Countless disciples poured out of the War Puppets and cargo hatches, immediately tightening their grips on their weapons.
The air seemed to freeze. A murderous chill filled heaven and earth, and battle hung by a thread!
Now, all they needed was the order.
Before fighting, however, both sides shared a common goal-they had to seize the moral high ground and establish that the other side held "hostages."
Envoy Zhang of the Thousand Sects Alliance stood with his hands behind his back aboard the Mystic Ice Palace's most magnificent phoenix-carriage Warship, taking the lead as he sternly began to rebuke the opposing side with righteous indignation.
"Hmph..."
Yet he had barely uttered a word when Zheng Tianyuan, the Heavenly Baleful Valley's grand elder, who stood on the shoulder of a hundred-zhang War Puppet, cut in before him.
"You hypocrites over there, listen up!"
"You call yourselves honorable, orthodox sects, yet stoop to filthy kidnapping and extortion! Have you thrown away every last shred of shame?"
"Hand over our sect's Saintess, Ye Liuli, immediately! Otherwise, today we'll make this place your grave, and you'll forever be the laughingstock who 'went to rescue hostages, only to be wiped out by the Demonic Path'!"
"Huh?"
"..."
"???"
At those words, the millions of disciples on the Thousand Sects Alliance's side, along with the lofty Sacred Sect leaders, all froze in unison.
After an instant of deathly silence, every face darkened at once. Waves of savage fury shot skyward, churning the winds and clouds until their colors changed.
"Outrageous!"
"Absolutely outrageous!"
Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that these Demons would take every filthy deed they themselves had committed and pin it on the Thousand Sects Alliance, unchanged and word for word!
"I've seen shameless people in my time, but never anyone so