Turmoil at the Borders and the Dawn of the Consortium Plan
News of the Immortal Emperor's defeated retreat spread faster than the fiercest gales of the Demon Realm.
At first, it was the scouts of powerful Demon Lords who brought back fragmented reports—"the Immortal Army withdrew," "the new Lord of the Abandoned Land is unfathomably strong." Soon, exaggerated versions of the tale took root and spread across every corner of the Demon Realm.
Some claimed the green-robed demon was an ancient, reclusive great fiend who had devoured a hundred thousand celestial soldiers with a single wave of his hand, forcing the Immortal Emperor to kneel and beg for mercy to spare his life. Others whispered that the Abandoned Land now teemed with spiritual treasures (though their idea of "spiritual treasures" likely differed vastly from black moss), where demonic energy was so dense it condensed into droplets, and even the smallest demons grew burly and their cultivation soared by leaps and bounds each day.
The most outlandish rumor, delivered with absolute certainty, declared the mysterious Lord held stable passages to countless rich realms—so much so that even the scraps falling from his fingers could feed an ordinary demon cultivator until they burst.
These rumors festered like a plague in the barren, desperate soil of the Demon Realm. Overnight, countless eyes—greedy, curious, wary—turned to the "Abandoned Land," once scorned by every demon as worthless.
The first to crack was the "Skeletal Monarch," whose territory bordered the Abandoned Land.
His domain was a vast sea of decaying bones, and his army numbered tens of thousands of skeletons and corpse demons. In his eyes, the so-called "green-robed demon" had merely used cheap tricks to scare off the Immortal Emperor; true strength, he believed, lay in the size of one's fists and the number of one's underlings.
"Send a vanguard force to scout the truth," the Skeletal Monarch rumbled from his throne of stacked skulls, his jaw clacking as he spoke. "If there are real benefits, seize them. If it's all bluff, crush those potato-like demons—and teach that charlatan what the Demon Realm really is."
A vanguard of three hundred elite skeletal knights and fifty缝合 corpse demons marched forth, their steps heavy as a tide of death, toward the borders of the Abandoned Land.
The border remained desolate—save for the massive, intricate Energy Concentration Array carved into the ground, pulsing with a faint but steady wave of energy.
The skeletal vanguard general, soul-fire flickering in its eye sockets, raised its rusted bone sword and pointed at the faint figures of little demons bustling in the fields beyond the array.
"Charge! Crush them!"
The skeletal knights spurred their inferior nightmare steeds, kicking up clouds of black dust as they charged. The corpse demons roared lowly, lumbering behind them in heavy, thudding steps.
But the moment their vanguard neared the edge of the Energy Concentration Array—
The array's seemingly random lines suddenly flared to life.
Not with blinding light, but a dark, profound glow. The first dozens of skeletal knights, along with their mounts, slammed into an invisible, viscous barrier. Their speed plummeted instantly; their movements slowed to a crawl, and even the soul-fire in their eye sockets seemed to freeze.
Then, the array's lines twisted, and a strange suction pulled at them. The death energy clinging to the trapped knights gushed out like water from a broken dam, streaming into the array as wispy black smoke. Their bones turned ashen and brittle, finally collapsing into piles of dust, their soul-fire snuffed out.
The remaining knights froze in terror, yanking their steeds to a halt. The corpse demons also stopped, confusion and primal fear glinting in their murky eyes.
"A defensive array? No… it's an energy-draining array!" The vanguard general's soul-fire flared wildly. It had never seen such a bizarre technique—Demon Realm arrays were almost always for attack, curses, or summoning, never for stripping energy outright.
It tried to order its troops to circle around the array, but the knights sent to flank triggered hidden secondary arrays, meeting the same grim fate.
Of the three hundred skeletal knights, nearly half fell before the array—never even catching a glimpse of their enemy. The rest were trapped at the array's edge, stuck between advance and retreat.
Just then, a calm voice echoed from behind the array.
"Illegal trespass into territorial lands, disrupting production and business order. In accordance with Article 17 of the Interim Regulations on Security Management of the Demon Realm's Abandoned Land, you are hereby subject to forced expulsion and asset seizure."
Lin Mo stood there, holding a crude megaphone (a demon-realm modification) crafted from glowing ferns and obsidian.
As his words faded, the Energy Concentration Array flared again. The stolen death energy swirled above the array, coalescing into dozens of pitch-black energy spears—their tips aimed at the remaining invaders.
"Retreat! Flee!" The vanguard general shrieked, panic overriding all sense.
The energy spears shot forward, piercing the cores of the corpse demons and blowing them apart into clouds of rotting flesh. The surviving skeletal knights fled the Abandoned Land's borders in disarray, not daring to look back.
Lin Mo watched them vanish into the distance, then turned to a nearby little demon—who clutched a wooden clipboard, scribbling nervously—and instructed, "Record this: repelled illegal armed invasion. Confiscated 120 units of low-quality death energy crystals, 300 damaged bone weapons, and some recyclable metal. Assess the array's operational损耗 and include it in this month's security cost accounting."
"Yes, Lord!" The little demon nodded vigorously, admiration shining in its eyes.
News of the Skeletal Monarch's vanguard being wiped out was like a bucket of ice water, dousing many of the eager, greedy thoughts swirling through the Demon Realm.
But the Demon Realm never lacked ambitious schemers or desperate outlaws.
A few days later, a "joint inspection team" of rogue demons from various clans appeared, claiming to have come for "exchange and learning" in an attempt to sneak into the Abandoned Land.
They were spotted before they even got close—by patrolling little demons equipped with simple bone alarm devices.
Lin Mo did not show himself. Instead, he had a little demon take the megaphone and shout at them:
"In accordance with the Entry Management Measures for Foreign Personnel in the Demon Realm's Abandoned Land, entry applications require submission three working days in advance, stating the purpose of the visit, duration of stay, and passing a background check. Unauthorized entry attempts are considered smuggling and will result in legal expulsion."
The "joint inspection team" tried to force their way in—only to trigger the newly installed "hallucinogenic moss spore traps" at the border. They wandered in circles for an entire day, growing dizzy with hunger, before the little demons "escorted" them out using the shoddy weapons seized earlier.
A while later, a high-ranking succubus calling herself the "Lady of Shadows" tried to infiltrate using her innate charm, aiming to seduce the "key figure" (she assumed it would be a powerful, lonely male demon).
She slipped into the core area successfully—even catching a glimpse of Lin Mo directing demons to build a "Demon Realm-style themed inn."
Then… nothing.
Lin Mo had merely glanced at her as she tried to approach.
That glance held no desire, no awe, not even disgust. It was the same look one might give a rock, or a blade of grass.
The Lady of Shadows' proud charm magic crumbled instantly under his calm, unwavering gaze. The backlash made her gasp, barely holding her illusion together. She fled into the shadows, moving ten times faster than when she arrived.
"Target… target shows no response to conventional emotional or desire-based stimuli! Repeat, no response!" She reported to her employer, still shaken, after returning to her lair. "Recommend classifying him as an atypical demon, or someone with severe rational thinking impairment!"
After several failed attempts—some ending in bloodshed, others in absurd humiliation—lingering onlookers gathered at the Abandoned Land's borders, but no one dared to cross the line again.
Inside the Abandoned Land, however, changes unfolded at a pace that stunned the outside world.
The Energy Concentration Array expanded again, and at its edges, an attempt was made to grow "glowing mushrooms"—demon-energy resistant fungi with a shorter growth cycle. The range of handicrafts expanded too: besides bone flutes and stone carvings, there was now "shadow cloth" (woven from unique Demon Realm materials, though it barely breathed) and "sulfur spring water" (drinking it gave demons a brief energy boost, though side effects were still unobserved).
Lin Mo had even stabilized the unstable inter-plane passage slightly—the livestream screen now had fewer glitches, and occasionally, comments from the other realm's viewers could be heard: "This special effect is awesome!" "The set design here is so detailed!"
The little demons were transformed. They were still small, but their eyes held light; they worked with fierce dedication. A few even began fumblingly learning basic array recognition and energy guidance from Lin Mo—dubbed the "First Session of Vocational Technical Training for the Demon Realm's Abandoned Land."
One day, Lin Mo stood atop the tallest black rock, overlooking his fledgling, orderly territory. Beyond it stretched the Demon Realm's eternal dim yellow sky—and the dark, lurking forces still watching hungrily.
A little demon in charge of intelligence, clutching a "work report" bound in demon hide, looked up and reported:
"Lord, according to the preliminary survey by the 'Market Expansion Department' (staffed by our two fastest little demons), the three nearby Demon Lord territories rely on these main economic pillars: the Skeletal Monarch—plunder and undead forging; the Swamp Lord—poison cultivation and curse services; the Lava Giant—violent mining and crude weaponry. Their shared weaknesses: backward technology, low resource utilization, crude management, severe social conflicts… and zero sustainable development capacity."
The little demon stumbled over the new terms, but the meaning was clear.
Lin Mo nodded, his gaze steady.
"Spread the word," he said. "Phase One—'Establish a Foothold and Build Infrastructure'—has been largely achieved."
"For the next phase, we launch the 'Demon Realm Characteristic Economic Development Consortium' plan."
He paused, his eyes turning to the darkness beyond, where chaos and greed simmered.
"First step: take the initiative. Annex the Skeletal Monarch's territory."