Ziche Min's spirit was utterly crushed. At this point, not to mention him — even if the Eternal Sacred Ancestor were present at the Eternal Sacred Land, what difference would it make? Before the might of the demon race, even ten Eternal Sacred Ancestors would be utterly useless. That was simply not an existence that Myriad Abyss Island could hope to resist.
He thought back to the ancient demon race and the devastation they had brought to the Divine Abyss Continent. At that time, the various great territories of the continent had been at the peak of their military strength, and even so, they had failed to gain any real advantage over the demons. In the end, the war had ended in nothing more than mutual devastation.
If the demon army descended upon Myriad Abyss Island, even if all ten Great Sacred Lands banded together, they probably wouldn't even be enough to whet the demons' appetite.
This was absolutely not a contest between forces of the same tier.
Darkness shrouded Ziche Min's heart, but when his gaze drifted toward Jiang Chen, the young man's clear and steady eyes were like a lantern that illuminated his very soul, dispelling the gloom that had settled within him.
Yes — if he, Ziche Min, was powerless, did that mean Jiang Chen had no solution either? Judging from his recent string of clashes with the demon race, Jiang Chen was fully capable of standing against them.
Every pair of eyes in the hall turned toward Jiang Chen in unison.
In this moment, Jiang Chen was like a lifeline, offering hope to all of them. Hadn't it always been this way? Hadn't Jiang Chen been the one, time and again, preserving that sliver of hope for humanity and for everyone around him?
Now, at the darkest hour, with the most harrowing trial upon them — apart from Jiang Chen, whom could they trust?
Ziche Min swept his gaze across the cultivators of the Eternal Sacred Land. Reading their expressions, he saw trust. He saw hope.
His resolve hardened further. "Chen Shao, if that's the case, does the decisive battle between the Divine Abyss Continent and the demon race need to be moved up?"
Jiang Chen sighed. "I don't want it moved up either, but I'm afraid we may no longer have a choice."
Jiang Chen understood all too well. The defeat of multiple demon factions on Myriad Abyss Island had already alarmed the Heavenly Demon lineage — and, by extension, the entire demon race.
Clearly, the demons had come to recognize the drawbacks of spreading their forces too thin, and they had come to recognize the threat that he, Jiang Chen, posed.
So, the demon race intended to concentrate its strength and launch the decisive battle ahead of schedule.
Neither side was truly prepared for this early confrontation. However, the one silver lining was that Jiang Chen's repeated strikes across Myriad Abyss Island had already eliminated several of the demon factions, dealing them grievous losses.
Multiple Divine Dao ancestors from various demon lineages had either been captured alive or slain by Jiang Chen. He had genuinely wiped out a significant portion of their fighting strength, and this was an absolutely devastating blow to the demon race's overall power.
By Jiang Chen's estimation, the series of raids and engagements on Myriad Abyss Island had eliminated roughly one-third of the demon race's strength. Even if it fell slightly short of that figure, it was close enough.
Moreover, the demon race's current strength likely did not exceed half of what it had been in the ancient era. Working the numbers, if the demons launched their decisive battle early, their available combat power would amount to roughly one-third of their ancient-era peak.
When framed that way, the demons' aura of invincibility did not seem quite so overwhelming.
But Jiang Chen was not about to let his guard down. While the demon race's overall strength was far inferior to the ancient era, the Divine Abyss Continent's combat capabilities were likewise diminished compared to those bygone days.
The one crucial difference from the ancient era was that the present-day Divine Abyss Continent had him, Jiang Chen, the bloodlines of the Four Great Divine Beasts, and the Mortal Transformation Treasures sealed by the Heavenly Emperors of the various realms — trump cards that humanity had possessed none of during the ancient war of suppression against the demons.