Chapter 1 The Beginning

The magma river suddenly surged, with countless bubbles gurgling up from the riverbed. Upon seeing this, Lily yelped and backpedaled ten meters: "What did I poke out?!"

Everyone else immediately watched the churning, viscous liquid with vigilance. Hao Ren braced his shield in front of Nangong Wuyue: the siren girl was usually good at defense, but in this hot, arid place, she had become the most vulnerable of them all. After violently churning for more than ten seconds, the magma river suddenly made a strange, rumbling noise, and a colossal monster abruptly rose from the scalding magma!

This monster had a roughly humanoid shape, but its entire body was formed of molten magma. Its upright upper body was three or four meters tall. It swayed, standing on the surface of the river. Although it had no facial features, its movements conveyed a sense of bewilderment: it kept turning its head in all directions, as if searching for a scent in the air. Huge droplets of magma dripped from the monster's body into the river, sending up puffs of white smoke.

Hao Ren felt his scalp tingle when he saw this "creature" that severely challenged common sense: "What is that?"

"Don't be afraid, it's just a Lava Demon," Lanina told everyone to step back a little, then frowned as she looked at the magma creature and asked uncertainly, "Bolu?"

The giant Lava Demon "heard" these two syllables and immediately reacted, bending slightly towards Lanina and emitting a series of incomprehensible gurgling sounds. Lanina took a few steps back to prevent the magma from the creature's body from dripping on her head, and then began to communicate with the other party in that strange gurgling sound.

"These two know each other?" Hao Ren nudged Izhaks' arm. "What are they saying?"

"I don't know," Izhaks scratched his bald head. "Lava Demons are low-level creatures with very poor intelligence. I used to train them as guards for magma lakes everywhere, but among the demons, only Lanina can communicate with them in this way. The principle is unknown."

Hao Ren looked in surprise at Lanina, who was gurgling and exchanging feelings with a lump of magma: "...As a succubus, how did she put all her skill points in these strange places?"

Izhaks shrugged: "Maybe there really is something wrong with my education..."

At this moment, Lanina finally finished communicating with the Lava Demon named "Bolu". The latter rumbled and sank back into the magma river, while Lanina reported a piece of bad news with concern: "Ceratos has basically controlled this place. His legions are stalemated with the Holy See's allied forces near the Obsidian Plains. The two sides don't know what they are fighting over, but in short, his soldiers are everywhere."

"This place used to be Big Guy's territory, right?" Vivian frowned. "What happened to your old men?"

"Those who survived have basically fled to other spaces. Those who stayed here have already betrayed," Lanina said with almost no emotion. "Most of the middle and lower-level demons have no loyalty. Whoever has the bigger fist is the boss. Now when we meet, they are all enemies. But there is good news: Ceratos doesn't quite trust those demons who have just betrayed him, so he has arranged them all in the Red Peak area, which is far from the Obsidian Plains. We will basically not encounter those guys."

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. Those betraying demons were the biggest threat: they could recognize Lanina's appearance, and might even sense Izhaks' aura. Once they met, those demons would be more dangerous than Ceratos' legion soldiers.

"Ceratos and the Holy See's allied forces are stalemated on the Obsidian Plains?" Izhaks stroked his chin and began to think. "The Holy See's allied forces are very powerful. For Ceratos to be able to stalemate with them, he must have sent most of his main forces over... No wonder the Demonforging Mines have been temporarily put on hold."

"Just to catch your daughter, two groups of people would go to such lengths?" Hao Ren suddenly felt that something was wrong. A demon king, a group of allied forces from various races, had been stalemated on a ruin for more than half a year. It was really unreasonable to say that they were just looking for a naughty child.

Izhaks' expression changed, and he clenched his fist: "No matter what they are doing, we must go there."

"Wait a minute," Vivian suddenly said. "Is the information from that 'Lava Demon' reliable?"

"Reliable," Lanina smiled. "Lava Demons have low intelligence and don't lie, but they are connected by the magma network that spreads deep in the earth, and can know what is happening in most areas of this land. I am the only demon who has mastered their language. No one but me can use this information network."

Hao Ren nodded and had no more doubts. He led the group away from the scorching river of lava and continued to advance towards the Obsidian Plains.

As they went on, they began to encounter low-level demons patrolling everywhere, and the closer they got to the Obsidian Plains, the more demons roamed about. There even began to be Ceratos stragglers equipped with weapons. Previously, when they were in the Ceratos Plane, the group had directly landed near the Demonforging Mines under the cover of the thick clouds high in the sky, but here, Hao Ren did not intend to hide too much—they were here to gather information. If they sneaked all the way to the Obsidian Plains, they would probably face a situation of confusion.

So the group began to cautiously make contact with those wandering low-level demons.

This required taking a bit of risk, but the group had discussed the method of disguise and deception beforehand. Furthermore, you couldn't understand the local situation without contacting the enemy, so this risk had to be taken. Moreover, low-level demons were easy to deal with. With the abilities of Hao Ren and his group, they could basically kill them instantly, so even if they were exposed, there was not much to worry about.

On the desolate, scorched red earth, two burly demon guards with horns on their heads were leading a small team on their way. They wore the armor of ordinary soldiers of the Ceratos Legion, and their rock-like skin was directly exposed to the scorching air, but the two demons themselves enjoyed this weather very much. They looked back at the Chaos Demons behind them, who couldn't even be considered soldiers, and the several trembling humans following in the middle of the Chaos Demons, and chatted carelessly: "It's a good day... and our luck is not bad today either."

"Yeah, yeah."

"We happened to catch these guys on the way to our shift. The Holy See's allied forces don't seem to be very capable."

"Yeah, yeah."

"I heard that the Holy See's allied forces have been searching the Obsidian Plains for half a year. If those low-level creatures keep dragging on like this, they will all be killed by the poisonous gas before we even advance. Do you think that's what Lord Ceratos is planning?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"At that time, I will be considered a veteran who retired in the first sequence, and maybe I can get a captain to be in charge, so I can live a good life of eating people once a week."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Tsk, I admire your honesty."

"Yeah, yeah."

The two demon soldiers, who had a good relationship, walked along while chatting, fully proving that even demons, as creatures, have thoughts and emotions. However, a small group of humans suddenly appeared in their sight, which made the two demons immediately stop talking and raise their weapons: "More humans!"

"Look carefully! You idiot!" Lanina walked aggressively towards the two demon guards. "There's also a high-level demon here!"

The average height of the two demon soldiers was almost twice that of Lanina, but the petite succubus unceremoniously rebuked these tank-like grunts with a stern aura. The two demon soldiers were not annoyed at all. When they saw that it was a succubus leading a group of humans, they immediately put down their weapons: "Oh, it's a succubus master."

Succubi have low combat power, but their innate high intelligence and magic skills have allowed their entire race to be among the upper-middle class of demons—natural commanders and staff officers. Therefore, any succubus is considered a "big shot" to these grassroots soldiers.

"Are you going to the Obsidian Plains?" Lanina asked casually, as if she was originally the commander of the two demon soldiers in front of her. Her tone was very natural.

"Yes," the expressions of the two demon soldiers were slightly dazed. "We caught a few scouts from the Holy See's allied forces on the way here, and we are going to send them to the commander on the front line."

"Oh, that's just right, I'm also going to the Obsidian Plains," Lanina pointed to Hao Ren and the others behind her. "I've recently added a few servants, but their brainwashing isn't thorough enough, and they don't listen very well. Put them together with your prisoners, so I don't have to keep watching them."

One of the demon soldiers nodded subconsciously, but the other suddenly shook his eyes, as if remembering something: "Of course—but could you please let us see your legion badge first?"

Lanina took out half a pack of chewing gum from her body (which she took from Hao Ren's house) and waved it in front of the demon soldiers. Her eyes glowed with a faint blue light, and her voice was low and soft like a dream: "This is my legion badge..."

Lanina had never seriously practiced her charm ability, so it was of course difficult to deal with the elite demons near the portal, but it was much easier to deal with these lower-level soldiers who didn't seem to have very good brains. Instinct alone was enough. The two demon soldiers nodded blankly: "Oh, good..."

Hao Ren and the others brazenly mixed into a demon squad preparing to go to the Obsidian Plains to change shifts.

The two demon soldiers continued on their way and began chatting again:

"Do you think ordinary soldiers like us will ever have a chance to marry a succubus wife in this lifetime?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Get out, I can't stand your hypocrisy."

"Yeah, yeah."

Hao Ren and the others were listening behind them: "..."