Chapter 51: The Weakness of the Wu Clan

Houtu remained silent for a moment and said, "Second Brother, look at our clansmen down below. It is true that we had the upper hand, but by fighting this war up to this point, we have already lost thirty percent of our people!

The members of the Monster Clan do not cherish their own kind, but can it be that we, the Sorcerer Clan, are just like them?

Furthermore, although the Monster Clan appears to have been suppressed by us, they still possess thirteen Quasi-Sages. If it truly comes to a desperate moment, what if they fight us to the death and resort to self-detonation?

Even if we manage to completely annihilate the Monster Clan by then, how many of our Sorcerer clansmen would still remain? How many of our brothers and sisters would be left among us?

Even Mount Buzhou, left behind by Father God, might be affected."

Houtu's words caused Zhu Jiuyin to fall silent. He could not help but recall the fragments he had once seen in the River of Time—scenes of the war between the Sorcerers and the Monsters that ultimately resulted in heavy casualties on both sides.

Back then, he would always discuss with the eldest brother how to cope with such a situation and minimize the casualties of their clansmen.

Yet now, when this very scene unfolded before his eyes, what he had been thinking was why they should not continue fighting. There was clearly something wrong with this!

Thinking of this, Zhu Jiuyin's rationality also returned.

A moment later, the Twelve Ancestral Sorcerers and Bai Jing gathered in the Pangu Hall.

Nüwa, meanwhile, remained outside, healing the injured members of the Sorcerer Clan.

The atmosphere inside the Pangu Hall was somewhat heavy. After a long while, Dijiang broke the silence and said, "I never expected that so many clansmen would perish in this battle. Originally, I thought our Sorcerer Clan's strength surpassed that of the Monster Clan, and that once a real fight broke out, we could quickly wipe them out. In the end, I still underestimated them.

Had I known this would happen, we should have found a way to drag things out until the western ley lines were completely repaired before starting the war, or we should have deployed the Twelve Divine Fiend Great Array from the very beginning to utterly annihilate the Monster Clan in one fell swoop."

"Eldest Brother, this is not your fault. Our mastery of the Twelve Divine Fiend Great Array was only at an initial stage. If we had forced its deployment, even if we could have severely damaged the Monster Clan, we ourselves would have suffered the backlash of the fiendish aura, which probably would not have been worth the loss," said Rushou.

"Indeed, our Sorcerer Clan is inherently stronger than the Monster Clan; there really was no need to deploy that array from the start," Gonggong agreed.

"As long as we can thoroughly repair the western ley lines afterward, everyone's cultivation will receive a boost with the help of the Earth Realm's merit. Coupled with the fact that Little Sister has already nurtured a primordial spirit, with her here, we will surely be able to fully master the Twelve Divine Fiend Great Array in no time. When that day comes, the Monster Clan will be nothing to fear and can be obliterated with a flick of a finger," said Xuanming.

The Ancestral Sorcerers chimed in one after another, comforting the self-reproaching Dijiang.

Listening to the words of his younger brothers and sisters, Dijiang felt much more at ease inside.

Seeing Dijiang's expression soften slightly, Houtu immediately changed the subject, further distracting his attention: "Fellow Daoist Bai Jing, did you do something just now? Was that white light emitted by you?"

Bai Jing nodded and recounted to the Ancestral Sorcerers how Nüwa had come to find him.

Upon hearing this, the Ancestral Sorcerers wore varying expressions.

"Did this Nüwa deliberately run out to interfere with us just because she saw the Monster Clan was about to fail?" asked the hot-tempered Zhurong.

"I don't think so. Fellow Daoist Nüwa genuinely wanted to stop the war between the two clans, I believe," Bai Jing said.

"Fellow Daoist Nüwa is indeed kind-hearted. Am I right, Sister Xuanming?" Houtu asked, turning to Xuanming.

Xuanming nodded.

"Regardless, Nüwa saved many of our clansmen, and our Sorcerer Clan will remember this favor. We can find an opportunity to repay it later.

After this battle, the Monster Clan must have been frightened by us; they certainly won't make any moves in the short term. Once our clansmen recover from their injuries, we will continue heading west to repair the ley lines. When the ley lines are fully repaired, that will be the time to settle accounts with the Monster Clan!"

"Yes, Eldest Brother!" the Ancestral Sorcerers replied in unison.

On the other side, the members of the Monster Clan had already returned to the Heavenly Court.

In this battle, the Monster Clan had suffered catastrophic casualties. The only good news was that all of the Monster Clan's Quasi-Sage experts were severely injured, yet not a single one had perished.

In truth, when one thought about it, those who could cultivate to the Quasi-Sage realm undoubtedly possessed top-tier survival skills, not to mention the fallback option of self-detonation to drag the enemy down with them.

Unless they encountered a situation where the disparity in combat power was so vast that they had no time to detonate themselves, this threat of self-detonation alone was enough to make enemies hesitate and dare not act rashly.

The members of the Monster Clan looked at one another in dismay. In the end, it was Donghuang Taiyi, whose face had remained gloomy throughout, who spoke first. He looked at Di Jun and said, "Eldest Brother, what do we do now? Our Monster Clan has suffered heavy losses this time. Are we just going to let it go like this?"

Di Jun's expression at the moment was no better than Taiyi's. Hearing Taiyi's words, Di Jun said expressionlessly, "What else can we do? Keep fighting? Do you want our entire Monster Clan to be wiped out?"

Hearing this, Taiyi lowered his head in utter reluctance.

Di Jun was not angry because of his battle with Dijiang; the two had fought for over a decade to a standstill, neither gaining much advantage over the other.

What enraged Di Jun was that the overall strength of the Sorcerer Clan was actually this formidable!

Di Jun had always believed that after destroying the Celestial Court and seizing a vast amount of destiny, the Monster Clan's strength had ascended to a new level, surpassing the ancient Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin clans. They were undoubtedly the strongest faction in the Primordial World—even if they couldn't instantly eradicate the Sorcerer Clan, they should at least have been able to win with ease.

Who could have known that the Sorcerer Clan's combat power would be so ferocious? Despite having a numerical advantage, the Monster Clan had still collapsed at the first touch.

Furthermore, it was not just in low- and mid-tier combat power; in terms of high-tier combat power, the Monster Clan was also far inferior to the Sorcerer Clan.

This great battle made Di Jun fully understand that the current Monster Clan was simply no match for the Sorcerer Clan. What worried Di Jun even more was that after this battle, the Monster Clan had lost nearly sixty percent of its soldiers, whereas the Sorcerer Clan had lost less than thirty percent.

With the strength of one side growing while the other waned, the Monster Clan would likely become even less of a match for the Sorcerer Clan.

None of the people present were fools; they could more or less guess what Di Jun was thinking. However, they had no good solutions for the current predicament and could only remain silent, plunging the atmosphere into a freezing chill.

At that moment, Bai Ze, the strategist of the Monster Clan, stepped forward and said to Di Jun, "Your Majesty need not worry. In truth, although the Sorcerer Clan is strong, they are not invincible."

Di Jun still trusted Bai Ze as a strategist quite a bit, so he hurriedly asked, "What do you mean by this?"

Bai Ze smiled and began his analysis: "Your Majesty, judging from the current situation, the overall combat power of the Sorcerer Clan is indeed greater than that of our Monster Clan, but this battle has also exposed a fatal flaw in the Sorcerer Clan."

"What flaw?" Di Jun pressed urgently.

"In the previous battle, the Sorcerer Clan clearly held the advantage, yet they accepted the mediation of the Empress Nüwa. Their sole purpose was to have the Empress help heal their clansmen.

Dijiang's regard for his clansmen exposes the Sorcerer Clan's greatest weakness: their population is far too small.

Though the Sorcerer Clan possesses formidable combat power, their numbers are not large, and because they do not reproduce easily, replenishing their population is extremely difficult.

Although our losses in this battle appear far greater than those of the Sorcerer Clan, our Monster Clan's people are spread across the entire Primordial land. As long as Your Majesty raises your arms in the Heavenly Court, relying on your prestige, countless monsters will instantly come to pledge their allegiance.

Even if Your Majesty relaxes the criteria, the size of our Heavenly Court's army could become even larger than before.

In contrast, for the Sorcerer Clan, those thirty percent losses are solid and real; they cannot be replenished without several epochs passing."