To reduce trouble.
Lao Six suggested that, when slaughtering Mountain Lords and Demon Kings along the way,
they should not drain all their fortune.
They should leave behind a small number of Demon Crystals
for greasing palms.
Of course,
a crafty demon like Lao Six
would never willingly take a loss.
Xiao Chen had already plundered most of the Demon Essence from all the demon Spiritual Crystals meant for bribes.
What remained
contained, at most, only one-fifth of their spiritual energy.
The reason for doing this
was entirely part of Lao Six's scheme.
First, Lao Six did not want Xiao Chen to suffer a loss.
Second, though this man and demon called it greasing palms, it was actually intimidation.
Along the way, the demons Xiao Chen slew were no weaklings; most had been terrifying Demon Lords.
Once the Demon Cores appeared,
they served as both benefits
and threats.
As they continued onward,
nearly one-third of the Demon Lords who saw the Demon Cores
took the initiative to step aside
and yield the road.
"Wind-Thunder Rat Lord?"
Yang Chongxu, a two-meter-tall creature half man and half sheep, had a faint tremor in his gaze. He stared at the round crystal in Lao Six's hand, wreathed in pale wind and lightning and gleaming with a dim purple luster. As he gazed at the phantom within, his eyes quivered, as though he had been deeply shaken.
"Hehe, that's right. This Demon Crystal came from a Rat Demon of the sixth realm. We wished to pass through ahead and borrow the road through the Wind-Thunder Rat Lands. We tried to reason with that Rat Demon kindly, but it refused to yield to reason or force. Left with no choice, we could only raise the butcher's blade! Ah, shameful indeed—though the tree yearns for stillness,