Piao was standing quietly behind Chen Zhou, digesting the little snacks she had eaten on the road.
Hearing those words, she slowly lifted her head.
Her heterochromatic eyes, one black and one gold, stared at Thousand-Tangle without any emotion.
"I am not a demon."
Piao corrected her seriously.
Her voice was calm, devoid of anger, merely stating a fact.
"I am a human.
"I have a mother, and my mother is also a citizen of the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
"Therefore, I am not a mongrel."
Thousand-Tangle was momentarily stifled by Piao's calm demeanor, but her frustration soon turned into an enraged laugh.
"Human? Hahaha!
"I’ve never seen such a shameless fiend in my life, taking pride in rushing to call yourself human."
Thousand-Tangle turned her gaze toward Chen Zhou, her eyes surging with killing intent.
"Bone Temple Master, since your subordinate is so ignorant of the rules, I will teach her a lesson on your behalf.
"It’s time you learned who truly has the final say here in the Southern Region."
A crisp, explosive sound interrupted Thousand-Tangle’s tirade.
Slap—
Chen Zhou directly condensed death qi and delivered a heavy backhand to her face. Half of Thousand-Tangle’s face rapidly ossified, then shattered and fell away.
She let out a scream, clutching the half of her face in disbelief. The residual death qi even began to ossify the hand she used to cover her wound.
"You were saying? Who has the final say? I asked just now if you wanted to test me.
"Since you didn't speak, I took your silence as consent."
Chen Zhou looked at her with a faint, cold smile, a massive hand formed of death qi suspended in mid-air.
"You! You!"
Thousand-Tangle stammered for a long time, trying to bark a threat, but found her voice trembling uncontrollably.
She had never imagined Chen Zhou would dare to strike her directly in front of the Thousand-Eyed Toad Saint.
Even when beating a dog, one must look at its master. She had only been talking, thinking that with the Toad Saint backing her, this skeleton wouldn't actually dare to do anything to her.
Why was this man just like Ksitigarbha of Great Vows? Ready to fight at the drop of a hat—were all these Buddhist practitioners insane?
She was now in a difficult position and could only turn a pleading gaze toward the Toad Saint.
"Wait."
The Toad Saint, who had been acting as if he were dead, finally spoke.
"Since we are here for a gathering, it is better not to engage in killing. It harms the harmony."
The Toad Saint slowly opened one of his primary eyes, his gaze sweeping over Chen Zhou and Thousand-Tangle.
"Since Thousand-Tangle has an objection, why not let the subordinates spar instead?
"Let the combat be restrained, merely for entertainment."
The Toad Saint's words felt like a grand amnesty to Thousand-Tangle Fairy.
She feigned indignation, acting as if she wished she could personally tear Chen Zhou apart. After all, with many demons present, a demon king’s reputation had to be upheld.
"Since the Exalted Saint has spoken, then I shall play with you."
She clapped her hands.
"Come forth, my children."
As her words fell, five tall figures emerged from the shadows of the hall. They were plant demon cultivators covered in poisonous thorns and spores.
There were poisonous flowers, toxic grasses, and mushrooms, all of them at the fifth-stage early-phase.
They were personal guards carefully nurtured by Thousand-Tangle, confidants raised on the flesh and blood of countless human-livestock.
"Go and play well with these young human ladies."
Thousand-Tangle placed a heavy emphasis on the word "human," her eyes filled with mockery.
"Don't kill them yet. Just break their limbs and skin them. I want to see if they still dare to call themselves human without those skins."
The five plant demons let out eerie laughs, baring their claws as they closed in on Piao.
Piao patted her stomach.
She felt that the meat snacks she had just eaten were mostly digested. Looking at these "vegetable dishes" delivered to her door, her heterochromatic eyes brightened slightly.
Though she didn't particularly like vegetables, a change of pace once in a while wasn't bad.
Just as she was about to step forward, a skeletal palm blocked her path.
"You rest,"
Chen Zhou said flatly. "No need to use a heavy blade to kill a chicken."
He turned his head to look at the three flower demons who were shivering behind Piao.
These three small demons, though nourished by the General-Summoning Platform’s aura and promoted to the third-stage, were still terrified in an environment crawling with fifth-stage great demons. Their legs had long since turned to jelly.
"Ma... Master..."
One of the flower demons spoke with a sob in her voice, clutching the hem of her clothes tightly.
Facing these hideous, terrifying kin who radiated the pressure of the fifth-stage, they felt instinctive fear—the suppression of hierarchy.
Chen Zhou could clearly see that the old toad was trying to test his strength, but he did not refuse the proposal.
Piao was somewhat simple-minded; she wouldn't take Thousand-Tangle's words to heart, letting them go in one ear and out the other.
But the flower demons were simple and sensitive; cruel words could wound them. Dignity was not something to be trampled upon.
Some things could not be conceded; every inch of ground had to be contested. Even as an Evil God, he could neither bestow nor grant them dignity out of pity.
Chen Zhou looked at the flower demons. He didn't scold them, but asked a calm question.
"Do you want to level up?"
The three flower demons were stunned.
"Do you want to be like Piao? To no longer be called monsters, to no longer be trampled upon at will?"
Chen Zhou's voice was soft, yet it possessed a magical quality that pierced their hearts.
"Do you want to truly... be human?"
The three flower demons looked at each other.
They remembered the days of cultivating in the deep, old forests, terrified every day while practicing. They had never done anything to harm anyone.
However, vegetation essence, belonging to non-carnivorous plants, left them almost entirely without combat ability.
Combined with their low cultivation, no matter how they struggled, they were eventually rounded up like livestock by the Blackwater Guard and thrown into artifacts.
They remembered the days in the City of the Wrongfully Dead after being rescued by their Master.
Human children would call them sisters, Lord Lu Cheng would teach them how to prune their leaves, and Lady Hong Ling would praise the flower crowns they wove.
There, they had experienced a dignity and warmth they had never known before.
That was the life of a "human."
"We do!"
The flower demon in the middle bit her lip. Though she was still trembling, her gaze gradually became resolute.
"We want to become strong. We want to... protect Master! Protect the City of the Wrongfully Dead!"
"Very well."
Chen Zhou nodded.
He flipped his palm, revealing a handful of round, foul-smelling pills.
"Eat them."
The three flower demons knew what they were. They took the pills and swallowed them in one gulp.
The moment the pills entered their stomachs, pure flesh-and-blood energy exploded within them.
The assembled demons watched in horror as the auras of the three weak little flower demons, who were originally only at the third-stage, began to skyrocket madly!
In just a few breaths, three fifth-stage auras erupted from their small bodies. Because the promotion was so rapid, the surrounding air even produced visible ripples.
"How... how is this possible?!"
Thousand-Tangle Fairy was so shocked she stood up from her chair, snapping one of her nails in the process.
"What kind of pill has such divine efficacy? To jump across two major realms instantly?"
"Even if they ate an entire city of mortals, they wouldn't have such pure energy!"
"Forget one city; even if they ate all the human-livestock in the Southern Region, it wouldn't have this effect!"
The eyes of every great demon present changed.
Greed. Raw, naked greed.
They were all masters of consuming humans and were extremely sensitive to flesh-and-blood energy.
The massive life force contained within those pills was equivalent to a century of their own hard cultivation!
If they could obtain such pills...
The jealousy in Thousand-Tangle's eyes instantly turned into a feverish lust for power.
She calculated that giving such treasures to these little demons was a complete waste. She signaled to her five subordinates to kill the three wretches.
Blades have no eyes. Sparring was spar, and it was normal for a demon to accidentally die, wasn't it?
Such wonderful things were surely not fully absorbed by those little flower demons; she could still squeeze the energy out of their corpses later.
"Roar!"
The five plant demon cultivators were also seeing red. They roared and lunged forward.
Facing the aggressive enemies, the three newly promoted flower demons were still somewhat at a loss.
They possessed the power of the fifth-stage, but they didn't know how to use it.
"Don't be afraid."
Piao's voice sounded from behind them.
She took out her little notebook and flipped to a page concerning humans. The entire notebook was filled with knowledge her mother had taught her, but this specific page was about her father and brother who had long since died in Huangshawo.
Piao said calmly:
"Humans feel fear, but they do not retreat.
"Humans feel pain, but they do not give up.
"Humans protect what is behind them and know what they fight for."
Her gaze swept across the five hideous, lunging plants, her heterochromatic eyes devoid of any emotion.
"They are just strange-looking food. Do not be afraid.
"Use the power Master has bestowed upon you and eat them.
"It is very simple."
Piao’s words steadied the flower demons' hearts.
Yes, we are human!
Humans must know why they fight!
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