Chapter 292: Though humanity bears no ill will toward the demons, the demon gods already wreak havoc on human hearts

Merit illuminates heaven and earth.

Nüwa shines within it.

In this astonishingly magnificent scene, at this moment Nüwa is the most stunning big sister of the entire universe!

That boundless merit flows freely in the Honghuang world, finally gathering upon her like all rivers returning to the sea, and behind her manifests a round of boundless, radiant merit golden wheel.

The merit golden wheel, its radiance surpasses the brilliant sun, outshines the eternal star sea, making people envious and salivating.

Like in the Heavenly Court established by the Demon Race.

Many demon gods and demon marshals, even top-tier powers as mighty as Báizé, who is furtively the chief of the Ten Great Demon Marshals, now also show a look of soul-staggering astonishment—

"It's not that my willpower isn't strong enough."

"It's simply… too much!"

Báizé beats his chest and stamps his feet.

His vivid expression looks like he's regretting the past—once someone threw money at him to make him become a lackey under their command.

However, the Báizé of that year was too stubborn, iron-willed and resolute, and firmly refused… a warm heart, solely for the Demon Race!

Until now.

"Fuxi, let me in on the secret…" He sneaked up beside Xihuang, lowered his voice and asked, "When you stepped down back then, just how much money did Nüwa seize from you by taking advantage of the timing?"

"How so?" Xihuang slightly tilted his head, seeming to ponder seriously.

After a moment, he hesitantly gave an answer, "Roughly speaking, of the wealth created by everyone jointly governing Honghuang and working their lives away in that era, after deducting necessary expenses, the portion transformed into mysterious yellow merit wealth was about sixty to seventy percent?"

"Hiss…" Báizé suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air.

Not to mention him.

Among the demon race high-ranking listeners who pricked up their ears around, hardly any could remain calm.

Everyone knows Nüwa is wealthy.

But no one expected her to be that abundantly rich!

It's utterly outrageous!

Fuxi watched his colleagues' stunned expressions and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Why be so shocked?"

"Nüwa indeed inherited most of the era's liquid wealth, she is truly rich…… First, even if she siphons off funds, she won't dump it all on one person, so there's no need for us to indulge in too many daydreams."

"Second, what she inherited is merely liquid wealth."

"Although mysterious yellow merit is hard currency, absolutely value-preserving and a panacea that can manifest resources…… that's all it is."

"Within the Demon Race, there still remains the most solid foundation—this is a tool that can maximally assist in creating wealth."

The Demon Race, being the gathering of all tribes inherited from the previous era, naturally also inherited all the well-built infrastructure.

Factories more numerous than the stars by countless multiples, and transportation roads spanning the entire Honghuang heaven and earth……

These infrastructures, having settled through an entire vast era, although they cannot be priced or quantified into specific numbers, are undoubtedly wealth as well.

Nüwa can take away mysterious yellow merit.

But she cannot move that much infrastructure.

"We Demon Race possess such a rich foundation, which the Wu Clan lacks."

"Such a foundation, with just a little operation, can generate astonishing wealth—and the construction cost was already paid in past ages, making it true profit without investment."

"In contrast, the Wu Clan basically started from zero. Even if someone pours money desperately, makes various acquisitions, and has countless underlings working day and night, fulfilling the word 'Wu'—everyone is laboring, barely getting on track, yet still cannot match our Demon Race's total output value."

Xihuang chuckled, "The Wu Clan's startup funds are large."

"But as long as we compare the exponential growth rate of dividend returns, we cannot be outdone by the Demon Race…… in the end it's all for nothing."

"After all, we Great Luo beings lack most of all time, having the patience to operate over long ages."

Great Luo Heavenly Will, in the eyes of many beings who do not understand this realm, is a very contradictory existence.

They are all extremely shrewd, calculating accounts with crystal clarity, ninety-nine percent acting from their own self-interest.

But then?

Sometimes they also appear bewildered, making various loss-making expenditures, gratuitous investments.

This is actually due to mistaken judgment caused by differing vision and perspective.

Great Luo, with lifespans vast and boundless, typically calculate returns in cycles of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years—life level determines that they generally engage in long-term holdings.

After stretching time to an almost unimaginable extent, considering overall gains, they choose whichever method yields more profit.

Even if that path requires massive early losses, investment in infrastructure with no short-term profit, and sees no return for tens of millions of years…… they will still strive to push it forward.

Even when harvesting leeks, they do so with far-sighted vision.

Rather than ruining a plot of land and then abandoning it, rushing to another leek field to wreak havoc, caring only about the present, unconcerned about floods after their death.

They will seriously design plans, besides harvesting, also promoting scientific planting, expanding the leek field, improving the growth environment to be better and more comfortable, thereby increasing the output benefits.

In a sense, over the long ages, Great Luo Heavenly Will will achieve a win-win with the human way, rather than one-sided plunder—

As long as the system of qi and merit remains, the sentient beings of the human way possess their own value that can attract investment.

As long as the competitive atmosphere among Great Luo beings persists, not being a monolith, it compels each to seek the human way to enhance themselves, proposing more constructive plans.

When merchants compete with each other, lowering their own product prices, isn't the cheap one just the customer?

Of course, the competition process inevitably becomes somewhat fierce.

On one hand, one must raise the technical content of one's own product to achieve good quality and low price, while also attending to employees' internal demands, racking one's brains to achieve balance; on the other hand, one must take the initiative to strike, suppress opponents, expose some hidden flaws, or pour some dirty water……

Etc.

However, although this process is winding, the result for the human way is still not bad.

At the very least, many problems will be raised and corrected.

Even if there is temporary chaos, what is gained is later a great leap forward in improvement space.

……

What about the third?

Fuxi leaned back, "Nüwa has money... but is the problem serious?"

No, it's not a big problem at all... because even if she has more money, she's still being lured by the bait, involuntarily pouring all her wealth into it, gambling with the Demon Race?

Unifying Honghuang and taking Pangu's position—this is a huge bait; Nüwa has long been salivating over it.

Since it's a gamble... one slip and you lose everything!

If Nüwa loses the bet... all the wealth she's displaying today will be confiscated and enter the Demon Race's treasury.

And the Wu Clan's large conglomerate will also be dismantled and annexed, becoming part of the Heavenly Court.

Great profits come with great risks.

Fuxi commented.

So everyone... must hold fast to your original intentions; in the days ahead, don't be knocked down by the enemy's sugar-coated bullets.

We cannot let countless demon folk lose confidence; we must guard against the corrupting influence of bad notions from the Wu Clan, and fulfill our duties as high-ranking officials governing the Demon Race.

Xihuang instructed.

In this high-level small meeting of the Heavenly Court, he, as the Demon Emperor, put forward several opinions on the future overall situation to deal with the various impacts inevitably caused by Nüwa's flaunting of merit.

These remarks are fine.

The issue is the speaker's identity—Fuxi and Nüwa are siblings... but isn't this exactly proof of Fuxi the Sage's noble integrity, righteousness that overrides family, and selflessness?

'Excellent words, Xihuang Daoist!' Di Jun exclaimed, his voice loud and tone firm, 'After this I will issue formal notices to all levels, sound the alarm for department staff, and lay down preventive measures…'

Establish correct notions; in whatever profession you choose, love it; don't always think of jumping ship for temporary benefits; have a fervent passion to contribute to the rise and development of my Demon Race.

After Xihuang, Di Jun also spoke on this matter, giving affirmation and supplementation.

Emphasize building the Demon Race's corporate culture, so subordinates love their posts, work diligently, have a focused spirit and noble character.

You can't just jump ship because someone offers a high price.

Make them believe that the highest leadership of the Monster Clan Heavenly Court will consider their welfare, definitely not lacking; they only need to focus on their respective work, and other benefits will be arranged by the Heavenly Court.

Best to have them sign an agreement or contract... we Demon Race are a civilization that reasons.

Punishing without teaching is absolutely something we cannot do.

Báizé recorded the meeting contents while putting forward his own suggestion.

'This method is not bad,' Yao Marshal Jimeng gave a thumbs-up, saying, 'With a black-and-white agreement, our rules are clear; if they breach it, our action to clean up is also reasonable.'

'Hmm, for fairness' sake, lest they say we're too domineering... we should allow them to elect some representatives to come over for discussion, to work out specific statutes.' Qin Yuan Yao Marshal blinked his beautiful eyes repeatedly, his tone full of deep meaning.

……

Demon Emperor and Yao Marshals took turns speaking, discussing how to check Nüwa's current actions.

Stabilizing one's position is of utmost importance.

Besides that, we also need a counterattack.

We cannot passively accept having our subordinates' labor lured away by the Wu Clan's blatant merit.

Taiyi tapped the Chaos Bell intermittently, saying, 'We should take the initiative.'

'This isn't hard,' Di Jun replied quickly, after a brief consideration he smiled and answered, 'First, sneakily give humanity a background concept… although humanity's essence is unclear with the Wu Clan.'

'But we can make use of Nüwa… after all, on the surface she is still our Demon Race's emperor.'

'Before humanity openly tears its face, the legitimacy still belongs to our Demon Race.'

So we must seize the high ground in language, emphasize humanity's origin, take advantage of when humanity deliberately crafts this sunrise industry's start, actively confuse the background, hoodwink investors unclear about the concrete truth into working for our Demon Race, using Nüwa's resources to attract benefits for our Demon Race.

'Trademark bumping, malicious registration?' Nine Infant Yao Marshal pondered, having understood Di Jun's meaning, 'This is actually a good method… using counterfeit goods to seize the genuine market, block humanity's expansion, and take the actual benefits of this wave of propaganda ads.'

If successful.

If Nüwa had spent half a day advertising for humanity, the promotion succeeded, making many beings eager to invest in humanity's concept stocks, ready to try…

However, those investments ultimately didn't go into humanity but were instead routed into various proxy investment firms that flew humanity's banner but were actually stirred up by the Demon Race.

This relies on the difference in information gathering and discerning true from false… even though this era has various methods to collect needed information.

However, when someone actively causes harm, making information a mix of true and false, for the gatherer it is the utmost torment; a little carelessness leads to being duped.

'Destroying humanity's brand image will force their development to slow,' Nine Infant Yao Marshal tapped his fingertips on the table before him, saying, 'After using counterfeit goods to intercept the genuine resources, we then announce the bankruptcy of related financial investments… even possibly turning into negative profits.'

Then deliberately create some waves, bring some rhythm, put the black pot entirely on humanity's back, shattering their reputation.

'Exactly!' Di Jun nodded in agreement, 'A group that has lost its reputation will find the future road very hard to travel.'

'But if that's all, I fear it's not enough.' A listening great demon god—Taotie—added at this moment: 'Because even when true and false are hard to distinguish, what gets filtered out are just the foolish.'

'True sages can always find that treasure in the sea of false information; the pits we churn may not necessarily trap them… and sages are the easiest to master wealth.'

Their support will give humanity huge benefits.

We need to destroy these beings' confidence in humanity.

'Daoist, what are your high opinions?' Di Jun asked.

'Also quite simple… disturb humanity's benefit distribution mechanism; if there's a dark curtain, expose it; if none, we help create a dark curtain.' Taotie's face showed a smile, thought‑provoking, 'For example—suppose simultaneously a hundred thousand, a million people scramble for the first spark of merit… how would that be?'

'Also like the invention of writing, five‑grain agriculture, the Eight Trigrams and the Way of Changes… cough cough, scratch out the Eight Trigrams.'

Under Xihuang's interested gaze, Taotie demon god changed his mind from the heart, 'In short, for all inventions and creations, we intervene a bit or two… then how interesting would that be?'

'Pulling up seedlings to help them grow, combined with malicious intent, plus benefits distribution disputes… enough to drag humanity into a pit, hard to climb out.'

Moreover, because of Nüwa, my Demon Race expresses strong concern about this.

Taotie demon god concluded.

'Very good…' Di Jun praised, 'but we shouldn't be too obvious about doing this.'

'No no no… this matter doesn't need us to take the initiative; naturally someone will do it for us.' Taotie demon god had a strange expression, 'Below the Great Luo, those who come across vast spacetime are not only the Wu Clan.'

And there's also that… the 'extraterrestrial heavenly demons'!

(End of chapter)