Chapter 4885 – Inside the Cage
Translator: Silavin & Ashish
Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun
Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys
The entire Black Territory was crowded with Spirit Arrays. These Spirit Arrays and the countless ore stars formed a Super Array that covered the entire Black Territory, forming a cage that had imprisoned the Black Ink Clansman since ancient times.
Of course, the Spirit Arrays in the central region were extremely powerful and profound. Finding a crack in these Spirit Arrays to find a safe way in was a daunting task.
Fortunately, the Black Ink Clansman had sent out a number of Black Ink Insects over the centuries, allowing the Array Masters to find some clues.
Furthermore, under Yang Kai Small Universe protection, they didn’t need to worry about the draining of their foundations. This gave them plenty of time to study.
Each of the dozen or so Array Grandmasters used their respective methods and busied themselves every day; sometimes lost in thought, sometimes using their Secret Techniques to peer into the mysteries of the Spirit Arrays, and sometimes gathering together to argue.
Yang Kai was completely helpless in this matter, as were the five Eighth-Order Ancestors who had escorted them here.
During his free time, Yang Kai began to study the method bestowed upon him by Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan to purify the Black Ink Strength. When Big Brother Huang and Big Sister Lan had imparted this method, Yang Kai didn’t think too much about it. He simply thought that they found it troublesome and left him to take care of it.
However, when he left the Chaotic Dead Territory, Big Brother Huang’s words made him realize that it wasn’t just some means to save Black Ink Disciples who had been corroded by the Black Ink Strength.
Against the Black Ink Clan, this technique could be a lethal weapon!
It would be quite troublesome to utilize this method in combat though as he would have to first absorb the energy of Yellow and Blue Crystals and fuse Yin and Yang energy before he could use it.
The problem did not stem from the lack of Yellow and Blue Crystals as Yang Kai had literal mountains of them in his Small Universe. The issue was that even a small delay in a battle against a powerful enemy could result in death.
[My Small Universe is under my control, and the Yellow and Blue Crystals are stored inside my Small Universe. I don’t need to take them out of my Small Universe to absorb their energy. Absorbing them straight from my Small Universe would save me a lot of time and also catch my opponent by surprise.]
Reasoning so, Yang Kai immediately gave it a try.
From then on, the five Eighth-Order Ancestors would occasionally see Yang Kai form a ball of Yang or Yin Element energy in his left and right hand.
Realizing that Yang Kai was studying something, they didn’t disturb him.
After a month, the dozen Array Grandmasters who had been searching for flaws finally found a path to avoid the Grand Array and enter the heart of Black Territory.
“It’s theoretically feasible to enter through this passage, but whether or not it will activate the Grand Array, we can’t say for sure. We’ll only know once someone probes it.” Luan Bai Feng explained to Yang Kai, “There are subtle differences between Ancient Spirit Arrays and modern Arrays. From today’s point of view, many methods used to set up Ancient Arrays are complete mysteries, so you must be careful and immediately retreat if you notice something wrong.”
Yang Kai nodded his acknowledgement, “I’ll be careful.”
Luan Bai Feng glanced at the other Spirit Array Grandmasters and continued, “When you’re ready, we’ll open the passage for you. The rest will be up to you.”
“I don’t need to prepare anything,” Yang Kai stated before turning to Liu Mu and the others and bowing, “Seniors, this Junior will be leaving now.”
Liu Mu stepped forward and suggested, “Hold on, there’s no hurry.”
Saying so, he suddenly stretched his hand out, pointing towards Yang Kai as a drop of dark red blood seeped out from his fingertip. That drop of blood contained a great deal of energy.
This was a drop of his Blood Essence.
Immediately after, Liu Mu’s finger gently danced as his drop of Blood Essence exploded, transforming into a mysterious symbol that entered Yang Kai’s body.
After doing all of this, Liu Mu’s face had gone slightly pale. Obviously, he had consumed a great deal of strength.
After him, the other four Eighth-Order Ancestors followed suit. Although their methods differed, all of them planted some kind of Secret Technique on Yang Kai.
Yang Kai didn’t try to resist. After they were done, he felt as if there were five powerful barriers protecting his body. He immediately understood and cupped his fist in gratitude, “Many thanks.”
Liu Mu weakly waved him off, “Don’t mind it, we can’t help you in any other way. These five Secret Techniques were created by the five of us. In times of crisis, they can block five Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm attacks.”
“It’s more than enough!” Saying so, Yang Kai turned to Luan Bai Feng and nodded.
Luan Bai Feng understood what Yang Kai meant and promptly stepped forward, joining the other Array Grandmasters, displaying a series of techniques as Array Plates scattered around the Void one after another. As everyone’s hand seals changed, ripples appeared in the void ahead as a glowing tunnel appeared, seemingly leading to the center of the cage. The glowing tunnel was like a bridge of light, and it was extremely obvious against the black backdrop.
Yang Kai took a long, deep breath before he stepped onto the bridge, pressing forward step by step.
After just a few steps, when he turned around again, he failed to see anyone else. The others had already disappeared. Yang Kai suddenly found himself alone in the dark and lonely void.
There seemed to be a fierce murderous intent hidden outside the bridge of light. This murderous intent was undoubtedly the power of this Grand Array, so Yang Kai didn’t dare to even spread his Divine Sense, lest he trigger it by accident.
Step by step, Yang Kai steadily kept pressing forward.
After walking for who knows how long, Yang Kai still failed to see the end of the bridge.
There was no change in his surroundings, so Yang Kai even had the illusion that he was walking in place; however, he knew that he wasn’t just standing still and only felt that way because of the Spirit Array.
While he kept pressing forward, Yang Kai suddenly felt as if he had stepped into a bottomless abyss and his figure rapidly fell
Yang Kai’s expression became serious in light of this sudden turn of events. He quickly stabilized himself. The light bridge seemed to be missing a part for some reason, and he had failed to notice it.
When he looked up, the light bridge ahead was also getting dimmer and dimmer, as if it would disappear if he went any further.
Suddenly, a wave of murderous intent swept towards him from behind, causing Yang Kai’s hair to stand on end. When he turned his head, he saw nothing, but he could clearly feel something or someone rapidly approaching.
The accident just now must have triggered the Grand Array.
After a moment of hesitation, Yang Kai immediately decided to rush ahead. If he retreated, he would only find himself swallowed up by the Spirit Array, while if he forged on, he may just grasp a slim chance of survival.
The murderous intent behind him grew stronger and stronger, while the light bridge became dimmer and dimmer, seemingly on the verge of breaking apart at any moment.
Yang Kai felt that everything happened in an instant, but also seemed to drag on for 10 million years. When he rushed out of the area covered by the light bridge, he suddenly felt like he had fallen into endless darkness.
Outside the center of the cage, the five Eighth-Order Ancestors took the Array Grandmasters into their respective Small Universes after Yang Kai left to prevent them from being drained by the Super Array.
Although the Eighth-Order Masters couldn’t resist it completely, they could at least last longer.
Under their watchful gaze, Yang Kai’s figure gradually disappeared into the light bridge, but at some point, the light bridge collapsed. At the same time, the Spirit Array outside the cage also began to surge. The power of this Spirit Array caused even these Eighth-Order Ancestors to turn pale.
This change occurred quickly and ended quickly.
Just as they were wondering whether they should retreat to avoid coming under the influence of the Spirit Array, everything became calm again.
Everyone looked at each other in dismay while Liu Mu’s face sank.
This sudden change was definitely not a good sign. Yang Kai had obviously encountered some kind of accident, and judging from the power of the Spirit Array, if a mere Sixth-Order Master like Yang Kai got caught up in it, it was impossible for him to survive.
Now, they couldn’t even tell if Yang Kai was alive or dead.
Everyone silently and intently stared ahead, trying to find some clues.
Meanwhile, an endless darkness enveloped Yang Kai as a sense of cold isolation welled up in his heart. Yang Kai became disoriented and even felt like he was about to melt into this darkness.
Suddenly a majestic Will slowly awakened like a sleeping dragon, filling the endless darkness, instantly alarming him.
Yang Kai found this Will quite familiar. It was the Will of that Master from the Black Ink Clan! This place was definitely where this person was imprisoned.
In other words, he had successfully reached his destination.
Yang Kai immediately became vigilant. Although he had the World Spring sealing his Small Universe, making him fearless against the Black Ink Strength, if he were to face the Black Ink Clan Master directly, he didn’t know if he could resist the corrosion of this strange power.
As his perception slowly recovered, Yang Kai finally realized that the place he was standing at was filled with Black Ink Strength. The Black Ink Strength was extremely pure and strong, and was extremely corrosive.
Fortunately, his Small Universe was robust and flawless so no external strength could invade it; otherwise, he would have instantly been corrupted.
Under such circumstances, even an Eighth-Order Divine Monarch like Liu Mu wouldn’t be able to last long here.
Not only that, Yang Kai also felt something crawling on him.
Suddenly, a hot yellow and a cold blue light emerged from Yang Kai. He then brought the two palms together as yellow and blue light fused to form a pure white light.
The endless waves of black light frantically retreated like frightened snakes. As the white light enveloped the area, crackling sounds rang out as a large portion of the Black Ink Strength was instantly purified.
However, the potent pure white light was only able to illuminate a radius of 100 meters around Yang Kai while the pitch-black darkness was still present outside its range.
As if stimulated by this pure white light, the awakening Will suddenly became extremely furious. Yang Kai could clearly feel an intense destructive aura coming from this Will, causing him to shiver. He secretly circulated his Small Universe’s strength to protect himself.
Be that as it may, it became apparent that Yang Kai was worrying too much. Although the Master from the Black Ink Clan was extremely angry, he seemed to have no intention of attacking him. At the edge of the pure white light, the dense black ink-like energy began to stir, but every time it came into contact with the light, it would be purified into nothingness.
Yang Kai finally saw what was squirming and crawling on his body.
Black Ink Insects!
And there were quite a number of them.
He had always heard from the Black Ink Disciples that the Black Ink Insects were extremely precious, even to the Black Ink Clan, but now it seemed that this was not the case.
Yang Kai could only make an educated guess that the Black Ink Clansman would need to expend a great deal of strength to deliver these insects out of this cage. In other words, the Black Ink Insect in the Black Ink Disciples’ hands were indeed extremely rare and precious.
Nonetheless, these Black Ink Insects were definitely nothing special to the Black Ink Clan.
The Black Ink Insects were also unable to resist the purification of this pure white light, so thick black wisps emerged from the insects-like entities as they rapidly shrank and soon disappeared into nothingness.