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Chapter 270 - 269: Intelligence Consolidation

Chen Xuan awoke from his dream, and Fu Jiaolu, who was guarding beside him, immediately stepped forward to report, "Immortal Master Lord, the heartbeat of the last demon has also stopped."

"Bury them in the Wanshan Wilderness," Chen Xuan ordered.

"Yes."

Hot Pepper Village, backing onto the wilderness, was well-suited for tasks like erasing traces. Even if other demons had strong tracking abilities, it would be impossible for them to find it here.

Lin Qing, lying beside him, slowly sat up, her face showing some fatigue. After all, interrogation was a physically demanding task. "I didn’t expect to gain so much on this trip."

Indeed, Chen Xuan thought. These three demons were not marginal characters. Through the information they revealed, he now had a complete understanding of the demon group from another world.

"Let’s go through the intelligence again," he said.

First is the relationship between the Dimensional Limit Mechanism and the demons.

The two had confirmed that they had indeed connected, and the person responsible for contacting the demons was Xiao Canong, the captain of the Jiang City branch.

Judging from Jiang Siqi’s previous reaction, she seemed completely unaware of this matter.

Honglian probably also had no idea.

It’s just that Xiao Canong selling the angel’s information to the demons happened a bit later, at least after the task force withdrew from the eroded world. This indicates that the other party quickly realized the change in history and then remembered Elorie.

Additionally, Vandeef confessed that they had received a document about the angels.

It contained Elorie’s photo and name.

According to the demons’ description, this document should be Elorie’s registration record within the mechanism, probably public, so it may not hold much weight as evidence.

After intercepting Elorie, they destroyed the angel’s personal belongings, including a data card, so the two indeed couldn’t directly obtain evidence of Xiao Canong selling out his team members.

But if they could let Honglian witness their captain attending a high-level meeting convened by demons, the effect would be essentially the same.

Next is the intelligence about the demon group and the Primordial Insect.

After the angels disappeared, the demons ushered in unprecedented development. Now, demons are present all over the world, numbering at least over two hundred, though how many exactly, Vandeef and others couldn’t say.

The reason is simple: the demons have not formed an organization like the Angel Alliance.

They all feed on human souls, so they are essentially competitors.

Even demons like Vandeef, Andor, and Moni are not purely allies. They each have their own "territorial range" and are always thinking about how to secure more land and benefits. It is only the sudden appearance of the angels this time that caused them to temporarily set aside their disputes and cooperate to intercept Elorie.

But this doesn’t mean every demon is equal.

They have no unified organization but have a fairly clear hierarchy.

For example, Vandeef holds the highest status among them, classified as a high-tier demon of Paris.

This status is precisely measured by financial power.

Vandeef is the actual controller of the Yeyue Group, with the most mobilizable funds, demanding respect from other demons.

In fact, the "superior" who can order the demons of Paris to act together is also a super corporation, named the Apocalypse Foundation. It provides donations and industry support to many companies worldwide, naturally having a profound impact on these companies. The owner of the Apocalypse Foundation is also a demon, and one of the most high-ranked.

"I often say... there’s no good in big companies, and the situation here might be even worse," Lin Qing shrugged. "But thinking about it, it’s pretty logical. Andor’s and Moni’s positions need funding support from the Yeyue Company, and the Yeyue Company cannot do without support from the Apocalypse Foundation. It’s essentially a chain reaction."

By controlling the world’s money, they can discreetly control the entire world.

The demons clearly intend to take this route.

Why don’t they directly control the whole world?

Because most people are protected by the Ring of the Mind, making it difficult for demons to directly use their abilities to corrupt them.

Faced with this answer, Chen Xuan was somewhat amused. Although angels have vanished, the legacy of the Angel Alliance continues to guard mankind.

Without the Ring of the Mind, they would probably have already ascended to the highest levels of power, openly riding on everyone’s heads.

Only the ring cannot prevent the corruption of money.

This route, though roundabout, is validated by history time and again.

"Money" is undoubtedly a hard currency that can buy souls. Compared to complex wish and fulfillment contracts, throwing money directly is certainly more swift and effective. So the more money, the more souls it can buy; the more souls absorbed, the stronger the demon’s ability, forming a positive cycle.

Financial ties can also greatly restrict the relationships between demons, allowing for a kind of widespread "unification" within. Therefore, even without an organization like the Angel Alliance, the demon group wouldn’t become completely disordered.

Up to this point, everything was no problem.

"The real issue lies with the god they worship, the Primordial Insect." Chen Xuan got up and walked to the mouth of the cave. Beyond the village was a thriving scene, with villagers working hard to fish, hunt, and build the village, not for a few copper coins, but to create a better home.

According to the demons, the Flesh Mother and the Primordial Insect are two opposing deities; the Primordial Insect comes from a higher dimension outside, while the Flesh Mother is a local deity. Human beings are made of flesh, and bleed when hurt, all linked to the Flesh Mother. In other words, it determines the human form and affects most living creatures on earth.

This simply overturned Chen Xuan’s understanding of biology.

Yet he couldn’t simply dismiss this conclusion. After all, every world is different, and at least the Jiang City world he was familiar with didn’t have these strange occurrences.

Under the influence of the Flesh Mother, the human life form emerged, but humans are not clones of the Flesh Mother; the Flesh Mother will continually integrate all flesh, naturally including humans, so demons believe this is an impending apocalypse, with extinction looming for all life forms.

The only way to escape extinction is "Ascension."

As for what ascension is, and how to achieve it, even the three demons did not know.

What they were certain of was that the Primordial Insect could help them achieve this goal.

"These are conclusions the demons drew from the whispers of the gods, but it could also be hallucinations from drug overdoses," Lin Qing dismissively spoke. "You’ve never heard the whispers of the Flesh Mother, and neither have I heard Elorie mention similar matters."

True, that’s the rationale.

Yet for some reason, Chen Xuan kept recalling the description of the Celestial Mist Skill.

"...Taking the first step towards ascension."

This phrase was very abrupt here, and even after using it till now, he hadn’t found where the Celestial Mist Skill could be linked with ascension. What the Immortal Family referred to as ascension should be Feathered Ascension, yet the Celestial Mist Skill did not possess such miraculous power. Even a cultivation genius like Ji Yun hadn’t managed to leap to the heavens with this Heart Method, right?

"Perhaps I have seen this deity..." Chen Xuan suddenly said.

"What?" Lin Qing was stunned, "Where?"

He recounted in detail his encounter with Liu Zhidong, "I didn’t mention it at the time, but after using the Golden Cicada Shell Escape Technique to deceive the inevitable death result of Guess the Coin, something said to me: ’You owe me.’

That clearly didn’t belong to the effect of the ability itself.

"There was such a thing..." Lin Qing said in surprise.

"The Decomposition and Re-Fusion destroying the Guess the Coin incident is also very peculiar, not like something the ability did on its own." Chen Xuan, by now, had nothing to hide from Lin Qing. "Maybe the demons’ understanding of the Primordial Insect is not very comprehensive. Maybe some of it is their wishful imagination, but there’s one thing I think is true."

He paused, looked up at the vast blue sky, "Behind these forbidden abilities are higher-level forces, their influences even able to penetrate the barriers between different worlds."