Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He had never considered the question from such a perspective before.
On second thought, it did seem a bit odd. In nature, the number of creatures at the lower level of the food chain was often more than ten times larger than that of the creatures at a higher level.
More specifically speaking, there should have been over ten times more herbivores than carnivores.
Even the insects that seemed repulsive mostly fed upon the juices of flowers and grass. Only a tiny proportion of them would prey on other insects.
Those herbivores naturally were not very aggressive, so why did they turn into monsters who knew nothing except slaughtering after they evolved into demons?
Jin Xinyue chuckled and said in a mosquito-like voice, “In fact, it’s been almost ten thousand years since the narcotic drugs were first employed in the demon race. Generally speaking, the narcotic drugs cooperate with legends and tales. The speaker will preach on the glorious history of the demon race in the beginning. Then, they will talk about the magnificence of the final war. In the end, they will describe how sacred and everlasting the real Pantheon of Demons, where all demons will be bathed in eternal happiness, is.
“After the propaganda, the narcotic drugs are released. Together with secret arts, the demons become delirious and see all kinds of hallucinations—the ancient demons building the entire universe, themselves fighting a hotblooded battle in the final war, or everybody enjoying the eternal happiness after ascending to the splendid Pantheon of Demons.
“In the classics of the demon race, such a ceremony is known as ‘séance’. If the circumstances allow, most high-level demons are educated from a young age through daily séances. Naturally, when they grow up, they will have absolutely no doubt about theories of ‘Obliteration, Rebirth, and Immortality’ of the Pantheon of Demons.
“However, most of the black-blood demons and the chaotic-blood demons are born in underdeveloped areas that are not embraced by the illuminations of the Pantheon of Demons. With a great war coming close, there is no time to refine them slowly. So, it is only necessary to ship them to Void Turmoil City and speed them up with the Fire Ant King’s secret arts.”
Li Yao could tell that there was contempt in her tone. He thought of something and asked, “You don’t believe in theories?”
Jin Xinyue chuckled and said, “I can believe them as long as there are enough benefits.”
While the two of them were whispering to each other, the team moved forward again. After another hour of rushing, they reached the end of the continent, and a surging black ocean appeared on the horizon.
An enormous peninsula extended out of the continent like a sharp fang and pierced deep into the ocean.
In the sky above the peninsula, the electromagnetic field and the spiritual energy were both disordered, forming what seemed to be a colorful swirl that was partially surrounded by a weird dark cloud. Thunder was echoing every once in a while, and dazzling lightning was running down. But the other half side of the sky was sunny, and the scorching sunlight stabbed deep into the earth like glamourous blades.
Li Yao looked afar and noticed very out of place mountain. The mountain was riddled with holes everywhere. However, when Li Yao observed more carefully, he discovered that overlapping skyscrapers that congregated into an enormous metropolis.
“Void Turmoil City is here!”
Li Yao was greatly refreshed. This was the first time he had ever observed a big city of the Blood Demon Sector at a close distance. Naturally, he would not miss a single detail.
On the red earth leading to the peninsula, a broad road paved by gray rocks gradually appeared. Two statues huge statues were standing on either side of the road. They were pure white and flawless. There was no sign of joints at all. Each statue seemed to be carved out of a single piece of jade.
Of the two statues, the first one was a man and a woman who had human heads and snake bodies. Their snake bodies were interweaved into a perfect double helix. With a closer look, one would notice that endless scriptures had been engraved on every scale of the snake bodies. Complicated information seemed to have been stored on them.
Although they were not wearing anything and their skin was touching, the male and the female were solemn and gave absolutely no lecherous feelings. On the contrary, they imposed the urge to kneel down and worship them upon anybody who saw them.
The other statue was a magnificent warrior with three legs and six arms. Enormous horns protruded out of the temples of the statue and pointed at the sky!
Although they were made of white jade, the statues seemed to be alive and releasing an overwhelming aura to all directions incessantly, making anybody who looked at them feel impatient and the passion of killing.
“The two statues are both powerful magical equipment!” The mental devil suddenly spoke in his head. “Especially the statue that represents slaughtering and fighting. It boasts enticing glamour that can increase one’s killing intent by ten times without them knowing! Interesting. Very interesting!”
Li Yao was suddenly alarmed. The two statues must have been the ancient demons in the legends, but who built them exactly?
The Demon Beast Empire had ruled over the sea of stars for thirty thousand years. Although they were known as ‘demons’, they actually passed on the language, culture, and system of mankind. How many secrets had been buried during the thirty thousand years? It was indeed intriguing.
The team of Land Whales passed through the gate made of the two enormous statues and officially entered the territory of Void Turmoil City. On the two sides of the road were dense gardens that were colorful and quite beautiful when looked at from afar.
However, when Li Yao enhanced his vision and observed more carefully by adjusting his pupils and his crystalline lens, he discovered that the plants inside the gardens were quite weird.
They looked like tentacles extending from the underground and pointing at the sky. Every tentacle was packed with dense sucking discs that were emitting mysterious fluorescence. Together with the spores that surrounded them, the plants gave a frightening sense of beauty.
At the tip of the tentacles was an enormous ball bag that looked like a dandelion magnified countless time. It was quite puffy and drifting like a balloon.
In the breeze, the thousands of devilish tentacles were dancing along the wind. They looked like a heavily polluted cesspit. Anybody who saw them would feel their blood freezing.
Right then, dozens of giant eagles flew close in the sky, with the tamers sitting in the seats that were tied on their back with harnesses. The eagles were snatching animals such as lambs and calves. When they reached the location, they simply released the animals into the weird gardens.
In a moment, earsplitting hissing sounds filled the gardens. All the tentacles were waving crazily as if they had just been charged with electricity. Every sucking disc was wide open, revealing vicious grinding organs. The lambs and the calves were all torn apart and absorbed in, only to be entirely devoured within a breath without the slightest trace of their bones left.
While Li Yao was amazed, one of the eagles seemed to become the target for one of the tentacles because of its low altitude.
The tentacle constricted violently like a spring before it suddenly jerked up and dashed almost a hundred meters into the sky, snatching the claw of the eagle and dragging it down by force!
The eagle struggled hard and even tore off the claw in its panic.
But there was no time. At this moment, the eagle was only around seventy meters from the ground. Almost twenty tentacles sprinted out and immediately tied the eagle up without leaving any gaps.
Both the eagle and the tamer did not even have time to scream before they turned into a cluster of bloody mist, eaten up by the greedy predators!
The tentacles that had enjoyed their food grew even more eye-catching than before. The ball bags at the top expanded, too, a colorful mist that drifted into the sky.
“They are ‘Ghost Flowers’. They have to be fed with fresh meat and blood every day. When they mature, the liquids secreted from the ball bags become the best ingredients to produce the narcotic drugs,” Jin Xinyue explained. “Void Turmoil City is at the center of the electromagnetic swirl of the Blood Demon Sector. The climate is very unstable. It is unfavorable for all kinds of plants. Therefore, it was never developed before.
“But the Fire Ant King somehow discovered that the area is particularly suitable to develop the narcotic and the berserker plants!
“When he first established his city in this place, many demons mocked him, but after his endeavor proved to be a success, nobody dared to laugh at him anymore.”
Deep in thought, Li Yao looked further ahead.
Around Void Turmoil City, across the entire peninsula, there were gardens and breeding bases everywhere.
Other than the brutal and hungry Ghost Flowers, Li Yao also saw another thousand or so bizarre-shaped plants.
The ‘Dragon Hunter Grass’ that lurked in the soil and suddenly dashed out to hunt, the ‘Thorny Flower’ that looked like holothurian on land with thorns all over its body and could fire deadly acid, the ‘Rainbow Umbrella’ that had a thin fragrance that could cast the victims into frenzy without them knowing…
Those plants were both the ingredients to refine all kinds of drugs and the best guards of Void Turmoil City because of their aggressiveness and their hallucinogenic effects.
Li Yao pondered hard about how he could have snuck into Void Turmoil City through the gardens that covered dozens of square kilometers if he was not pretending to be a chaotic-blood demon.
After considering for a long time, he was not confident that he would have been able to at all.
He could help not but grow wary of the Fire Ant King, the master of Void Turmoil City.
Passing through an area of black vines that soared up into the sky, they entered the downtown area of Void Turmoil City.
Li Yao’s first impression on the city was ‘disorderly’ and ‘barbaric’.
Although there were skyscrapers in the city, too, they were not made of rebar and cement but constructed by hollow weird, giant trees. Those giant trees were hundreds of meters in diameter. Not only were the hollowed trunks the best zone for activity, the branches stretching in various directions also interweaved into the best channels in the air, too.
According to Jin Xinyue, even the roots of the trees deep below the ground were all important means of transportation. Countless demons often came and went between the roots of different trees. It was quite convenient.
Such giant tree buildings, although hollowed, were not dead yet but still growing at a very slowly speed. Like the demon beasts, they were the products of generations of genetic modification and refinement, too.
Li Yao saw that many demons strode out of the neatly made tree holes proudly. When they reached the end of the branches, many flying demon beasts would immediately fly to them and carry them to their destinations in Void Turmoil City. There was apparently order in the seemingly messy city. Despite the odd appearance of the city and the citizens, Li Yao felt that they were actually no different from their counterparts in the Star Glory Federation.