Zhang Wei said with interest, "What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them."
The Prime Minister asked, "Do you think humans should eat humans?"
"Of course not."
"What about intelligent animals? For instance, the cats and dogs kept by humans, are they wicked?"
"That wouldn't be the case. For example, there are specialized dog farms for meat dogs, catering to those who enjoy eating dog meat. After all, the purpose of these animals' existence is to serve humanity. Whether they are eaten or doted upon, it is their responsibility."
The Prime Minister smiled and said, "Then why do you think humans shouldn't eat humans?"
"How can kin devour kin?"
"Isn't that right!"
Zhang Wei pondered, "You mean these beings, though they look like us, are not of our race, so it's perfectly fine to treat them as food."
The Prime Minister replied, "Precisely. Just because they possess higher intelligence should they be exempt from the harsh laws of nature? Even humans, the most intelligent of all creatures, can fall prey to wild beasts, let alone mere transformed demonic beasts?"
"It seems... somewhat logical."
In the culinary world, Netero also possessed intelligence comparable to humans, and could learn language, didn't they interact with humans?
What Zhang Wei truly minded was not just the intelligence, but also their appearance and manner of speech, which were indistinguishable from humans.
If truly put into a pot, it would be no different from putting a human in.
Voicing his thoughts, the Prime Minister chuckled and walked towards the young deer.
The young deer said in terror, "Immortal, I am just an ordinary deer, not tasty! Please spare me, I am willing to be your servant!"
"Humans like cauldrons, don't they? I can be one!"
"Do you like to keep pets? I will be very well-behaved!"
But no matter what it said, the Prime Minister steadfastly approached.
A flash of light flickered in the young deer's eyes. It spat out a mouthful of turbid essence blood, and two sharp horns materialized on its forehead, piercing forward!
The Prime Minister elegantly dodged, grabbed the young deer by the throat, and said, "Heh heh, a late-stage transformed demonic beast, just one step away from becoming a great cultivator. You must have lived for millennia, right? A thousand-year-old demonic beast, playing the pitiful card!"
Demonic beasts of this caliber were rare even among the demon race!
They would possess territories spanning at least several mountain peaks, with hundreds or even thousands of subordinates!
With a slight exertion of force in his hand, the young deer's neck snapped with a crack. There was no scream. Before the Prime Minister, a late-stage transformed demonic beast could not put up any resistance.
As the young deer died, its body began to twist and swell, transforming into a giant stag, twenty feet tall and thirty feet long...
Damn it, even its gender was fake.
Looking at the formidable antlers on its head, scarred by countless battles and the passage of time, its hooves indicated that this deer was quite old.
The Prime Minister smiled and said, "City Lord, perhaps even if you wanted to barbecue humanoid creatures, you wouldn't be able to."
"What you saw were all late-stage transformed cultivators, almost indistinguishable from humans after transformation. But look..."
He waved his hand, and a mid-stage transformed fox spirit was brought forth. This fox spirit largely maintained a human form, but its tail and ears couldn't be hidden, and sharp fangs could be seen at its mouth. Some incompletely evolved areas were covered in soft fox fur.
With another wave, a nascent-stage transformed pig demon and dog demon appeared. These two were essentially Zhu Bajie and a dog-headed man, their incomplete human bodies topped with beast heads.
The Prime Minister stated, "Even without full transformation, demonic beasts possess sufficient intelligence, only inferior to humans, lacking the ability to master language."
He then intended to produce a manual on acupoint-pressing techniques, which could force demonic beasts to reveal their true forms.
However, Zhang Wei waved his hand and said, "I was just momentarily confused by seeing transformed demonic beasts for the first time, my mind got stuck in a rut."
"Now, I no longer need this."
...
The matter of millions of cultivators entering the Great Wilderness could not be concealed. The demonic beasts cried out in alarm, seeing this as a declaration of war by humans!
But like humans, without the pressure of strong authority, their social organizations were very scattered and lacked cohesion.
Many harbored ulterior motives, and many existed independently.
On a spiritual mountain, this was a core area for certain demonic races.
Here, the cultivators discovered the most precious ingredients of the demonic race. It was said that after consuming them, reaching the Deification stage would become much easier.
However, even for the demonic race, there wasn't enough to go around, and humans found it even harder to obtain. If Emperor Nolan had possessed such a thing back then, he wouldn't have had to go into seclusion for six hundred years.
Zhang Wei approached a tree. Vines hung from the canopy, bearing fruit that resembled babies, like umbilical cords extending from infants.
As soon as someone approached, they began to cry.
Zhang Wei was about to pick one when the Prime Minister quickly stepped beside him and advised, "Hold on, this Ginseng Baby Fruit cannot be picked with bare hands!"
"Why?"
"Once it detaches from the vine, it immediately gains sentience, making it very difficult for ordinary people to catch. This Ginseng Baby Fruit naturally possesses powerful escape arts, and if it burrows into the earth, there will be no trace."
This was also how the Ginseng Baby Tree propagated. After falling, the Ginseng Baby Fruit would gain intelligence similar to that of a human.
Similar to tree demons.
They could eat, communicate, and cultivate as normal, with lifespans of up to several thousand years.
After thousands of years, as they gradually aged, their bodies would become woody, transforming into a tree with well-developed roots, completing a cycle.
In this world, besides animal-type demonic beasts, there also existed many special types of demonic beasts.
Mammals were the easiest to transform, such as lions, tigers, cattle, sheep, pigs, deer, rhinoceros, and wolves.
Next were the warm-blooded oviparous creatures, mostly various types of birds. These were slightly more difficult than the former.
Then came the cold-blooded animals like frogs, toads, crocodiles, and pythons. These animals naturally had lower intelligence, making transformation extremely difficult. Even if they succeeded in transforming, they wouldn't be very intelligent. They usually needed to constantly modify their bodies around the Foundation Establishment stage to initially gain sentience.
The worst were arthropods and insects, such as mosquitoes, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, ants, and bees. The difficulty was almost unimaginable. They would need to reach at least the Nascent Soul stage to gain complete sentience, but these demonic beasts were also quite powerful.
And after that...
Were plants. Plant cultivators needed to reach the Nascent Soul stage to gain sentience, and transformation required the cultivation of a Deification stage cultivator.
This Ginseng Baby Fruit itself was an exceptionally fantastical and peculiar plant, gifted with extraordinary talent. The fruit only needed to separate from the body to gain simple sentience, and then, driven by instinct, it would wander to various places.
The Prime Minister said, "For this Ginseng Baby Fruit to transform into a large tree, the prerequisite is to possess Deification stage cultivation... This means that this large tree was a Deification stage cultivator in its previous life!"