Chapter 86

"Of course not," said the devil (whose smug expression somewhat resembled that of the Five-Star Old Man). "I'm leading you; you've now arrived at the Inner World I've meticulously constructed."

"Oh." I nodded. The devil's Inner World, able to construct its own Void Inner World within the main plane, shows that this devil is indeed very powerful and should be able to withstand many experiments.

"Experiments?!" The devil read my thoughts and let out an exaggerated scream. He shouted, "You're also the kind of dark mage who loves to conduct experiments??? No! Help! No! Please! Experiments are too terrifying, please don't torture me, okay? I really have something important to tell you!"

Huh?

Seeing the extent to which the Five-Star Devil trembled... I couldn't help but ponder deeply, "You... you were tortured by others, I mean, by people from the Prime Material Plane?"

"Aaaaaah, no, no, no!" The five-star demon suddenly knelt down and cried out, "Please, the Prime Material Plane is too terrifying! I want to go home! Please let me go home! Kind Dark Mage, please help me go home, I'll give you all my treasures! Please stop torturing me, please stop coming here! It's terrifying, so terrifying! I want to go home!"

I...

That devil's acting is so convincing!

"I really just want to find a dark mage to help me get home!"

The Prime Material Plane is too terrifying? Isn't the Abyss Plane even more terrifying? Oh, perhaps from the devil's worldview, the Abyss Plane is a warm and pleasant home... But the Prime Material Plane has many souls; it must be a buffet for devils!

Unbelievable.

I suddenly said, "You have been materialized by the Prime Material Plane."

The demon's pained figure stiffened, becoming listless. I couldn't help but reach out, and the demon shrieked. I pulled a wisp of black, writhing mist from the Five-Star Old Man. Without the demon's true form, its avatar became an empty shell, motionless. I blew on it, and the shell dissipated.

--I seized the devil's true form, with my hand.

Hmm, the Shadow Demon actually feels pretty good to squeeze! I looked at this shapeless lump of black, it was cool and a bit bouncy, I wonder if it's more bouncy than the Five-Star Old Man.

"How long have you been in Diana?" I stroked the real demon in my hand, surprised. Demons in the Abyss have no physical form. They cross the boundary and come to the Prime Material Plane, still without a physical form, like a shadow or the wind. No one can truly grasp a demon, which is why I said no one can torment a demon... Only when a demon remains on the Prime Material Plane for too long, without returning to the Abyss, will it slowly become physical under the influence of the special Magic Power of the Prime Material Plane.

The demon writhed and cried out, "No! Don't go to the lab! Don't go to the lab!!!"

As it spoke, the writhing demon twitched twice, let out a hiccup while crying, and then fainted.

... this...

I shook the limp lump and started thinking seriously: could it really have been tortured?

You can't trust the devil's words, but a devil who has been assimilated by the world will begin to acquire the qualities that the creatures of this world should have. Therefore, his words may not be entirely false.

Wow, that senior is truly amazing! How did they do it? They actually made the devil so afraid!

Torture a demon! What a magnificent achievement!

I'm going to take it back to the lab!

Chapter 86

Wait, as I was saying this, it suddenly occurred to me that I had indeed seen precedents of tormenting demons... It was written in the notebook I found that taught me Black Magic!

I didn't think of it immediately because the monk who wrote the notes didn't write the word "torture." After all, no one would proudly claim to have "tortured" anything else, not even a demon!

I remember that the notebook I found contained detailed records of how to solidify a Nothingness demon in this plane, how to use soul protection to resist demonic temptation, and so on. These were conclusions drawn from numerous experiments. I studied most of the contents of that notebook, except for this one chapter, which I didn't try at all—because I didn't have a demon in the past!

But now is a great opportunity!

I shook the unconscious demon; it had been unconscious for quite a while... and I really didn't know how to perform CPR or anything like that. Looking at this slippery thing, I felt a little worried.

I am trapped in the devil's Inner World.

Hmm... the so-called Inner World is actually quite rare. To use a more modern and fashionable term, this phenomenon can be called a spacetime anomaly, or "another dimension"—a term I learned from the cartoons Moli watched.

In our mages' terminology, this is Demiplane. Simply put, our primary plane, which is our entire world, can be viewed as a large house. Special natural phenomena, irregular Magic Power flows, or intentional actions can create independent small rooms within this large house, but these rooms still belong to the larger house. These are Demiplane.

This Demiplane is quite troublesome. It's like visiting your neighbor's house; you need the homeowner's knowledge and permission to enter and exit smoothly. Otherwise, it would probably involve breaking down the door or demolishing the property.

However, this is a plane created by the devil, so even if I destroy it... it doesn't matter, the Shield of the New Star won't make me pay a fine.

Even if this demon was left behind by the warlocks who guarded Radiant Fortress, that won't do, because demons don't have a legitimate right to inherit property.

I just need to be careful when dismantling it. If I make a mistake, I might accidentally dismantle the version of myself that's still in the same plane, which would be incredibly embarrassing.

Only now did I have time to look around. This devil's aesthetic sense is actually quite good. I pushed open the door and left the room that I had smashed to pieces. Outside was still the corridor. If you looked closely, you could actually recognize that this was still the underground ruins we had just walked through. It was just that the devil had added some of his own decorations, such as hanging flags and armor placed in the corner. The styles were all very solemn and beautiful.

This Inner World overlaps with the main plane, but is located in a different plane. In other words, I am actually still in the ruins. The places I have walked through are all places that were originally in the ruins. It is even possible that I just brushed past Mel, but we cannot see each other and cannot communicate for the time being. Given that Goliath has not been able to break through to save me for so long, I have to find a way out quickly.

However, I frowned. This devilish space was not lonely. I turned a corner and bumped into a semi-transparent shadow—it looked like a thief!

I was startled and instinctively threw an Air Shield at it.

Hmm, this is a thief's ghost. Its soul is a hazy, grayish-white color, indicating that all its energy has been consumed by the demon. Speaking of which, thieves are a special class among assassins, and they are definitely not the same as the petty thieves who frequently make the news these days! However, they do have some similarities, such as both being able to sneak into houses and pick locks. The difference is that thieves break into people's homes, while thieves are the favorites of treasure hunting teams. High-level thieves can even easily crack ancient mechanisms.

Hmm... It seems this unfortunate thief died in the devil's secret hideout. Even after his soul was drained of its nourishment, it still lingered in the devil's world, tainted by the devil's negative emotions, becoming extremely unfriendly.

The thief's ghost lunged at me, and I discovered that Necromancy Spells Soul-Pacifying Spell was completely ineffective; the indistinct, transparent shadow was utterly irrational.

This made me so angry that I pinched the devil a few times. The devil's cool, slippery feel calmed me down a bit—it actually lured me in here and now it wants me to clean up its leftover food scraps! I need to pinch it a few more times to calm myself down!

I had no choice but to drag my fellow disciples out again...

Well, a few of my fellow disciples with weaker willpower have already been tainted by the devil's aura; I doubt they can be recycled and reused.

This is bad! I immediately took back the intact ones! If I use them all up, where am I going to find new ones? I can't even buy them!

... So I had to do it myself. I sighed, conjured a ball of Hellfire, and started kneading and kneading... Uh, I originally wanted to make Goliath's cool-looking dragon lance! But what is this?! What is this thing I made?! It's so ugly!