Seeing Mo Fan casually slay all the demons atop that cloud with a mere lift of his hand, Xiao Huang’s eyes widened in shock.
He had known his king had grown stronger, but he had never imagined he was already this powerful!
One must remember that the current king was only a clone!
If a mere clone was this terrifying, what on earth would the true body be like?
“What are you standing there for? Go collect those corpses. They are all demon generals. They will make a fine meal, and these children must be starving by now.”
Mo Fan spoke calmly. From start to finish he remained utterly composed, as though it were nothing remarkable.
Although he was presently only a clone, his Golden Core cultivation was genuine. Combined with the domineering nature of the Heavenly Sun Scripture, dealing with a few demon generals was naturally no trouble at all.
Xiao Huang snapped out of his daze and immediately flew off on a demonic cloud towards the distance.
Only then did Mo Fan notice that all the women and children were staring at him in stunned silence.
“What, is there something on my face?”
He instinctively raised a hand to touch his cheek, found nothing, and promptly laughed.
“How is it that being among these humans has turned me into such a fool?”
Mo Fan smiled wryly to himself, then turned to Bao’er in front of him and asked, “Have you cried enough?”
Bao’er looked up at Mo Fan, feeling both familiar and strange.
He first nodded, then shook his head, lips pressed tightly together, saying nothing.
Seeing the obvious tear tracks on Bao’er’s cheeks, Mo Fan shook his head, crouched down, flipped his hand to produce a handkerchief, and gently wiped the boy’s face clean.
“Bao’er, I know you have suffered great wrongs and hardship. You must hate the demons who destroyed your village with every fibre of your being. But Brother Laibao wants to tell you that in this world, there is not only hatred. There are many beautiful things too.
Humans can be good or bad. Demons are the same.
Brother Laibao dares not claim to be a good demon. I have eaten people before. But at this moment, at the very least, I will not harm you.”
As he spoke, Mo Fan stood up again, swept his gaze over the children and women, and continued, “However, I will not carry a group of burdens either.
So I give you two choices.
First, after you have eaten your fill, you may leave on your own. Whatever fate awaits you afterwards will be up to you.
Second, follow me. Come with me out of the Southern Border to a new place to live. But from then on you will have no freedom. You must become my eyes and ears and work for me.
Do not think me cruel. After all, I am a demon. Saving you once is already merciful enough. Not eating you counts as saving you a second time. If you cannot offer any value, I naturally have no reason to expend further effort getting you safely out of the Southern Border.
There is no rush to answer me now. You may give me your reply after we have eaten.”
With that, Mo Fan suddenly smiled and added, “I imagine you must all be hungry by now.”
In truth, both the women and the children had been starving for ages. In Luoping City they were nothing but food for the demons. Why would demons ever let them eat their fill?
Just barely keeping them alive had already been difficult. Those who could not endure had long since starved to death.
Death was something they had long since grown numb to during this time.
Thus, even knowing Mo Fan was also a demon, they felt only unease rather than outright terror.
After all, as Mo Fan had said, not only had he refrained from eating them, he had saved them.
Since he was willing to save them, he could not be an utterly evil demon. Even the children understood this clearly.
The only difficulty was deciding whether to follow a demon. That was not an easy choice to make in the moment.
Mo Fan did not press them. He simply rubbed Bao’er’s head and hummed an unknown little tune. Soon Xiao Huang flew back.
Next, Xiao Huang released the corpses of the several demon generals.
The sight naturally terrified the women and children once more.
Since they had only just died, the corpses were still in human form. Even Mo Fan found them rather off-putting. He immediately used magic to extract all the demonic qi from the bodies.
Once the demonic qi maintaining their spiritual forms was gone, the demons instantly reverted to their original shapes, becoming enormous beasts.
Only then did everyone finally understand what Mo Fan meant by “food”.
Under Mo Fan’s instructions, Xiao Huang directly summoned his sword pellet, cleanly processed all the demon corpses, then started a fire, set up a large iron pot and grill, and began preparing the meal.
Although the cooking process was somewhat crude and bloody, causing many women and children to vomit on the spot, Mo Fan paid it no mind.
In less than half a day, the meat was fully cooked. Mo Fan and Xiao Huang immediately began devouring huge mouthfuls and beckoned everyone to join them. Yet they found that nobody moved; instead, everyone stared at them in fear.
“What, are you not hungry anymore?
Or would you rather starve to death than eat this meat?”
Mo Fan gave a cold laugh, then continued eating and speaking through a full mouth. “When you were food for those demons in Luoping City, they had no such scruples. They ate you raw without a second thought!
Yet now the food itself hesitates. Humans truly are fascinating creatures!”
Mo Fan’s words did not sway them. Instead, the woman in the floral skirt summoned her courage, stepped forward, and asked, “If we follow you, can you really take us away from this place filled with demons?”
“Of course. Taking you away is not difficult at all. I simply find it troublesome, that is all.” Mo Fan shrugged.
His answer brought a flicker of joy to the woman’s face, yet she still pressed on. “Then what would you have us do?”
Mo Fan did not answer immediately. Instead he looked at her with interest and suddenly asked, “You are a cultivator, aren’t you?”
From the first moment he saw her, he had sensed faint spiritual qi on her.
The woman started in surprise, but quickly calmed down, nodded, and said, “I once studied under the Cyan Orchid Female Sword Immortal and did cultivate for a time. Unfortunately my aptitude is poor. Even now I have only just stepped into Qi Refining.”
“Cyan Orchid Female Sword Immortal?”
Mo Fan frowned slightly. The title sounded impressive. He promptly asked, “Where is your master now?”
“Dead. A great demon bit her head off in one bite…”
“…”
“What is your name?”
“I am called Yu Nian,” the woman replied.
Mo Fan nodded and continued, “What I want you to do is actually very simple. I have established an intelligence organisation called the Demon Net. In due course I will bring you into human territory. Your task will be to gather information for me about humans or specific individuals. That is all.
Of course, you will not be doing this for nothing. I will distribute resources to you according to the merit you earn.
For example, since you are a cultivator, I can grant you cultivation materials: spirit stones, techniques, spells, magical artefacts, anything is possible!
If any of the others show aptitude for cultivation, I will support them too!
As for those who cannot cultivate, I can still bestow gold, silver, and jewels upon them, enough to ensure a life of luxury forever!”
Mo Fan’s words instantly lit up everyone’s eyes.
Faced with such enormous temptation, no one could remain unmoved.
On one side lay fear of the future, the constant possibility of a cruel death.
On the other lay hope: the chance to rise in one leap, to leap the dragon gate, to escape mortality and become legendary cultivators. At the very least, they would enjoy endless wealth and honour!
Mo Fan already knew in his heart which choice these people would make.
The reason he had suddenly decided to save them was partly because of the kindness in his heart, and partly because he wanted to use this group as an experiment, to see whether he could extend the Demon Net into human territory.
Naturally, demon cultivators could not be used in human lands; that would be suicidal.
But if he could nurture a batch of humans to act as the Demon Net’s spokespeople in human territory, nothing could be better!
Doing this might make him seem deeply scheming, but he did not care in the slightest. Who told him to be a demon?
And a demon who followed only his own heart at that!
Neither the rules of demonkind nor the morals of humankind could ever bind him!
