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"Rout the enemy!"

A hairy-armed old man clad in beast skins tossed his machete to the ground with a bang.

Eyes red, he put everything on the line. Ferocious yao spiritual energy concentrated in his fists as he swung at Black Dragon.

His fist seemed to carry enough force to shatter the land and seas, but….

Bang.

Black Dragon didn't move an inch. Just as the blow was about to land, one of the Demon Sovereigns pierced the man's chest.

The fur-clad old man's eyes dimmed.

The man stared at Black Dragon from less than a meter away, his gaze unwilling. His heart filled with despair and lingering attachment to the world. Nevertheless, he soon crashed to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.

He was surrounded by several yao beast corpses. The ground was stained bright red with blood.

"He truly overestimated himself. How dare he attack Your Excellency?" the Demon Sovereign guarding Black Dragon snorted coldly. He kicked the corpse away then returned to his spot behind Black Dragon.

Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh.

As he spoke, several figures descended from above. They were all drenched in blood, but none of it belonged to them.

"Reporting to His Excellency Black Dragon: all Yao within ten-thousand square miles have been exterminated."

"Mm. You can back down for now." Black Dragon simply nodded. Although they'd been victorious, he didn't seem the least bit pleased. To the contrary, his expression was almost terrifyingly grave.

They'd been in the Beast Region for almost half a day, yet all they'd seen only a handful of yao clans.

Those clans seemed almost like they'd been discarded by the Beast Region. They hadn't even tried to run, either. No matter how weak they were, they attacked in full force, fighting until they perished on the battlefield.

Why hadn't they seen any of the Four Sacred Beast Clans? Could it be that they didn't know they'd been invaded?

That couldn't possibly be right!

Black Dragon was certain the clan heads knew about their movements. Even so, they'd yet to send any troops to resist their invasion. Could it be that the Beast Region was deliberately abandoning their own to lure him in?

Should he directly attack their core territory?

"Your Excellency, is there something on your mind?"

When he saw Black Dragon standing in place, unmoving, Gu Li walked over and asked, "you couldn't possibly be taking a moment of silence for these beasts we just killed?"

Black Dragon came to his senses and frowned. "Hmph, can't you tell that something strange is going on?" he snorted coldly. "A few clans attacked us right from the start, but since then, we've barely seen a trace of the yao. I've been to the Beast Region a couple of times in the past. There should be at least a hundred clans in their outer regions."

Seeing Black Dragon's grave expression, Gu Li nodded as if enlightened. "Then you're worried this is some sort of trick."

Black Dragon didn't deny it. Even if you told him the Beast Region hadn't planned anything, there was no way he'd believe it!

The clans in the outer regions had clearly been notified and told to retreat in advance. The few clansmen who stayed behind were elderly. They most likely wouldn't live much longer regardless of whether they retreated or not.

They were obviously unwilling to leave their homelands and decided that, since they had nothing left to lose, they might as well fight to the bitter end.

Eyes narrowed, Gu Li peered up through the trees, examining the sky through gaps in the leaves. A faint smile tugged at his lips.

"They left their gates wide open and completely undefended. They're letting us go deeper and deeper, directly into the Sacred Beast Clan's inner sanctum. But I can't imagine why they'd do something like that. Could it be they're going to try and surround us?"

…...

It was settled.

When they saw Ye Zichen smile, the heads of the Four Sacred Beast Clans finally sighed in relief.

"Hmph, that's good. So long as they dare invade further, reinforcements from the Heavenly Court, Underworld, and Immortal Region will outflank them. We'll show them how it feels to be surrounded!" said Lei Hu, face twisted into a hateful grin.

When Ye Zichen and the Dragon God suggested waiting, this was exactly what they'd had in mind.

If the demons dared press on, reinforcements from the Three Realms outflank them, leaving them beset on all sides.

"Don't be too optimistic. The demons and blood zombies are extremely difficult opponents. Furthermore, who knows when exactly our reinforcements will arrive? We'll have to defend ourselves properly until they get here," said the former clan head, Xia Hua.

"The Four Beasts Formation is still a work in progress. Opening our doors is equivalent to letting them enter our inner sanctum. If we can't defend this place properly, we'll have no way out."

"I already sent my clan's elites to go place new spiritual formations. I don't know how many they can finish before the demons attack," said Zhuge Hong, pursing her lips.

"That's right, isn't tower head Zuo researching explosives in Dragon Race territory? I've experienced the might of explosives firsthand. Below the sky immortal level, there's essentially no way to resist them. If we have enough firepower, it'll give us an enormous advantage," said Tu Biyu, head of the Xuanwu Turtle Clan. When he first heard about gunpowder, he was curious and went to check it out.

He really had witnessed the might of explosives with his own eyes. He'd even been in range of the blast. All of this left him sighing in admiration). Humanity's creativity was nothing short of miraculous.

"We've gone to great lengths to maximize production so we currently possess over three hundred thousand explosives. It should be enough to leave a deep impression on the demons."

Just then, Zuo Mo entered the hall. She'd gone all out to speed up production, to the point that she hadn't closed her eyes in days.

Her exquisitely beautiful face had lost its former sheen. She seemed completely and utterly exhausted.

As she walked in the room, the piercing smell of saltpeter assailed their nostrils.

"Tower Head Zuo," greeted the Sacred Beast clan heads.

Zuo Mo greeted them in response, then said, "this is perfect timing. I came here to discuss this exact matter with you. We've already ceased production of gunpowder. Regardless of whether you consider time, supplies or the workers' spirits, none of them are sufficient to allow us to continue production. Three hundred thousand explosives is our final number. I've already sent people to deliver them to where our troops are lying in ambush. Now all they have to do is wait for the demons to arrive.

No longer in production?

This was absolutely terrible news for the Beast Region, but when Ye Zichen heard this he smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

"That's enough. Most of the demons and blood zombies are at the sky immortal level. Three hundred thousand explosives is enough to do some real damage. When the time comes, we can take on the survivors ourselves. This is already a huge advantage for us; we can't be too greedy. Did you all really expect to solve this problem with gunpowder alone? If so, why even bother gathering to discuss our strategy? Couldn't we just sit back and watch?"

"Brother Ye, you're right," said Lei Hu. "Furthermore, even if we could produce more, they would still have no effect against their true elites. In the end, we'd still have to go out and fight them directly."

"That's true. Right then, let's leave triggering the explosions to Clan Head Lei, Clan Head Zhuge, and their clansmen."

You needed fire to trigger an explosion. The White Tiger clansmen possessed the lightning attribute; lightning attacks could start fires. As for the Vermillion Bird Clan, they were born of pure fire. Even their weakest clansmen could fling a small fireball.

"No problem, leave it to us." Lei Hu and Zhuge Hong nodded in unison.

Xia Hua nodded repeatedly as well. "Now the only remaining uncertainty is when exactly our reinforcements will get here!"