All demons shared the common characteristics of being egotistical and vain beings, intolerant of any outside doubt in themselves. This feeling was redoubled when it came to their demonic comrades.
Roguemist’s words elicited a cackle from Serratewind. “Daoist Roguemist, why don’t you know who Daoist Jadeface is?”
“Why do you ask me that?” Roguemist darkened.
Serratewind cackled. “You attacked that old leader of Coiling Dragon, but intentionally let one of his subordinate elders live. What did you mean by that? Didn’t you intend to send him back so that he could act as your sleeper agent as a living dead?”
Roguemist wasn’t particularly upset that his conspiracy came to light. Serratewind had followed him for quite a while, after all.
“What does that have to do with Jadeface?”
“A lot, actually! We took the opportunity to pull a little trick as well. Elder Yuan Chi is Daoist Jadeface in disguise.” Serratewind’s laughter pierced the ear, causing Roguemist to furrow his brow in displeasure.
He felt rather humiliated.
The initiative of the yin demons meant that the shadow demons shouldn’t have interfered. At least, that was the case according to unspoken demonic rules.
The latter’s brazen flaunting of their racial understandings was frankly insulting.
Alas, he had to continue in his miserable fellows’ company. The only thing he could do to vent was snicker, “You shadow demons are certainly cunning.”
Serratewind cackled once more, having obviously taken it as a compliment.
“Alright, why put so much stock in our kindred differences? We are allies.”
Roguemist snickered. “Allies, I see. But as your ally, I must remind you not to underestimate Jiang Chen’s own wits.”
“Hmph! You may be afraid of human wits, but we shadow demons have never been. Don’t worry. We will achieve concrete results once we make a move.” Serratewind was supremely confident.
“Are you sure?” Roguemist questioned in a low voice. “Your activity may mean the exposure of all of us!”
“Why would we shadow demons be afraid of showing ourselves? We can disappear into nothingness under the midday sun. You yin demons aren’t too shabby, either. Aren’t you masters of assuming the dead’s identities?” Serratewind’s voice was harsh to the ear, but his words rang true.
Neither kind of demon had much problem with being found.
“Plus, as long as we can destroy this formation node, they won’t be able to restart the Great Formation of Heavenly Soul Confinement anymore. What can the humans do then? When our great armies break through the seal on the other side, we will be able to rejoin them. The human domain will be our oyster. What do we have to be afraid of?”
Serratewind’s goal was clear and practical.
He intended to destroy the formation’s foundations, rendering the formation impossible to reactivate – or at least hinder the speed at which its repairers worked.
Effective and to the point.
That didn’t mean Roguemist wanted to risk his hide along with him though. In his opinion, the plan was a good one, but extremely difficult to execute.
“Do you not agree with me, Roguemist?” Serratewind declared angrily.
“Your idea is wonderful, but are you sure that you can actually destroy that formation? Aren’t you shadow demons masters of assassination and sneak attacks? Why are you focusing on destroying the formation instead of killing Jiang Chen?” Roguemist voiced his own question.
Serratewind laughed. “Jiang Chen? That kid is capable, but the human domain’s biggest obstacle is that formation. He comes in a distant second. If Jiang Chen has no formation up his sleeve, isn’t his head in the bag for us? If our operation is a success, we can just turn around and take him out too.”
Roguemist snickered. “You’re ignoring all the gods under his command, then?”
“Gods? How absurd. They’re all initial level greenhorns. Our brave warriors – yes, even demonic demigods like us – have nothing to be afraid of. Moreover, there are three nodes in the formation. He has deployed all his divine servants in the open to one of them, and hidden a few more near another. Those should be the sacred beasts! Therefore, he won’t have many more forces at his command.”
Serratewind knew much more about Jiang Chen than Roguemist did.
“Are you sure,” Roguemist mused, “that the guardians at the second node are the sacred beasts?”
“That’s an elementary deduction. If he put all the gods under his command at one node, he can’t possibly be leaving the other ones unprotected, can he? Where else is he going to get gods from? Does he have bean soldiers to call upon?”
Roguemist found that he had nothing to say in disagreement.
Neither demon was capable of taking the factor of the Six Palaces of Heritage into account – an important one which was coincidentally fully beyond their comprehension.
“Tell me, what do I have to do?” His mental obstacles cleared away, Roguemist found himself tempted by the prospect.
“Easy, very easy. Send as many ghouls and puppets to the two protected nodes to create a disturbance,” chuckled Serratewind.
“So nothing at all, then?” Roguemist frowned with displeasure.
“We shadow demons will take care of it. We’re adept at assassination and sneaking, are we not?”
Serratewind had a very thick skin. He could rattle off a shameless statement like that with ease.
Roguemist looked rather shifty. “You’ve certainly got everything plotted out. This place is largely unprotected against your opportunism, while you’re sending me to die against a bunch of gods?”
“How can you say we’re sending you to die? You’re only controlling some ghouls and corpses, aren’t you? I’m not asking you to charge in yourself. Really, we shadow demons have no talent for that, and we’re really undermanned right now. Otherwise, we wouldn’t trouble you with that either.” For once, Serratewind was being honest.
Roguemist still wasn’t very happy. “What will I get out of it? If you manage to take out that Jiang Chen, he’s sure to have a lot of treasure. How would I know you haven’t excluded me from a share in the spoils if I’m so far away?”
Demons were unscrupulous pragmatists to the last. They often schemed against each other in their machinations to get ahead.
