Wang Lu really thought that the scene before him had broadened his view.
It was not uncommon for a dead person to rise up again, but for a body that had died for two thousand years to be awakened by a roar was indeed really rare.
The remarkable ability of Enasi, as a member of howling demon, was indeed no small matter.
However, Wang Lu was more interested in what happened next.
No one knows if it was due to coincidence or some other reason, a corpse responded to Enasi's call and awakened from the dream. The awakening of a single demon did not affect the new demon world, as the rest of the corpses were still in a deep sleep. On this mountain of corpses, a body that stood erect appeared especially abnormal.
When Enasi realized that one of the demons had woken up, he immediately floated toward that standing corpse.
"Sure enough, there are still people alive! You, tell me what happened to my demon world?"
At this time, Enasi didn't even care about his master anymore. But Wang Lu didn't mind, he just strolled toward that mountain of dead bodies and arrived at the woken up demon.
Under such circumstances, it was really inconceivable for someone to rise from the dead. This corpse was probably a great demon before it's death. However, at this time, it could only be considered as gasping its last breath. Because after being separated from the dreamland, this erect body was decaying at an alarming rate.
However, it still had the ability to speak before it was thoroughly rotted.
"Demon world?"
Having just waking up from the dream, it's mind was still somewhat foggy. After a while, it faintly sighed. "Demon world has ceased to exist."
Upon hearing that demon's words, Enasi finally gave up on its fantasy and turned sluggish.
Seeing that there was no other problem, the body that was just awakened was ready to fall asleep. However, Enasi suddenly asked, "Did we lose?"
"Yes." The body answered calmly.
"Oh, I see…" Enasi's voice was bitter. It only had lips left, even its eyes were not there. Thus, naturally there was no tearful drama, but the pain in its voice was felt as if it had happened to itself.
"We resisted till the last moment did we? Although we lost, we are still honorable fighters, are we not?"
Hearing these questions, the body hesitated before saying, "We did not resist till the last, because that's unwise."
Upon hearing this answer, Enasi was stunned.
It could not believe what it just heard.
"You said… we did not resist till the last? Because that's unwise? What do you mean by that?"
The body simplified the cataclysm two thousand years ago and summed it up with, "In short, in the face of the worldwide crisis of the demon world, there's no point in flaunting our courage. So in the end, we created together, and established a new country in that dreamland."
"Absurd! Ridiculous! This is downright absurd!"
Enasi angrily interrupted, "What 'no point in flaunting the courage? What 'unwise in resisting till the end'? Those words are a disgrace to the demon race!"
"This was the consensus of everyone." That body was very indifferent. "When you have the chance to win, heroic fighting is worth advocating. But if there's no chance of success, you should wisely choose to give up."
"Then you guys hide in the dream to live forever like cowards? What the hell is wrong with you? You are definitely not demon race, because I do not believe my descendants will become so useless! In those days, even if we face opponents that we can't possibly defeat, we still hold our chin up until the last moment! Because that's the way the demon race should be!"
The body seemed difficult to understand. "But that's not reasonable."
"Reasonable? That's the toy the human being is interested in. Demon race never needs any reason! What we need are honor and dignity!"
Enasi continued to shout, but because it shouted itself hoarse, its mouth continued to bleed.
But it did not intend to stop at all.
"Who among you made that decision? Who dared to lead the demon race into such a humiliating path? Call him out to see me."
The body obviously became awkward, and could only stand there motionless.
"Call out your leader to see me!"
While yelling, Enasi began to spray blood. Obviously its strength did not allow it to be so violent. But it was also obvious that it did not care about its life and death.
In the end, until Enasi exhausted its strength and unwillingly fell to the ground, the leader of the mountain of corpses did not appear. Even the body that was awakened by its roar had collapsed and turned to ashes, no longer leaving any useful clue.
Enasi lied on the ground, dying, yet it's mouth still murmured.
"I do not believe... do not believe that this is the end. Hiding in the dream and continuing the civilization? That's a joke. Master, tell me, this is not the end!"
Wang Lu gently sighed. "This is certainly not the end. Everything has only just begun."
"Really? Then I... then I'm relieved. Us demon race, should not be so useless."
With that, the noisy howling demon finally became silent.
And Wang Lu fell into a long silence.
Previously when he let Enasi lose, it was purely for convenience, there was not much thought behind it. However, after he heard those roars from Enasi, Wang Lu's mind was filled with doubts.
Two thousand years ago, facing life or death crisis, the demon race chose to hide in the dream. Although no doubt it was a wonderful move, now it seemed that there were indeed many things that could not be explained.
Wang Lu did not dare to say that he had a deep understanding of demon race, but from the records of the two great wars of immortals and demons, at least one thing was clear—demon race was a particularly unyielding creature. Even the particularly crafty shapeshifting demon was no exception. But, in the face of the dying demon world, these would-rather-die creatures wisely chose not to use force against the enemy?
From the human point of view, there was nothing wrong with hiding in the dreamland, but Enasi's roar before death made Wang Lu even more aware that he could not use the standard of humans to measure the behavior of demon race.
If he stood on the perspective of demon race, facing that desperate situation, the normal choice should be to fight the battle to the end. As for turning over and hiding in the dreamland, it certainly did not conform to Wang Lu's taste. Of course, from hundreds of millions of demons, there would inevitably be a few exceptions. But, seeing this towering mountain of corpses, it was obvious that the vast majority of demons had chosen this path. This was indeed a bit abnormal.
After realizing this problem, Wang Lu fell into a deeper contradiction.
As a professional adventurer, when an important side quest was within sight, it was impossible to turn a blind eye to it. But at this point in time, another complication was not what he wanted. Especially that this side quest was particularly difficult for him at the moment.
He had just reached Daoist Master of Jindan Stage, so he couldn't afford to bear the heavy responsibility of uncovering the truth about this world.
Wang Lu paced back and forth in front of that mountain of corpses, hesitated for a long time, yet still found it difficult to make a decision. This was rare for Wang Lu who had always been decisive.
On Spirit Sword Mountain, he did not hesitate to report the Sect Leader for the evil conduct of his master in order to cheat her, but now the choice was really difficult.
"Initially, I only intended to come here to wake them up, not planning for more."
Finally, Wang Lu looked up and sighed. Then, the Sword of Mount Kun appeared on his hand. The sword light was then sent straight toward the mountain of corpses, but it only caused a layer of ripples.
The mountain of corpses that had existed for two thousand years, had evolved to a high level magical treasure that repelled anything harmful. With Wang Lu's present cultivation base, he could hardly destabilize it. Moreover, after the collapse of the Eternal Tree, the effectiveness of the demon jade had also greatly reduced. Only Enasi who had a resonance with its other demon kin allowed it's roar to wake one of the dreaming dead body, yet even when it shouted until its power exhausted and then died, it could not call out the others. Wang Lu really didn't want to take that risk.
But, what did the old saying say? Do you want to be a coward for the rest of your life or be a hero, even just for a few seconds?
Although Wang Lu didn't really feel that a person who can only keep going on for a few seconds deserved to be called a hero, when faced with the huge mystery, he had no way to suppress his desire to explore.
With strong curiosity, Wang Lu pointed his Sword of Mount Kun forward and began to condense out his primal chaos heaven splitting sword qi on it, just drawing the bow without releasing the arrow. He just continued to condense his sword qi until it became sharper. Then, Wang Lu gently inserted the tip of the sword through the gap between the bodies that had almost glued together.
After condensing the sword momentum for a long time, without any suspense, the sword broke open a small crack between the bodies.
At the same time, from the mountain of corpses came a wave of earth-shattering counterforce. Wang Lu immediately held out the demon jade in front of him, which actually canceled the counter force. Wang Lu then took this opportunity to continue deeper into the center of the mountain of corpses.
He wanted to find someone in this mountain of corpses. Someone that had led hundreds of millions of demons toward a side path, the great demon king who dominated the demon world two thousand years ago!
After the dialogue between Enasi and the awakened dead demon, many puzzles were waiting to be answered. And the demon king two thousand years ago, was the first step to solve those puzzles… Just now, he had already probed the position of the demon king within that mountain of corpses.
The demon king's corpse was buried in the center of the mountain of corpses, surrounded by hundreds of millions of demons, as if all the stars cup themselves around the moon1.
Wang Lu marched through the mountain of corpses with difficulties. Even though he had the demon jade, he still had to face all sorts of terrifying visions. After all, this was the tomb of the demon king where the degree of terror far exceeded any other tomb in the world. Hundreds of millions of demons were buried there. Solely from their resentment and hatred could form the black tide that could ravage the demon world!
Fortunately, under the blessing from the demon jade, there was no scene unsuitable to children that appeared before him. Thus Wang Lu continued to open the path while maintaining his Non-Phase Sword Defense.
Finally, he saw the coffin of the demon king.
Demon king was indeed demon king, its treatment was far different from the others. At the center of the mountain of corpses, the demon king had a separate room, which was carried on the back of thousands of burly and tall demons, and composed of flat floor, walls, and a roof. On all walls, there were poem carvings that sang praises to the demon king.
With his knowledge of demon race's written language, Wang Lu saw that this demon king had established good meritorious achievements in just a few decades, and therefore enjoyed high prestige in the demon world, it could even achieve effective domination of the whole demon world, to such an extent that it could make hundreds of millions of demons follow its suggestion.
Meanwhile, there was also a portrait of the demon king on the wall. Vaguely, he could see that the demon king was of the same ethnicity as Lan, with red skin and fangs, and a long tail swaying behind it. It was just that, compared to Lan, this demon king seemed to have a slightly petite stature, and mediocre facial appearance. Only it's two hourglass-like eyes showed its difference.
Looking at the portrait, Wang Lu became a bit preoccupied. But soon he shook his head and no longer paid attention to it.
He mustn't stay inside the mountain of corpses for long, and even more unnecessary for him to be preoccupied with a dead demon king's portrait. The key issue was...
Wang Lu took a few steps forward, reached out to grasp the lid of the demon king's coffin, and then forcefully opened it.
The coffin… was completely empty.idiom, from Analects