Sovereign of the Three Realms

The rest of the group traded solemn glances with each other, quite alarmed by the sixth forefather's unexpected demise.

"Forefather, none of our evaluations seem to have done the boy justice," remarked the fifth forefather, his confidence rock bottom.

Huffing with rage, Celestial's face turned malevolent. "To think he was hiding a treasure with greater offensive abilities than the Great Veluriyam Torch!"

Why was humanity so strong? Not because of their individual power at all. Instead, they relied on their intelligence, or on treasures, pills, and formations they created. They were a polyvalent and opportunistic bunch.

In comparison, demons weren't nearly as adaptable. Most of the time, they simply relied on the superiority of their bloodlines.

"Forefather, was that strange light not produced by the torch?" wondered his companions.

"It wasn't." Celestial's voice was grim. "I've traded enough blows with the Great Divine Veluriyam to know this torch inside out. It has a variety of uses, like enhancing other abilities, or invading the soul and binding the flesh, but nothing like such a formidable direct attack!"

His familiarity with the treasure in question was the very reason for his doubts.

But that wasn't his greatest conundrum. How could their assailant have been this close without being detected by the sharp consciousness of his tribe?

Not even the Great Veluriyam Talismans could provide this sort of stealth.

If an enemy could creep up on them from less than a hundred meters away, then… For gods, this distance was simply a death sentence.

They were many possible ways to rob someone of their life at this range. An unseen opponent would have their pick of the litter. Divine realm cultivators, in particular, could attack from several thousand meters away.

At less than a hundred, they could land a strike before their victim could draw another breath.

Jiang Chen's maneuver shook Celestial to the core. The kid's seemingly inexhaustible bag of tricks made him impossible to predict. What was he even supposed to do against that?

"Perhaps he'll be a tougher opponent than the ancient Great Divine Veluriyam himself. Humans… What's the deal with them? Where did such a perverse monster spring from?"

His dejection was easy to understand. Despite his efforts in the past, he'd ultimately been sealed away, his victory snatched from him at the last second.

Now that he was free again, he'd expected his second expedition to sweep through Divine Abyss and break the humans like rotten twigs.

Yet, a youngster stood in his way at every turn.

He'd once despised Goldenhowl and the others for succumbing to repeated ambushes. But now, he finally understood they weren't to blame. The boy's cunning was simply out of this world.

Most of all, his boldness defied all reason. To dare appear in front of the mighty Forefather Celestial himself?

The kid possessed the pluck to match his ploys.

At first, he'd used the Great Veluriyam Torch to confuse the celestial demons and make them think the boy was merely taunting an ancient enemy.

How would they have expected the torch to serve as a simple diversion for the true killing move to follow?

It'd seemed as unlikely as a punching bag punching back.

The rest of the army couldn't believe their eyes when the group returned to the camp. Several celestial demon forefathers had left earlier, but one less returned.

Seeing Celestial's ashen face, no one had the gall to approach or bring up this touchy topic. Nonetheless, they could come to their own conjectures.

Even one who usually delighted in schadenfreude like Goldenhowl avoided stirring the pot.

To tease Celestial at such a time was to make life hell for himself.

Be that as it may, their campaign had been dealt a disastrous blow on the eve of the assault proper. It had an unmitigatable effect on the morale of the army, from the upper crust down to the humblest soldier.

Fortunately, Celestial promptly regained his composure. Like an arrow in flight, the offensive couldn't be halted at this stage. To scrap his plans for the sake of one measly setback would be even worse for morale. Demons were a fierce race that knew no fear.

If they were to dull their edge and combativeness for mere trifles, how would they preserve their aura of dominance?

So, rather than delaying the assault, he had to launch it, come rain or shine.

But the same issue remained. To conquer Winterdraw, they had to overcome Jiang Chen.

The demonic forefathers organized a meeting to find a solution to this very problem. Each tribe had its own abilities and hence its own methods, but none had proven very effective against the young lord so far.

For example, shadow demons dealt with ambushes and assassinations, while wood demons were poison experts.

But past experience had shown Jiang Chen could counter them all. It was the most troublesome dilemma for them. The little devil was too well-rounded.

In the past, even the strongest of humans were often at their wit's end against the manifold tricks that the demons had up their sleeves.

"Gentlemen, you're the backbone of our army, so feel free to speak up. When Wintedraw becomes ours, I'll make your contribution known to all." The picture of openness, Celestial encouraged them to air their views.

But the tribes looked diffidently at each other.

Jiang Chen had trounced most of them by now, including the celestial demons who'd just lost a forefather.

The blood and yin tribes were the only ones yet to clash with him, and thus the only ones with an undefeated record.

However, the yin tribe's Forefather Stonefiend was in human hands, allegedly killed by Jiang Chen according to their intelligence. Technically speaking, only the blood tribe remained undefeated.

For that reason, everyone subconsciously glanced that tribe's way.

The blood tribe's force was relatively intact. In total, they had four forefathers.

Seeing every pair of eyes on them, the four of them smiled reservedly. Clad in a crimson robe, their leader resembled an enormous blood smear at first glance. One couldn't help but be terrified at his appearance.

Known as Bloodreed, he was the strongest of his tribe. In fact, he ranked higher than Goldenhowl in strength. Among all demons, he was second only to Forefather Celestial.