Chapter 1870: Gathering Large Artifacts
After a day of fighting, the battlefield finally showed a confrontation between two large armies. Then the Great Realm of Cultivation began to retreat with Zhao Hai’s first army holding up the rear. This didn’t give the Heavenly Demons any chance to pursue.
The immortal experts also withdrew from combat. This freed the immortal experts of the Heavenly Demons to attack Zhao Hai. However, they weren’t able to gain great results. This was because Zhao Hai’s released Undead were very powerful.
Seeing that they couldn’t do anything, the Heavenly Demons stopped putting effort in their attack. With Zhao Hai holding up the rear, the Heavenly Demons have no choice but to be cautious.
With Zhao Hai’s successful blockade of the Heavenly Demons, the Great Realm of Cultivation’s army was able to safely return to their camps. However, the mood of the cultivator army wasn’t very good. The complexion of the nine sect masters wasn’t good either. Meanwhile, the ordinary cultivators were depressed. They thought that they could expel the Heavenly Demons this time. They didn’t expect that they would fail.
The only group that wasn’t affected by the result was the Freedom Alliance’s army. This wasn’t the first or second time that the first army fought against the Heavenly Demons. In this battle, the first army neither suffered losses nor gained an advantage. Therefore, their mood remained the same as before.
Because the battle was initially a defense of the Myriad Demons Sect, Zhao Hai and the others returned to the Myriad Demons Sect’s territory. The sect masters of the super sects met with Zhao Hai and the other sect masters in the meeting hall. In one glance, one could feel that the mood of the hall was quite low.
Everyone just sat down without speaking for quite some time. Then suddenly, Jiao Hualong turned his head to Zhao Hai and said, “This old Jiao wants to thank Mister Zhao Hai for his help. If it wasn’t for Mister, my Myriad Demon Sect army would have suffered even more losses.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and then cupped his fist towards Jiao Hualong before saying, “We’re allies after all and we have a common enemy. We would be at a disadvantage if something happens to you. Sect Master Jiao doesn’t need to be too polite.”
Jiao Hualong nodded, then he turned his head to Jian Wuya and the others before saying, “Let me apologize to you as well. If the Myriad Demons Sect didn’t ask for help, you wouldn’t have suffered huge losses.”
Jian Wuya waved his hand and said, “Old Jiao, there’s no need to be so polite. All of us here want to deal with the Heavenly Demons. We might have lost a lot today, but the Heavenly Demons suffered losses as well. What’s important is the loss of our immortal experts. We’re now reduced to less than half of our immortal experts. It’s quite hard to accept such losses.”
Abbott Numu sighed and said, “I didn’t expect that we would lose so many immortal experts in one day. Fortunately, the Heavenly Demons lost the same amount as us. But we can’t continue fighting like this. If this goes on, we won’t have any immortal experts left.”
Everyone nodded. The sacrifice of the immortal experts caused their hearts to ache. Every immortal expert death was a damage to the Great Realm of Cultivation’s foundation.
Zhao Hai looked at everyone and said, “The next time we fight the Heavenly Demons, we won’t send our immortal experts. I think the Heavenly Demons couldn’t accept more losses as well, so they won’t send their immortal experts. If they did, then my Undead would handle them.”
Everyone nodded except the sect masters of the nine super sects. The way the other sect masters looked at Zhao Hai became different. Zhao Hai was essentially facing the attacks of the immortal Heavenly Demons on his own. This made the other sect masters grateful. And after Zhao Hai held the backlines today, the sect masters now had a favorable look towards Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai looked at the sect masters and didn’t say anything, neither did he show any good will. As long as these sect masters show a favorable impression towards him, that was already enough. As for other things, that was for later.
Meanwhile, Jian Wuya and the others were currently worrying about the war with the Heavenly Demons. Because of this, they weren’t able to notice this change.
Looking at the distressed expressions of the nine super sect masters, Zhao Hai opened his mouth and said, “Our main goal now is to drive the Heavenly Demons back to the Heavenly Demon Realm. As long as they are here, we wouldn’t live in peace. Now is not the time to stop and hide in our sh.e.l.ls. If you trust me, hand all of your large artifacts for me and my Undead to control. In the next battle, the frontlines would be composed of large artifacts. I can guarantee that the Heavenly Demons aren’t as good as using large artifacts as me. As long as their large artifacts are destroyed, their strength would be greatly damaged. When the time comes, even with their immortal experts, they wouldn’t be able to fight against us.”
Upon hearing Zhao Hai, the sect masters of the nine super sects couldn’t help but stare. Then they raised their brows. Large artifacts were very important to any sect. If Zhao Hai was handed their large artifacts, then he would be able to know their strong and weak points. This wasn’t a good thing for the sects.
At this moment, a ‘bang’ sound was suddenly heard. Everyone turned their heads to see that it was Jiao Hualong who had a grim expression as he said, “Alright. My Myriad Demons Sect will hand over all of our large artifacts. These large artifacts would be useless if we can’t drive the Heavenly Demons out of the Great Realm of Cultivation. The large artifacts aren’t as important as the Soaring Dragon Realm.”
Everyone stared. They didn’t think Jiao Hualong would support Zhao Hai, Jian Wuya and the others were the most surprised. This wasn’t the first time either. When they were retreating, it was Jiao Hualong who agreed to Zhao Hai which caused the other sect masters to agree as well. Otherwise, they would have continued fighting until now. When did the Myriad Demons Sect begin to trust Zhao Hai? Wasn’t their enmity the greatest?
However, they changed their thoughts before long. What Jiao Hualong said was reasonable. Large artifacts were precious, but it wasn’t as valuable as the Soaring Dragon Realm. If they lost the qualifications to enter the Soaring Dragon Realm, their foundations would be completely destroyed. Then with their losses against the Heavenly Demons, the Great Realm of Cultivation would fall soon after.
After some time, Jian Wuya looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Although the Heaven Sect has large artifacts, they are the swords of our Elders. Even if we give them to Mister Zhao Hai, you won’t be able to use them. Instead, I can have our Elders listen to Mister Zhao Hai’s commands.”
Jian Wuya’s words indicated support for Zhao Hai. It seems like he also understood the current situation. He knew that if they didn’t evict the Heavenly Demons, the Heaven Sect would be a landowner with lands taken away by bandits. Therefore, he decided to support Zhao Hai.
With two of the nine sect masters expressing their support, the others looked at each other and then agreed to Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai looked at everyone and said, “The battle damaged our armies greatly. Let’s recuperate for two days. After two days, we’ll attack with all our strength.”
Jian Wuya nodded, “We do indeed need to take rest. Alright, then we’ll attack the Heavenly Demons two days later.” The others didn’t oppose it. Jian Wuya failed to notice that they were giving Zhao Hai more and more right to speak. This might be because they were beginning to accept Zhao Hai’s strength.
Zhao Hai looked at Jian Wuya and the others and said, “However, we shouldn’t waste the two days. Gather all the large artifacts as well as the elders of the Heaven Sect. In two days, I’ll do my best to familiarize myself with the combat methods of the large artifacts.”
Jiao Hualong replied, “Alright. Since we already promised to hand our large artifacts over, it won’t matter if we give it now or later. As long as we defeat the Heavenly Demons, everything else is easy.” Jian Wuya and the others nodded. It was clear that they were anxious this time.
Just like Jiao Hualong said, as long as they can repel the Heavenly Demons, anything else would be easy to deal with. The only important thing for the nine super sects at this time was to protect their qualification to enter the Soaring Dragon Realm, everything else can be sacrificed
Although the decision was made between Zhao Hai and the nine super sect masters, the other sect masters didn’t oppose the result. This was a decision made by the peak powers of the Great Realm of Cultivation. They wouldn’t dare block their plans; especially at this time. If Zhao Hai and the nine super sects fall, then the next ones to suffer would be the other sects.
With the matter taken care of, Zhao Hai returned to the first army and commanded everyone to take a rest. At the same time, he took all of the army’s large artifacts and waited for the large artifacts of all the sects.
The nine super sects were very swift. Not long after Zhao Hai returned, they began sending large artifacts to Zhao Hai’s location. At the same time, the immortal elders of the Heaven Sect were given to Zhao Hai to command.
Altogether, Zhao Hai had about 2000 large artifacts as well as 500 Heaven Sect Elders under his control. This totaled to 2500 large artifacts. It was an extraordinary amount.
However, Zhao Hai knew that the upcoming battle would be difficult. The Heavenly Demons also had a lot of large artifacts. They might even have more large artifacts than the Great Realm of Cultivation. Depending on the large artifacts to win the battle would be difficult.