Ch. 2001The Great Elder's Scheme!
Chapter Summary:
The Great Elder’s Scheme!
Key Plot Points and Events
- The Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan’s First Grand Elder receives an urgent communication from the clan’s Ancestral Land.
- He learns that a strange tide of bloody Baleful Intent has overwhelmed the Ancestral Land, causing clan members to lose their minds and slaughter one another.
- The entire region has been sealed by powerful spatial Restrictions, preventing evacuation through the Teleportation Arrays and rendering the clan’s “Seed Plan” ineffective.
- The Grand Elder concludes that the disaster is deliberate and was most likely engineered by the human Spirit Transformation Venerable controlling the True Dragon Sea.
- The clan’s Black Gold Voidbreaker Awl has already failed to break the spatial seal. The Grand Elder therefore rejects wasting more of the clan’s dwindling reserves.
- He considers sealing the source of the Blood Baleful Mist but suspects the enemy has prepared against that possibility.
- He ultimately devises a two-part strategy:
- Send elite death squads into the Ancestral Land to locate and possibly suppress the source of the blood-red Killing Intent.
- If that fails, divide the clan’s forces into countless assault teams and have them attack the Human Race’s enormous formation at multiple points, weakening or disrupting it rather than directly confronting its Spirit Transformation Venerable.
- He also plans to manipulate the other Demon Race clans into spending their own treasures and forces against the seal, thereby weakening potential rivals while buying time for the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan Chief to return from meditation.
- His orders spread rapidly throughout the Demon Race allied forces.
Character Developments
- First Grand Elder: Initially hopeful that the communication brings news of the Clan Chief, he quickly shifts to shock, anger, and grim calculation. His experience allows him to regain control and analyze the crisis rationally. He proves himself a capable strategist, prioritizing survival, conserving resources, and exploiting the interests of other clans.
- Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan Chief: Though absent and unreachable in closed-door meditation, his potential return remains the clan’s greatest hope. The Grand Elder’s plans are designed partly to delay the catastrophe until he can appear.
- Golden Flood Dragon Clan Half Venerable: Introduced as an experienced and authoritative elder leading an expedition through the Blood Sea. Despite his great cultivation, his vision and divine sense are severely obstructed, leaving him wary and vulnerable.
Significant Themes
- Survival amid catastrophe: The chapter emphasizes the destruction of the clan’s foundation and the desperate need to preserve even a small remnant of its forces.
- Strategic calculation and sacrifice: The Grand Elder weighs every option, refusing to squander irreplaceable resources and willingly risking elite troops when no safer path remains.
- Political manipulation: He intends to use the other Demon Race clans as expendable probes, turning their mutual hatred of the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan to his own advantage.
- Power imbalance: The Human Spirit Transformation Venerable is portrayed as vastly superior to the Half Venerables and Nascent Souls, forcing the Demon Race to rely on indirect tactics.
- Hidden danger and limited perception: The Blood Baleful Mist conceals the battlefield and erodes defenses gradually, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and impending ambush.
Character Interactions
- The First Grand Elder receives the crisis report through the communication Jade Talisman and internally assesses the implications.
- He considers the failed efforts of the Second Grand Elder, whose limited cultivation prevented him from fully activating the Black Gold Voidbreaker Awl.
- He issues orders to the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan, directing elite forces toward reconnaissance and coordinated attacks.
- He seeks to influence the other peak Demon Race clans into exhausting their own foundations.
- The chapter then shifts to the Golden Flood Dragon Clan, where its Half Venerable elder travels through the Blood Sea with clan demon lords and asks how far they are from reaching the True Dragon Sea’s end.
Ending Hook
The Golden Flood Dragon Clan’s protective barrier is gradually weakening under the Blood Baleful Mist. Unable to see or sense what lies ahead, the Half Venerable elder and his forces move through an environment designed to isolate and erode them, foreshadowing a dangerous confrontation.