Is This the Southern Region's Hospitality?

Thousand-Tangle sneered. "Such arrogance! What do you think you are, to even dare—"

"Thousand-Tangle."

Toad Saint interrupted her flatly.

He looked deeply at Chen Zhou. He wasn't angry; instead, the interest in his eyes deepened.

"You are quite humorous, Excellency."

"We will discuss this matter later."

Toad Saint didn't seem in a hurry to turn hostile. His gaze swept around the hall, finally landing on the few vacant seats.

"Since all the guests have arrived, let us begin."

"I invited you here today to discuss the future of the Southern Region of Gloomlight Province."

Thousand-Tangle was still unwilling to let it go. She had lost face in front of everyone, and the suppressed rage in her chest felt like it was burning her organs.

She stared venomously at Chen Zhou's group. She didn't dare provoke their leader for now—that skeleton was too eerie. As for Piao and the flower demon, Chen Zhou protected them closely; her previous attempt to snatch them with a vine had ended in a painful counter-attack from the death qi.

Her gaze drifted, eventually landing behind Chen Zhou.

There stood a dozen humans dressed in vine clothing, holding chipped daggers.

They were the human-livestock Chen Zhou had brought from Chaiwang City. Although they had been baptized by slaughter and their eyes held a fierce light, they still appeared as weak as ants in this gathering of great demons.

Thousand-Tangle's eyes lit up.

If the hard cases were too tough to bite, surely she wouldn't lose face again by picking on these pieces of human-livestock, right?

In the Southern Region, it was only natural for demons to eat humans. Human cultivators were even worse; to advance their cultivation or resist eerification, they killed their own kind more ruthlessly than demons ever could. This Bone Temple was so bloodthirsty, yet it insisted on wearing a human skin as a facade to attend the Great Demon Assembly. Hadn't they brought these humans along just to enjoy them?

Hypocritical bastards!

Although these humans looked filthy and covered in blood, their flesh was plump and their blood was rich. They were clearly high-grade stock that had been carefully reared.

Especially the leading young girl—the sound of her heart beating was so powerful, and that enticing sweet fragrance could be smelled from a distance.

Thousand-Tangle licked her crimson lips and let out a sinister giggle. She smoothed her disheveled long hair and put on a flirtatious face, throwing a wink at Chen Zhou. However, with half her face ruined, the sight was stomach-turning.

"Bone Temple Master, what happened just now was a misunderstanding."

"We're all just trying to make a living in the Southern Region. Fighting only ruins the harmony. Let's let bygones be bygones."

She pointed at the dozen humans behind Chen Zhou and said in a coy voice, "However, you are quite generous, Excellency. Knowing that I just suffered heavy losses and am feeling distressed, you specifically brought so many high-quality human-livestock to comfort me."

"How did you know that I love eating the hearts of young female humans the most?"

"Since you brought them as a gift, I shall accept them with gratitude."

As she spoke, she didn't even wait for Chen Zhou's permission. The vines behind her stirred again, reaching past Chen Zhou to coil around the humans.

"It's perfect. Since those useless trash of mine died just now, I happen to need a few hearts to replenish my essence blood."

"Bone Temple Master, you surely won't be so stingy, right?"

You want face, and I want face. You want to protect your maids, but what about these humans? You couldn't possibly protect even these lowliest of ingredients, could you?

As a sixth-stage eerification demon king, she didn't actually lack food. Even so-called human geniuses were nothing more than slightly chewy snacks in her eyes. Unless they reached the fifth-stage, they offered her little benefit. But fifth-stage humans were hard to find.

Her fixation on the humans behind Chen Zhou was purely to spite him. Since she couldn't beat him, she would act like a fly—even if she just buzzed around, she would annoy him to death.

The humans instinctively gripped their knives as the vines approached. Though afraid, they did not retreat, because their master had not given the order.

Chen Zhou looked at Thousand-Tangle's greedy face and chuckled.

"Give you an inch, and you take a mile."

"Since you love stripping skin and breaking bones so much, I shall fulfill your wish."

Death qi instantly enveloped Thousand-Tangle. Her already unsightly skin began to crack violently, turning into a pale, bone-like substance.

"Help... Help me!"

Thousand-Tangle completely panicked. She could feel that her fiendish core had been saturated by the death qi. Her status as a demon king was a joke before Chen Zhou. She hadn't expected this Bone Temple Master to be so protective, nor did she expect him to be so ruthless. He didn't care about decorum or face; his first move was meant to take her life.

In just three breaths, Thousand-Tangle had turned into a half-human, half-bone monster. Her breath was faint, and she looked to be on the verge of death.

Even Piao felt this demon was too stupid. Had she never learned anything? She had practically written the words 'seeking death' on her own forehead in glowing letters, as if afraid the master wouldn't see it.

Piao felt that Thousand-Tangle was even more irrational than the sand worms she had seen in Huangshawo that would ram themselves straight into rocks.

"Bone Temple Master, you go too far."

Toad Saint sighed. If he didn't act now, a demon king would die before the Southern Region Demon Alliance was even formed. That would be the real joke.

He opened his wide mouth and spat out an earthworm covered in corpse spots. The earthworm quickly followed Thousand-Tangle's decaying vines and burrowed into her body.

As the gu insect entered her, Thousand-Tangle let out a groan that was both painful and pleasurable. Tumors grew beneath her peeling skin, and fleshy buds danced like severed earthworms.

Thousand-Tangle's aura surged instantly. She directly broke through the shackles of the first transformation of eerification, ascending to the second transformation of eerification.

Thousand-Tangle panted heavily, touching her now hideous face in shock. The look she gave Chen Zhou held even more fear than venom.

Meanwhile, Chen Zhou, sitting like a conqueror on his bone throne, shifted his gaze to Thousand-Tangle's lower abdomen.

In that moment just now, he had sensed it clearly. That gu insect was definitely formed from death qi, originating from the same source as the Great Toad. After entering Thousand-Tangle's body, it could even reverse-assimilate his residual death qi.

Death qi that can assimilate death qi?

The Old Toad really does have some tricks up his sleeve.

Chen Zhou couldn't see through it yet. Logically, death qi could assimilate all things, and 'all things' could indeed include other death qi. So, is his level higher than mine? By how much?

"Thank you, Toad Saint, for saving my life..." Thousand-Tangle knelt weakly before the Toad Saint, trembling.

Toad Saint gave her a flat look. "Now that you have taken your seat, behave yourself."

Then he looked at Chen Zhou and said meaningfully, "Your death qi is quite pure, Excellency. It provided quite a feast for my little corpse gu."

This was a show of force. And a warning.

Hearing this, Chen Zhou didn't show any trepidation. Instead, his mouth curled into an exaggerated arc. He leaned back against the chair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.

"Heh, you are too kind, Toad Saint."

"These humans are my people. I didn't bring them here for you to eat."

"Quite the opposite."

Chen Zhou slowly sat upright, his gaze scanning the entire room before fixing on the Poison-Wing Eagle King, who had been playing dead.

"A guest is a guest. Why should a guest entertain the host?"

"On my way here, I heard an interesting piece of news."

"It said that every human pen in the Southern Region, regardless of age or gender, was swept clean by the Poison-Wing Eagle King."

"He didn't even spare newborn babies, saying it was to welcome me and to share a feast with the other demon kings at the assembly."

Chen Zhou paused here, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

"I thought I would find a Taotie feast today."

"But what do I see?"

"Having arrived at this Black Bone Hall, I haven't seen a single shadow of those humans."

"What is this laid out on the tables? Rotten meat?"

Chen Zhou pointed at the unpalatable demon beast blood food on the table, his face full of disgust.

"I wonder, where are the humans?"

"I surely didn't come all this way just for your Demon Alliance to brush me off with this garbage, did I?"

"Being so stingy... is this the Southern Region demon kings' hospitality?"

The Poison-Wing Eagle King, who had been acting as if in a trance, turned pale instantly.

With a 'shing,' he snapped his head up and glared at Chen Zhou, his eyes filled with shock and fury.

This bastard! Mentioning the one thing he shouldn't!

He had indeed pocketed those humans for himself, but he had hidden them well. How did this Bone Temple Master know? And he had blurted it out right in front of the Toad Saint!

Poison-Wing Eagle King instinctively looked at the Toad Saint on the main seat. The Toad Saint, who had been smiling, now had no smile left. His thousand eyes were staring at him gloomily.

"Poison-Wing."

Toad Saint's voice was soft, yet it made the Poison-Wing Eagle King feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

"Is what the guest said true?"

"Are those humans... with you?"