“Demon Spirit Thirteen, you have betrayed me.” Tang Chonglou’s black eyes gleamed with a piercing cold light, and his entire body exuded the overwhelming aura of a supreme ruler, which only made Demon Spirit Thirteen even more terrified.
Thump, thump, thump! —
The black-robed man threw away his sickle and kowtowed to Tang Chonglou without stopping, his voice trembling as he spoke: “Demon Lord, your subordinate has always been loyal to you and has never had a single disloyal thought!”
“Then what are you doing now?” Tang Chonglou glanced once more at the items laid out on the stall, his expression dark and grim.
Back then, when the demon race invaded the human realm, both races came perilously close to total annihilation.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, Immortal Xuanzhen stepped in and made them understand that a war between humans and demons would only cause the fate and fortune of both races to flow toward others.
If humans and demons kept fighting, eventually, both sides would exhaust their luck, and when that day came, someone else would be the one to benefit.
Later on, his own investigations also revealed that the war between humans and demons had actually been deliberately instigated by the Heavenly Emperor, all to siphon the fortune of both races toward the immortal race.
But he had also been besieged by the Ten Great Demon Emperors for forbidding the demon race from making enemies of the human race.
In the eyes of those Ten Great Demon Emperors, humans were weak and easy to bully. As long as they conquered the humans, everything would get better for the demon race.
What’s more, the demon race would no longer have to hide in the darkness all day just to avoid humans.
When Demon Spirit Thirteen heard Tang Chonglou’s question, he didn’t dare to hesitate. “Demon Lord, I was forced into this as well. With you not around in the demon realm, everything there is decided by the Demon Emperors. I couldn’t resist in any way.”
“They plan to invade the human realm, so they sent us ahead to scout the path, to investigate and report back on the situation among the humans.”
“Once we’ve gathered enough intel, the Ten Great Demon Emperors will join forces to open a passage between the two realms. Then the demon race will directly invade the human realm, catching them completely off guard.”
After saying this, Demon Spirit Thirteen raised his head slightly to gauge Tang Chonglou’s expression.
“You? Aside from you, who else is currently in the human realm?” Tang Chonglou was more concerned about the individuals who had already set foot on the Nine Provinces continent.
Demon Spirit Thirteen carefully confessed, “Fifteen demon generals and seventeen demon spirits from the demon race have all come. Each province has one demon general and one demon spirit.”
“The remaining six demon generals are working on ways to infiltrate some of the major sects and noble families, planning to possess people of high status and influence.”
“And the other eight demon spirits are tasked with sneaking into the black markets, setting up contact points, creating puppets, and also… digging out the internal organs and brains of cultivators to supply energy for the demon generals and demon spirits.”
The more Demon Spirit Thirteen spoke, the quieter his voice became. The chill creeping down his neck spread throughout his entire body, and he felt that Tang Chonglou could kill him at any moment.
Tang Chonglou’s usually cold eyes now burned with anger. “How long have you all been lurking in the human realm? How many cultivators have you killed?”
“Reporting to the Demon Lord, we’ve been in the human realm for almost two years now. The Demon Emperors demanded that we must learn everything about the humans within ten years.” Demon Spirit Thirteen dared not answer the question about how many cultivators they had killed.
Members of the demon race cannot stay under spiritual energy for long periods—otherwise, it would impair their sanity.
Ever since they set foot in the Nine Provinces, they had felt intensely uncomfortable and had to consume one cultivator every single day just to maintain their rationality.
“Heh, quite the ambition. Thirteen, I don’t care how many people you’ve eaten in the past, but starting today, you are not to lay a hand on any human!” Tang Chonglou commanded.
Back in the days when Pangu split open the heavens and earth, three thousand primordial gods and demons invaded this plane.
To protect this world, Pangu perished alongside those three thousand gods and demons. But no one had anticipated that those cunning gods and demons had hidden away their own flesh and blood before they died.
The flesh and blood of those primordial beings contaminated this plane, giving rise to many evil beings upon it.
Over the endless years, those evil beings gradually diverged, and eventually, besides the demon race and the immortal race, there came into being the demon race, the ghost race, the god race… and others.
The demon race inherited the evilness, belligerence, and bloodthirst from the bones and blood of those primordial gods and demons.
But the other races were no pushovers either. If the demon race wanted to bully any one of them, they would have to pay a heavy price.
Just then, the human race emerged in response to the tides of fate. In the early days, humans were incredibly weak—so weak that a single breath from a demon could kill a human.
Yet what no one anticipated was the speed at which the human race grew stronger—far surpassing all other races.
Not long after humans were enslaved by the demon race, a tremendously powerful Human Emperor arose among them.
Leading the humans, this Human Emperor drove back the various races that had been bullying them—including the demon race.
In the face of life-and-death crises, the potential that humans unleashed was something the demon race could never match.
Eventually, humans and demons ceased fighting and signed a peace treaty.
But after that, the development of the human race strangely stagnated, as if some invisible hand was holding back the cultivators of humanity from growing stronger.
Tang Chonglou had read through the Chronicles of the Nine Provinces and knew that for the past ten thousand years, no human cultivator had been able to break through and ascend.
What was even more outrageous was that the cultivation levels of human cultivators were getting lower and lower—nowadays, there wasn’t even a single cultivator at the Integration stage to be found.
Tang Chonglou couldn’t help but think back to the great war between humans and demons ten thousand years ago.
After that war, both the demon race and the human race had mysteriously failed to produce any more powerful figures.
Ever since Tang Chonglou was reborn, he had come to realize that perhaps this conspiracy was not only aimed at the human race but also at the demon race.
Pulling himself out of his memories, Tang Chonglou looked at Demon Spirit Thirteen, who was caught in a dilemma, and spoke: “What’s the matter? Is it that hard to stop eating people?”
“Demon Lord, it’s not that I want to eat people, but if I don’t, I’ll lose my sanity. And when that happens, I’ll end up killing even more people and might even expose the demon race…” Demon Spirit Thirteen said hesitantly.
“Demon Spirit Thirteen, are you willing to sincerely pledge your loyalty to me?” Tang Chonglou’s gaze turned serious.
“Thirteen would, of course, be willing to serve the Demon Lord! Please show me the way, my lord!” Demon Spirit Thirteen began kowtowing again.
Compared to the sheer terror of the Demon Lord, the Ten Great Demon Emperors could be considered mere underlings.
The demon race has a strict hierarchy. On any ordinary day, he would at most only be able to meet a demon general.
But now, not only had he met the Demon Lord himself, but he had also been given the chance to pledge his loyalty. Only a fool would hesitate at such an opportunity.
Seeing that Demon Spirit Thirteen was genuinely submitting, Tang Chonglou said, “Get up first.”
