The Demon King Revival Society

Demon King Revival Society

Being an adventurer was nowhere near as wonderful as people imagined.

Official adventurers were paid well for commissions, but work was not always available, making their income highly unstable.

Besides, those high rewards were bought with their lives, and the job itself carried considerable danger.

Losing an arm or a leg was nothing. Sometimes, simply making it back alive to brag about it was already incredibly lucky. It was common to see someone drinking in a tavern one day, only for them never to be seen again afterward.

Living on the edge of life and death year-round would leave anyone with psychological problems. Most adventurers chose to numb themselves with alcohol, and over time, naturally picked up the bad habit of heavy drinking.

In the past, governments across the nations had offered excellent benefits to encourage more people to become adventurers and fight the Demon King of Tyranny. That had been the golden age of adventurers.

But after the Demon King of Tyranny vanished, all those benefits vanished with him.

Work injury insurance? Health insurance? Pension insurance? What were those? Were they tasty?

Top-tier adventurers did indeed live colorful lives, but most low-level adventurers suffered from all the problems above. Very few managed to live safely until retirement.

As a result, fewer and fewer newcomers were genuinely willing to join the profession.

Pei Renli did not need to worry too much about the hardships of surviving as an adventurer. He had never intended to make a living from this line of work anyway. He had come mainly to learn a few things and gather information about this plane and even the entire multiverse.

Still, it had to be said that their first commission had thoroughly taught these rookies, who once harbored fantasies about adventurers, a lesson.

The four of them had originally planned to hold a victory feast at the town tavern after returning, to celebrate their triumphant first battle. But now, none of them was in the mood. Fortunately, medicine from the school infirmary was free. After hurriedly tending to their wounds, the four exhausted students dragged themselves back to the dormitory.

The moment Pei Renli entered, he collapsed onto his bed. He truly did not want to move.

But he knew he could not sleep, because if he fell asleep now, he would definitely miss dinner at the cafeteria. After expending so much energy during the day, if he skipped dinner, he would most likely wake up starving in the middle of the night.

When there was proper food to eat, he had no desire to make his teeth battle dry rations again.

He casually opened the Demon King System. The reputation line still displayed "5," apparently meaning that commission had not been enough to raise his reputation.

After all, only the school knew what they had gone there to do. Even Naspar's government had simply issued the commission and then washed its hands of the matter, not caring who took it.

Shaking his head hard, Pei Renli closed the Demon King System and sat up. He moved to the desk, drew a circle with his hand to activate Light, then picked up a quill and pulled out his Demon King notebook, preparing to jot down the important points from today's events.

The notebook was written in Chinese, so he did not need to worry about someone picking it up and discovering his background. As for whether the next Demon King would be able to read Chinese if Pei Renli failed to survive the Demon King Arena...

That would no longer be Pei Renli's concern. In any case, he had made every preparation he could.

Amid the scratch of the quill against paper, the shadow cast behind Pei Renli by Light twisted.

"Your Majesty the Demon King, please forgive me."

Pausing his pen, Pei Renli turned and saw Lavna half-kneeling behind him.

To be fair, seeing someone kneel before him had felt rather satisfying at first. No wonder emperors in ancient times always made people kneel. But after a while, it became somewhat tiresome.

Unfortunately, Lavna had no intention of changing. Usually, she would agree to anything Pei Renli said, but she refused to compromise on matters of etiquette, claiming that this was the dignity His Majesty the Demon King ought to possess...

Who knew what dignity a bare-bones commander like him even had.

"It was this subordinate's presumptuous action that troubled Your Majesty."

"It's fine. No one got hurt, anyway."

Lavna had presumptuously summoned a bunch of goblins, and at the time, Pei Renli had felt utterly floored. But judging by the results, without that wave of goblins charging straight into their faces to provide experience, they would certainly have been even more flustered when the skeletons and swamp octopus attacked them from both front and rear.

Speaking of which, skeletons appearing somewhere undead creatures should not have existed was itself highly abnormal.

At first, Pei Renli had thought it was Lavna's doing again, but she had explicitly said it was not.

Tomorrow, Litia, as the team leader, would mention it in her verbal report to the teacher. Pei Renli did not need to worry about it.

"Regarding this matter, after Your Majesty and the others were safe, I followed the tracks to investigate and discovered signs of outsiders being active near Demon King Castle."

Demon King Castle was protected by immensely powerful magic. To outsiders, the former Demon King Castle was now nothing but a perfectly smooth mountainside. Not only were the rooms deep within impossible to find, even the entrance to the cave could not be discovered.

After the Demon King of Tyranny disappeared, the governments of various nations had sent several groups to inspect it, yet found nothing amiss. They did not even know that while they examined the entrance, Lavna had been hiding nearby, watching their every move.

Logically, twenty years had already passed. No one should have gone deep into the Great Tree Sea just to look at the original site of Demon King Castle. Yet Lavna was saying that someone had been near it...

Could it be that my existence has been discovered?

If that was true, should he remain still for now, or quickly pack up and run?

Once someone discovered his true identity, it might draw a crusade from the entire plane. And Pei Renli was still in his dormant phase, weak as could be.

Seemingly seeing what Pei Renli was thinking, Lavna added:

"The other party should not have noticed anything. Judging from the tracks, they were merely passing through. Please rest assured, Your Majesty the Demon King."

Though she said so, Pei Renli still felt somewhat uneasy.

"Who was it? What? A necromancer? The Demon King Revival Society?"

At the same time, somewhere within the Great Tree Sea—

The sun had long since sunk below the horizon along its eternal course, and night gradually blanketed the Great Tree Sea.

In the forest, where a storm had just passed, the droplets on the leaves had yet to fully evaporate. The high humidity brought thick fog down with the night.

Beneath this night canopy, where only the chirping of insects could be heard, a tent stood hidden within the forest.

Anyone with experience could tell at a glance that these were the kind of tents adventurers often used. Thanks to the existence of the Demon King, everything related to adventurers had developed by leaps and bounds. These tents could be quickly set up and packed away, making them highly convenient and popular among long-distance travelers.

Inside the tent sat a circle of men, all middle-aged and around forty. They stared at the wavering candle flame before them, each seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

Even now, adventurer parties occasionally came to the Great Tree Sea, because it produced many precious medicinal herbs. This was also the key reason why the small town of Naspar could barely keep itself going.

However, adventurers generally would not venture this deep. The nights in the Great Tree Sea were simply far too dangerous.

A grave atmosphere filled the tent, so heavy it was almost hard to breathe, until one man, who appeared to be the captain, spoke.

"How long has he been gone? Still haven't picked him up?"

"About an hour. There's still half an hour until the appointed time."

From the tone of their conversation alone, it was clear they had not come to the Great Tree Sea to gather herbs.

After those few words, the tent sank into silence again. No one spoke—or perhaps no one dared to.

But as adventurers who had spent years walking the edge between life and death, they soon noticed that the scattered chirps of insects previously filtering through the tent had vanished without anyone realizing. The surroundings had become so silent that only the faint crackle of the candle flame remained.

"Boss! I'm back!"

"Did you get him?"

Just as someone was about to speak, a pale hand lifted the tent flap from behind, bringing with it a bone-piercing chill.

His entire body was covered by a black robe like drifting mist, leaving only a chin and lips so pale they held no trace of blood. Even in the candlelight, all they could see was the faint reflection cast by his eyes beneath the hood. Simply standing there made everyone deeply uncomfortable.

Seeing him, the captain gave a look, and the others rose and left one after another, leaving the captain alone with the black-robed man.

"My apologies. On the way here, I couldn't resist taking a look at the Demon King Castle of the Demon King of Tyranny, so I took a slight detour."

He was not polite in the least, walking directly over and taking the seat opposite the captain.

Now that they were closer, the captain could smell a pungent scent of spices, mixed with a faint stench like that of a rotting corpse.

That anomaly made the captain frown slightly, but he said nothing about it and merely asked, "Did anyone see you?"

"No. At most, my arrival may have awakened the corpses sleeping in the Great Tree Sea. Even if someone finds those undead, it should come to nothing."

The captain had heard that when powerful necromancers merely passed by, corpses in graveyards would claw their way out of the earth.

But that was only something he had heard. He could not entirely trust the words of the man before him; the man might very well have deliberately awakened the undead just to cause trouble for his own amusement.

Of course, that was not particularly important.

"We deeply appreciate your willingness to accept our ideals..."

"You and I both lived through that golden age. No adventurer still alive doesn't miss it, so let's dispense with the pleasantries."

"As you wish."

"Did you bring the items?"

"Of course."

The black-robed man extended a hand from within his wide sleeve and placed on the ground a ceramic jar the size of a soda can and a black parchment scroll.

Just as the captain reached for them, the latter drew them back slightly.

"There's something I need to inform you of in advance."

"What is it?"

"Your plan must be postponed. There are still some matters we haven't finished in Curtain Star City. If you begin the plan immediately, it will put us in a difficult position."

"Postponed for how long?"

"No more than three weeks."

They had endured twenty years already. Three weeks truly amounted to nothing.

The captain nodded in agreement and took the items from the black-robed man. Seeing that his purpose had been fulfilled, the latter rose cleanly to his feet.

"I hope we'll have a chance to meet again."

"I hope so too."

After that brief exchange, the black-robed man turned and left without the slightest reluctance. The men guarding outside the tent then poured in, and the six burly middle-aged men stared at that small ceramic jar as though it were some peerless treasure.

The captain brought out the silver wine cups they usually used to celebrate successful adventures, opened the ceramic jar, and evenly poured its contents into the cups.

The liquid that poured out should have been colorless and transparent, yet the moment it entered the wine cups, it turned blue-black like ink, carrying a faint fishy stench.

Each of them picked up a cup. The captain said, "To the birth of a new Demon King!"

The others echoed, "For all adventurers!"

Then they drained the liquid in their cups in one gulp. As it slid down their throats, the veins in their necks bulged out and gradually began to blacken.

With a soft pop, the candle flame in the tent was completely extinguished...