Xu Chen and Qingyin finally escaped from Xizun Palace. On the way out, they ran into quite a few toads, but those toads were mainly attacking the palace itself. They chased Xu Chen and Qingyin for a bit, and when they couldn’t catch up, they just gave up.
For these low-level demons, Xu Chen and Qingyin couldn’t even be bothered to kill them, so they wouldn’t attract even more toads.
“Huff… huff… we finally… got out!” Xu Chen braced her hands on her knees, panting.
“Yeah… I endured humiliation and held on here for hundreds of years. At last, I’m free.” Qingyin’s neck was damp with fragrant sweat. She wiped her forehead, standing on the cliff edge and looking into the distance. But this was the underground world—stuffy and hot everywhere—so even on a cliff, it wasn’t much cooler.
“My whole body feels sticky and damp,” Qingyin complained.
“Let’s go see if there’s a demon village up ahead, somewhere we can take a bath,” Xu Chen said.
“No need to go through all that trouble. My demonic power can turn into frost or into water. Xu Chen, let’s find a hidden spot, take off our clothes, and we can wash right there,” Qingyin said with a smile.
“Eh???”
A short while later, Xu Chen stood guard in front of a huge boulder. Behind it came the sound of water splashing.
“Honestly, Qingyin, right now we’re both girls. Why’re we still being so shy?” Xu Chen asked.
“Hmph, your heart’s still that of a man, Xu Chen! How could I just let you look at me like that?”
When it was Xu Chen’s turn to bathe, Qingyin also stayed behind the rock and sent the water over it in a stream to wash Xu Chen.
After bathing, Xu Chen changed into a more neutral shirt and long pants. She still looked very much like a girl, but at least she was in men’s clothing now.
“Done!” Xu Chen said. “We didn’t have time to break the restriction on this ring with all the danger just now. It’s gone now, so let’s see what’s inside!”
In the previous battle, Xu Chen had used her mind power to sneak-attack Xizun at the end. But the strength of that mind power was limited by her realm. If the Golden Toad demon sovereign hadn’t gone all out to pierce Xizun’s defenses and muscles, Xu Chen’s mind power alone could never have driven that dagger deep enough to hurt him.
All the treasures of the Golden Toad demon sovereign had been looted by Xizun already, leaving only that life-refined dagger. But as for Xizun himself—he had way too many goodies.
Just the Magic Stones alone were in massive quantities—probably enough for Qingyin to cultivate all the way to peak demon lord.
There was very little divine jade, though. Xizun had no use for it, so altogether there were only twelve pieces. Xu Chen immediately sat down to comprehend them. Once she was done, the divine power inside the jades completely faded, turning them into dull, ordinary stones. With this, Xu Chen’s strength rose to the mid-late Heavenly General stage.
There was also a huge assortment of weapons, armor, gems, and medicines, and even a large amount of female-use aphrodisiac secret drugs, which made Qingyin blush hard.
“Xizun really was a depraved lecher. Thank goodness I escaped before falling into his hands,” Qingyin said anxiously.
“It’s just a shame there doesn’t seem to be anything that really suits you, Qingyin. These things are all worth a lot, though. We can sell them off later,” Xu Chen said.
“Mm.”
Xu Chen finished checking the entire spatial ring. Besides all kinds of treasures, there were 230,000 cubic units of Magic Stones—one cube was equal to a thousand stones. That was a real fortune.
“If there’s nothing that suits us, we’ll just buy what we need! Hah!”
The Golden Toad demon sovereign’s life-bound treasure, the Golden Toad Dagger, stayed on Xu Chen’s person. It was a perfect weapon for mind-power assassinations. Then Xu Chen casually picked out a high-grade demonic sword as her everyday weapon.
Inside the ring, there were also seven or eight flying artifacts.
One of them was a Black-Armor Qilin Carriage, a high-grade flying artifact with excellent speed and defense. Xu Chen used her mind power to refine it with ease.
“Qingyin! We’ve got a ride now!”
“Hehe, that’s great!”
Apart from what she needed, Xu Chen tossed all the other treasures and even the whole spatial ring to Qingyin. “Qingyin, you keep this.”
“Eh? You’re giving it all to me?”
“Heh, this is the property of our mercenary group. Once we find Sister Star Dance, she’ll manage it. For now, you hang onto it,” Xu Chen said.
“Okay.”
Xu Chen and Qingyin got into the Black Qilin Carriage and piloted it toward the Star Moon Cave of the Fire Tree Kingdom.
It was a three-day journey.
On the very first day in the air—
“Xu Chen, look. There’s something outside the window that seems to be following us,” Qingyin said as she peered out.
Xu Chen noticed it too. They weren’t good at aerial combat, so they brought the Qilin Carriage down on a mountaintop and got out.
“Which heroes might you be, following us all this way?” Xu Chen asked directly.
From the sky, two crow-people with black wings, wearing something like crow tengu armor, flew down. They were both at the Ren Yao level, no threat at all to Xu Chen and Qingyin.
“Fairy sisters, pardon the disturbance. We’re crow tengu from the Demonic Capital, and we’re currently traveling the Demon Realm to invite experts to visit our city,” one of the crow tengu said.
“Demonic Capital?” Xu Chen and Qingyin both froze.
“Hehe, it’s normal for fairy sisters to react like that. Our Demonic Capital was only established in the last few hundred years, in the central core of the first layer of the Demon Realm. Though it’s new, its scale is enormous. It’s no exaggeration to say the Demonic Capital is the biggest, most prosperous city-that-never-sleeps in the whole Demon Realm! It’s filled with rare treasures, and the entertainment and leisure facilities are incredibly luxurious. It can meet needs at every level.
“There’s a market stretching for a hundred thousand li, and treasure towers a million zhang high. Every major faction has set up branches and embassies there. There are already over a million experts at demon king level and above living in the city, and the ordinary residents are beyond counting.
“More importantly, the Demonic Capital is guarded by the Capital Guard, an exceptionally powerful, transcendent army. Killing is forbidden within the city, so it’s extremely safe. Inside there’s also a transmission network that connects directly to the second through fifteenth layers of the abyss. Adventurers in the Demon Realm can travel back and forth between the Demonic Capital and the deep underground with ease—it makes exploring and delving far more convenient.
“Most of the experts in the central region have already moved to the Demonic Capital. As for this remote western region, almost everyone who hears about it wants to go take a look. The two fairy sisters look extraordinary at a glance—surely you won’t be content to linger in this desolate western backwater. I sincerely invite the two fairy sisters to honor our Demonic Capital with a visit. Whether you choose to settle there, you can decide after you’ve seen it for yourselves,” the crow tengu said.
“Demonic Capital?” Qingyin’s eyes lit up. Women always liked bustling cities that never sleep. “Xu Chen, news is cut off for us out here in the Demon Realm. We really need to see a big metropolis like that. We could gather a lot of intel for our next moves too.”
“Yeah, you’re right, Qingyin. The Demon Realm is enormous. Wandering around like this is like searching for a needle in the ocean. Going to the Demonic Capital sounds better than wandering aimlessly. But first, we need to go to the Fire Tree Kingdom and meet that Star Princess. Also, there’s a painting in the Fire Tree Kingdom’s Heavenly Music Pavilion that I care about,” Xu Chen said.
“If the fairy sisters have business, there’s no rush. I have here a Demonic Capital Token. Please take it. It records the location of the Demonic Capital, and it’s also a pass to enter the city. You can come after you’re done with your affairs,” the crow tengu said, handing over a black token with a red “Capital” character engraved on it.
“Alright, thanks. We’ll definitely go take a look when we have time,” Qingyin said with a smile, taking the token.
“In that case, we won’t dare disturb the fairy sisters any longer. My junior brother and I will go look for other experts in the western Demon Realm and distribute more tokens. Fairy sisters, farewell.” The two crow tengu bowed respectfully, then flew off.
“Looks like this Demonic Capital is anything but ordinary. Even the envoys they send are this disciplined. They didn’t even let their eyes wander on us. For demons and monsters, that’s really something,” Qingyin said with a smile.
“Yeah. They’re clearly not targeting us specifically but spreading invitations widely. That makes the Demonic Capital sound even more unusual. After we meet the Star Princess and confirm the situation, let’s head there and take a look,” Xu Chen said.
“Mm.” Qingyin answered with a smile.
