God-Tier Villain

Chapter 41: Chapter 41

The Elders were losing their minds.

"This is bad, this is really bad!"

"That oppressive aura belongs to a Demon Great Emperor."

"A demon has entered the mountain!"

"How did they get in?"

"Who knows!"

"Demons love hunting Spirits, they’re here for us, no question."

"Then we fight! Fight them to the death!"

"Fight how? That’s a Demon Emperor! Our Clan Chief is an Upper-Tier Spirit Venerable, he wouldn’t survive one of his slaps!"

"Then we surrender together!"

"Nonsense! The Ice Heaven Alluring Fox clan is one of the ten great ancient Spirit clans, we may lack strength, but do we lack spine too?"

"Better to die than live as demon blood slaves!"

The Clan Chief climbed to a high vantage, supported by several Elders, white-haired, seventy or eighty in appearance, body still sturdy, he waved his hands for quiet.

"Have you all gone mad?"

"You want a life-and-death battle with a Middle-Tier Demon Emperor?"

"One casual demonic technique from him, and our fifty thousand clansmen, along with the entire territory inside this mountain will vanish!"

Nobody understood the terror of a Demon Emperor better than he did, if it came to blows, they were cannon fodder, they wouldn’t even earn the right to fight back.

"Is it really that exaggerated?" The clansmen exchanged looks, throats bobbing, fifty thousand people and the whole territory, gone on the spot, they didn’t need brains to figure out what that meant.

"Then tell us, Clan Chief, what do we do?"

The Clan Chief’s head throbbed, one wrong decision and he buried every clansman with him.

"Fellow clansmen, hear this old man out."

"Meeting him head-on is a dead end!"

"Better to feign submission first and avoid needless deaths, when the moment ripens, we wait for our chance and act!"

"What do you all say?"

It was the best answer available, they couldn’t be slaughtered clean for the sake of resisting, could they?

"Alright, we’ll all listen to the Clan Chief!"

Boom!

Wind tore open across the horizon, Soren’s trio slid into view of fifty thousand Ice Heaven Alluring Fox clansmen.

A faint sheath of black light wrapped Soren’s body, his aura froze the air itself, wherever he passed, the sky shuddered and webbed with fine cracks, as if it might split in half the next second.

To the fifty thousand below, the sight landed like a nightmare made flesh.

Amid the panic, someone spotted the girl at his side. "Clan Chief, isn’t that Ethel!?"

"It’s her, no mistake."

"She and Jared vanished for half a month without a word, so they did sneak down the mountain, just as we judged!"

"Why is she with two Great Emperors?"

Hearts sank all around. "Could she have betrayed us!?"

"She told that Demon Emperor our territory is inside Black Dragon Mountain!"

Talk boiled up on every side, the closer Soren drew, the faster it died.

What none of them knew was that their whispers rang crystal clear in Emperor-level ears, Soren and Lysara heard every word, the plan to feign submission included.

In that moment Soren realized something, Jared, the man this clan treated as an ill omen, might be worth far more to him than expected.

Boom, the air detonated, the three came to a halt.

The pressure of two Emperor-realm experts rolled outward in waves, slamming through the air and sweeping the territory, Soren stood with his hands behind his back, quietly watching them.

His gaze swept down, not one clansman dared look up.

That pressure sat on their heads like a mountain, that gaze went into their chests like a knife, only now, this close, did they grasp how absurd fight him to the death had been.

Soren judged their fear had hit its ceiling, and drew the aura in.

The pressure dropped severalfold, fifty thousand bodies could finally breathe.

Ethel had never received the full weight of it, she guessed Soren was sparing her on purpose, and a small warmth spread through her chest.

"Ethel, won’t you introduce us quickly?"

"These two are..." The Clan Chief pinned all hope of dialogue on her, praying she held no grudge for the years of cold shoulders.

Diverting his aura around Ethel served two purposes, Soren didn’t want her to suffer, and he wanted the whole clan to see it, a simple, brutal announcement, this girl was special to him.

The clansmen who had once frozen her and Jared out understood exactly that, and their hearts pounded like drums.

"Demon Emperor, this is my Clan Chief, Osmond." Ethel introduced him, then presented Soren and Lysara to Osmond and the clan.

At the words he hasn’t come for Spirit blood, Osmond and the tens of thousands behind him let out one collective breath.

Questions swarmed them, but no one dared ask, why did the demon prize Ethel? What was their relationship? How had a demon and a human walked through the sonic wave? If he didn’t want blood slaves, what did he want? All unknown.

Soren drifted to the ground, the clansmen bunched together and shuffled back several steps, Osmond included, their terror was genuine.

Soren’s gaze slid across them, a flicker of mockery at the corner of his mouth, killing them would be too easy, he was building an army of the Spirit race, and these tens of thousands all had their uses.

But he couldn’t conquer fifty thousand people one by one, he needed a commander to run the Spirit army for him, conquer the commander, let the commander handle the rest.

Bruce and Arnold were on hand, but one was a demon and the other half-beast, neither could command Spirits, Soren already had a far better candidate in mind.

Someone who, so long as Ethel was treated well, would never betray him.

Weak, for now, but Soren held the Strategy Encyclopedia, raising someone’s strength was as easy as turning over his hand.

"Clan Chief Osmond, you are old."

The remark set tens of thousands of clansmen buzzing.

What does this demon mean, the Clan Chief is old? Does he want to replace the Clan Chief?

"Is it Demon Emperor’s intention that this old man abdicate?"

Soren didn’t mince it, he nodded. "That’s right."

"Demon Emperor, my clan has limited numbers, in the short term, I fear we cannot find a second candidate better suited to the position than this old man."

"I’ll recommend someone to you."

"This... hardly seems appropriate, even if this old man agrees, my clansmen..."