Egan's face steeled as his jaw clenched. He was handed over commanding responsibilities because the higher ranked inner disciples of their sect didn't want to miss out on the Valley of Geniuses. However, their two allied sects still saw this as a slap to the face because as a fourth ranked quadrant, did they really need the valley on the saint floors? Their own sect core teachings were too good. So, obviously, this was just a made-up excuse.

That said, Egan took this opportunity very seriously. He was tired of others thinking he relied on his family or that he was merely the younger and less talented version of his elder brothers. But, to see the responsibility he was given crumbling before his eyes filled him up with a bottled-up rage because it was yet another genius that he had no hope of surpassing that had interfered.

Who didn't know how amazing God Sacharro was by now? It was no wonder he had such an amazing wife. Had their sect smashed their foot into an iron plate?

'No!' Egan roared in his mind.

The truth was that the sect had already heard about Madeleine's relationship with Dyon. But, after hearing that Dyon had only sent 3000 young geniuses, they sneered, thinking that Dyon was far too arrogant. However, it seemed that they were the ones who were far too arrogant. In a mere three days, the demon generals had already swept over the gate, conquering two towers and giving the Flaming Lily Sect three total towers.

Of course, since this was an Epistemic Tower gate, there were nine total towers. At the beginning, the Golden Crow sect had five and the Flaming Lily Sect had four. After their sneak attack, the Golden Crow Sect controlled eight, leaving the Flaming Lily Sect with only one. Now the script was beginning to flip again

Over the past few days, the Golden Crow Sect's only plan was to defend while planning a swift strike to take down the final tower. However, before they could even act, their aspirations were completely crushed

Suddenly, another figure rushed in, sweating profusely and breathing hard. "Esteemed Commanders, they're attacking the Purple Flame Tower!"

Egan blinked. This was good wasn't it? Every tower had its own dangers. For example, the death qi that Dyon had to deal with back during his first campaign. As for the Purple Flame Tower, it was filled with toxins that could instantly kill any saint if they weren't constantly using their saint energy to drive the poison away. It was among the most firmly held towers of the Golden Crow Sect because no one dared to attack it.

To all of the commanders, these so-called Demon Generals had gotten too cocky. The Purple Flame Tower obviously wasn't among the towers that the Flaming Lily Sect originally held. They couldn't understand why those Demon Generals would leap frog, so to speak, over re-capturing one of their past towers to instead attack the Purple Flame Tower. In fact, because of the position of the tower, it even left them susceptible to a pincer attack from the North and South.

"Commanders! They seem completely immune to the poisons!"

"What?!" All three commanders spoke out at once, standing from their chairs. That was completely impossible!

If they truly grasped the Purple Flame Tower, they would have the most easily defended tower of the nine. On top of that, they would have a perfect point to attack both forward toward the Golden Crow Sect's final tower, and backward toward the Epistemic Tower! If this happened, and the Epistemic Tower was re-conquered, the Golden Crow Sect's key wielder would lose his position!

Egan felt like his world was falling apart. This would definitely be blamed on him entirely. How could anyone think that 3000 geniuses could change something in a war that scaled to the tens of millions? The sect would definitely think that it was all due to his incompetence.

He grit his teeth. "We'll go all out with them! Command one corps to come from the Golden Flame Tower, one from the Red Flame Tower, one from the Epistemic Tower! Since they want to so blatantly slap our face, we'll pincer them from three sides!"

"Commander Goldeen, the distance from the Epistemic Tower to the Purple Flame tower is too far and treacherous, it might now be worth it. A pincer from two sides is enough. In the case that we fail, at least the Epistemic Tower will have adequate protection."

The one who spoke was the final commander of the three, a young woman from the Flame Rebirth Sect. Because of some luck their ancestors had, they managed to find a few intact corpses of adult Vermillion birds, a distant relative of Phoenix ranked as Transcendent beasts.

The vermillion bloodline that coursed through their veins was far weaker than the same quantity of phoenix blood, however, they had much more of it while also maintaining a monopoly.

That aside, a large part of the reason the Flame Rebirth Sect agreed to participate was exactly because of this truth. They wanted the secrets Madeleine had in her bloodline. Legend had it that it was possible for vermillions to evolve into phoenixes, but, for obvious reasons, they didn't have any phoenixes to use in their tests.

Although Madeleine didn't advertise exactly what her faith seed was, the purple flames she used were one of a kind and easily sensed by those with Phoenix and Phoenix related Bloodlines. They needed her.

Egan shook his head. "It's for exactly this reason that we'll do it this way. We'll lull them into a false sense of security with a pincer from two sides, before sweeping them away with a final one to cut off their path to escape. They'll never expect that we'd be bold enough to do this, and that's exactly why it'll work!"

**

Deep within the Golden Flame Quadrant's main gate, in the territory of the Purple Flame Tower, the flames of war were being sparked to the utmost degree. News of the Flaming Lily Sect's incoming attack had already spread, but it was met with complacency. All of the generals tasked with holding down the fort at this particular tower were all aware of the advantages they had, so why wouldn't they be complacent?

Although they weren't completely immune to the poison fog of the tower, because they were the defending party, according to the rules of the tower, the poison affected them far less than the attacking party, meaning they could expend less energy staving off the poison. Such an advantage made this tower almost impossible to conquer, which was why it had been held by the Golden Crow Sect for so long.

While Commander Goldeen, along with the first ranked inner disciples of both the Fiery Lotus and Rebirth Sects, were stationed at the Epistemic Tower, the Purple Flame tower was handed to the tenth and ninth ranking inner disciples of the two sects. For obvious reasons, the more powerful disciples were defending other towers.

Among the two towers reconquered by the Flaming Lily Sect in the past three days, they were both headed by the seventh and sixth ranked disciples of the two allied sects respectively. The Golden Crow Sect had assumed that disciples of that rank should have been enough to defend for a few days until they were prepared to launch their final attack, but it was this that ended up being their fatal mistake.

The two seventh and sixth ranked disciples were powerful geniuses in their own right, but the Demon Generals were too much, especially in the face of the joint command of Alidor and Madeleine.

Over the past 14 or so years, Alidor had thrust himself into training, preparing for the day he could get his revenge on the Uidah family for the death of his entire clan. By this point, he had firmly earned Dyon's trust and was perfect for being the lead strategist of this undertaking.

In addition to him, there were other familiar faces that had appeared aside from the Demon Generals, namely Caedlum Pakal, Thor and Ava, all of whom had been training very hard for the past few years. Each of them had long since stepped into the rank of sainthood. Without the restrictions of poor energy density, their talent exploded to its true levels and each of them had already made a name for themselves. It was just that Dyon's name was so dazzling that others paid little to no attention to the other of the Celestial Deer Quadrant.