Chapter 2345

Over the past six hundred years, Beijia's polity has been peculiar yet stable. The thirteen vassal demon kingdoms both guard Lingxu City and check the Demon Emperor's power.

Before each vassal demon king takes office, they must accept investiture from the Lingxu Saint. The crux of this ceremony is that the new demon king swallows a secret medicine and receives a divine art; from then on, their life is bound to a certain celestial god — they live and die together.

For the sake of their own safety, vassal demon kings have no choice but to comply with the celestial god's will. This is one of the fundamentals by which the Lingxu Saint controls power in Beijia.

During this period there have been vassal demon kingdoms that refused to submit and rose in rebellion, but to date there is no successful precedent.

Without this check imposed by the celestial gods, Beijia might have long since fallen apart; yet its very existence is also one of the roots of the demon kingdoms' suffering.

"Supposedly, the inspiration came from the shared-life trait between the Jin Du Ghost Mother and her ghost spawn. But between celestial gods and vassal demon kings there is no genuine divine bond, after all — this linkage was created by the Lingxu Saint's own hand," the Demon Emperor said in a low voice. "Study it carefully; do not let the Heavenly Palace discover it."

"Yes."

The Demon Emperor then ordered: "This matter is of great importance; this maid knows too much inside information — dispose of her."

"This..." Nie Xiaolou coughed lightly, producing a wax pill — a personal letter from the Nine Nether Great Emperor. "I'm afraid there's a bit of trouble. She says this wax pill seals a personal letter from Cang Yan Nine Nether, to be delivered to the highest authority."

"Oh?" The Demon Emperor's gaze was like a torch; at a glance he saw the wax pill's surface still bore sealing wax, unopened.

Nie Xiaolou had not opened it to look.

Since it was the Nine Nether Great Emperor's personal letter, it should be left for Beijia's Emperor to open in person.

"Open it." The Demon Emperor, too, was intrigued.

Only then did Nie Xiaolou pinch open the wax pill.

The shell cracked, the sealing wax vanished, and a thin paper scroll fell out.

He unfolded it, showing it to the Demon Emperor. The paper was thin as a cicada's wing, yet could spread to the size of a palm.

On it was only a single sentence:

Let her leave in peace; I owe you a favor.

What an arrogant tone.

Even with preparation, when Nie Xiaolou saw the signature, his pupils still contracted:

Nine Nether.

Beside it was also stamped with Nine Nether's private seal, and a faintly glowing treasure seal.

That was the Qinghong Treasure Seal. If a single word on the letter were altered, the seal would vanish.

Honestly, this was the second time Nie Xiaolou felt surprise.

When Tong Yiyi produced the wax pill, he found it strange that the Nine Nether Great Emperor would bother over a spy.

But this shouldn't be fake, because it's too easy to verify.

He thought the Nine Nether Great Emperor would propose specific trade terms in the letter to exchange for Tong Yiyi's life. After all, in an emperor's eyes, a life is also a kind of resource — everything can be clearly priced, merely a difference between high and low.

Once a spy's identity is exposed, they're useless; there's no need to expend much thought.

Yet the Nine Nether Great Emperor's approach once again broke convention.

He produced a Treasure that cannot be quantified — a "favor."

A farmer in the fields owes you a favor; next time you move house you can call on him to help carry heavy things, or have him come reap wheat during harvest.

A merchant in the city owes you a favor; you can have him send a letter to your distant hometown, and he might even lend you a bit of money in a pinch.

A high official in the court owes you a favor; you can secure a cushy post for your son, ensuring a worry-free second half of life.

Then, if it is the hegemon who unified the entire Shanjin Plain, who personally forged the third strongest human nation and raised the banner of resistance against the Heavenly Demons — an emperor — owes you a favor, how much benefit can you leverage from that favor?

Please give full play to your imagination.

That is not merely wealth and glory.

That is not merely a city or a fortress.

That is not merely endless divine artifacts and spirit pills.

The extremes of "human desire" can all be easily satisfied.

How rare is a powerful emperor's favor? In the past, the Ya Kingdom took advantage of the Dragon God War to invade the Shanjin Plain; the Nine Nether Great Emperor paid the price of eight hundred Punishment Dragon Pillars — and paid in advance, daring not to raise any other conditions, showing full sincerity — before he could obtain a single favor from Emperor Mou: dispatching eighty thousand troops to the border for maneuvers, deterring the Ya army.

With this assistance, He Lingchuan was able to annihilate the Yao Kingdom with peace of mind, eliminate the last strong enemy, and thereby unify Shanjin.

If the Demon Emperor makes good use of this wax pill, how many underhanded deals can he strike with Nine Nether, with Cang Yan? How much maneuvering room can he win for himself, for Lingxu City?

This is how an emperor-level favor is used!

Nie Xiaolou's mind spun rapidly, and he finally understood why Tong Yiyi had earlier chosen death over submission, enduring every torture yet insisting on seeing him.

The weight of this wax pill actually depends on the status of the one who obtains it.

If an executioner got it, what use would it be? He couldn't even reach the Nine Nether Great Emperor.

Even on tiptoe, even jumping, he can't reach it — it's a floating cloud in the sky, it's nothing at all.

So to save her life, Tong Yiyi had to hand it to the highest authority.

Only those in high positions can deeply understand this wax pill's power.

But ordinary people, even if they understand this, probably can't endure the torture — they'd produce the wax pill early, at least gambling on a fluke.

The Demon Emperor also finished reading in an instant:

"What's so special about this spy, that he'd use this kind of promise to exchange for her?"

Nie Xiaolou shook his head: "I used Heart Devil to examine the past hidden deep in her heart — it was quite wretched. Before He Xiao became the Nine Nether Great Emperor, he seems to have had some involvement with her too. Tong Yiyi becoming a spy was his personal recruitment."

The Demon Emperor also said: "Nine Nether rose from humble origins; he appears calculating and decisive, but in truth he's sentimental — always knowing something is impossible yet doing it anyway."

He keeps a whole crowd of people under him who do nothing else all day but study the emperors and high officials of Mou and Cang Yan. From diet and daily routine, personal preferences, to personality traits and governance decisions — and the most important question of all is 'why did he do this'."

Study motives, study starting points, study methods, hoping to find patterns.

Yet the Nine Nether Great Emperor's temperament is very hard to summarize into patterns — very indistinct.

You think he's very calm, but he turns out to be hot-blooded;

You think he'll slam the table and rise, but he actually treats it as unseen.

Nie Xiaolou asked: "Is this a weakness?"

"No, this is naturally an advantage." The Demon Emperor shook his head. "If those in power act as rigidly as the Heavenly Dao, and conduct themselves like ordinary beings solely based on profit and loss—rising early and working late for gain, retreating threefold when there is none, only knowing how to go with the flow—then they would be far too easy to see through and figure out."

To be seen through by subordinates means they will cater to your preferences; to be seen through by enemies means they can lay plans in advance.

On the contrary, someone like He Xiong—others have no idea when he will fly into a rage, no idea why he would slam the table and stand up—this is what makes him inscrutable, what makes him impossible to predict.

"Moreover, when those in power are like this, more people are willing to lay down their lives for them. Tong Yiyi is merely one example."

Having said that, the Demon Emperor fell into deep thought.