. It was just that these miscellaneous soldiers were intent on dying from the beginning. They wanted to sacrifice themselves in exchange for whittling away at the momentum of Great Evolution Pass. That was why most of them were annihilated within an hour.

A large patch of Black Ink Strength that was dense to the point of becoming solid was in Great Evolution Pass’s wake.

Waiting ahead of them now was the Black Ink Clan’s second line of defence. There were only 300,000 Black Ink Clansmen stationed in this line of defence, but even so, the Human cultivators did not take their enemies lightly. That was because the second line of defence was mainly formed by Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen.

The Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen were equivalent to Low-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters. If there were only one or two of them, or even several hundreds of them, Great Evolution Pass could simply plow through them without caring, but an Army of 300,000 was not something Great Evolution Pass could afford to underestimate. If these Black Ink Clansmen were to launch a coordinated attack, they would heavy damage to the defences of Great Evolution Pass.

As usual, the Spirit Arrays and the artifacts in Great Evolution Pass began to buzz as they closed to within 1 million kilometres and countless streams of light blasted forward.

Naturally, the Black Ink Clan was not willing to sit around and wait for their deaths. The 300,000 Low-Rank Clansmen did their best to dodge these attacks from Great Evolution Pass and close the distance between them.

A distance of 1 million kilometres was too far for these Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen to effectively attack as their Secret Techniques would not carry any real power across such a vast distance. Only by approaching could they become a threat to Great Evolution Pass.

Countless corpses were strewn across the void as every stream of light that shot out from Great Evolution Pass would reap many of the Black Ink Clansmen’s lives. Regardless of the Human’s efforts though, it was still difficult to stop the offensive of the Black Ink Clansmen.

The surviving Black Ink Clansmen flew forward, stepping over the corpses of their brethren and steadfastly forging a path forward at the cost of countless sacrifices.

After losing nearly 30% of their number, the surviving Black Ink Clansmen finally advanced to a suitable distance. With a ferocious roar, numerous Secret Techniques blasted out from among the Black Ink Clansmen and shot towards Great Evolution Pass.

A transparent light barrier suddenly emerged outside Great Evolution Pass. The incoming Secret Techniques slammed into the light barrier and caused noticeable ripples to spread across its surface like countless rocks being thrown into a lake.

As both sides rapidly approached each other, they attacked with increasing ferocity.

It was just that the Human cultivators had Great Evolution Pass as a shield while the Black Ink Clan were completely exposed. The Human cultivators could kill the Black Ink Clan, but the Black Ink Clan could not kill a single Human cultivator. At the very least, that was the case as long as the defences of Great Evolution Pass were not breached. It was obvious which side held the upper hand.

Clouds of black blood exploded in the void as most of the Black Ink Clansmen died tragically.

Yang Kai stood on the city wall with a solemn expression.

Although less than 2 hours had passed since the battle began, the Human Race had slaughtered more than a million Black Ink Clansmen. Nevertheless, that did not affect the foundation of the Black Ink Clan. The Black Ink Clansmen being killed right now were merely those who had been abandoned.

Seeing as the weaker Black Ink Clansmen were so fearless, it could be conceived that they had prepared themselves to fight the Human Race to the death. This was going to be a tough battle!

Be that as it may, Yang Kai did not make a move. Even though he could easily attack from this distance, his strength as an individual would not make much of a difference under these circumstances. There were many other Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters on the battlefield after all. Besides, he had to ensure that his strength remained at its peak for when it was really needed.

The Humans quickly broke through the second line of defence.

Unlike how the first line of defence had been completely annihilated though, only slightly more than half of the Black Ink Clansmen in the second line of defence had been eliminated while quite a few had survived unscathed. Their strength was much greater than those Serfs after all, so it stood to reason that their rate of survival on this kind of fast-moving battlefield would be much higher.

These surviving Black Ink Clansmen did not scatter and retreat either and instead pursued Great Evolution Pass from behind. Surrounding Great Evolution Pass from all sides, they did their best to move about while attacking madly.

Naturally, Great Evolution Pass retaliated in all directions via the Spirit Arrays and artifacts that were deployed on its walls. For a time, there were traces of battle all around the advancing Great Evolution Pass.

The Black Ink Clan steadily continued to plummet in numbers; however, the third line of defence loomed before the Humans, and it was different from the second.

From a million kilometres away, the Black Ink Clansmen who formed the third line of defence began taking action. Numerous pitch-black attacks rained down on Great Evolution Pass, causing countless ripples to appear on the defensive light barrier.

The third line of defence was mainly formed by High-Rank Black Ink Clansmen. Their numbers were not high, only 100,000 or so; however, there were also many Feudal Lords among their ranks. This was part of the Black Ink Clan Army’s main forces!

Their approach was also completely different from the Black Ink Clan’s first two lines of defence. They did not show signs of rushing forward seeking death. Whilst they attacked Great Evolution Pass, they also did their best to avoid and dodge the attacks from Great Evolution Pass.

The Human cultivators could no longer slaughter their enemies indiscriminately like before.

That was not all. When Great Evolution Pass penetrated the third line of defence, the 100,000 Black Ink Clansmen, most of whom were still alive given the vast engagement distance, scattered to both sides. They retreated and maintained a relative distance from Great Evolution Pass while simultaneously launching attacks. Like a large net, they swept about, seemingly trying to engulf Great Evolution Pass within their midst.

Yang Kai could clearly sense that Great Evolution Pass’s speed had decreased. It was not too obvious, but he could also detect that the glow of the defensive light barrier was gradually growing dimmer.

The Great Pass’ shields might be extremely powerful, but no defence could withstand an unending barrage of attacks.

The Black Ink Clan survivors from the second line of defence merged with the third line of defence; thus, their overall strength increased sharply.

Meanwhile, Great Evolution Pass continued to forge a path forward. Everywhere the Great Pass went, the auras of countless Black Ink Clansmen vanished out of existence, their broken corpses left strewn across the battlefield.

It didn’t take long for Great Evolution Pass to arrive at the Black Ink Clan’s fourth line of defence. This particular line of defence was not very different from the third line of defence, but the proportion of Feudal Lords had increased significantly.

The approach of the fourth line of defence was identical to the third line of defence. They refused to confront Great Evolution Pass directly and instead kept their distance while maintaining a steady bombardment to shave away at the Human’s strength.

Then, they merged with the survivors of the Black Ink Clan from the second and third lines of defence to greatly increase the density of their attacks. Even so, they could not stop the advance of Great Evolution Pass.

The Royal City was getting closer and closer, and standing on the walls, the Human cultivators could now clearly see the majestic Royal City. They also saw the Black Ink Clan Army surrounding the Universe World where the Royal City was situated!

Needless to say, that was the Black Ink Clan’s final line of defence and the core of their Army. All the Territory Lords and Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Black Ink Disciples were stationed there. As long as Great Evolution Pass could penetrate this line of defence, the Great Pass could brutally ram the Royal City.

With how tough and sturdy Great Evolution Pass was, the Royal City would be destroyed if the two were to collide.

[Can we break through the final line of defence?] The Human cultivators did not know. They could only do their best to slaughter their enemies.

On the other side, the Territory Lords gathered outside the Royal City.

Che Kong stared into the distance, watching the movements on the battlefield. Then, he suddenly snorted in derision, “Looks like we’ve overestimated the Humans. They are not a threat to the Royal City.”

Judging by the current situation, the Great Pass would not be able to withstand their joint forces even if it could advance towards them. It was bound to be stopped outside the Royal City.

As long as the Great Pass could be intercepted and the Royal City could be protected, the rest would depend on the close-quarters melee between the two Armies. Under those circumstances, the Black Ink Clan which held an overwhelming advantage in numbers might yet prevail.