Chapter 537: Confidant

They arrived at Dragon Valley Pass, which was the strategic pass controlled by She Qiqi in Mianlong Province, bordering the Central Plains of the Ten Thousand Demon Country.

If She Qiqi wanted to invade the Central Plains, this pass was the inevitable route her army had to take.

However, She Qiqi had already been attacking Dragon Valley Pass for nearly fifteen days.

During these fifteen days, She Qiqi’s side had made no progress at all.

On second thought, it was quite normal; after all, Dragon Valley Pass was a natural fortress, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In the past, when the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan invaded the Central Plains, this Dragon Valley Pass had held them back for a total of one and a half months.

One must know that at that time, the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan had committed the majority of its forces to this Dragon Valley Pass, a total of two million troops.

Meanwhile, the royal family of the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Clan had only sent an army of less than 150,000 to garrison it.

Even so, Dragon Valley Pass remained unconquered for a long time.

In the end, it was She Qiqi who used a scheme to sow discord.

Only then was Dragon Valley Pass finally captured.

Otherwise, according to Lin Xun’s estimation, it would have taken another three or four months of attacking, and their own casualties would have been immense.

Therefore, after the Heavenly Frost White Snake Clan took power, the Demon Emperor understood the importance of Dragon Valley Pass even more than the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Clan had.

So, the Demon Emperor directly arranged for his confidants to be stationed at Dragon Valley Pass.

Not only that, matters concerning Dragon Valley Pass were directly handled by the Demon Emperor, and no one else was allowed to interfere.

Dragon Valley Pass was managed directly by the Demon Emperor.

After all, Dragon Valley Pass was like the key to the gates of the Central Plains.

If Dragon Valley Pass was forced open, it would mean everything in the Central Plains was wide open to the enemy.

After so many years, looking back, Dragon Valley Pass was still the same Dragon Valley Pass.

The only difference was that he had become the defender.

And the person attacking Dragon Valley Pass was his own daughter.

Could one only say that fate makes fools of us all?

“Your daughter is indeed promising; she is truly like you were back then.”

Below Dragon Valley Pass, the Demon Emperor sighed, thinking of someone unknown, before pulling back his thoughts and advancing into the pass.

The generals in Dragon Valley Pass had long known the Demon Emperor was coming.

He quickly descended from the defense post and knelt at the foot of the mountain to welcome the Demon Emperor’s arrival.

“This general welcomes Your Majesty’s arrival!”

Although the general of Dragon Valley Pass had stayed here for a full hundred years.

As a confidant of the Demon Emperor, this general of Dragon Valley Pass was not neglected in the slightest.

The Demon Emperor had made excellent arrangements for the families of this defending general.

Whether it was his descendants or his relatives, they were all highly valued.

This could be considered a fair reward for his contributions to Dragon Valley Pass over the years.

After all, if you want someone to serve you with absolute loyalty, you must take care of their worries at home.

“No need for formalities, let us go inside. Then, as quickly as possible, tell me about She Qiqi’s attacks on Dragon Valley Pass these past few days.”

The Demon Emperor waved his hand, dismissing the general’s excessive flattery.

“Yes, Your Majesty, please.”

The Demon Emperor followed the general and soon arrived inside Dragon Valley Pass.

Quickly, the city-defending general placed various documents regarding She Qiqi’s siege over the past few days by the Demon Emperor’s hand.

For the upcoming battle of Dragon Valley Pass, these documents were extremely important.

During these days, She Qiqi’s side had attacked the pass many times.

In the short span of fifteen days.

She Qiqi had attacked the pass about forty times.

In other words, She Qiqi attacked the city at least twice a day.

To be honest, with such frequent sieges, the Demon Emperor felt something was very wrong.

After all, a high frequency isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Furthermore, if the attacks were extremely frequent, it would be very troublesome to process information and such.

Therefore, from all these sieges, the Demon Emperor saw She Qiqi’s urgency.

The Demon Emperor didn’t know why She Qiqi would be so urgent to conduct the siege.

This really didn’t fit his daughter’s personality.

The Demon Emperor understood his daughter very well.

He knew that for his daughter, she would absolutely not do anything she wasn’t sure of or that was pointless.

As long as she made a move, his daughter would do her best, perhaps even delivering a killing blow.

So, there must be a certain reason for his daughter to act this way.

It was very likely that his daughter was gathering information about Dragon Valley Pass.

Because in those previous battles, She Qiqi had not committed many troops.

In most cases, they were just testing the waters, leaving after a brief clash.

In the Demon Emperor’s view, She Qiqi had never even thought of breaking through Dragon Valley Pass in just half a month.

Or rather, She Qiqi had been waiting for his arrival from the very beginning.

Spending a day, the Demon Emperor finished reviewing everything that had happened at Dragon Valley Pass recently and let out a long breath.

Regarding this great war, the Demon Emperor had already grasped most of the information; he felt he should be able to handle his daughter’s offensive next.

But for some reason, the Demon Emperor was always a bit uneasy.

He always felt as if he had overlooked something.

But what exactly had he overlooked?

Deciding not to think about it further, the Demon Emperor felt that no matter what, he could never see through his daughter.

Instead of that, it was better to think carefully about what to do next.

Regardless, whatever comes, he would Face it; he wanted to see exactly what his daughter was up to.

And She Qiqi did not make her father wait too long.

Less than a month after the Demon Emperor arrived at Dragon Valley Pass, She Qiqi arrived at a nearby military camp.

Upon arriving at the camp near Dragon Valley Pass, She Qiqi took over everything regarding the siege.

She Qiqi directly assumed full military command.

Furthermore, all generals had to act as assistants to She Qiqi.

In short, the army had only one brain, and that was She Qiqi.

As for everyone else…

They were merely tools.

Regarding She Qiqi’s actions, not a single general had the slightest hesitation or displeasure.

For the generals under She Qiqi’s command…

She Qiqi’s words were equivalent to an imperial decree, because they only followed her arrangements.

And they also believed that She Qiqi would surely lead them to victory.

This was She Qiqi’s high prestige in the army; no one could match it, not even the Demon Emperor.

“Since my father has actually come, the army he brought is definitely not small.

Dragon Valley Pass was already easy to defend and hard to attack, and now it’s even more difficult.

But well, fortunately, we still have an ally.”

Looking at the sand table, the corners of She Qiqi’s mouth curled up slightly.

Although She Qiqi said it was hard to attack, in her heart, she didn’t seem to care about it at all.

“Now let’s hope our ally can be a bit more helpful; otherwise, next, we might truly Face a bit of difficulty.

Of course, for now, we naturally still have to go and attack.

In any case, I must give my father some Face.

Otherwise, my father went through all the trouble to come here, and if we did nothing, that would be quite inappropriate.”

As she spoke, She Qiqi placed a stone statue on the sand table, a strange look flashing in her eyes.

“Yes.”

At She Qiqi’s command, several generals responsible for attacking Dragon Valley Pass responded and withdrew to prepare for the assault.

Soon, She Qiqi’s army was assembled and immediately began the attack.

This attack on Dragon Valley Pass was conducted from two fronts: sea and air.

Because Dragon Valley Pass was a natural fortress, below its high cliffs was a strait.

And besides that, connecting through the air were massive iron chain bridges.

In addition to those, there was a main road connecting to the Central Plains.

However, this main road had been completely destroyed, and various Magic Formation traps had been set on the ground, making it entirely unsuitable for marching.

If She Qiqi wanted to use her army to clear the Magic Formations on this main road, it wasn’t impossible.

But if she did, the casualties on She Qiqi’s side would be extremely heavy.

While the royal army could just wait for them to tire themselves out.

It wouldn’t be good no matter how you looked at it.

So She Qiqi simply gave up on attacking from the suspension bridge and the main road, turning instead to attack from the river and the sky.

As for these attacks by She Qiqi, the Demon Emperor could naturally imagine them.

After all, the hero who originally conquered the world was this Demon Emperor.

Although the Demon Emperor had been away from the battlefield and stayed in the imperial court for many years.

He was still extremely familiar with various war strategies.

In the air, She Qiqi sent a total of ten thousand Flood Dragons, and those riding them were all Cultivators of the Golden Core Realm and above.

And on the sea area sandwiched in between, She Qiqi mobilized several thousand giant Sea Turtles.

The Sea Turtles carried the army to attack, and these soldiers would launch strikes from the bottom up.

The Demon Emperor directly sent his army to intercept.

For the Demon Emperor, this was the first clash between him and his daughter.

This engagement would set the tone for the morale of both armies.

The first great battle was extremely important.

The Demon Emperor actually hadn’t expected his daughter to have so many Flood Dragons and so many Sea Turtles.

It could be said that during these years, She Qiqi really hadn’t slackened at all and had been developing her own power.

The Demon Emperor’s side also sent out tens of thousands of Flying Dragons for interception.

And in the sea area, he used an army of walruses to block them.

The fighting between the two sides was exceptionally fierce.

Rather than saying the two sides were fighting over Dragon Valley Pass, it was more like they were mutually depleting each other’s forces.

To see how much of the opponent’s forces could be consumed, because whether attacking from above or below, the gap created by the terrain was not large.

It was more of a war of attrition.

This battle lasted for a full four days.

During these four days, a rain of blood fell from the sky.

Countless Flood Dragons and Flying Dragons fell from the sky, their blood staining the strait below Dragon Valley Pass red.

In this strait, countless corpses floated on the sea.

On the fifth day, She Qiqi ordered a retreat.

At this point, of the armies both sides had committed to the battlefield, less than thirty percent survived to return.

It was hard to say who won.

One could only say the two sides had fought to a draw.

Meanwhile, on the other side, after learning that the Demon Emperor had personally led troops to suppress She Qiqi, the intelligence quickly reached Chu Yaoyao’s hands.

Chu Yaoyao had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

Without any hesitation, Chu Yaoyao directly led her army to attack the Central Plains from another direction.

The offensive route Chu Yaoyao took was also extremely simple.

She took the shortest route, attacking towards the location of the Ten Thousand Demon Country’s capital.

In Chu Yaoyao’s view, She Qiqi had to pin down the Demon Emperor’s main force at Dragon Valley Pass for several months, while she had to pierce through the Demon Race World within those few months.

On the eighth day, She Qiqi continued to commit troops to charge at Dragon Valley Pass.

It was as if She Qiqi’s troops cost nothing, everything existing merely for consumption.

And every time She Qiqi launched a fierce attack, Chu Yaoyao on the other side would also respond.

In fact, in She Qiqi’s view, it was absolutely impossible for her to capture this Dragon Valley Pass.

Because no strategy could be used for this Dragon Valley Pass; only a brute-force siege could be adopted.

After all, the general of Dragon Valley Pass was her father’s confidant.

It could be said that all of his subordinates were loyal to the royal family.

She had no way to interfere; no scheme would work.

Now, her father had also come to this place.

As a result, She Qiqi knew she didn’t even have a shred of room to interfere.

Therefore, She Qiqi was not prepared to break through from the front at all; since it couldn’t be broken, why should she bother?

Consequently, She Qiqi simply passed the ball to Chu Yaoyao.

Although this Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox was silly and dazed, with a bit of naivety.

After that great battle and so much tempering, She Qiqi believed that Chu Yaoyao was no longer the innocent girl she once was.

Of course.

If Chu Yaoyao’s army failed in its offensive, then She Qiqi would directly give up on this side.

She would use a net-like format to directly spread out and attack the Demon Race World, and even though she had no one in Dragon Valley Pass…

Who said she had no one in the imperial court?

Now, her father had already come to the front lines.

His control over the rear was much less.

Did her father really think that among those confidants he arranged in the rear, every single one of them was truly his own confidant?