Just when Wind and Snow Pass was preparing to welcome Body Refining Master Conference, Devil Domain Forest was deep inside, about a thousand miles away from Wind and Snow Pass.
The gray-black trees blocked the sky and the sun, their branches were twisted, their leaves were dark purple, and they exuded a sweet smell of decay.
There is no snow on the ground, replaced by moist black soil, which is soft when stepped on, as if stepping on some kind of rotten flesh. The air is filled with the smell of blood, which is the old smell that has been soaked in the soil and tree roots and accumulated over the years. Occasionally, unknown creatures pass through the bushes, making a rustling sound, and then disappear quickly.
After passing through this dense forest, the terrain began to become undulating. Several low black hills were connected together, and there was a hidden canyon between the hills. At the entrance of the canyon stood several twisted stone pillars with vague runes engraved on them, emitting a weak but uncomfortable energy fluctuation.
Passing through the canyon, the view suddenly widens.
A huge Black Stone Fortress is built against the mountain, half embedded in the rock wall, and integrated with the mountain. The surface of the fortress is covered with dense magic patterns, glowing dark red under the dim skylight. Occasionally, there are patrolling Devil Soldier walked under the wall, with heavy steps and heavy breathing, which was particularly clear in the silence. The skin of Devil Soldier was gray-brown, the muscles were knotted, and there were horns of different lengths on their foreheads. Their eyes were dull, with the numbness remaining after being suppressed for a long time.
The passage inside the fortress is narrow and winding, and the walls are embedded with crystal stones that emit a faint green light. Branch roads flash on both sides of the passage from time to time, leading to different rooms. In some, there is the sound of metal knocking, and in others, there is the sound of low-pitched chanting of spells. Some rooms are silent, with only the strong smell of blood seeping out from the cracks in the door.
Walking along the main passage to the end, there is a Heaviness stone door. Engraved with a complex circular pattern, the lines are interlaced and nested on the stone door, like some kind of Elder Gu seal. Behind the door is the core area of the entire fortress.
The room behind the door is very large, about ten feet square.
In the middle is a huge stone table, which is piled with debris - the remains of Law Artifact, semi-finished formation disks, broken flying swords, animal bones engraved with runes, a few books bound with some unknown material, and even Storage Bag stained with blood. These things are piled up in a crisscross pattern, leaving little space on the table.
A fist-sized crystal hung in the air above the table, emitting light blue light and illuminating the entire room. There were several iron cages stacked in the corners, and there were several Demon Beasts curled up in the cages. It was unknown whether they were dead or alive, but there was no movement.
There is a figure sitting behind the stone table.
He looks to be in his early twenties, with a slim build and wearing a gray robe. His hair is black and is pulled back casually, revealing a smooth forehead. His facial features are straight and his skin is pale, as if he has not seen the sun all year round. The most striking thing is that there are almost no magic lines on the surface of his skin, only a few traces remain on the inside of his wrists, like marks left after washing and fading. There is a bulge on the corner of his forehead, which is more like a healed bone callus than a horn.
Sitting there, he was almost indistinguishable from a human monk.
Devil Race and the human race have been at war with the human race for thousands of years in Wind and Snow Pass. Devil Race is born physically strong, but has mixed spiritual intelligence. He is good at instinctive combat but poor at fine arts. In fields such as formations, weapon refining, and alchemy that require systematic accumulation, Devil Race has always been suppressed by the human race. Devil Race can also imitate some human Law Artifact, but most of them are inferior and the materials are okay. The problem is that they don't understand the subtle changes of Spirit Rune. Devil Race's weapons, except for those natural materials, are trophies captured from the human race.
This situation began to loosen after this person appeared.
No one knows who his parents are. He was picked up from the edge of Devil Domain Abyss by the previous fortress commander. A Horned Demon cub abandoned in a wilderness cave, covered in blood and dying. The commander brought him back and left him to the care of Devil Soldier in the logistics department. He didn't have any expectations. But when this cub grew up, he showed characteristics that were completely different from other Devil Race.
He has no interest in fighting, no desire for power, and his body is not as strong as the ordinary Horned Demon, and he has no accompanying talents. But he is extremely intelligent, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a natural prodigy. The strangest thing is that he likes He stared at the trophies left by the human monks and the damaged Law Artifact fragments for a day. Later, he began to try to imitate the patterns on the fragments, drawing on the sand with a wooden stick and carving on the stone wall with his fingernails.
It wasn't until he was ten years old that he successfully carved the "Sharpness" pattern on a piece of iron, which really attracted the attention of the upper class.
He was thirteen years old when the commander was transferred. The new commander found that although this Devil Race was small and small, it could damage the Repair Law Artifact handed down from his ancestors, so he was given a stone room to do this specifically for him.
Later, he made the leap from Repair to transformation and even creation, and his status became more and more important.
No one taught him. Everything he knew came from the bloody Law Artifact wreckage. The remaining Spirit Rune on those Law Artifacts were like windows covered with dust. He spent more than ten years cleaning them one by one, through which he could glimpse the scene outside the window.
He is now the only Devil Race in this fortress who does not need to participate in battles or go hunting. His name is Youlun.
Two years ago, Youlun was transferred to this core room. Everything in the room was designed exactly according to his requirements. All the work at hand was stopped and he only did one thing. It is said that this thing is related to Northern Region Devil Race's thousand-year plan.
Transmission equipment.
Devil Race cannot use any human talisman, especially the kind of Teleportation Talisman that can teleport dozens of miles away at the last moment. Even if it is captured, it cannot be used. It was not until the appearance of Youlun that Devil Race here saw hope.
Could that "plan" really come true?
Storage rings, Storage Bag, Teleportation Talisman, ancient teleportation array slates... all the things that Youlun needs will be delivered to this room as soon as possible. There is even Devil Race who secretly attacks Library Pavilion of a small sect, just to find him a few needed books.
Now, two years later, Youlun is sitting in front of the stone table, with a small array disk that Repair just completed spread out in front of him.
The formation plate is about the size of a palm, octagonal, made of a dark black stone, and the surface is engraved with fine and complex lines. Those lines are nested layer by layer, converging toward the center like a spider web, and intertwined into a circle the size of a fist at the core of the formation. He is holding a slender carving knife in his hand, and the can no longer be seen on his fingers. The characteristics of Devil Race were even more slender and delicate than those of ordinary humans. The tip of the knife was extremely stable, and it made a slight rustling sound when it made the last stroke on the edge of the formation disk. He put down the carving knife, stared at the formation disk for a moment, then stretched out his finger and injected a trace of Devil Qi into the center of the formation disk.
The lines on the surface of the array plate lit up one by one. First the outer ring, then the middle layer, and finally the circle in the center. Red light came out from the inside of the array plate, projecting a blurry rune projection in the air. He stared at the projection for a long time, then breathed out gently and stretched out his hand to rub the center of his brow.
Suddenly, just as the new spiritual power channel was operating, a sharp pain exploded from his chest without warning.
Youlun's body suddenly tensed up. He gritted his teeth, put one hand on the edge of the table, and held on to his chest with the other hand. The pain was like a red-hot iron drill, piercing into his heart and spreading along the blood vessels and meridians to his limbs. He arched up and let out a suppressed roar in his throat.
The whole process lasted about three breaths.
The pain came and went quickly. When the severe pain subsided from his body, he slowly straightened up and leaned on the back of the chair. A thin layer of cold sweat had already appeared on his forehead. He raised his hand to wipe his forehead, looked at it in the dim light, and found a trace of very light blood on his fingertips, which was a dark golden color.
He stared at the dark golden color for a long time, then took out a palm-sized bronze mirror from his arms and looked at his face in the mirror.
The face in the mirror was pale, with regular features. The skin was smooth, with no magic lines or scales. Compared to an hour ago, the bulge on Youlun's forehead had almost subsided. He put down the bronze mirror, looked at the mirror, was silent for a moment, and then placed the mirror on the table.
"I can't become a human, can I?" Youlun sighed.
Before he was ten years old, Youlun was no different from the ordinary Horned Demon except that he was thinner and shorter. He had natural magic horns and dense magic patterns all over his body.
The change occurred at the moment when he drew the first Spirit Rune. When he finished the last stroke, severe pain in his heart swept over him, and he thought he was going to die. But after three breaths, the severe pain disappeared completely, as if it had never happened.
No, nothing happened. Youlun found that the magic marks on his body had faded.
Other Devil Race might not notice this, but Youlun noticed it. During the subsequent research process, he clearly found that every time he completed a study, part of Devil Race's characteristics would disappear, the magic lines were getting smaller, the eyes were turning from red to white, and even the corners on the forehead were gradually retracting. To sum up, the description is:
Youlun is slowly changing into a "human".
Although he doesn't know the cause of this change, Youlun knows that if he doesn't stop this change, one day in the future, he will "accidentally" die somewhere here.
So he began to slow down his research speed, reduce his research results, and even completed Deduction in his mind without producing it. But even so, he was discovered little by little, attracted attention, and was eventually transferred here.
Until half a year ago, when he developed the Devil Soldier teleportation array, the horn on Youlun's forehead disappeared and turned into a bulge.
Just today, there were only very faint magic marks left on his body, and the horn had completely shrunk.
Youlun sighed, lowered his head, looked again at the array plate in front of him that had been debugged, and stretched out his hand to touch the remaining temperature on the surface of the array plate.
He spent two years researching and producing the teleportation tool from scratch step by step. Several of them carried early versions of Demon General, but the teleportation point deviated significantly from the predetermined coordinates and completely disappeared into the unknown space; there was also a Demon General that was successfully teleported, but lost all its memory, even its breathing instinct.
Slowly, he increased the stability from less than 30% to nearly 70%, and gradually increased the upper limit of teleportation from initially only enough for Devil Soldier level to survive to Early-Stage Demon General, Mid-Stage Demon General, and Late-Stage Demon General.
As for how to test it? It's very simple. Tell Demon General that this is a newly developed escape tool. If activated at a critical moment, you can teleport far away and come back alive. Naturally, there will be a lot of "volunteer" demons to test it.
The Blood Devil that was hunted by Qin Tiexin was one of the accidents. It was injured due to space turbulence and teleportation deviation.
Two days ago, he just completed the last round of debugging.
An hour ago, in front of two Devil Marshal, he placed the latest version of the formation disk on Shadow Devil, one of Peak Demon General. Shadow Devil walked out of the teleportation point a hundred feet away, and the passage was stable and unscathed.
He spent an hour confirming the stability of the data, then took out a blank slate from under the table and began to carve the final version of the teleportation runes. The slate was soon covered with dense carvings. He put down the carving knife, carefully put the slate into an iron box, and put a seal on the lid of the box.
When all this was done, footsteps came from the passage outside.
Youlun skillfully activated the complex Spirit Rune carved on the bones of his palms within a breath. A burst of light flashed, Youlun's magic patterns and horns "grown" again, and the whites of his eyes turned blood red.
"Shape Change" plus "disguise", he didn't trust any tools and carved Spirit Rune directly on the palm of his left hand. This is the reason why he has so many abnormalities but has never been discovered.