Chapter 1 The Demonic Forge Mine

The Demonic Forge Mine was once one of the most important military facilities of the Demon Lord Ceratos. Just a few months ago, it was garrisoned by two entire demon legions and hundreds of immensely powerful hellfire giants. But now, it was just a large pit—nothing remained.

Hao Ren looked at the giant crater before him, quite shocked. This was a place directly modified from a large impact crater. The bottom of the pit was covered with dark brown demonic ore mixed with filthy green light. The walls of the pit were covered with huge cracks and caves leading deep underground. Blazing demonic flames spewed out from these cracks, making the entire Demonic Forge Mine look like a terrifying, unextinguished brazier.

However, the place was severely damaged. Everywhere one looked, there were only ruins, or even just the base of a building, of demonic facilities. Only some unidentifiable black iron supports remained on the walls of the pit. The bottom of the pit was just a forest-like area of demonic iron spikes. Those things were originally part of the Demonic Forge facility, used to secure the unactivated hellfire giants or to suppress powerful enemy demons. They used to be dozens or even hundreds of meters high, but now only neatly arranged stumps of less than two or three meters remained. The cross-sections of this demonic iron forest were so flat, it was as if they had been cut by a knife.

Everywhere in the mine, the other fragments of the destroyed buildings were nowhere to be seen. Only their bases remained, as if the upper parts had disappeared into thin air.

"When that 'goddess' took the King away, she was intercepted by other demons, but she didn't even make a move. All the demons and buildings in the mine simply disappeared," said Lanina, still feeling incredible about what happened that day. "Really disappeared into thin air, without any process. It directly became what you see before you."

"It was deleted," said the data terminal, very professionally examining the traces left on the scene. "Just like you shredding a file on your computer, Lady Tavier must have deleted the enemies in the Demonic Forge Mine. This really fits her style. This unit heard that Lady Tavier is the most excellent researcher in the Empire. She admires efficiency, doesn't like to get entangled with people in battle, and resolves everything as quickly as possible."

Hao Ren swallowed, thinking to himself that he was lucky to be in the same family as those crazy gods. The saying that those above the rank of deputy section chief could wipe out galaxies without even charging up was probably not just bragging…

The group carefully entered the crater along a cast iron path on the edge of the Demonic Forge Mine, ready to encounter any remaining demon guards at any time. Although the spaceship had confirmed with radar that there were no demon reactions in the mine before landing, demons were such strange creatures, not only with bizarre physiological structures, but also with creatures like hellfire giants that could hardly be classified as living beings. So the group didn't dare to move around in it too carelessly.

However, the group walked for quite a while and didn't encounter any demons. The Demonic Forge Mine was deathly silent, with only the "whooshing" sound of demonic flames erupting from the ground from time to time. It seemed that the demon lord named Ceratos had given up this mine where strange things had happened. Perhaps he had sent people to investigate, but obviously even if you brought tens of thousands of experts and professors who had filmed "Approaching Science" over, they wouldn't be able to explain how an entire "factory" disappeared into thin air.

But Hao Ren always felt that something was wrong: "How come there's really no one here?"

"Are you still expecting to suddenly encounter a wave of patrols?" Vivian turned her head and glanced at him. "This is demon territory. As soon as you expose yourself, you'll be directly surrounded by a legion. You won't even know how you died."

Hao Ren frowned: "That's not what I meant… I mean, has that guy named Ceratos really given up on this place? Such a large base, even though it was destroyed… But he should at least organize a long-term investigation team to hang around here for a year and a half to live up to his professional ethics, right? How come there isn't even a shadow of a demon? Is he completely abandoning it or what?"

"It's really a bit strange," Lanina thought Hao Ren's words made a lot of sense. She bent down and picked up a strange stone that glowed with a green light. This stone was a common sight at the bottom of the mine. That metallic green light seemed to have been forged by the demonic flames erupting from the ground. "This is demonic ore, the most commonly used material for manufacturing hellfire giants. Although the Demonic Forge facility in this mine was destroyed, the mine itself is still there. There's no reason for Ceratos not to rebuild this place."

Lanina had previously suggested crossing the Demonic Forge Mine because the Behemoth's radar showed that there were no demons inside, but even so, she couldn't quite believe that Ceratos had really completely abandoned this place. Until now, seeing the desolate ruins of the mine, she was sure that there really wasn't a single demon here.

"What kind of person… uh, what kind of demon is that Ceratos?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

Lanina nodded: "A little uglier than the King's demon form."

Everyone around was immediately stunned. Hao Ren looked at Lanina in surprise, wondering if this succubus lady always judged people by how ugly they were…

"Ahem, besides that, Ceratos is also the second strongest demon lord in the Ten Demon Planes," Lanina quickly added the next few sentences. "He used to be our strongest and most stubborn enemy, the most troublesome of all the demons who opposed us. He is an abyss lord resembling a reptile, with thirty-three legions under his command, fighting with poison fire, curses, and brute force. The place we are in now is Ceratos's demon plane, the entire space is his territory, and is also known as the Third Plane."

Izhaks interjected: "By the way, I occupied the Seventh Plane back then. There are many demon spaces, but only ten of them are stable. They float in the space bubble zone, connected to each other by teleportation gates. The ones occupying these ten demon planes are the ten demon lords. Back then, the power of the Seventh Plane was almost the sum of the other planes."

Izhaks clearly felt a little proud at the end, obviously still somewhat self-satisfied with the foundation he had laid back then. And Lily asked curiously: "How come it's not whoever is the boss who is ranked first? Your territory is only ranked seventh?"

Izhaks shrugged: "This ranking doesn't distinguish between first and last, the hometown name is natural—even Confucius became a saint, wasn't he still number two?"

Hao Ren stumbled and almost fell headfirst into the green-fire-spewing mine: "You even know about Confucius?"

"I have nothing to do all day except read books and newspapers," Izhaks spread his hands. "I just finished studying Greek philosophy the other day."

Lily immediately stuck out her tongue and shrank behind Hao Ren: "Don't study philosophy, your physique makes it easy for you to have problems when studying philoso-BROTHER…"

Hao Ren looked at Lily with a very awkward expression, unable to imagine what kind of things this self-proclaimed literary girl usually read…

No matter where Ceratos's demon guards had gone, the group did not encounter any obstacles in the Demonic Forge Mine. They crossed this large, abandoned, and scorching wasteland without any surprises, and returned to the surface from the slope on the other side of the mine. The huge and magnificent demon teleportation gate finally appeared before everyone.

A large platform built with huge obsidian slabs stood on an open space hundreds of meters ahead. Two huge black stone pillars stood on both sides of the platform, with hideous and terrifying demon images carved on them. Between the two stone pillars was a swirling space.

From that swirling teleportation gate, one could vaguely see a red color, obviously leading to another demon plane.

Near the teleportation gate, Hao Ren finally saw a formal demon legion: a large group of black-armored, terrifying demon guards were guarding the platform of the teleportation gate and nearby outposts. They had dark red skin, curved goat horns on their heads, and wielded blazing hellfire giant swords. Each demon was more than three meters tall, and their size and the terrifying weapons in their hands made one wonder how many human soldiers it would take to fight one demon.

These demon guards had set up a tight defense line near the teleportation gate, dispelling Hao Ren's previous doubts. He had thought that the great Ceratos, who ruled this plane, had followed the trend of history and perished in time over the past two months. Now it seemed that his legion was all normal, but for some reason he had temporarily not sent anyone to manage the Demonic Forge Mine.

Now there was a question before Hao Ren: how to pass through the teleportation gate under the eyes of so many demon guards?