The secret agents from various countries were only scratching the surface of the organization's activities, but Bai Qi had not anticipated that Karasuma Renya could glean intelligence from their infighting.
"If that's the case, what do you want?"
Karasuma Renya chuckled. "I don't need Mr. Devil to pay too much. I'm very interested in ancient magic. I hope you can provide me with some related spells. In return, the organization will provide you with the information you desire."
"Just spellbooks?"
Bai Qi raised an eyebrow, finding Karasuma Renya's words hard to believe. Although this was the Age of Dharma Decline, with the Syndicate's resources, it wouldn't be overly difficult to find items related to magic in ancient ruins if one truly searched.
Hearing Bai Qi's words, Karasuma Renya's smile widened. "Oh my, you've seen through it all. You truly are remarkable."
As he spoke, Karasuma Renya pulled an irregularly shaped fragment from his suit pocket. It was about the size of a palm and resembled a piece of glass.
"This has been passed down from my ancestors. Restoring it is a lifelong wish of ours. This time, I wish to use Mr. Devil's power to help me and my ancestors fulfill this wish."
Upon seeing the fragment Karasuma Renya produced, Bai Qi's brow furrowed. He had sensed a presence not of this universe when he was outside, and now he had finally found its source.
Having hidden for so long, Bai Qi grew weary. Seeing that the other party had presented what he desired, Bai Qi shed his disguise without hesitation.
"I can help you, but not you. It's *that* you."
Bai Qi's gaze fell upon the crow on Karasuma Renya's shoulder. "I don't like those who hide their true selves."
Karasuma Renya's expression instantly became unnatural, his smile stiff. "Mr. Devil, what are you saying? This is just an ordinary crow."
"Is that so? What about this?"
Before the crow could react, a tremendous gravitational force rendered it immobile. It then slowly drifted towards Bai Qi.
With the crow gone, Karasuma Renya's face turned deathly pale. He collapsed to the ground, stiff as a corpse.
Under Bai Qi's relentless pressure, the crow finally revealed its true form.
It was a monster resembling a monkey, with a nose as sharp and long as a bird's beak, and its back and arms covered in the black feathers of a crow.
"A demon from the Outer Realms?"
After delving into the memories of Saint Lord, Bai Qi understood the identity of this little monster.
Beyond this world lay a realm known as the Void. The Void had no self-awareness; it was an unconscious, ever-expanding expanse filled with all sorts of strange creatures and deformed civilizations that had adapted to its conditions.
However, the most distinctive feature of the Void was the presence of world fragments, both large and small.
When a world was destroyed for various reasons, it would shatter into fragments of varying sizes, scattered across every corner of the Void. Some were consumed by powerful void creatures, while others served as resting places for void civilizations and wanderers.
This creature, which looked like a stitched-together monstrosity, was called a demon, just like Saint Lord. However, Saint Lord was a native demon born of this world, empowered by dark energy. The demon before Bai Qi, on the other hand, was an Outer Realm demon, a product of a unique civilization within the Void.
The reputation of Outer Realm demons in the Void was not merely bad; it was utterly notorious. They were synonymous with madness, slaughter, and death. From the moment of their birth, every Outer Realm demon lived on the edge of death, with the slightest misstep leading to them becoming food for even more powerful Outer Realm demons.
If this were the only reason, it would not be enough to earn Outer Realm demons such a dreadful reputation. More importantly, in their extremely harsh environment, the only path forward for Outer Realm demons was to invade other worlds. By doing so, they could acquire more resources to increase their strength. However, during these invasions, the presence of an Outer Realm demon often brought a significant influx of void energy, causing various disasters in the invaded world, such as plagues and biological mutations.
If one were to compare a world to a cake, then Outer Realm demons would be the worms hidden within, constantly nibbling away. Eventually, a world utterly hollowed out would be unable to resist the void energy, leading to its destruction and its transformation into numerous world fragments that would join the Void.
As for how Saint Lord knew all this?
As the original native demon, Saint Lord's role was to maintain the world's yin and yang balance and to guard against invasions from external void forces. In ancient times, with his immense power, Saint Lord had crushed countless Outer Realm demons. Ones like the one before him wouldn't have even qualified as cannon fodder back then.
It could be said that this Outer Realm demon was unlucky. The Void was full of resource-rich, magic-laden worlds, yet it chose to come to this world, which had entered the Age of Dharma Decline. For an Outer Realm demon that also needed magic to sustain itself, this was akin to jumping from one slum to another, except in this slum, the inhabitants were relatively peaceful and wouldn't eat it.
Thus, despite the passage of many years, the Outer Realm demon's strength had not improved; it had actually diminished compared to before it arrived.
Where could it even begin to complain about such a state of affairs?
Facing such a weak Outer Realm demon, Bai Qi did not immediately end its life. Instead, he began to prod, curious to know what this creature was thinking, wanting to cooperate with him, a native demon.
Seeing that escape was impossible, the Outer Realm demon finally revealed the whole story.
This Outer Realm demon was named Hei Yu. Compared to other Outer Realm demons, Hei Yu had been exceptionally weak since birth. Fortunately, Hei Yu had excellent luck and stumbled upon a miraculous item capable of time and space travel. With this item, Hei Yu safely navigated its youth. Upon reaching adulthood, Hei Yu, like other Outer Realm demons, joined the ranks of those who invaded other worlds.
This time, fate did not favor Hei Yu. Hei Yu drifted through the Void for a long time without finding a suitable world. Either the worlds were too strong, and entering them would be a suicide mission for Hei Yu, or other Outer Realm demons had beaten it to the punch.
Wandering for an unknown number of years, Hei Yu finally found a world that was not strong and had not yet been invaded by other Outer Realm demons – the world Bai Qi inhabited.
However, upon entering, Hei Yu regretted its decision. It wasn't because the world was too strong; quite the opposite, it was astonishingly weak. After entering, Hei Yu could not find any valuable resources. To make matters worse, for some unknown reason, the world's barrier was incredibly tough. During its passage, the time-traveling item Hei Yu possessed shattered and fell into this world.
Without its treasure and lacking sufficient magic to breach the world's barrier again, Hei Yu had no choice but to remain in this world, searching for the scattered fragments and waiting for an opportunity.