What Grand Scheme? What Enduring Humiliation for the Greater Good?

"The Immortal Sect?"

Yue Huaiyuan shook his head. "That's ancient history written in old books of strange tales. They haven't shown their faces in thousands of years. Who knows if they're dead or alive?"

"That so-called backing is just those beasts gilding their own faces. If immortals really existed, would the world be in this godforsaken state?"

Jiang Yuechu did not respond. She merely ran a finger along her teacup.

If demons existed in this world, along with the Ink-Point Realm, the Lotus-Seeding Realm, the Mountain-Viewing Realm, and the Burning Lamp Realm, then immortals might not be mere empty rumor.

Xie Tinglan gave a bitter smile. "Whether the Immortal Sect exists is still open to debate, but those eight Demon Sages are real. Great Tang may be strong today, but barbarians press its northern border while the Western Regions Demon Court watches hungrily from the west. If we went to war with Drinking-Horse Reach over Yuhang..."

He paused and held up three fingers.

"We would lose at least thirty percent of our national strength."

"And that's a conservative estimate."

Yue Huaiyuan sighed and poured himself another bowl of wine.

"Commander Lu is already at her wits' end over that accursed beast in Taihu Lake. If I report this as well, all I'll do is distract her."

"If those beasts hadn't gone so far a few days ago, I couldn't even have intervened. I would have had to endure it."

"Besides, most demons from Drinking-Horse Reach rarely venture into Great Tang's heartland. We've had our clashes over the past few centuries, but by and large, we've left each other alone."

"The court is lying low and biding its time. Perhaps in a few hundred years, once Great Tang has produced a few more Martial Sages of the Burning Lamp Realm or