Chapter 136

In the Demon Capital's arena, the guests left satisfied.

Outside the arena, the Dragon family had already begun to clean up the mess, and even the bookmakers who opened the betting had settled the funds, preparing to open the next book for the upcoming new events.

Except for the ghost bird hovering under the dome of the B5 layer of the labyrinth with a little bit of "battery" left, it seemed everyone had forgotten that there was still a victory yet to be decided in the arena.

But it didn't make any difference whether they forgot or not.

After all, in the face of that overwhelming victory, even if Xinuo Dragon swept away his previous slump, it couldn't change the fact that he had lost all the Dragon family's face.

As for the audience...

They really had no interest in watching a bunch of grown men suffer from constipation; even the demons who didn't need to sleep had gone home to sleep.

"F*** the Demon King!"

Beside the fibrous mushroom forest, Xinuo, pulling up his pants, had his face full of humiliation, and his mouth was filled with constant curses.

Finally out.

When he first came out of the latrine, he felt as if his whole body had been hollowed out, and both his legs were shaking.

He wasn't the only one encountering a similar situation.

Many demons in the team had indigestion from eating too many sweet potatoes, ranging from farting and burping to unbearable abdominal bloating.

Of course, it couldn't be ruled out that some people were faking it.

Fighting on the front lines was a different matter; that was for the glory of His Majesty the Demon God, for expanding the territory of Hell, and for revenge against Shengxisi and the Empire... In short, as long as you wanted to find a reason, you could find a bunch.

But this kind of duel between nobles in the Demon Capital was merely to mediate disputes between nobles. Even if these professional soldiers could pick up swords and fight, it was hard for anyone to get motivated, and the morale of the vast majority was only half of what it was during normal combat.

Why fight so hard? If it were a smooth sailing, it would be one thing, but the battle had fallen into a stalemate, and looking at their own and their comrades' battered bodies, the warriors of "Hellfire" found it hard not to think about why they were standing here.

Especially the way the ogres on the other side were fighting for their lives made them feel it wasn't worth it; if this group of cannon fodder had so much energy, they might as well go to the front lines to die.

Of course, besides those who doubted life, there were also those who interpreted it from different angles.

Sitting on the edge of the team, several veterans in heavy armor were whispering to each other while roasting by the fire, looking in Xinuo's direction.

"This battle is hard to fight... The commander is constipated and doesn't even know how to fake it; he's not faking it, and I want to start faking it."

"That's what happens when you're too young."

"But then again, that Demon King has some skills, being able to train a group of ogres to be so capable of fighting; normally, those pigs would have turned around and run away."

"This is what's called command ability, I guess."

"We might have underestimated those goblins... I'm even a bit worried about the fortress of Black Wind Castle now; the ones guarding it are just a group of mercenaries."

Throwing a handful of withered grass into the fire, a demon swordsman shook his head and said.

"If it were Master Lord Kamu, there might still be a chance to fight, but Xinuo... as expected, he's still a bit lacking."

"After all, he's the second son; it's understandable that he can't compare to the eldest son."

Several people seemed to have convinced themselves, subconsciously lowering their standards for Xinuo in their hearts, but at the same time, they also lowered their requirements for themselves.

Perhaps they didn't need to fight so hard from the beginning.

Master Lord Kamu Dragon was their true master.

Clearly, it wasn't just the few people sitting in front of the fire who thought this way; the four remaining centurions of "Hellfire" whispered to each other for a while, and finally, the centurion serving as the regiment leader walked up to Xinuo, looking worried.

"Master, should we continue to fight? I feel—"

"Of course! The winner hasn't been decided yet!" Xinuo growled stubbornly, then added, "Also, call me Commander on the battlefield!"

With a mouthful of words stuck in his throat, the centurion gave a bitter smile and said.

"Yes."

In his view, the winner had actually been decided, but perhaps the Commander had a different opinion.

In fact, as long as Xinuo wanted to, theoretically he could keep fighting until not a single person was left under his command.

Or the other side got annoyed and took the initiative to capture him alive.

The dejected centurion had never been so eager for the other side to take the initiative to end this hopeless battle.

The morale of "Hellfire" had hit rock bottom.

Looking at the listless soldiers, Xinuo also knew in his heart that if he ordered an attack now, the final result would probably be worse than during the day.

"Rest for a day!"

"We'll fight again tomorrow!"

All the soldiers present breathed a sigh of relief and raised their weapons to shout in response.

"Ooh!"

On Ghost Street in the West District of the Demon Capital, a carriage pulled by a Pegasus stopped by the roadside.

Originally, Mia was going to go back with her parents, but when it was time to leave, Mr. Festin and Mrs. Serina didn't know where they had gone, so Luo Yan sat on the Partridge family's carriage at Mia's invitation.

"... Heh heh heh, I didn't expect you to actually win relying on a group of trash goblins; it really wasn't easy. But you won't be so lucky next time; the water in the Demon Capital is too deep, I advise you to cause less trouble, anyway, we don't care about the opinions of those bugs. Although I'm quite happy that you care so much about me, it's not worth it if you get hurt."

The familiar feeling was back.

Luo Yan, who stepped off the carriage, said with a smile.

"Yes, yes, yes, I've caused trouble for Miss Mia."

Unable to suppress the corners of his mouth from turning up, Mia twirled her bangs with her index finger, laughing heh heh heh.

"That's not quite the case, anyway, I was just idle."

That's what she said, but Luo Yan saw it in his eyes; it wasn't just a level of being bored.

From the registration at the arena to the procurement at the slave market and coordinating the teleportation array of the Demon King Management Department, etc., she had put in a lot of effort.

He certainly couldn't have finished it all in one day by himself.

Including today, she came uninvited to accompany him in the arena for a whole day, and even brought her parents along.

Luo Yan could feel her good intentions.

He would remember this favor.

"Good night."

"Good, good night?!"

Seeming not to have expected this sentence to be the ending, Mia was stunned for a long time before she came to her senses, blushing as she slammed the carriage door shut with a bang.

Watching the Pegasus-drawn carriage disappear into the air, Luo Yan, who had already walked to the entrance of the temple, waved his hand with a smile, then turned and walked through the half-open wooden door.

It was very quiet inside the temple.

The solemn statue of the Demon God overlooked the empty chapel and the rows of empty pews.

Sitting on a pew near the podium was an elderly man, his broad back slightly hunched under the shadow of the statue, as if he were about to merge with it.

Luo Yan walked to his side and sat down.

Priest Jeffrey, who had finished his prayer, had a smile on his face and said in a kind tone.

"How was the result of the duel?"

Luo Yan made a joke with a relaxed face.

"The opponent was too weak; I was bored to death."

Priest Jeffrey was slightly stunned, then laughed.

"Congratulations, but we still have to be in awe of the dead lives; such jokes are still not very appropriate."

Luo Yan shrugged his shoulders.

Regarding this point, he and Priest Jeffrey had different views.

He believed that life was worthy of respect and also advised his subordinates to cherish life, but on the question of whether life was equal between different beings, he held a reserved view.

At least, for those guys who could be coaxed to die for a word or a piece of gold, in his view, fulfilling them was the greatest respect for them.

This was the living application of the law of the jungle advocated by His Majesty the Demon God, and it was also the consensus of the vast majority of demons and hell creatures.

However, Priest Jeffrey was, after all, a fundamentalist who studied scriptures, and perhaps had a deeper interpretation of the Demon God Lord Bayeli.

He was more like the one responsible for playing the good cop.

So even if Luo Yan didn't agree, he could understand him, and certainly wouldn't argue with the old man because of different views.

The two sat together and chatted in a friendly atmosphere for a while.

When talking about the end of the duel, Luo Yan suddenly paused for a moment, changed the subject and said.

"My father is Luoxie Prince Kelin, right?"

That unexpected straight ball made Priest Jeffrey freeze on the spot.

Facing those eyes that saw through everything, the old man knew his momentary dullness had given him away, then gave a bitter smile and instead relaxed.

"It seems you already know."

Luo Yan nodded, looked at the statue of the Demon God and sighed, saying.

"I actually used to think that my father might be a vampire, just didn't expect it to be that famous one."

Priest Jeffrey was silent for a while, sighed and said.

"I actually didn't want you to know... Getting involved in the affairs of the Prince Kelin family is not a good thing; what you can see is always just the tip of the iceberg above the water, and how much is hidden beneath the water you will never know. Even let alone us outsiders, even your father himself can't see much. Him putting you here was not necessarily not a kind of protection."

"I understand," Luo Yan said casually, "So I never went to look for him, did I?"

Not wanting to put a hot face on a cold butt was just one aspect; he could certainly understand that his father might be out of protection or other hidden reasons beyond his control.

He was not like Vivian.

Whether it was physiological age or psychological age, they were far from being in the same dimension.

Jeffrey looked at Luo Yan unexpectedly, feeling both surprised and a trace of heartache for his maturity.

That was, after all, the child of his foster daughter.

And he had always regarded him as his own grandson.

After a long silence, he sighed and said.

"Sometimes I always feel I owe you too much; I should have shouldered the responsibility of an elder to answer the confusion in your life, yet by the time I realized it and made up my mind to do something, you had already reached a reconciliation with everything."

Luo Yan made a joke, and also teased himself along the way.

"Feel like there's no sense of participation in raising a child?"

As always, not understanding his humor, Priest Jeffrey shook his head and said seriously.

"It's feeling indebted. Not just me, but your father too... We owe you too much."

Guessed he would say that.

Luo Yan sighed.

"Actually, you don't have to think that way; I never felt anyone owed me anything, nor did I feel there was anything wrong with my current situation."

Saying this, he stood up from the pew.

"It's getting late; tomorrow I plan to visit Professor Aidonia Feng to consult about the dome crystal of the Demon Capital, you should rest early too."

He ultimately didn't mention Vivian's matter.

That matter had already been resolved.

Believing that with tonight's lesson, that brat shouldn't trouble him again, and might even walk around him when seeing him in the future. Even if he told Priest Jeffrey, the latter would only be embarrassing his useless father, and then increase the conflict between the two sides.

He didn't want that.

At least in his heart, he still regarded them as family.

"Hmm, I'll go in a while," Priest Jeffrey nodded and said kindly, "Go to sleep quickly."

Watching Luo Yan's back leave, the elderly old priest looked at the statue of the Demon God not far away and prayed silently in his heart.

Almighty His Majesty Lord Bayeli.

May you bless my poor and sensible child...

The night grew deeper and deeper.

Lying on the bed, Luo Yan couldn't sleep no matter what, so he simply closed his eyes to meditate, sank his spirit into the ocean of consciousness, and went to the forum to look at the sand-sculpture players he was raising.

In the days when the Demon King was away, the players had an unexpectedly good time.

Just as he had expected, as long as the content of the game itself was rich enough, even if the development team didn't update the main storyline, the players could find their own fun from the existing game content.

For example, now.

Xinuo Dragon on the fifth floor of the labyrinth had become the new fun for the players of the Necropolis, following the adventurers of Mist Town.

Some players were addicted to trading with these demons from hell, selling strange things to those demons in exchange for the equipment and loot in their hands.

Other players were thinking about learning news about the Demon Capital through these demons.

Except for the "Big BOSS" with bull horns who was not easy to communicate with, most ordinary demons were very easy to communicate with, and didn't mind chatting a few words with these "country skeleton soldiers" who could talk while buying things.

Seller of Little Match Girl: "... I suspect these demons are masochists; they know that eating too many sweet potatoes will cause abdominal bloating, yet they still buy that stuff to eat!"

Gou Shi: "How do you know they aren't playing a big game of chess? (Funny)"

Seller of Little Match Girl: "Can this be chess too?"

Good Citizen of Gotham: "Stomach pain is better than being on the battlefield; I heard them say they were just dragged into a noble's duel, and had no choice but to come here to fight, and would be teleported away after the fight."

Go to the Pier for Seagulls: "A noble's duel?"

Lele: "With whom?"

Miaomiao: "The Demon King?"

Sleep until foot cramps: "But those ogres aren't the Demon King's subordinates, right?"

Little Rabbit Juice: "Holy crap, this Demon King is really dog-like!"

Luo Yan had black lines all over his head.

But he didn't need to lower himself to the level of the sand-sculptures.

"Hearing You You, that translation crystal you made, didn't translate things that shouldn't be translated to Xinuo Dragon's subordinates, right?"

Hearing You You, who was floating on the side, said proudly.

"Rest assured, Demon King, things that shouldn't be said have all been harmonized by Hearing You You, and the content about your evil plan has also been replaced with other things!"

Hearing this, Luo Yan was finally relieved.

He wasn't afraid of the players learning too much information about this world from the monsters; those who could treat VR games as the real world were either geniuses or crazy, and this had no effect on him.

He was mainly worried about Xinuo Dragon knowing he had been played.

But it looked like, with that guy's IQ, he hadn't seen any clues.

Luo Yan flipped through a few more posts, and the content discussed by the players quickly changed to other things.

Excited Netizen: "Brothers! The worldview of this game is even bigger than we imagined! It's not just that there are divisions of various countries on the surface, even in hell, it's divided into various direct territories and dukedoms, earldoms, and baronies! And the Necropolis is just one of them!"

Peerless Hero: "Heard there are also vampire kingdoms, goblin kingdoms, and hell dwarves, etc., vassal forces!"

Past like smoke: "Sigh, if only I could reincarnate as a vampire, at least I'd look like a person."

Ayami Little Demon: "Playing a little demon is too uncomfortable. T. T"

"..."

Seeing this, Luo Yan didn't know why he suddenly wanted to laugh.

These players were still too young.

He didn't think there was anything good about vampires at all.

Of course, maybe his little players could play this race into something fancy.

Just like the skeleton soldiers they had already played into something fancy.

Thinking that the Demon King was pondering how to let players reincarnate as vampires, Hearing You You, who was floating on the side, muttered in a low voice.

"... Feel like it's a bit difficult to reincarnate as a vampire; the embrace doesn't feel like a big problem, the trouble is that you still need the cubs of other humanoid intelligent creatures as sacrifices."

The vampire bloodline was more like a virus, originating from a curse of a certain god on a certain family in ancient times.

To obtain this curse, there were certain requirements for the cursed bloodline, otherwise, it would affect the effect of the embrace, or even be completely unable to embrace, and could only become low-level blood servants.

In Luo Yan's impression, humans had the highest compatibility with vampires, followed by elves and dwarves, but orcs, demons, goblins, and gnomes wouldn't work.

Including various high-tier demons, they were also repulsive to the vampire bloodline and could not obtain the embrace of other vampires.

It was precisely because of this that nobles among the blood clans like the Prince Kelin family had the tradition of ensuring bloodline purity, and even went as far as intermarriage within the clan to maintain extreme bloodline purity.

Although this was suspected of overcorrecting, the original intention was also the fear of losing the power bestowed by ancestors due to impure bloodlines.

It was said that this kind of thing once happened in a disappeared vampire family.

Starting from a certain generation, all descendants suddenly couldn't fully inherit the embrace of their predecessors, so the family naturally disappeared in the long river of history.

If studied with genetic technology, Luo Yan believed it should be possible to crack the secrets, but this was still a bit too advanced for an otherworldly world that didn't even have a concept of what a cell was.

Some things were destined to only become strange tales in history.

Looking at the lines of posts on the forum, Luo Yan pondered for a while while touching his chin, and nodded, saying.

"It is quite difficult."

The embryonic development time of humans was too long.

Even if he could let the captured adventurers have cubs, he would have to order ten months in advance, and if he bought them directly from slave traders, the cost-effectiveness was too low.

The souls of human, elf, and dwarf infants were usually stable at full moon, and to let players possess them, it must be before the soul was stable.

In contrast, the development speed of little demons and lizardmen was much faster, and they could reincarnate directly in the egg, and for most players, there was no ethical guilt.

The most critical thing was that he still had to consider the feelings of the vassals.

The oviparous little demons had weak kinship and didn't care much about the eggs laid, so he could use little demon eggs as vassal taxes. But if it were changed to dark elves, they would never accept offering their children as sacrifices.

Luo Yan couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

"If only I could use magic to create 'artificial humans'."

In this way, not only the problem of reincarnating as a vampire, but also the problems of reincarnating as dark elves, and even demons, could be solved together.

Hearing You You asked suspiciously.

"Artificial humans?"

Luo Yan nodded and continued.

"Simply put, it's creating something similar to 'clones' through magic... Of course, I'm just saying this, I have no clue how to realize it specifically."

He heard that there was similar technology in the ancient times before the First Epoch.

Some evil cannibal tribes created soulless bodies through sacrificial rituals to act as sacrifices and food instead of living people with minds.

In the background of the era of drinking blood and eating raw meat at that time, this was actually a progressive behavior. It was a pity that because it wasn't progressive enough, it was replaced by other more progressive civilized tribes, so the relevant technology was not completely passed down.

Later on, this technology was inherited by a few alchemists who were obsessed with creating "artificial humans with minds," gradually went on the wrong path, and eventually evolved into forbidden knowledge.

In the areas ruled by Shengxisi, playing with souls was regarded as the forbidden of the forbidden, whether it was dissection, enslavement, or creating souls.

This was also the reason why necromancers were not tolerated by the mainstream.

As for hell, it didn't regard it as a taboo.

After all, the first batch of hell citizens were servants of the Nether God, self-proclaimed guides of the Styx, doing the work of ferrying souls into the Styx.

Although the Netherworld no longer existed, the cultural heritage was still there.

Luo Yan felt.

If the relevant technology for artificial humans still existed, hell was probably the place most likely to preserve the relevant technology.

It was just that he had no clue where it was preserved.

Just when Luo Yan was thinking, Hearing You You, who was floating on the side, seemed to see his trouble and reminded him thoughtfully.

"Demon King, this is easy to say, you can consult Miss Mia."

"Mia?" Luo Yan was slightly stunned.

Succubus?

Never heard that succubi were proficient in alchemy.

Alchemy of essence was possible.

Hearing You You nodded energetically.

"Hmm hmm! Doesn't she have a library? You just ask her to help you find if there are any relevant books, anyway, the relevant knowledge is not as sensitive as chaos, it's also okay to let her copy a copy for you, right?"

Oh yeah!

The Partridge family's library! Luo Yan patted his head.

Blame this damn stereotype, he almost forgot about this!

"This idea is good, I'll ask about it another day."

Sure enough, Hearing You You is the reliable one.

Luo Yan strolled around the forum, saw no more nutritious posts, and prepared to close the forum page to meditate seriously.

However, at this moment, his peripheral vision swept across a few lines of exchange in the discussion area below a certain post.

"By the way, those ogres seem to be a bit wrong, have you noticed."

"Wrong?"

"Elaborate?"

"I can't say, just feel their eyes are weird..."

Ogres? Eyes are weird?

Luo Yan felt a vague sense of unease in his heart, especially thinking of the covetousness of "Mist of Deception" Novell towards him when he left the mortal world.

But it shouldn't be back so soon, right?

And with the ogres' IQ, Novell probably looked down on them.

"... Hearing You You, keep a close eye on the situation on the fifth floor of the labyrinth for me."

Hearing You You replied with great enthusiasm.

"Okay, Demon King!"

(End of chapter)