Chapter 72: The Strategist’s Foresight and the Wolf King’s Deception

Su Qinghan’s fingertips tapped faster and faster on the armrest of her wheelchair, producing a ‘thump-thump-thump’ sound that seemed exceptionally piercing in the quiet room. She stared at the crude sketch before her.

The four red circles resembled four crimson eyes, staring intently at Moonfall Town in the center.

“This is no mere settlement,” Su Qinghan declared.

She lifted her head, her voice chillingly devoid of warmth. “This is a hostage situation. These people are meat shields for the demon race.”

Lu Hongzhuang, who had been drinking water, nearly spat it out at Su Qinghan’s words.

She casually wiped her mouth, then looked at Su Qinghan with an expression that clearly asked, ‘Are you alright?’

“Hostages? Strategist Su, you’re being a little overly cautious, aren’t you?”

Lu Hongzhuang set her teacup down with a light thud. “Those are demons, a bunch of simple-minded, brawny monsters. If they attack the city, they’ll just howl and scramble over the walls. They wouldn’t understand hostage tactics.”

She waved a dismissive hand, then plopped onto a stool, crossing one leg over the other.

“Besides, where would such a massive demon horde come from? The last time demons attacked a city was over fifty years ago, and that was a major city like Tianyun City.”

“Moonfall Town, this godforsaken place? Are the demons so bored they’d bother gnawing on this soft bone?”

Su Qinghan ignored her jests, posing only a single question.

“What was the outcome of that battle, fifty years ago?”

“They didn’t get in, obviously.”

Lu Hongzhuang shrugged, her tone light and airy. “At that time, Tianyun City was guarded by four cultivators of the Profound Realm. The Profound Realm! Unless the Demon Emperor appeared, who could contend with them?”

“The demon corpses piled higher than the city walls. In the end, they could only tuck tail and flee in shame.”

Su Qinghan turned her wheelchair, facing Lu Hongzhuang. Her clear, cold eyes stared directly at her.

“And what about here?”

“What?”

“Does Moonfall Town have any Profound Realm cultivators?”

Lu Hongzhuang froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“Little Qinghan, what kind of joke is that? Profound Realm cultivators are like gods; there aren’t many in the entire dynasty. This dilapidated little town of ours doesn’t even have a single Core Condensation cultivator.”

“The strongest among us are the Magistrate, that useless Qi Gathering lump, and a few demon exorcists who are also in the Qi Gathering Realm. Oh, right, I’m in the Core Condensation Realm.”

She pointed to herself, her voice abruptly trailing off.

The air in the room seemed to drop several degrees in an instant.

The smile on Lu Hongzhuang’s face slowly stiffened, then vanished completely.

No Profound Realm cultivators.

In fact, the only decent expert was herself.

‘If a true demon horde were to appear…’

“If the demon race were to attack from all directions, driving these refugees from the four camps before them, would you kill them or not?”

Su Qinghan’s voice was soft, yet it cut like a sharp knife, piercing directly into Lu Hongzhuang’s weak spot.

“If you don’t kill them, the demons will use the refugees to ascend the walls, and the city will fall in an instant.”

“Kill…” Su Qinghan paused, a mocking curve playing on her lips. “Those are hundreds of human lives. Can your sword, Heroine Lu, truly strike them down?”

Lu Hongzhuang abruptly stood up, knocking over the stool behind her.

“Impossible!”

She paced agitatedly around the room. “I’ve seen that Wolf King! Just a few days ago, I fought him!”

Lu Hongzhuang stopped, gesticulating with her hands. “He’s just a coward! He only has the cultivation of a Demon King, and his strength is mediocre at best. Most importantly, that guy is as timid as a mouse!”

“Back then, I only struck two blows, not even fighting seriously. When he saw the situation was bad, he threw all his wolf cubs out as cannon fodder and fled with his tail between his legs, faster than a rabbit!”

“How could such a pathetic creature orchestrate such a sinister scheme?”

The more Lu Hongzhuang spoke, the more convinced she became of her own reasoning, regaining her confidence.

“If he dares to come, I alone can twist off his wolf head and kick it around like a ball!”

Su Qinghan watched the utterly confident Lu Hongzhuang, but the unsettling feeling in her heart did not recede; instead, it intensified.

A Demon King, facing a human demon exorcist of comparable strength, actually fled without a fight?

Even going so far as to sacrifice all of his subordinates?

This abnormal behavior, which Lu Hongzhuang saw as cowardice, Su Qinghan perceived as a sign of a much larger, more insidious plot.

“Take me to see the Magistrate.”

Su Qinghan wasted no more words, placing her hands on the wheels of her wheelchair.

“Huh? Now?” Lu Hongzhuang glanced at the pitch-black sky outside the window. “It’s so late. That useless Magistrate is probably already asleep, embracing his concubines.”

“Immediately. Now.”

Su Qinghan’s voice left no room for doubt. “I need to convince him to evacuate all the villagers back into the city tonight.”

Lu Hongzhuang looked at Su Qinghan’s stern, almost frightening face. Although she still felt Su Qinghan was overthinking things, her body honestly moved to grasp the wheelchair’s handles.

“Alright, alright, I’ll listen to you.”

“You’re the strategist, so you call the shots. At worst, that useless, plump old fox of a Magistrate will lecture us about worrying needlessly and disturbing his sweet dreams.”

Lu Hongzhuang pushed the wheelchair out, muttering under her breath. “It’s only because it’s you. Anyone else who dared to bother me like this would have been thrown out long ago…”

Outside the city, at Ten-Mile Slope.

The terrain here was exceptionally high, a sheer cliff face.

From this vantage point, one could perfectly overlook the entirety of Moonfall Town.

Under the cover of night, the small town was brightly lit, resembling a dazzling pearl set upon the dark earth.

Surrounding the town, the four newly established refugee camps also glowed with bonfires. They appeared like four chains, firmly locking the town in place.

A cold wind howled, whipping up the withered grass at the cliff’s edge.

Three massive dark figures stood at the cliff’s edge. The demonic energy emanating from them was so dense it seemed capable of freezing the surrounding air.

The one standing in the center was a man draped in a large gray wolf-pelt cloak.

His figure was gaunt, his cheekbones prominent, and a pair of inverted triangular eyes gleamed with a faint green light.

This was none other than Xuange, the “cowardly” Wolf King Lu Hongzhuang had mentioned.

To his left, a giant python, as thick as a water barrel, coiled. Its head was held high, transformed into an alluringly seductive woman’s face.

As its forked tongue flickered, it emitted a spine-chilling hiss.

This was She Man, the Snake King.

To his right stood an upright walking tiger, its body a mass of bulging muscles. The “King” character on its forehead pulsed with golden light.

With every breath it took, the surrounding air seemed to tremble.

This was Lieshan, the Tiger King.

“Xuange.”

She Man swayed her waist, her voice saccharine yet laced with bone-chilling coldness. “His Royal Highness, the Demon Emperor, has commanded that all herbivorous demons and combat-ineffective waste within your territory be devoured by the strong to enhance their power.”

“This is so we can swiftly slaughter Moonfall Town with overwhelming force, giving the increasingly rampant human race a harsh warning.”

Her vertical pupils were fixed on Xuange. “Why did you send off all your wolf cubs who had devoured the herbivorous demons before we even arrived?”

Lieshan also spoke, his voice booming like muffled thunder.

“I see no improvement in your aura whatsoever. And your subordinates didn’t cause much trouble for those human demon exorcists; they all died in vain.”

“Did you truly devour those weaker demons?”

Lieshan took a step forward, his massive tiger claws carving deep gouges into the rock as he glared at Xuange.

“Or… did you hide them all, intending to slowly devour them yourself?”

Faced with the accusations from the two great Demon Kings, Xuange showed no trace of fear.

He even smiled, revealing a sinister grin.

“Devour? I don’t have such a good appetite.”

Xuange extended his tongue, licking his chapped lips. “My subordinates ate them all. Even my share, I gave to them.”

“What?!”

She Man and Lieshan were startled simultaneously.

The demon race believed in the law of the jungle; devouring the weak to enhance one’s strength was the norm.

Yet Xuange had done the exact opposite?

He gave his share to his subordinates, then sent them to their inexplicable deaths?

‘Are you mad, or do I look like an idiot?’

“Why?” She Man narrowed her eyes, murderous intent blazing within them. “If you cannot provide a satisfactory explanation, the two of us wouldn’t mind devouring you first, then attacking the city.”

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