Chapter 129: The Origins of the Demon Race
The Demon Lord was silent for a moment, then said, "Yes, but do you know why we lost?"
This was indeed a difficult question to answer, especially given how quickly the Demon race had been routed.
Chen Changsheng said, "I thought about it for a long time. Finally, when I saw the tribal warriors outside Xuelao City, I remembered that matter you mentioned in your letter."
The Demon race had declined. Over a thousand years, they had been surpassed by the human race in every aspect. The main problem was their low birth rate.
It took too long for low-level demons to naturally evolve into high-level ones, and the high-level demons themselves had very low fertility. As time passed, the Demon race, despite controlling vast territories, found their numbers dwindling until they could barely assemble enough soldiers. Those tribal warriors were too intellectually deficient to face human armies in direct combat.
The Demon Lord pointed at him and said, "Yes. You should remember I told you the reason."
Chen Changsheng recalled a piece of history the Demon Lord had once mentioned in a letter.
The Demon Lord said it was the most truthful record of this world, something he only learned after ascending the throne.
He also said that only five people knew of it, including himself and the Great Scholar of the Demon race.
After that letter, Chen Changsheng became the sixth.
Chen Changsheng didn't understand why the Demon Lord had told him this, and naturally, he couldn't be certain of its truth.
According to the Demon Lord, countless years ago, the five continents of this world were not as isolated from each other as they were now. They could be freely traversed.
The race that ruled this world was the Divine Race, which was now the Demon race of the Central Continent.
As time passed, the world's structure gradually became unstable, undergoing many changes. The Divine Kingdom and the Abyss slowly drifted away from the main continent, eventually disappearing into the endless currents of time, leaving behind only a few extremely dangerous passageways. The abyss behind the Demon Lord at that moment was one of them.
The disappearance of the Divine Kingdom and the Abyss brought many terrifying changes. The vitality of the main continent gradually drained away, becoming increasingly desolate. The ruling Divine Race and other intelligent life forms were forced to migrate. The main continent eventually became a wasteland, known as the Forsaken Land.
The Divine Race went to the Holy Light Continent, continuing their civilization, but they discovered that the seeds of their civilization's flame had been lost on another continent.
Those seeds of civilization's flame were the Heavenly Book Stele, and that continent was the Central Continent.
The Divine Race sent an expeditionary force, passing through the Abyssal passageways that were still barely passable at the time, from the Holy Light Continent to the Central Continent, intending to reclaim these seeds of civilization's flame. No one expected that, over the long ages, the native races of the Central Continent had awakened through those seeds and began to fight against the Divine Race's expeditionary force.
Those native races were the humans and the demons.
That expeditionary force was, naturally, the current Demon race.
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...
"So, even today, this war has never truly ended."
The people who heard this story were deeply moved. The wrinkles on Old Master Tang's face deepened, while General He Ming pondered the meaning of war.
"The war between our two sides now has nothing to do with that ancient war."
The Demon Lord shook his head and said, "At the height of the conflict between both sides, the Abyss continued to drift away, and the continents became completely isolated. Whether it was the abyss behind me or the peak in the Cloud Tomb, it became very difficult to return to the Holy Light Continent. So the expeditionary force's commander made an extremely difficult decision."
"That commander was my ancestor, the first Demon Lord." The Demon Lord added this clarification, then continued, "He ended that war, reached a temporary truce with the humans and demons, and burned everything related to the Holy Light Continent. Then he began building his own city on this continent—his home."
Xu Yourong was holding the little Daoist. She hadn't spoken since the Demon Lord appeared, but now she suddenly said, "A wise and timely decision."
The Demon Lord looked at her with a faint smile and said, "Indeed. My race thus settled down on the Central Continent. Subsequent generations of Demon Lords and those great scholars continued my ancestor's practices, using strict laws to successfully erase all memories related to the Holy Light Continent, turning this place into our homeland."
Old Master Tang sighed with emotion, "Time has great power."
The Demon Lord said, "Unfortunately, a serious problem eventually emerged. Those Demon Lords and scholars discovered that, in an environment lacking Holy Light, my race's fertility declined severely. By the time of the Great Scholar Tongusi, he had determined this was an irreversible degeneration."
The topic returned to the initial focus: why the Demon race had lost this war.
The Demon Lord had vaguely mentioned this matter in his letter. Chen Changsheng didn't understand why he had brought it up, nor did he understand another aspect.
General He Ming, Xiao Zhang, and the others also didn't understand.
A decline in fertility leading to degeneration would inevitably threaten the race's extinction. Faced with such a situation, what the Demon race should have done was find a way to reopen the passage and return to the Holy Light Continent. Why had none of the past Demon Lords or the Great Scholar Tongusi ever considered this?
Chen Changsheng asked, "What is it about the Holy Light Continent that fills you with such fear? You'd rather watch the Demon race wither away than return?"
"Gods."
The Demon Lord stared into Chen Changsheng's eyes and said, "If the passage between here and the Holy Light Continent were reopened, we would all become servants of the gods."
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...
At first, people were shocked to find that Chen Changsheng and the Demon Lord seemed familiar with each other. Old Master Tang's gaze grew somewhat deep.
No one believed Chen Changsheng would collude with the Demon race, but it still felt strange, or rather, eerie.
However, people were soon captivated by the conversation between Chen Changsheng and the Demon Lord.
A shocking ancient legend, the hidden historical truth behind the veil—so the Demon race was originally an expeditionary force from the Holy Light Continent!
But what were gods? Were they the singular, definite objective will that only ignorant women and children believed in?
The Central Continent had no gods. The State Religion believed in the Great Path, not a tangible objective existence.
The gods people spoke of were merely fictional figures in legends or projections of pure spirit.
The Divine Kingdom was above the sea of stars, the destination of all souls—a mere symbol.
But did gods truly exist on the Holy Light Continent?
After hearing the Demon Lord's words, people were silent for a long time. Even Xiao Zhang didn't speak.
"Isn't there no Divine Kingdom anymore?"
No one expected that the one to break the silence would be the little Daoist.
He was lying in Xu Yourong's arms, holding her neck, staring at the Demon Lord with bright, curious eyes.
At some point, he had shaken off his fear and sadness, listening to the story very attentively.
The Demon Lord didn't answer this question, because he had no answer either.
The descriptions of the gods, and what was indescribable, were texts he could only read after ascending the throne.
His silence showed what kind of impact those texts had once had on his spiritual world.
Xiao Zhang finally couldn't hold back and asked, "Are the gods really that powerful?"
"The two battle angels that descended on White Emperor City ten years ago were merely servants of the gods."
The Demon Lord was silent for a moment, then said, "We once were, too."
The "we" in this sentence referred to the royal clan of Xuelao City.
Xiao Zhang was stunned for a moment, then said, "That's pretty tragic."
The humans and demons who obtained the Heavenly Book Mound and the seeds of flame were called fire-stealers by the Holy Light Continent.
The first Demon Lord was called the Fallen Angel.
Back on the Holy Light Continent, he had originally been an angel, even the leader of the angel legion.
The so-called "fall" was because he had been tempted by a devil and refused to return to the embrace of the gods.
The name of that devil was Freedom.
No one wanted to be a servant, not even a servant of the gods.
That was why the first Demon Lord had resolutely stayed here.
That was why none of the past Demon Lords or the Great Scholar Tongusi had ever wanted to return to the Holy Light Continent.
"I can understand that feeling."
Chen Changsheng said, "After shaking off the shadow of death, I felt like the whole world had become lighter."
The Demon Lord said, "Compared to death, that is a more essential freedom."
Chen Changsheng said, "Compared to the answer, why this question is raised is more important."
This history had been drawn out by the Demon Lord's question.
—Why did the Demon race lose to the human race?
What was the Demon Lord's intention in raising this question?
"I haven't finished yet. There's another important reason for my race's defeat... and that is that the Military Advisor wanted us to lose."
The Demon Lord's face grew somewhat pale, but his lips became even redder, as if freshly painted with rouge.
"All the arrangements in this war were personally made by him. And then he wanted us to lose. How could we not lose?"
Several exclamations rang out in the Demon Palace.
The Black Robe was the Demon race's Military Advisor, wielding immense power. Most importantly, the Demon race's strategy, even their specific tactics, were all arranged by him.
If what the Demon Lord said was true, and the Black Robe wanted the Demon race to lose, then there was indeed no way for the Demon race not to lose.
The question was, why would the Black Robe do this?
No one believed in a story of sudden repentance or tearful redemption. There must be some hidden reason behind it.