Chapter 1504: Something is Amiss
Yang Haoran had, in fact, completed his preparations for dealing with the Underworld Office a long time ago. He knew that day would eventually arrive, and the earlier he prepared, the more advantageous it would be, allowing for more time to refine and improve. His decision to forgo military campaigns and instead focus on recuperation was precisely to elevate these existing preparations to an even higher level.
Yang Haoran had also carefully considered how to handle the six Demon Saints. According to some high-ranking officials within the Great Night Empire, it would be best to simply execute them. Their reasoning for this was multifaceted.
One reason was that the six Demon Saints showed no inclination to surrender. Another was that once they were dead, the Sea Demon Alliance would lose its backbone, making it significantly easier to subdue the myriad sea demons ideologically. Beyond these two points, there was an even more critical reason: the six Demon Saints had actually divulged Yang Haoran's whereabouts to the Underworld Office. This act was considered utterly egregious by these high-ranking officials; without executing the six Demon Saints, their burning hatred would remain unvented.
After careful consideration, Yang Haoran did not accept this suggestion. He believed it would be a tremendous waste to slay the six Demon Saints. If he could successfully subdue them, the Great Night would gain six powerful assets, which would bring untold benefits to the entire empire.
As for the matter of the six Demon Saints informing the Underworld Office of his whereabouts, Yang Haoran actually didn't care in the slightest. If he were in their position, he would have done the same, and thus, he understood their actions.
Furthermore, he had caused such a massive stir in the Eastern Sunrise Ocean that even without the six Demon Saints tipping off the Underworld Office, the latter would likely have learned of his whereabouts soon enough. Therefore, he didn't dwell on the matter, and certainly wouldn't furiously slay the six Demon Saints over it.
The Sea Demon Alliance was vast in numbers, and with their backbone, the six Demon Saints, still alive, brainwashing the sea demons was no easy feat. However, Old Master Wu did not flinch. Upon receiving Yang Haoran's orders, he wasted no time and immediately set about handling the matter.
His first targets were not the six Demon Saints themselves, but rather the sea demons beneath them. As the six Demon Saints were currently in an extremely agitated state, he decided to set them aside for a while, allowing them to thoroughly calm down. This approach would also help the six Demon Saints clearly recognize their current predicament, which would facilitate their eventual persuasion to surrender.
After entrusting this matter to Old Master Wu, Yang Haoran no longer interfered. Instead, he had Ma Ling lead him to inspect the Great Night's Grand Protective Array. He brought no one else on this journey, only himself and Ma Ling, and there was naturally a reason for his doing so.
After a thorough inspection, the National Protection Array was found to be flawless. Yang Haoran, having received Ma Ling's affirmative reply, nodded in deep satisfaction.
With this task complete, Yang Haoran successively communicated with his other trusted subordinates, laying out a series of arrangements. The sole focus of these preparations was the retaliatory strike expected from the Underworld Office.
The Underworld Office's methods of retaliation would certainly not be fixed; there were many possibilities. Therefore, Yang Haoran's countermeasures likewise could not be singular; he had to prepare several sets of response plans. To successfully achieve this, expending a certain amount of time and resources was indispensable. Yang Haoran was not stingy in the slightest in this regard; whatever resources were needed, as long as they were related to dealing with the Underworld Office, he grandly approved and provided them in abundance.
However, the subsequent turn of events was something Yang Haoran had utterly failed to anticipate. For a full ten years after successfully subjugating the Sea Demon Alliance, the Underworld Office remained completely silent. To be precise, it wasn't that the Underworld Office had vanished, leaving no trace; rather, they had not launched any retaliatory strikes against the Great Night throughout that decade.
Ten years prior, Yang Haoran had considered numerous possibilities and formulated many plans to counter the Underworld Office's retaliatory strikes. Yet, he had never once imagined that events would unfold in such a manner.
According to his conjecture, after the Underworld Office learned of his whereabouts from the six Demon Saints, they would certainly not let him off. While the specific method of attack was uncertain, he was confident that the Underworld Office would retaliate, and that this retaliation would be exceptionally fierce, far from mere skirmishes. Thus, for these ten years, he had been waiting for this day to arrive.
Yet, the reality diverged too greatly from his conjecture, indeed, it was completely opposite. The Underworld Office had launched no retaliatory strikes against the Great Night Empire, not even minor skirmishes. They hadn't even tampered with the souls of the Great Night's newborns in the slightest.
This was clearly abnormal, and intensely so. To claim that the Underworld Office had abandoned its retaliation against Yang Haoran, abandoned its retaliation against the Great Night Empire—Yang Haoran wouldn't believe it even if you beat him to death. After all, this involved not merely the enmity between the two sides, but also the very face and authority of the Underworld Office. Therefore, the Underworld Office's complete inaction against him and the entire Great Night over the past decade must have been due to some other reason, and it was precisely this reason that kept them completely motionless!
To ascertain precisely what was going on, Yang Haoran simultaneously ordered Tang Shi and Shui Ling to thoroughly investigate the matter in the shortest time possible.
Over these ten years, though the Great Night Empire had constantly guarded against the Underworld Office's retaliation, its development had not faltered. Thanks to the efforts of its various departments, the Great Night was progressing by leaps and bounds, changing with each passing day. The current Great Night could, without a doubt, be described as truly prosperous.
Due to the need to guard against a surprise attack from the Underworld Office, the Great Night Empire's combat strength had remained on high alert for the past decade. While this kept their forces in a state of tension, the absence of military campaigns allowed the Great Night's combat strength to recover and improve significantly. The Great Night was now truly mighty, its forces stronger than they had been ten years ago by more than just a little.
Recuperation was one of the reasons for the Great Night's rapid increase in combat strength, but there was another crucial factor: the inclusion of the Sea Demon Alliance.
Through the efforts of Old Master Wu and his supporting team, Old Master Wu successfully managed, within three years, to persuade one Demon Saint and a portion of the sea demons to voluntarily become part of the Great Night Empire. However, the other five Demon Saints and the remaining sea demons were either still hesitant, unable to decide whether to join the Great Night, or they adamantly refused, preferring death to surrender, unwilling to join the Great Night under any circumstances.
Another three years passed, and three more Demon Saints, along with a massive number of sea demons, chose to join the Great Night. The vast majority of these were individuals who had previously been hesitant. It took Old Master Wu and the entire 'ideological persuasion' team another three years of painstaking effort to finally breach their psychological defenses, leading them to willingly join the Great Night.
By this point, six years had already been spent. Although the majority of sea demons had chosen to join the Great Night and become part of it, two Demon Saints and a small contingent of sea demons still refused to join.
This small portion of sea demons were not entirely subordinates of those two Demon Saints; rather, they were composed of a stubborn few. Some were indeed under the two Demon Saints, but others were not. Very few of the two Demon Saints' direct subordinates remained unwilling to join the Great Night; the vast majority had already chosen to join before them. Even though these sea demons knew such an action would displease their former masters, under prolonged ideological guidance, they ultimately bypassed them and chose to join the Great Night.
Over the last four years, under the relentless persuasion of Old Master Wu and his supporting team, reinforced by the continuous urging of the other four Demon Saints from the Sea Demon Alliance and their own trusted subordinates, the two Demon Saints' stubbornly held psychological defenses were finally breached. They ultimately chose to compromise, joining the Great Night and becoming a part of its ranks.
As for those stubborn sea demons who were not Demon Saints, seeing that the last two Demon Saints had also joined the Great Night, they too, with only a handful of rare exceptions, joined one after another. They understood that continued obstinacy was futile. Moreover, years of ideological education had long since eroded their resolve; they simply needed a reason, a justification to persuade themselves to join the Great Night. The compromise of those final two Demon Saints proved to be the perfect reason for them.
As for that tiny handful of sea demons who would rather die than yield, Old Master Wu ceased his persuasions. Instead, he chose to grant them their wish through execution.
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