Chapter 574: The Spy
Lu Li inquired, "Fu Rilu, the wise one among the demons, how will you lure out that young man surnamed Qin?"
Fu Rilu smiled faintly, leisurely saying, "Lu Li, one of the four great commanders of the Nether Capital, how will you help me annex the Grand Imperial Heaven?"
Lu Li looked toward the demons' massive altars, where a Nether Capital demon god descended from one. Without a word, it grabbed a hundred or so demon cultivators and stuffed them into its mouth, startling the other demons into scattering in all directions.
Immediately, demon gods by the altar stepped forward to stop it. That Nether Capital demon god was an ancestor of the demons, knowing only slaughter with little intelligence. Several demon gods activated a huge cover, finally trapping this demon ancestor within.
The demon ancestor roared furiously inside the cover, wreaking havoc, but could not shatter it.
Those demon gods summoned many demon cultivators. A hundred or so demon laborers pulled a massive cart, placed the cover on it, and strained to drag it forward, while behind them, a thousand demon cultivators struggled to push the cart, transporting the cover and the demon ancestor inside to the front lines.
"Your demon army is too weak. The demon ancestor you summoned is hard to control and only knows how to devour."
Lu Li said calmly, "If you rely on them to destroy the Grand Imperial Heaven's army, I'm afraid you'll lose eight hundred to kill a thousand, a loss outweighing the gain. By the time you conquer the Grand Imperial Heaven, it will likely be smashed to pieces, no better than your Floating Heaven."
Fu Rilu's eyes flickered: "You should know that my goal is not the Grand Imperial Heaven."
"Your goal is the world where the Kaihuang Heavenly Court resides."
Lu Li said with a faint, knowing smile: "Fu Rilu, you want to use the Grand Imperial Heaven as a stepping stone, to blood-sacrifice it, connecting the Floating Heaven, the Grand Imperial Heaven, and the Kaihuang Heavenly Court, allowing your demons to descend into that world."
Fu Rilu smiled without speaking, then said, "Brother Dao is also a demon. Don't you wish for our demon race to grow stronger?"
Lu Li was silent for a moment, then shook her head: "Your ambition is too great, but your ability is insufficient. It will only bring disaster upon yourself. However, since I am also a demon, I will still help you. You cannot control the demon ancestor, but I can."
With a flick of her sleeve, the cover on the distant cart suddenly cracked open. The demon ancestor inside roared, leaped out, bellowed at the sky, pounded its chest in fury, and demonic energy surged straight into the heavens.
Fu Rilu's expression shifted slightly. The surrounding demon gods were also alarmed and hurried toward the demon ancestor.
But the demon ancestor suddenly soared into the air, flew toward Fu Rilu, landed heavily, and stood motionless beside Lu Li.
The demon gods arrived, but Fu Rilu raised his hand: "Stand down."
He looked at the demon ancestor. This ancient demon god had a green face and fangs, its body covered in extremely ancient patterns, as if carved into its skin.
Fu Rilu exhaled a turbid breath and asked, "Brother Dao, how many demon ancestors can you control?"
A smile appeared on Lu Li's beautiful face: "As many as you can summon, I can control."
Fu Rilu's three faces changed color. Lu Li could control these demon ancestors, and she could also make them attack the demons, even overthrow Fu Rilu's rule!
He had not wanted to involve the Heavenly Court, precisely to maintain his ruling position, fearing the demons would fall under the Heavenly Court's control. That was why he chose not to ask the Heavenly Court for help, but instead summoned the demon ancestors from the Nether Capital.
Now, it seemed he had been too naive.
The Heavenly Court had already controlled the demon ancestors of the Nether Capital, intending to use them to control all demons!
The moment he summoned Lu Li, the demons were no longer under his command!
"Now, can you tell me how you will capture that young man surnamed Qin?" Lu Li asked.
Fu Rilu steadied himself and said, "Capturing him is not difficult. When attacking cities and seizing territory, the key is to attack the heart. As long as one is human, they have weaknesses. There are not a few cultivators in the Grand Imperial Heaven who fear death and cling to life. Quite a few have defected to my demons, including even a deity. With just one command from me, someone will capture him and bring him to me."
Lu Li's eyes lit up: "You have a spy in the Grand Imperial Heaven, and a deity at that. Who is it?"
In Li City, Qin Mu stood atop the city gate tower, watching from afar as the Black Tiger God bounded like flying, bringing Long Qilin and Hu Ling'er back from the distant demon territory. With them came hundreds of cultivators from the Grand Imperial Heaven and Yancheng.
"Long Fatty seems to have lost some weight!"
Qin Mu's eyes brightened. During his absence, Long Qilin had actually slimmed down a bit. Though still pot-bellied, at least his belly no longer dragged on the ground.
Qin Mu felt greatly relieved. After a moment, the Black Tiger God arrived at the city wall. Catching sight of Qin Mu on the tower, he immediately leaped into the air with Long Qilin and Hu Ling'er, landed before Qin Mu, transformed into a youth, and laughed: "Junior brother, you're finally back! Long Fatty, spit out your dragon pearl and let my junior brother see!"
Long Qilin, seeing Qin Mu like a long-lost relative, was about to pounce and beg for elixirs, but upon hearing this, he obediently sat down and spat out a pearl. Clearly, he had been beaten quite a bit during this time and had become very well-behaved.
The pearl rose into the air, blazing with light and radiant colors, illuminating an area of dozens of miles!
Inside the pearl was a dragon-shaped pattern, constantly swimming within, carrying an exceptionally powerful aura of water energy!
Qin Mu exclaimed in admiration, but felt puzzled. Long Qilin's dragon pearl was smaller than any he had seen before, only the size of a finger, whereas the smallest dragon pearls he had seen were at least fist-sized.
"Isn't Long Fatty fire-attributed? Why is his dragon pearl water-attributed? And so small? Have all the elixirs I've been feeding him been wrong?"
Just as he thought this, Long Qilin spat out another pearl, like a blazing sun in the sky, radiating intense heat. Qin Mu even felt a stinging sensation from the light!
"Two dragon pearls! No, the other one is a qilin pearl!"
Qin Mu was astonished and immediately saw the difference. The second pearl was not a dragon pearl. Inside it was the pattern of a qilin-shaped mythical beast, standing on fiery clouds, its mouth open as if roaring.
This qilin pearl was enormous, the size of a bushel basket, about two feet across, containing incredibly powerful qilin fire!
The qilin fire was fierce and overwhelming. Seeing this qilin pearl, Qin Mu even wondered if Long Qilin had already reached the Life and Death realm.
"A dragon pearl is water-attributed, a qilin pearl is fire-attributed. Could Long Fatty have both water and fire attributes..."
Qin Mu's expression was dazed. He had only known that Long Qilin liked to eat fire-attributed elixirs, like Crimson Fire Elixirs and Fire Element Divine Essence Pills, but he never expected Long Qilin to have both water and fire attributes!
Moreover, one pearl was too large, the other too small, clearly due to picky eating!
The Black Tiger God puffed out his chest proudly and laughed: "Junior brother, Long Fatty ate too many elixirs, which accumulated in his body, making him fat. This lazy beast is incredibly lazy and has no cultivation technique, just relying on instinct to eat and cultivate, so the more he ate, the fatter he got. This time, I took him to the demons, had him fight with the demon whelps, and pushed his potential to the limit. Only then could he condense his energy into pearls, forming these two, and lose some weight. I'm returning Long Fatty to you. These past days, dragging them around, I haven't even had a chance to go find a demon god to kill for fun!"
Qin Mu was deeply grateful and smiled: "Thank you for your trouble, senior brother."
The Black Tiger God laughed: "I'm off! Don't stir up trouble these days. Stay put and wait for me to come back! Oh, and don't feed Long Fatty any more Crimson Fire Elixirs or Fire Element Divine Essence Pills. He still has elixir energy accumulated in his body. Once he refines it all, it should make his qilin pearl grow another three to five times in size!" With that, he leaped and vanished.
Seeing him leave, Long Qilin sobbed and choked up, unable to speak.
Qin Mu felt greatly comforted: "Long Fatty missed me. He cried from excitement."
Hu Ling'er hesitated for a moment, then said softly: "Young master, Long Fatty is hungry, and also traumatized by the Black Tiger God's training. These past days, the elixirs you left behind were eaten long ago, and he doesn't like anything else. The Black Tiger God kept making him fight demon experts without rest. Now that the Black Tiger God is gone, he finally cried out of grievance."
Long Qilin nodded repeatedly.
Qin Mu took out medicinal herbs to refine elixirs and smiled: "I knew you must be starving, so I bought a lot of medicinal herbs on my way back. My biggest gain this time was finding a cultivation technique for Long Fatty! But Long Fatty also has qilin bloodline, so the Primordial Dragon Grand Mystic Art might not fully unleash his potential."
He quickly refined a batch of elixirs and handed them to Long Qilin. These were Water Element Divine Essence Pills, the same kind he had given to Jiang Miao.
Long Qilin licked one pill, found the taste off, ate one with tears in his eyes, and stored the rest away.
Hu Ling'er asked curiously: "Long Fatty, why don't you eat them all?"
"Scared of going hungry. I want to save more. Besides, the taste is wrong. It's not Crimson Fire Elixir."
Long Qilin said cautiously: "Chief, can you refine a few dou of Crimson Fire Elixirs?"
Qin Mu ignored him and called for Jiang Miao, saying: "Junior brother Jiang Miao, you teach Long Fatty the Primordial Dragon Grand Mystic Art. I'll refine more Water Element Divine Essence Pills and share them with you."
Jiang Miao agreed and taught Long Qilin the Primordial Dragon Grand Mystic Art, explaining the difficult parts.
Long Qilin was not lacking in comprehension, just too lazy, but after being thoroughly disciplined by the Black Tiger God, he dared not slack off and quickly learned the basics.
Qin Mu refined several more batches of Water Element Divine Essence Pills and distributed them to Jiang Miao and Long Qilin.
"Chief Qin, you're back!"
Qin Yu's voice rang out as he sprinted up the tower, beaming as he approached the city gate tower, laughing: "Chief, you keep your word. I trust you'll return my little dragon..."
Jiang Miao's smile froze, and he looked helplessly at Qin Mu.
Qin Mu stepped forward to greet him, smiling: "Junior brother Qin Yu, I have great news for you. That little dragon of yours has learned a divine technique, incredibly powerful. In the future, he's sure to become a dragon king!"
Qin Yu was overjoyed and looked around, laughing: "Thank you, Chief! Where is my little treasure?"
"Junior brother Jiang Miao, come here. Junior brother Qin Yu is calling you."
Qin Mu waved. Jiang Miao braced himself and stepped forward. Hu Ling'er stared with her mouth open, watching this youth walk toward Qin Yu. She kicked Long Qilin with her short leg and asked: "Long Fatty, got any melon seeds?"
Long Qilin shook his head.
Qin Yu looked bewildered at the approaching youth. This young man bore some resemblance to him, even more handsome, and though a bit shy, he carried an air of distinction and was clearly quite strong.
"Chief Qin..."
Qin Yu turned to look at Qin Mu, his eyes filled with shock, fear, helplessness, confusion, and utter bewilderment.
"Jiang Miao is your little dragon, now transformed into human form. He is the son of the Surge River Dragon King. Now that he cultivates the Primordial Dragon Grand Mystic Art, becoming a dragon god or dragon king is well within reach."
Qin Mu took out a few incense sticks and stuck them into the city wall, speaking kindly: "Now I return him to you. You two can take your time getting to know each other."
He was about to leave when Qin Yu grabbed his sleeve, looking lost and helpless: "Chief Qin, I lent you a dragon. Give me back..."
Jiang Miao also grabbed his other sleeve. Qin Mu had no choice but to say: "Let me decide. I'll have you two become sworn brothers. What do you think? Junior brother Qin Yu, how old are you?"
Qin Yu nodded dazedly: "I'm seventeen..."
Qin Mu looked at Jiang Miao, who calculated and said: "I'm twenty thousand and eighty-seven years old."
"Perfect, not much difference!"
Qin Mu clapped his hands and laughed: "From now on, Jiang Miao will be your sworn elder brother, and you will be Jiang Miao's sworn younger brother. Sworn brothers, that way it won't be so awkward! Come, kowtow and swear brotherhood." With that, he pushed them both to their knees.
Jiang Miao and Qin Yu looked dazed as he forced them to kowtow a few times.
Qin Mu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said quickly: "Congratulations to you both! Ling'er, Long Fatty, I'll take you to meet some dragon clan elders. Let's go—"
Hu Ling'er wanted to watch the drama, but Qin Mu picked her up and placed her on Long Qilin's back, forcibly dragging them away. Only Qin Yu and Jiang Miao were left in front of the city gate tower.
"Young master, I wanted to see how they get along!" Hu Ling'er said excitedly, looking back to see Qin Yu and Jiang Miao standing in silence, staring at each other.