Now, here was the problem: Victor Wu was the second son of Prince Gaoyang, so he was definitely guarded by Fusion-realm bodyguards—and he himself was a Fusion expert.
So how did he get captured? After all, the strongest in this city was only at the Soul-Split stage.
Or was Victor Wu's capture just a complete fabrication, and Silver Fox Princess simply needed an excuse to lure him onto the Ten-Yao Continent?
And now, he faced two choices.
First, he could turn around and leave the Ten-Yao Continent immediately. That way, no matter what plans Silver Fox Princess had, they would all come to nothing.
Second, he could stay on the Ten-Yao Continent and see what other tricks Silver Fox Princess had up her sleeve.
"So should I leave, or should I stay?"
Ian Song pondered silently.
In the end, he decided to stay, because he had a nagging feeling that he could only complete the hidden mission by remaining on the Ten-Yao Continent.
"Could the hidden mission be to eliminate future threats to the Human Race?"
For a moment, Ian couldn't help but wonder.
So, over the next hour, Ian used the Puppet Mastery Divine Art to enslave ten demons in the city.
One was the city's only Soul-Split-stage demon cultivator.
The other nine were the city’s demon troop commanders and other key military officers.
Through them, Ian gained a much more complete understanding of the Ten-Yao Continent.
The main reason experts were so scarce in this city was because the Red Dragon King had pulled more than ninety percent of all form-taking demon cultivators into his main army. Not just here, but in other cities too.
Meanwhile, aside from their royal capital, the Underworld Phoenix Kingdom only controlled two other cities, and Chilong Kingdom’s army had all three tightly surrounded. It was just a matter of time before Underworld Phoenix Kingdom fell.
And as for troop strength, after years of chaotic warfare, both demon kingdoms had suffered major losses.
Otherwise, the Red Dragon King wouldn’t have pulled away most of his form-taking demon cultivators. Right now, Chilong Kingdom’s army still had more than thirty million troops, but only two million were elite veterans. The rest—over thirty million—were new recruits, much weaker than the elites.
As for Underworld Phoenix Kingdom, its remaining forces were less than a million.
Six hundred thousand were stationed in the royal capital, and the other two controlled cities each had two hundred thousand troops.
Honestly, this amount of troops wasn’t even a rounding error compared to Chilong Kingdom.
The only reason the Red Dragon King hadn’t crushed Underworld Phoenix Kingdom with overwhelming force was that the latter still had more than ten Demon Immortals holding the line. If he tried to wipe them out at any cost, those Demon Immortals would intervene, and the price would be more than the Red Dragon King could bear.
So right now, the Red Dragon King was keeping his army surrounding Underworld Phoenix Kingdom while sending envoys to persuade them to surrender.
After learning all this, Ian figured out a crucial piece of intelligence: Chilong Kingdom’s rear was dangerously hollow. If he wanted to stir things up, his chances of success were high.
As long as Underworld Phoenix Kingdom wasn’t destroyed, the Ten-Yao Continent would be stuck in endless internal strife, leaving no energy to invade the Southsky Continent.
For anyone else, stirring up trouble wouldn’t be easy.
But with Puppet Mastery Divine Art, Ian could just enslave the demon troop commanders in city after city, then coordinate a rear-area uprising. The Red Dragon King would have to pull back his army to suppress the rebellion, giving Underworld Phoenix Kingdom a chance to breathe.
They might even be able to reclaim more territory.
The city Ian was currently in was called Boarhold. It had a garrison of one hundred thousand demon soldiers, but only about five thousand of those were form-taking, which was Golden Core level.
The rest were all Foundation Establishment-level demon soldiers.
With just this many, any trouble would probably get stomped out right away.
So...
In the blink of an eye, Ian had already been on the Ten-Yao Continent for half a month.
With Puppet Mastery Divine Art, he now controlled the demon armies of fifteen cities—a total of two million troops.
But among them, only about one hundred thousand were form-taking demons.
At the same time, Ian released fifteen Fusion-realm demon cultivators from the Divine Temple, assigning each one to command a city’s troops.
Right now, the White Tiger Demon Domain had over two hundred cities, and Ian had already scouted every single one. Among them, there were only three Fusion-realm demon cultivators—and all of them were just at the early stage.
Three days later.
Ian’s two-million-strong demon army assembled in front of Demonfall City.
This city had a demon population of five hundred million, with three hundred thousand demon soldiers and a Fusion-realm demon cultivator in charge.
"My lord, bad news! Someone’s attacking us!"
A junior city guard rushed, panic-stricken, into the garrison camp to report to General Drake.
General Drake’s true form was a flood dragon. Decades ago, he was badly wounded fighting Underworld Phoenix Kingdom, so the Red Dragon King had sent him to the rear to command troops, causing him to miss last year’s great war.
This left him feeling pretty depressed—it was a blatant loss of military merit. He’d already requested a transfer back to the front lines, but his superiors hadn’t responded. As a result, he’d been distracted from his duties; otherwise, he would’ve spotted Ian’s army long before it reached his gates.
"Enemies? What enemies?"
Hearing the report, General Drake was puzzled.
Right now, Chilong Kingdom was riding high—once they wiped out Underworld Phoenix Kingdom, they’d establish an empire. There were no enemies left in the Five Domains, so how could foes suddenly appear?
"Commander, there are tons of them! They’re already at the city gates—you’ll see for yourself!" The junior guard stammered.
"Whoosh!"
In a blur, General Drake teleported to the city wall. When he saw the dense mass of two million demon soldiers below, his brows furrowed. He gathered his true essence and shouted, "Who are you people?"
"The ones here to kill you!"
Suddenly, fifteen streaks of light shot out from the army, landing on the city wall and surrounding General Drake.
"Heavens!"
Feeling the aura from these fifteen figures, General Drake nearly fainted on the spot—they were all Fusion-realm demon cultivators, and each one was far stronger than him.
"What are you trying to do? The Red Dragon King already dominates the realm—the tides have turned. Do you really want to go against him?"
"Red Dragon King? Who cares?"
Silas the Snake King sneered, "Kid, I’ll give you one chance—order the demon soldiers in this city to surrender, or your soul will be scattered!"
"Never!"
The next moment, General Drake stepped into the void, trying to escape.
But as soon as he moved, all fifteen demon cultivators struck at once.
"Splurt!"
The void shattered, blood mist sprayed, and not even a complete corpse remained of General Drake, the Fusion-realm demon cultivator!
With fifteen late-stage Fusion-realm leaders, even if those two million demon soldiers were trash, Demonfall City was easily taken.
After taking Demonfall City, Ian allowed the demon soldiers under his command to loot for one day. They could keep sixty percent of what they seized; the rest had to be handed in.
The moment they heard this order, all two million demon soldiers’ eyes gleamed green as they rushed into Demonfall City, scrambling to pillage.