Blood Battle Valley was deep, secluded, and silent.
Three figures plummeted at great speed, landing on the ground.
Lin Lei looked around. Blood Battle Valley was sparsely populated. Glancing ahead, he could make out a towering stone stele with reasonable clarity. As for some of the buildings shrouded in the thin mist, they were impossible to discern.
"There are plenty of Four Divine Beast clan warriors patrolling the cliff walls, but Blood Battle Valley itself has few people. That makes sense — at minimum, you'd need to be a six-star demon to enter." Lin Lei was still carefully surveying the valley. Meanwhile, Emmanuel and Felhan had already taken long strides forward.
The moment they started walking, Emmanuel turned his head to look at Lin Lei. "Lin Lei, you've never been here before, have you?"
"No, I haven't." Lin Lei had absolutely no好感 for this Emmanuel.
*Whoosh~~~* A sudden blast of frigid wind howled past, and Lin Lei felt a chill run through his body. He couldn't help but think with surprise, "The wind in Blood Battle Valley is actually this cold?"
Felhan couldn't help but laugh. "Lin Lei, Blood Battle Valley is the core of the Heaven Sacrifice Mountain Range and also the most frigid place. The cold wind in the valley would instantly freeze a lower god if one were to descend. But for you, Lin Lei, this bit of cold wind naturally counts for nothing."
" Elder Felhan, let's just go in first."
Lin Lei couldn't be bothered to say much more to this father-and-son pair, so he immediately headed deeper into the valley. The ground inside Blood Battle Valley was covered with plenty of smooth, rounded stones, along with patches of wild grass. But down the center, a neatly paved stone path still stretched onward.
At the very front of Blood Battle Valley, a towering stone stele stood on one side of the path.
Two dark-red characters — "Blood Battle" — were written on the stele in bold, sweeping strokes. As Lin Lei gazed at those two characters, he felt a wave of bloody, murderous intent wash over him, and he couldn't suppress the surge of killing intent rising in his heart.
"Felhan, Emmanuel — so it's you two who came this time. Haha…" A hearty laugh rang out. Lin Lei turned toward the voice and saw a kindly, approachable middle-aged man walking over with a smile. The man had a full beard, but it was neatly trimmed, giving him a fresh, clean appearance.
Lin Lei looked at the newcomer.
"Thorhouse!" Felhan smiled and walked over to greet him, embracing the bearded man. "It's been a long time."
"It really has been too long." The man called "Thorhouse" also gave Emmanuel a smiling nod before turning to Lin Lei. With a hint of confusion, he said, "I knew three elders were coming this time, but I've never seen this one before… Oh, I know!"
Thorhouse's expression shifted to one of sudden realization, and he smiled at Lin Lei. "I've been in Blood Battle Valley, but I've heard that our Azure Dragon Clan has added a new elder."
"Thorhouse. Elder Lin Lei, right?" Thorhouse said with a smile, extending his hand.
"That's right. Elder Thorhouse, nice to meet you." Lin Lei smiled and shook his hand.
Lin Lei felt some goodwill toward Thorhaus. As for Felhan and Emmanuel, the father and son — Lin Lei genuinely disliked them from the bottom of his heart. Whether it was Emmanuel or Felhan, both gave him the impression of being sinister and ruthless. And Emmanuel's actions had only confirmed his judgment.
"A warm welcome to all three of you. Come, follow me to see the Grand Elder," Thorhouse said with a smile.
"Mother?" Felhan's eyes lit up involuntarily.
Lin Lei glanced at Felhan's and Emmanuel's expressions — the two of them were clearly very eager to see the Grand Elder. This Grand Elder was a blood sibling of the clan leader, Gatesleisen, and her strength was second only to the clan leader's within the entire family.
"Lin Lei, it's been a long time since our clan produced a new elder," Thorhouse said warmly. "I also heard about your sparring match with Emmanuel — your strength is truly impressive. When you go out to fight for the clan in the future, you must bring honor to our Azure Dragon Clan."
"I will," Lin Lei said with a nod and a smile.
Seeing that Thorhouse kept directing his attention to Lin Lei, Felhan couldn't help but cut in. "Thorhouse, how are things going right now in our war against those eight great families?"
"What can I say?" Thorhouse shook his head and sighed. "Those eight great families — they're simply overwhelming us with sheer numbers. Combined, their seven-star demons outnumber ours. If this bloody war continues as it is… in another ten to twenty thousand years, the total number of seven-star demons across all four of our Divine Beast clans won't even reach ten."
Lin Lei was stunned.
"Ten to twenty thousand years, and we'd lose that many?" Lin Lei couldn't help but ask. "Surely the four Divine Beast clans currently have close to a hundred seven-star demons?"
The Azure Dragon Clan alone had thirty-six, and across all four clans the total should have exceeded a hundred seven-star demons. In just ten to twenty thousand years, they'd be reduced to only ten?
"Lin Lei, I've heard you only recently returned to the clan," Thorhouse said helplessly. "You're not too familiar with the situation. But I'm sure that at the Elder Assembly, you'll learn about what we've lost over this past millennium."
Lin Lei nodded.
Over the past thousand years, they had killed two of the enemy's seven-star demons, but two of their own seven-star demons had also suffered severe damage.
"Within the Azure Dragon Clan alone, we lost two seven-star demons in a thousand years. Of course, Giveth used his original body to refine a divine spark, so his strength has recovered. But he's lost any chance of further advancement."
Thorhouse continued, "Over a thousand years, the four Divine Beast clans combined lose at least five or six. In the worst cases, losing more than ten elders is perfectly normal. Do the math — how many would we lose in ten thousand years?"
Lin Lei did the calculation and was alarmed.
In ten thousand years, at least seventy or eighty elders would be gone.
"So that's why I'm saying — if things continue like this, in ten to twenty thousand years, our clans won't have many seven-star demons left." Thorhouse's voice was bitter. "There's nothing we can do. The eight great families could fight us to the last of our elders, and they'd probably still have more than half of their seven-star demons remaining!"
Lin Lei nodded.
When he had first arrived at the Azure Dragon Clan, he'd heard that any single one of the eight great families was no weaker than the Azure Dragon Clan. Combined, the eight great families had far more seven-star demons than the four Divine Beast clans.
"Lin Lei, do you know how many elders our clan had before the Ancestor's death?" Thorhouse asked.
"How many?" Lin Lei pressed.
"Over sixty. And that was just for the Azure Dragon Clan alone," Thorhouse said. Lin Lei couldn't help but marvel inwardly, "No wonder people say the four Divine Beast clans could dominate across the various planes. Not only was their backing formidable, but their own strength was astonishing as well."
"It's just that during the retreat, enemies from every direction kept chasing and killing us. Lin Lei, you should know — only a few clans pursued us all the way to the Hell-level plane. In the original planes, we had far more enemies," Thorhouse said helplessly.
These four Divine Beast clans had really made too many enemies.