Chapter 528: Embrace Cai’er (III)
Sheng Yue stared at Long Haochen, “Brat, when did you become so cunning? It won’t do, I am starting to doubt handing my great-granddaughter to you.”
Hearing the winning move that had been shown, Long Haochen all of a sudden became well behaved, forcing a smile, “Great-grandpa, you can’t do that!”
Sheng Yue seemed suddenly quite pleased with himself, “So what? Is it such a difficult thing for you to stay in Exorcist Mountain Pass to accompany Cai’er?” Arriving at this point, he glanced at the great-granddaughter at his side, his eyes full of warmth.
Over this year and a half, it had always been about Sheng Yue teaching Cai’er. He came to like this girl more and more, and lost the feel of the previous barrier that made it impossible for them to communicate. Cai’er also became more fondly attached to him, and felt real emotions for this kin of hers. This is something Sheng Yue hadn’t even thought possible in the past. He looked like he was trying to make things difficult for Long Haochen, but in truth, he really couldn’t bear to separate with his great-granddaughter! Although he knew that she couldn’t remain forever, having her remain a few more days was still better than nothing.
Through his eye’s expression, Long Haochen saw through Sheng Yue’s such thoughts. He originally planned to keep disputing but immediately corrected himself, “Then how about this, great-grandpa? We really are very pressed by time, and through today’s battle, the situation in the Exorcist Mountain Pass should have become quite stable. We will remain here for one more month. This month, I won’t ask for any achievement reward, and will only focus on helping our side to handle the demon threat. How about it?”
Long Haochen was very sincere. Sheng Yue, whose previous state of mood had vanished, replied with a nod, “I knew I couldn’t keep you here.
“Actually, what you did today is already worth more than a million contribution points.”
That’s how the facts were. His divine blessing almost strengthened the whole Exorcist Mountain Pass by a third, and that was a conservative estimate.
Sheng Yue continued, “Time to go. You two come with me. This place is not really safe. When we get to the public places, at least we will be able to guarantee my great-granddaughter’s safety.”
Cai’er immediately stamped the ground and pouted, “Here you go again great-grandfather. So annoying!”
However, the two of them still followed Sheng Yue outside the room. Sheng Yue arranged a room for Long Haochen to reside in with Han Yu. He really was visibly guarding against the possibility of Long Haochen and Cai’er having an intimate relationship.
In the following few days, the Exorcist Mountain Pass was exceptionally peaceful. The large majority of the demons seemed to have lost their drive, and aside from the unlit demon god pillar of the Blazing Lion Demon God, the other seven were still flickering, as if guarding against a human attack.
Actually, it really made sense that they were on such high guard. Long Haochen’s forbidden spell on an ultra large scale gave them an unbearable fright. What they feared the most was that Long Haochen comes as they are launching the attack. At such times, the seven demon gods were incapable of protecting their army. But of course, they didn’t know that Long Haochen’s Rain of Light was an all-out attempt. Launching it once again would need to wait for his spiritual energy to break through to 200,000.
“Grandpa, the situation is already pretty good in the mountain pass. I have already organized the restoration of the city walls since it’s a rare chance to see the demons so calm. With this short time of adjustment, we will at least recover triple the defensive power of our Exorcist Mountain Pass.”
Sheng Yue, the couple formed by Sheng Lingxin and his wife, Long Haochen, Han Yu and Cai’er had dinner together, and Sheng Lingxin reported to Sheng Yue about the condition of the Exorcist Mountain Pass.
The wife and husband were now aware that Long Haochen was the Twelfth Golden Foundation Knight, but that for the sake of concealing his true identity, he had to wear his armor every day, to avoid revealing his true features.
As Sheng Lingxin spoke to Sheng Yue, his eyes frequently swept past his soon-to-beson-in-law. When he learned that this knight was Long Haochen, his feeling of unbelief lasted for no less than a few hours.
Just how long had it been? At the time when Long Haochen was leading his Demon Hunt Squad to the Exorcist Mountain Pass to undergo the trainee mission, he was still weak to the extent of needing his protection on the battlefield. But now, his cultivation clearly surpassed Lingxin’s own. Although Sheng Lingxin also finally broke through the eighth step, the age gap between them was of at least one generation. Sheng Lingxin was also of a proud bloodline. His admiration for Long Xingyu was sincere, but he didn’t expect Long Haochen’s cultivation to have already surpassed his own.
Sheng Yue glanced down, “How’s the military situation?”
“It’s pretty good. Those originally only lightly wounded are already back in their units, and the seriously hurt are back to being lightly wounded. The disabled aside, the overwhelming majority of the soldiers are back to their commitments. While recuperating, they were preparing for battle.”
Sheng Yue nodded, “Don’t let those who are not completely healed come back to participate in the defense.”
“Yes.” Sheng Lingxin hurriedly responded. Although he was the military chief of the Exorcist Mountain Pass, the real one in charge was Sheng Yue. Sheng Lingxin’s prestige was far beneath those heroic assassins of the ninth step. He didn’t even have the authority to mobilize the Hidden Knight Hall, personally led by Ying Suifeng.
Sheng Yue shifted his glance to Long Haochen’s direction and heaved a slight smile, “Our Saint Knight Head, do you have some good suggestions?”
“Great-grandfather, you’re still making fun of me. How could I presume to make suggestions in front of Uncle Sheng and you?”
Sheng Yue’s expression became serious, “You’re wrong, Haochen. In private, you are our junior, but no matter what, you shouldn’t forget about your status as Saint Knight Head. You are representing the Knight Temple, and many times, acting tough will be a necessity, otherwise, it’s not your own face that is lost, but the Knight Temple, you understand? ”
Long Haochen had a cold shiver and respectfully replied, “Yes!”
Sheng Yue continued in a heavy tone, “You are still young, but already made quite good contributions for the Alliance. Forget about your own age, you must act befitting your status of Saint Knight Head. Otherwise, your grandfather’s plan to send you to establish ties in every Temple will be of no use. Your strength is already sufficient, but you need now to have the proper prestige and inspire awe as the Saint Knight Head.”
Long Haochen continued to nod.
Sheng Yue sighed lightly, “If it was possible, I would rather not wish for such a heavy burden to be placed so early on you. But you are already burdened beyond the limits. It can be said that you are the real trigger for this Holy War. Although this had to happen sooner or later, on behalf of the Alliance I can guarantee you that we did not protect you because you are this Sheng Yue’s son-in-law or the grandson of Long Tianying, but because of your own strength and ability to destroy the demon god pillars.
“I know I am being direct, maybe unreasonable, but these are the most basic facts. If not for your own strength, even if we could have won as well, it would definitely not have ended that way so smoothly. Just work hard and don’t fall short of our expectations. You are already a Saint Knight of the eighth step! There’s absolutely no other Saint Knight of your age in the whole history of the Alliance. We all believe that your future self will surely become a person of outstanding talents who will act as the future leader for the Alliance. So no matter when, you must be extremely strict in your self-evaluations. I don’t want to hear you sound like just before again. So now, tell us about your thoughts.”
Sheng Yue was very severe, but his words gave Long Haochen the awareness he needed. Doing that, he helped Long Haochen to change his own evaluation of himself. He was not someone of ordinary standing anymore, but the Saint Knight Head representing the Knight Temple, one among the higher placed of the Temple Alliance
After pondering for a short time, Long Haochen replied, “Great-grandfather, Uncle Sheng, I have some thoughts. It’s just that I haven’t spoke them about because it’s a kind of extreme plan.”
Sheng Lingxin’s eyes lit up immediately, “I want to hear about it.” He was originally among the most radical of the Assassin Temple in his decision-making. If not for how Sheng Yue kept him suppressed all this time, his commanding strategy would have changed long ago. Long Haochen’s mention of the word extreme’ immediately gave this father in law a great excitation.
Long Haochen nodded, “I believe that outside of the gap in strength, the biggest reason why the losses of the Exorcist Mountain Pass were so great is that there wasn’t the opportunity to make use of the Assassin Temple’s greatest strong points.”
After saying that, he came to a pause and looked at Sheng Yue and Sheng Lingxin’s reactions.
Sheng Yue looked surprised while Sheng Lingxin’s expression became even more excited and expectant, nodding slightly, “Keep going.”
Long Haochen replied, “The Assassin Temple’s strong points lie in attacking and not defending. Assassins are really unfit for a defensive battle behind city walls. It’s as if we were to put a group of mages in the frontlines. The Exorcist Mountain Pass surely needs to be defended, but I believe that we can change that from a passive defense to an active defense. In short, offense would be the greatest defense.”
“That day, I saw that the elders at the heroic assassin step were over a dozen. Such a force wouldn’t lose out greatly even in front of demon gods, to say nothing about now that there is one less of them. If we can use harassing and ambushing tactics against the demon camps, their strength when attacking our Exorcist Mountain Pass will surely take a huge blow. And at the same time, ambushes, surprise attacks, and stealth are all fields of expertise for the Assassin Temple! Why wouldn’t we make use of our dominant points? By taking a beating passively, we can only become more and more passive. Different occupations should use different methods to cope against the enemy.”
“Well spoken!” Sheng Lingxin tapped on his thigh, in great excitement, “Haochen, I have exactly the same opinion as you.”
“Humph!” Sheng Yue snorted in anger, breaking off Sheng Lingxin’s great excitement.
Sheng Lingxin looked back at his grandfather, somewhat ashamed, a bitter smile on his face, “Grandfather, I am not saying that your policy is wrong!”