Chapter 1041: Section 1042: UFO Little Demon
Ni Ming Lake, situated next to the Twilight Mountains, bordered on the right by Kayami Forest.
Geographically speaking, Ni Ming Lake was unremarkable, but curiously, it attracted nearly half of the demons from the thirdyer of the Abyss and was even listed as a forbidden area by the Wizard.
For within the legendary Demon City—Lassudral—was located on the small ind at the heart of Ni Ming Lake.
To be precise, Lassudral’s location wasn’t on the ind itself; the ind merely provided the spatial coordinates for entry. Lassudral truly resided within a piece of unknown Void.
At that moment, the waters of Ni Ming Lake were rippled.
A shadow with blue skin elegantly advanced through theke like a swimming fish until it finally arrived at Lake Heart Ind.
Besides its light blue skin, it resembled humans in form, but itcked ears. In their ce were two downward-curving, arc-shaped horns—indicating that it was, in fact, a Half-Blood Demon.
Ppa, was its name. In Demon Language, it stood for a nameless weed—insignificant and humble, yet with vigorous vitality.
In the entire thirdyer of the Abyss, Ppa belonged to the most humble category, regardless of whether judged by power or bloodline—it was at the bottom.
After all, its bloodline consisted of half Indigenous People, and the other half… a small, phantom Demon.
The small, phantom Demon was a kind with a very low floor but a very high ceiling.
Having a low floor was widely epted; many small, phantom Demons would remain at the lowest rung of demon society throughout their lives, with some Half-Blood Demons naturally more powerful than small, phantom Demons from birth. This indicated clearly how weak a small, phantom Demon was.
As for having a high ceiling, that was a title small, phantom Demons had coined for themselves, unrecognized by any other demon. A story circted among the small, phantom Demons that, in the ancient cold era, one of them had risen to be a Demon Lord not weaker than a Demon God.
It was because of this story that the small, phantom Demons believed they had a high potential.
But the veracity of this story was hard to examine, given that the ancient cold era urred over a hundred thousand years ago. Aside from their own kind, no one else had even heard it.
Ppa was a Half-Blood Demon with a clear sense of self-awareness. Although it knew the story, it, unlike its forebears, did not believe it to be true. Ppa thought it was very likely that an ancestor of the small, phantom Demons had concocted the tale out of pride.
For apart from that mighty “ancestor” in the story, the strongest among the recorded small, phantom Demons to date was only a fortunate predecessor who had barely managed to climb to the bottom rung of Intermediate Rank Demons.
If they were to speak of a high ceiling, why had only one Intermediate Rank Demon emerged?
After facing reality, Ppa had long stopped dreaming of bing more powerful. It felt that simply living a good life was enough and being with its parents without separation would be best.
However, even this small wish was shattered.
Its parents were killed by humans just a year earlier.
Upon receiving this news, Ppa was stunned for half a year. Unlike other demon races, small, phantom Demons, often mocked and scorned, tended to live solitarily. Even when they took Indigenous People of the Abyss as mates, they did not abandon them.
Its parents had loved each other and raised it with care.
For safety, they even moved far away from the demon race’s hearnd to a very remote ce and avoided humans from a distance whenever they saw them.
Yet, despite living so cautiously, they could not escape tragedy.
Ppa hated the humans who had killed its parents. It wanted to seek revenge on the humans but was powerless to do so. As a feeble Half-Blood Demon, it was equivalent to a Wizard Apprentice among humans, and humans possessed all sorts of wondrous weapons and artifacts; it couldn’t defeat anyone.
It was at that time that Ppa began to understand the importance of personal strength.
It started to think about improving itself, but the information in its bloodline offered no shortcuts to rapid self-improvement. The only way was to temper itself, but even true small, phantom Demons couldn’t rise through such hardship, let alone Ppa with only half a demon bloodline.
After several months of fruitless experimentation, Ppa, harboring hatred for humans and a strong desire to enhance its own power, came to Lassudral.
Rumor had it that Lassudral had everything you could wish for.
This was Ppa’s third month in Lassudral. During this period, it dedicated almost all of its energy to earning Demon Gold Coins in Lassudral. Only when tired would it leave Lassudral to rest at the bottom of the surrounding Ni Ming Lake, where the gentle waters soothed and quietly restored its strength.
Now, after its rest, Ppa stepped onto Lake Heart Ind once more.
Its gaze was resolute; for the sake of its goals, it could not cken. Even though… within its heart, it harbored doubts—could it really be stronger, could it really avenge its parents?
Lake Heart Ind was notrge, devoid of any grass, with only a few uneven mounds of earth.
Ppa manipted the water to fashion itself a set ofke-green clothes. Such dressing was actually rare among demons, but some powerful demons had their own fashion, and the middle and low-tier demons started to imitate them, sparking a trend. However, they only dressed this way within Demon City, as if by wearing clothes that represented civilization, they could restrain their uncivilized barbarism.
Ppa’s choice of clothing was not a nod to fashion but purely taught by its mother.
Once dressed, Ppa approached a small mound not far away.
As it walked, ripples like those on the water’s surface suddenly appeared before it, and the very next second, it passed through these ripples, entering an endless Void.
In the darkness of the Voidy a floating ind city.
At the highest point of the city, atop a terrifying tower, was a radiant orb. Its light illuminated the entire city, making it a city that never slept!
This is the great, never-fallen Demon City of the Void—Lassudral!
As soon as Ppa entered, he was at the edge of the ind.
Looking down from the edge of the ind, one could see a dark vortex in the void below, around which numerous strangely shaped demons flew to and fro.
Lassudral was not just a demon city, but also a hub leading to the inneryers of the Abyss.
The dark vortex below was connected to the inneryers of the Abyss.
At that moment, a demon that had burst from the vortex below steadilynded on the floating ind, right near Ppa.
This was a demon over three meters tall, with ferocious bone wings sprouting from its back.
After itnded, it discovered Ppa, who was cowering behind arge rock not far away. A glint of cruelty shed in its bloodthirsty eyes, and amidst Ppa’s terrified expression, it flicked its finger.
A dim ck light shot straight towards Ppa.
Before he could react, therge rock in front of him exploded into fragments, and he was sent flying into the air by the force, only to crash down harshly on the ground, his body in utter disarray.
The Bone Wing Demonughed a few times; Ppa’s wretched state seemed to please it. It did not strike again but left behind the word “riffraff” before flying into Lassudral.
Ppa trembled all over, his eyes filled with anger, sorrow, and self-doubt.
In thewless Demon City, as long as one didn’t disrupt the overt order, no one would say a thing even if the Bone Wing Demon had killed him.
Ppa licked his wounds in solitude; after a long time, he slowly got up and limped into Lassudral.
His mother had once told him that to be strong, one must endure setbacks, a necessary process of growth.
Although he knew these were justforting phrases, what else could he do now besides convincing himself?
…
The structure of Lassudral was quite different from the cities of the indigenous people. Here, even the shortest building door was over three meters high. With doors so tall, the buildings themselves were massive, as if one had entered a city of giants.
Despite therge buildings, most of the demons walking on the streets were roughly the same size as Ppa. These huge doors were not really meant for them but for creatures like the earlier Bone Wing Demon or other high-ranking great demons.
Oftentimes, one could gauge the clientele of a shop simply by the size of its doors.
Take, for example, the giant fortress visible from miles away here. It was actually a shop, but its scale was such that even giants could be amodated—belonging to the highest tier of shops.
Or, for instance, to Ppa’s right.
Hidden among the trees, there was a small, low wooden hut. Ignoring its position on the very outskirts of Lassudral, just its two-meter-tall door showed that its clientele was probably on the lower end.
Truthfully, even Ppa felt that a two-meter door was too short; he just needed to stand on tiptoes to bump his head.
Moreover, the eaves of the cabin appeared low, making it seem like it would be so cramped inside that breathing would be difficult.
Had there not been a shop sign above the door, Ppa wouldn’t have believed it was a store.
“Eh?” Suddenly, confusion flickered in Ppa’s eyes, “When was this little wooden hut set up here? When I left the day before yesterday, this spot seemed to be an empty lot.”
Could it have been established in thest two days?
Ppa looked at the shop’s sign with suspicion, which was written in a terrible font in Demon Language.
Illusion.
It didn’t sound like a respectable shop at all.
Ppa continued walking and arrived at the ce where he usually worked, a Hunting Museum owned by a Half-Blood Demon.
The door was four meters high, considered a normal size among the shops of Lassudral.
His job was actually very simple: to clean the prey that the owner hunted.
Ppa could work here partly because the Eerie Water he released had the effect of “preserving freshness and enhancing taste,” but mostly because of the owner’s pity.
Speaking of which, the owner seemed to possess a powerful fire Demon Bloodline. When Ppa first saw the owner, he was somewhat afraid due to the natural elemental counter.
Who would have thought that he would be able to continue living in Lassudral, thanks to the seemingly fierce but kind-hearted owner?
“You’re here? Today’s prey has been ced in the storage behind the Exhibition Room. After cleaning, remember to disy them,” said arge, fiery-haired man with an imposing set of abs and a fierce face.
He was the owner of the Hunting Museum, Night.