The Demon Race's Objective (continued)

However, Xia Guanxue followed closely behind and said, "Sorry, it seems I'll have to disappoint you. I woke up five minutes earlier than you, so I won this drinking contest."

"Wait a minute, who told you that drinking contests are about who wakes up first? Of course, it's about who drinks the most! I woke up later than you because I drank more, so I'm the winner."

"There is no logical relationship between drinking more and waking up later. Drinking less can still result in waking up later. The wine jars that were empty yesterday have already been taken away by the people from Medicine King Valley, so it is impossible to confirm who drank more. Therefore, the first criterion can only be considered a tie. As a second choice, we can use 'who woke up earlier' as the second criterion."

"You have quite a lot to say when it comes to winning or losing... but I don't agree with your so-called second criterion. There should only be one criterion for judging a drinking contest; everything else is just a side path!"

People who can't accept defeat always find excuses for themselves.

"Yeah, that guy with a 1-2 record against me in the past is desperately trying to find excuses to tie the score. His attitude is just awful."

Why are you still arguing after you've finished drinking?

Murong Wu felt rather helpless. Fortunately, he had given up on trying to reconcile them the night before. He immediately took out two red tassels and said, "These are woven for you two overnight, one for a sword and one for a knife. They're made from the Discerning Mechanism Grass' from Medicine King Valley. This grass has the ability to detect poison; it changes color when it comes into contact with poison, and the color varies depending on the type of poison. Because I was in a bit of a rush, there are bound to be some minor flaws in the design. I hope you won't mind."

Clearly, he was doing this to thank the two for celebrating his birthday last night.

The sword tassel is the red tassel that hangs on the hilt of a sword. There are usually long tassels and short tassels. In performances, it can highlight the martial and heroic posture of the sword dance with the tassel. In actual combat, it can confuse the opponent's vision, entangle the opponent's weapon, and there is even a "flying sword" style of fighting where the sword is thrown by grabbing the sword tassel.

In the Sea Continent, naturally no one expected the tassels to have any practical function in combat; they were mainly for looking cool, and partly for etiquette.

For example, the story of King Wen of Zhao, who loved swords, is recorded in "Zhuangzi on Swords". More than 3,000 swords fought for him day and night, which shows how spectacular the scene was. Thus, men wearing swords not only showed their majestic and powerful demeanor, but also became a kind of flamboyant and elegant attire, and even a symbol of power and status. As a result, a strict system of sword-wearing was developed to correspond with the wearing and practice of swords.

Murong Wu's tassels possessed the ability to detect poison, making them both aesthetically pleasing and practical. Ying Zhou naturally wouldn't refuse, happily accepting the tassels and binding them to his Conquest Demon Saber. The jet-black blade paired perfectly with the dark red tassels. He couldn't resist practicing his swordplay in front of the mirror, wondering if he could fine-tune his movements to make himself look even more dashing in battle—he certainly wouldn't dare to do this against a strong opponent, but it would come in handy against a weaker one.

On the other side, Xia Guanxue, standing at the door, watched as Murong Wu handed her the sword tassel. The rising sun shone on her still somewhat childish face, making it shine brightly. Suddenly, the figure in her memory overlapped with the person in front of her.

—Brother, today is your birthday. This is a sword tassel I made for you myself. You must keep it with you. If I ever see you using a sword without it, I'll be angry!

"Brother Xia, what's wrong?"

A question pulled Xia Guanxue back from her memories.

"... It's nothing, thanks."

Xia Guanxue accepted the sword tassel, then glanced at Murong Wu a few more times, wondering why she would think of her sister. The person in front of her looked quite different from her sister, and their personalities were also very different—her sister was able to fall in love with Ying Zhou, which showed that she was definitely not the kind of obedient person.

Perhaps it's because of the dream I had last night; only in dreams can a family be reunited...

"Hey, what's wrong with your eyes, you idiot!" Ying Zhou suddenly shouted, then asked suspiciously, "Could it be that you, buddy?"

Xia Guanxue was startled. Although this kid wasn't very bright, his intuition was sharp. Plus, knowing about his family situation, he had probably already guessed what was on his mind.

Ying Zhou grabbed Murong Wu and warned, "That guy looked at you very lewdly just now, you better watch out!"

"Eh? Eh—" Murong Wu's face turned pale instantly, and he opened his mouth wide in surprise.

"Ying! Zhou!"

Xia Guanxue gritted his teeth in hatred, spitting out each word. This was the first time he had ever wanted to punch someone so much. Back then, he had only considered Yan Jinghong based on their differing stances, without any other emotions.

Ying Zhou was not one to be threatened. He immediately laughed and said, "You're angry because I exposed your improper thoughts, aren't you? I've seen right through you. Let me tell you, Murong Wu is my Laozi. I live by loyalty and brotherhood, and I'll go to great lengths for my brothers. Don't even think about touching a hair on his head!"

Murong Wu snapped out of his daze, realizing the truth couldn't possibly be so outrageous, and said, "Brother Ying Zhou, you've misunderstood. Brother Xia isn't that kind of person."

"He's nobody! This kind of gloomy man who keeps his feelings hidden for so long has long been psychologically disturbed. Women can no longer satisfy his desires, so he seeks something more exciting and thus extends his clutches to men," Ying Zhou immediately warned earnestly. "You must never sleep with him again, and never bathe with him, otherwise you'll easily lose your chastity."

Xia Guanxue felt that speaking even a single word to this guy would be an insult to her character, so she said in a tone filled with boundless anger, "Come out and let's kill each other!" After saying that, she turned and left.

"Ha, now that your secret has been exposed, you want to kill me to cover it up, huh? Bring it on, who's afraid of who!"

Ying Zhou immediately picked up his sword and swaggered out, leaving Murong Wu alone in the room sighing with a helpless expression.

After the Demon Emperor led his forces to launch a surprise attack on the Rui State, he did not occupy this rich land for a long time as everyone had guessed. After all, the Rui State was famous for its wealth. Although the Demon Race might not need to use Human Race currency, wealth meant abundant resources and enough food.

Although the Demon Beast army soon occupied Rui State, they feasted and rested for three days before setting off again towards France.

The Mohist School's external aid, including Si Ming and the Holy Maiden, rushed to France to provide support, intending to stage a defensive battle that the Mohist School was proud of. However, news came that the Demon Emperor and his party had launched a surprise attack on the Yi State capital and killed five Spirit Transformation Grandmaster who were holding a meeting.

It should be noted that Yi State only has ten Spirit Transformation Grandmaster on the surface, so this number has been reduced by half. Moreover, considering that the five Spirit Transformation Grandmaster are among the top-ranked experts in Yi State, the top-tier strength has been reduced by two-thirds.

Si Ming immediately realized that the other side was clearly using the same trick again, so he ordered the France army to set out immediately to hunt down the Demon Beast army that had no strong protectors.

However, the France parliament, considering the significant risks involved, did not approve Si Ming's proposal. Rumors circulated that many members believed defeating the Demon Race would benefit all nations, while failure would leave France bearing a heavy burden – a veiled form of "not worrying about poverty but about inequality."

Although the current emperor had a deep friendship with Si Ming and was willing to help, it was precisely because he himself reformed the system, dispersing the power that belonged to the emperor, that he only had a veto power and no pass power, so he could not play a decisive role at crucial moments. If he had contacted the representatives of the imperial faction, it might have been possible to get the vote in place, but by the time they were contacted one by one, the Demon Beast army would have already run far away.

Left with no other choice, the Mohist School family's experts had to personally take action to pursue and kill the monsters, imitating the camp-breaking methods used by Si Ming and Ying Zhou that day. However, this method could only cause the Demon Beast to rout; without the cooperation of the army, it was impossible to annihilate them completely.

After their defeat, some of the Demon Beast fled into the mountains and forests, their whereabouts unknown. The majority, however, were summoned by the Demon General and regrouped into an army. This efficiency in reorganizing a defeated army far surpassed that of the Human Race army. It should be noted that if Human Race army could regroup even one-tenth of its troops after a major defeat, it would be enough to prove that the commander possessed strong cohesion.

The Demon Beast army, which relied on instinct to act, only foolishly attacked the defensive line head-on in the previous war between humans and demons. Now, under the command of the Military God, they have pulled off all sorts of amazing maneuvers that even the elite Human Race could not do, fully utilizing their own advantages.

The advantage of Demon Beast lies in their individual strength. Although even the Military God cannot command them to deploy troops in battle formations, in one-on-one situations, Human Race soldiers are no match for them. Moreover, they are fearless and will not complain or resist even if they are used as expendable pawns to die.

Huang Yan took this to the extreme, constantly using the method of exchanging pieces to feint and divert the Human Race army, creating opportunities for the Demon Emperor's surprise attack.

At this moment, people finally understood the true purpose of the Demon Race.

"They want to eliminate as many Spirit Transformation Grandmaster as possible, and they are willing to sacrifice their Demon Beast army for this."

As his injuries began to heal slightly, Xing Daozhuang, who had been escorted there by Ying Zhou, Xia Guanxue, and Murong Wu, pointed to the map and said, "It seems that the Demon Race has abandoned its idea of completely ruling the Northern Continent and wants to occupy a piece of land of its own. That's why they only targeted Spirit Transformation Grandmaster and didn't massacre the common people. Have you noticed that whether they were conquering Nation of Valor or Rui State, the Demon Race didn't allow their Demon Beast to devour living people?"

Tu Wangyue asked, "What's the point of doing this?"

"If the Demon Race occupies a country and devours its people, then that land becomes unclaimed, and the Su State can easily send troops to seize it. Conversely, if the original inhabitants are still alive, the Su State has no grounds to send troops. This entire plan must have been devised by the Military God. He wanted to weaken the top combat forces of the various countries in the Northern Continent, making them unable to fight against the Demon Race, but he also did not want the Su State to be fully involved, so he kept the situation within a certain balance."