How Much For Your Soul

The Demon Lord had been captured, stripped of everything, including his clothes and had his cultivation crippled. There was no sneaky escape planned for this disease of humanity, his organisation was butchered like the animals they were, and his cultivating days were over.

The quivery mess of a once proud and powerful man was knocked out, and Shen Yue proceeded to enslave him. He had no plans of using the Demon Lord in any of his schemes, other than keeping him quiet until they could take him back to Glory City and publically execute him. The public sentiment for his new Empire would be boosted, and their invasion into the Nether Realm vindicated.

The Demon Lord was one of the six reincarnated beings opposing the Sage-Emperor. Since the beginning of time and space, these six people coexisted in harmony as they comprehend the Heavenly Dao. They were the only ones capable of facing the Sage-Emperor in the past. Though even they could not destroy him, they were able to band together to weaken him. Since then, they have used their intents to continually reincarnate in the hopes of once again reforming their strength and facing him.

The Demon Lord had really lucked out being born in Glory City. When he was a young starving child, he was taken in by an old man that worked for the Red Jade Family. But unfortunately, when the boy was seventeen, the old man was ruthlessly whipped to death by the Family for failing an assigned task.

The boy disappeared for decades following the old man's death, when he returned, he was wearing a demon mask and called himself the Demon Lord. He single-handedly massacred the entire Red Jade Family, including several high-level black gold Demon Spiritualists. But was driven out of Glory City and founded the Dark Guild to carry out his vengeance.

A tragic childhood, but one a reincarnated being would have dealt with completely differently. This was confirmed when Shen Yue finished scanning through the Demon Lords thoughts. Apparently, the self-proclaimed Lord had yet to unlock his past memories. He had been blundering about with only local knowledge to fuel his retribution. If he had done a bit of soul searching, he would have gained access to powerful techniques that would have enabled him to dominate the Tiny World.

After neutering the Demon Lord and his forces, Shen Yue' next objective was to take control of the people with enough authority to keep Blackrock City under control. As he moved to the building where the high-value prisoners were kept, he had a quick look at his library. It had expanded substantially and would require time to look for new and exciting inscriptions.

Reaching the building, he was greeted by the sight of Lord Voldemort welcoming the head of the Jade Seal Family into the Empire. Luo Xiao was nothing if not pragmatic, witnessing the power of the invading humans and being offered a City Lord position in sunlight, he leapt at the chance to swear allegiance. A squad of Maid Guards would ensure he didn't gain any thoughts of independence.

The rest of the leaders were quickly subdued and enslaved. Of course, this was done behind closed doors; they didn't want to give anyone excuses for rebellions. All in all, everything went smoothly. The city was subdued in under two hours and now belonged to the God-Emperor. Shen Yue had tried to think of a kick-arse name for his Empire but had come up blank. Since there was no opposition, he supposed 'The Empire' would do for now.

The army had quickly taken care of any injuries or problems and been ready to move. When the leaders of Blackrock City had been 'sworn in' to their new Empire, they marched to the next target. This had been repeated another eight times, before the Nether Lord and his posse of Spiritual Gods had arrived. It must have taken time for them to reach the Nether Realm from their home realms.

The Nether Lord, with six experts behind him, was flying at the head of an army a hundred thousand strong. It looked like he had gathered the experts from the remaining six cities while he was waiting for the Spiritual Gods to arrive. Unfortunately for them, this had long ago been noticed.

Shen Yue had become concerned with the lack of reaction from the Nether Realm after conquering its cities. The last three cities they subdued, had even given up without a fight. The gates were open, and the citizens were lined up outside awaiting their new overlords. But what the Nether Lord could never have known, was that Shen Yue read the minds of all he enslaved.

When Ming Fei, the Nether Lord, had found out that his Realm was under attack, he had immediately summoned his allies. Since Ming Fei could sense everything within his Realm, he quickly discovered that whoever surrendered was spared as long as they behaved. Since he was pressed for time, he could only alert three cities in time while he gathered the experts to fight off the invaders.

Ming Fei's plan had been discovered as soon as Shen Yue dug around inside the leaders of the first city to capitulate without a fight, he had been rather curious at their actions. With a united army imminent, they planned accordingly and had strategised while advancing. Since they didn't have to fight the next two cities, the men used this time to recover their soul force for the upcoming battle.

Because they were withing enemy territory, they could not set up many traps as they would be noticed straight away. The best they could do was pretend to set up a camp and covertly rig it with offensive arrays, this way, they could pretend to retreat and hopefully take out a good chunk of the enemy before counter-attacking.

Just as planned, the Nether army arrived seemingly catching them off guard. Since everyone was a cultivator, everyone formed up ready to meet the hundred thousand Demi-Gods and Legend ranked soldiers. Ming Fei was observing the eighty thousand experts form up ready to battle; he could only wonder where such a strong force suddenly had emerged from.

"Who are you to invade my domain? For what reason would you attack and slaughter the innocents under my protection?" Commanded Ming Fei dominantly, infusing his voice with power.

Unfortunately, it had little effect on the Empire's troops as the Heavenly Fate experts shielded the Legend ranks from any harm. Su Qiang was quick to step forward and retaliate.

"I am Lord Voldemort! City Lord of Glory City, and the Human representative of the God-Emperor. We have invaded this den of scum and villainy in the name of his Empire for the multiple crimes you have committed against us." Countered Su Qian, his voice layered with soul force and projected at the enemy army.

Within the ranks of the Nether army, all the Legend experts held their ears as blood leaked from their ruptured eardrums. They were unable to counter the soul force of a Heavenly Fate expert, only the Demi-Gods were able to protect themselves with their power of law.

Seeing his men take damage, Ming Fei was shocked! Where had this expert come from? And who was this God-Emperor? It was then that he noticed Zhu Long and Yu Yan standing behind the man that just achieved what he wanted to do with his voice. He couldn't help but pale at the implications of this alliance between humans and demon beasts.

"The Nether Realm has done nothing to your City, I have always remained neutral to the Divine Continent." He replied sanctimoniously.

"You, as the Master of the Nether Realm, have control over anyone entering and leaving your Realm? That is how you knew we had attacked, correct? No one escaped to alert you." Asked Su Qiang as if talking to a three-year-old.

"Yes, I felt your army enter the Nether and have been watching as you viciously massacred my people!" Yelled an incensed Nether Lord, he had never been shown such disrespect while in his own domain.

"Well then, you must have sanctioned the Dark Guild's regular raids on Glory City. Your latest plot to wipe out the last city of humanity with a beast horde was the final straw! There is no reason to deny it, we have already captured the 'Demon Lord' and annihilated the Dark Guild!