Chapter 962: His Strength Is Caution! The World Demon-Slaying Leaderboard!
This sudden assault from the Demonspawn ended in a complete defeat for them.
The Darkwing Demon Lord never showed up throughout the battle.
Only a single Demon Emperor took the field.
But everyone knew that the Demon Lord must have been observing from the shadows. This one was especially cautious, staying so far back that even Ling Zhan couldn't sense his location.
The Ten Thousand Demons Lord did have some skill. As a Darkwing Demon, if he didn't have the ability to hide in darkness, that'd be a joke.
"The merits have been tallied..."
"This time we eliminated six hundred thousand Darkwing Demons. 10% were Demon Emperors above level 170. The only elite Demon Emperor was the one slain by you, General Ling Zhan..."
At this moment—
Deputy Zhou Xue'er had already compiled the battle report.
"From these numbers, looks like it was just a probing attack."
Clodas chimed in from the side.
It had seemed like a massive onslaught, yet the final kill count was only 600,000.
Especially since they were crushing the enemy the whole way.
Based on the initial scale, the enemy must have fielded at least tens of millions.
They had the entire enormous Demon Valley surrounded.
Don't be fooled by it being called a valley—it's massive and it's a tier-3 stronghold.
A tier-3 stronghold covers an area as large as a major city.
And yet the enemy had the numbers to surround all of it—definitely no small force.
"No need to guess. In the end, that Demon Lord used some kind of Night Space technique to forcibly teleport the rest of the army away."
"Clodas is right. This must have been a probe. Otherwise, why send only one elite Demon Emperor?"
Ling Zhan, seated in the commander's chair, calmly read the report as he spoke.
He had sensed a mysterious surge of dark energy earlier.
After that surge, the hidden dark signatures dropped drastically.
Ling Zhan suspected that the Ten Thousand Demons Lord had acted.
Only he would have the power to teleport away more than half of the forces.
"In that case, the Darkwing Demon Lord really is afraid to die. He probably saw your black flame that suppresses their undead secret arts and didn't dare act."
Aivina said softly.
If she were the Darkwing Demon Lord, she wouldn't be dumb enough to go toe-to-toe with this non-specialist either.
That Demon Emperor's death already proved enough.
Under that terrifying black flame, not only was resurrection impossible, even recovering health was nearly out of the question. It countered both revival and healing.
Who could endure that?
Sure, the Ten Thousand Demons clan had undead arts—but only if they could actually use them.
If they couldn't, their margin for error dropped massively. That smart and cautious Demon Lord saw his probing pawn die and wisely chose not to engage.
In truth—
Without Ling Zhan, this ambush by the Darkwing Demon Lord would've been nearly perfect.
They had both time and terrain on their side.
It happened just as night fell.
Some might wonder—
In this setting, the Darkwing Demons should've been unstoppable.
But here's the thing—
This is the Class Change World.
The entire lower realm operates on a shared timeline.
In other words, there are no time zones here.
In Ling Zhan's previous life, daytime in Dragon Kingdom meant nighttime in the Free Federation.
But here—
There's a universal world time.
No local time exists.
If it's morning or afternoon, then it's daytime across the entire lower realm.
Additionally—
Some professions, items, skills, and talents have effects that depend on noon or nighttime.
So here's the dilemma:
What if you're somewhere without a sun or actual night?
How are those abilities handled?
They go by "world time."
So even in the Ten Thousand Demons Continent with no real sunlight or darkness, if it's 12:00 noon world time, you're considered to be in daylight.
But if it hits 6:00 PM—
Then it counts as nighttime, and all night-based abilities get their buffs.
So—
Even though there's no day or night in the Ten Thousand Demons Continent, the Darkwing Demons could still use their night skills and receive massive buffs thanks to the world time hitting evening.
That's why they had the time advantage.
As for terrain—
Demon Valley is actually hard to defend and easy to attack.
The Demon-Slaying and Amethyst Legions had to defend passively and were at a disadvantage. Outside the valley is a flat plain with no cover.
Those flying, shadow-hiding Demons had the upper hand—mobility and flexibility.
However—
The Ten Thousand Demons lacked "human alignment."
With Ling Zhan around, they'd never have the perfect trifecta of time, terrain, and people.
"Tomorrow, hold position. Wait for reinforcements from Lemoris Fortress. Once we secure Demon Valley, we move out."
Ling Zhan said gravely.
One of Ling Zhan's greatest strengths was his caution.
The Darkwing Demon army may have retreated, but it all felt like a probe.
Just to be safe, Ling Zhan decided to stay put for now.
Aivina and Clodas, the two young generals, had no objections.
The enemy dared to launch a sneak attack like this. Even if they lost, they might not give up.
Plus—
There could still be an ambush ahead.
"Speaking of which..."
Clodas suddenly remembered something.
The Merit Leaderboard...
Officially, it's called the World Demon-Slaying Leaderboard.
Everyone who's contributed on the battlefield in the Ten Thousand Demons Abyss is ranked.
Even if you only killed one demon creature and took its head, you earned merit and got on the board.
Just depends where you rank.