When there was still some distance to Great Chief Hei-Feng’s mansion, Li Lie whispered a few words to one of his followers.
The follower had a strange appearance, looking more like an insect demon than a typical demonic beast.
After listening to Li Lie’s instructions, the insect demon nodded and dove into the ground, disappearing into the soil.
Li Lie continued walking toward Hei-Feng’s mansion.
Inside the Great Chief’s mansion, Hei-Feng held the reply brought back by the letter crow, his face reflecting a mixture of disappointment and anger.
The letter was a response from Li Tianzheng, the Deputy Supervisor of the Demon-Slaying Bureau in Yecheng Prefecture.
Although Hei-Feng was a demon, he shared a certain level of history with Li Tianzheng.
Back when he had first become refined, he had been taken as a spirit beast by a human cultivator and was domesticated for many years.
That human cultivator later took on an apprentice, who was none other than this Li Tianzheng.
Thus, Hei-Feng and Li Tianzheng had known each other since they were young.
Li Tianzheng’s master was kind-hearted. Before his death, to prevent his spirit beasts from dying alongside him, he dissolved the master-servant contracts and set them all free.
Because of this, Hei-Feng separated from Li Tianzheng, left the human territories, and came to Erlong Mountain to live as a demon, eventually rising to the rank of Great Chief.
A few days ago, Hei-Feng suddenly learned that Li Tianzheng had reached the Golden Core Stage and had become the Deputy Supervisor of the Demon-Slaying Bureau in Yecheng Prefecture.
Hei-Feng hatched a plan and reestablished contact with his old friend.
He hoped to use their childhood connection to convince Li Tianzheng to help him eliminate Hei-Pi, allowing him to smoothly succeed him as the Demon King.
However, the high-level authorities of both the human and demon races had long since signed a Non-Aggression Treaty.
Li Tianzheng did not want to become the criminal who triggered a war between the two races, so he was actually unwilling to help.
Yet, it just so happened that a group of commoners from the villages around Yecheng Prefecture had recently been abducted by demons.
Li Tianzheng’s superiors ordered him to take action.
Demonic beasts enjoyed eating human flesh, while the blood, meat, bones, fur, and serpent cores of demonic beasts were excellent materials for humans.
Therefore, mutual abductions and minor skirmishes were common.
As long as neither side crossed the line, the higher-ups would turn a blind eye and ignore the details.
Upon receiving orders, Li Tianzheng led a team to Erlong Mountain to capture a group of demons as retaliation.
He also fought a battle against Hei-Pi, which served as both an explanation to his superiors and a favor to his old friend, Hei-Feng. After that, he returned home.
Seeing that Li Tianzheng had helped him, Hei-Feng assumed his old friend was a sentimental man.
Today, he sent another letter, asking Li Tianzheng to raid the mountain again to further exhaust Hei-Pi’s life force.
In the letter, he explained the situation on the mountain to Li Tianzheng, stating that the wild boar Hei-Pi was already a dying man, merely clinging to his last breaths.
If the Demon-Slaying Bureau raided a few more times, Demon King Hei-Pi would be unable to withstand the harassment and would surely perish. He would then be able to rise as the new Demon King.
Hei-Feng even promised that once he became the Demon King, he would regularly provide demon materials to Li Tianzheng.
He could provide transformed female demons for him to enslave and enjoy, and even grant Li Tianzheng credit for slaying demons to help him get promoted from Deputy Supervisor to Supervisor.
But Li Tianzheng used the Non-Aggression Treaty as an excuse.
He replied that if his actions caused the death of a Demon King, the demon high-ranking authorities would be enraged, and he could not bear that responsibility.
Therefore, he refused Hei-Feng, stating it was inappropriate for him to act.
Hei-Feng was deeply disappointed when he saw this reply.
Originally, if Li Tianzheng acted one or two more times, Hei-Pi would have exhausted his vitality and died.
He could then have smoothly condensed his demon pill, ascended to the rank of Demon King, and taken over the throne.
He hadn’t expected Li Tianzheng to be so cowardly and lacking in resolve!
Hei-Feng snorted coldly, crumpled the reply into a ball, and threw it hard onto the ground.
‘It seems I can only continue to wait.’
However, Hei-Feng was not in a panic.
He had already turned the Poison Lady to his side.
As long as she followed his plan in the Secret Realm of the Valley of Ecstasy and provoked Zong Biao into a frenzy, causing him to slaughter those young men and ruin the female yaojing, she could sabotage the Demon King’s Yin-Yang Harvesting ritual.
Without a source for his ritual, and unable to find new young virgins or assemble enough female demons to absorb yang energy in a short time, Hei-Pi would have no choice but to wait for death.
It would likely happen within the next few days.
Thinking of the stunned and desperate faces of Li Lie and Demon King Hei-Pi when they discovered the tragedy inside the Secret Realm, Hei-Feng couldn’t help but let out a sinister laugh.
Someone suddenly announced from outside the door, “Reporting to Great Chief, Second Leader Li Lie is here to visit.”
Hei-Feng was momentarily stunned.
‘What is that long-haired wild boar doing here?’
Although the two of them fought tooth and nail in private, they hadn’t publicly fallen out.
However, they rarely visited each other’s homes directly.
Hei-Feng found it bizarre.
He flicked his finger, and a ball of flame shot out, burning the crumpled letter on the ground into ashes.
With a wave of his palm, he scattered the ashes before saying, “Invite him to the main hall. I will be right there.”
The subordinate took the order and left.
Hei-Feng arrived at the main hall in the front courtyard.
Li Lie was sitting in the room, calmly holding a teacup and sipping tea.
Seeing him arrive, Li Lie stood up and cupped his fists. “The Great Chief has certainly been idle these past few days. It truly makes me envious.”
Hei-Feng returned the gesture. “The Second Leader is the person the Great King trusts most, always serving by his side with great diligence. I wonder what brings you here in the middle of such a busy schedule?”
Li Lie pretended not to hear the sarcasm in his words. He furrowed his brows and sighed. “The Great Chief knows that for the sake of the Great King’s health, I must arrange for his new Demon Consorts to enter the Boar Family’s Secret Realm every month to receive training so they can serve him better.”
“The previous entries into the Secret Realm were always smooth, and they would come out in less than two hours. Yet today, it has been a full day, and the Secret Realm has not yet opened. I have no idea what the situation is inside.”
“The Great King has questioned me several times, and I am at a total loss. I know the Great Chief is knowledgeable and experienced, so I have come to seek your guidance. I wonder if the Great Chief can help me think of a way to open the Secret Realm early so I can see what’s happening and report back to the Great King.”
Hei-Feng shook his head and laughed. “The Second Leader thinks too highly of me. That Secret Realm belongs to your Boar Family; who could know it better than you? You’ve come to the wrong person.”
The two of them engaged in idle chatter.
Meanwhile, in Hei-Feng’s bedroom, a small head poked out from a crack in the floor.
He grew slightly larger and noticed the burn marks on the floor. He leaned his head forward to sniff and found several specks of ash.
Then, he opened his mouth and sucked the scattered paper ashes from the floor into his mouth bit by bit. This process took nearly half a cup of tea’s worth of time.
Afterward, he shrank his body and crawled back through the crack he came from.
Li Lie chatted with Hei-Feng for a long time until he heard his subordinate cough a few times outside the door.
Knowing the Mole Cricket Demon had succeeded, he stood up and took his leave.
Hei-Feng politely escorted Li Lie to the door and watched him walk away.
Once Li Lie left Hei-Feng’s territory, the Mole Cricket Demon was waiting for him nearby.
Upon seeing him, the Mole Cricket Demon spat out all the ashes of the letter paper he had sucked into his mouth.
Li Lie took out a pearl and channeled his demon power into it.
The pearl emitted a blinding light that shone upon the pile of ashes.
The ashes began to turn white and expand, gradually restoring themselves into a fragmented, incomplete piece of paper.