Chapter 1010: No Kin, Yet Using Servants

Jiang Ding switched to a different hiding target.

This tiger-tribe demon cultivator named Blackie did not look like he would sit still, no longer meeting his standards for lurking, and certainly would not have any interest in playing the role of some mysterious old geezer guiding his growth.

His experiences were indeed very sympathetic.

However, in this star domain, beneath the Horned Demon Imperial Clan, every race was like this. Even the human race's Jiang Ding could not look after them all, let alone have the spare capacity to care for a single demon cultivator.

Jiang Ding set his gaze upon the many Minor Thousand Worlds of the entire Flame Stone Star Domain.

In various places, especially the Mo Shi Xiao Gao Jie and Flower Cloud Minor World controlled by Yanliu the Imperial Son, with the loss of suppressive force for nearly twenty years, the enormous racial contradictions that had accumulated over countless years had already erupted, sweeping across every region like a mountain flood.

The human race, the tiger tribe, the fox tribe, the Blood Skull Vine demon tribe, the Ox Stone tribe… and so on and so forth. Vast numbers of slave races revolted, slaughtering Horned Demon Imperial Clan cultivators, slaughtering henchmen slave races like the Demon Rock tribe, and of course even more slaughtering each other, seizing heaven materials and earthly treasures.

All the slave races grew wild like madmen on the land that had lost its order.

Naturally, the help of the Nine Great Dao Sons was not absent from this.

Jiang Ding's gaze settled on the Black Tiger.

The Black Tiger's divine soul, at some point several months ago, had undergone a subtle change, his emotions becoming more sensitive and vivid.

Nothing had appeared out of thin air; only certain thoughts that had always existed in his heart had grown more resolute.

This change in the divine soul was extremely subtle, extremely hidden. Soul Transformation cultivators could almost never detect it. Even Jiang Ding only noticed that faint clue, that fleeting wisp of shadow power, because he had been lurking within the Black Tiger's divine soul all along.

"Shadow Demon Dao Son…"

Jiang Ding Zi murmured, a hint of wariness in his heart.

The Shadow Demon Abyss had achieved tremendous accomplishments in concealment-type immortal dao arts; many of their immortal dao arts remained in a state of absolute secrecy, never shared with outsiders.

Take, for example, this wisp of shadow power that influenced emotions—it had nearly deceived him.

And that was only the Black Tiger alone. As for the other human and demon cultivators influenced by the Shadow Demon Dao Son, he was completely in the dark.

He truly did not know how many shadow puppets, how many controllable shadows, she had developed over the several hundred years of lurking in Jiao Jiao Mingyu, nor how many Shadow Demon Abyss cultivators were lurking in the various regions.

Perhaps among the many slave-race cultivators and Horned Demon Imperial Clan cultivators that Dong Xue He Wang had killed in the Pink Imperial Palace of the Flower Cloud Minor World, there had been hidden Shadow Demon Abyss cultivators.

Through all of this, the many slave-race revolts in the Flame Stone Star Domain had erupted so smoothly, so reasonably.

Otherwise, there were plenty of things that ought to happen in the world by all reason, yet very few of them actually did.

Reality is absurd and without order; it is not the case that things happen as they should.

Now, the situation advanced just as planned, with no accidents appearing. Even when the occasional accident occurred, it was drowned out and could not affect anything.

This was the merit of the Shadow Demon Abyss cultivators—truly professional.

This was the star domain ruled by Yanliu the Imperial Son. The spirit veins of various regions changed hands repeatedly, and many things happened.

In the many minor worlds ruled by Cang Kong the Imperial Son, the situation was somewhat different.

Unlike Yanliu the Imperial Son, who had repeatedly thrown away his armor and lost or betrayed large numbers of subordinates, Cang Kong the Imperial Son had taken in many defectors, his ranks were full, and he could still suppress order in every region.

In the many minor worlds under Cang Kong the Imperial Son's rule, there was chaos—slave-race cultivators revolting, one or two ambitious schemers appearing among the Horned Demon Imperial Clan cultivators—this was all normal.

However, this chaos was confined to a few places and could not spread.

Once a revolt grew large, it would immediately be suppressed by Cang Kong the Imperial Son's forces.

It was true that they had a large portion of their military strength tied down by the war, but temporarily pulling one or two people to suppress things was still possible.

Therefore, those Minor Thousand Worlds occupied by Cang Kong the Imperial Son could never form a single spark that could start a prairie fire.

"In that case."

"I… let's go."

Jiang Ding whispered.

He gradually reined in the aura of his divine soul, entering a state of empty clarity where he thought of nothing. All life activities fell silent, like a mountain, like earth and wood, reaching his strongest state of concealment.

In this state, an ordinary Void Refinement cultivator, unless they knew the target in advance and spent great effort, could not possibly drag him out.

……

The wars in the star domain were long and tedious.

If there were no teleportation arrays, or if the teleportation arrays were controlled by the enemy, and one could only march step by step, then often just the march alone would take ten-odd years, or several decades.

Wars between two Void Refinement-level forces often lasted several hundred to a thousand years, with just the march taking up a normal share of that time.

Even more powerful forces might spend several thousand years on the march, waging cross-domain wars.

It was truly terrifying.

Just the march alone spanned the lives of several generations of Nascent Soul cultivators, and the births, aging, sickness, and deaths of countless generations of mortals. Without hibernation techniques, after a single march, aside from Soul Transformation Master Canghai Canghai Tianjun, every soldier and officer would have died of old age.

The Flame Stone Star Domain was not that exaggerated; the distances between Minor Thousand Worlds were relatively short.

Or rather, precisely because these Minor Thousand Worlds were close together, they had been divided into the ruling territory of the Flame Stone Great Emperor, representing the outermost limit of his ruling power.

After more than ten years of marching, Cang Kong the Imperial Son personally led several million troops, his military might grand and blazing, his pressure weighing upon the vast starry sky.

The army entered the Flower Cloud Minor World in perfect order, meeting no resistance whatsoever, smoothly taking over the fifth-grade spirit veins of every region. Their military might grew even greater, and morale in the army soared.

Many mid- and low-ranking officers who had earned merit had al

ready begun to look forward to the wonderful life ahead.

In the Pink Imperial Palace.

Boom!

Cang Kong the Imperial Son drew his sword and shattered a stone stele covered in all manner of insulting words, his tone icy, each word measured: "Rest for one month, then continue the advance!"

"I want to see where Yanliu can hide!"

"I'll occupy every single minor world—where can he still hide? The depths of the netherworld underground, or the spiritless void?"

Cang Kong the Imperial Son was handsome in appearance, his bearing dignified and composed, but at this moment his face was full of cold severity. His hair, streaked with blue flames, whipped about wildly, making one's heart turn cold.

"I was willing, for the sake of the affection between our two houses, to spare Yanliu's life, even if it meant damage to the Imperial Son's crown."

"What is a mere crown, after all?"

"Yet Yanliu has provoked and insulted me again and again, employing every despicable trick, causing the deaths of countless members of the Imperial Clan.

"Now, he even promotes slave-race cultivators, allowing slave-race cultivators to kill members of the Imperial Race without a care, completely casting aside the glory of the Imperial Race!"

"Such a coward who clings to life has already brought shame upon the Blazing Stone Clan, and upon my uncle, the Blazing Stone Great Emperor!"

"If I do not behead this traitor, I will absolutely not stand down my forces!"

"Yes, Imperial Son!"

Dozens of Horned Demon Imperial Race kings surrounding the area dropped to one knee and answered in unison, their voices carrying for tens of thousands of miles.

What happened here, they all knew—everyone was of the same race, bound by marriage ties, you among them and me among you, making it very difficult to keep completely secret.

The Imperial Son Yan Liu did not employ his kinsmen, but instead heavily relied on his servants.

Within the Horned Demon Imperial Race, this was undoubtedly a major political loss of points; regardless of the reason, no one cared, they only knew the result was as such.

This caused many Horned Demon Imperial Race kings to be extremely dissatisfied, unwilling to prioritize drawing close to the Imperial Son Yan Liu when the conditions of benefit were not greatly different.