Current State of the Demon Horde

"The continent really has changed."

Xu Jiawei held the intelligence report that had just arrived. He subconsciously turned his head to the side, only to realize there was no one beside him.

"I forgot—Jiujiu is still at Shrek Academy."

Xu Jiawei chuckled. Whenever something major happened, he would usually discuss it with his clever younger sister first. This time, however, he would have to consult the ministers below him first.

"I just wonder how many people will start entertaining petty thoughts when the time comes."

A hint of helplessness entered Xu Jiawei's voice. The other party was a god. Even as a mortal emperor, he could not affect them in the slightest.

"Guards, convene court."

Xu Jiawei regained his composure and became once more the majestic, supreme Star Luo Emperor.

He casually placed a sheet of paper on the table. It contained intelligence personally written by Xu Jiujiu: "Brother, the God of the Sea is suspected to have descended. Above all else, prioritize survival."

"Little Bear, you can't rely on brute force for everything. The key to artifact forging is forging. What can you make by merely hammering iron?"

Lu Wu felt somewhat helpless as he looked at Xiong Jun, who was grinning foolishly before him. Xiong Jun did listen to him, but he always missed the point sometimes.

"Lu Master, I was just thinking that making the materials better first would make engraving the runes easier later, and the results would be better too."

Xiong Jun scratched his head and smiled foolishly.

Lu Wu did not know what to say. Whether one possessed great supernatural powers or not, materials were always an insurmountable hurdle in artifact forging.

Do not say that only forging the finest divine artifacts from the worst materials made one a divine craftsman. That was only done when there was truly no way to improve further or no suitable materials available.

Good materials could make artifact forging twice as effective with half the effort, and they made it easier for the Magic Treasures created to surpass their original limits. Otherwise, why would people everywhere seek rare and precious materials? Given Self-Growing Soil and roadside weeds as materials, any normal person would choose the former.

So, in a sense, Xiong Jun was not wrong. Once one had entered the path of artifact forging, what was wrong with pursuing good materials?

"The key is that this isn't a custom-made Magic Treasure. Why make a standardized Magic Treasure so complicated?"

Xiong Jun and the others were forging formation pillars. They were not making formation flags because their current artifact-forging skills were not yet high enough. Compared to cloth flags, large, hard rods were much easier to use.

"I'm still not very familiar with this stuff. How about teaching me some more, Lu Master?"

Xiong Jun grinned, finally revealing his true intention.

"Forget it. I still have things to do next. Go discuss it with Gu Yuena and the others yourselves."

Elsewhere, Gu Yuena and the other demons were already discussing how to forge the formation pillars. Lu Wu had told them that the number of these things would determine how much of the Star Dou Great Forest remained once humans began clearing the land. If they wanted to keep the Star Dou Great Forest as it was, they needed to forge more.

This workload could conveniently serve as homework he assigned them as guidance. Those who did well would be rewarded, while those who did poorly could be punished by the humans. After all, this was the home they had lived in for countless years.

Demon Script and runes counted as foundational subjects. As for laws, Lu Wu would not speak too much about them. Occasionally giving a few lectures on the Dao would serve as a reward for the demon horde.

Artifact forging was now a required course for them. It happened to train their ability to use runes, and practice made perfect.

Pill refining, formations, talisman crafting, and the like counted as elective courses. Different demons chose according to their own preferences.

Gu Yuena studied formations. As the leader of a race, she was highly interested in this method that could help unify the strength of an entire clan.

Ten Thousand Demons King and Bi Ji studied pill refining. One had already begun trying to use wood to generate fire, while the other focused wholeheartedly on life. Both were rather suited to it.

Di Tian and Demon Spirit studied talisman crafting. Di Tian was very interested in methods that could be stockpiled in large quantities and unleashed all at once. He had set himself a small goal: first make a hundred million talismans. With his incredibly long lifespan, he did not care about time. He only wanted to one day blow up the God Realm in one stroke.

As for Demon Spirit, all fear stemmed from insufficient firepower. Its physical body was weak, inferior even to an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. It planned to keep one hundred thousand predictive defensive talismans, one hundred thousand acceleration talismans, and one hundred thousand offensive talismans ready at all times. One day, no one would dare attack it.

Xiong Jun and Scarlet King focused wholeheartedly on artifact forging. Xiong Jun had tried the "Magic Treasure" Lu Wu gave him and found it especially handy for smashing people. Moreover, Lu Wu had said that different Magic Treasures had different functions, so he was now extremely interested. Scarlet King's thinking was simpler: since it was all about playing with fire anyway, he might as well stick with something familiar rather than bother switching.

As for the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, she studied divination with Lu Wu. She was inherently an Auspicious Beast of fortune, so the backlash on the Douluo Continent affected her less. Moreover, she possessed a pure heart, making her extraordinarily gifted at learning it.

On top of that, Lu Wu was always lying on her. Shrouded in the Dao aura around him, her learning progress was faster than Lu Wu had expected.

Then there was Zi Ji. She had no interest in those methods. In her words, learning all that miscellaneous stuff was less interesting than fighting.

Lu Wu's little classes also taught some minor spells. After Zi Ji learned them, she would squat off to the side and ponder them herself. If there was something she did not understand, she would ask Lu Wu. Once she had learned enough, she would head into the core region to find beasts to fight. There were still quite a few Hundred-Thousand-Year Beast Kings in the Star Dou Great Forest.

Zi Ji would take on five or six at a time, and recently she had even advanced to taking on ten at once. The Beast Kings of the Star Dou Great Forest had suffered terribly and had already gone to Gu Yuena to complain. But how could they possibly be as familiar with her as Gu Yuena was? Gu Yuena gave Zi Ji a token warning, then stopped caring.

Fortunately, there was still the gentle and kind Bi Ji. After every fight, Zi Ji would drag a group of limp Beast Kings to Bi Ji for treatment. Once they were healed, they would be dragged off to fight again the next day.

Thus, the Beast Kings now both loved and hated Bi Ji. The key was that they could not refuse her treatment. Among the strong-preying-on-the-weak Soul Beast race, refusing the goodwill of a healer was practically the same as waiting to die—especially when that healer was a Soul Beast like the Emerald Swan, not to mention Bi Ji as she was now.

Lu Wu looked around. The demon horde was busily preparing to get to work. Some gathered materials, while others engraved runes.

Naturally, Scarlet King had it the worst. The demon horde all possessed fire-starting spells, but their proficiency was low. The flames they produced now were not even as useful as Scarlet King's natal flames.

Other than Gu Yuena, all the demons gathered around Scarlet King. Scarlet King lay there obediently, breathing fire and continuously splitting off flames to control them, adjusting the fire according to each demon's instructions.

After all, this concerned the survival of the Star Dou Great Forest. They had no desire to slowly figure out artifact forging one demon at a time. Seeing that Lu Wu had no intention of stopping them, they continued.

Lu Wu raised his head toward the sky, but what his eyes saw was the little female brat of a Plane Consciousness spying on them.

The Plane Consciousness noticed Lu Wu looking up and realized that he seemed to have discovered her. She hurriedly withdrew her gaze and reinforced the plane's space, then began spinning on her own within the space as though nothing had happened.

Lu Wu chuckled, not particularly caring about her little tricks.

Next, he still had something rather important to do for the Soul Beast race.