Confirming it was horse meat was only possible because the skin was still visible.
To bloodthirsty creatures like demons, they almost never processed their meat.
Over time, some of it had started to smell strange.
Luo Li could only pick out a few decent pieces and threw the rest away.
Then she roasted them over the fire.
Aside from this, she couldn't find any other good way.
"Are you hungry?"
She glanced at Mochizuki Shingen. The little guy had hardly spoken a word from beginning to end.
She didn't know if he truly didn't want to talk or if he was thinking a lot but just wouldn't say it out loud.
Luo Li didn't want to know about his character.
In any case, once they returned to the continent, she would just hand him over to a refugee camp.
As for him identifying her later?
Yeah, right.
Based on such a little brat, trying to point out a dignified Saintess as a demon?
Not to mention whether anyone would believe it. Even if the Pope came, he wouldn't find a single flaw.
No other Saintess possessed the Holy-Demon Conversion skill, and no similar skill had ever existed on the entire continent.
So no one would believe him.
Moreover, demons were more attuned to dark elements, whereas in her Saintess state, she radiated light elements from head to toe.
These two elements were completely incompatible—even antagonistic—and to a certain extent, they could not coexist harmoniously.
Therefore, let alone a small child, even if the Pope tried to identify her, he would only return empty-handed.
So Luo Li wasn't worried about the boy recognizing her.
If he recognized her, so be it. As long as she didn't admit it, what could anyone do to her?
"Yes."
She thought the boy wasn't going to respond after his long silence.
Luo Li didn't push it, but after a long wait, Mochizuki Shingen suddenly uttered a "Yes."
What kind of mental wiring was that?
Did his brain have to turn eighteen hundred corners before he could say that one word?
Otherwise, how could his reaction be so slow?
"It's not cooked yet, don't worry, wait a bit longer."
This piece of horse meat was a bit large, so she had no choice but to roast it for a while longer.
Luo Li looked up at the weather outside.
The violent wind and torrential rain seemed to have no effect on the ox-horse beast outside.
It was actually still happily eating the wild grass on the shore?
What a miraculous creature.
And this Demon Island was surrounded by cliffs, with almost no places for people to land.
The beaches were short, with the widest being no more than a hundred meters.
Beneath the cliffs, many caves had been eroded by the sea and wind.
These caves could provide short-term shelter from the rain, and many of them were quite deep.
Luo Li didn't plan to explore the interior.
After all, based on what she had learned before, the underground of the Demon Island should be the territory of the demons.
They lived underground, so they must have some form of animal husbandry.
Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to support such a massive population.
Besides, even savages have some degree of domestication ability.
If not, where would livestock come from?
According to Luo Li's understanding, if the demons wanted to survive long-term, they must have a stable supply of food.
Perhaps the demons had a huge farm in the underground world.
They would raise livestock to provide a minimum level of food for their daily lives.
She just didn't know how large the underground world of this Demon Island was.
If it was truly large enough to span the entire Demon Island, then there must be at least a million demons on this island.
As mentioned before, the demons' reproductive capacity was very strong, and the continent had always insisted on resisting them.
This had made an outstanding contribution to reducing the number of demons.
However... the demons had likely used other methods to obtain humans and other races.
As for what methods?
Couldn't one see that the slavery system was still deeply etched into every race on the continent?
It was very difficult to conduct a complete statistical count of the number of these slaves.
No one would care if a hundred thousand or even a million slaves died or were injured in a year.
Because of this, once the demons colluded with the nobles, they could transport these slaves from the continent through secret passages.
And these slaves would naturally become food for the demons or even breeding beds for reproduction.
This should be the reason why the demons have been kept outside the islands for a thousand years but still managed to flourish to this day.
Moreover, judging from the current situation, the continent she was on was called the West Continent by the demons.
Correspondingly, there must be an East Continent.
Furthermore, Imam had asked her before if she was from the outer islands.
This also indicated that the demons had forces in other places.
However, the East Continent probably hadn't been conquered yet.
Otherwise, with the demons' reproductive capacity, they could have gathered an army of billions or even tens of billions in a short time to launch an extermination strike against the West Continent.
In that case, it could be basically confirmed that there should be another continent to the east of this Demon Island.
She just didn't know how far away it was.
Luo Li lowered her head in thought. There were no records concerning the East or West Continents in the books of the human kingdoms.
Then... perhaps no one had ever crossed the ocean or walked between the two continents.
Or maybe someone had, but they had completely disappeared into the long river of history.
But she knew just by thinking about it.
The area of the West Continent alone exceeded hundreds of millions of square kilometers.
Such a vast area was only the West Continent.
If the world was truly that large, then how big must this ocean be?
It was very likely that the ocean separating the West Continent and the East Continent was even larger than the two continents combined.
From this perspective, it was normal that no one could cross the ocean.
Even if there were, it would only be a few scattered individuals.
Even if it was recorded, it would likely only be seen as a joke.
Even with the massive bodies of the dragon race, crossing such a vast ocean would not be an easy task.
But thinking about it, the dragon race must have similar records.
With the flight capability that the dragon race excelled at, some dragons must have been to the East Continent.
It seemed necessary to exchange information on this matter with the Dragon King after returning.
It would be best if she could learn some information about the East Continent from the dragon race.
As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."
Whether it was the demons or the other races of the East Continent, they should all be placed on the "hostile" list.
Only after confirming that the other party had no aggressive intentions toward her could they be crossed off the list.
As for the demons, they would likely stay on that list for their entire lives.
In any case, the demons were not a race that should exist in this world.
Thinking of this, Luo Li turned her head to look at Mochizuki Shingen beside her.
This boy's background was truly tragic enough.
But unfortunately, she couldn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy right now.
She couldn't even experience her original empathy.
This indicated that the demoness state didn't just affect her body, but also her consciousness to some extent.
She took the horse meat off the grill, used her finger to carve a few diamond-shaped openings, sprinkled some salt, and put it back on to continue roasting.
Listening to the wind and rain outside and the sound of the firewood burning right before her eyes, Luo Li was dazed for a moment.
She liked the rain, especially listening to and watching it.
However, this environment was truly unsuitable. Otherwise, she would really want to hold a quilt, lean against a window, feel the cool rainy wind on her face, and just stare blankly.
"It's almost ready, you can eat."
She took the roasted horse meat off and sliced it, processing the rest of the pieces she had picked out as well.
At least cooked meat could be kept for a few more days than raw meat.
But even so, in this kind of weather, it would go bad in two or three days.
"Mochizuki."
Eating the hot horse meat, Luo Li turned to look at Mochizuki Shingen.
The boy had a piece of meat in his mouth. Hearing Luo Li's voice, he couldn't help but look back.
"What is it?"
"If you could return to human society alive, what would you want to do most?"
"..."
Mochizuki Shingen's gaze, which was like he was looking at an idiot, made Luo Li exceptionally furious.
"If you look at me like that again, I guarantee you'll regret coming into this world!"
Mochizuki Shingen submissively withdrew his gaze, pondered for a moment, and let go of the horse meat in his mouth.
"If I can return alive... I want to set up a monument for my parents, and then, find a way to survive."
This was seemingly the most the boy had spoken since Luo Li met him.
It wasn't apparent, but the boy was quite filial.
"Is that so? Then I'm afraid you're in trouble. You're from the Kingdom of the Sun, and the Kingdom of the Sun is currently forbidden."
Mochizuki Shingen's brow tightened, and he turned his head to stare intently at Luo Li.
"How do you know?"
"Heh, how I know is none of your business. You only need to know that the four islands of the Kingdom of the Sun have been corrupted by demonic energy and are completely uninhabitable."
Mochizuki Shingen blinked and didn't speak again, simply closing his mouth and eating.
It was as if he was treating the horse meat in his hand like a demon, biting into it fiercely.
Seeing this, Luo Li stopped asking and continued eating her meat.
"Then I'll become a knight and take revenge!"
Become a knight just because he wanted revenge?
It was a decent choice.
But with the boy's current physique, becoming a knight truly wouldn't be easy.
Forget it, she wouldn't bother with him. They would continue their journey after eating.
After finishing the meal, she threw Mochizuki Shingen back onto the ox-horse beast. Luo Li drove the giant beast and continued slowly on their way back.
Hardly any demons could be seen along the way.
The ones they did see were mostly demons with little intelligence that Imam and the others called "wild dogs."
But even so, these demons were very respectful toward Luo Li.
It was just that when they looked at Mochizuki Shingen, their eyes were like they had seen long-lost food.
Of course, Luo Li wouldn't hold back against those who dared to offend.
She killed them as they came, one by one, or two by two.
Over ten days, the ox-horse beast could almost go without sleep, traveling continuously.
The torrential rain grew even more intense.
At its peak, the rain almost became a solid curtain, making it impossible for Luo Li to see the road ahead.
At those times, she had no choice but to stop the ox-horse beast.
She would either crawl into the carriage to hide from the rain for a while, or find a cave to stop and rest properly.
They traveled intermittently, and ten days passed, but the storm seemed endless, continuing to fall without pause.
The gale swept over the green grass on the ground.
The flexible little blades of grass were forced to bend their waists.
The ground was extremely muddy. With every step the giant ox-horse beast took, its heavy hooves sank deep into the mud.
In the end, it reached a point where moving forward was almost impossible.
"What's wrong?"
"The ox-horse beast's feet are stuck in the mud; it can't move~"
Luo Li shouted back. The wind and rain made it difficult for their voices to carry clearly, even though they were close by.
Mochizuki Shingen poked his head out to look at the ox-horse beast.
Then he turned back to Luo Li.
"The ox-horse beast's belly is touching the ground!"
"What?"
Luo Li grabbed her long hair. The gale prevented her from hearing clearly, so she shouted back a question.
Mochizuki Shingen didn't speak again, just pointed down.
Luo Li was stunned and looked down.
The belly of the cylinder-like giant ox-horse beast was now pressed tightly against the grass.
The thick fur on its belly had been dyed green by the grass, with traces of scarlet mixed in.
Clearly, because of the constant movement and the muddy ground, the beast's belly had been scraping against the ground.
Now, it was finally scraped raw, which was why the ox-horse beast wouldn't move.
This was likely the true reason it stopped.
It stopped because it was in pain.
And what concerned Luo Li most was that the blood flowing from the beast's abdomen was not black.
It was red.
This meant that this ox-horse beast had not been corrupted by demonic energy.
One must know that the ox-horse beast usually ate wild grass that had been corrupted by demonic energy.
Normal creatures could not eat that grass. If they did, they would be infected by demonic energy.
But the ox-horse beast before her was immune to the corruption.
Luo Li was certain she had never heard of a similar creature.
That meant this creature was likely not from the Demon Island or the West Continent.
It was likely a creature from the East Continent.
From this perspective, some creatures from the East Continent might have already developed a resistance to demonic energy.
Although she really wanted to know how this immunity was achieved, she didn't have time to study it now.
If this ox-horse beast kept going, it might end up with its belly sliced wide open.
Then she would have to kill it for meat.
Luo Li looked up at Mochizuki Shingen on top, and after a moment of hesitation, she leaped onto the beast's head. Without hesitation, she tied him up and even blindfolded him.
While Mochizuki Shingen struggled in confusion, Luo Li jumped off the carriage.
Holy-Demon Conversion!
"Healing~"
A holy light shone, and the ox-horse beast was restored to its original state.
Then she activated Holy-Demon Conversion again.
At that moment, the cry of an eagle suddenly came from the sky!
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