The airboat flew at a leisurely pace. Within the vessel, Jiang Chen pretended to be excited.

Chief Warden Ding and his men were with him.

“We’re almost there, Old Ding. When we near Rejuvenation, we must fly to it ourselves. An airboat too easily catches the demons’ eye. We don’t want them to be prepared.”

Chief Warden Ding nodded. “No problem. We should definitely be careful.”

Jiang Chen inclined his head, then glanced at the others. “Are you nervous?”

These men had managed to reach Winterdraw alongside the chief warden. They had gone with him to the Celestial Cicada Court. However, they hadn’t had much chance to speak with him until now.

The young man’s kindness startled them. 

“No, sir,” they hurriedly replied. “We’re entirely reassured under your command.”

“Don’t worry.” Jiang Chen chuckled. “We’ll beat back the demons no matter what. As long as we have support from the inside, there’s hope of defeating them.”

The men nodded vigorously to affirm their loyalty to the young lord.

The distance from Winterdraw to Rejuvenation wasn’t far.

When the airboat reached within three thousand miles of Rejuvenation, Jiang Chen stood up. 

“This is as far as the airboat can go.” He called out. “We may be discovered if we keep flying via airboat. We will proceed on foot, or with a treasure if you prefer. Regardless, keep yourselves well hidden. Being noticed will be a grave misdeed today!”

“Yes, we will be as careful as we can!”

“We embark.” Jiang Chen waved a hand, then shot toward Rejuvenation as a streak of light in the lead.

Chief Warden Ding and the others quickly followed, not to be left behind.

One of the cultivators in the entourage—a man whose appearance was very ordinary by any description—made a few hand seals as he flew. A handful of indistinct currents of air, bearing misty messages, disappeared into the ether.  

His actions went totally unnoticed.

……

The three demonic tribes’ experts were arrayed on Rejuvenation’s outskirts, awaiting only Jiang Chen’s arrival to spring the ambush.

On the demons’ side, there were three forefathers as well as a non-demon god. Below that, a group of demonic demigods whose objective was to clear out Jiang Chen’s subordinates. In the demon forefathers’ opinion, they were more than capable of handling the enemy.

There was only one important person in the enemy troop—Jiang Chen himself.

Killing the others or not didn’t matter, but it was in demon nature to leave no survivors.

Some time passed as the group of humans neared the demons’ encirclement.

He feigned ignorance of the demons straight ahead, then slowed in mock astonishment, as if he had discovered something. 

“Stop!” He waved at the men behind him.

The group obliged.

The young man looked positively dour. “There’s something wrong here,” he muttered to himself. “The landscape doesn’t look right. If the demons have set up an ambush here, we can’t defend ourselves properly. Let’s slow down so that we have more time to react.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jiang Chen cast out his consciousness to inspect his surroundings for a long while before setting off again. “Let’s go.”

As soon as he said this, a sinister laugh echoed from the air.

“Where do you think you’re going? This is as far as you’ll go.” The voice had come very abruptly. It was almost bone-chilling in tone.

All around them, countless doors opened from nothingness to reveal a throng of demonic cultivators.

The three demonic forefathers arranged themselves in a triangular formation, blocking every avenue of escape. A dozen demonic demigods and other assorted cultivators, as well as a group of puppets, reinforced the encirclement.

Jiang Chen frowned as he glanced at the three demons. “What devils dare stand in my way?”

Silveredge couldn’t resist snickering. “Daoist Shadowless, is this the human leader you spoke of? Confused about his imminent demise, I see!”

Shadowless laughed. “He’s too young and inexperienced. Still, make sure you stay serious. Don’t forget what we talked about earlier.”

A lion hunted the lowliest of rodents with his full strength

Bluefalcon flapped his wings, chortling. “Brat, are you really Jiang Chen?”

The human’s expression darkened. “Are all of you demonic remnants?”

“Tsk tsk, what a fool. You don’t even recognize demonic forefathers when you see them. I don’t want to scare you, kid, but these three are some of the top forefathers among demonkind. You should feel honored that they’re here to send you to hell,” mocked one demigod.

Jiang Chen ‘became aghast’, turning to scrutinize the three demonic forefathers more closely.

“Three… divine forefathers?” He broadcasted fear through his eyes.

Chief Warden Ding felt the blood drain from his face. “Young lord Jiang Chen,” he shouted, “hurry and run. These demons are very strong! Forget about us!”

The warden immediately understood that these demons had set up a trap here. It was his fault that young lord Jiang Chen was in this bind!

“You want to leave? Not without my permission.” Bluefalcon spread his wings. “Jiang Chen, don’t you have sacred beasts under your command? Why don’t you summon them?” he pressed, snickering.

Jiang Chen shot back a vicious look. “If my friends were here, you wouldn’t be running so rampant right now!”

“What, you didn’t bring a single one of them?” Bluefalcon’s heart sank. What about his plans?

“Don’t waste your time talking to him. Just kill him, and let that be the end of it.” Though Shadowless felt that everything was going smoothly, a note of discomfort nagged at the back of his mind.

He would only rest once this kid became a corpse.

“Get him!”

The three divine realm demons acted in unspoken unison. The god who was their puppet wasn’t much slower; he had been under their thrall for many years.

Four shadows lunged toward Jiang Chen. He seemed to be in quite a lot of danger.

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