Unfortunately for Madeleine, she could only smile bitterly at these jokes and fully embrace her "big sister teaching little brother" role, or else she would expose Dyon. Luckily, the assumed age gap wasn't too large.
Many speculated Dyon probably entered the tower around 14 to 16 years old, which would explain him not having entered the saint realms yet. Which meant that by now he would be around 27 to 29 or so years old. Madeleine had just turned 34 not too long ago, which let them know that she probably married Dyon when she was around 20 or 21.
Such a thing wasn't too rare in the martial world and often happened even when the gender roles were flipped. So, aside from a bit of teasing, no one looked down on Madeleine.
"Don't worry, though." Madeleine continued with a knowing smile. "This little husband of mine is quite a genius and bred an army of his own from a young age. Those who you're about to see are his Demon Generals!"
Almost as though they heard a cue from Madeleine, the two pillars began to shine a bright light before the waters they stood in started to lightly tremble.
In the next moment, thousands of bright lights flashed out from a swirling portal of colors.
The first moment that those of the Flaming Lily Sect saw these warriors was met with skepticism. From what they could see, most of these supposed "helpers" were only of the lower essence gathering level, even the best among them had only reached the middle essence gathering level.
Maybe what was the most odd was that this was just a feeling they got from years of experience, something about the cultivation of these warriors was too odd to accurately gauge. They could only make vague estimates.
However, this moment didn't late long… In the next instant, they felt their throats constrict as a heavy weight landed on their chests.
The three thousand Demon Generals stood with an imposing and devilish aura, their white hair whipping violently in the wind. They each wore majestic and robust black armor, every one of them carrying an assortment of weapons they were most familiar with.
With a single look, one could see that the material of this armor was not normal, nor were the cultivations of these Demon Generals so simple…
The moment they saw Madeleine standing calmly at the edge of the hovering flying ship, they immediately kneeled in the skies, crossing their right arms across their chests.
The voices of three thousand demons boomed through the skies.
"We humbly greet Mistress Sacharro!"
The inner disciples chosen to fight this battle for the Flaming Lily Sect were completely blown away by the Presence of the Demon Generals. With a single glance, one could tell that the vast majority of them were Kings! And the thirty Vice Heads at the very front… They were all Emperors!
All of these women were the best of the best. To be able to become an Inner Disciple of an Emperor God Sect stationed in the fourth ranked universe, one could imagine that any one of them was a world shattering talent. On top of that, they were all otherworldly beauties capable of stealing the hearts of anyone who laid their eyes upon them. Yet, even with all of their experience, they had never witnessed such a thing!
In other quadrants, the status of a King title was monstrous, let alone an Emperor. Even in the face of their key wielder, geniuses of such status would never kneel. Any one of them could lead a generation on their own! Even among all one hundred quadrants, ten thousand, and the quite literally quintillions of people and various beasts in the world, the number of Kings didn't surpass a few dozen thousand and the number of Emperors didn't surpass a few hundred!
It was suffice to say, that those with this level of status were rare beyond belief. And yet, there were 3000 of them right here, completely ignoring their own potential and prestige to kneel not to their leader, but their leader's wife.
At this moment, everyone understood just what kind of prestige Dyon held. To raise such subordinates, even to the point that they were respectful to even your wife… This was no normal leader.
At first, everyone thought that it might be just because of fear. Maybe it wasn't Dyon they were afraid of, but rather, whatever power it was from the Celestial Deer Quadrant that raised him.
However, when they say Demon Generals like Thadius, River and Ronica swarm Madeleine with happy smiles, even hugging her and chatting like old friends, they completely threw those ideas away. For better or for worse, they were a family. Dyon didn't rule them with an iron fist, yet they still respected him enough to kneel.
It was at that point that even the elders and Vice leaders of the Flaming Lily Sect, floating a distance away, redoubled their desire to meet this Dyon Sacharro.
They, themselves, were beauties in their own right. Although many of them had begun to show signs of aging and mostly looked like middle aged women, that only gave them an attractive and mature air that was similar to a well ripened fruit.
"I can't see through these children at all." An elder finally spoke her mind.
"Their white hair doesn't seem natural… It's likely that they all went through something traumatizing. Do you think there's a possibility that the Celestial Deer Quadrant used some underhanded means to garner their loyalty?"
"I don't think so, there aren't any odd fluctuations in their souls. They all seem to be acting naturally."
Although the Flaming Lily Sect didn't have a single half-step transcendent, they had a good number of high-leveled dao formation experts. With elders of this level, to not be able to completely see through a few juniors was truly surprising, but that didn't stop their senses from being sharp. They could still see quite a few things.
"Even if this is a saint gate, aren't they a little too weak to help much of anything? We have tens of thousands of outer disciples, and nearly a thousand inner disciples, what difference can they make?" An elder asked worriedly.
One might wonder why such an important gate was a saint gate, however, that would be backwards thinking. It's because that this gate was so important that it was a saint gate.
In the general martial world, even celestials, to a certain extent, were considered as members of the younger generation. The reason why they'd leave such an important gate to be managed by the younger generation was manifold.
For one, it was almost a silent treaty. By leaving it in the hands of the younger warriors, it was symbolically acquiescing to the fact that they wouldn't fight to conquer the Gate.
The second reason, however, was more complex.
The foundation of a sect was its younger generation. The stronger this foundation was, the brighter its future. Therefore, if one sect's younger generation far outdid the other's, they would naturally become more powerful over time. If this occurred, it would only make sense for the sect with the brighter future to thus command more land. Everyone agreed with this.
However, this isn't what happened in this case. The Golden Crow Sect, along with Fiery Lotus Sect and the Flame Rebirth Sect, colluded with one another to quickly hit this gate during the last campaign. At that time, not only had their best geniuses been away, the disciples they had left to casually gain experience were forced to withstand the geniuses of three Emperor God Sects. If it wasn't for Madeleine and a few other inner disciples quickly making their way back to defend the last tower, they would have completely lost control of the gate entirely.
This, clearly, completely disrespected the spirit of what these Gates represented for the sects, however, since there was no written agreement, the Flaming Lily Sect could only swallow their anger and plan for the worst. If their sect fell from the Emperor ranks because of this, it would spell disaster for their whole foundation.
"I don't think we should underestimate these 'Demon Generals'. Although their cultivations are a little lacking, the fluctuations in the energies of heaven and earth around them make it clear that their comprehension levels are very high. Their bodies are incredibly robust and some of them have even crossed in the 7th intent level."
The elders widened their eyes in shock. The one who had just spoken was the Vice Matriarch and her cultivation was definitely the most profound of them all. If she such a thing, she must be correct. However, what was shocking was the fact the 7th intent level, also known as One With Law, was something only celestials should have the ability to comprehend. How could essence gathering juniors reach such a level?
"We'll just leave this up to fate. It's our own good karma that we've taken in such an outstanding disciple with an equally as outstanding husband, we can only leave it up to them. Since we've already decided to place our trust in the hands of the youths, there's no need to focus on these matters any longer.
"What we need to do is understand why the Golden Crow Sect would make such a move at this time. It can't be forgotten that our quadrant is the birth place of flames… It's likely that after so many years, the Golden Crow old fogies have finally found some clues about the Golden Flame."
