#7466 - return!

After banishing the three imperial guards, Li Guxian ordered Yun Zhou to set off again.

Although they have entered the territory of Huanglong Qianzhou, there are still more than a thousand large states here, and it will take some time to reach the headquarters of Jiuyou Demon Palace.

With Wen Lao's cloud boat flying at an exaggerated speed, Lin Bai and others only took about half a day to cross hundreds of states and return to the headquarters of the Jiuyou Demon Palace.

Lin Bai and Li Guxian both bowed and said to the group of high-level warriors at the Supreme Dao Fruit Realm and Chaos Dao Fruit Realm behind them:

According to Zhang Sheng, the Zhang family was subjected to crazy revenge by the First Son of God because they expressed their willingness to support Emperor Lin Bai at the Council of Elders.

Since Lin Bai and Li Guxian were away fighting for a long time, the First Son of God mainly stayed in the Demon Palace.

After all, the Demon Palace has just rebuilt its mountain gate, and it still needs warriors to take charge of related matters.

The First Son of God is mainly responsible for the placement and defense of warriors inside and outside the Demon Palace, so the 'Royal Guards' belonging to the "Eighteen Guards of the Demon Palace" became under the jurisdiction of the First Son of God.

The Royal Guards are one of the "Eighteen Guards of the Demon Palace", and the safety of Huanglong Qianzhou is under the responsibility of the Royal Guards.

Therefore, the power of the imperial guards is very great.

Currently, the First Son of God, who is the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, uses the power and warriors of the Imperial Guard to eliminate dissidents in the Demon Palace.

Basically speaking, except for the top families that are affiliated with the nine great temples, all the smaller families have been conquered by the First Son of God and have become his lackeys.

Including the warriors who had previously chased Zhang Sheng, they were all warriors loyal to the First Son of God's family.

To put it simply... the elders currently participating in the Demon Palace Elder Council, especially those from small and medium-sized families, are basically all on the side of the First Son of God.

Li Guxian said to Lin Bai, "As for the affairs of Zhang Sheng and his family, Senior Brother Dizi, you don't have to worry about it. I will take care of it naturally."

"After everything is handled, I will come to the Imperial Palace to give Senior Brother Di Zi a detailed report!"

Lin Bai nodded gently and said, "Then I'll trouble Goddess Li Guxian. I'll go back to the Imperial Palace to rest first."

Lin Bai is indeed not as proficient as Li Guxian in this kind of political trickery and manipulation of people's hearts. Since Li Guxian is willing to help, Lin Bai is happy to see it happen.

After Li Guxian flew out of the cloud boat, he headed for the Ninth Temple; while Old Wen drove the cloud boat straight to the Imperial Palace.

Inside the mountain gate of the Jiuyou Demon Palace, ten suspended islands are particularly eye-catching. They are the residences of the Emperor's son and the ten sons of gods.

Lin Bai's imperial palace was suspended above the other nine islands.

The headquarters of the Jiuyou Demon Palace occupies an entire mountain range. It is extremely large and can accommodate millions of warriors.

Lin Bai stood on the cloud boat and looked down at the warriors moving around in the mountains below. He saw that there were more warriors than he had seen before.

"It looks like the Demon Palace has already recruited new disciples from outside?"

Lin Bai could immediately see that the Demon Palace had already recruited the first batch of disciples to fill the number of disciples in the Nine Nether Demon Palace.

"Yes."

After Li Guxian left, the person responsible for standing beside Lin Bai and conveying various messages became Old Wen.

Elder Wen replied with a smile: "When we were in Jiuyou City, the Demon Palace had more than 50 million disciples. It can be said that all the 5 million residents of Jiuyou City were disciples of the Jiuyou Demon Palace."

"After rebuilding the mountain gate in Huanglong Qianzhou, we recovered the branch office we had set up in the territory of Qiye Divine Sect, which is the 'Kuhai Branch Office'."

"The Dry Sea Branch originally had nearly one million disciples, so they naturally returned to the Nine Nether Demon Palace."

“And during this period of time, many small and medium-sized families in Huanglong Qianzhou are willing to send their disciples to Jiuyou Momo for training.”

"The small and medium-sized families and sects in other states are also doing the same. They send the most outstanding geniuses in their sect to the Nine Nether Demon Palace."

"This has caused the number of disciples in the Nine Nether Demon Palace to suddenly increase dramatically, and now it is almost approaching more than 10 million."

Lin Bai suddenly understood and nodded repeatedly.

After thinking for a while, Elder Wen reminded Lin Bai: "Son of the Emperor, in fact, the Demon Palace did this not just to expand the number of disciples."

"Whether it is the small or medium-sized families in Huanglong Qianzhou or other states, they will send the geniuses in their sect to the Jiuyou Demon Palace for further study, and their families will send their direct descendants to the Demon Palace for training."

“While the Demon Palace is training geniuses for them, it is also using the geniuses of their own sect to check and balance them!”

Checks and balances? ...Through Elder Wen's explanation, Lin Bai suddenly had a sense of sudden enlightenment.

In the Huanglong Qianzhou owned by the Jiuyou Demon Palace and the states it occupies, the small and medium-sized families and sects send their geniuses and direct descendants to the Jiuyou Demon Palace to practice.

That’s because the Jiuyou Demon Palace must possess a great deal of resources and materials that can greatly increase their cultivation.

The Jiuyou Demon Palace also took advantage of this opportunity to keep the geniuses of these sects and the direct descendants of the families firmly under its control.

If their sects and families rebel, or have any ill intentions towards the Nine Nether Demon Palace, then the Nine Nether Demon Palace will immediately massacre their disciples who are practicing in the palace.

"This is equivalent to a 'proton'."

"All the large, medium and small families and sects sent their direct descendants and the geniuses in their sects to the Demon Palace."

"If this isn't a 'proton' then what is it?"

After Lin Bai figured it out, he smiled and asked, "Will those families and sects agree to this?"

Elder Wen immediately smiled and replied, "How could they not agree? They just want it."

"Even the geniuses within their families and sects fought each other for these places."

Ah!? ... Lin Bai was a little confused. He knew that he was going to be a "proton", but he was willing to fight and get hurt?

Elder Wen knew that Lin Bai had misunderstood, so he immediately explained:

"Emperor's son, actually, from the surface, it seems that you are here just to be a 'proton'."

"But we in the Demon Palace will definitely not announce to the public that we are using our family and sect's direct descendants as hostages."

"We will tell them that the Demon Palace has just rebuilt its mountain gate and is in need of fresh blood. The Demon Palace is willing to devote a large amount of resources to training disciples and allow the talented warriors from various sects and families to go to the Demon Palace to train."

"They only knew that they came to the Demon Palace to share resources and become disciples. How could they have imagined that they were here to be hostages?"

Lin Bai suddenly realized, smiled bitterly and nodded.

Mr. Wen continued:

"In fact, it is not just the Nine Nether Demon Palace that uses this method to check and balance the small and medium-sized family forces under its command."

"The prosperous and top sects like Chunyang Sect, Chu State, Wansheng Mountain, etc., all use the same method."

"They would regularly give some 'disciple quotas' to small and medium-sized families and sects, allowing them to hold a competition among themselves and select the top three or ten most outstanding disciples to go to the top or most prosperous sects for training."

"They said they were going there to practice, but they were actually going to be protons."

Hearing what Elder Wen said, Lin Bai couldn't help but immediately think of himself. He had participated in similar martial arts competitions many times in the Barbarian Continent and after coming to the Demon Realm.

"So...the quotas issued by these sects are for selecting protons."

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"And yet we happily joined in, fought till our heads were broken and bloodied, and insisted on joining the other party's sect!"

"I finally understand."

“The world is dangerous!”

Take the Nine Nether Demon Palace for example, they distributed "disciple quotas" to every small and medium-sized family. Those small and medium-sized families thought that they were highly regarded by the Nine Nether Demon Palace, so they were willing to select a few suitable geniuses to go and practice.

They thought they had picked up a great bargain, but little did they know that this was actually a way for the Nine Nether Demon Palace to keep a check on them.

"Power tactics are really scary things."

Lin Bai shook his head. The cloud boat had already arrived below the Imperial Palace. Old Wen then began to control the cloud boat to fly up to the suspended island of the Imperial Palace.

…

Because there is a no-fly magic array set up inside the Jiuyou Demon Palace headquarters, no warrior can fly in the air without permission.

All flying magical instruments are parked outside the mountain gate and will not enter the mountain gate.

So when they saw a cloud boat slowly flying over the mountains, many Nine Nether Demon Palace warriors inside and outside the mountain gate raised their heads and looked at the cloud boat and whispered:

"Cloud Boat Magical Weapon?"

"How could the Cloud Boat magical weapon enter the mountain gate?"

"It seems that this must be a magic weapon belonging to a high-level warrior, otherwise it would be impossible to enter the mountain gate."

The cloud boat went forward, and warriors followed it with their eyes all the way. It was not until they saw the cloud boat come to the bottom of the Imperial Palace Island and began to climb upwards that the warriors opened their eyes wide and exclaimed:

"It's the Emperor's son's cloud boat!"

"The Emperor is back?"

Many warriors gathered and looked towards the Imperial Palace Island, where they saw several warriors walking down from the cloud boat.

The first to come was a young man in a white robe, followed by a beautiful woman in a black dress and an old servant.

After the huge cloud boat approached the imperial palace, the old servant casually put it into his long sleeves and disappeared without a trace.

The next moment, all the magic arrays on the Imperial Palace Island started to work, and the entire Imperial Palace was shining, as if welcoming its master back.

After nightfall, the Imperial Palace Island hanging in the air emitted a faint light, as if it were a star falling from the sky. All warriors could see the Imperial Palace as long as they looked up, no matter where they were in the Jiuyou Demon Palace Mountains.

Similarly, as long as Lin Bai in the Imperial Palace lowers his head, he can take in the entire mountain range of the Nine Nether Demon Palace.

After all, the Imperial Palace is located at a very high place, between heaven and earth. If you look up, you can seem to pick the stars, and if you look down, you can look down at all living things on earth.

…

After returning to the Imperial Palace, Elder Wen and Taoist Yu You began to inspect the magic array of the entire Imperial Palace and quickly cleaned up the dust everywhere.

After all, it has been a while since they left the Jiuyou Demon Palace. Except for Lin Bai and Yu You, the son of Taoist Master Wen, no one else dared to come to the Imperial Palace privately.

Fortunately, the Imperial Palace is protected by a magic circle so it is not covered in dust, but it still needs a simple cleaning.

These things were naturally left to Elder Wen and Taoist Yu You.

Lin Bai took out a pot of wine from his storage bag, sat on the edge of the Imperial Palace Island, and looked at the blood-red setting sun in the sky.

It was not until the sun set that Lin Bai looked towards the mountain range where the Nine Nether Demon Palace was located. He saw bright lights, countless luminous plants and minerals illuminating the entire mountain range.

The bright places are bright, and the hazy places are hazy. It is obvious that when creating the layout of this mountain, there were architectural masters who gave guidance, making the entire mountain look particularly pleasing to the eye.

"This really has the flavor of a prosperous sect."

Lin Bai took a look and couldn't help laughing.

Although he had not been to the mountain gates of many prosperous sects, he had been to the imperial palace of the Chu State.

Inside the imperial city, where the power of the Chu State was concentrated, the pressure that was above all living beings was so great that even Lin Bai would be shocked when he walked in.

The mountains of the Jiuyou Demon Palace are majestic as a whole, surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, creating an ultimate landscape.

The ancient paths in the mountains are winding and secluded, covering a large area, and can accommodate millions of people without seeming crowded.

Not much different from other sects, the Jiuyou Demon Palace also divided the mountains into outer gate areas, inner gate areas, core areas, etc.

Outer disciples live in the outer area, inner disciples live in the inner area, and core disciples live in the core area.

The outer gate area, inner gate area, and core area are arranged in layers from the outer periphery of the mountain range, the middle section of the mountain range, to the deep part of the mountain range.

In the core area, there are seventy-two majestic mountains that reach the sky. This is the most core area of ​​the Jiuyou Demon Palace.

The Elders' Council, which is held every once in a while, is held at the 'Wentian Peak', one of the seventy-two peaks.

The other peaks of the 72 peaks also have their own uses, and none of them is vacant.

Lin Bai sat on the island of the Imperial Palace and drank a pot of wine. After enjoying the night breeze for a while, he turned around and went back to the Imperial Palace to rest:

"I'm going to be in seclusion for a while. If there's nothing important, don't let anyone disturb me."

After Lin Bai gave instructions to Elder Wen and Daozi Yu You, he went straight to his residence and began to retreat. (End of this chapter)