Not long after Zhou Hao hurried back, Ji Kang, a deputy general of the Jade Dragon Army, returned as well, bringing Cao Rong and Yang Yun with him.
"Elder Ji?" Zhou Hao looked anxiously at Ji Kang.
Facing Zhou Hao's expectant gaze, Ji Kang could not help but sigh and slowly shake his head. "We were one step too late."
"What exactly happened?" Zhou Hao's eyes had reddened.
"It's all my fault." Yang Yun wept. "I wanted to return to the Hu Clan to ask about the marriage contract, so Xiangcao and Cao Rong accompanied me. We ended up running into Ping'er and his father being taken by a great demon, which then threatened the Hu Clan West Mansion..."
It turned out that early that morning, when Yang Yun and the other two left Jade Dragon City and returned to the Hu Clan West Mansion City, where Yang Yun's former husband's family resided, they found the entire city gripped by panic, as though every rustle of wind and cry of a crane concealed an enemy.
Only after asking around did the three learn that Hu Yong and Hu Ping had been captured by a great demon while out hunting. The demon demanded that the Hu Clan West Mansion hand over one hundred High-Grade Origin Stones in exchange for their lives.
Demonic beasts were everywhere in the Wilderness World, and countless great demons lurked within deep mountains and vast marshes.
Precisely because there were so many great demons, each one difficult to deal with, a certain tacit understanding existed between them and overlord forces such as the Hu Clan and Liu Clan.
Great demons generally would not go on mad, wholesale massacres of humans, while overlord forces like the Hu Clan and Liu Clan would not risk everything to hunt them