Book 6: Chapter 171: Loyal Followers (4)
Egan’s face steeled as his jaw clenched. He was handed over commanding responsibilities because the higher ranked inner disciples of their sect didn’t want to miss out on the Valley of Geniuses. However, their two allied sects still saw this as a slap to the face because as a fourth ranked quadrant, did they really need the valley on the saint floors? Their own sect core teachings were too good. So, obviously, this was just a made-up excuse.
That said, Egan took this opportunity very seriously. He was tired of others thinking he relied on his family or that he was merely the younger and less talented version of his elder brothers. But, to see the responsibility he was given crumbling before his eyes filled him up with a bottled-up rage because it was yet another genius that he had no hope of surpassing that had interfered.
Who didn’t know how amazing God Sacharro was by now? It was no wonder he had such an amazing wife. Had their sect smashed their foot into an iron plate?
‘No!’ Egan roared in his mind.
The truth was that the sect had already heard about Madeleine’s relationship with Dyon. But, after hearing that Dyon had only sent 3000 young geniuses, they sneered, thinking that Dyon was far too arrogant. However, it seemed that they were the ones who were far too arrogant. In a mere three days, the demon generals had already swept over the gate, conquering two towers and giving the Flaming Lily Sect three total towers.
Of course, since this was an Epistemic Tower gate, there were nine total towers. At the beginning, the Golden Crow sect had five and the Flaming Lily Sect had four. After their sneak attack, the Golden Crow Sect controlled eight, leaving the Flaming Lily Sect with only one. Now the script was beginning to flip again…
Over the past few days, the Golden Crow Sect’s only plan was to defend while planning a swift strike to take down the final tower. However, before they could even act, their aspirations were completely crushed…
Suddenly, another figure rushed in, sweating profusely and breathing hard. “Esteemed Commanders, they’re attacking the Purple Flame Tower!”
Egan blinked. This was good wasn’t it? Every tower had its own dangers. For example, the death qi that Dyon had to deal with back during his first campaign. As for the Purple Flame Tower, it was filled with toxins that could instantly kill any saint if they weren’t constantly using their saint energy to drive the poison away. It was among the most firmly held towers of the Golden Crow Sect because no one dared to attack it.
To all of the commanders, these so-called Demon Generals had gotten too cocky. The Purple Flame Tower obviously wasn’t among the towers that the Flaming Lily Sect originally held. They couldn’t understand why those Demon Generals would leap frog, so to speak, over re-capturing one of their past towers to instead attack the Purple Flame Tower. In fact, because of the position of the tower, it even left them susceptible to a pincer attack from the North and South.
“Commanders! They seem completely immune to the poisons!”
“What?!” All three commanders spoke out at once, standing from their chairs. That was completely impossible!
If they truly grasped the Purple Flame Tower, they would have the most easily defended tower of the nine. On top of that, they would have a perfect point to attack both forward toward the Golden Crow Sect’s final tower, and backward toward the Epistemic Tower! If this happened, and the Epistemic Tower was re-conquered, the Golden Crow Sect’s key wielder would lose his position!
Egan felt like his world was falling apart. This would definitely be blamed on him entirely. How could anyone think that 3000 geniuses could change something in a war that scaled to the tens of millions? The sect would definitely think that it was all due to his incompetence.
He grit his teeth. “We’ll go all out with them! Command one corps to come from the Golden Flame Tower, one from the Red Flame Tower, one from the Epistemic Tower! Since they want to so blatantly slap our face, we’ll pincer them from three sides!”
“Commander Goldeen, the distance from the Epistemic Tower to the Purple Flame tower is too far and treacherous, it might now be worth it. A pincer from two sides is enough. In the case that we fail, at least the Epistemic Tower will have adequate protection.”
The one who spoke was the final commander of the three, a young woman from the Flame Rebirth Sect. Because of some luck their ancestors had, they managed to find a few intact corpses of adult Vermillion birds, a distant relative of Phoenix ranked as Transcendent beasts.
The vermillion bloodline that coursed through their veins was far weaker than the same quantity of phoenix blood, however, they had much more of it while also maintaining a monopoly.
That aside, a large part of the reason the Flame Rebirth Sect agreed to participate was exactly because of this truth. They wanted the secrets Madeleine had in her bloodline. Legend had it that it was possible for vermillions to evolve into phoenixes, but, for obvious reasons, they didn’t have any phoenixes to use in their tests.
Although Madeleine didn’t advertise exactly what her faith seed was, the purple flames she used were one of a kind and easily sensed by those with Phoenix and Phoenix related Bloodlines. They needed her.
Egan shook his head. “It’s for exactly this reason that we’ll do it this way. We’ll lull them into a false sense of security with a pincer from two sides, before sweeping them away with a final one to cut off their path to escape. They’ll never expect that we’d be bold enough to do this, and that’s exactly why it’ll work!”