The forefather of the winged demons was named Bluefalcon. He was relatively renowned among his fellows. 

Forefather Silveredge, of the golden demons, enjoyed a similar status.

The final forefather who entered was Shadowless, one of the top three forefathers of the shadow demons. He was roughly the equal of Evilshadow, whom Jiang Chen and friends had slain.

It was very strange for these three to appear near the Rejuvenation Isles. In theory, this place wasn’t nearly important enough to warrant all three of them showing up. One forefather would’ve been more than enough to raze the isles.

There was clearly a different reason for which they had gathered.

The arrival of Shadowless prompted a chuckle from Bluefalcon. “Daoist Shadowless, I presume from your presence that work on the ten sacred lands is going smoothly?”

Shadowless let out a sinister cackle. “I didn’t expect them to be so easy to beat. It seems that the descent of so many of us upon Myriad Abyss has been a bit of a waste.”

“Not at all! We’ve simply learned from our mistakes in the ancient war,” laughed Bluefalcon. “If our ten tribes had cooperated a bit more closely, we wouldn’t have met with nearly such a miserable end. The humans have this adage: live and learn. There’s no reason we can’t do the same!”

“Heh, I suppose, but that’s hardly the reason for our collaboration this time around. It’s because of the celestial forefather’s order. No matter how much we dislike each other, we are obliged to band together, yes?” Shadowless spoke as insubstantially as he traveled.

Silveredge harrumphed. “The celestial forefather is overcautious. If we used our full strength at any time, we would conquer Divine Abyss in a clean sweep. There is no reason for these complicated conspiracies.”

“Haha, Daoist Silveredge, if that’s what you really think, then you are sorely mistaken. You haven’t learned from the ancient lesson, it seems.” Shadowless cackled darkly again.

“Enough of that from you.” Silveredge appeared unconvinced. “Take this time, for example. If we’d attacked Winterdraw after wiping out Rejuvenation, we would’ve been able to utterly crush Winterdraw’s defenses. If there’s a so-called transportation formation there, we can take control of it immediately and attack the human domain that way. Why go to all these extra lengths? Have we demons grown to fear the humans?”

Just like the late Forefather Stonefiend, Silveredge carried a gross disdain for humanity.

Evidently, he much preferred a frontal assault, an attack as swift and decisive as a lightning strike. That, in his opinion, suited demonic style much more.

These underhanded tricks and roundabout tactics were utterly distasteful to him. Silveredge hated the approach of Shadowless and the shadow demons especially.

Shadowless cackled a third time. “Daoist Silveredge, you deride the human domain even after losing once to them? You should know well the reason that we can’t invade them, even though our seals in the desolate wildlands have been opened.”

“Hmph. Didn’t they activate the so-called ‘Great Formation of Heavenly Soul Confinement’? That’s all they’re good for. They only know how to turtle up behind a formation. That shows their fear of us, doesn’t it?”

Silveredge had a pretty good point.

“Sure, humans are scared of us demons. So what? That doesn’t mean they can’t deal with us. Haven’t you heard of what happened to Lightford of the monster demons? A real character has appeared on the humans’ side. He’s hard to deal with.”

“Absurd. One human brat? If we golden demons were in the vanguard, I guarantee I’d have his head in a month,” spat Silveredge viciously.

It was Bluefalcon’s turn to chuckle. “Daoist Silveredge, calm yourself. The celestial demon lord has spoken: we must follow orders in this sortie. Daoist Shadowless is in the lead, and we are to assist him.”  

Bluefalcon seemed to be emphasizing Shadowless’s leadership role, but his words could be construed as somewhat provocative as well.

Silveredge harrumphed, but refrained from overt criticism after that. Instead, he turned to complaining. “I hope everything goes well. Otherwise, the time we’ll have wasted here will be enough for us to have conquered the ten sacred lands at least once.”

Shadowless roared with laughter. “When our mission here is complete, of course we’ll get new assignments with the ten sacred lands. Are you worried that you won’t be able to contribute?”

“I’m just worried that the wood demons will kill everyone before we get to them,” lamented Bluefalcon. “We won’t have much more to do then.”

“The celestial demon lord knows better than that. The wood demons’ methods may be particularly devious, but he won’t let them have all the honor. He won’t like any other tribe’s contribution to overshadow his own, after all.” Shadowless grinned. “You’re worrying for nothing. The lord is so judicious in his command this time because he knows not to split up our forces anymore. Back then, we spread ourselves too thin, which allowed the humans to divide and conquer.”

This was absolutely true. In the ancient era, if the ten demonic tribes had stayed together and listened to orders, they wouldn’t have lost the war so decisively.

The demons had lost because they had underestimated their enemy, as well as been overly proud of themselves. In terms of raw strength, they were more than capable of conquering Divine Abyss.

“The demon lord has made a wise choice this time. Conquering Myriad Abyss means that we will have our own base of operations with which to defend and attack from. More importantly, the cultivators here are mostly spineless cowards. Aside from the ten sacred lands, the factions here don’t have the guts to fight us to the death.” Bluefalcon laughed snidely. “We smashed our way here with trivial ease.”

“Small fry, all of them.” Shadowless waved his hand dismissively. “They’re not important. What matters most is breaking into Winterdraw and the human domain. That’s the key to this war. If we can’t enter the domain, the lord’s plan will be stopped short.”

“You guys have so much bullshit to spew. Can we go or not?” snickered Silveredge. “Don’t tell me you’re still in the planning stages?”

“What’s the rush? I have the entire plan right here. Don’t worry, you’ll have a fight ahead of you soon. I hope you can actually beat Jiang Chen when he shows up, hmm?” Shadowless riled up his fellow forefather.

Silveredge sneered. “Are you talking in your sleep? When have we golden demons failed in a straight-up fight?”

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