Sun Naiyong immediately said, “Fang Yun is right. How can we, the human race, be outdone by the Demon Barbarians! Although the Mist Butterfly is not as important as the King of Stars, it is still a great aid, comparable to a true dragon. How can we not compete for it!”
Liu Zizhi slowly said, “Brother Sun, as a descendant of the Military Strategists, you have the courage and the qualification to compete. But Fang Yun is so badly injured, what qualification does he have to compete for the Mist Butterfly?”
Li Fanming immediately retorted, “If even a Presented Scholar before the Semi-Saint can’t compete, then no one here is qualified to compete.”
“What!”
Except for Liu Zizhi, the other six Presented Scholars were shocked. Sun Naiyong even leaned in to take a closer look at Fang Yun, staring at him without blinking.
“You really became a Presented Scholar before the Semi-Saint?” Yan Yukong looked at Fang Yun incredulously, his tone tinged with a hint of bitterness.
Zong Wude, a descendant of the Semi-Saint of the Miscellaneous School, silently watched Fang Yun. His heart seemed to have overturned a bottle of mixed flavors, sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, and salty.
Han Shoulu slowly said, “He is not only a Presented Scholar before the Semi-Saint, but also possessed the Courage to Write on the day he became a Presented Scholar. As far as I know, his power of the Courage to Write is very strong, probably close to the first realm.”
“Absurd!” Liu Zizhi couldn’t help but retort, “Ordinary Presented Scholars grind for decades, and their Courage to Write may not be close to the first realm. Even among the Imperial Scholars, there are not many who are close to the first realm of the Courage to Write. Many people only reach the first realm when they become Hanlin Scholars. Among the Presented Scholars who entered the Holy Land this time, apart from Yan Yukong who has reached the first realm, at most a dozen people have entered the first realm, and at most half of the others can be said to be ‘close’ to the first realm. I can’t even get close to the first realm!”
“Fact is stronger than eloquence. If you are not convinced, you can compare the power of the Courage to Write with Master Fang.” Li Fanming said.
Yan Yukong coughed lightly and said, “Our goal this time is the Mist Butterfly or the King of Stars, let’s not fight among ourselves. Let’s first discuss whether or not to compete for the Mist Butterfly, and how to compete.”
“The problem is, the two clans of the Demon Barbarians may use means to prevent us from easily competing for the Mist Butterfly. Since it is a three-way competition, the Imperial Army will divide one thousand, and there are ten Demon Marshals and Golden Guards. Our human race will fight four, and the other two will each fight three. This can barely be accepted. However, they will definitely want us to choose more. Then our pressure may double, and we can’t do it.”
“Fang Yun is so powerful, why not let him be responsible for the three Demon Marshals, then we will be relaxed.” Liu Zizhi said.
Yan Yukong said coldly, “Liu Zizhi, you need to distinguish between priorities! If you dare to be presumptuous in front of me again. Get out, or I’ll make you get out!”
Liu Zizhi’s face turned red, he didn’t expect the usually kind Yan Yukong to be so angry. Knowing that he was in the wrong, he didn’t say a word.
Fang Yun slowly said, “Once or twice is enough, but not three or four times. I’ve let you off twice, if you dare to provoke me at this time, don’t blame me for destroying your Writing Palace on the spot! If you think I can’t kill you because I’m injured, you can try.”
Fang Yun looked at Liu Zizhi, his eyes seemed to contain an iceberg, emitting endless cold.
Even the Demon Barbarians not far away looked over, surprised at where a Presented Scholar got such a strong killing intent.
“Hmph!” Liu Zizhi snorted and said nothing.
Xun Ye laughed and said, “Alright, since Brother Liu is silent, let’s put this matter aside. Let’s go and ask the Demon Barbarians for their opinions.”
Yan Yukong nodded and said to the Demon Barbarians, “We, the human race, want to compete for the Mist Butterfly. We will take on four Demon Marshals and a thousand Imperial Army. How about it?”
A Horse Barbarian General laughed and said, “Where is such a good thing! Want to compete for the Mist Butterfly and only kill one more Demon Marshal than us? These Demon Marshals are not Demon Marshals of the Saint Clan, nor are they old Demon Marshals. They all entered here after reaching the peak of Demon General, and then recently broke through to become Demon Marshals. Even if their golden armor is special, even if they have the means bestowed by the Demon Emperor, they are just ordinary Demon Marshals.”
“What do you want then?” Yan Yukong asked.
Another Demon Clan loudly said, “Want to take the Mist Butterfly. It’s simple, the Imperial Army has always been united, three thousand are more difficult to deal with than ten Demon Marshals, you not only have to take on three thousand Imperial Army, but also choose four Demon Marshals!”
“Absurd!” Yan Yukong’s face turned pale. He was usually very kind, but this was the Holy Land, and he had to be responsible for more than twenty talented Presented Scholars, so he had to be careful.
Yan Yukong said, “I have participated in the war in the Two Realms Mountain, and I know the power of the Thirteen Armies of the Demon Clan the best. Even if the three of us join forces, these three thousand Imperial Army can make us lose more than half, let alone let our human race face them alone. Which of you Demon Barbarians can face three thousand Imperial Army and four Demon Marshals alone? If you can, go to battle immediately, I will present the Mist Butterfly to you!”
“Hehe, want to get the Mist Butterfly, how can you succeed without paying enough price?”
“That can’t be so extreme either! The Imperial Army can’t just let us deal with it, we can talk about the Demon Marshals, but we absolutely can’t let us deal with the Imperial Army alone. The individual strength of the Imperial Army is indeed not strong, but once they charge together, we can’t stop them!” Yan Yukong said.
The Demon Marshal laughed and said, “Isn’t your human race very good at killing large numbers of Demon civilians and soldiers? Why can’t you do it now? We Demon Barbarians are more suitable for fighting with Demon Marshals.”
“Aren’t your human race’s War Poetry, War Songs, Chessboards and so on very powerful? Can’t even kill three thousand Imperial Army?” The Demon Barbarians laughed and jeered.
Fang Yun had been ignoring the Demon Barbarians, staring at the Imperial Army.
There were no Demon Marshals among the three thousand Imperial Army, only fifty Demon Generals, and the rest were elite Demon soldiers. But even the most elite Demon soldiers were still Demon soldiers, so their individual strength was far inferior to Demon Generals.
However, these Imperial Army had undergone special training, long-term practice and fighting together, which made them condense a Blood Demon Flag, which is the Imperial Army Flag in the sky composed of blood and qi.
Ordinary Blood Demon Flags only have one function, to adjust the blood and qi, to transfer the blood and qi of the Demon Clan with more blood and qi to the Demon Clan with less blood and qi. Just this one point greatly reduces the casualties of the Imperial Army, unless they are killed instantly, otherwise the injured Demon soldiers will quickly recover.
The most common function of the Demon Clan’s blood and qi is to heal wounds, which means that as long as the Demon Clan’s blood and qi are still there, as long as they are not attacked to the vital points, they can keep fighting.
The human race has always dared not use ordinary soldiers to deal with the Imperial Army, because they are not enough to kill, at least ten human lives are needed to exchange for one Imperial Army Demon Clan. They usually let a large number of Imperial Scholars join hands to use the War of Words for a quick fight, or let several Hanlin Scholars use poetry to summon a large number of talented soldiers to fight hard with the Imperial Army.
Apart from this, any conventional methods used by the human clan were ineffective. The Grand Academician could take action, but the Demon King on the other side wouldn’t sit idle.
Currently, the human clan only had over twenty Presented Scholars. Once they were surrounded by the three thousand Imperial City Army, they would undoubtedly die. The best outcome would be mutual destruction.
Fang Yun looked around. Without the Weak Water, even if the cavalry composed of ordinary water was doubled, they would still be easily defeated by the Imperial City Army. The core strength of “The War Poetry of Wind and Rain” was the Weak Water. Without it, it was just an ordinary Presented Scholar’s war poetry. It might seem impressive, but it was no match for the Imperial City Army.
“Are you humans going to fight for the Mist Butterfly or not? If you don’t want it, we will take it.”
“Well then, which of you Demon Barbarians will take on the three thousand Imperial City Army? As long as you can handle the Imperial City Army, we humans will give up the Mist Butterfly!”
“You humans are so strong, so we’re letting you deal with the Imperial City Army. We Demon Barbarians are weak, of course we can’t handle them.”
The two Demon Barbarian clans were just stirring up trouble.
Many Presented Scholars frowned. Those holy Demon Barbarians were indeed annoying. They were clearly waiting for the human clan to offer more treasures. Only when they had paid enough would these Demon Barbarians step back.
The three parties fell into a dispute.
The Demon Kings watched the drama with interest, while the Demon Emperor’s Golden Guards looked on with disdain, convinced that the three parties could not cooperate.
Fang Yun glanced at the slowly closing bronze giant gate, the gap getting smaller and smaller.
“If we humans take on the three thousand Imperial City Army, can all ten Demon Generals belong to you?” Fang Yun suddenly said.
“Huh?”
The Demon Barbarians were stunned, and so were the Presented Scholars beside Fang Yun. They all gave Fang Yun a look, telling him not to talk nonsense. That was the Imperial City Army, and it would take at least twenty Imperial Scholars to quickly resolve the three thousand Imperial City Army. If it were Presented Scholars, they would need at least a couple of hundred to start a war.
The two Demon Barbarian clans looked at each other and laughed. They knew better than the humans how terrifying the Imperial City Army was, and they would love for the humans to bite that hard bone.
Bear Cang loudly said, “Since you have chosen the Imperial City Army, we two Demon Barbarian clans will join forces to deal with the ten Golden Guards. Remember to help us after you have wiped out the Imperial City Army!”
The Demon Barbarians roared with laughter.
Yan Yukong looked at Fang Yun seriously and said, “I’m not doubting you, but you have never personally fought against the Demon Clan’s Imperial City Army. You have no idea how powerful they are! Once, a team led by an Imperial Scholar was accidentally surrounded by the Imperial City Army, and they were all killed in just a short while. The Imperial City Army has many ways of launching joint attacks, which can easily break our defenses!”
“Brother Fang, you know I never see you as an enemy, but this time… sigh, I’m telling you as a military strategist who has been guarding the border for five years, you’ve bitten off more than you can chew.” Sun Naiyong sighed.
Mo Shu helplessly said, “If my mechanical elephant was still here, we might have a chance to fight. But the mechanical elephant was severely damaged by the holy Demon Barbarians, and I can’t do anything about these Demon soldiers and generals. I have also fought against the Demon Clan’s Thirteen Army in the Two Realms Mountain. Let’s put it this way, if we have three Hanlin Scholar-level mechanical elephants, we might be able to win. Otherwise… it’s hard to say.”
Liu Zizhi suddenly let out a heavy sigh, not saying a word, leaving Fang Yun with no handle to grab. But this sigh was more sarcastic than silence.
Shi Tang said, “I don’t want to persuade you, but you really underestimate the Imperial City Army. If it were raining Weak Water at this moment, I believe you would definitely win. But there’s no Weak Water to use here, you’re bound to lose. Your Imperial Scholar’s Treasures of Literature, the zither, has been painted with thunderstone lacquer, but if you want to wipe out the three thousand Imperial City Army, it would at least require an Imperial Scholar at the second realm of zither playing.”
Yan Yukong and the others looked blank. Use the Weak Water? The Imperial Scholar’s Treasures of Literature, the zither, painted with thunderstone lacquer?
Fang Yun said, “Different people have different advantages. If I were to fight those Demon Clan’s Golden Guards in golden armor now, I could hurt them, but it would be hard to kill them. But when facing a large number of Demon soldiers and generals, I have a way to deal with them. Everyone, I know you mean well, but I’ve decided on this Mist Butterfly! It’s of great use to me!”
With the Mist Butterfly, it was equivalent to having the Weak Water cavalry, not to mention the benefits that were still unknown.
“So… I choose to believe in you.” Yan Yukong took a deep breath. (To be continued.)