Chapter 1 An Odd Team

A rather strange team was traveling across the desolate scorched earth. Leading the way were two ordinary demon soldiers and a high-ranking succubus, while behind them a group of grotesque, diminutive chaos demons, resembling mutated goblins, were herding several humans. To an outsider, it was obvious: the demons had captured a group of human prisoners.

At least, that's how it appeared.

Lanya and the two demon soldiers walked ahead, and while walking, Lanya got information from them. Hao Ren looked around from the back. This experience of infiltrating the enemy's ranks was novel and interesting to him. As long as everything went smoothly, they could reach the Obsidian Plain under the cover of these low-level demons.

Beside Hao Ren were several strangers with gloomy expressions, the "spies" of the Allied Church that the demons had captured. They probably weren't high-ranking personnel, just ordinary scouts, otherwise they wouldn't have been captured by a group of low-level demons.

Closest to Hao Ren was a middle-aged man with a stubbly beard, wearing light brown leather armor, looking like a vanguard soldier—his dog tag said so.

He glanced at Hao Ren and his group with some curiosity. Seeing that they were all wearing old, coarse cloth robes (which they had changed into temporarily; these disguise clothes were all stored in Hao Ren's portable space), and that none of them showed any signs of frustration or anger despite being surrounded by demons, he understood that these were humans who had been brainwashed by the succubus and probably didn't even remember their allegiance. So, he didn't bother to talk to them.

But Hao Ren took the initiative to speak to the man next to him, "So, you guys are with the Allied Church?"

The stubbly-bearded man frowned, humming softly in agreement. Facing a human lackey controlled by a succubus was like facing a demon itself—there was nothing to communicate about.

"What's the Allied Church looking for in the Obsidian Plain?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

"No talking!" The demon soldier leading the way had sharp ears and turned around to shout. But Lanya immediately smiled enchantingly, "Let them talk. Humans, even if they're useless, can squeeze out a little hope when they're together. It's more interesting to slowly crush that hope afterwards…"

The demon soldier immediately felt that it made sense: "The succubus is indeed experienced!"

The other demon soldier next to him nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes."

"Are the Allied Church looking for someone there? Or treasure?" As soon as Lily saw that Lanya had set the tone, she immediately came over and asked the stubbly-bearded man, "What about you guys? How did you get caught in this place?"

The stubbly-bearded man frowned. He vaguely felt that these "brainwashed lackeys of the succubus" were somewhat different, seeming too cheerful and carefree, but he still didn't want to talk to them: "I have nothing to say to you—your succubus mistress probably sent you to extract information, so don't bother. You're a bunch of guys who have forgotten who they are."

Hao Ren looked at the surrounding chaos demons and found that these short, emaciated, low-level demons were indeed not very smart, as Lanya had said. When they didn't have an order, they could only act according to the last instruction. So, he felt relieved, moved closer to the stubbly-bearded man, and lowered his voice, "I'm a sorcerer."

The stubbly-bearded man's eyes widened instantly, and his expression changed rapidly, as if he had thought of many things at once. But in the end, he cautiously asked, "Proof?"

Hao Ren raised his finger and mumbled in the direction of Lanya, "She has a screw loose."

Lanya sneezed in response. She looked back inexplicably, feeling like someone was talking about her.

The stubbly-bearded man immediately believed Hao Ren's claim—the reason was simple: in this world, the succubus's charm ability was simple and crude. Intelligent beings who were charmed would unconditionally praise everything about the succubus and could not make any opposing statements or actions, even if the succubus herself ordered them to do so…

"So, she's your… servant?" The stubbly-bearded man looked at Hao Ren with surprise and immediately realized that these people were not being controlled by the succubus at all. The real situation was probably the opposite. "Are you here to rescue us?"

"Freelance mercenaries, helping out," Hao Ren made up a reason based on the information he had heard from Lanya about the Allied Church. "We just arrived and haven't been able to access anything too important yet. So, what exactly are you looking for over there?"

The stubbly-bearded man lowered his eyes and replied softly, "It's not a secret—the Mad Lord's treasure."

Izhaks stopped in his tracks: "Huh?"

"It's said to be the secret to the Mad Lord's power," the stubbly-bearded man continued. "The Mad Lord rose from an ordinary demon overseer to the strongest demon king, sweeping across almost the entire demon world and half of the human realm in a few hundred years. And it's said that he could find hidden spatial gates and new planes as if he could see the future. This is all because he obtained a special treasure. I don't know where the specific information came from, but the leaders above the Allied Forces seem to have found the Mad Lord's last remaining video before his disappearance. It said that the ruins of the royal city on the Obsidian Plain held all the secrets to his power. That's pretty much it."

Izhaks was immediately dumbfounded. He couldn't remember how he had acquired this so-called remaining video after his "death". Of course, he was even more annoyed that the Allied Church had been wandering around the Obsidian Plain for half a year in search of a vague treasure instead of his daughter! His expression immediately changed for the worse, and when Hao Ren saw this, he quickly patted Izhaks' arm: "Old Wang, Old Wang, calm down—the situation is still unclear, there's still room for investigation!"

Izhaks, being a man who had accomplished great things, quickly calmed down and nodded silently.

The team walked like this for most of the day. The black plain had already appeared at the end of their sight, and at the same time, a large number of tall black shadows, presumably buildings, also appeared. These were probably the garrisons of the Cerberus Legion or the front lines of the Allied Church. As they gradually approached their destination, they also began to encounter more frequent wandering demon stragglers and even small squads of the Cerberus Legion.

But every encounter was without real danger—Lanya declared that most of the humans in the team were servants she had charmed, and the two demon soldiers swore to vouch for them. The demons they met on the road all expressed their admiration for Lanya's good taste, liking both men and women.

One didn't know how much disgust the succubus girl had been holding back along the way… As a succubus, being naturally asexual was difficult enough for her.

In this way, the special team gradually approached the border of the Obsidian Plain. Hao Ren had already seen strange rocks protruding from the ground like ground thorns, which were probably what this world called "obsidian."

Just as Hao Ren was wondering how to find an opportunity to kill the demons around him and infiltrate the Allied Church, a huge explosion suddenly erupted beside the team!

With a loud "boom," a huge fireball burst out of thin air in front of the team, and while the demons were in a brief moment of panic, a large group of human soldiers in armor ran out from behind the huge stone thorns on both sides of the road!

These soldiers had obviously been lying in ambush here for quite some time, and now they easily surrounded the small demon squad, their numbers being two or three times that of the demons.

The two leading demon soldiers immediately raised their weapons and roared angrily, but after seeing the number of enemies, they wisely didn't rush forward. One of the demon soldiers looked at Lanya, "Succubus Master…"

The Allied Church soldiers who jumped out also suddenly discovered that there was an unexpected succubus in this demon squad. All the male soldiers subconsciously took a few steps back, and the leading officer tightened his grip on his weapon and shouted, "Careful of the succubus's…"

Quick as lightning, Lanya suddenly drew her two black thin swords from her waist, flipped over, and fluttered like a light bird around the two demon soldiers. Before the two demons could figure out what was going on, they had already fallen to the ground.

Lanya looked up at the human officer: "Huh?"

The human officer: "...Huh?"

"What the hell!" Hao Ren suddenly pulled out a silver alloy spear out of thin air and casually swung it to knock away one of the chaos demons beside him, "Grab your weapons and attack!"