The ten forefathers tensed and exchanged a glance, reaching an understanding. Jiang Chen had gone above and beyond, doing what they should’ve done and resolving concerns that should’ve been their responsibilities.
It was only right for them to display their might for the coming battle.
Eternal’s forefather boomed, “Jiang Chen is right, fellow daoists. Battles like these are won by the bold! We must exert our dominance over them. I believe that the ten sacred lands are able to defeat any foe on this continent. As long as they aren’t bandits from outside this world, we are guaranteed to win. Once we do, their confidence will suffer a serious blow.”
“You’re right. Cultivators escaped from the Boundless Prison may be ambitious, but they’re but a disparate group. Although they’ve banded together in the short term, they aren’t going to work together as well as we do. As long as we catch them off guard and kill a couple of their strongest fighters, the group will disperse.”
It was a rare occasion in which the forefathers reach a consensus.
Their eagerness to fight rea.s.sured Jiang Chen. If the forefathers were willing to do their best in the fight, they had a ninety percent chance of winning.
After all, even though the enemies had set up an ambush at the exit, they wouldn’t expect the sacred lands to travel by sea and come from below them.
If the sacred lands launched a surprise attack when the enemies were prepared, their odds would be even better.
The Black Tortoise contacted Jiang Chen through consciousness again. “Young master Chen, the exit is less than a hundred miles away, close enough for my consciousness to scan. There seems to be a formation there and seven divine cultivators awaiting us. There are also a good number of demiG.o.ds. That’s not a lot, but with the formation, they should have the power to defeat you.”
Jiang Chen responded, “If we rush out blindly from the mist, we’ll be easily defeated in the chaos. Now they are the ones in the dark. I believe we’ll be able to catch them by surprise.”
“Alright, but don’t underestimate the enemies. I agreed to transport them to the exit, young master Chen, but I didn’t agree to fight for them.” The Black Tortoise emphasized its point.
Jiang Chen smiled. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan to ask you to do anything. The forefathers of the ten sacred lands should be able to win this battle themselves. If they lose even after we take them to the exit, I’ll be gravely disappointed by the so-called greatest of Myriad Abyss.”
They were getting closer and closer to the exit.
The Black Tortoise traveled the last tens of miles at full speed, its enormous body bringing up long tails of white waves. It continued to accelerate faster and faster.
Meanwhile, a group of cultivators were gathered at the mouth of the Sandplain secret realm. They were beginning to have doubts.
According to their estimation, the ten sacred lands should’ve made a move already. However, none of the scouts and ambushes at the front had noticed anything.
They’d remained at the back defending the last post and hadn’t received any warnings either.
“Are they really that patient? Are they staying in the mist, refusing to come out?”
“Hmph, that’s good news for us. They’ll slowly die on the island. Isn’t that what we want the most?”
“It is. However, if they muster the courage to make a break for it, they may have a chance to succeed. Even though we’ll be waiting for them, we’ll suffer great casualties as well.”
“Haha, what a shame that the ten sacred lands consist of a bunch of cowards!” These were the optimists of the group.
Among them was a yellow-browed cultivator with a strange, green lightning mark on his forehead. He seemed to be a leading figure of the cultivators. His expression was grave. Clearly he wasn’t as optimistic.
“Why the sour face, fellow daoist? We’ve set up a series of traps, catching them by surprise. Even if they’re the ten sacred lands, what can they do?”
“That’s right. There’s infighting among the ten sacred lands. Their lack of solidarity is their biggest weakness.”
“They suspect each other and can’t work together. No one can make decisions for everyone. At a critical moment, they’ll be averse to any conflicts. Don’t worry too much, fellow daoist.”
The yellow-browed cultivator said coolly, “You sure are optimistic. However, our spies had been supplying us with information until half an hour ago. Now, they’ve gone silent. Don’t you find that suspicious?”
“What’s suspicious about that? The ten sacred lands are no fools. They may have tightened their control in case there are any traitors. It’ll be more difficult for our spies to send us messages.”
“That’s for certain. However, we planted so many spies. They couldn’t have all failed to send us anything, could they?”
“What are you suggesting, fellow daoist?”
“Could the ten sacred lands have identified all the spies in such a short time? That’s impossible.”
It wasn’t possible to pick out all the spies from tens of thousands of people. Many of them were under deep cover. They wouldn’t be suspected.
The yellow-browed cultivator didn’t have an explanation either. As a powerful cultivator, he had strong instincts. He had a feeling that something fishy was going on.
As for what had gone wrong, he couldn’t figure that out despite his cleverness.
“Focus and don’t underestimate our enemies,” he emphasized. “The ten sacred lands have been able to rule over Myriad Abyss for so long because of their foundations. If we underestimate them, we may fail no matter how good our plan is.”
“Haha, don’t worry, fellow daoist. We’ve divided into two groups to earn our glory. If Master Lightford occupies the ten sacred lands and we strike a blow against them at the same time, Myriad Abyss will be ours.”
The yellow-browed cultivator countered coldly, “It’s easy for you to say, but if we underestimate them because of that, we may be the ones paying the price.”
“Haha, you’ve been talking our enemies up and raining on our parade, fellow daoist,” someone jeered sarcastically. “One might suspect you of wanting to switch to the ten sacred lands’ side.”
The yellow-browed cultivator’s face clouded as he shot the person a glare. “Since you’re all so optimistic, I’ll leave you to it. However, don’t blame me for not warning you when you suffer defeat.”
Suddenly, he looked into the distant sea.