The Spirit Value Stall.
After Su Changsheng left, the Fox Woman sat alone at the stone table, staring at the book in her hands without speaking for a long time.
White snow drifted down onto her brows, but she never brushed it away.
The stall owner, shrouded in demonic aura, also walked over. Looking at the book in the Fox Woman's hands, the owner raised an eyebrow and said, "What, peddling human stuff again? How many times have I told you? Those are nothing but contaminated records left by a bunch of lunatics hunting for information about humans. Don't believe that rubbish!"
"If you ask me, humans don't exist in this world at all. Even if they did, they were wiped out long ago."
The Fox Woman seemed used to this and paid no mind to the stall owner's words. She merely picked up the books and Demon Art scrolls on the table again and said evenly, "Those Seekers crossed endless taboos and chasms, all to pursue the truth of the human world."
"Every one of them stood at the summit of life and mocked death's impotence, while you and I stand at life's edge, probing for the possibility of survival. What right does a pack of weaklings who don't even dare step outside the Black Mountain Demon Stockade have to mock them?"
"The spark will be kindled in the end!"
After saying goodbye to the Fox Woman, Su Changsheng continued wandering through the Yao Market.
He still found nothing.
When it came to Demon Arts and techniques, he felt his earlier thinking had been a little too simplistic.
On reflection, it made sense. Demon Arts were the foundation on which the Demon Race stood. Why would anyone sell a good technique that was easy to learn and reasonably powerful?
Any Demon Arts and techniques available for trade had flaws of one kind or another: insufficient power, difficulty of practice, contamination issues, and so on.
Because of this, Su Changsheng had to change his approach and lower his standards. He no longer sought a Demon Art that suited him perfectly. Something usable for now would do.
It was nearly noon.
The sun finally showed its face, and the snow stopped. The Yao Market immediately grew even livelier.
Yao of every description and stalls of every kind crowded the view, packed so densely that they were impossible to count.
Su Changsheng stopped in front of a small stall to examine it. His enormous body almost engulfed the entire stall in the shadow of his Yao Body.
The stall owner was a level-two Lesser Yao. Its exact species was unclear, but it was probably some kind of mutated toad, its whole body covered in closely packed growths.
Although it was hardly small itself, fully the size of a square banquet table, it was clearly more than a notch below the even larger Su Changsheng. Even the aura and demon power he naturally gave off nearly suffocated it.
"M-my lord... what would you like? This lowly Yao... this lowly Yao can explain things for you."
The toad Yao trembled as it stammered. All the while, it kept muttering inwardly, I'm going to die, I'm going to die! I'm about to be scared to death!
"What are these?"
Su Changsheng pointed at the wooden jars of various sizes on the stall.
He could faintly smell a strange scent coming from them. It actually eased his taut nerves a little. Not only did his mental energy recover slightly, but every part of his body felt a long-absent sense of relaxation.
Merely smelling it had such an effect. What exactly was in those jars?
Hearing his question, the toad Yao let out a small sigh of relief. Once it knew this powerful Half-Demon had not come to make trouble, it eagerly launched into an explanation:
"Master Snake, these jars contain our Toad Tribe's specialty: Toad Oil. It sharpens the eyes and clears the mind, soothes the spirit, relieves fatigue, and more. Would you like some?"
Toad Oil?
Looking at the snow-white, oily substance in the jars, Su Changsheng grew even more curious and asked, "To think there's something this miraculous. How do you use it?"
"Of course! Anything made by our Toad Tribe is guaranteed to be top quality. Let me demonstrate for you, Master Snake. Watch closely..."
With that, the toad deftly pulled a palm-sized, pliable dead leaf from beneath its backside. Then it carefully scooped a little Toad Oil from a jar and spread it over the leaf. A slight roll turned it into a small cylinder.
Su Changsheng: "..."
The more he watched, the more familiar it seemed. Isn't this fucking tobacco? And toad-brand tobacco at that!
"Are you planning to light it and then take a couple of puffs?"
Su Changsheng's face darkened, and he could not help asking.
The toad Yao looked surprised at his words. After a moment of stunned silence, it said, "So Master Snake knows about it already! You must be a fellow toad enthusiast, a Yao of kindred spirit. This lowly Yao thought there weren't any toad enthusiasts here in the main stronghold!"
"Would you like one, Master Snake?"
The toad spat a spark from its mouth, lit the Toad Oil held in its claw, and took a blissful puff as it asked.
Toad enthusiasts?
Smoking buddies!
Su Changsheng felt increasingly bemused, but he still shook his head and declined the toad Yao's offer of a smoke. He continued, "You're not a resident of the Black Mountain Demon Stockade? Where did you come from?"
Since stronghold residents lived under the protection of Great Yao, they carried traces of their respective Great Yao's aura.
Thus, to determine whether a Yao belonged to the same stronghold, one only needed to see whether it carried traces of the local Great Yao's aura.
Three Great Yao protected the Black Mountain Demon Stockade, and all its residents carried traces of those three Great Yao's auras, making for a rather mixed blend.
The toad Yao before him, however, carried only one, clearly the result of living under a single Great Yao's protection for a long time.
"Your eye is truly sharp, Master Snake. My family only moved here from the Left Stronghold recently. We're new here, and I had no choice but to come to the Yao Market and sell some Toad Oil to keep food on the table..."
The toad Yao explained with repeated sighs.
The Black Mountain Demon Stockade had two subsidiary Yao strongholds, one on either side. These two subsidiaries were accordingly named the Left Stronghold and the Right Stronghold.
The Left Stronghold was near water and mostly inhabited by Water-Type Yao. The Right Stronghold extended deep into the endless Wilderness and was mostly inhabited by Grassland Yao. The Black Mountain Demon Stockade was the main stronghold, with a more varied population that included Yao of every kind.
"With heavy snow sealing off the mountains and everything frozen solid, neither subsidiary stronghold has been able to reach the Black Mountain Demon Stockade for four months. How did you get here?"
"And how have things been in the Left Stronghold lately?"
Su Changsheng asked curiously.
The toad Yao hesitated at his questions. Finally, it glanced around before lowering its voice. "You've certainly asked the right Yao about that. But I'm only telling you, so please don't let it spread..."
As it turned out, this was what had happened.
With heavy snow sealing off the mountains, even the residents of the Black Mountain Demon Stockade lived from one uncertain meal to the next. The residents of the two smaller subsidiary strongholds had it harder still.
As the snow disaster continued, the situation facing the two small strongholds grew increasingly dire. Yao kept dying, whether from starvation, foul play, or charging into the Wilderness in despair.
The entire stronghold showed signs of falling apart.
"It was truly miserable! We weren't being left even the slightest path to survival. The child of the neighbor of the fuck buddy of the turtle Yao living beside my next-door neighbor was torn apart and eaten by a few Yao driven mad with hunger."
As it spoke, the toad Yao kept puffing away at its smoke, occasionally making a show of wiping the corners of its eyes, seemingly to demonstrate how deeply saddened it was.
It rambled on about many of the tragedies in the Left Stronghold. When its toad-brand smoke was almost finished, it finally revealed something that even Su Changsheng could not help finding shocking:
"Massive unrest broke out in the Left Stronghold. It was suppressed, but its collapse can no longer be averted."
"We all fled here as refugees!"
"Left Stronghold Yao like me are only the first batch. There will be more coming afterward!"
The Tide of Refugees was coming!
Before you continue