Flat Top Mountain’s mighty ridges and sharply pointed peaks are indescribably perilous, with layers upon layers of hills and everywhere steep cliffs and sheer precipices, and no roads leading up to the sky. The only path is a narrow sheep trail blazed by herb collectors over many years.
The mountain is lush with trees and overgrown with weeds, with jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards prowling its depths. Even more troubling are the poison snakes and centipedes that roam freely among the thick grass.
As the saying goes: Where the forest is deep, oddities abound. Flat Top Mountain is no exception, being a notorious gathering place for demons in the area. Demons are entrenched on every mountaintop, none willing to concede to another, leading to frequent wars.
This puts the lesser demons, with their minimal mana, in a tough spot, forced to cling to the Greater Demons of their respective mountaintops.
It is for this reason that they often become casualties of the disputes between powerful demons.
However, recently, a major event has shaken Flat Top Mountain. Two demons appeared from nowhere, declaring themselves the Golden Horn King and Silver Horn King, taking over the main peak’s Lotus Cave and claiming boldly that they would unify all demons on Flat Top Mountain.
This action stirred up a hornet’s nest. Each of these demons, considering themselves superior, had never been able to determine who was strongest over the years. Now, with the sudden arrival of the Golden Horned King and Silver Horned King proclaiming their bold ambition to unite all demons, naturally, this provoked significant dissatisfaction among them.
In accordance with the simple principle of the survival of the fittest, the two brothers, Golden Horn and Silver Horn, engaged in battle with Flat Top Mountain’s demons. However, their strength far exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Even more dreadful was that these two brothers had obtained Magical Treasures from somewhere — each of them exceptional and unique, which they used to annihilate the leaders of the resistance one by one.
Yet, the two brothers were not fools; they understood that wiping out everyone was not the solution. Therefore, they humbled themselves and acknowledged the old Fox Spirit of Yalong Cave on Yalong Mountain, appeasing the grievances of the lesser demons and securing their position as lords over Flat Top Mountain’s many peaks, thus becoming the dominant rulers of the area.
On this day, the front of Lotus Cave on Flat Top Mountain was bustling with noise. Now that the Golden Horned King and Silver Horned King had established their footing, it was natural to cultivate their own forces. Although the old Fox Spirit of Yalong Cave had lent quite a few Demon Soldiers to the two brothers to make a show of strength, their numbers still seemed somewhat lacking.
Hence, they had opened the mountain gate wide today to recruit little demons.
By this time, the fame of Golden Horn and Silver Horn had risen dramatically. Many demons from nearby mountains had heard of the two brothers and came flocking to join them. In the current times, lesser demons could only better survive in this world by attaching themselves to powerful Demon Kings.
Lu Yu had transformed into a Little Demon and was now amongst these creatures, looking around with keen interest at this ’Journey to the West’-styled recruitment event.
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In his observations, many of the Little Demons that came to apply had only just attained sentience, with some having not even cultivated their backbones and still speaking in the tongue of beasts when asked questions.
"Big brother, look at these little demons; they’re so foolish they’re hardly useful!" Silver Horn, standing atop the mountain, furrowed his brow and complained as he looked down at the bustling crowd of lesser demons.
Standing by his side was his elder brother, the Golden Horn King.
"Don’t complain. Where in the wilderness could you find nimble little demons? It’s good enough if they can understand speech and do their job. If we don’t take these little demons on, can we handle everything ourselves? It wouldn’t be meaningful to run around for nothing," the Golden Horn King said with a laugh.
"In my opinion, it would be better to use the Spirit Binding Technique and summon the Mountain God and Earth God to obey us. These divine beings are far more useful than the little demons below," Silver Horn suggested.
"Indeed, the Mountain God and Earth God are much handier to use than these little demons, but don’t forget, they ultimately belong to the immortals of the Heavenly Court. If we go too far, it would put a stain on the face of our supreme authority, and we could inevitably suffer repercussions.
It’s fine to summon them occasionally to carry out tasks, but if we treat them like slaves, that would be an affront to our sovereign. You’ve seen what he’s capable of; we shouldn’t provoke him. These little demons might be dull, but with careful training, there will always be one or two among them who prove useful," replied the Golden Horn King.
As the elder brother, the Golden Horn King’s perspective was more comprehensive than that of Silver Horn. His words neatly dissected the delicate balance of power; Silver Horn, of course, understood the implications and promptly stopped suggesting that they enslave the Mountain God and Earth God. Instead, he refocused his attention on the recruitment of little demons.
By that time, many Little Demons had already come to pledge their allegiance, but few truly caught the eye of the two Demon Kings. The recruitment of the Little Demons was being handled by a middle-aged Fox Spirit, dressed in an ordinary robe. She had a human body with the head of a fox, a common characteristic among many Little Demons.
Due to insufficient mana, many Little Demons resorted to partially transforming their bodies into human shapes, resulting in a bizarre assortment of demon appearances.
At that moment, the middle-aged Fox Spirit used her paws to stroke her whiskers as she asked each Demon that came to pledge allegiance, "What’s your name?"
"Moo! Moo!" This was a demon with the head of a bull and the body of a man, who had not yet transformed his voice box and could only moo.
The Fox Spirit lightly touched her forehead and muttered to herself, "Ah, a Bull Demon that can’t talk yet."
She then drew a bull’s head on a piece of paper and put a big cross through it, mainly because she couldn’t write and could only record the Little Demons’ information this way.
"Alright, next."
A peculiar Little Demon stepped forward, its exact animal origin unclear, with antlers on its head and a wrinkled face that looked rather ugly, but it spoke with surprising coherence.
"Leader, my name is Meticulous Ghost!" the Little Demon announced, earning a second look from the Fox Spirit.
"You actually have a name!" This was a rare occurrence; many Little Demons, even after transforming their voice box to speak human tongue, hadn’t received human education and hence lacked names.
"Reporting to the leader, I once sneaked into a human village and overheard a woman yelling at a man, ’You meticulous ghost!’ Thinking it must be a good name, I took it for myself."
"Not bad, not bad, you’re a promising seed." The Fox Spirit tugged at her whiskers in approval and pointed behind her, saying, "You go and stand behind me."
Soon another Demon came forward and said, "Greetings, leader, my name is Clever Worm!"
The Fox Spirit instantly smiled and said, "What a coincidence! We just had a Meticulous Ghost, and now here’s a Clever Worm. Good, you go stand behind me as well."
As the auditions continued, it was soon Lu Yu disguised as a Little Demon’s turn.
He approached with a sycophantic smile, saying, "Leader, my name is Lu Daye!"
"Lu Daye? What kind of strange name is that?" the Fox Spirit scratched her head and said. Enjoy new adventures from freewebnovel
"I don’t know either, it was a scholar who gave me this name. I’ve been called it ever since, but I don’t know what it means," Lu Yu said with an innocent face.