Calamity of Tomorrow

Christina said, "What should we do? Even if we save Jiaojiao this time, it will be difficult to hold on to Donghua City. If Jiaojiao doesn't mutate this time, she will mutate next time."

A mysterious light flickered in Zhou Bai's eyes as he looked at the divine map within his sea of consciousness and said, "Then turn her into my angel envoy, so she will never mutate again."

Looking at Zhu Ye lying on the ground, Zhou Bai's palm produced several swarm-like followers, transformed into bug-like shapes. The dense swarm of bug-like followers surged toward Zhu Ye, engulfing his body, and in his bewildered gaze, burrowed into his mouth, ears, nose, and all over his body.

...

Elsewhere, atop another high-rise building in Donghua City.

Three men and women stood at three different positions on the rooftop, keeping watch over the necessary path that led to Jiaojiao and Haoran the Immortal's location, which was also the way into the Three Pure Dao Sect's Forbidden Land.

Based on the news they received this morning, the Sky Flipping Sect had decided to make a surprise attack on the Forbidden Land, attempting to encircle and kill Haoran the Immortal.

Their task was to intercept the enemy here, making sure they would not get to see Jiaojiao.

One of the women, exceptionally beautiful, was dressed in an exquisitely gorgeous gown, looking as though she was always ready to attend a gala.

The woman looked seductive, but her expression was grave as she turned to the young boy beside her and said, "Why has Zhu Ye been gone for so long and not dealt with it yet?"

The youth spoke indifferently, "The appointed time has already passed. I'm afraid an accident has occurred."

Just then, the rooftop door opened, and a gaunt young man, transformed from a pig demon, walked in.

This gaunt youth appeared normal, except for a trace of dullness in the flicker of his eyes that was difficult to detect.

The worshipful swarm of tiny bugs had burrowed deeper into his ears, spreading Zhou Bai's whispers.

He looked at the others normally and said, "I've taken care of the array layer, and I'm ready to cast the spell to trigger the explosion at any time."

At this small rooftop, there were now gathered four demons and specters that were rarely seen on ordinary days.

Aside from Zhu Ye, the enchanting woman, the young boy, and the burly man were all great demons of the nearly extinct ancient times, now gathered in Donghua City under the command of the Heavenly Department.

They usually stationed themselves in Heaven and, when needed by Heaven, would travel to various places to carry out missions.

As demon bodies, they would impersonate out-of-control mutations, kill individuals who were inconvenient for Heaven to kill, and destroy things that were inconvenient for Heaven to destroy, acting as Heaven's blade.

And the vast majority of humanity... could not differentiate between the appearances of demons and mutations.

The alluring woman was named Gu Lan, and in Zhu Ye's knowledge, she was a very powerful Nine-tailed Demon Fox whose demon bloodline allowed her to cast potent illusions, blending truth and falsehood so intricately that even Zhu Ye did not know if her current appearance was her true form.

The burly man was called Zhu Yan, whose true form was not clear, but according to the information Zhu Ye had, this person had participated in great battles between humans and demons and had once collectively slain immortals with other demons.

As known to Zhu Ye, both these demons possessed a thousand years of cultivation, formidable beings capable of clashing with gods, far beyond the reach of ordinary human cultivators.

Apart from them, the youth sitting at the highest point of the rooftop, although he looked quite ordinary, if someone were here watching the attitudes and expressions of everyone on the rooftop, it would be clear that everyone, to some extent, revolved around this young man.

For this youth was not only a great demon with over a thousand years of cultivation but was also the current god of the Heavenly Department—Wan Xing True Monarch.

Wan Xing True Monarch looked at Zhu Ye in front of him with some suspicion and asked, "You are five minutes late. There should have been no one in the array layer to stop you, what exactly happened?"

Inside Zhu Ye's ears, the tiny worshipful swarm not only transmitted Zhou Bai's whispers but also sent all the sounds they heard through the Heavenly Demon's communication network to the Void Crown, allowing Zhou Bai to monitor the situation here at all times.

So at this moment, Zhou Bai was listening to every word of their conversation.

And through the worshipful swarm, Zhou Bai could control Zhu Ye, who had been dulled in intelligence by his whispers.

Occasionally, Zhou Bai needed to add a few more distorted, ridiculous whispers to maintain Zhu Ye's low intelligence level.

Now, hearing Wan Xing True Monarch's question, Zhu Ye, under Zhou Bai's control, said nervously, "The array layer is too vast; I got lost and was a bit late, only five minutes. It won't affect the overall situation."

Zhu Yan sniffed, a faint scent of blood emanating from Zhu Ye's body, and said coldly, "Did you eat someone on the way?"

Zhu Ye suddenly panicked under the scrutiny of the three great demons and helplessly 'confessed,' "I... I just took a small bite…"

Zhu Yan scoffed, stepped in front of Zhu Ye, and suddenly threw a punch into Zhu Ye's stomach.

A sharp pain emanated from Zhu Ye's belly, causing him to vomit with a retch.

Zhu Yan looked at the blood and flesh remnants on the ground, sniffed a little, and expertly judged the type and quantity of the flesh.

As he sniffed, he said, "Half a person's worth of flesh... you know your place, didn't cause too much trouble."

Compared to taking Zhu Ye's word for it, the other greater demons clearly trusted more the 'truth' they reasoned out and deduced themselves, because it was after piercing through the lie that they concluded it, thus they believed it without a doubt.

...

Zhou Bai listened to the voices coming from that side and nodded secretly.

Christina said with relief, "Zhou Bai, it's good that you were prepared and had Zhu Ye eat some flesh before telling a lie."

Zhou Bai chuckled, "People tend to believe what they see, hear, and deduce, and take it as truth, then they believe it without question. It seems that demons aren't that different from humans."

The human flesh was, of course, not real human flesh, but something simulated by the Heavenly Demon using nanotechnology.

To bribe the traitor, Heavenly Demon had mimicked the human body, using technology that had been studied for decades, with considerable depth of research in this area.

The biological tissues disguised by nanomachines could pass for real, both in appearance and function, without much difference from human bodies, even after being killed they wouldn't morph, completely resembling real flesh and blood.

Even highly cultivated experts wouldn't be able to notice the difference without a thorough examination.

Christina asked excitedly, "What do we do now? Go straight up and fight them?"

Zhou Bai smiled and shook his head, "No rush, let's wait until my swarm gets closer."

At this moment, Zhou Bai's army of mechanical followers, along with the forces called in from the Heavenly Demon, were still en route, not yet arrived.