Every Battle Brought Its Rewards

Their good luck lasted through an entire afternoon of clearing operations.

They followed the planned route, searching one location after another. They encountered a few Demon Monsters along the way, but none proved particularly troublesome.

By the time dusk approached and the gong sounded from the rear camp to call the troops back, their group had lost only two ordinary soldiers.

Compared with yesterday's carnage, today had indeed been easy.

Naturally, the rewards were meager as well. Jiang Che gained only four points of transmigration energy.

Jiang Che did not turn his nose up at that. More transmigration energy was always better, of course, but if every point had to be earned through a savage melee like yesterday's, he might not live long enough to collect it all.

After returning to camp, reporting his merits, and eating dinner, Jiang Che was about to head back to his tent when he suddenly spotted Du Yongchang.

After a moment's thought, Jiang Che gave his two companions a meaningful look.

They understood and left ahead of him, while Jiang Che went over to meet Du Yongchang himself.

An encounter like this was hard to come by. Even exchanging a few words and building some rapport would be worthwhile. Besides, what if he received a few pointers?

"Lord Du."

Du Yongchang nodded slightly. "How did today go?"

"Fairly smoothly. We didn't encounter any real difficulties. After so many Demon Monsters swarmed out yesterday, I thought we would face another bitter battle today. I never expected things to be so much quieter."

Du Yongchang gave a derisive chuckle. "What happened yesterday wasn't necessarily a bad thing."

So there really was something behind it!

"What do you mean, my lord?"

Du Yongchang looked up at the ruined temple in the center of the camp and said, "That True Demon is probably close to burning through the last of its oil."

His words were remarkably similar to what Jiang Che had said that morning to reassure Zhang Erguo.

At the time, however, Jiang Che had mainly been trying to steady Zhang Erguo's nerves. His words had been three parts reason and seven parts reassurance.

Coming now from Du Yongchang, a Qi Refining Cultivator, they carried an entirely different weight.

Jiang Che did not rush to ask questions. He simply waited for him to continue.

"Demon Monsters don't spring out of thin air either," Du Yongchang said. "Some of the Demon Monsters here were brought from elsewhere by that True Demon before we surrounded this place. But most were created by its own hand during this time."

"To create Demon Monsters, a True Demon must use its own demonic power as a catalyst to gather the demonic energy scattered between heaven and earth, then refine human and animal corpses as raw materials."

Jiang Che frowned. "In that case, couldn't it keep making them forever?"

"Of course not." Du Yongchang shook his head. "Do you think we're really just sitting out here watching you march to your deaths?"

"I wouldn't dare think that."

"Heh..." Du Yongchang gave a cold laugh. "That may well be exactly what you're thinking... But we sealed this place off from the outside world long ago. No demonic energy can enter from outside. Every bit it uses is a bit it cannot replenish."

"Now, it's nearly exhausted its supply."

"It made such a grand show yesterday because it wanted to kill or wound you all in one stroke. That only proves it has nothing left to spare and can only fight desperately for its life."

Jiang Che pressed further. "May I ask how much longer you think it will take?"

"A day or two at the earliest, three to five at the latest," Du Yongchang said. "Either way, we'll know soon."

At that, he paused, his gaze settling on Jiang Che.

"But the closer something is to death, the harder it bites. Don't think that surviving yesterday means you can rest easy."

"I understand."

After returning to the tent, Jiang Che shared what Du Yongchang had told him with Hu Yan and Zhang Erguo.

Zhang Erguo's first reaction was to let out a long sigh of relief.

"Junior Brother Jiang really called it! Once we get through the most dangerous stretch and the lords slaughter that True Demon, we can finally be safe and sound..."

"Tch!" Hu Yan sneered. "How could it be that easy?"

Zhang Erguo froze, but Hu Yan could not be bothered to explain. She turned away and closed her eyes to rest, saying nothing more.

Jiang Che took up the explanation. "Senior Sister is right. It won't be that easy. In fact, the real trouble is about to begin."

"Was Lord Du lying... I mean, was he mistaken?"

Jiang Che shook his head. "I believe what Lord Du said. That True Demon probably really is at the end of its road. But there's one thing Lord Du likely didn't tell us in full..."

"If that True Demon's abilities amounted to nothing more than yesterday's numbers of Demon Monsters, what would the three Qi Refining Cultivators outside be afraid of? If they led us in themselves, could the ordinary Demon Monsters or even the embryonic breath Demon Monsters along the way stop three Qi Refining Cultivators and all our capable fighters? They could kill everything, flatten a path straight to the temple, drag the True Demon out, and finish it off. Wouldn't that settle things?"

Zhang Erguo said, "So... the True Demon has other tricks? The three lords refuse to enter the temple because they don't know exactly what those tricks are, so they keep sending us to probe it? And the True Demon doesn't want us to uncover them, so it keeps creating Demon Monsters to stop us?"

"That should be it," Jiang Che said. "Now it's at the end of its road and can't hold us back anymore. Next, it will either act personally and try to break out, or reveal its tricks. Whichever happens, it won't be long."

"Then... what do we do? If the True Demon attacks, how could we possibly survive? And if we stumble into something even the Qi Refining lords fear, we're done for."

At that point, Hu Yan spoke up to curse him again. "You fat lump, why do you have so much useless chatter? If we really run into something like that, just die. There's nothing to talk about."

Zhang Erguo pulled a miserable face. "Senior Sister Hu, couldn't you leave just a little room for hope when you speak?"

Jiang Che chuckled. "Senior Sister isn't wrong at all. Still, first there's fate. If fate truly means to end me, what can I do? But aside from fate, we also have to keep our wits about us. Don't walk into a dead end yourself before you've actually been driven into one."

For the next three days, the clearing operations were indeed utterly uneventful. Across all three days, only a single Azure Mystic disciple died, and he was merely at early embryonic breath from the Ailin Outer Gate.

Over those three days, Jiang Che gained nine points of transmigration energy. His earnings were not substantial either.

During those three days of clearing operations, they also noticed a sign that confirmed Jiang Che's judgment.

The ruins of homes, underground holes, and corners where Demon Monsters hid could be burned out one day, only for three or five dried corpses from elsewhere to be lurking inside when they returned the next, as though they could never be cleared out completely.

Over these three days, however, that happened noticeably less often.

On the afternoon of the third day, they even cleared several paths leading straight from camp to the ruined temple's front entrance.

With things going smoothly and fewer people dying over the past few days, the atmosphere in camp gradually grew more relaxed.

Jiang Che and his two companions, however, grew increasingly grave.

On the morning of the fourth day, the sky was overcast.

The drums summoning the troops sounded half an hour earlier than usual.

Everyone hurried through breakfast and assembled in their assigned groups.

But today, something was unusual: all three Qi Refining lords were present together.

Jiang Che had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, County Commandant Li wasted not a single word. He simply issued an unmistakable order:

"Today, we will no longer split up to search. The six existing squads will join into one force and march straight on Little Seclusion Temple!"

"All remaining personnel will hold the camp, receive the wounded, and seal off the retreat routes."

"Move out immediately!"