As the first rising star to advance to the Ninth Order, Shi Da Zhuang’s advancement could be seen as a sign that the Humans had finally passed through the difficult times of stagnation where new Masters were lacking to replace the old. Now, more Ninth-Order Masters would undoubtedly be born in the future.

However, after Shi Da Zhuang and Tang Tao broke through into the Ninth Order, no new breakthroughs existed.

Until this moment, when the second Black Ink Giant Spirit God fell and the Humans recaptured the No-Return Pass, becoming the final victors of this war, Zheng Wu You, an Eighth-Order Master, finally showed signs of a breakthrough!

“They can finally vent the feelings of oppression that have long been brewing within them. As their moods surged for the better, and their aura stirred, coupled with sufficient accumulation of heritage, breaking through their bottlenecks is a matter of course as the conditions are ripe,” Mi Jing Lun spoke softly as he looked in that direction.

Yang Kai was thoughtful, “If that’s the case, more than one person may break through this time!”

In terms of time, many rising stars were qualified to break through to the Ninth Order and had already reached their current limits in the Eighth Order. However, breaking through was not that easy. Oftentimes, it depended on opportunities, which could be an epiphany or a sudden event, or maybe even a journey that comes by chance…

Among these opportunities, any one of them would trigger one’s heart to be moved and then stir up their aura into a state of making a breakthrough.

It was thanks to the great victory they gained in this battle that Zheng Wu You could touch upon this opportunity.

If he could do it, then the other good seedlings with sufficient heritage accumulated could do it as well.

That was what Yang Kai thought.

As if to confirm his guess, similar aura fluctuations came from another direction just as soon as he finished speaking.

A second Eighth-Order Master who sensed an opportunity for a breakthrough appeared!

Luo Ting He looked over in that direction and said happily, “It’s from the Red Flame Army. Please excuse me!”

Breaking through from the Eighth Order to the Ninth Order was a hurdle that once crossed, would give one the qualification to stand at the peak of their Martial Dao and overlook all others. However, crossing that hurdle wasn’t easy. At this time, the guidance of Elders was very important; therefore, when Zheng Wu You’s aura surged, Ou Yang Lie rushed over in a hurry.

As the Profound Nether Army’s Commander, this was his responsibility.

Meanwhile, the Red Flame Army never had a Ninth-Order Master among their members, so Luo Ting He took the initiative to take on this responsibility.

But that was not the end yet. During the next incense stick of time, various movements continued to appear among the 12 Armies, all of them indicating that Eighth-Order Masters were about to break through.

This final battle with the Black Ink Clan at the No-Return Pass was like a miraculous medicine for them, bringing opportunities for breakthroughs to those rising stars with the victory that they had won.

Yang Kai and nine other Ninth-Order Masters shuttled back and forth, each of them taking responsibility for several Eighth-Order Masters, imparting their experiences of breaking through and pointing out the things they had to pay attention to.

All of their charges naturally took note of what they said. This moment could be said to be the most important moment in their lives, and nobody dared to be careless.

Even though all of them had expended a lot of energy in the previous battle, it was fortunate that all of them had made sufficient preparations for this moment, so as long as they recovered slightly, they could give their all in breaking through.

After a while, on Pure Yang Pass, the Ninth-Order Masters gathered once again, looking towards various directions in the void with solemn expressions. In every direction was an Eighth-Order Master who was about to make a breakthrough at their own designated position to ensure they wouldn’t disturb others or be disturbed themselves.

Everything was ready, so whether they could successfully advance to Ninth Order or not was up to them now.

Breaking through to the Ninth Order was no easy task and many of their Ancestors had stopped at this juncture throughout history. The fact that there were only over 100 Ninth-Order Masters at the peak of the Human Race was proof of that. In these past 100,000 years or so, there couldn’t have only been that many Humans who had the qualifications to break through.

However, not everyone qualified to advance to the Ninth Order could break through successfully.

But compared to their Ancestors, these rising stars had advantages that their predecessors never had, such as the feedback from the World Tree clones, the profound powers of which greatly improved their aptitude and strengthened their Small Universes. Thus, the risks of breaking through also became smaller for them.

In recent years, there had been no instance of an Eighth-Order Master failing to break through to the Ninth Order. Without mentioning Xiang Shan and Ou Yang Lie, who had broken through with the help of Supreme Grade Open Heaven Pills, Wei Jun Yang and Luo Ting He had both broken through by themselves while Shi Da Zhuang and Tang Tao’s breakthroughs also happened smoothly.

“23!” Mi Jing Lun’s face was glowing despite his exhaustion, and his eyes were filled with excitement, “The Heavens have truly blessed the Human Race!”

Originally, recapturing the No-Return Pass, slaughtering the Black Ink Clan, and killing two Black Ink Giant Spirit Gods was already the best consolation for all the soldiers who died in battle over the past few thousand years, but no one could have expected that as many as 23 Eighth-Order Masters would sense an opportunity to break through to the Ninth-Order at the end of this battle.

This would in turn raise the overall strength of the Human Race significantly, which would be of great help to them in the upcoming crusade.

Overall, the Human Race was not weak by any definition, but the number of Ninth-Order Masters they had was relatively small. However, now it seemed that this disadvantage could also be compensated for.

Four of the 12 Armies of the Human Race had always been without a Ninth-Order Masters to lead them, so even though they had more Divine Spirits to make up for this, the absence of a Ninth-Order Master had always been a disadvantage for them.

Now, once these Eighth-Order Masters broke through to the Ninth-Order, each Army would have at least three Ninth-Order Masters assuming command.

The strength of each Army would then usher in a burst of explosive growth.

Mi Jing Lun was even considering whether to split the 12 Armies up; after all, the number of soldiers in each Army was indeed quite large and a little bloated. If they were split, then they could better utilize the strength of the soldiers.

Of course, that was just an idea that sprang up. It would require the Ninth-Order Masters to discuss and decide if they wanted to put such a plan into action before changes could be made.

During the war, Mi Jing Lun was able to command the entire Army with a single word, but he would not act alone on important matters that might affect the future of the Human Race when they were not actively in combat.

“I hope everything goes smoothly,” Ou Yang Lie, who was standing nearby, muttered. For so many Ninth-Order Masters to break through at once was something that had never happened even in the Late Ancient Era, when the Humans first grasped the essence of the Open Heaven Realm Method. There would inevitably be failures today, and the only possible outcome of failure here was death; therefore, while everyone is celebrating, Ou Yang Lie was somewhat worried

Every one of these 23 people was an elite among elites, so it would be heartbreaking to lose any of them.

While the 23 Masters were accumulating strength and attempting a breakthrough, the rest of the Army was either resting, cleaning up the battlefield, or counting the spoils of war.

Over the years of fighting, the Humans had basically used up every resource they gathered, spending every material as soon as it was collected. Yang Kai’s huge demand for his cultivation was especially astonishing, almost equalling the amount invested in an entire Army.

So, even with 3 million cultivators scattered throughout the Black Ink Battlefield, mining resources, they did not have much surplus on hand.

It was fortunate that they captured the No-Return Pass where the Black Ink Clan must have some reserves. For thousands of years, the Black Ink Clan had occupied most of the 3,000 Worlds and the entire Black Ink Battlefield where they had been constantly mining resources and breeding more clansmen. Despite the immense expenditures, they should still have a large amount of resources in reserve.

Soon, news was coming in from each direction.

Mi Jing Lun investigated the extent of the damages first. Even though he had a rough idea about it already, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when he saw the results.

The Army’s losses were much lower than he expected!

Originally, when Yang Kai returned from the depths of the Black Ink Battlefield and they decided to launch the final battle, they had mentally prepared themselves to face severe damage to the Human Race Army’s foundation.

This was unavoidable though. The Black Ink Clan’s reinforcements were on their way, and if the Humans did not capture the No-Return Pass quickly, they would have to face the fate of being caught in a pincer attack, which could very well destroy their entire Army.

But when the fight was actually done and over with, the extent of the damage was still within an acceptable range, and their losses were not as severe as had been expected.

The greatest reason for that was because the battle had not dragged on too long!

The critical moment was the fall of the first Black Ink Giant Spirit God. Together, Yang Kai and Ah Da were able to kill him in just a few dozen breaths, which greatly shook the morale of the Black Ink Clan.

Following that, Mo Na Ye’s fall dropped the morale of the Black Ink Clan even further while also greatly disrupting their ability to coordinate and organize themselves.

As they acted decisively and were able to settle the fight quickly, the losses to the Human Race Army were naturally kept to a minimum.

Of course, the Purifying Light that erupted from the sacrifice of the 2,000 Eighth-Order Small Stone Race Masters was also indispensable. At that time, the Purifying Light not only severely damaged the Black Ink Giant Spirit God, but almost instantly wiped out a large swath of Black Ink Clansmen while all the Black Ink Clansmen over the entire battlefield were affected by it somewhat, lowering their strength to a certain extent.

All these unexpected events laid the foundations for their grand victory.

After looking through the battle report, Mi Jing Lun handed it over to Yang Kai, who couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief as he swept his Divine Sense over it.

The losses were not small, but weren’t too large either. They still had the strength necessary to continue their crusade! If the casualties of this battle had exceeded 30%, they may have lost that ability.

It should be noted that there were still the Black Ink Clan reinforcements waiting for them, which was another difficult hurdle they had to jump through.

All they had to do now was wait for the 23 Eighth-Order Masters to break through and stabilize their cultivation. After the Armies were reorganized, they could finally embark on the final crusade!

Yang Kai looked out into the depths of the void with deep worry creasing his brows.

Even now, he had no idea what had happened at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction nor what the situation was with the Suppressing Black Ink Army.

His Family and Disciples were all over there, and it would be a lie to say that he wasn’t worried about them. If he could, he would have rushed to the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction as soon as he found out about the movements of the Black Ink Clan’s reinforcements.

But he couldn’t go earlier or even now.

As the strongest Ninth-Order Master, the battle at the No-Return Pass would not have ended so easily if he wasn’t here.

Between Family and the survival of the entire Human Race, a choice had to be made.

The only thing Yang Kai could be sure of now was that even if something did happen at the Primordial Heavens Source Grand Restriction, it was still in progress; otherwise, it would be impossible for there to not be a single true Royal Lord in the reinforcements.

Though it was partly wishful thinking, this conclusion was the only comfort Yang Kai had in his heart.As time passed, the auras of the 23 people in the void continued to fluctuate, and each of them had an illusory phantom of their own Small Universe appear behind them. As their auras continued to fluctuate and their momentums rose continuously, their bottlenecks were gradually broken, and the boundary walls of their Small Universes that had reached their limit began expanding again!