Chapter 201: Demon Race Bounty, Deceiving Superiors and Subordinates

Chen Mo gripped the Monster Core in his hand, and the power of numerous Heavenly Laws flowed continuously along the core.

Just moments ago, he had used his own Blood Qi to carefully observe and even dissect this core.

Inside the Monster Core was an extremely unique power that resonated with the Heavenly Laws of this world; this source originated from the monster's bloodline.

Within the bloodline power of these monsters, there was not only the operation of Heavenly Laws, but most importantly, the Mirage Sea Breath.

In short, the demons of this world are constantly transforming into creatures of the Mirage Sea.

The higher their cultivation, the closer they are to being creatures of the Mirage Sea, and the more powerful the forces they can mobilize.

Not only that, the Human Race's method of replacing demon bloodlines to grasp and mobilize Heaven and Earth Power is, in essence, also a transformation toward becoming creatures of the Mirage Sea.

If things continue to develop according to this situation, the Human Race of this world will one day also turn into creatures of the Mirage Sea.

This process is very slow, but the power of the Mirage Sea is rooted in the bloodline and cannot be erased at all.

The Mirage Sea's encroachment on this world is comprehensive, though compared to the Human Race, demons have a stronger ability to adapt.

Chen Mo held the Demon Pill in his hand and activated it with his Blood Qi; the surrounding Heaven and Earth Power immediately began to circulate.

This was a method he had created based on his own insights; if one were to use ancient terminology, it could be called the Outer Elixir Method.

The ancient Outer Elixir Method was used by Golden Core cultivators.

Most were Foundation Establishment cultivators who had no chance of forming a Golden Core, so they used external forces to condense a Golden Core within themselves to reach the Golden Core realm of cultivation.

The Golden Cores condensed through this method varied in quality; if condensed with top-grade Heaven and Earth spiritual materials, the quality of the Golden Core would not be inferior to that of top-tier Golden Core cultivators.

Chen Mo was using this method by mastering the Demon Pill and activating it with his own Blood Qi to grasp the Heaven and Earth Power.

While this method did indeed improve his combat power, it also had obvious drawbacks.

The first is that it only improves combat power and cannot improve his essential strength.

The second is that the Heaven and Earth Power he can mobilize is limited by the quality of this Demon Pill.

Even so, it is still quite good and can serve as an emergency supplement to his combat power.

Once the Incense God Path is cultivated, one will surely be able to grasp extremely powerful strength.

But the difficulty of cultivating it is too high; one must accumulate enough Faith Power, which requires a certain amount of time.

Furthermore, there is another point: as Chen Mo researched, he could feel two forces existing inside this Demon Pill.

One is the bloodline power of the demon, and the other is pure Heaven and Earth Power.

If he could excise this bloodline power, he could attempt to absorb the remaining Heaven and Earth Power.

Unfortunately, he only had this one Demon Pill on hand, and Chen Mo was counting on it to provide him with extra combat power, so he naturally could not waste it on experiments.

He would wait a while longer; when other demons from the Thousand Mountain Alliance came to hunt him down, he would be able to obtain other Demon Pills to use for experiments in refining and absorbing the Heaven and Earth Power within.

Aside from the Demon Pill, the Token Chen Mo had previously obtained was now placed inside his Mysterious Aperture, where he continuously washed it over and over with his own Blood Qi to wear down the restrictions left upon it.

This process was very steady; he did not seek quick success, but gradually replaced the Blood Qi restrictions on the Token with his own.

Doing this, although slower, allowed him to perfectly master this Token, ensuring no problems would arise.

Chen Mo could see that this Token came from the Thousand Mountain Alliance, which was mostly composed of demons, though there should be a small number of humans as well.

He just did not know what the actual purpose of this Token was, or if it could be used to communicate with other demons within the Thousand Mountain Alliance.

As the Blood Qi washed over it and continuously wore down the restrictions, Chen Mo could feel his Faith Power climbing step by step; it seemed Yang Baishan was getting things done.

Several hours passed in a flash, and Chen Mo's own Blood Qi finally completely replaced the Blood Qi on the Token.

As his Blood Qi sank into the Token, streams of information were transmitted over.

This Token was a command of the Thousand Mountain Alliance; all the various Demon Kings within the Thousand Mountain Alliance, as well as those human bandits and rebel kings who gathered in the mountains and forests, each held one.

This Token had many wonderful uses; one was to allow nearby Demon Kings and rebel kings to communicate.

There was a limit to the distance, and it could not exceed a range of one thousand miles, but in this world, it was still quite rare.

Through this Token, one could also view information transmitted by the Alliance Leader of the Thousand Mountain Alliance.

Furthermore, if a certain Demon King or rebel king wanted to purchase some rare items, they could also use this Token to send a message requesting a purchase.

Although his own Token could only transmit within one thousand miles, as long as the price offered was high enough, other Demon Kings would be willing to act as intermediaries to help contact more Demon Kings.

This Token could be seen as a point on a large web; through communication and exchange with other points, it was sufficient to spread news across the entire web.

There were no very strict covenants within the Thousand Mountain Alliance; in fact, under normal circumstances, the Demon Kings would fight among themselves, and only on rare occasions were they forced to unite.

One reason was to resist the encirclement and suppression by the Human Race, but nowadays, such situations were rare.

In most cases, the Thousand Mountain Alliance existed to oppose the Ten Thousand Demon Cave.

That was another demon faction, which was hostile to the Thousand Mountain Alliance, and the two sides often engaged in mutual slaughter.

Chen Mo could see several messages at this moment, mostly from nearby Demon Kings.

There was also one message from the Alliance Leader of the Thousand Mountain Alliance, the Demon Lord Qingshan.

He was offering a bounty for a person's head, consisting of the Demon Pills of two Transformation Realm great demons, plus a cultivation manual called the Nine Refinements Blood Nourishing Technique.

This person had once appeared in Changsheng County and destroyed the Divine Idol of a demon god, stealing a trace of its Divine Nature.

Looking at it this way, the person he was offering a bounty for was himself.

Whoever could kill him and bring back that Divine Nature would receive the Demon Pills and the cultivation manual.

The Nine Refinements Blood Nourishing Technique is a cultivation manual suitable for demons; this manual focuses on tempering the bloodline within the demon race, making the bloodline purer, thereby allowing them to grasp more Heaven and Earth Power and increase their own cultivation.

This manual is extremely rare and is rumored to be one of the secret transmissions of the ancient faction, the Demon God Palace.

The reason Demon Lord Qingshan was worthy of the title of Demon Lord was also because he had this manual at his side.

And the Demon Pills of Transformation Realm great demons were equally precious.

The cultivation realms of demons are different from those of the Human Race, divided into five stages: Spirit Awakening, Wisdom Opening, Body Condensation, Core Formation, and Shape Transformation.

Setting aside the Spirit Awakening realm, at this stage, demons only open their most basic intelligence.

The Wisdom Opening realm means possessing true intelligence, vigorous Blood Qi, the beginning of physical changes, and the ability to speak human language; in terms of the Human Race's realms in this world, it is equivalent to a Martial Artist in the Yangxue Realm.

The Body Condensation realm means the demon body becomes increasingly close to a human body, their strength is greater, their speed and movements are more agile, corresponding to a Martial Artist in the Blood Refining Realm.

As for the Golden Core Realm, demon beasts begin to condense a Demon Pill; Martial Artists at this realm correspond to the Blood Changing Realm.

For example, the Black Mountain Demon King is at the perfection of the Golden Core Realm.

However, demons are uniquely favored by this world and can extensively utilize Heaven and Earth Power, so demons at the Golden Core Realm are much stronger than Martial Artists of the same realm.

Usually, it takes two or even three Blood Changing Realm Martial Artists to deal with one great demon of the Golden Core Realm.

As for great demons of the Transformation Realm, they correspond to the Worshipping God or Entry Realm Martial Artists.

Even the Qingshan Demon Lord himself is only at the perfection of the Transformation Realm, struggling in vain to seek a breakthrough.

Two Demon Pills of the Transformation Realm are absolutely worthy of being called extremely precious.

Not to mention the even more precious technique, which is enough to show how high the bounty price offered by the Qingshan Demon Lord is.

It seems that his own life is indeed quite valuable.

That demon whose Divine Nature was plundered by him is already using means against him.

The Qingshan Demon Lord must have been acting under his instructions, which is why he offered such a high bounty for him.

This bounty is high enough that many demon kings within the Thousand Mountain Alliance, and even Human Race rebel kings, are quite tempted.

The other two messages Chen Mo received came from two nearby demon kings respectively.

One demon is named Zhenshan Wang, a fierce tiger who attained the Way, with cultivation at the perfection of the Golden Core Realm.

The other demon, with the Daoist name Liaochenzi, has a black panther as his true form and currently has cultivation at the early stage of the Transformation Realm.

The reason these two demons sent messages to the Black Mountain Demon King is that he is the demon king closest to Changsheng County.

Furthermore, there is another point: they dare not come to hunt Chen Mo alone.

The reason is simple: they know Chen Mo was able to plunder the Divine Nature of a god.

Even if it was only a wisp, it is enough to prove that Chen Mo's strength is extraordinary.

Even if they could do this now, judging others by themselves,

they do not think a person capable of doing this would be a reckless novice; perhaps he has something to rely on.

Therefore, the two only sent messages from afar, wanting to probe for some information from Chen Mo, and even considering going together; as for the harvest, they would divide it after getting their hands on it.

After all, Demon Pills cannot be split evenly, but a technique can be divided into two or three parts.

Besides these two demon kings, many other demon kings are also rushing here.

It is just that these people are not familiar with the Black Mountain Demon King, so naturally, they would not think to contact him.

Chen Mo pondered for a moment and tentatively sent a message to the two using the Token.

"I have found the person who plundered the Divine Nature of the Venerable God; this person is still in the county seat and shows no signs of leaving for the time being.

Although his strength is not bad, I fear it would be difficult to take him down alone, so I hope the two of you will come to assist."

Chen Mo weighed his tone and sent the same message to both.

Since he has obtained this Black Mountain Demon King's Token, he cannot waste it.

He can just happen to use his identity to call his two old friends over, so that he can have more Demon Pills to supply his own research.

It is just that he does not know the Black Mountain Demon King well after all, so he must be cautious when communicating with these other two demon kings to avoid exposing himself.

The message was sent out, Blood Qi circulated to activate the Token, and immediately after, the Token stimulated the surrounding Heavenly Law, causing this message to spread continuously outward.

Chen Mo sank his consciousness into the Ding Shen Treasure Furnace, and group after group of Faith Power was continuously pouring into it.

One after another, Divine Idols and hanging portraits belonging to him were being enshrined and worshipped.

Especially the faith of many commoners in him, which could already be called fanatical.

Their lives were originally precarious, and they could freeze or starve to death at any time.

Now that they can have land and grain to fill their stomachs and settle down by believing in Chen Mo, how could many commoners not believe in him?

This kind of faith reached a point close to fanaticism; if anyone opposed Chen Mo, this Great Sage of Demon Subjugation, they would take the initiative to stand up and fight the opponents to the death.

The reason is simple, because if someone wants to deal with the Great Sage of Demon Subjugation, then they likely want to take back the things in their hands.

If they had nothing to begin with, that would be fine, but since they have already possessed it, they would absolutely never be willing to lose it again.

The Faith Power circulating in the Ding Shen Treasure Furnace is now approaching the limit of ten thousand.

And looking at its growth, it will not be long before the gathered Faith Power reaches the carrying limit of the Ding Shen Treasure Furnace.

Changsheng County alone is a small city with tens of thousands of living people; adding the commoners in the villages and towns outside the city, as well as the slaves and hidden households of the noble families, all in all, there are probably sixty or seventy thousand.

He must exchange for a Second-tier Ding Shen Treasure Furnace so that he can collect all the Faith Power.

Chen Mo probed his consciousness into the Good-Evil Reward Token; the Good Merit he has accumulated is as high as seventy thousand, which was obtained just now from killing the Black Mountain Demon King.

As a great demon who brought disaster to the region, the Black Mountain Demon King had an extremely long lifespan and killed countless members of the Human Race; the Good Merit he obtained from killing him was naturally also very high.

But this much Good Merit is still not enough to exchange for a Second-tier Ding Shen Treasure Furnace, which requires a full one hundred and forty thousand Good Merit.

It seems he must take action against other demons as soon as possible, but he does not necessarily have to kill those powerful demons.

The Black Mountain Demon King came alone this time, but there must be many weak demons entrenched in his lair.

If he wipes them out completely, he can also obtain a large amount of Good Merit.

Chen Mo ended his closed-door cultivation and put away the Demon Pill in his hand.

…………

…………

At this moment, the sky in Sanqu Prefecture, thousands of miles away, was dim, while the prefectural government office was brightly lit.

The Prefect of Sanqu Prefecture looked at the letter delivered in a hurry; the person who sent the letter was the Changsheng County County Lieutenant, Yang Baishan.

The letter was very brief, and the general meaning was only one thing: someone had killed officials and rebelled, and the County Magistrate, County Lieutenant, and others had all been killed by them.

The Prefect of Sanqu Prefecture was not old, only over forty years old, with a scholarly and fair face; one could tell at a glance that he came from a noble family and had never known a shred of hardship since childhood.

At this time, his face was full of sorrow; looking at the letter in his hand, he could not help but hold his forehead and ponder, yet he could hardly find a solution.

Someone had killed officials and rebelled in a county under his jurisdiction; regardless of this person's identity, age, purpose, or motive, since such a thing happened under his jurisdiction, he would definitely have responsibility.

Truth be told, this matter cannot be blamed on him; whoever was serving as the Quzhou Prefecture Governor, this incident would have occurred.

But it just so happened to occur during his tenure, so he can only blame his own bad luck.

Someone has rebelled, and once this is reported upward, the Imperial Court will inevitably come to investigate.

Regardless of the final outcome, the official robes on his own back will likely be lost.

At the mere thought of the official position he had bought with such great difficulty, and that he would have to lose it before he had even earned back enough money, the expression on his face grew even more miserable.

"My Lord, what has happened that you have summoned me so urgently?" A staff member in his thirties, dressed in brocade and sporting a handlebar mustache, hurried over.

"Zheng Ye'an!" The Quzhou Prefecture Governor's expression looked slightly invigorated, though his complexion remained poor.

He handed the letter in his hand to the staff member, and Zheng Ye'an's complexion also grew increasingly ugly.

As a staff member, his own fate could be said to be tied to that of the Quzhou Prefecture Governor.

If the Quzhou Prefecture Governor lost his official position, he would not have an easy time of it either; unless he defected to someone else, it would be very difficult to be reinstated.

"My Lord, no matter what, this matter must absolutely not be reported to the Imperial Court. Otherwise, both you and I will surely be punished." Zheng Ye'an spoke, and the Quzhou Prefecture Governor nodded repeatedly.

The reason he hired a staff member was precisely so that at critical moments, someone could offer him ideas; whether it was a good idea or a bad one, it was always better than having no idea at all.

"You should hurry and arrange for someone to send a letter to the Prefect, telling him that the true situation is far from being that serious, and that it is all an exaggeration by that Yang Baishan.

Tell the Prefect there is no need to report to the Imperial Court, as this matter can be resolved within our own prefecture. Additionally, you should arrange for a gift to be prepared and sent to the Prefect."

Zheng Ye'an was worthy of being a staff member; his mind turned, and he quickly devised a countermeasure.

Although this method involved deceiving those above and concealing the truth from those below, the important goal now was to keep the official position; other matters were not important.

Even if a rebellion had truly broken out, so what if someone rebelled? They were not the Emperor, so why should they worry about such things?

Even if the rebellion were to succeed, so what? As long as they wanted to govern the world, they would have to continue using people like them.

"Will this work?" The Quzhou Prefecture Governor hesitated slightly, though in reality, he was pained by the cost of his silver.

"It will. My Lord, do not worry about the expenses; as long as this matter can be covered up, at worst we can levy more anti-bandit taxes later," Zheng Ye'an said to console him.

The matter of killing an official and rebelling was not only under the jurisdiction of the Quzhou Prefecture Governor but also under the jurisdiction of the Prefect; if this matter were pursued all the way up, he would inevitably be punished as well.

Therefore, as long as they demonstrated the ability to resolve this matter and offered a generous gift,

the Prefect would naturally not report it to the Imperial Court, but would instead let them resolve it themselves.

Furthermore, considering the gift, as long as the matter could be resolved, he would not hold them accountable.

As for the deceased County Magistrate and County Assistant, whether their families would cause trouble—

at worst, they could find a way to arrange for their family members to continue sitting in the positions of County Magistrate and County Assistant of Changsheng County.

In this way, they would gain benefits, and the families would certainly not cause trouble.

"Good, then I will follow Ye'an's words. But how should the person who rebelled be dealt with?" The Quzhou Prefecture Governor nodded, then immediately asked the most important question.

"This is easy to handle. You send a message to your family, asking one or two experts to come and kill the person who killed the official and rebelled.

According to the letter sent by Yang Baishan, this person's strength is not bad, but it is not considered very strong either. If you invite two Blood Changing Realm martial artists to come, it should be enough to resolve it; if that is not enough, then invite an Entry Realm or Servant God Warrior to come."

Zheng Ye'an was confident and stated his plan.

In fact, the best situation would be for this person to flee directly after killing the official and rebelling, so they would not have to worry about it.

But if that person did not flee, they would have to invite experts to resolve it.

"Good, good, good! I will follow Ye'an's words in this matter!" The Quzhou Prefecture Governor laughed, his heart suddenly feeling grounded.

Zheng Ye'an did not say much more, simply taking up brush and ink from the side.

Once the two letters were written, the Quzhou Prefecture Governor arranged for people to send them out in a hurry.

…………

Chen Mo observed the Xiaonan Mountain before him from afar, using Blood Qi to stimulate his eyes, constantly searching the mountain for traces of demon beasts.

On Xiaonan Mountain, there were not many bones; when demon beasts devoured the Human Race, they mostly swallowed them clean, leaving no bones behind at all.

From a distance, Chen Mo could see hundreds of demon soldiers gathered, along with a small number of humans.

One portion were blood-food held captive and gathered together, while the other portion had completely sided with the demon beasts.

Chen Mo held his divine weapon, stepped onto the mountain, and slaughtered any demon he encountered.

Bai Yuxia followed closely behind, collecting Demon Beast Essence Blood to improve her own strength.

One night passed in the blink of an eye; corpses littered Xiaonan Mountain, and the Demon Beast Essence Blood gathered halfway up the mountain, forming a pool of blood.

The Good Merit that Chen Mo had accumulated had already reached a full 170,000 points.

He first exchanged for a Second-tier Ding Shen Treasure Furnace, refined and mastered it, and used it to calcine more Faith Power.

At this time, the message he had previously sent out had also received a reply.

Liaochenzi and the Zhenshan Demon King did not suspect his identity, but instead asked how they should cooperate.

Chen Mo pondered for a moment, carefully drafted a message, and invited them to come to this Xiaonan Mountain to discuss this matter with him properly.

(End of chapter)