Chapter 794: Launching the First Attack, the Army for Penetration (II)
Xiao Huo told Long Haochen that they needed some time to grow accustomed to the outside air and elements, so they decided to stay on the Knights’ Sacred Mountain for three days. They would meet up with Long Haochen at the Dragon Resisting Mountain Pass after those three days.
The demon army could be mobilised at any time. As the chairman of the union, he could not afford to continue to wait here. They had yet to come up with a plan against the demons, so he needed to head back immediately and decide.
“Old man Xiao, this is the situation. Currently, we are unable to predict where the demons will attack. If the demons focus on a single point this time, not only will it be very difficult for us to stop them, we can’t predict where the demons will appear either. I need to head back as soon as possible. The demons will be using their full strength this time. Most of our spies among the demons have been cleared out, so the information that we can receive is extremely limited as well.” Under Xiao Huo’s request, Long Haochen no longer referred to him as predecessor, but as old man Xiao.
Hearing what he said, Xiao Huo thought about it for a while, before saying, “The issue you speak of is very severe. If you can’t make preparations, any fort of the union will collapse against the demon army lead by over fifty demon gods. However, I think your thinking is flawed.”
“Huh?” Long Haochen looked at Xiao Huo in surprise, “Please give me guidance, old man Xiao.”
Although Xiao Huo had slept for thousands of years, he was still the first temple head of the Knight Temple after all. In the final, critical moment when the humans were about to collapse against the demons, he and the other temple heads had worked together and created the temple alliance against the demons, even protecting the last area of survival for the humans. That was how outstanding he was in the past. In terms of battle experience, even ten Long Haochens would not be able to compare to this predecessor!
Xiao Huo said, “The flaw in your thinking is about the word defence. If you think of it another way, you might understand. That’s right, it’s very difficult for us to stop the demons with pure defence. Even if we know the movements of the demons, everyone’s army is flexible, so what if they suddenly change their path of attack? Or what if they suddenly split up? How would we defend? The union would only exhaust itself by running around reactively. In a situation like that, we’ve already fallen into the pace of the demons before the battle has even begun. It’s basically losing half the war. Do you know why the demons have never attacked us with their full force?”
After pausing slightly, Xiao Huo said coldly, “That’s because the demons are reluctant to destroying us completely. Back then, if the demons really wanted to make us extinct, we still wouldn’t be able to stand up to the demons even after forming the temple alliance and gathering the final powers of the humans. A major reason why we were able to survive in the end was not because of our strength, but because the demons spared us.”
“The demons are actually afraid of completely eradicating us humans from this world. They aren’t even willing to conquer us completely. That’s due to the nature of the demons.”
Long Haochen listened to Xiao Huo very closely. This predecessor had gone through everything that happened when the demons first appeared on the Shengmo Dalu. He even personally fought against the demon army back then, so his experiences were just too precious to Long Haochen.
“Space ripped open and the seventy-two Demon God Pillars descended, bringing a terrifying pestilence to our Shengmo Dalu. Back then, the humans had just finished their war against the Slumbering Calamity Elux two centuries prior. Due to how terrifying the undead was, over a quarter of the continent was occupied by undead, which were gradually being cleaned up by us, so the continent would be complete once more. Back then, not only were the humans nowhere close to recovering from the war, two countries were making a scramble for territory as well.”
“The seventy-two Demon God Pillars only descended in one of the countries, without reaching the other country. Due to Elux, the Glorious Church had been greatly weakened. As a result, the continent lacked a unified voice. It must be said that this was one of the disasters Elux had caused from mankind. Out of the three empires, he completely destroyed one, crippled another and almost destroyed the Glorious Church. That was why the demons had their chance!”
“The seventy-two Demon God Pillars had descended in the country that was almost perfectly fine. Although they had also been affected by the Slumbering Calamity, their strength was still mostly unaffected. At that time, this country attacked the crippled country out of wild ambition, in attempt to conquer it and thus unite the continent. Under these circumstances, the weaker country even believed the descent of the seventy-two Demon God Pillars was a blessing from heaven for them. As a result, how was it possible for the two empires to work together?”
“Even the stronger country where the Demon God Pillars had descended in did not take these pillars seriously at the very beginning. Only when the pestilence spread at a terrifying rate with various races rapidly demonifying, attacking and claiming cities, did they realise something was off, but it was too late. By then, the terrifying powers of the seventy-two Demon God Pillars were completely unleashed. Coupled with the weaker country adding insult to injury, they took advantage of this situation and fought back with full force. In other words, humans basically destroyed itself. Faced with attacks from both inside and out, the most powerful human empire at that time was forcefully destroyed. By the time the weaker country had discovered the horror of the demons, it was all too late. The demons had already grown in power, not only claiming all of the territory of the stronger empire, but also launching attacks against the weaker country.”
Even after several thousand years, Xiao Huo mentioned this like he was in great pain, “And at such an important time, a fissure appeared in the weaker country, with two factions blaming each other for matters, causing the country to split in such a crucial time. Under the attacks of the demons, the countries gradually declined and suffered deaths. It was only at this time did one of them become alarmed, gathering all of the existing powerhouses of humanity to unite against the outsiders, separating themselves from the prejudice based off country. They were able to dodge the influence of a desire of authority, forming the six temples against the demons.”
“There were two reasons why the demons spared the humans in the end. Firstly, the pestilence brought on by the seventy-two Demon God Pillars could not be sustained, failing to infect even more races and turning into demons. As a result, the demons’ total force was limited, which also made the Demon God Emperor realise that if they kept fighting, the population of demons would rapidly decline. The other reason, which was also the reason why the demons did not continue attacking us with their full force despite clearly possessing an absolute advantage, was because of the demons’ natural inability for production.”
“Basically every clan among the demons is a born warrior. They are born with great battle prowess. However, they aren’t skilled in producing food or tools. This was the factor that determined that while they could possess an upper hand in war, once the battle ended and the humans were rendered extinct, the demons would gradually die off on the Shengmo Dalu as well. The demon population that would be able to survive would be very small and they would have to rely on nature to provide them food.”
“Think about it. As a wise ruler, would the Demon God Emperor do something like cutting off the reason for their survival? They actually let us survive to rear us, and then plunder us through small-scale conflict, or even engage in trade, while also developing themselves and finding a way to survive on this continent. That was the reason why us humans were able to survive.”
“Fortunately, in the past six thousand years, the demons still haven’t found a way to sustain themselves independently, which was why we still haven’t gone extinct. Otherwise, do you really think the demons would be nice enough to let us survive?”
Xiao Huo’s words seemed to open up a gate for Long Haochen, allowing him to see the reason of many matters. No wonder the demons would attack everywhere when they fought the holy war, as well as waste away their personal strength and population as well as the humans’. However, they would always end the war in an anticlimactic manner. As it turned out, they never planned on destroying mankind!
“The demons are about to this full-blown war mainly to deal with you, because you have the ability to destroy Demon God Pillars, which makes the demons afraid. They’re most afraid of their foundations being shaken. Two Demon God Pillars isn’t a lot, but it’s an extremely bad beginning. Otherwise, the Demon God Emperor wouldn’t be so persistent in killing you. However, what I am ceratin about is even if the demons successfully make it into the union, they won’t destroy everything in there. They might even retreat in the end. Of course, you won’t be able to avoid this calamity. You’ll be harvested like mature wheat.”
Xiao Huo analysed it completely and clearly. If it were not for the fact that Long Haochen was aware he had been slumbering in the cavern the entire time, he probably would have believed he was the wisest elder of the Temple Union.
Reaching there, Xiao Huo paused and a golden light flashed through his eyes. He said sternly, “We need to stop this calamity. Once we suffer great losses again, everything we’ve built up over the several thousand years would go to waste. We’d be rounded up and reared once more. We might never be able to overthrow the demons again. As a result, we can’t let the demons make it into the union no matter what. I’ve said earlier that the issue with your thinking is with regards to defence. If you think about it the other way and attack instead, how would we face against the demons?”
“Attack?” Long Haochen like he was just enlightened. He immediately gained inspiration. Although it was blurry, he seemed to have grasped something.