The Yun Clan Master looked up and said, “Since I’ve already ended up in your hands, you can do what you want with me, whether it's taking my life or torturing me. Why would I answer your questions for the sake of living?!”
The Wu Clan Master said with an apologetic smile, “Responding to the regent, the True Demon Emissary didn’t follow us here.”
The Rong Clan Master also had a fawning smile as he added, “That’s right, the True Demon is in the Yun clan ancestral land, doing who knows what. That Yun guy has always remained mysterious and refused to tell us.”
The Yun Clan Master was speechless.
You motherf*ckers!
Do you really not have a shred of integrity?!
You’re putting this old one in such an embarrassing position!
He had wanted to speak a few 'unyielding' words, and then with the help of his niece Yun Yuqing, he would be able to find a way to get out of this situation. They were all from the Yun clan, after all, and the regent had to care about his reputation, right?
But the Rong and Wu Clan Masters had both taken the initiative to speak up. What was he supposed to do now? This made it so his information lost all negotiation value! When he realized that, he finally began to panic.
“Oh?” Zu An gave the two clan masters a look. “Then has that True Demon Emissary activated your bloodlines too, and given you similar powers?”
The Azure Dragon projection the Yun Clan Master had manifested was quite strong. However, the Record of Emperor’s Suppression that Xie Daoyun had obtained was a bit too ridiculous.
On the other hand, the Azure Dragon projection gave Zu An a sense of familiarity. White Jing Teng’s skill was able to summon an Azure Dragon into battle too, but the power she could wield was greater.
The Wu and Rong Clan Masters reflexively wanted to say no, but when they saw that the Yun Clan Master was ready to expose them at a moment’s notice, they could only obediently reply, “The True Demon Emissary has indeed granted us this kind of power, but we’ve never used it before.”
“That’s right. I always felt that this power was a bit suspicious. We've never heard of a technique like this in our clan's several thousand years of history. Cultivation is always obtained through diligent training, yet now, one's strength can suddenly make incredible progress just because someone did something? We've always been a bit fearful that this might be some skill that uses one's lifespan as the cost and that we could be paying a price we don't know about, which is why we’ve never used it.”
When she heard what they said, Suolun Shi almost rolled her eyes.
That’s not what these two were saying before.
After all, she had previously left the city in secret to seek them out, thinking she could persuade them. She figured they were smart as well and understood the dangers of letting the Suolun clan fall. However, when the two of them heard that she had arrived, they'd appeared to receive her happily, but then immediately sold her out without any hesitation. The look on their faces when they spoke to that True Demon Emissary or whatever had been incredibly loyal and devoted!
Of course, she wouldn’t deliberately expose the two of them over this and drive them to desperation. Even though big brother Zu wasn’t scared of them, that would definitely cause unnecessary trouble.
But the Yun Clan Master definitely didn’t have such misgivings. He immediately cursed them furiously, “You damned opportunists! When the True Demon Emissary enlightened the two of you, weren’t you moved to tears? And yet now, you’re saying something like this? The Demon Deity and True Demon Emissary won’t let the two of you off! Your souls will never be able to transcend!”
The two clan masters’ expressions changed a bit when they heard him curse them. They were clearly scared of that kind of situation too.
“I wouldn’t worry about others being unable to transcend. Worry about yourself first.” Zu An gave the Yun Clan Master a look before continuing, “What is this True Demon Emissary anyway? Describe him to me a bit.”
While the Yun Clan Master hesitated, the other two clan masters immediately strived to be the first to explain. “The True Demon Emissary appeared in the Demon Race a few months ago. He looks like an elegant, handsome young master.
“Of course, he's only a little handsome. He isn’t even worth mentioning before the regent’s handsomeness.”
Zu An was speechless. He snapped, “Tell me the important traits!”
“Yes, yes, of course.” The Rong Clan Master searched his memories and replied, “When he first came to us, he just seemed like an ordinary pretty boy, and no one treated him as a big deal. However, once he enlightened some ordinary Demon race people and made them as strong as the most powerful elders of the clans, we could no longer stay away.”
“We all treated him with great gifts, but he was in the Yun clan’s territory, so the Yun clan benefited first.”
The Wu Clan Master immediately retorted, “What benefit? That was clearly the Yun clan’s misfortune!”
“That’s right, that’s right. It now seems that the other clans, such as ours, are the ones who were blessed,” the Rong Clan Master immediately said.
The Yun Clan Master was speechless.
“Later, under the Yun clan’s influence, everyone accepted the idea that he was the True Demon Emissary and came to our world in place of the Demon Deity. Something really was wrong with us before, and we blindly trusted his words. We thought we could go to his True Demon World and receive the Demon Deity’s true inheritance, and thus receive a true transcendent rebirth,” the Wu Clan Master continued.
“I heard that he wanted a lot of cultivation resources from you?” Zu An sneered. “If he really is that amazing, why would he need your cultivation resources?”
“At first, we thought he was fake as well, but his ability to activate the Demon race’s bloodline couldn't be faked. Furthermore, according to what he was saying, the cultivation resources we gave him represented the degree of faith we had toward the Demon Deity. Even though cultivation resources are extremely precious to us, our clans have accumulated for thousands of years and were able to afford this price. That’s why we decided to give it a try,” the Rong Clan Master replied, “Later, he exchanged gifts for favors. Many people in our clans were enlightened, so everyone was happy. We became more and more enthusiastic in our gifts.”
“But it’s one thing if he just wanted some cultivation resources; the other things he asked for were a bit strange,” the Wu Clan Master suddenly said.
“What was it?” Even Yun Yuqing was a bit curious now.
“He wanted a lot of meat and living creatures. It was as if he'd been starved for several lifetimes. We were wondering if it was because he hadn’t tried these things in his world and liked them a lot,” the Wu Clan Master said with a chuckle.
Zu An frowned slightly. This request was indeed strange. He wasn’t really able to figure out why, though, so his attention returned to more pressing matters. “Then apart from the cultivation resources, why did he want the Four Symbols Stones from your clans?”
“We don’t know about that. We can only ask him, because he was the one who told us all these things.” The two clan masters looked at the Yun Clan Master.
At first, the Yun Clan Master wanted to remain stubborn. But when he saw Zu An look down on him like a divine being, he suddenly trembled all over. That lowly niece of his hadn't spoken up for him at all. The Wu and Rong Clan Masters were two opportunists too, so if he still didn’t provide any value, perhaps he really wouldn't be able to see tomorrow.
As such, he could only reply, “The True Demon Emissary didn’t tell me exactly what they were for, but because he's staying in the Yun clan's territory, I deduced from the materials and intelligence I gathered that he should be constructing some kind of transport formation. That formation is more mysterious than anything I’ve seen and seems to be connected to another world. The most important parts of the formation core are the Four Symbols Stones.”
Zu An was surprised. He hadn’t expected the man to be so cooperative. But this was a good thing, of course.
The True Demon Emissary’s transport formation was a potential danger. He had turned on the world barrier to stop the outside monsters from coming in, but if there was something wrong inside the world and a special transport formation was built, it could potentially still open a pathway to the monsters' world.
“Lead the way! We’re heading to the Yun clan immediately to take a look!” He needed to personally see this transport formation for himself.
…
On the flying ship, Jiang Luofu walked up to Xie Daoyun’s side. “Daoyun, what’s wrong? Why are you so beside yourself?”
Xie Daoyun rubbed her temples and forced a smile. “It’s nothing. It might be the talisman being a bit taxing on my body.”
When she heard the words Four Symbols Stones, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity. But there was no reason for her to have heard of them before!