Chapter 284: Nine Hells Devil

How to choose a suitable object for depravity?

For the devils living in the Nine Hells (Baator), this is a subject that pays attention to experience and is worth studying in depth.

The soul, as the most common currency in the Nine Hells, a driving machine, fuel for magic arrays, and the foundation material for buildings, and even a ladder for devils to climb upward, has a very high value in the Nine Hells, almost a strategic resource.

But just as the currency of the material plane has the distinction of "gold, silver, and copper," souls also possess obvious differences regarding value and rarity.

A bottom-level adventurer who hangs out in a tavern all day and keeps company with goblins, and a legendary existence who has stepped to the peak and climbed to the top of the professional pyramid;

A sloppy vagrant who can be seen everywhere on the street and dies in some dark corner at any time, and a supreme emperor who rules over billions of people and a huge kingdom.

The value of their souls naturally cannot be mentioned in the same breath.

Even if it is just the difference in race, elves, dwarves, and humans also have their own unique "flavors" for devils, and each has its own preference due to its own preferences.

Among these, the most precious and rare, and the most valuable, belong to those originally pure, kind, and firm souls.

When a devout priest/noble paladin voluntarily falls and actively signs his name on the contract, the indescribable pleasure of dreaming, even the most experienced devil can't help but tremble and shake.

And before all this, it is reasonable, and also the most important.

It is how to let the other party willingly sign his true name on the infernal contract marked with "soul ownership" while maintaining the target's subjective conscious awareness.

Of course, for Saloyang, this has never been a problem.

As an infernal noble from the second layer of the Nine Hells, "Dis," possessing the title of "Baron."

Being able to climb to this position, the noble blood flowing in his body may be part of the reason, but the other most important (self-considered) is also because of the excellent performance he has created over these countless years.

How to induce a wise creature of the material plane to fall and voluntarily offer its soul is, for him, simply too simple.

Ambition and ambition, despair and trauma, pride and arrogance, greed and weariness...

Born to be good at observing the human heart, he only needed a short contact to keenly find the cracks deep in the target's heart, and only with a little verbal guidance and a bit of magic blinding, it was enough to pry open the crack that was originally looming, turning it into a ladder for the target to walk toward hell.

Hiding the real price with ambiguous clauses, placing huge gains in front of one's eyes, hiding the heavy price in an inconspicuous corner or a distant future, using grammar and punctuation to create logical traps...

Various techniques had long been proficient in countless attempts, and even the smartest and calmest lawyers would find it difficult to discover the hidden ones.

For Saloyang himself, compared to the above, the difficulty of choosing a suitable target was even greater.

He extremely hated those uncontrollable risks.

Even if the soul itself was delicious, if it was marked by those demon lords in the abyss, it would be like mouse droppings in meat soup, making one can't help but frown and stay away.

The favorites and designated ones of gods are the taboos that need to be distinguished first.

Intercepting those devout believers who should have been sent to the God Kingdom is like stealing things from a neighbor's warehouse, which easily causes the anger and revenge of the relevant gods.

Although he had sufficient confidence in the strength of the lord of the second layer of hell, the respected "Iron Duke" Dispater, for the sake of the Duke, it was obviously not something that a small person like himself should do.

Although if the target soul contains divinity, it is easy to affect the stability of the contract, and it is not certain that he will be backlashed.

Secondly, some souls who have suffered a lot of torture during their lifetime, are deeply trapped in numbness due to extreme despair, are hollow and broken and have no value, souls with powerful curses, and souls that are too strong and difficult to control, and are easy to "reverse the guest," are also targets that Saloyang needs to pay attention to avoid.

The black-haired young man met briefly during the day, to a certain extent, actually didn't deserve Saloyang's attention.

His strength was average, and he should have just stepped onto the path of a professional not long ago. Perhaps he was a figure among the bottom-level adventurers in Hegu Town, but for an "infernal baron" like himself, he obviously didn't look at it.

He himself didn't show any kind, noble characteristics, belonging to the most common file of souls in the material plane, and was not enough to become an object for him to induce depravity.

Yet, it was precisely this seemingly ordinary soul that caused Saloyang—who was capable of looking down upon the vast majority of high-ranking devils even within "Dis," the second layer of the Nine Hells—to subconsciously fall silent and cease speaking as he approached.

He... smelled danger.

If a normal human soul is a bottle of clear water.

The soul of this man named "Xia Nan" is like a clumsy pharmacist who occasionally creates strange creations when trying to innovate new products.

It looks unremarkable on the surface, but if you feel it carefully, you can detect the strange aura that is climbing and entangling, wisp by wisp.

Gods? Exotic demons? Or some higher-level existence?

Out of caution, Saloyang didn't even dare to observe carefully, just subconsciously pretended not to see it, and instinctively stayed away.

He didn't want to cause extra trouble.

"Six o'clock."

The faint magic fluctuation that even professionals couldn't detect swept across the card table, and the dice in the cup were as clear as if they were transparent.

Saloyang, just like the countless times he had repeated in the past three days, reported the points of the dice to the naive young man he was attached to.

Then he watched the other party pretend to hesitate and think, divide half of the chips and push them to the card table, and after the result was revealed, pretend to be calm but actually ecstatic in his heart to gather the chips that had doubled into his arms.

A "poor" soul who has hope for the future but is gradually sinking under the influence of the environment.

Starting from the value of the soul itself, the delicious souls compared to this in Hegu Town are almost everywhere.

Saloyang doesn't care.

The purpose of his personal projection of consciousness to the material plane this time is not to collect souls.

What he needs is just an inconspicuous carrier that is obedient and can help him complete the plan. Of course, after the goal is successfully achieved, this infernal baron doesn't mind collecting one more soul.

Saloyang's purpose of coming to this remote town in person has nothing to do with any adventurer.

His goal is a goblin lair located deep in the Mist Forest.

The lord of the second layer of the Nine Hells, "Dis," is a famous arms supplier in many planes.

This infernal archduke possesses a large number of weapon manufacturing workshops that run day and night, providing countless equipment and weapons for the devils in the Blood War.

Severe persecution delusion not only made him create a huge and precise intelligence network, but also forged a set of metal armor for himself that was as strong as an iron wall and enchanted with many powerful effects.

Saloyang's status is low, and only on very rare celebrations can he see the deep figure sitting steadily on the dark red throne in the metal palace located in the center of the "Iron City."

Wanting to have a relationship with this superior of his superior's superior is undoubtedly a fantasy.

But he didn't give up hope, but collected information about this infernal archduke with all his might.

Including but not limited to daily habits, favorite soul types, unique hobbies...

Until the gap of a certain dance party, when chatting with a noble belonging to the subordinate regiment commander of the archduke's confidant "Bilute," Saloyang obtained a piece of information with sufficient credibility.

Dispater Archduke has recently (in the devil's concept of time) become interested in the goblin pantheon—the reason seems to be because of a few small things that were accidentally discovered by cultists in the material plane and sacrificed to hell.

It seems to be some kind of weapon cast in metal with a considerable level of craftsmanship.

Saloyang doesn't know what kind of method the green-skinned creatures with brains full of chaos and desire need to use to produce such objects that even Dispater-sama is interested in.

But there is no doubt that he grasped this opportunity. ===== CHAPTER 285 =====