Chapter 146
The shouting from outside the rift quickly became muffled. Ke Xingzhou looked up at Lian Cheng, who had followed him in, a bit dazed.
Then he suddenly remembered—the other’s bow was still with him. He reached into his pocket and handed it back. “Take this and go back first.”
Lian Cheng: “……”
He didn’t take it, but the bow seemed to have a will of its own and returned to Ke Xingzhou’s side. Lian Cheng’s voice sank. “There’s no going back. The Demon Realm exists independently from the Three Realms. Unless Luohou opens it again, we’re all stuck here.”
Ke Xingzhou was stunned for a moment when he heard this, finally realizing how dangerous it had been to follow Luohou into the rift so rashly.
He said worriedly, “If we can’t go back, then there’s no point in me keeping this bow.”
Lian Cheng: “?”
Ke Xingzhou looked forlornly at the now miniaturized bow in his hand. “Duan Changsheng isn’t here. I can’t trade it for the Wanli Corporation.”
Lian Cheng: “……”
At that moment, Nie Chen suddenly let out a muffled grunt.
Ke Xingzhou’s expression tightened. He immediately dropped the bow and turned to look at Nie Chen, only to see his arm—still holding Ke Xingzhou’s—hanging at a strange angle at his side. His face had gone pale, and his brows were tightly furrowed.
He had been trying to let go of Ke Xingzhou when the pain made him cry out.
Luohou had moved too fast. Under his sudden attack, an ordinary human body couldn’t withstand such speed. Ke Xingzhou had only escaped injury because Luohou had no intention of harming him and had left a brief window for him to react when taking him away.
Nie Chen, however, had been completely unprepared. The fact that he managed to hold on to Ke Xingzhou and come in at all was already a miracle.
Luohou glanced at his dislocated arm with a mocking look. “Not broken. Pity.”
The moment he spoke, something struck him on the forehead—the bow that had just returned to Ke Xingzhou was thrown again and hit Luohou squarely in the head.
Ke Xingzhou’s eyes gleamed fiercely. “Heal him!”
Luohou: “……”
Lian Cheng: “……”
Lian Cheng guided his true body back to Ke Xingzhou’s side to guard him, while he silently turned his gaze away, “looking” into the distance.
They had already arrived in the legendary Demon Realm—a place called “legendary” because, aside from the demon race, no one else had ever entered it and lived to return.
Even ten thousand years ago, Ke Xingzhou...Lian Cheng lowered his gaze, his expression somewhat dim.
In the eyes of all living beings in the Three Realms, the Demon Realm had always been a mysterious existence. No one had ever described what it looked like inside—only storytellers indulged in endless imagination.
In many legends, the Demon Realm was supposed to be extravagant and luxurious, filled with items of pleasure everywhere. Only such an environment could produce a race like the demons, who were said to indulge in enjoyment and lack ambition.
But the Demon Realm before them had nothing to do with luxury or extravagance.
Lian Cheng slightly raised his head and looked around. What he saw was a vast expanse of rocky wasteland—there were no crops, not even wild grass growing naturally.
As for buildings, there was even less to say. The black holes in the cliff face were likely where the demons usually rested.
It was… quite unexpected.
Magic power surged beside him, and Lian Cheng snapped out of his thoughts. He sensed that Nie Chen’s arm had been set back into place, though the soft tissue was bruised and couldn’t heal immediately. Ke Xingzhou was carefully supporting him at the side.
“……” Lian Cheng really didn’t want to see this kind of scene.
He simply turned to Luohou, quickly forming a bow-shaped energy projection in his hand that resembled his true body’s bow. “What exactly do you want?”
Luohou glanced at him, completely unbothered by the threat of the bow in his hand. He raised an eyebrow. “Inviting friends over as guests—what, is that not allowed?”
Lian Cheng gave a cold laugh. “Someone like you?”
Luohou’s expression changed instantly. He glared at Lian Cheng, suddenly angry for some unknown reason. “Why not someone like me? With everything you people did ten thousand years ago, even if I lead an army into the human realm now, it would be completely justified—not even the Heavenly Dao would stop me! The only reason you’re able to stand here and talk big is because of him!”
Lian Cheng remained ungrateful and gave a disdainful snort.
Over there, Ke Xingzhou had finished checking Nie Chen’s injuries and, confirming there would be no lasting damage, finally let out a breath of relief.
He had originally wanted to blame Nie Chen for hurting himself, but upon hearing that, he asked with a puzzled expression, “Did I come here in my past life?”
The two who were arguing fell silent at once.
Luohou calmed himself, and when he looked up again, he wore that usual careless, devil-may-care expression. “You didn’t. You had too many friends. No matter how hard I tried to invite you, I couldn’t get you.”
Lian Cheng turned his gaze away, but upon hearing that, he sneered. “Good thing you didn’t. Otherwise, before the Great War between Gods and Demons, you’d have killed him already.”
Ke Xingzhou stared at the two of them for a long while, but neither seemed inclined to explain. So he simply turned to look at Nie Chen.
Nie Chen: “……”
He shared all memories with Lian Cheng. He naturally knew everything that had happened ten thousand years ago—but he hadn’t wanted Ke Xingzhou to find out.
It was just that…
Nie Chen looked around at the Demon Realm they were now in. The endless rocky wasteland stretched as far as the eye could see. The sky was a constant gray, merging with the distant horizon into a seamless blur, with no signs of escape in sight.
At that moment, Luohou suddenly interrupted their silence.
“What’s the point of dwelling on all that? I don’t even care anymore.” He gave a light snort and glanced at Ke Xingzhou. “Now that you’re here, how about taking a look at my royal capital?”
Ke Xingzhou looked hesitantly at the desolate scene before them. “…Royal capital?”
Luohou followed his gaze and also fell silent for a moment.To be honest, he had fallen into slumber even earlier than the outbreak of the Great War between Gods and Demons. After awakening, due to the depletion of spiritual energy in the world and the peaceful, content lives of ordinary beings who harbored little resentment, he hadn't had enough power to tear through space and return. As a result, he had never come back and had no idea what the Demon Realm had developed into.
He thought: even the human race, such a common and insignificant species, managed to develop their world to that extent—surely the demon race couldn't be doing that much worse, right?
But now, looking at the barren, flat expanse of the Demon Realm before his eyes, he recalled the towering skyscrapers he saw in the human world upon awakening, and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
…Has the Demon Realm really made no progress at all in these ten thousand years?
Perhaps his expression was too shocked, because Ke Xingzhou suddenly felt a bit sympathetic. After thinking for a moment, he offered a tactful reminder: “I heard that the average education level in the Demon Realm is pretty low. Science is the primary productive force. Without knowledge, it's hard to achieve development... Maybe you should start focusing more on their general education in the future?”
Luohou: “…”
The mighty Demon Ancestor, who also hadn’t had much schooling, suddenly shut down.
--
The demon race had been lurking in the human world for decades and had still managed to collect some demonic power, allowing a portion of their people to be sent back.
Upon hearing the commotion outside, the Demon Generals all peeked their heads out to see what was happening. When they discovered that the Demon Ancestor had appeared, joy lit up their faces.
The demons who had remained behind in the Demon Realm were even more ecstatic. They quickly assembled their subordinates and rushed to Luohou, tears flowing down their cheeks: “Demon Ancestor! You’ve finally returned!”
Many of the Demon Generals behind him had only been recently born, but upon seeing Luohou, they instinctively felt awe and submission, kneeling before him and shouting, “Long live the Demon Ancestor!”
Yun Mo took the opportunity to complain: “Demon Ancestor, the human world has gone too far. After ten thousand years, they no longer fear us demons at all! But it doesn’t matter—Tianmo and the others have already led the demon army into hiding in the human world. They’ve seduced a large group of believers who willingly offer their souls to us. The moment you give the order, we’ll rise again and restore the Demon Race’s supreme glory from ten thousand years ago!”
He spoke fervently, growing more impassioned with every word, but never received a response from the Demon Ancestor.
Instead, another voice cut in: “Glory that was sealed away?”
Yun Mo: “?”
He grew furious, thinking: Who is this ignorant demon? How could they speak this way in front of the Demon Ancestor?
When the Great War between Gods and Demons broke out ten thousand years ago, the Demon Ancestor was already wounded and asleep. He had no idea they lost! If he heard this now, he might think they were completely useless!
Yun Mo quickly explained, “Demon Ancestor! Don’t listen to his nonsense. That battle ten thousand years ago—we were merely careless and got tricked by those deceitful humans! But Tianmo and the others have already developed a powerful demonic sect in the human world, influencing tens of thousands of believers! Now that you’ve awakened, with one command, those believers will gladly go through fire and water for us and even turn on their own kind!”
His passionate speech still failed to earn the Demon Ancestor’s praise.
Silence hung above their heads. After a moment, the earlier voice spoke again, now full of disbelief: “Has the Demon Realm… never gotten internet?”
Otherwise, how could they not know that the Nine-Headed Dragon had long since been wiped out? How were they still dreaming about using the Nine-Headed Dragon to destroy the human world?
Tens of thousands of people couldn’t even cause a ripple in the southwest region, let alone shake the whole country. Just how outdated was the Demon Race’s understanding of the human world?
Luohou: “…”
Yun Mo: “???”
What internet? And what did “your Demon Realm” mean?
What kind of demon talks like this!When he looked up, he realized that the few people accompanying the Demon Ancestor were actually not demons.
Two of them were ordinary humans, and one seemed to be... a spirit artifact? Yun Mo recognized Liancheng’s origin aura and immediately felt the entire demon city go bad: “Demon Ancestor! How could you bring this guy in here!!”
The human beside him clearly didn’t know about the grudge between the demons and this spirit artifact and curiously asked, “Why can’t he come?”
Yun Mo didn’t even pay attention to who they were. After all, compared to the other human whose vigorous merits troubled the demons, this human was so weak as to be negligible.
He replied indignantly, “Of course it’s because he and his master are both treacherous and utterly untrustworthy!”
Ke Xingzhou: “…”
Treacherous… trustworthiness…
Hearing such words from a demon’s mouth was truly shocking. Ke Xingzhou was momentarily speechless.
Luohou, however, thought his silence was for some other reason and finally couldn’t bear it, interrupting Yun Mo with anger: “Shut up! Stop talking!”
Yun Mo froze for two seconds, then lowered his head in grievance: “Yes, Demon Ancestor.”
Though he said that, his expression showed no willingness to shut up—it was only out of deep-rooted reverence and submission to the Demon Ancestor that he obeyed.
Ke Xingzhou even sensed a hint of grievance in the way Yun Mo glanced at Liancheng secretly.
Liancheng: “…”
--
The group eventually arrived at the demon race’s settlement.
After entering the cave, they found that the demons were not poor at all.
Liancheng looked at the skulls embedded in the stone walls around them, shimmering with the aura of immortality, Daoism, and Buddhism. He understood these were trophies from the demons’ slaughtering expeditions long ago—ten thousand years ago, the demons were indeed arrogant and strong, so much so that even the Western Heavenly Court couldn’t deal with them. Many powerful cultivators fell because of their temptation and disruption.
Those dead gods, Buddhas, and cultivators had become items displayed in the demons’ respective caves to show off to their kin.
Besides that, the various utensils and weeds carelessly piled up in the cave were treasures and spiritual medicines looted and tricked away from the Eastern and Western Heavenly Courts and former cultivators’ abodes.
Such a cave, if placed back then, would have attracted countless cultivators fighting to death over it. But now, whether to demons who couldn’t use those treasures or to the humans, ghosts, and妖族 (monster clans) outside, it was just a pile of junk.
Ke Xingzhou looked at the mountain of things piled in the corner. Although there was little dust, the mess was piled together without care, and it was unclear how long it had gone without tidying, giving a very unpleasant impression.
Even when he lived in a small countryside house, he was always very clean and had never been in such a dirty, messy place.
He immediately stopped at the entrance.
Luohou, however, didn’t notice anything wrong and turned back to look at him in confusion: “Come on, why stop? This is just the outer area. Do you want to sleep on the floor tonight?”
“…” Liancheng’s brow twitched.
If the outer area already had so many precious materials, the inner part was probably even more lavish.
How many people had the demon race harmed over the long past?
Ke Xingzhou found it really hard to imagine—if the outer area was already this chaotic, what must the inside be like?“I think… I won’t go in?” He looked left and right, struggling to say, “I’ve already been here, so I’ve basically fulfilled your request. How about you send us back first? I’m a bit fussy about beds; I might not be able to sleep tonight.”
Luohou: “…”
Luohou didn’t know what he was thinking but his expression grew somewhat dangerous: “Why?”
Yun Mo beside him sensed the Demon Ancestor’s anger and suddenly got excited.
Are they going to fight?!
Ke Xingzhou paused, sensing the atmosphere was off, hesitated for a moment, then truthfully said, “…Alright, I just feel your life is too hard. No wonder you attacked the human world ten thousand years ago.”
Luohou: “?”
Yun Mo: “?”
Liancheng: “…”
Ke Xingzhou didn’t catch the meaning behind their silence, openly scanning the surroundings.
He didn’t know what they were using for lighting inside the cave, but although he could see, visibility was low. Used to the brightness of human lights, he really found it hard to adjust to this level of illumination.
Isn’t this basically being blind?
Thinking this way, he felt the demons’ lives were indeed harsh. It was somewhat understandable why they couldn’t endure the Heaven’s Way’s bias and went to the human world ten thousand years ago.
Ke Xingzhou patted Luohou’s shoulder: “If I were you, I wouldn’t stand it either. But don’t worry, now it’s a harmonious society. When you get back, talk it over with your leaders. It won’t take many mouths to feed you—oh, by the way, how many demons do you have in total?”
Yun Mo, who was still furious at Ke Xingzhou’s disrespect toward the Demon Ancestor, snorted lightly upon hearing this and proudly puffed out his chest: “Although we went through the calamity of the Demon Sealing Formation, through our joint efforts, the demon population has recovered to about one-tenth or one-twelfth of its peak—at least one hundred thousand!”
He shouted the last number especially loudly, as if it was some remarkable achievement.
In fact, it really was.
In the ancient era ten thousand years ago, demons had the largest population. Even humans favored by Heaven’s Way couldn’t compare. Back then, the most prosperous human cities only had that many people, while for demons it was just one-tenth or one-twelfth of their heyday.
Since escaping the Demon Sealing Formation, Yun Mo had stayed in the rear protecting demon members and never gone to the human world, so he didn’t know the current human situation.
He thought the human world still only had cities of at most tens of thousands of people.
Yun Mo proudly puffed his chest, expecting these unexpected visitors to show surprise and shock.
But Ke Xingzhou was indeed surprised, yet his look at Luohou was full of disappointed frustration: “Only this many people? You should have said so! Just assign you a mountain area as a settlement and apply for an unrecognized ethnic group status. Then you could become citizens legitimately!”
The Xiaoyao Sect had previously had many misunderstandings about official recognition, so Zhu Chu specially brushed up on related knowledge, and Ke Xingzhou also skimmed it.
Now not only Yun Mo but even Luohou was confused: “Unrecognized ethnic group?”
“You know about ethnic minorities, right? To establish an ethnic minority requires an independent ethnic group. The remaining groups that aren’t recognized as independent minorities because of small numbers or other reasons are called unrecognized ethnic groups.” Ke Xingzhou sized up Luohou, “...Based on your history, it’s a bit hard to be recognized as an independent minority, but unrecognized ethnic group status should be possible.”
Luohou: “…”
He was silent for a moment, thinking Ke Xingzhou must be joking.The human race has indeed risen now, but he remembered that the place where Ke Xingzhou came from was just one of the human nations. To ask them to submit to humans, becoming merely an unrecognized vassal?
What a joke!
Yun Mo even thought this human was bragging; their demon race had a full one hundred thousand members. How could they be unrecognized!
Ke Xingzhou continued: “The numbers are similar. I remember there’s an unrecognized ethnic group called the Chuānqīngrén with only about six or seven hundred thousand people. You have only one hundred thousand—that’s nothing.”
At these words, both Luohou and Yun Mo fell silent.
Six or seven hundred thousand people… ethnic minority… unrecognized…
Yun Mo was still a bit dissatisfied: “So what if their numbers are larger? Humans are so weak, no matter how many come, they won’t shake the demon race!”
This remark strangely made their Demon Ancestor fall silent.
Nie Chen sneered: “Weak? You underestimate humans too much. It’s true their spiritual energy is weak now and they can’t cultivate, but human technology is not much worse than the old cultivation methods.”
He glanced at Luohou. “Not just you, even your Demon Ancestor can’t guarantee he can escape.”
Luohou: “…”
Yun Mo originally wanted to argue but saw that the Demon Ancestor didn’t respond at all, and his heart suddenly sank.
He looked confused at the Demon Ancestor’s grim face and felt that the demon race’s future might really be dark.
“Th-then what should we do?”
Could it be they really had to become human vassals, just like that human said?
Ke Xingzhou saw his thoughts and waved his hand: “What nonsense? What do you mean vassals? Now everyone is equal! As long as you successfully apply to join, you can enjoy equal citizenship rights. Ethnic minorities even get extra points!”
“Extra points?” Yun Mo finally heard something that sounded like a benefit; his eyes lit up. “What extra points? What practical use do they have?”
“Extra points for the college entrance exam,” Ke Xingzhou said mysteriously. “It’s a big deal—life-changing. Even one extra point can beat many competitors.”
“Really?” Yun Mo’s expression brightened immediately, turning to Luohou. “Demon Ancestor, why don’t we take the college entrance exam! Let the humans see how powerful we are!!”
Nie Chen: “…”
Liancheng: “…”
No… this kind of competition isn’t the kind you guys think it is.