Chapter 114: The Surrendering Demon Lord

Luo Ge Kino, three hundred and fifty years old, a Legendary-tier thief, calls himself the King of the Hollows, leader of the Rockclaw Demons, and once killed the Demon Lord Gazi Genda in the Battle of Emerald Iron Peak, turning the tide of war.

This caused the demons from the Scorching Wastes to suffer a crushing defeat, shattering the Deep Lord Marjash’s ambition to claim the Shattered Stone Continent, thus establishing the current balance of the plane. Regarding this report in my hands, do you have anything to add?

The wide, turbulent Zhuoge River surged between them, its roar thunderous. On the western bank stood the disciplined, imposing boar-man army under Sha Lu Te; on the eastern bank, the Rockclaw Demons clung to jagged cliffs, their forms varied and wild. Sha Lu Te’s voice cut through the mist, clear and steady, indistinguishable as question or statement.

On the opposite shore, the massive figure stirred. His dark red, stony skin, under the dim light, resembled cooled lava; his three-meter-tall frame crouched atop a jutting boulder by the riverbank, posture seemingly lazy, yet like a mountain beast poised to pounce.

He grinned, revealing jagged, chiseled stone teeth, his voice low and coarse, like two blocks of granite grinding together:

“Sha Lu Te… your parchment remembers well.” Luo Ge Kino’s single eye (the other socket a deep scar) narrowed, gleaming with the cold hardness of ore. “Gazi Genda’s head? Yes, I twisted it off and kicked it into the Wailing Gorge. As for Marjash…”

He deliberately stretched the syllables, scratching his sharply angled chin with a massive stone claw, producing a sound like sandpaper on rock.

“That big man didn’t ‘choose’ not to come—I made every crack in this Shattered Stone Continent too sharp to step on. He tried three times, lost three vanguard armies, and finally decided… it wasn’t worth it.”

A muffled chuckle rumbled from his throat, like a boulder tumbling into a deep ravine. “What the report doesn’t say is that I ‘borrowed’ the hell-iron he shipped here to build his nest—I used it to forge new picks for my young ones. Your archives probably never even dipped their ink in that.”

He rose slowly, his immense shadow falling across the river.

“So, Sha Lu Te, you bring all these… hmm, ‘guests,’ into my Hollows—trying to add another few lines to my old stone’s ledger of deeds?”

Sha Lu Te’s laugh was coarse and thunderous, drowning out the river’s roar. He didn’t raise his voice, but each word struck like a warhammer, hammering against the rocks on the far bank.

“Ha! Red-skin stone monkey, you’ve got a fine knack for slapping gold leaf on your own face.”

He stepped forward, his heavy armor clanking.

“Look across the river—thirty thousand blades, three full legions drenched in demon blood. Months ago, we smashed Marjash’s so-called elite deep troops like walnuts beneath our hammers at Agreik City.

Do you really think your few scattered monkeys hiding in these Hollows can keep our axes sharp for even a few days?”

His gaze swept over the thin, tense defenses along the eastern cliffs.

“The demons of this plane have only a few days left to live—Marjash’s head’s already been twisted off. And right now, my Duke’s eyes haven’t fully turned to this bird-shit basin—”

Sha Lu Te’s voice dropped sharply.

“You and your burrowing stone brats still have one last chance—to sit by this river and negotiate, instead of lying in a ditch.”

“Understood, ‘King of the Hollows’? Your time is drying faster than the blood on my axe.”

Luo Ge Kino emitted a low, grinding laugh from deep in his throat, his massive frame leaning slightly forward, his single eye gleaming with mockery and cold battle-lust.

“Heh… Sakavi, that little black dragon, not only hides his head in his treasure pile—he’s raised brats with sharper tongues than any of his own scales.”

He tapped his stone claw slowly against the rock ledge beneath him, producing dull, rhythmic thuds.

“Who was it, back then, cowering inside Agreik City, too scared to even step off the walls? I heard every word. Now that the allied forces have chewed through the hard bones, you come slinking out, trying to ‘negotiate’ away homes others died defending with mere words?”

He snapped upright, his three-meter stony frame casting a crushing shadow in the gloom, his voice rising like the prelude to an avalanche:

“Look closely, Sha Lu Te. Every crack in this Shattered Stone Continent holds a Rockclaw Demon ready to tear apart invaders. We can field eighty thousand warriors at once, waiting to crack open your iron cans. Do you think your thirty thousand can fill even a few fissures? Level even a few stone forests?”

He bared his stone teeth in a near-feral grin.

“Want to test it? Will your ‘glory’ from Agreik run out first—or will my stone brats hang your boar-men on these cliffs, turning them into dried meat?”

Sha Lu Te’s face was like cooled cast iron, utterly unruffled. He didn’t shift his stance, but the light in his eyes grew calmer, colder.

“Anger? No, Luo Ge Kino. You’re mistaken. The man standing before you isn’t a coward who needs rage to steel his nerves.”

His voice was unnervingly level, like reporting the weather.

“These thirty thousand you see? They’re the blades. Behind me stand the anvils, the furnaces, the veins of ore that forge countless blades. Even if you bury them all in your stone cracks today—”

He paused slightly, letting the next words pierce the air like ice spikes.

“Tomorrow, I can bring sixty thousand more. How many lives do you and your rock-dwelling kin have to throw into this bottomless pit?”

Sha Lu Te took another small step forward, the scrape of his armor loud in the silence.

“Kill me? Fine. Behind me stand nine commanders equal to me, each leading armies no weaker than mine. Even if you somehow defeat them all—

The League’s demigods, even its god-tier experts, have never truly taken their eyes off this continent. Do you think you’re fighting just the army standing before you?

He shook his head, his gaze carrying a hint of almost pitying scrutiny.

“No. You’re fighting an entire war machine that has already crushed the Deep’s main force—a multi-layered destruction sequence you cannot comprehend. Your bravery, on a higher board, may not even qualify as a piece worth mentioning.”

Finally, he lowered his voice slightly, yet his words sliced like a dagger:

“Surrender. Now. This is the only opportunity left to you and your men that can still be called a ‘condition.’ Duke Sakavi’s protection is the last rocky eave over your heads, you ‘stone monkeys,’ that can still shield you from the storm.”

Luo Ge Kino fell silent for several breaths, the river’s roar filling the quiet. His coarse stone claw slowly clenched, then relaxed, ending in a long, deep exhale like rock splitting. The sharp gleam in his eye hadn’t dimmed, but now carried a weight of calculation.

“Sha Lu Te… your words are the hardest chisel, striking the most brittle crack.”

He lifted his massive head, gazing at the dim sky.

“I don’t like you. I don’t believe your nonsense about ‘infinite troops.’ Frankly, I think you’ll never leave my jagged basin. Every stone here will cost you blood.”

He shifted tone, his voice hardening with unmistakable revulsion:

“But you’re right about one thing. The Deep is rotten to its roots. Marjash is dead. Those filthy worms crawling from the pus, driven only by destruction, don’t deserve to drag me—or these ten thousand Rockclaw Demons—down with them.”

He snapped his head down, his single eye locking onto Sha Lu Te as if carving each word into his armor.

“Take me to Sakavi. But before that—” he slammed his stone claw onto the ledge, sending shards flying, “—don’t touch my Hollows. Don’t lay a finger on my brats. This isn’t a request. It’s a bottom line.”

Sha Lu Te grinned, a smile between ruggedness and cold steel. He spread his hands in a gesture of near-exhaustion, yet his eyes held blades.

“Ah, by the way—I forgot to tell you, red-skin monkey—”

He leaned forward, voice lowered but each word cutting clearly through the river’s roar.

“I can’t send a single word to the Duke. The spellcasters carrying messages got crushed by your ‘stone monkeys’’ falling rocks at Black Tooth Pass.”

He straightened, thumb jabbing sharply toward the direction of Pan Shi Fortress.

“So, if you want to negotiate with Duke Sakavi? Come with me. We’ll chew through that Pan Shi Fortress ahead. On its summit stands an old rune-lighthouse—rumor says when lit, its fire pierces half the plane’s mist.”

His smile widened, revealing stark white teeth.

“We light that beacon—Sakavi’s people will find us without fail.”

“How’s that?” Sha Lu Te’s laugh mixed with the river wind, rough and candid. “This deal? You’ve got to partner with me first, earn the capital, before you meet the real big shot. Hahaha!”

“…I take back what I said, Sha Lu Te.”

His voice remained low, but the mockery had faded, replaced by the quiet recognition of warrior to warrior.

“You’re no mere braggart. You’re clever—the kind who knows how to use every stone, every crack, to smash open a door.”

His massive frame stood fully erect, the shadow he cast now heavier, more substantial, more oppressive.

“Pan Shi Fortress, then? Fine. I’ll help you break it. This is my clan’s ticket to survival in this new age…”

He paused, a cold, hard gleam flashing in his single eye, “…and also, my Luo Ge Kino, the Red Rock’s, ‘letter of introduction’ to your Duke.”