"D-Demon Emperor, my lord?"
At that moment, the several Demon Kings drinking and making merry within the great hall abruptly widened their eyes at the figure standing in the doorway.
Before they knew it, one Demon King's cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor with a sharp crack, breaking the hall's stillness.
"G-Good. Very good. I was gone for only so long, and this is how you managed the Demon World? What are you little brats supposed to be?"
The Demon Emperor ground his teeth. He had merely been absent for a while—was this how these people had managed Demon Emperor City?
Moreover, the people before him were all at the King Realm, the so-called Demon Kings. Above Demon Kings were Demon Emperors, and only at the level beyond that did one reach the cultivation of a Demon Emperor.
The Demon Emperor also understood that these few fools before him were now the strongest in the entire Demon World. Back in the Demon World's heyday, there had been nine great Demon Emperors, each with several Demon Kings under their command.
What a formidable force that had been. Yet now, the entire Demon World was a smoke-filled mess, with only a few stray cats and dogs left. The creatures outside were like this, and these people in the hall still cared only for pleasure.
"The Demon Emperor? That can't be right, can it? This fellow's cultivation is about the same as ours, and his aura is unstable. He looks like a newly advanced Demon King. Who knows which backwater hole he crawled out of."
"Hadn't Lord Demon Emperor already fallen long ago?"
At this, one of the Demon Kings looked utterly confused. He could clearly sense that the Demon Emperor before him had cultivation about equal to his