Seeing the desire for battle on everyone else's faces, Jiang Chen smiled and said: "Everyone, our war against the demon race will not be decided in a single day—it will be a long and arduous campaign. Don't rush. Holding Wan Yuan Island is itself a feat of merit. When the records of contributions are compiled in the future, your names will surely be among them. There will be plenty of opportunities to fight the demons. But before that, you must all cultivate diligently. Once you face the demons, you'll realize that every drop of sweat you shed now will spare you a drop of blood later."
Everyone spoke up in succession: "We will follow Young Master Jiang Chen's orders without question, and never seek credit through reckless advance."
Though they envied An Jiaye for obtaining the Glazed Divine Talisman, they weren't truly jealous. After all, An Jiaye's mission carried no small amount of risk.
"Good. Just remember—Dong Yan Island is the critical nexus for our war against the demon race. Whether the Demon Suppression Campaign succeeds or fails, this place is of utmost importance. That should make you understand just how significant the responsibility on your shoulders truly is."
Defending Dong Yan Island was of tremendous strategic importance.
However, with the help of such a powerful formation array, defending it wouldn't be too difficult. Most importantly, the demon race hadn't yet assembled in large numbers, nor had they launched any large-scale assault on Dong Yan Island.
Even if one or two demon lineages gathered together, they would pose little effective threat to the current Dong Yan Island.
After giving his instructions and arranging the defenses of Dong Yan Island, Jiang Chen wasted no time. He began studying the map, preparing to set out for the Immortal Sacred Land to provide aid.
"Chen Shao, the Immortal Sacred Land is the closest to us. The demons will surely anticipate that you'll go to their rescue, so this journey may be exceptionally dangerous," Vermilion Bird Divine Beast warned.
Jiang Chen was well aware of the danger.
However, he had no choice—the Immortal Sacred Land absolutely could not fall.
"Old Brother Vermilion Bird, the Immortal Sacred Land is among the Ten Great Sacred Lands the one most skilled in artifact refining. When I was at the Eternal Sacred Land, I once obtained a spiritual vein containing Pentachrome Crystals. Using those as a foundation for forging, the spiritual artifacts refined from them would possess a natural counter-affinity against the demon race. If I could forge all those Pentachrome Crystals into demon-subduing weapons, the significance to this war would be immeasurable!"
The Pentachrome Crystals were connected to the Primordial White Tiger—Vermilion Bird Divine Beast and the others had known about that back then.
"Chen Shao, how many divine weapons can those crystals produce?"
"If we're forging Divine Artifacts, probably no more than fifteen at most. But if we forge Celestial-grade spiritual artifacts, we could produce at least three thousand. And that's a conservative estimate!"
"Three thousand?"
"What? Do you think that's few? Think about it—if I assembled a Celestial battalion where every soldier wielded a Celestial-grade spiritual artifact forged from Pentachrome Crystals, how terrifying would that combat power be?"
One or two Celestial cultivators posed no threat to God Path powerhouses. Even ten or twenty would struggle to form much of a threat.
But a hundred Celestial cultivators facing a single God Path powerhouse, each wielding a weapon with a natural affinity against the demon race—that was another matter entirely.
A battalion of three thousand Celestial soldiers, all at the high Celestial stage, would possess truly staggering combat power.
This was something Jiang Chen had been planning for a long time, but he had been hampered by a lack of manpower and the timing not yet being right.
"In that case, saving the Immortal Sacred Land is not optional?" Vermilion Bird Divine Beast sighed.
"Mm. The Immortal Sacred Land—we must go, even knowing the mountain holds tigers. We must walk into the tiger's den."
"The Golden Demon lineage's combat power is truly terrifying. Back in my battle with Old Ancestor Yin Feng, if you hadn't intervened personally, we would have struggled immensely."
In that battle, the Shadow Demon lineage's ancestor and the Wing Demon lineage's ancestor had both been dealt with. It was only the Golden Demon lineage's Old Ancestor Yin Feng who, despite exhausting every ounce of strength, they had been unable to defeat. In the end, Jiang Chen had been forced to use his father's mortal-transformation treasure, the Water-Fire True Dragon Snare, to capture the creature alive.