Chapter 580 — The Hidden Insider

Lu Li inquired, "Fu Riluo, wisest of the demon race, how will you draw out the youth surnamed Shen?"

Fu Riluo smiled faintly and said with leisure, "And how will Lu Li, one of the four great commanders of Youdu, help me swallow Taihuang Heaven?"

Lu Li looked toward the demon race's enormous altars, one after another, and saw a Youdu demon god step down from an altar and, without a word, seize a hundred-odd divine-power cultivators of the demon race and stuff them into its mouth, so frightening the other demons that they scattered and fled.

At once demon gods of the demon race came forward from beside the altars to stop it. That Youdu demon god was an ancestor of the demon race, knowing only slaughter and possessing little wisdom; the many demon gods urged a vast dome into being and at last trapped this Ancestor of the Demon Race within it.

The Ancestor of the Demon Race roared without cease inside the dome, wreaking havoc at will, yet could not shatter it.

Those demon gods summoned many divine-power cultivators of the demon race; a hundred-odd demon strongmen hauled up a giant cart, set the dome upon it, and strained to drag it from the front, while behind, a thousand or more demon divine-power cultivators struggled to push, bearing this dome, Ancestor and all, toward the front line.

"Your demon armies are too weak, and the Ancestor you summoned is hard to control — it knows only how to devour."

Lu Li said calmly, "If you mean to destroy Taihuang Heaven's armies with them, I fear you will kill a thousand of the enemy at the cost of eight hundred of your own; the loss will outweigh the gain. By the time you take Taihuang Heaven, it will be battered to pieces, no better off than your own Luofu Heaven."

Fu Riluo's eyes flickered. "You should know that Taihuang Heaven is not my aim."

"Your aim is the world where the Kaihuang Heavenly Court resides."

Lu Li said with a half-smile, "Fu Riluo, you would use Taihuang Heaven as a springboard, make a blood sacrifice of it, join Luofu Heaven, Taihuang Heaven, and the Kaihuang Heavenly Court into one, and let your demon race descend into that world."

Fu Riluo smiled and said nothing for a moment, then: "Brother Daoist, you too are of the demon race — would you not wish our race to grow strong?"

Lu Li was silent a while, then shook her head. "Your ambition is too great and your ability too small; you will only bring disaster on yourself. But I am of the demon race as well, and I will still aid you. You cannot control the Ancestor of the Demon Race — I can."

She flicked her sleeve, and the dome on the distant giant cart split open with a crack. The Ancestor of the Demon Race within leaped out with a roar, howling at the sky and beating its chest in fury, its demonic qi surging straight beyond the heavens.

Fu Riluo's expression shifted slightly; the demon gods all around were startled as well and hurried toward the Ancestor.

But the Ancestor of the Demon Race suddenly soared into the air, flew toward Fu Riluo, landed heavily, and stood motionless at Lu Li's side.

The several demon gods of the demon race arrived; Fu Riluo raised a hand. "Withdraw."

He looked at the Ancestor: this ancient demon god had a blue face and protruding fangs, and its whole body was covered in exceedingly ancient patterns, as though carved into its skin.

Fu Riluo let out a foul breath. "How many Ancestors of the Demon Race can you control, Brother Daoist?"

A faint smile surfaced on Lu Li's beautiful face. "As many as you can summon, I can control."

Fu Riluo's three faces could not help but change color. Lu Li could control these Ancestors — and she could also turn them against the demon race, even overthrow Fu Riluo's rule!

He had not wished to have any entanglement with the Heavenly Court; his aim had been simply to preserve his own rule, and fearing that the demon race would fall into the Heavenly Court's grasp, he had chosen not to ask the Heavenly Court for help, but instead to summon the Ancestors of the Demon Race from Youdu.

And now it seemed he had been far too naive.

The Heavenly Court had long since taken control of the Ancestors of the Demon Race in Youdu, and meant to use them as a means to control the entire demon race!

The moment he summoned Lu Li, the demon race had ceased to be his to command!

"Now you may tell me how you will capture that youth surnamed Shen," Lu Li said.

Fu Riluo steadied himself. "Taking him is not difficult. In storming cities and seizing lands, the heart is what must be taken first. Every man has his weakness. Among the divine-power cultivators of Taihuang Heaven, no few cling to life and fear death; no few have already thrown in with our demon race — there is even a deity among them. At a single command from me, someone will seize him and bring him to me."

Lu Li's eyes lit up. "You have a spy in Taihuang Heaven, and a deity at that. Who is he?"

At Li City, Shen Mu stood before the gate tower and saw from afar the Black Tiger God bounding like the wind, bringing the Dragon Qilin and Snow Fox back from the demon lands far away; with them came several hundred divine-power cultivators of Taihuang Heaven and Jingping.

"Fat Dragon seems to have grown thinner!"

Shen Mu's eyes brightened. In the days he had been away, the Dragon Qilin had actually lost a whole ring of fat; it still had a great belly, but at least its stomach no longer dragged on the ground.

Shen Mu was greatly comforted. After a moment the Black Tiger God reached the foot of the city wall, caught sight of him on the gate tower, and at once rose into the air with the Dragon Qilin and Snow Fox, alighted before Shen Mu, shook himself and became a youth, and said with a laugh, "Junior brother, you are back at last! Fat Dragon, spit out your Dark Water Dragon Pearl and let my junior brother have a look!"

The Dragon Qilin, seeing Shen Mu, was like one meeting kin; it was just about to pounce on him and beg for spirit pills, but at these words it sat down obediently and opened its mouth to spit out a pearl. Plainly it had taken no small number of beatings in this time and had grown quite docile.

The pearl rose into the air, and at once radiance filled the sky, a glory of many hues shining over tens of miles around!

Within the pearl was a dragon-shaped pattern, swimming ceaselessly through the Dark Water Dragon Pearl, carrying a shockingly powerful surge of watery vapor!

Shen Mu cried out in praise, but inwardly he was puzzled: this Dark Water Dragon Pearl of the Dragon Qilin's was smaller than any other he had seen before, no bigger than a finger, while the smallest he had ever seen had been the size of a fist.

"Isn't Fat Dragon of the fire attribute? How is its Dark Water Dragon Pearl of the water attribute? And so small — could it be that all the spirit pills it ate before were the wrong ones?"

He had barely thought this when the Dragon Qilin opened its mouth again and spat out another pearl, like a blazing sun in the sky, brimming with fierce heat; bathed in that light, Shen Mu even felt a stinging pain!

"Two Dark Water Dragon Pearls! No — the other is a Qilin Pearl!"

Shen Mu was astonished, then saw the truth of it: the second pearl was no Dark Water Dragon Pearl. Within it was the pattern of a strange beast in the form of a qilin, treading fire clouds, mouth open in a roar.

This Qilin Pearl was astonishingly large, as big as a bushel basket, two feet square, and within it lay a dreadfully powerful qilin fire!

The qilin fire surged without restraint, its force beyond compare; seeing this Qilin Pearl, Shen Mu even wondered whether the Dragon Qilin had now cultivated to the Life-Death Realm.

"The Dark Water Dragon Pearl is of water, the Qilin Pearl of fire — can Fat Dragon be of both water and fire attributes...?"