He Gang and the others relaxed when they realized what Jiang Chen was saying. The young lord had planned for all of this to happen!

Exhaling in relief, he bowed to Jiang Chen respectfully. "Your stratagems were perfect, young lord. You've led the demons to their own demise

—

a feat worthy of great admiration!"

Though He Gang was a generally straightforward man, he couldn't resist praising the youth who led humanity. Moreover, all of his words were genuinely from the heart.

Jiang Chen chuckled. "He Gang, have you been infected by the fake Elder Yuan Li? Why are you flattering me too?"

He Gang chuckled with some embarrassment.

Towering above his subjects, Jiang Chen remained impassive. His calmness soothed those under his leadership as well.

"My friends, if the demons weren't afraid of us, why would they be sneaking around like this? There’s no need to worry. The demons' main forces are sealed away in the desolate wildlands. They can’t break their seals just yet, and the ones that linger in the human domain are lone fugitives and minor threats that were sealed away in the ancient past. As long as our formation is successfully restarted, the majority of the demons will be shut out from our homeland. Their stranded comrades will be sitting ducks then!"

Propaganda was necessary after a victory.

Jiang Chen knew that the human domain feared demons as a whole still. It was a natural instinct for its inhabitants.

This battle was a perfect example to showcase to everyone that demons were far from invincible. They had their own weaknesses, and could be defeated and slain. 

Killing the shadow demons was secondary to the morale boost the achievement granted. The whole human domain would soon know that demons were beatable. And in fact, the young lord of the domain had a plethora of methods with which to beat them.

Why did Jiang Chen himself strike down Serratewind at the end? The Vermilion Bird had been guaranteed the victory already. He hadn’t done so in order to steal the bird's glory,  but rather to show the other cultivators that he could take out demons trivially just as well.

Bolstering the human domain's confidence was just as important as raw strength in the war against demonkind. 

The strategy had been a wise one. The cultivators present were uniformly exuberant. They had witnessed a fight against demons with their own eyes.

Though the demons had been fierce, they'd hardly been invincible!

Venerated Skysoarer hadn’t fought either. As a formation master, he instinctively leaned toward protecting the node. Regardless of the excitement outside, the formation mattered more to him. However, he did nod to himself approvingly when he saw Jiang Chen's goals realized. 

Humanity's new leader lived up to his name and title in methodology and charisma. 

Given time, the young man would become remarkable indeed. It wasn't impossible for him to catch up to his ancient forebears!

In fact, Jiang Chen possessed a few characteristics the ancients had lacked. The scene where he'd used his Evil Golden Eye to incapacitate Serratewind had been especially amazing. 

Both Venerated Skysoarer and Xia Tianze had marveled at the sight.

……

Jadeface and Serratewind were imprisoned in different areas. 

Jiang Chen perpetually kept up pressure on Serratewind's consciousness, but the demon fiercely maintained resistance despite the haze in his mind. He wouldn’t let the young man control his consciousness.

The young man was in no rush. He was a god now, his consciousness stronger than ever before. Controlling Serratewind would be trivial.

He had merely refrained from doing so out of a worry that the demon would commit suicide. 

Otherwise, he would have searched the consciousness long ago. 

"You shadow demons are daring indeed. That a few demon demigods would dare transgress here… do you think we humans are worthless?" Jiang Chen sighed.

"Hmph. Human weakness is common knowledge in the heavenly planes. Without those sacred beasts on your side, you would already be our prisoner!"

Evidently, Serratewind wasn't impressed with how he had lost. 

Jiang Chen chuckled rather than grow angry. "I really like your idiocy, you know that?" He smiled coolly.

"No doubt you're proud that you won the day. Say what you like, but we demons will never acknowledge humans."

Jiang Chen shrugged. "Don't misunderstand.” He curled his lips. "I would rather demons perpetually look down on humans than anything else."

Serratewind blinked. He gazed at Jiang Chen with some confusion, intent on seeing whether there was some hidden conspiracy.

Jiang Chen smiled smoothly. "So long as you continue to underestimate humanity, you'll keep making stupid mistakes and leap to your death. If you overestimated us

—

not that we'd lose either way

—

wouldn't we have a harder time of things?"

Serratewind reddened, then paled with concern. Closer examination revealed this to be the case. The demons had never assigned any worth to humans, but had also lost to them time after time.

For example, they'd been supremely confident in their plans before carrying it out. Now, they were the humans' prisoners.

Serratewind grew a little perplexed. Was underestimating the humans really the right thing to do? Even if humans were a pile of shit, wouldn't stepping upon them be noisome?

They were hardly as base as that. Had the demons' misjudgment already cost them in terms of macrostrategy?

Alas, no amount of reflection would help now.

"Tell me what other conspiracies you demons are brewing up. If you do, I'll give you a quick death." Darkening, Jiang Chen attempted interrogation. 

"Hahaha, are you trying to extract information from a demon warrior? Are you sure you're not joking?" Serratewind stuck out his head, his disregard for his own life obvious.

"Are you going to resist me to the last?" retorted Jiang Chen with a sneer.

Serratewind responded with a disdainful cackle. He didn’t want to dignify the question with a proper response, instead choosing to taunt the human. 

Jiang Chen laughed viciously. "Fine, you asked for it. I'd like to see whether demons really are as fearless as they say in the face of death."

……

After about two hours, the young lord walked out from the secret room.

A hint of fatigue colored his face. There was a tinge of respect there, too. Admittedly, demons were firm beyond belief. 

No matter what he did, Serratewind's mouth wouldn’t budge. He tried to search the demon's consciousness as a last resort,  but Serratewind immediately committed suicide upon noticing that this was the case. He would rather die than sell out his kind!

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