Archfiend Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Great Pharmaceutical Venture (Three)

"Of course, you would die." The youth sneered: "Don't tell me I should trust in some low-level member of Heaven's Law that's come looking for my door?"

"Bang!" His tone didn't drop, but he abruptly flew back!

Just a moment ago, his stomach felt as if it had been hacked open by the reverse edge of an Azure Dragon's Falling Moon Blade! The other person simply hadn't waited for him to finish speaking and sent him flying back with a foot!

The youth ventured to swear that he heard the sound of his ribs fracturing.

"You……" He looked at Xu Yangyi incredulously. The sharp pain of his chest was like the swelling of the tide. Within, a large section had already become sunken in. A footprint could be vaguely seen! He grinded his teeth unwaveringly, and his voice transformed into a roar in a flash: "You…… Insignificant human! Nothing more than a hundred-year-old termite! You go so far as to dare violate the Shennong Convention! I'm the Cao Clan's Technology Director! You actually……"

"Boom!" In the next second, Xu Yangyi touched the side of his leg as he was smiling, and his heel connected with the back of the other's head, suddenly pressing him down onto the table, making a loud sound!

The excessive use of strength made the top of the entire table tremble. His eyes desiring to crack open, the youth looked at the other with unparalleled hatred. While he could simply move, he dared not do so. On the contrary…… the lingering fear of his post-traumatic experience made him start to faintly shiver from head to toe.

"Recite it with me." Xu Yangyi peacefully played around with the lighter. In the darkness, the light carried in the back made his expression unclear to see, yet the smooth sound it carried was like the icy-cold of a knife: "For the construction in scope of a favorable society, to found a harmonious societal atmosphere." 

"You fucking……"

"Bang!" 

"Argh!"

He increased the strength of his foot once again, and his foot atop of the youth was a like a tremendous mountain boulder, making him simply unable to display more anger! 

Because of his use of strength a moment ago, the top of the table was already beginning to split open with a thin wooden crack! The teacup he had placed on the table was faintly trembling!

He would truly die!

A numbing dread swiftly pervaded the stretches of the youth's mind.

"I'll recite it! I'll recite it!" His train of thought was like arcing electricity, yet his brain still hadn't responded. Already, his body couldn't help but yell as it teared at his throat: "F-For the construction in scope of a favorable society, to f-found a harmonious s-societal atmosphere!"

"I like people that cooperate." Xu Yangyi retracted his foot and laughed: "See, there's no need, right? You've refused the toast but to drink a forfeit*."

The youth grinded his teeth, stood up, and sat down on a seat. He clenched onto a teacup so hard that his hands whitened.. 

This man….. From the moment he started, he simply didn't wish for "etiquette" with him! 

That so-called period of time hadn't exceeded over three seconds! Who would appear and chat with a hunter that had come knocking on their door?

At this moment, his demon's intuition was telling him that the other really wanted to kill him…… Truly dared to kill him!

What bullshit convention! The other side simply didn't give a rat's ass! Not even looking at his expression that was as serene as lake waters, if you tore away at the seam of his skin, you would discover that this was a genuine demon!

Carrying a smile on his face. A remark he hadn't found suitable until he had been kicked into the wall! At this moment, he truly believed. Truly believed in the nickname the Grinning Reaper!

"You psychopath……" The youth grinded his teeth rigidly and said with an incomparably resentful, humiliating, and hateful voice: "You actually went so far as to willfully lay hands on a demon despite the human-demon convention……"

Xu Yangyi swept his eyes over the other indifferently: "I ask, you answer."

"Age?"

"Eighteen……" The youth glanced at the look on Xu Yangyi's face, faintly knit his brows, and immediately said: "That's the age on my ID! I'm thirty-three!"

"How many hosts have you found?"

"Five! I swear I haven't killed more people than that!"

Xu Yangyi laughed and raised a brow: "I estimate it to be true, as well. The accuracy of the wind edge coming towards my neck was pretty terrible."

The hand of the youth on the side of the table made a cracking noise as it clenched. 

"Why did you find a host?"

"Aren't you asking what you already know?" The youth said gloomily: "Demons can't grow old and will never age, but our lifespans are the same as those of humans. When we come to realize the gravity of the situation is also whatever the time of our appearances are. Could you tolerate your neighbor for a few years or over a dozen years that doesn't age? If we don't find a host, where would our identification papers come from?"

Finished speaking, he sneered at Xu Yangyi: "Yet isn't this the doing of you humans? To use the internet, you need identification papers, but who is going to fucking pull it out? You need papers to find a job and to attend school! You even need papers if you want to travel! Granted these things…… Taobao! Website registration! You actually need identification to play games! It's written clearly in the Shennong Convention…… Thus, what I am most sick of is dealing with you weak, cunning humans!"**

Xu Yangyi didn't speak, taking a drag of his cigarette and saying expressionlessly: "Qi Condensation…… Foundation Establishment…… Core Formation, these three great realms…… Walking step by step, everyone these days is striving for life, but you actually got the gall to go play games in the human realm?

The youth sighed deeply, looking at Xu Yangyi's gaze that carried a hint of coldness; what he had said carried a bone-carved resentment: "You think I want it to be like this? If you find a spirit vein, it's the government that gets to grow flowers first, set up the auction, and allows selected people to bid successfully. Soon after, the higher offices of Heaven's Law start up a project immediately! The country set up nine offices, don't you know? You haven't heard it, huh? Who knows that the there are only eight offices…… Just to give to Heaven's Law in preparation! Otherwise, where did you believe the spirit stones came from that you use to cultivate to the middle-stage of Qi Condensation?"

"Afterwards, with each of those of the great Core Formation realm, the humans of Core Formation and the Greater Demons partition it. Hehe…… It's the age of information now. If a Greater Demon massacres a city, or anything like factory explosion, or the breach of a dam, how can these things be concealed? The sitting premier dreads having to bear the blame! Who dares lift the cover of the last several thousand years of darkness?  Hehe…… Not a single person dares!"

The world was full of humans. Cultivation was to cultivate more and live longer. Qi Condensation, a hundred years of longevity. Foundation Establishment, two hundred years of longevity. Core Formation, three hundred years of longevity. As for Nascent Soul that followed……  To say the least, he had never heard of it. It had already been over a century since the realm faded into the past.

Cultivation had three great stages: Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation. For the corresponding transformations of demons, it was Form Transformation, Firmament Upliftment, and Origin Crystallization. As for what came after…… No one had witnessed it. Each stage required a staggering accumulation of resources. That wasn't not to say that one could use the absorption of spirit stones, but it was a resource that one would have to muster all their will to circulate. ***

It was because of the nation's support that humanity had enough resources to cultivate. Of course, it was sufficient, that was in relativity to the demons. 

As for demons, after triumphing in Form Transformation, their spiritual livelihood would be easy. They could enter and leave famous mountains and great rivers as they pleased and search for ancestral remnants, obtaining the fortunes of human overlords from long past. With the addition of blood vessel inheritance, demons were over a third more powerful than humans within the same realm!

This kind of disparity, coupled with the fact that after a demon cultivator could expel and reabsorb their Origin Crystal, was even more apparent. As for the utmost beginning of transforming between human form and demon form as one pleased, such a demon cultivator was like that of Nascent Soul realm human. In the same manner, they had already become nearly extinct long ago.

On one hand, there was victory in the amount of human cultivators; the base number of those with spiritual roots was great. On the other hand, the demons beat out the humans in terms of strength when it came to the abilities of individual soldiers. However, in "life", the major heart of the issue was that both sides had long ago shared intimate, harmonious relationships with each other. The Greater Demons wanted humanity's strength to accumulate their own resources, and humans didn't want to force the other too tightly. If a Greater Demon went mad in this kind of peaceful era and wreaked havoc in all directions, the balance of interplay between the two nations would change.

At the very least, things were like this on the surface.

"Continue." Xu Yangyi flicked the table: "Sanshui City…… How many hunting grounds does it have?"

"Eight." The youth answered without the least bit hesitation: "The awareness of the demons' territories is extremely strong. Every cultivating monster has cut out their own territory. They wouldn't let other demons enter their hunting grounds, otherwise, it would be equal to the declaration of a life-or-death struggle. I think …… that the Public Security Bureau doesn't wish to see such a situation, as well. However, in the same vein, it's not all the demons that can cultivate. At the least, it's only the demons of the initial stages of Form Transformation that establish their own hunting grounds. I venture to slam my chest in guarantee, with myself included, the number of demon cultivators at the realm of Form Transformation doesn't exceed over eight!"

Xu Yangyi didn't have any expression whatsoever. He himself was part of Heaven's Law. He understood the interaction between demons and humans, and in fact, he didn't know much more in comparison to Chief Zheng.

What he genuinely understood was…… the most effective and fastest ways to kill demons.

No matter if it was a demon, a fae, a ghost, or a monster, he could practically set himself to the task of finding the other's Achilles heel. 

Others merely acted to master the surface of the knowledge and nothing more. Slaughter, that was his true speciality. 

In light of this aspect, he could even be considered an honest and pure man. At the very least, he was an unadulterated person. 

"Have any other demons come recently?" Xu Yangyi asked stonily. 

"Of course……" The youth began to laugh cruelly: "I know what you're looking for…… What? Heaven's Law accepted Sanshui City's mission, but is unable to find the killer? You…… Argh! You…… Lighten up a bit! Dammit! Let go of my hand!"

Xu Yangyi's hand was already gently pressed against the other's carotid artery. It was just that he simply wasn't glancing at him,rather, he was looking at the indistinct flickering of the cigarette butt in his hand.

"I want an answer." He smothered the end of his cigarette by pressing it between his fingers: "No bullshit."

Demons, in the same manner, were a society. He wasn't of the mood, and the duty as well, to obey the constitution of the other society.

Simple and rough was the style of his conduct in his investigation. His execution of policy only sought after results.

You're not going to speak?

Sure.

I'll follow orders and change my methods. 

"You fucking psychopath……" The youth's lips shivered. He had truly been frightened. In all these years, he had never met a person of Heaven's Law. In the passage of thirty-somewhat years, he had long since never revered humanity's branch of special forces. Besides, he hadn't kill that many people at all; he wasn't a carnivorous devil. Heaven's Law didn't possess the arts to use their vision to cast out his body.

But tonight…… this youth in his early twenties before him made him start to rethink everything once more.

"I admit defeat today." Watching the retreating hand, the youth took a long breath and sneered: "The person you want to find is in an abandoned building in the south of Jiuzhou City, the real estate part. From this day onwards, our paths shall not cross again!"

The youth finished saying these words and opened the door with a swoosh. Just as he was leaving, his face suddenly turned ashen, and he turned his head: "You still haven't asked for my name."

"Really?" Xu Yangyi looked at the night scenery lost in thought: "That's not important at all."

"Bang!" The door rang like a trembling mountain. The youth charged outside the door, carrying an unequalled burning fury.

"That whore-raised bastard……" No one had seen it, but he left the door in a flash, pursing his lips forcefully. He glanced and the door and sneered: "You truly believe Heaven's Law is omnipotent? Don't forget, you're only a student that still hasn't even graduated! Hehe…… You haven't thought to why it's wildly killing people in Sanshui City? Of the demons, do none care? Is the Shennong Convention truly a joking matter? 

"It's not that they do not care…… It is that they do not dare to take control of the matter…… There's not a single demon in Sanshui City that dares to rear their head…… Hehehe….. I'm really looking forward to it…… The scene it tearing you to pieces……" His body was like an illusion, beginning to drift apart into the air in layers: "...... Relax…… When the time comes, I'll 'help' your soul pass onto the afterlife……"

T/N: I want to make a note here that sometimes, the author uses the word "it" to describe demons in third person. Especially in this situation here when the demon is referring to himself as male and then switches to "it". For the sake of consistency I just made it perma "he/him". 

*Refused a toast but to drink a forfeit. A colorful chinese idiom meaning that a person refused to do a request, but in the end is forced to that that request and then some.

**Taobao: Chinese amazon/ebay I believe

***化形, 天梯, 内丹. These are the three realms described for demons. Respectively, they are Form Transformation, Heavenly Upliftment, and Origin Crystallization. Of the three, the one I'm most iffy about is Firmament Upliftment, since the literal translation is Heaven's Stairs/ Sky Ladder. Of the three, the last one, Origin Crystallization is like that of Core Formation except for demons. Like human cultivator cores, demons have a "crystal" as their core. I tried to mirror human cultivation realms in terms of naming for demons.

Chapter end