Chapter 85 Magical Beasts

On a slope not far from the encampment, Li Chou was practicing martial arts. Following the breakthrough of his demonic energy to the fourth stage, the Myriad Demons Art, subtle changes had occurred throughout his body. Familiar moves now showed vast improvements compared to the past; for example, a leap that once covered seven zhang and six fen could now reach nine zhang. He needed to practice diligently to ensure perfection in combat.

Such routines were repeated every single day when setting up camp. Through dozens of consecutive days of continuous practice, Li Chou had fully adapted to all his newly acquired enhancements.

Yinhu kept a silent vigil by Li Chou’s side, deep in meditation as he practiced his own demonic arts. Not far away from the two, Shiniu and Xiongshan were locked in sparring combat, their heavy greatsword and long spear intertwining like dancing dragons and snakes.

Li Chou finally stopped his iron staff. Two double-hours had passed since setting up camp, exactly enough time to repeat all his forms three times. Having achieved the purpose of warming up and drilling, he prepared to return to the camp for a meal, while Xiongshan and the demon Shiniu also ceased their sparring and gathered around him.

At that moment, Yinhu, who had been meditating all along, suddenly opened his eyes, stood up, and spoke, "Great King, once we finish gathering provisions, are we continuing westward?"

"Indeed. Only by heading west can we find a path to survival," Li Chou said as he walked. "Are you still brooding over Mount Mei?"

A glint flashed in Yinhu’s eyes. "No, I don't like it there. I just feel that with so many Hu monks dead in Mount Mei, heading west might invite disaster..."

Li Chou knew that Yinhu was not entirely being honest with himself. Although Lingshan was also in the Western Continent, the entire Western Continent was so vast that the majority of it remained under demon jurisdiction; how would the Hu monks dare to venture there? What Yinhu truly feared was the strength of the demons in the Western Continent. While low-ranking demons like Li Chou and his companions could be considered figures of some note on Mount Mei, they were virtually nothing in the Western Continent. Among the countless grotesque and powerful great demons, this tiny handful of yokels was nothing more than the lowest existence, where a single misstep would cost them their lives. This underlying dread grew increasingly intense the closer they got.

Li Chou halted his steps, looked at Yinhu, and then glanced at Shiniu and Xiongshan beside him. He sighed. "How would the Hu monks dare to come? The demons of the Western Continent are formidable, with numerous great demons gathered there. If the Hu monks come, they will only be walking to their deaths; why would they trouble the likes of us? I have already decided. Once we enter the Western Continent, we will find a secluded pocket to hide in, simultaneously cultivating and drilling our troops. Once we possess a powerful army, even if the Hu monks come, it will be a dead end for them."

"As for drilling troops... none of us know how," Xiongshan said somewhat awkwardly, with a hint of shame. "I don't mean to make the Great King laugh, but I’ve been trying to drill troops for a long time, yet I still can’t make the little ones obey orders."

"I have already given this matter some thought. You lot need only take orders and act accordingly," Li Chou had originally intended to reorganize this matter anyway, and since Yinhu brought it up today, he simply decided to inform them. "I will compile a military manual in the near future to teach all of you."

Upon hearing this, the three demons' eyes instantly burned with eagerness. Shiniu blurted out first, "The Great King actually understands military strategy?"

"Military strategy, could it be..." Li Chou suddenly realized that during the Great Zhou era, there was no such thing as written military treatises. Everything was passed down orally, from father to son, and the earliest Art of War would not appear until centuries later. Even the human race possessed no formalized doctrines, let alone the demons who had nowhere to learn such secrets—though his own knowledge was only half-understood, the principles remained universal. Compiling a military manual based on memories from later generations was by no means difficult for Li Chou.

Li Chou smiled faintly and nodded.

The three demons exchanged a look of ecstatic joy, the terror in their eyes completely vanishing, replaced by a searing fervor.

In truth, regarding the path ahead, Li Chou only had a rough outline rather than a master plan, and even this general strategy revolved solely around survival. At the very center of this strategy was the army.

Indeed, Li Chou intended to build an army—his very own formidable demonic armed force. To build an army, he needed territory to sustain it, provisions, weapons, equipment, and commanding officers... If he could successfully forge a powerful army boasting tens of thousands of foot soldier demons, supplemented by various mechanical beasts, and perhaps even those mechanical armors he had seen at Eagle-Sorrow Torrent, would he not stand a fighting chance against the great demons?

In times of chaos, the strong survive!

***

The sky was dim, the night deep. Heavy, dense banks of clouds hung low on the horizon, casting a snow-white moonlight across the earth that painted all things in the world in an icy, silver-cast sheen.

Across the vast and desolate wilderness, a rhythmic clanking sound gradually echoed. A human-like figure pressed forward relentlessly under the moonlight. His body was crudely bound with heavy bronze plates like a barbarian, dragging a massive longsword in his hand. The blade was marred by countless notches and battle scars, cutting deep trenches into the ground as he marched. This sound mingled with his footsteps, carrying far into the wild like a funeral bell.

The longsword was thick, colossal, and over a zhang in length, with the blade alone measuring over a foot wide. Intricate characters and symbols were engraved upon its surface, and the entire weapon was blanketed in greenish rust, save for the cutting edge which gleamed like a mirror. Without needing to swing it, the sheer weight of the sword alone caused the edge to sink deep, slicing through the earth as if cutting through rotten flesh.

The figure was haphazardly wrapped in bronze plates, leather armor, and chains, forming a bizarre and grotesque suit of armor. At present, it was stained a brilliant, dripping crimson, the longsword included. That fresh red liquid continued to drip as he walked, leaving a scattering of droplets that formed a faint, intermittent trail. If one were to follow that trail to the end of the line of sight, they would find a pile of mutilated corpses—men and horses alike—belonging to a patrol of dozens of Dragon-Rearing scouts.

The pools of blood and the dozens of corpses wailed softly in the wild wind...

***

A rugged trail appeared before Li Chou and his entourage, its surface covered in a thick layer of loose dust. An occasional gust of wind would sweep away a layer, only to bring in more from the air to slowly settle and reaccumulate.

Amidst the howling wind, a series of cracking, snapping sounds rang out. A skeleton was being nudged along the ground by the fierce wind, its stark white bones clicking against one another and scraping against the turf and dust below. Suddenly, a heavy foot kicked the skeleton, sending it flying off to the roadside and kicking up a cloud of dust.

At the end of the road, the village that the barbarians had spoken of had become a complete ruin. Judging by the time it had taken to decay, it had only been abandoned for a day or two. In the words of the three scouting fiends—

"These bones are still fresh and edible, certainly no more than three days old!"

A matter of three to five days was practically negligible for those surviving in the wilderness. Movement between barbarian villages was already rare, and with villages dozens of miles apart, it was entirely normal for them not to visit each other for months.

The white bones scattered across the village proved nothing. Neither Li Chou nor the minor demons following him possessed the skills of a coroner, and the demise of this barbarian village would likely remain a mystery.

However, this was not the purpose of Li Chou's visit.

After sweeping his gaze around, Li Chou nodded slightly, and the three scouting fiends immediately led the minor demons pouring into the village to begin scavenging. Yet after searching and rummaging for over an hour, the demons found not a shred of food. Similarly, the copper and iron objects that the barbarians loved to collect were nowhere to be found. The entire village looked as though it had been thoroughly sacked, leaving nothing of value behind.

"Great King, this was done by humans!"

Shiniu quickly ran over to Li Chou holding an object. It was a triangular arrowhead pried out of the wall of a dilapidated house. Such triangular arrowheads were uncommon in the Great Zhou army, but the only ones capable of manufacturing them were humans.

If his guess was correct, this village must have been plundered by the border garrison. Whether it was the Dragon-Rearing or Coiled-Snake armies, or the troops of various feudal lords, was hard to say. To Li Chou, it made no difference—whichever faction discovered them meant exposure, which would inevitably disrupt his grand plan of escape.

Soon, the entire troop was back on the road. Unlike before, Li Chou and Yinhu acted as vanguard scouts, setting off first, with the main column following two or three miles behind.

The column’s destination shifted westward. The appearance of human traces caused Li Chou to alter his plan, choosing to evade and planning to decide on hunting or turning back only after putting a wide berth between them and this area.

***

Hours later, the two of them were dozens of miles away from the barbarian village. The terrain heading north began to drop, and the temperature gradually decreased. Signs left by wild animals appeared frequently across the grassland, and upon careful inspection, Li Chou even discovered numerous traces of rodents. While these might not be worth hunting for barbarians, Li Chou led demons, so this posed no problem.

Suddenly, several hundred feet away, an intensely powerful aura emerged. As Li Chou twitched his sensitive ears, he caught a soft scratching sound—the rapid contact of claws against soil, signaling that a living creature was closing in fast.

In the wilderness, a multitude of wild beasts was hardly rare, but this aura far exceeded the level of ordinary wild beasts. Yet Li Chou acted as if he had noticed nothing, continuing to advance along the predetermined route, drawing closer and closer to this unknown entity. Just as it entered a hundred-foot radius of Li Chou and Yinhu, Yinhu suddenly twitched his nostrils and glanced at Li Chou.

He, too, had sensed the rapidly approaching creature.

The two continued walking one behind the other across the wilderness. Suddenly, the soil beside them burst apart violently, and a swift figure surged out from the flying sand and dust, pouncing toward Li Chou like an arrow.

Li Chou did not even budge. With a mere flick of his hand, he collided violently with the creature's claws with a sharp, crisp crack. He then seized the monster by the back of its neck and slammed it heavily into the ground.

Due to the difference in height, Yinhu hurriedly stepped forward to lend a hand, grabbing the dazed monster and lifting it up the way Li Chou had, presenting it before him.

This was a bizarre beast indeed. It resembled a chicken and was featherless, yet it was much larger than any fowl. A long ridge of sharp spikes ran down the back of its neck, its snout was exceptionally long, its mouth bristled with jagged fangs, and its claws were grossly oversized. It felt entirely out of place in this world, bearing no similarity to any known demon.

In short, it was a miniature killing machine. Though chicken-like in appearance, its habits were identical to those of a carnivorous predator. While still retaining the state of a wild beast, its combat prowess had already reached the level of a tier two or tier three minor demon.

With its neck gripped tightly in Yinhu’s hand, the beast's claws dug into its own flesh as it was nearly strangled to death. Even so, the fierce beast continued to roar and struggle, futilely attempting to attack the two. At a gesture from Li Chou, however, Yinhu began to gradually apply force with his hand.

A cracking sound emanated from the monster's neck as its bones began to fracture. The excruciating pain drove the beast even wilder, causing it to frantically and desperately twist its neck backward. From its wide-open jaws, grayish-white saliva continuously drooped onto the ground, emitting a pungent, sour stench.

The hand with which Yinhu gripped the monster suddenly expanded slightly, sprouting a thick layer of fine fur as it transformed into a half-human, half-clawed hand. The strength in his grip instantly doubled. With a sharp snap, the cervical vertebrae of the monster were entirely crushed into powder. The flailing claws and fangs immediately went limp and lifeless, and as Yinhu released his grip, the carcass dropped limply to the ground.