Roguemist deeply doubted whether Serratewind had any moral character to speak of.

The shadow demon harrumphed. “Fellow daoist, I have no reply to that. Where’s the basic trust between demon and demon?”

Roguemist rolled his eyes until only the whites showed. He completely ignored the entreaty, because no such thing existed in the first place.

“Okay, alright. We will absolutely not split up the spoils until you come. All of us will get an equal share per head – you’ll certainly get what you deserve.”

Roguewind snickered. “No way! I’m not putting in any less work than you. Why should I get only a small sliver?”

“What do you want, then?” Serratewind sneered.

“Simple. Split it into two parts and I’ll take one of them,” Roguemist demanded.

“Sure,” Serratewind agreed with surprising readiness.

Roguemist’s eyes moved. “Don’t play word games with me,” he declared impassively. “Two equal parts.”

Serratewind instantly colored. “Your joke isn’t funny, Roguemist. Two equal parts? We shadow demons can only have half, while you get the other half all to yourself? Shouldn’t you consider your present situation before you say something so embarrassing?”

Roguemist chuckled. “Embarrassment? No demon possibly feels anything like that. I don’t understand your question.”

“Well, you should have basic morals, should you not? Even a demon shouldn’t be that shameless,” Serratewind retorted angrily.

“Okay, then you propose a different way.” Roguemist knew that it was quite improbable he would actually be able to get half. He had merely haggled aggressively in order to get a better deal.

“Twenty percent. That’s my bottom line,” Serratewind stated.

“No! A third. That’s mine.”

“A quarter, and that’s final. Enough prattle, Roguemist. I’ve half a mind to end your involvement already,” Serratewind declared with a ferocious aura.

Roguemist let out a sinister cackle. “Deal!”

Serratewind tossed his comrade a vicious glare. “You’re a good haggler. I hope you work just as hard as you barter.”

Roguemist shrugged. “Oh, you’ll see soon.”

……

The past few days, Jiang Chen’s work on the node had proceeded with straightforward smoothness. No disturbances came in from the outside. All was peaceful and calm.

Everything was getting better, it seemed.

“There’s only another week before we’re done repairing this node. After that, we’ll head for the next one. When all three nodes are fixed, the process of reactivation will begin. I’m confident that we are on the path to success!”

Jiang Chen was in high spirits.

“Indeed,” smiled Skysoarer. “The foundations of the great formation remain, and reactivating the formation is no distant dream. Once the minutiae are repaired, I estimate that we’re nearly guaranteed to achieve our goal.”

There was mass cheering from the crowd. The joyous news excited and inspired all who heard it.

The pressure of the demonic invasion had bore down like a mountain upon everyone’s chest. The formation’s reactivation would mean the barbaric demons would be barred from entering the human domain by a natural barrier.

This was no guarantee of eternal peace, but their homeland would be spared from the brunt of the most vicious attacks in the war. There would be no repeat of the ancient calamity.

“For the next node, all of you will participate as well. I won’t assign too much work to each of you, but you must be part of the effort.”

Jiang Chen looked expectantly at the formation masters who had been chosen.

Under Venerated Skysoarer’s tutelage, these students had improved a great deal.

They were exhilarated to hear that they would be able to personally help with fixing the legendary formation. Elder Yuan Chi was especially delighted.

Jiang Chen didn’t pay the elder too much mind. He treated the elder as an ordinary formation master.

As they conversed, a panting cultivator approached. “Young lord,” he reported with a dark expression. “Fresh news from one of the other nodes. Many ghouls and corpses are congregating toward it.”

“Ghouls? What?” Jiang Chen demanded with a black face.

“Reportedly, they seem to have crawled out from their coffins. They’re walking corpses controlled by some sort of mystical art. These cultivators – casualties of the Myriad Domain’s various sects – have considerably more strength than they did in life.”

“What?” Jiang Chen was astonished. “Are you sure that they’re Myriad Domain casualties?”

“That’s what I was told, young lord. These people died when the Eternal Celestial Capital and the Great Scarlet Mid Region invaded. There are older dead, of course, but they were uniformly summoned forth.”

A summoning of the dead?

Yin demons flickered into Jiang Chen’s mind.

One of the ten varieties of demons, yin demons specialized in summoning and reanimating the dead as well as refining and controlling various puppets. They were a force to be reckoned with through their minions.

Yin demons weren’t particularly fearsome in a brawl. Their bloodlines didn’t provide them with supernatural power. However, their sinister abilities made them fearsome in their own right.

Most people preferred encountering demons who were fierce brawlers rather than ominous ritualists like these.

“Send out my orders,” Jiang Chen called out. “Tell the cultivators defending the node not to panic. Organize their men and clean up these evil spirits. If they can’t, they must hold the node fast, or else I’ll go there and cut off their heads myself.”

“Yes, sir!”

After issuing his command, Jiang Chen remained seriously worried.

“Why not send some reinforcements, young lord?” Venerated Skysoarer couldn’t resist asking.

“We don’t have many experts here,” frowned Jiang Chen. “If we send some from here to there, what will we defend this node with?”

Venerated Skysoarer sighed. “I suppose you’re right, young lord. Why not send out a call to the Upper Eight Regions’ sects? Gather up all available empyrean cultivators and send them in.”

The human domain had some empyrean cultivators of its own, but Jiang Chen hadn’t bothered to make use of them.

“No. A single god is better than ten empyrean cultivators. They have so many gods there! They’ll be fine. Some evil spirits and undead won’t be able to do much harm. They were only Myriad Domain cultivators in life, so they won’t be high level.” Jiang Chen seemed to be reassuring himself.

“But they’ll be made a lot stronger by their conversion!” Venerated Skysoarer reminded, apparently happy to rub salt in the wound.

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