"Report... Your Majesty, the port ahead has been burned down by rebel troops, but the waters remain unchanged. King Demon Dragon sent us back to report that the army can rest and regroup there!"
"Good. Order the vanguard to prepare wine, meat, and meals. The army will head there at once."
"Yes!"
Several days later, outside a barren mountain midway through their journey in the northern Pingqiu Kingdom, over a million li from their original territory, elite demon soldiers came to report to Hu Ze's Avatar on the route ahead.
Li Chen emerged from his thoughts and discovered that Hu Ze's Avatar had already issued orders according to its preset automatic instructions, so he returned his attention to the map he had been studying.
"Demon armies travel mainly by relying on minor grotto-heavens provided by Great Powers, or on flying boats, treasure ships, and the like."
"Although there is no teleportation array offering a direct route to the Sacred Capital, my strength already allows me to carry tens of thousands of troops, envelop them together in a void grotto-heaven, and perform short-range spatial transfers. Traveling over a hundred thousand li a day is entirely possible."
"When those inside need to rest and regroup, I can let them out, then carry them another stretch aboard flying boats and treasure ships, or on the true forms of great monsters."
"That is why all the worlds across the heavens place such importance on mighty experts. The upper limit of cultivation determines how armies march and how they fight."
At this point, Li Chen thought that he could actually leave most of his subordinates behind and travel light, or even head to the Sacred Capital alone, as the eight Demon Kings had done before.
But then raising an army to aid the emperor would