Yuesi Pavilion had nine floors, with eight rooms on each floor, and could accommodate more than two thousand people.
The first floor belonged to the Ninth Residence, where the crown princes of various nations and the Demon Heirs attended Night Reading.
Upon reaching Yuesi Pavilion, White King set him down and threatened him:
"Don't even think about running. After Night Reading, I will fulfill our agreement."
The five were about to leave when Wu Junji reached out and caught the hem of White King's robe. Tilting his head up, he asked in confusion,
"What are you going to do?"
White King and the others looked at him as though he were an idiot.
"Night Reading, of course."
"Night Reading takes place every evening during the hour of the Dog. Don't you know Jixia Academy's rules?"
Wu Junji opened his mouth to sneer:
"I thought you were such mighty Demon Kings. It turns out you're nothing but a dog."
"Five very obedient dogs, at that."
His words immediately rankled them. Xiong Yu clenched his fists and glared.
"Don't think we wouldn't dare kill you, you little brat!"
The blood running down Wu Junji's head had soaked his collar and left his hair sticky. He looked utterly bedraggled, yet he was more composed than anyone present.
Only three feet tall, without even the strength to truss a chicken, he could still find precisely where to press when facing demons half again his height.
"Am I wrong?"
"Jixia Academy promised you could seize human emperor fortune by any means necessary."
He repeated those words: "Any. Means. Necessary."
"Your master gave you a bone and told you from the start that you could eat it however you pleased. But then a few other dogs came along to fight you for it."
"You're as timid as mice, afraid your master will punish you for fighting them. So after Night Reading, whose permission are you going to ask?"
"Your Demon Kings', or Dean Ruan Yuan's?"
"You're not just dogs. You're puppies that haven't even been weaned!"
Wu Junji's words grew uglier and uglier, like thorns piercing their hearts, stabbing both heart and ear.
"You must not have any younger brothers or sisters."
"If I were your father, I'd certainly have more children after this, because I wouldn't want an heir without backbone or courage!"
"And it's lucky you don't have younger siblings, or you'd never have become Demon Heirs! You'd never have stood before me. How could a heaven-sent prize like human emperor fortune ever fall to inferior offspring like you?"
"A king who has to watch someone else's face and ask them to approve a time just to kill a few of his own subjects would be a laughingstock! You've utterly disgraced demonkind!"
Wu Junji posed a question. "I learned something about your identities before, but are you really crown princes?"
White King and the others were demons who had only just attained human form and begun to understand human nature. Their intelligence was equivalent to that of twelve- or thirteen-year-old humans-the age least able to withstand provocation.
Moreover, Wu Junji had struck them right where it hurt.
The Demon Domain had yet to establish cities and systems of governance like humans had. It was closer to self-governing clans, and a Demon King's authority extended only to those demons willing to serve him.
If demons in distant mountains refused to obey, there was nothing a Demon King could do.
They could not decide life and death with a single word as human emperors did.
The crown princes they raised were more like village chiefs' sons emerging from their villages than heirs to a nation endowed with regal dignity and commanding presence.
The present situation was that of village chiefs' sons traveling abroad, encountering a true crown prince, and being reduced to country bumpkins, their understanding utterly crushed by his.
Yet they had been treated as crown princes by everyone around them since childhood. In their own understanding, they were noble and authoritative.
They ate the sweetest fruit offered in tribute by their clans, wore the most beautiful hides their clans offered, and lived in the best-situated caves.
But today, someone had told them that a crown prince could decide his clansmen's life and death with a single word.
They knew nothing about power.
Once frogs at the bottom of a well stumbled into a realm of ignorance, unwilling to believe they were frogs at the bottom of a well, they would use anger to conceal their panic.
All five had fire blazing in their eyes as they roared for him to stop.
"Enough!"
"Shut up!"
"Close that filthy mouth!"
"I'll kill you!"
"Aaaaargh!!!!" Driven mad by his words, Xiong Yu transformed one hand into a bear's clawed paw and swiped downward, about to tear Wu Junji to pieces.
"Savage Bear!" White King shouted furiously, kicking Xiong Yu away and placing himself in front of Wu Junji.
The pain brought Xiong Yu back to his senses somewhat.
"I'm going to cut out his tongue!"
"No one's stopping me today!"
Lang Xi, Mu Zhao, and Gao Hu all agreed. They did not want to hear another word from Wu Junji!
"This human's words bewitch demons. Cut out his tongue!"
Wu Junji held his chest and laughed. When he finished, he wiped away his tears, stepped out from behind White King, and declared with wild arrogance:
"Who's coming?"
"Killing the Human Emperor is a heinous crime that brings heaven's punishment. If I resist, then I'm nothing but dog hide, dog bones, a dog's heart, and a dog's brain."
"Rest assured, before I die, I'll drag one of you down with me."
The atmosphere froze for a moment.
No one dared step forward.
Even Xiong Yu, who had wanted to kill him moments earlier, did not dare gamble on that possibility once he calmed down.
Wu Junji gave a soft snort and held out a finger. The furious demons instantly forgot everything else.
"Human emperor fortune!"
It was only a wisp, but that pure power held their eyes fast!
This was a wisp of fortune Wu Junji had painstakingly saved. Once he gave it away, it would be gone. Holding up that strand of fortune, he offered it to White King without the slightest hesitation.
"It's yours."
White King actually felt rather overwhelmed by the favor.
Crown Prince Zhou, who had just been acting with overbearing arrogance, as though no demon was worth his notice, was now showing him goodwill.
The others stared at that wisp of fortune with greed and astonishment.
White King swallowed it eagerly.
Almost instantly, a trace of gold flashed through his beastly pupils. He grew several inches taller, his brow and eyes broadened, and even his bones seemed to undergo an indescribable transformation.
An aura fiercer than before poured out of him, and apprehension immediately appeared on Mu Zhao's face and those of the others.
Both White King's physical strength and his demonic power had increased enormously. Laughing heartily, he scooped Crown Prince Zhou into his arms.
"His Majesty the Human Emperor is right! It's only killing a few of our own subjects. Why should we have to watch anyone else's face?"
"If you want to obey those bullshit Night Reading rules, go ahead! All I want is human emperor fortune!"
White King brimmed with triumphant vigor, already imagining how much stronger the next wisp of human emperor fortune would make him.
Wu Junji cast a few indifferent glances at the demons itching to act.
"Competition has always existed at Jixia Academy. At the matches held at the end of each month, whoever has the biggest fists is right."
"Before I arrived, that competition was still healthy and fair."
"But ever since I entered the Academy, all the students of Zhou Residence have been replaced by demons. My General Summoning was taken away, and anyone can trample me underfoot. The rules that should have bound everyone equally have long since become a puddle of rotten mud where I'm concerned!"
"If I receive none of their benefits, I accept none of their restraints!"
"When I kill someone, if I decree that he dies in the third watch, he will not live to see the fifth."
Power was so alluring.
And the person wielding that power dazzled them all the more, leaving their minds reeling and their eyes blinded!
With those words, Wu Junji forcibly broke open their hazy understanding of power and planted a vicious seed within.
A crown prince held the power of life and death.
Before you continue