The battle between the two clans had been stopped at its most critical moment. Now, more than half of both sides' morale had drained away, and both had suffered severe losses. Neither clan had any desire to continue fighting.
"Witch Clan, your Witch Clan shot and killed nine of my sons. If I do not avenge this hatred, how can I, Di Jun, still call myself the Demon Emperor?"
"From this day forth, my Demon Clan and the Witch Clan will fight until death!"
Di Jun stood in the void, his face pale as he looked down at the Twelve Ancestral Witches below and spoke with chilling killing intent.
Even though his aura had weakened to its lowest point, the icy killing intent in Di Jun's eyes had not diminished in the slightest. It was even stronger than before!
"Di Jun, the Witch Clan is not a place for your little brats to run wild. Whoever dares act recklessly on our territory will meet the same fate!"
"Whoever dares slaughter our people or destroy our tribes, no matter who they are, for every one who comes, I will kill one!"
The fury in Di Jiang's eyes soared to the heavens. He was not intimidated by Di Jun's words in the slightest as he declared in a voice that struck like iron.
The Twelve Ancestral Witches stood upon the earth as Great Witches tore through the air one after another, gathering beside them.
Streams of light descended from the sky as well. In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand Grand Luo Golden Immortal Demon Gods had gathered around Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi!
The two sides faced each other across the air. Invisible killing intent surged into the heavens, and the pressure in the void grew heavier and heavier.
The living beings of the primordial world held their breaths once more, staring uneasily into the sky, afraid that the two clans would start fighting again.
The previous battle had shaken heaven and earth. The foundations of both clans had emerged one after another, displaying crushing strength before the other Quasi-Saint-level forces of the primordial world.
For a time, everyone had silently elevated the status of the Witch and Demon Clans to the same level as the Six Saints of the Heavenly Dao.
No one knew whether the Witch and Demon Clans could truly contend with Saints.
But for Quasi-Saints like them, whether they encountered a Saint or the Witch and Demon Clans, they had no hope of victory whatsoever!
They could not afford to provoke either one.
Everyone knew that the Witch and Demon Clans were powerful, but no one had expected them to be this powerful.
Setting aside those hidden foundations for now, among the cultivators confronting each other at present, there were already more than two thousand Grand Luo Golden Immortals alone.
The Three Hundred and Sixty-five Demon Gods of the Demon Clan were already a thing of the past. The Demon Clan had long ceased to have merely three hundred and sixty-five Demon Gods. That had been its strength when the Demon Court was first established. Now, the number of Demon Gods had long surpassed a thousand.
The Witch Clan on the ground was no weaker. Witch Clan tribes covered the land, and Great Witches were everywhere. Though they had two or three hundred fewer Grand Luo experts than the Demon Clan, the overall gap was not obvious.
Before the present Witch and Demon Clans, even the Dragon, Phoenix, and Kirin Clans that had once dominated the primordial world paled into insignificance.
Looking across every race in the primordial world, there was not one capable of contending with the Witch and Demon Clans.
Even the Human, Chan, Jie, and Western Four Sects that would dominate in later ages were nothing before the current Witch and Demon Clans. Of course, that was excluding the leaders of the Four Sects.
The pressure between the two sides grew increasingly heavy. More than two thousand Grand Luo Golden Immortals had gathered, their vast auras erupting and colliding between the two clans.
Merely releasing their auras caused the void to distort and space to tremble without end!
The two sides remained locked in confrontation for a long time. The temperature of the entire primordial world fell to freezing, and the Great Divine Powers were filled with unease, afraid that the two clans would fight again.
"Leave!"
After a long while, Di Jun spoke coldly.
As his words fell, Di Jun transformed into a rainbow streak and soared upward, shooting straight toward the nine heavens. Eastern Emperor Taiyi followed close behind.
Immediately afterward, Empress Xi He, Apothecary Kunpeng, the Ten Directions Demon Saints, and the Demon Gods all soared into the sky, rising straight toward the nine heavens!
"Return!"
With a sweep of his hand, Di Jiang led the witches in using their divine abilities to race toward Buzhou Mountain. With every step, countless mountains and rivers were cast behind them. Thousands of Great Witches galloped across the earth, their momentum boundless as their movements shook the primordial world!
The Twelve Ancestral Witches led nearly a thousand Great Witches back to the Witch Clan's ancestral land on Buzhou Mountain. The moment they entered the Ancestral Witch Hall, all twelve collapsed onto the ground, each one pale-faced.
Di Jiang gave a bitter smile. "I never expected the Demon Clan to have kept something in reserve. They actually possessed such a great array."
"Hmph, so what? It still cannot compare to our brothers' Twelve Capital Celestial Gods Array!"
"If the Dao Ancestor had not stopped us, I would definitely have hacked that shameless Di Jun to death."
"He failed to control his little brats and let them slaughter freely in our tribes. Did he expect us to spare them just because they were his sons?"
"Dream on. Our Witch Clan is not afraid of trouble!" Zhu Rong, the Ancestral Witch of Fire, snorted coldly from the side.
The surrounding Ancestral Witches all nodded, their faces showing agreement.
The matter was already clear. Di Jun thought we would not dare kill his little brats, so he released them. But he had clearly underestimated the Witch Clan's bloodiness, and they were killed on the spot!
Di Jun's scheme had failed. Instead, he had pinned the hatred of losing his sons upon the Witch Clan. Hmph, if you want to avenge your sons, then I want to avenge our slaughtered people!
They were merely a few feathered beasts. How could they compare to the lives of so many of our men? And then there were Kuafu and Hou Yi, two of the Witch Clan's Twenty-Four Great Witches!
Among the Witch Clan's thousand-plus Great Witches, only twenty-four had any hope of breaking through to the Quasi-Saint realm. Yet two had fallen at once.
This hatred had been forged!
"Hmph, if Di Jun and Eastern Emperor Taiyi had not arrived so quickly, I would have smashed those ten feathered beasts to pieces. One got away. What a pity!" Liang Qiang said bitterly from the side.
The surrounding Ancestral Witches nodded hatefully, all gritting their teeth in regret that they had failed to kill the last Golden Crow.
"Send word to every tribe. From this day forward, whenever you encounter a member of the Demon Clan, kill without mercy!"
"Our Witch Clan and the Demon Clan will fight until death!"
"Uproot every Demon Clan force on the lands of the primordial world. Leave none alive!"
Di Jiang said furiously.
"Good!"
"That is exactly what we should do!"
"They dared run wild in our Witch Clan. They are courting death!"
The witches shouted loudly, clearly harboring no small grievance against the Demon Clan.
Among them, only Houtu, the Ancestral Witch of Earth, did not share the other Ancestral Witches' anger. What had happened today was far too strange. Ten little Golden Crows at merely the Golden Immortal Realm were far too weak to slaughter Witch Clan tribes.
Even with methods left on them by Di Jun, they would amount to little. At most, they could slaughter a few ordinary tribes and could not harm the Witch Clan's foundations.
Though this sounded heartless, ordinary witches were also part of the Witch Clan. Yet to the enormous Witch Clan, they truly amounted to little. Di Jun would not be so foolish as to sacrifice nine of his own sons for several thousand tribes.
Given Di Jun's way of doing things, if he truly wanted to strike at the Witch Clan, with over a thousand Grand Luo experts in the Demon Clan, who would not be more useful than ten little Golden Crows?
This seemed more like someone was targeting the Witch Clan and deliberately provoking a war between the two clans.
Houtu looked at the indignant Ancestral Witches around her. She wanted to say something, but her lips moved before she stopped herself.
There was no need. Nothing she said now would matter. Nine of the Demon Clan's ten crown princes had been shot dead, while Kuafu and Hou Yi had died in battle. The hatred between both sides had already been formed.
Now, even if someone truly had framed the two clans, so what?
Would Di Jun simply abandon his vengeance for his sons?
Or would they abandon vengeance for Hou Yi and Kuafu? Let alone her eleven brothers, even Houtu herself could not let go of her hatred for the two.
No matter what, they had to fight Eastern Emperor Taiyi and settle the karma of this matter!
The hatred had already been formed. Nothing they said would have any meaning. Even if there was a conspiracy behind it, Kuafu had indeed been roasted alive by the ten Golden Crows, and the nearly ten thousand tribesmen burned into charred corpses were also a fact.
Hou Yi had likewise been slain by Eastern Emperor Taiyi. These were unchangeable facts. Even if there was a conspiracy behind them, did that mean they were no longer hatred?
No. They were still a great hatred, a blood-deep enmity!
When the time came, they would still have to fight.
The Demon Clan was the same. Nine out of ten Golden Crows had fallen, and the Demon Clan's losses were even greater than the Witch Clan's.
War between the two clans was already unavoidable. Then let them fight!
But whoever stood behind this could not be allowed to escape unpunished. Her brothers were too rough-minded, so there was no need to tell them. They could not keep secrets, and the Demon Clan's strength could not be underestimated. Dealing with the Demon Clan was already troublesome enough.
Anyone who dared manipulate the Witch and Demon Clans would definitely not be weak. At such a critical juncture, if they provoked that person, the Witch Clan might face even more trouble.
She would investigate in secret first. Once she uncovered the truth and dealt with the Demon Clan, she would settle accounts with the one behind it!
Houtu thought to herself.
As the Ancestral Witches' orders spread from the Ancestral Witch Hall, Great Witches tore through the air one after another, heading in all directions.
Every Witch Clan tribe in the primordial world began to move. Countless witches raced across the land, charging toward the nearest Demon Clan forces.
For a time, tens of thousands of battles erupted throughout the primordial world as the Witch Clan and the Demon Clan forces entrenched across the land engaged in fierce conflict.
But the lands of the primordial world were the Witch Clan's home ground, while the Demon Clan's core strength remained in the Demon Court. As the witches mobilized, large numbers of demons were wiped out, and Demon Kings who had once run rampant across the primordial world were all exterminated!
Meanwhile, within the Demon Court.
Nine Golden Crow corpses lay in the great hall. Di Jun, Eastern Emperor Taiyi, Xi He, Kunpeng, and the other Demon Clan powerhouses stood silently upon the floor.
Di Jun and Xi He's faces were filled with grief. Their children had not even been born long before nine of them were killed.
Blazing fury churned within the two of them, nearly impossible to suppress.
Eastern Emperor Taiyi at the side was also overcome with grief. His bond with Di Jun was as strong as steel, and he had cherished these ten little nephews deeply. The little ones who had once been so joyful had now become corpses...
"Lu Ya, didn't I tell you not to leave Tanggu Valley? How did you end up in the primordial world?"
Di Jun suddenly turned his head and looked at Lu Ya, the sole survivor among the ten Golden Crows, his face carrying barely restrained fury.
Lu Ya jumped in fright. Eastern Emperor Taiyi immediately stepped forward and shielded Lu Ya behind him. "Elder Brother, this must have been the Witch Clan's doing. Tanggu Valley is far from the primordial world, and Ying Zhao was guarding it. Lu Ya and the others only had Golden Immortal cultivation. Without someone else meddling, how could they have left?"
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