The effect of the duel between Qingyi and Tianyu was immediate, the morale of the alliance troops exploding.
It wasn’t every day that they got to see battles at such a high level, and the fact that the alliance risked such great talents demonstrated their strength and confidence to the masses.
Of course, such an explosion of morale didn’t spread to the leadership.
No one was happy about Tianyu’s death, but there wasn’t much they could do.
Tianyu made his choice and paid the consequences.
Now, what they really needed to do was discuss their defence strategy.
"Do you really think it’s a good idea to divide our forces?" Biyue asked, looking anxiously at the large map of the Nine Peaks Basin in front of her.
"No," the leader of the divine sword sect said, shaking his head.
"But the moment the demonic army starts moving, the demonic Qi in the dead lands will go crazy, hiding them completely. We won’t know where they’re going until it’s too late."
Running his fingers over the map, he marked the most rough areas of the border with the deadlands; simple for a few soldiers to pass through, but completely unfeasible for a full army.
In the end, the demonic cult could only follow two paths.
One was the forest of the fallen moon, a peaceful and isolated region with difficult terrain, but which could be passed easily.
The other was the gorge of the dragon blade, in the northernmost part of the border with the deadlands.
Being closest to the demon cult, it was the most likely route, especially considering all the logistical problems the demon cult faced.
The plan was simple: the main army would take care of guarding the gorge of the dragon’s blade, while the reserve army would defend the forest of the fallen moon.
If they chose to take the longer route, all the reserve army had to do was hold out until the arrival of the Transcendents, who would have no trouble defending themselves until the main army arrived.
"Everything looks good, I’m confident we can muster six hundred thousand soldiers above the Burning Blood Realm for the main army easily. That should be enough to deal with the demon cult.
But what about the reserve army? We lack a lot of manpower and the snake battalion is the only one to lead the reserve, they won’t even have the support of any transcendents," one of the council elders spoke up.
"I can muster no more than twelve thousand combat-ready cultivators," Biyue tapped a finger under the table, calculating her strength. "The rest of my battalion are cultivators of non-combat position, it’s difficult for them to fight."
"We can draw from our own disciples for the reserve army, another fifty thousand should be enough,"
It was Yanxiao who replied, his huge flaming body making the air in the room rise in temperature, his feline face watching everyone there coldly.
"As for not having any transcendents with them, that’s not a problem.
Qingyi can hold his own against weaker transcendents and the demon cult leader himself won’t interfere against someone like him, he’s too proud for that."
If Ruyan had been in that room, she would probably have laughed at how little those people knew her father.
But she wasn’t, so they could only follow the advice of Yanxiao and the other guardian beasts.
They were much older than everyone else and had fought the demon cult before.
The powerful experts were ready to move on to the next topic when a loud knock echoed at the door, an elder entering the meeting room.
His face bore a stern apprehension and his steps were a little shaky.
Naturally, such a sight brought concern to everyone there.
That elder was at the peak of the rebirth realm, nothing minor would leave him like that.
"We’ve received the latest report from our spies in the demon cult."
"Their grand strategist has died and the leader of the demon cult is out of his mind, ordering the gathering of an army of two million demonic cultivators, even forcing leaders of other unorthodox factions to join him."
Those words silenced the entire meeting room.
Two million cultivators... they could gather such a number, but only if they left their sects and families seriously unprotected and called for help from smaller sects.
For the leader of the demon cult to make such a bet... was he crazy?
"Is this information confirmed?" asked the patriarch of the Zhao Family, one of the representatives of the seven great families.
"Yes. It comes from a spy planted with the great elder of the demonic cult.
Other spies planted with powerful figures have confirmed similar information, the numbers varying between 1.5 and 2 million soldiers gathered from almost all the unorthodox sects and families that inhabit the dead lands."
The powerful experts in that room listened to those words, still incredulous.
"If that’s true, we need to issue the general convocation order as soon as possible," someone finally declared, receiving nods of affirmation from everyone there.
A general convocation order was basically a call for all cultivators above a certain cultivation level, a measure created during the last demon war, where armies of tens of millions of cultivators faced each other.
In the current state of the orthodox alliance, that was the only way they could gather so many cultivators at high enough levels to be useful in combat.
When the meeting ended, everyone left the room with worried faces, especially Biyue, who immediately went after Qingyi.
Finding him in her residence, she threw herself on him, hugging him tightly.
"What’s wrong, is everything all right?" Qingyi asked, Biyue just nodded.
"We’ll be marching out to face the demon cult soon, we don’t have more than a month or two to prepare," Biyue muttered. "I’m just worried that it might not be enough time."
"Two months... I didn’t expect them to be so kind to us, hahaha," Qingyi laughed.
"Don’t worry, two months is more than enough for me to get strong enough to get rid of that demon cult leader."