Chapter 292: Illusory Paradise (I)
In all the Six Great Temples, candidates to the role of leader were nurtured by the Temple in case of necessity. This rare honor would be given to powerhouses with great talent, but in the whole History of the Temple Alliance, someone under the seventh step of cultivation had never been designated for the role of successor before. And there would never be a ‘single successor’. First of all, the factor of survival of the successor in battle aside, his attitude had to be tested for a long time. Since this was related to the future of the Temple Alliance, none of the Temples could make this kind of choice hastily.
Learning about such a young candidate was something no one present had ever heard of before. And the same went for this designation of ‘sole candidate’. For a moment, some of the people present felt unable to accept this.
And at this time, Ying Suifeng also spoke, “The girl at Long Haochen’s side is called Cai’er and is the sole successor for the position of our Assassin Temple’s leader. Because she used a rather taboo ability during their last mission, she temporarily lost the senses of sight, hearing, basic taste and smell. This is why she couldn’t make her salutations to all of you. Please forgive her for this.”
Han Qian’s and Ying Suifeng’s words undoubtedly shook everyone present, and even caused Long Haochen to feel dumbstruck. Altogether, there were no more but six Temples, and yet, two of these great Temples expressed that they had only one successor at this very moment. And from the look of it, these two were still no more than kids! None of people the other Temples could understand the Knight Temple’s and the Assassin Temple’s thinking. Before even speaking of these kids’ nature, could those two great Temples really make sure that they would survive long enough to be considered being given the opportunity to succeed their present leaders? They looked like they were below twenty, and were also Demon Hunt Squad members. Although Demon Hunt Squads were formed of elites, the danger they faced during missions was also massive.
The priest that Han Qian called brother Lin replied, “Since it is like this, let these two young friends join us. Though, old Han, these news you gave us were really a huge shock! Sole successors, just what are the two of you up to?”
Han Qian revealed a smile, puffing out his chest, “I want all of you to maintain secrecy about it. There’s nothing up if people of our side learn of this matter, but if demons get to know it, the situation will be extremely complicated.”
The white haired elder standing above all the others spoke next, “Like Han Qian says, none of you is allowed to talk blindly about this after getting out from there.
These two young friends are really promising. Han Qian, Ying Suifeng, your two great Temples really picked up treasures!”
Facing the white-haired elder, Han Qian bowed with the etiquette of a junior to his senior, giving him a respectful reply, “Many thanks to Senior Saint Jizan.”
The white haired elder nodded with a smile on his face, sweeping another glance past Long Haochen and saying with a sigh, “What a shame it is.”
Han Qian smiled in response. Of course, he knew what the white haired elder’s words implied. He clearly found it a shame that Long Haochen didn’t come from his Priest Temple. Visibly, considering Long Haochen’s talent, if he had emerged from the Priest Temple, he would be bound to turn out as one of the greatest geniuses of their younger generation, and wouldn’t be able to escape this position of sole successor either. However, this was simply impossible, just because of the identity of Long Haochen’s father.
The priest Ling Xiao spoke, “Let’s keep our meeting going then.”
Han Qian nodded, telling Long Haochen in a low voice, “Haochen, this person is grandfather Ling Xiao. After this meeting ends, you’d better thank this grandfather Ling properly. He’s the one who treated a great part of your wounds.”
After saying this, Han Qian sat back to his former position, concentrating on the meeting.
Long Haochen wouldn’t have thought that this serious-looking priest would actually be the one who treated him. Although he had lost consciousness for two whole days, all this time, he had been feeling a warm spiritual energy flow into his body, restoring the channels in his body from the damage they sustained. So it actually turned out to be this priest.
This golden gowned elder seemed to be also a Saint. But in this case, what level could this white haired elder have reached? It seemed that compared to him, everyone here was a junior.
Ling Xiao declared, “Then we should continue discussing the various reports of the situation. We have already entirely swept through the battlefield, but this time, the damage inflicted to the Southern Mountain’s City was disastrous. As the consulate of the city, I am assuming the entire responsibility for that. My command was improper, and my actions will have to be reviewed by the Alliance.”
Han Qian sighed and gave a response to this, “Brother Ling, you cannot say that. How could we blame this on you? The enemy just came too suddenly. Twelve demon gods, with half of them in the top thirty-six of the rankings, were a battle formation that any of our frontiers wouldn’t have been able to resist. This time, we don’t know what drove the demons mad like that, but if not for Elder Ling’s command, we wouldn’t even have made it there in time.”
Ling Xiao’s look still appeared gloomy, and with a sigh, he continued, “Although we don’t know for which reasons the demons came, our damage was just too disastrous this time. Out of the two hundred thousand troops our defense originally had, there are only fifty thousand left, with half of them being wounded. The Magic Cannons of the Southern Mountain’s City have all been destroyed, and more than a third of our headquarters’ Priest Regiment died in combat. Finally, six of our Cardinals of the eighth step died.”
Saying this, he couldn’t bear it anymore. Slapping the table hard, his eyes were filled with pain.
The white haired elder wrinkled his brows, “Ling Xiao, calm down. As the executive responsible of the Priest Temple, stop getting so irascible.”
Ling Xiao bowed his head before the white haired elder, “Yes, grandfather.”
Hearing the word ‘grandfather’, Long Haochen was immediately in great shock. That person was a Saint! As for a Saint’s grandfather, he should at least be two hundred years old. Even compared to every member of the legendary Demon Hunt Squad of that time, this was the oldest person Long Haochen had met so far. Furthermore, this elder emitted an aura that wasn’t the slightest bit inferior compared to the six of that time.
Proceeding to control his emotion, Ling Xiao continued, “During this battle, the Southern Mountain’s side sustained damages in all respects, that can be said to have gotten out of our grasp. If not for Brother Han and Brother Ying’s prompt arrival, the only final result that could have emerged was a complete destruction. However, we also caused the enemy troops to suffer massive losses.”
“The demon offense was extremely sudden and happened without any prior warning. Our intelligence in the demon territory unexpectedly didn’t get any news at all. And this time, demons didn’t only dispatch twelve demon gods, but also an army with close to a million troops, while attacking violently day and night, without pause. Our casualties are uncountable, but although none of those twelve demon gods died, at least eight ended up heavily wounded, and won’t be able to go to battle for a certain time. And their casualties in terms of powerhouses of the seventh step and above is three times ours.”
Ling Xiao’s voice finally contained some excitement. Indeed, relatively speaking, the Southern Mountain’s City couldn’t be said to have lost this battle, and although it was almost completely destroyed, they still caused an enormous destruction to the demonkind’s side.
Although the demons were extremely numerous, and their territory was three times larger than that of the Temple Alliance, contrarily to their low ranked demons serving as cannon fodder, they still only had a limited number of powerhouses. As for those formidable innately powerful demons at the top of their ranking, their reproducing ability was also a great problem. Otherwise, how could humankind have lasted so far?
Just like for the Southern Mountain’s City, this battle caused a great loss to the demon side, though the only pity was that they didn’t manage to kill a few Demon Gods.
Han Qian declared, “Rest at ease, Brother Ling. We are only the first batch of reinforcements that rushed over. After your request for rescue, the Alliance has immediately responded, gathering a large army to assist us. Within ten days, another army of at least five hundred thousand troops will be here, listening and obeying to the Southern Mountain’s City’s assignments.”
It was not by a lucky chance that the Temple Alliance could gather so many troops. After all, the Alliance’s organization was designed with the goal of coping with demons.
In terms of topography, the common borders between the Alliance and the demon territory resembled that of the Southern Mountain’s City. Although it didn’t form a natural stronghold like the Exorcist Mountain Pass, the Southern Mountain’s City had a large and unwelcoming lake on its left side. This was their natural fortress, making it so that the demons could only attack the city from the front or the right.
Each of the strategic towns located in the Temple Alliance possessed a massive military force, and the Six Great Temples’ cities were the most important of these strongholds. In addition to this, the Alliance also had their main force gathered in the vicinity of the Holy City. In case a problem arose somewhere, a rescue force would immediately be dispatched. This was also the reason why the Holy City was located in the center of the Temple Alliance.
The Temple Alliance’s territory was far from being as vast as the demon territory, but for this same reason, only ten days were needed to rush out from the Holy City to either of the six strategic towns, and the time could be decreased even further. Thus, the reinforcements could arrive at a fast speed. This time, the Southern Mountain’s City only narrowly avoided destruction, therefore, they naturally immediately provided them some backing.
Ling Xiao nodded, “That would be for the best. I have already given the order to dispatch the craftsmen from the periphery of the town. Thus, blacksmiths will soon arrive in the Southern Mountain’s City, restoring the city’s defenses as fast as they can, to avoid giving any more opportunity to the enemy.”
Han Qian asked, “Brother Ling, do you know why the demons would suddenly launch such a fierce attack? Over the past years, this sort of situation had never occurred. This was completely different from their usual behavior.”
Ling Xiao replied with a bitter smile, “We started to understand these reasons after the start of this demon attack. It was once again for the Illusory Paradise.”
Hearing the words Illusory Paradise, Han Qian’s face was immediately filled with a look of surprise, “So you are saying that the Illusory Paradise is about to reopen?”
Ling Xiao nodded, “Even grandfather only started to sense the elemental fluctuations that came through the Illusory Paradise a few days ago. Before a month passes, the Illusory Paradise will reopen.”
