How Can a Scholar's Business Be Called Stealing?

That vigorous aura of flesh and blood gathered together was simply more enticing than the finest human-livestock farm in Ten Thousand Miasma Valley!

"Gulp."

Baizu Demon Envoy swallowed hard.

His status in Ten Thousand Miasma Valley was not high; when had he ever seen such a sight? To him, this was the ultimate human pen. It was a gluttonous feast only found in dreams! Compared to this, those withered and scrawny humans in Lantao City weren't even fit to carry these people's shoes.

"Wonderful! As expected of a holy city, this is the treatment this envoy truly deserves!"

He had already made up his mind. He would go in and demand the master of the Bone Temple immediately offer up three hundred of the plumpest humans. No, five hundred! He would feast on them right there!

As a dignified messenger of the Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint and a fifth-stage great demon, wasn't it natural for him to enjoy a little blood food upon his arrival?

Baizu Demon Envoy cleared his throat, released his fifth-stage demon qi, and roared arrogantly, "Listen well!"

"I am the Baizu Demon Envoy, serving under the Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint of Ten Thousand Miasma Valley! By the decree of the Holy Sage, I bring an invitation to the Great Demon Assembly. I have come specifically to see your temple master!"

"Open the city gates at once, prepare ten thousand livestock as blood food, and welcome this envoy with all due ceremony!"

Upon the city wall, the squad on duty today was a group of paper people under Jian Huaishuang. The leader, a paper person captain who was once an elder of the Corpse Soul Sect, stared coldly at the centipede below.

'Fifth-stage demon.'

'Trespassing in the City of the Wrongfully Dead.'

'Insulting the God.'

The paper person elder led his disciples and jumped off the wall, launching a direct charge. "Execute him."

Baizu Demon Envoy felt the ground beneath him turn cold as the soil suddenly churned. Foul-smelling, rotting humanoid monsters crawled out from underground. They were corpse guards.

These corpse guards were originally zombies Chen Zhou had casually collected while clearing secret realms. Seeing that the Corpse Soul Sect was interested in the path of corpse refinement, he had simply tossed them over. The elders had studied them for a long time without success until a sudden flash of inspiration a few days ago allowed them to successfully refine these specialized city-defense corpse guards!

The Grand Elder had already tested them; these corpse guards possessed an incredibly potent and overbearing poison specifically designed to corrode the sanity of living beings. Even fifth-stage beings might not be able to withstand it.

"Roar!"

The corpse guards swarmed forward, completely ignoring Baizu Demon Envoy's protective demon qi. They latched onto his hundred pairs of limbs and bit down hard.

Baizu Demon Envoy was first enraged. What was the meaning of this? Even in war, one does not kill the messenger! He was the envoy of the Holy Sage, how did these little scraps of paper dare to do this! He was a fifth-stage great demon; how could he allow this swarm of ants to humiliate him!

"Bastards! You lowly blood food!"

Then, he was shocked. To his horror, he found that the poison from these corpse guards was extraordinarily aggressive. It actually penetrated his demon qi, corroded his carapace, and even numbed his mind.

Under the intense pain, the six wings on his back vibrated violently. Dark purple, poisonous demon qi transformed into a cloud, sweeping out in all directions. It instantly submerged all the corpse guards and the dozen or so paper person elders and disciples.

This was his natal divine ability. He was confident that even a great demon of the same stage would die or dissolve upon contact.

"Haha! You fools! Go down with your own poison..."

His laughter cut off abruptly. Because within the poisonous cloud, the paper person elder and the disciples had not dissolved; instead, they slowly raised their heads.

Pure white paper snow drifted down from the sky. Unbeknownst to him, the entire battlefield had been incorporated into the paper snow. Before Baizu Demon Envoy could react, an agony a hundred times more intense than the tearing bites of the corpse guards flooded his entire body.

He looked down in horror and saw the vast cloud of poison flowing back into his body at ten times the speed it had been released.

【Lie Sword Domain】

"No, this is impossible!"

"This is my poison... why... aaah!"

The poison returned to its source, backfiring upon him. Baizu Demon Envoy's internal organs were instantly riddled with holes by his own natal poison. His massive body crashed to the ground, twitching uncontrollably.

A single, snow-white piece of paper drifted down leisurely. It was light as if it had no weight, swirling in the air as it slowly floated toward Baizu Demon Envoy.

'?'

Baizu Demon Envoy was stunned. What did this mean? Humiliating him?

He endured the corrosive pain and hissed, "You are looking for death!"

He opened his huge maw, intending to release more poison. However, the moment he opened his mouth, the paper snow suddenly accelerated.

Swoosh—

A sound so faint it was almost imperceptible broke the air.

Baizu Demon Envoy's movements froze. The rage in his eyes was instantly replaced by shock. He looked down and saw that light piece of white paper slowly floating past his carapace. Had nothing happened?

No. Something had happened.

Baizu Demon Envoy suddenly felt his vision tilting. He saw his own massive and majestic body; he saw his hundred pairs of slightly twitching legs. He saw the smooth, severed cut of his neck, now separated from his body.

"How..."

His final thought was one of infinite absurdity. He, a dignified envoy at the peak of the fifth-stage, had been killed by a piece of paper...

Thud.

The massive head hit the ground and rolled a long distance. The huge body collapsed with a boom, kicking up clouds of dust.

After confirming the demon was dead, the paper person elder hopped and skipped around while giving orders. "Clean this up. Send the meat to the warehouse and the carapace to the artisan's room."

A group of paper people rushed forward joyfully, beginning to clean the battlefield with practiced skill.

"Oh? What is this?"

The elder found a dark green jade slip on the centipede's severed head. The jade slip had no restrictions. Upon scanning it with his divine sense, he immediately understood the information within. Since the matter was important, the elder immediately sent a disciple to take the jade slip back to Jian Huaishuang for a decision.

At the same time, at the Bone Altar, Chen Zhou was listening to Piao's report. After devouring a massive amount of copper poison, the Locust Mother's origin, and the divinity of 【gluttony】, Piao had completely finished her first transformation of eerification.

"Master," Piao knelt on one knee. "I have fully digested the Locust Mother's memories and comprehended a new ability from her origin."

"Speak," Chen Zhou said.

Piao explained calmly, "It is called the 【True Explanation of Myriad Devouring】."

"It is a form of... gluttonous learning."

Piao seemed to be organizing her words, trying her best to relay the complex information in her mind. "Through devouring, I can analyze, replicate, and temporarily store the target's... information."

"Information?" Chen Zhou raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Piao's dark gold vertical pupils lit up. "Both memories and abilities can be read. Once devoured, this information forms knowledge insect eggs within my body. When needed, I can hatch and use them."

"An interesting ability," Chen Zhou remarked.

Chen Zhou understood immediately. This was an ability that combined a one-time soul-searching technique with skill theft. Perhaps it was born from Piao's longing to learn how to be human, her obsession with learning, and the fusion of Ugly Hag's teachings. It was very powerful.

'How can a scholar's business be called stealing? This is borrowing!'

"What are the limitations?" he asked.

"There are," Piao admitted frankly. "The replicated abilities have a duration, depending on the target's stage and the depth of my analysis. Also, the number of knowledge insect eggs I can store is limited. At my current stage, I can only store two at a time."

"That's enough."

Chen Zhou was very satisfied. Just then, he sensed Jian Huaishuang's presence.

"Enter."

Jian Huaishuang's figure emerged from the shadows. He knelt on one knee and held up the dark green jade slip with both hands.

"God. A fifth-stage demon envoy trespassed at the city gate and has been executed. This object was recovered from his body."

Chen Zhou's gaze sharpened, and the jade slip flew automatically into his hand. He didn't check it immediately but looked at Jian Huaishuang first. "A fifth-stage demon envoy?"

"Yes. He claimed to serve under the Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint of Ten Thousand Miasma Valley," Jian Huaishuang answered calmly.

Chen Zhou's fingers brushed over the jade slip as his divine sense delved inside. A vast and chaotic stream of demon qi information flooded into his sea of consciousness.

【Great Demon Assembly】

【Notice to the Lord of the Bone Temple: The Great Demon Alliance of the Southern Region of Gloomlight Province will gather to discuss the future of Thousand Isles County. This Saint will await your presence at the Black Bone Hall in Ten Thousand Miasma Valley. —Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint】

The message was simple.

"Bone Temple?" Chen Zhou chuckled. "Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint?"

He instantly pieced together the sequence of events. With Sukhavati destroyed and Lantao City changing hands, such a major disturbance would not have gone unnoticed by the demons of Gloomlight Province.

"A test, and also a trap."

"Master, do you require your subordinate to..." A cold light flashed in Jian Huaishuang's eyes as he made a cutting motion.

"No," Chen Zhou raised a hand to stop him. "Go. Of course, we must go."

Chen Zhou stood up slowly. Instead of being angry, he was in an excellent mood. Why wouldn't he go? He was just worrying about where to find high-grade materials. His purifying world blood bodhi, which had just advanced to the 7th stage, was hungrily waiting. It needed a massive amount of blood—at least from the sixth-stage—to condense purifying world bodhi seeds.

Looking around, where else could he find more high-stage blood than at a Great Demon Assembly? He also needed more broken divinity and high-stage flesh materials. The development of the City of the Wrongfully Dead was on the fast track, and his own advancement required mountains of materials. Those fifth-stage, sixth-stage, and potentially existing seventh-stage great demons were, in his eyes, walking sacrifice material packs. They were essentially home delivery.

Finally, and most importantly, Chen Zhou glanced at his system panel.

【Offerings Cooldown: 8 days remaining】

It was as if someone had handed him a pillow just as he was falling asleep. Chen Zhou had already made his decision. Not only would he attend this trap of a banquet, but he would also do so with great fanfare.

He looked at Piao and gave a satisfied smile. "Piao, you've come at the perfect time."

He pointed at the jade slip. "A banquet for demons. I imagine there will be many things there you haven't tasted yet."

Piao's dark gold vertical pupils brightened slightly. Chen Zhou thought to himself that the True Explanation of Myriad Devouring was a perfect soul-searching technique. This way, there was no need for the trouble of extracting information. It really was useful.