Chapter 549 — Gone Like Smoke and Clouds
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
Shen Mu was still uneasy, and meant to run the calculations through once more to see whether any error had crept in. It was not that he distrusted the Black Tiger God; rather, no one had ever breached the wall between two worlds and raised a world-bridge of spiritual power exchange. There was no precedent for it, and if something went wrong, he had no idea what might follow.
Take, for instance, the pills Shen Mu refined to heal wounds: every new spirit-elixir he produced might carry some outlandish side effect. If the medicinal power of an elixir went wrong, it could still be remedied. But if the Bridge of Spiritual Power Exchange linking two worlds went wrong, how was that to be remedied?
The Black Tiger God rolled up the blueprints in a flash and strode out, beaming. "Hurry, hurry!" he laughed. "I can't wait to put it to the test!"
Shen Mu had no choice but to follow him out of the gate-tower, and asked Sang Hua, "Sister Hua, what brings you looking for me?"
"Li City has been rebuilt," Sang Hua said, "but for a thousand li around it, demons are still on the move, scattered far and wide. They use the flesh, blood, and souls of our common folk of Taihuang Heaven to cultivate their arts. The harm they do is immense."
Sang Hua said, "We have been looking for you a long while. We mean to go out with you to temper ourselves and wipe out those wandering demon practitioners of divine ability."
Yu He said, "While Fu Riluo was in Li City, he restrained the Demon Race from harming the common folk. But the moment Fu Riluo left, the remaining demons could no longer sit still. To them, we humans are both rations and raw material for forging treasures and cultivating arts. These past days, the villages all around have been sorely abused. Junior Sister Sang Hua had meant to go first to the God-Suppressing Pagoda, but she has had to postpone it."
Shen Mu frowned. "Fu Riluo restrained the Demon Race from harming the common folk? Why would he give such an order?"
"To win hearts." Shu You's face was grave. "A city may be broken, a nation may fall, a god may die in battle, but the hearts of the people are the hardest of all to subdue. Fu Riluo is a demon god of great ambition, and his methods are cunning. Spare the common folk, and they will not resist. Even if he squeezes them harder, makes them slaves of the Demon Race to dig ore veins and plant and gather herbs, then even the low-ranking demons can throw themselves wholeheartedly into battle. An enemy who can conquer the heart is the strongest enemy of all."
Shen Mu nodded. His impression of Fu Riluo had changed greatly.
Fu Riluo was no brute who knew only how to storm cities and seize land; he understood the art of rule, and knew how to win the Demon Race greater and greater profit.
Low-ranking demons held lowly status. Shen Mu had seen their fate on the battlefield: they were expendable, spent in the fighting. If the low-ranking demons were enslaved, made to do the work of slaves, and then spent as fodder as well, they would be hard to rule.
Fu Riluo enslaved the humans, and with them kept the low-ranking demons comfortable and content; then he sent those same low-ranking demons to fight and die. In this way he sustained his own rule.
And because the humans were allowed to live, though enslaved, they did not know how to resist, would not resist. Fu Riluo's rear was thus secure, and with the endless resources those humans supplied, he could pour all his strength into conquest at the front.
"Fu Riluo is a man of great talent. No wonder the Sage Master is so wary of him."
Shen Mu mused a moment, then said, "You must have collected a great many demon primal soldiers from the battlefield. What do you do with them?"
Yu He said, "Because demon primal soldiers hold demon-nature and demon-breath within them, they are usually destroyed, so that the Demon Race never gets the chance to reclaim them."