The demon race was once the master of this heaven and earth, but that was an event of the immemorial era.

Of all the great eras, the immemorial era was the longest, its beginning unsearchable, even its duration immeasurable. Perhaps only the most ancient of Daoist sects retain fragmented records, yet these sects have never made such information public.

But the end of the immemorial era is known by many. The marker of its termination was the human race driving the demon race into seclusion, becoming the masters of the present world.

Thereafter followed the long ancient era, the medieval era, the recent era, and now, the present day.

Throughout the entire present world, the demon race is almost entirely unseen.

Jiang Wang cultivated all the way to the present, from an unknown, itinerant Daoist of the Meridian Circulation stage, to the current Divine Power Inner Mansion stage, the favored son of Great Qi, yet this was the first time he had truly seen a demon race!

Compared to the sudden appearance of the demon race, even Yin Guan’s miraculous method of borrowing “perspective” seemed less astonishing.

Could it be that the demon race still exists in the present world?

Could it be that the demon race never disappeared?

The prison cart pushed the horned demon elder towards the grand formation. Seeing the ferocious beasts prostrating within the formation, fear was evident on the demon elder’s face: “What do you want to do? What do you want to do!?”

He spoke in a language that was not known to Jiang Wang from any nation, yet the meaning of each word was clearly understood.

It was the Dao Language!

The same as the voice within the Mirage of Grand Void.

The Xu country Inner Mansion cultivator guarding the cavern frowned upon hearing this: “Why do all demons ask this question? Isn’t it clear what we want to do?”

The guard standing beside him responded with a smile: “The demon race isn’t made of mindless dullards, but sometimes abandoning thought is easier to bear. Fear makes him deceive himself. He pretends not to know, so that maybe some things won’t happen.”

This guard spoke with surprising insight.

Even the Inner Mansion cultivator glanced at him in surprise.

He said embarrassedly with a smile: “The Grand General once said something like this during an inspection.”

The demon elder within the prison cart couldn’t understand what they were saying, and the humans’ jesting only deepened his fear. He was trapped in the prison cart, plunged into a horde of ferocious beasts, while these people openly discussed him.

“If you wish to act fierce, you can seek out our generals, our kings, our warriors!”

He struggled and shouted: “What skill is there in bullying us, the old, weak, women, and children!”

The Xu country Inner Mansion cultivator scoffed: “Where are there old, weak, women, and children among the demon race?”

The “conversation” between the two was destined to fail, for they understood the demon’s words, but the demon couldn’t understand what they were saying.

The fear grew stronger.

The demon elder’s already aged muscles were tightly constricted, extremely rigid.

At this time, the prison cart had been pushed to the center of the grand formation.

The two cultivators pushing the cart retreated almost at running speed, retreating all the way to the side of the Inner Mansion cultivator.

“The timing is perfect.” The Xu country Inner Mansion cultivator rapidly formed hand seals, wasting not even a moment.

The grand formation suddenly lit up!

Countless dark red lines crawled along the ground, spreading like a spiderweb, rapidly linking all the ferocious beasts together. And the endpoint of all the dark red lines was on the horned demon elder.

“Ah!!”

The demon immediately let out a miserable scream, its sound shaking the cavern.

And his body withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was at this moment that Jiang Wang saw a prostrate ferocious beast suddenly stand up, the pure ferocity and bloodthirst in its eyes actually dissipating.

Even more stirring was that within this “ferocious beast,” something was faintly being nurtured…

It was a Dao Meridian!

Jiang Wang quickly recognized it, a Dao Meridian that was slowly taking form!

In other words, this ferocious beast, at this very moment, had transformed into a demon beast!

Everything had an answer now.

The doubts on Jade Balance Peak, at this moment, had the latter half of the answer revealed.

The process of wild beasts “evolving” into ferocious beasts required the beasts to slaughter each other, catalyzed by relevant formations.

Jiang Wang had already witnessed this process on Jade Balance Peak.

The catalyzed ferocious beasts then had to wreak havoc in various places, even killing and wounding humans, to further cultivate their ferocity.

Ferocious beasts that reached a certain level were then qualified to evolve to the next stage.

Just as Miao Yu had once guessed, “Wildness is a necessary element for demon beasts, and slaughter is a necessary process.”

And the next step was the “evolution” of ferocious beasts into demon beasts. This process required the catalytic grand formation before their eyes, and even more so, living demon race members!

With demon beasts, there would be Opening Meridian Pills.

The second generation of domesticated demon beasts could not possess Dao Meridians. This was perhaps a “self-preservation method” existing within the race’s origins. Domesticated demon beasts were meaningless, so naturally, no one would continue to domesticate demon beasts.

But relying solely on wild demon beasts naturally could not meet the needs of human cultivation. No matter how many demon beasts there were, they would eventually be exterminated!

Thus, the method that Jiang Wang and Yin Guan saw was researched.

Through multiple transformations from wild beasts to ferocious beasts to demon beasts, demon beasts were directly and artificially catalyzed. As long as wild beasts were not exterminated, neither would demon beasts!

Putting aside good and evil, right and wrong, this method itself was definitely an earth-shattering creation, and could even be said to have laid the foundation for the prosperity of the cultivation world.

Because it popularized Opening Meridian Pills!

Jiang Wang then thought that if ordinary Opening Meridian Pills were obtained in this way, then those invaluable, unattainable Earth Origin Great Pills, and the Heaven Origin Great Pills… Could it be that they were made by extracting the Dao Meridians of the demon race, or even powerful demon race members?

But in the present world where the demon race was extinct, where did they capture the demon race?

The Mori Sea Origin Realm, the Floating Continent…

Jiang Wang suddenly recalled these two worlds.

Perhaps there was a world where the demon race survived. And human cultivators, from time to time, descended there to capture demon race members to bring back.

What about the forces and nations that did not have the ability to capture the demon race, or were not satisfied with the number of captured demon race members?

Jiang Wang then thought of the cultivator who secretly kidnapped the Shell Maiden on the banks of the Clear River.

He couldn’t help but feel a chill.

The aquatic race and the demon race… were too similar!

Both were extremely similar to humans, and both retained certain racial characteristics.

Jiang Wang felt that he was faintly approaching the truth of history, only needing the final bit of fog to be blown away by the wind of cognition.

At this time, the miserable screams of the horned demon elder in the grand formation ceased, and he lay weakly in the prison cart, on the verge of death.

And within the entire grand formation, nearly a third of the ferocious beasts had stood up, transformed into demon beasts. More ferocious beasts had closed their eyes forever, dying silently.

“A good harvest.” The Xu country Inner Mansion cultivator nodded in satisfaction, his gaze sweeping over those demon beasts, landing on the prison cart: “Take him down to be treated and recuperate. After his body recovers, he should be able to last another round.”

“It’s a pity.” He said to the guard beside him with a sigh: “All we’re given are old and feeble demons like this, they won’t last many times.”

One of the guards replied: “How would those blood-sucking beasts of Qi allow us to take advantage? Even if they did allocate strong demons, they would surely make us pay tribute with more Opening Meridian Pills.”

Several Xu country cultivators began to grumble in this way, it seemed they had accumulated grievances for a long time, cursing Qi in the dim cavern.

Yin Guan deliberately glanced at Jiang Wang.

Jiang Wang was expressionless.

But in his heart, he finally unraveled a long-standing doubt – why Qi had no ferocious beasts, why ordinary people of Qi could freely venture into the wilderness, why in Qi, ordinary people could still have “outings.”

Because all the danger was transferred to these small countries.

The Opening Meridian Pills of Qi came precisely from the tribute of these small countries!