"Since you were wrong, you have to pay the consequences."
When the silver-robed, middle-aged man spoke up next, his voice was fully devoid of emotion. Because of this, his words scared the old man till his eyes fluttered and his expression changed greatly.
In the next instant...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
…
The old man continuously kowtowed, and blood flowed all over the floor. It was almost as if he did not know he was bleeding out! He did not appear to be stopping anytime soon, and he even continued to do so with greater speed.
"Hmph!"
The middle-aged man in the silver robes scoffed aloud. The old man, who was previously kowtowing on the floor, suddenly jerked violently, and he slumped over without a second opinion.
The instant he fell to the ground, the old man disappeared, and he was replaced by a large, greenish-grey fox.
This was not a normal fox as its body was much bigger than that of normal wolves. On the large fox's head, there was also a tuft of white hair, and this was said to be a scar left behind from its earlier days.
It was clear that this large fox was quite old.
With the death of the fox beast, the remaining on looking beasts all turned away, except for the giant ape beast. When they looked at the middle-aged man in silver robes, their eyes were filled with even more respect and awe.
"Human, you can go."
When the silver-robed, middle-aged man looked at Zhou Donghuang, it was with a cold expression. He used an even tone that did not reveal any emotion.
Faced with such an "invitation," Zhou Donghuang did not take any action immediately. He merely looked at the middle-aged man with a peaceful gaze and said, "Are you the king of this forest?"
"Yes, I am."
The silver-robed, middle-aged man was visibly frustrated now. "Human, although your skills are not bad, if you think you can do as you please here, you are wrong. Seeing as you are of a high martial arts status, I will let you pass this time."
"I came here to find you." Zhou Donghuang's face did not change. "Before I've settled the things I'm concerned with, I will not leave."
"Human, are you trying to provoke me?"
The middle-aged man was now enraged, and his robes started trembling and shaking. Previously, his eyes were normal and human-like. However, now, they had a touch of gold in them before eventually turning completely golden.
This time, Zhou Donghuang did not say much either. The White Tiger Primordial Soul Power appeared again, and it stared beadily at the silver-robed, middle-aged man.
Once the middle-aged man's face darkened, the beasts surrounding him who could turn into human forms all spread out, and they closely surrounded Zhou Donghuang. The looks that they all gave Zhou Donghuang were full of extreme fear.
As for the middle-aged man in silver robes, his face had on an extremely nasty expression.
A big battle was to ensue.
"What did you want to find me for?"
In the end, they did not fight physically.
The silver-robed, middle-aged man glanced at the breathless giant ape before looking at Zhou Donghuang's confident figure and stance. In the end, he did not take any action, and his eyes had on a look of fear as well.
Seeing this, the surrounding beasts that had entrapped Zhou Donghuang all breathed a sigh of relief.
If they had a choice, they were all unwilling to make the human youth before them an enemy. The beasts had a gut feeling that caused them to be extremely fearful of the human youth before them.
The feeling that this young man had given them was not because his Primordial Soul Power was unique. It was as if his inner body was hiding some other form of power that caused the on looking beasts to feel uneasy.
In truth, the silver-robed, middle-aged man, the Demon King of this entire forest, who was in human form, had figured this out as well.
"I would to ask you for a favor," Zhou Donghuang replied without beating around the bush.
"A favor?"
The middle-aged man furrowed his brows. "Your powers are not weak. If there's something you cannot settle, I'm sure I would not be able to take care of it either."
If he had known that this young man was weak, he would have had more confidence in killing him.
He had personally witnessed this human take action and injure the giant ape under him. The young man's Primordial Soul Power was extremely strong, even though it was only at the late Primordial Soul stage. The power the young man had unleashed was comparable to that of his own ultimate Primordial Stage Power, and it gave him a strong feeling of being trapped. His soul had felt suffocated.
Due to that incident, he had felt much fear towards this young man, and he was not confident in defeating him, even if he took action against the young man.
"I'm not asking for you to help in killing something." Zhou Donghuang shook his head.
"I came to find you because I would like you to use the beasts under you to help me find a small demon."
"A small demon?"
Upon hearing Zhou Donghuang's words, the middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief before following up with another question, "What kind of small demon are you looking for?"
"A dog."
As Zhou Donghuang spoke, he began to vividly describe the divine beast cub that he remembered from his past life. As long as he shared the specific characteristics of this divine beast cub, with the influence that this Demon King had among the demons of the forest, it would be easy to find it.
After describing the characteristics of this divine beast cub, Zhou Donghuang spoke again.
"If you help me with this favor, I will not be ungrateful. I will help you enter the Divine Transformation stage."
Zhou Donghuang's first sentence did not affect the Demon King much. However, after hearing the second sentence that Zhou Donghuang had uttered, the middle-aged man's eyes immediately narrowed, and his face had on an expression of shock. "What? Do you mean to say that you can help me enter the Divine Transformation stage?
"Are you speaking the truth?"
Normally, under typical circumstances, he would not believe such words of a young, human man.
However, the young man standing before him gave him a feeling of wisdom and importance. The Primordial Soul Power that the young man had trained was not only a Primordial Soul beast, but it could also affect and influence his own soul, causing it to feel trapped. That sort of feeling was comparable to when he stood before demons that were at a training stage much higher than his.
"If my assumption is right... You have crossed over to the ultimate Primordial Soul stage for many years, but you have been unable to cross the last obstacle to get to the next training stage."
Zhou Donghuang spoke once again, "This is all because there is an issue with the way you train."
"With your body type and well as the tribe you come from, normally, the strongest you can be is only an ultimate Primordial Soul adapt. Also, the oxygen flow in your body is complicated, it's not smooth. You probably used some human-based training methods and damaged your body in the process to try and enter the Divine Transformation stage... am I right?"
At the end of his speech, Zhou Donghuang looked deeply at the Demon King before him.
Although he had not used his Divine Will on the other party, the other party's volatile essential core and aura made his observations easy to infer.
Such situations were common for many demons that he had met in his past life, and they had all suffered from the same issues, just as what he had described.
Zhou Donghuang had a solution prepared for this.
As for the Demon King's face, even before Zhou Donghuang had finished speaking, it had already changed completely.
This was because the other party was right!
Furthermore, he was the only one aware of his own issues.
"Your Excellency, please help me!"
The silver-robed, middle-aged man begged Zhou Donghuang with a look of gratitude. Because of this, his body also trembled slightly. His voice shook as well as he used a tone of awe and respect.
One had to know that if he did not cross over to the Divine Transformation stage, after a few more decades, he would reach the end of his life.
Faced with this, he was extremely frustrated because he had not found a solution for it.
But this young man before him had given him hope again!
Zhou Donghuang glanced at the middle-aged man indifferently before saying, "I stand by what I say... As long as you activate the demons under you and help me find that little demon, I will immediately help you cross over to the Divine Transformation stage."
"Your Excellency, I'll give the order right away."
Now, in light of Zhou Donghuang being a potential life saver, the middle-aged man nodded wildly. Without any hesitation, he turned to look at the tens of demons before him. "All of you heard what Your Excellency just said, right? Immediately spread the message and hunt for this little demon!"
After the demons had acknowledged his order and left, the Demon King turned to glance at Zhou Donghuang again. "Your Excellency, do wait for a while... I will go give the order to my other followers as well."
The Demon King was in control of the entire forest.
Now, all the demons within the forest served him and were loyal to him.
Those who were unwilling to be led by him were killed long ago.
Not only the human world respected the strong. The demon world was similar, just as the universe and divine world were!
Not long later, the Demon King returned. "Your Excellency, my quarters can be said to be respectably clean. In the next few days, please use it as a rest stop!
"I can guarantee that as long as the little demon lives within my forest, within a maximum of three days, it can be found and brought to you."
Faced with the Demon King's courtesy, Zhou Donghuang was not surprised at all.
This was because he could tell that the Demon King's days were numbered.
Furthermore, it was only under such pressing circumstances that a demon would choose to switch to human-based training styles in hopes of crossing over to the next training stage... However, humans and demons were inherently different.
Human methods of training could be borrowed, but the number of demons who had successfully utilized them were few and far and in between.
Furthermore, for those demons, most were the most outstanding members of their tribe.
As long as they were able to develop themselves as they grew, they would become leaders.
The Demon King's living quarters were located at the center of the forest. There were four lakes there and a courtyard that looked like a human home. This courtyard was situated right in the middle of the four lakes, and the roads along this piece of land had many trees growing alongside them.
It could be inferred that the Demon King had good taste and had adapted a human version of decoration.
The Demon King gave up his quarters to Zhou Donghuang, and he personally set out to the corners of the forest to find the little demon that Zhou Donghuang was looking for.
Within an instant, all the demons in the forest who were intelligent enough were all activated, and the entire forest was put to work. Many little demons also started to run around because of this hunt.
…
Two days later:
The Demon King once again appeared before Zhou Donghuang.
"Your Excellency, we got lucky!"
At this very instant, a purely black dog the color of ink was sleeping soundly on the slender shoulders of the Demon King.
On top of this black dog's head, a small horn stuck out, and this gave him an oddly shaped head.
"It's him!"
Zhou Donghuang's attention was already on the single-horned little dog once the Demon King had appeared. Although it was smaller than he had remembered from his past life and his horn was smaller than before, Zhou Donghuang recognized it in an instant.
This was the divine beast cub that he had been looking for!