Chapter 704: As a Demon King, the Most Important Thing Is Steadiness

"Is that the Demon King's Castle over there?"

Ao Yulie looked into the distance; on the vast, desolate land stood a sprawling, majestic black structure — hard to say whether it was a city or a castle.

From the perspective of a castle, it was genuinely enormous.

At the center stood a pair of soaring black twin towers, their peaks sharp as swords.

Behind them stretched a continuous range of towering mountains.

In front lay a vast forest of towering trees of all kinds.

Yet these trees could not conceal the Demon King's Castle at all; rather, they set off its magnificence even more.

Tang Luo and the others were positioned on a cliff of a mountain peak, from which they could take in the surrounding scenery at a glance.

"Should be." Zhu Bajie said, "Master, what do we do this time?"

"As usual, first get a grasp of the basic situation, keep a low profile, sneak into the village quietly, no firing guns."

Tang Luo remained calm and composed, planning before acting.

————

"Roar!"

In the Black Forest, a beastman let out a howl.

"Roar!"

Ao Yulie transformed a dragon head, Zhu Bajie transformed a wild boar head, and right there they howled back at him.

In front of us, what are you pretending to be a wild beast for?

"..."

The beastman's howl cut off abruptly in an instant, his face blank and dull, scared stupid on the spot.

Too terrifying!

After finalizing the plan, Tang Luo and the others entered the Demon King's Castle's forest and soon found a "local" to ask about the situation.

This was a beastman — hmm, calling him a beastman might not be entirely accurate.

This beastman wasn't the kind of disgusting, ugly thing from Lord of the Rings, but a beast-eared — man.

His appearance and build were no different from a human's, just his body hair was slightly more luxuriant; atop his head, besides human ears, he had a pair of beast ears.

His teeth, nails, and such were also much sharper than a normal human's, and he had a tail behind him.

Somewhat like Ao Yulie's dragon-man state.

Judging by the triangular ears and tail, this should be a werewolf.

But seeing the color of the tail and ear fur, one couldn't help being reminded of a husky.

Especially now with his dull-witted look, he resembled one even more.

"I ask, you answer, understand?" Zhu Bajie stared at the beast-eared man and said.

The beast-eared man nodded frantically.

Before long, Tang Luo and the others learned the basic situation of this world.

On this continent, humans and humanoid races are the rulers.

Humans need no elaboration; among humanoid races there are elves, beastmen (the beast-eared men), and fishmen.

Among them fishmen live in isolation, while elves and beastmen cohabit with humans, though their numbers are fewer than humans.

Elves are not proud long-lived beings; apart from their pointed ears and all being handsome men and beautiful women, they have no other difference from humans.

And the demon race, strictly speaking, do not belong to races like humans or beastmen.

They are the "Polluted Ones."

Legend has it that long, long ago, the power of the Abyss welled up from the deepest depths of the earth and began to pollute the land.

The Demon King and the demon race appeared at that time.

A protracted war broke out across the continent, ending in the demon race's defeat.

But ever since, the power of the Abyss has persisted and entrenched itself on the continent.

Demon Kings appeared generation after generation, and the demon race has always remained a massive hidden danger.

According to this beast-eared wolf, the current Demon King is at least the 136th generation.

Previously the demon race still rampaged, but later they couldn't keep it up.

Every generation of Demon King was beaten into the ground by heroes, and now only a supremely magnificent Demon King Castle and its surrounding areas remain as their territory.

Of course, in the beast-eared wolf's description, the demon race fights despite repeated defeats, stands tall despite repeated battles, extremely resilient and full of courage.

The road is tortuous, the future bright.

It sounds even more heartbreaking; there's none of the domineering aura from the mission description, but it fits Tang Luo and the others' mission of "guarding the Demon King Castle for two years" perfectly.

Highlighting a single word: "miserable."

Feels completely like a sandbag, a live-fire target.

The situation described in the mission is mostly the first-generation Demon King's achievements.

The subsequent new Demon Kings — not targeting any specific generation — are all trash.

As special existences polluted by the power of the Abyss (the beast-eared wolf's phrasing is perceiving and accepting magic power), the demon race includes beastmen, humans, elves, and a small number of fishmen.

Their appearance also differs from normal ones.

Certain parts of elves' bodies form special demonic pattern markings.

Humans grow small pointed horns on their foreheads.

Beastmen change the least, just their degree of beastification becomes higher, but generally it's only at this beast-eared wolf's level.

Absolutely cannot reach the dragon head and wild boar head transformations Ao Yulie and Zhu Bajie just displayed.

In the beast-eared wolf's eyes, Ao Yulie and Zhu Bajie are typical monsters.

A monster even more terrifying than demon beasts!

Yes, besides humans and humanoid races being polluted by Abyssal magic power, wild beasts are polluted just the same.

Polluted wild beasts are called demon beasts; they are not intelligent beings, but their combat power is very strong.

To this day, they remain a major threat to intelligent beings — including the demon race; demon beasts are not their allies.

Also, the protracted war that once existed between the demon race and non-demon races.

At their peak, both sides possessed extremely powerful strength.

Therefore they left behind many "underground and aboveground ruins, labyrinths," places similar to online game dungeons.

Before this type of "ancient battlefield ruin" is rediscovered and opened, it is in a fully sealed state.

During the sealing period, the flow of time inside differs from the outside world, extremely slow.

Many good things can be found inside, such as various divine weapons and sharp tools, as well as lost powerful abilities, even living "old antiques."

This is a typical "present not as good as past" world.

Under such circumstances, there is a profession that has endured and remained popular: adventurers.

Those free explorers undertake the tasks of excavating ruins and fighting demon beasts.

Adventurer guilds exist in various nations across the continent.

At the same time, the vast majority of heroes throughout history were born from among adventurers.

In the past, dealing with the Demon King and demon race was still large armies facing off.

Now it has already become a small-team model.

With the demon race at a disadvantage, the important measure of successive Demon Kings has been to fortify their own Demon King Castle, to prevent hero squads from entering to decapitate them.

Like playing a tower defense game.

Demon King Castles are naturally not just one; many Demon King Castles have been destroyed.

Then rebuilt anew — sometimes established on the original site, sometimes changing location.

As for how exactly heroes appear, the beast-eared wolf is unclear.

As for the Demon King, they are designated by the previous Demon King; the designation method is unknown.

Heroes and Demon Kings, unlike monarchs passed down generation to generation, have gap periods where they do not exist.

For example, this Demon King was found by a portion of the demon race according to the old Demon King's left instructions, many years after the previous Demon King died.

It has been over ten years since becoming Demon King.

Has been diligently fortifying the Demon King Castle all along; all demon race members have great confidence in this generation's Demon King, considering them very steady.

As for the new hero, heard that they already appeared a few years ago.

But has never killed their way into the Demon King Castle to cut down this generation's Demon King.

Incidentally, although the demon race has been continuously suppressed and beaten, they have a powerful advantage: long lifespans.

Several times that of normal human races (including beastmen, elves).

This is also the reason the demon race can never be exterminated, always reviving like wildfire burning grass that grows again with the spring breeze.

This trembling beast-eared wolf before my eyes is already two hundred fifty years old this year; in childhood even went out adventuring outside.

Later demon race identity was exposed, so fled.

Therefore knows quite a lot of things.

Ao Yulie also asked about reproductive isolation issues, the answer being that no isolation exists between human races, humanoid races, including the demon race.

Just that the probability of having offspring is comparatively low.

The demon race's current main gathering place is the Demon King Castle and the surrounding fairly vast Black Forest.

Further out, although there are not many people, demon race also rarely set foot there.

The remaining places also have a small number of demon race.

Because they are far from human race gathering places, it is currently relatively safe.

The steady Demon King is also looked upon favorably by many demon race, feeling they can at least remain in position for twenty years.

This would already exceed the average reign time of recent generations of Demon Kings!

Demon King, is a high-risk profession!

"Just this? Taking living past twenty years as a goal? Still counts as a Demon King?" Ao Yulie looked at the beast-eared wolf and said.

In this day and age, Demon Kings are all this caliber?

He even somewhat suspected that when the time came to meet the Demon King, he would see a very tall mature beauty, or a teary-eyed loli.

Huh, thinking like this, it seems a bit happily exciting.

As expected, only with a market does demand exist?

"The Demon King is inside the Demon King Castle?" Tang Luo interrupted Ao Yulie's fantasy and asked.

The trembling beast-eared wolf nodded.

This bald child hugging a strange cat is actually the master of those two monsters beside him.

The beast-eared wolf who has lived two hundred fifty years this year has truly never seen such a scene in all these years.

Very worried this bald child would suddenly tear off human skin, open mouth and swallow him in one gulp.

"Mm, then what about the Demon King Castle's internal structure and such, what is the situation?" Tang Luo asked casually.

Since deciding to act after planning, of course must ask clearly.

The beast-eared wolf shook its head; although it lived long, it was only an ordinary demon race, never entered the Demon King Castle.

"Since you don't know, then forget it." Tang Luo said, "We'll enter the Demon King Castle first, find the Demon King, then talk."

Planning complete, then start moving.

The beast-eared wolf had not yet reacted, the three terrifying monsters before its eyes vanished in an instant.

He froze for a moment, then began to back away slowly; once he was sure the three monsters had truly left, he immediately turned and ran.

Back home, he burrowed under the covers and trembled for a while, then started packing his luggage.

What? Go report to the Demon King's Castle — not a chance.

As a demon, what matters most? Steadiness, of course.

Qi Shihua had lived two hundred and fifteen years not because he was strong, but because he was steady.

If he went to report now and ran into those three monsters, wouldn't that be the end of his life?

Pack up first, observe the situation, and be ready to flee at any moment.

"Like a maze, and all kinds of messy traps — can anyone really live here? Truly a steady Demon King."

Inside the Demon King's Castle, Ao Yulie walked along, grumbling.

The interior of the Demon King's Castle had no trace of incompetence; it was gloomy, cold, stern, and dim.

It qualified as a genuinely dangerous place.

Tang Luo and the others had descended from above, searching downward; along the way they saw nothing but maze-like passages and all kinds of dangerous traps.

Not a single living person was seen.

They did, however, spot quite a few spots with sleeping demon beasts — part of the traps.