Martial Peak

Chapter 5639: End of the Road

A fierce battle was happening in the Ancestral Land.

The Small Stone Race’s intrepid nature doomed them to have a bad ending if no one controlled them. Many Small Stone Race Soldiers charged at the four Territory Lords, but could not get near them because they were rendered to pieces of stone scattered on the ground by the latter’s Secret Techniques.

Even the Black Ink Clan Army that came back had begun surrounding these unruly and scattered combatants. 

Numerous Small Stone Race Soldiers were being broken to pieces with each breath.

However, large amounts of Small Stone Races were still appearing around Yang Kai. It was like there was an infinite amount of them, impossible to wipe out. On the other hand, Yang Kai’s laughter grew louder and wilder, as though he had gone crazy.

Di Wu had withdrawn his aura and was now hiding among the Black Ink Clan Army, cautiously observing the situation. 

The memory of the technique Yang Kai used at the No-Return Pass, in which he sacrificed two million Small Stone Race Soldiers, was still etched in Di Wu’s mind. Therefore, Di Wu immediately retreated when Yang Kai began summoning his Army to avoid being surrounded and experiencing the same tragedy from that time.

Back then, the Royal Lord had been injured, causing his aura to drop by at least 10%. It took the Royal Lord a full 1,000 years to recover from that incident. So, if Di Wu, a mere Pseudo-Royal Lord, was hit by the same technique, he would likely end up in an even worse state.

In addition, if Di Wu remembered correctly, there were some powerful Masters among the Small Stone Race.

The Black Ink Clan had previously encountered a number of massive Small Stone Race Soldiers roughly 1,000 metres tall that had strength similar to that of an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. Even though they had lower sentience and couldn’t wield this strength efficiently, their attacks were still not to be underestimated.

After observing for a long time, Di Wu noticed that none of the Small Stone Race Soldiers Yang Kai summoned were 1,000 metres tall. The strongest of them all was only 100 or so metres tall, which gave them power equivalent to Seventh-Order Masters and Feudal Lords.

Di Wu didn’t take these Small Stone Race Soldiers seriously, and even the four Territory Lords currently in battle could easily kill vast swaths of them. 

As chaos swelled on the battlefield, Yang Kai summoned more Small Stone Race Soldiers. The four Territory Lords were in a better situation as they had formed the Four Symbols Formation, so they only had to hold their ground and kill every Small Stone Race member that came at them.  

However, the Black Ink Clan Army seemed to be having difficulties holding on despite having help from the Killing Array. 

Originally, a million Black Ink Clan soldiers had been deployed to the Ancestral Land; Yang Kai had already killed half of them, leaving only about 500,000 of them. Now that the Small Stone Race had joined the battle, even fewer Black Ink Clan Soldiers were left standing. Although the Small Stone Race undoubtedly suffered greater losses, the Black Ink Clan Army would be wiped out eventually if this continued. 

Despite the disadvantageous situation, the Black Ink Clan Soldiers didn’t dare to retreat because the Territory Lords were still fighting, so how could they withdraw?

On the other hand, Di Wu finally rejoined the fight, but his target wasn’t Yang Kai. Instead, he was still hiding among the Black Ink Clan Army and killing the Small Stone Race Soldiers, his cautious personality making him decide to continue observing the situation for now. 

Four days later, the 500,000 strong Black Ink Clan Army had been reduced to only a few tens of thousands, and all the survivors were soaked in blood and had unstable auras. Despite their discomfited looks, the surviving Black Ink Clansmen all seemed excited. 

They won! They killed all the Small Stone Race Soldiers that came at them.

During these few days, they estimated they had killed at least 2 million enemy soldiers!

It wasn’t because they were strong of course, but because they had a Pseudo-Royal Lord hiding among them. The Small Stone Race Soldiers only had Masters on par with Seventh-Order Humans as their strongest combatants, so how could they stand against a Pseudo-Royal Lord? Di Wu could kill hundreds or even thousands of Small Stone Race Soldiers in a single move. 

Moreover, the Black Ink Clan had help from the Grand Array. The lightning bolts fired from above had culled many Small Stone Race Soldiers as well. 

More importantly, this was only the accomplishments of the Black Ink Clan Army and Di Wu. 

Even though the four Territory Lords didn’t kill 2 million Small Stone Race Soldiers, they managed to slaughter at least a million of them.

The originally loud Ancestral Land suddenly fell silent, with pieces of stone scattered everywhere, which were naturally the remains of the fallen Small Stone Race soldiers. 

Nearly three million Small Stone Race were lost over the past few days, which was a huge number. 

Some time ago, Yang Kai had stopped summoning Small Stone Race Soldiers and engaged the four Territory Lords on his own!

His face was filled with rage, and his eyes were completely bloodshot. Also, his aura fluctuated wildly, as though he was not in a stable state of mind.

Every time he charged at one of the four Territory Lords, he would be repelled by their combined attacks. He would have lost a long time ago if he hadn’t borrowed strength from the Ancestral Land and had Ancestral Strength shielding his body in an impenetrable protective layer.

Of course, the Ancestral Land’s suppression of the Territory Lords’ strength was also very important. 

Even a Pseudo-Lord like Di Wu lost 10% of his strength, not to mention the Territory Lords. Those four Territory Lords felt an even heavier suppression of their strength and were now some 20% to 30% weaker than normal. 

If they battled Yang Kai one on one in such a state, they wouldn’t be his opponent at all, but since they had formed the Four Symbols Formation and linked their auras, no matter which Territory Lord Yang Kai targeted, it was akin to him trying to attack all of them at once. So, how could Yang Kai win in such a situation?

It could be said that the strength of the four Territory Lords combined, though not as high as a Pseudo-Royal Lord like Di Wu, was greater than that of an Innate Territory Lord at their peak, which was also why they could stand a chance against Yang Kai. 

In the beginning, the four of them were still hesitant when facing this killing star, but after battling each other for a while, they felt that Yang Kai wasn’t as strong as they had imagined!

Or, more precisely, it wasn’t that he wasn’t strong. It was more like he had suffered a huge backlash after using his strange Soul Secret Technique and now could not fight effectively.

In the Humans’ words, this man was now an idiot, so he couldn’t exert his full strength anymore. 

This realisation greatly bolstered the Territory Lords’ confidence. Since the Small Stone Race had all been ruthlessly killed, and Yang Kai had fallen into this demented state, they had the confidence to slowly whittle away his energy and kill him eventually. 

The Ancestral Strength in the Ancestral Land couldn’t be inexhaustible, so once it was completely drained, Yang Kai wouldn’t be far from death!

Successfully killing Yang Kai was an incredibly glorious achievement, and it could only be obtained once in this world. If the Royal Lord decided to create more Pseudo-Royal Lords in the future, they would be the first in line to gain such power, just like Di Wu!

Of course, Innate Territory Lords wished for greater strength, but they could only become Pseudo-Royal Lords, and they would have to pay a high price for that. Therefore, the Royal Lord wouldn’t create a Pseudo-Royal Lord if it weren’t a dire situation. 

Regardless, these Territory Lords wouldn’t be able to get their wish because Di Wu was the one in charge of this mission to kill Yang Kai. He was turned into a Pseudo-Lord just for this mission, and now that things were leaning in their favour, how could Di Wu possibly let the Territory Lords steal the credit from him?

If that were to happen, it would make him seem too useless. 

After several days of secretly observing Yang Kai, Di Wu concluded that this Human killing star… was an arrow at the end of its flight. According to the current situation, Yang Kai couldn’t turn things around. 

Di Wu felt a little lucky that Yang Kai had over-used his Secret Technique, messing up his mind and revealing his trump cards. 

Borrowing strength from the Ancestral Land and the 3 million Small Stone Race Army were definitely the secret trump cards Yang Kai had. If he were in a conscious state of mind and used those two methods to corner Di Wu…

If that happened, Di Wu would definitely have been taken by surprise. Once that happened, with the strength Yang Kai had revealed, they would most likely have failed their mission. 

At the thought of that, Di Wu shivered. 

Although they had lost four Territory Lords and a million Black Ink Clan Soldiers, that was still nothing compared to being able to kill Yang Kai. 

When Yang Kai was blown away by one of the Territory Lords again, the light barrier made of Ancestral Strength around him became extremely dim and did not immediately recover like usual. Seeing that, Di Wu didn’t hesitate and dashed over like lightning. 

Yang Kai was immediately thrown to the ground, and before he stabilized his footing, Di Wu arrived. With a fierce explosion of power, Di Wu used his hand like a knife and pierced through the Ancestral Strength’s protection and into Yang Kai’s chest. 

Following that, Di Wu roared, “Die!”

[I did it!] Di Wu suddenly felt a little excited as he could even feel Yang Kai’s beating heart in his chest. 

[Wait! Why is his heartbeat still so… strong?] While frowning, Di Wu instinctively felt something wasn’t right and looked over at Yang Kai.

He saw Yang Kai standing before him, unmoving, his black hair hanging over his forehead, creating a dense shadow that covered his eyes so that no one could see his expression. 

Only his lips were showing, curled up in a meaningful grin. 

Di Wu then heard something that terrified him. 

“You finally decided to come out!”

Yang Kai suddenly raised his head, and Di Wu immediately saw a pair of bloodshot eyes. Those eyes were filled to the brim with ruthlessness and murderous intent, but there was no trace of madness in them. 

[A trick!]

Di Wu immediately thought. What he saw all this time was just what Yang Kai wanted him to see, making him think that the killing star was not in a conscious state of mind and had uncontrollably revealed all his trump cards. He might even be feigning weakness right now, making it seem he had reached his limit after being besieged by the four Territory Lords. 

All of this was just to lure Di Wu out. 

But why would Yang Kai do this? Did he have another way to turn the tide of battle even from this dire situation?

No matter what Yang Kai was up to, Di Wu wouldn’t let him use any more tricks. 

Just as Yang Kai finished speaking, Di Wu exerted strength into his hand and stabbed it further into the former’s chest. If he could pierce just a finger length deeper, he could tear apart Yang Kai’s heart. 

To an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master like Yang Kai, having his heart destroyed might not be a lethal blow, but it would still be a severe injury!

But just as Di Wu exerted his strength, a large hand grabbed his wrist and firmly held him in place. 

In terms of cultivation, a Pseudo-Royal Lord was indeed stronger than an Eighth-Order Master like Yang Kai; however, in terms of raw physical power, a Pseudo-Divine Dragon like Yang Kai surpassed Di Wu by a wide margin. 

Therefore, how could Di Wu move when he was restrained in such close proximity to Yang Kai? 

Although Di Wu had been stopped, he wasn’t flustered. He clenched his other fist and threw a punch at Yang Kai’s face. 

Before his fist could reach its target though, it too was seized by Yang Kai. 

A Pseudo-Royal Lord and a Pseudo-Divine Dragon were now standing face to face at arm’s length from one another, locked in mortal combat.