Chapter 400 - 296: Coercion and Inducement

Long Yi was becoming increasingly bored to the point of irritation.

Five days, for five consecutive days, Reiz and Tilian showed up punctually every day, flashing the Eye of Pain and then casually leaving. Long Yi felt that all his acting talent was about to drain away. It was clear that the Black Dragon had an ulterior motive, otherwise it wouldn’t resort to such a boring method. This was why Long Yi had not yet reacted. He wanted to understand what they were trying to do.

Of course, it would be even better if he could discover the secrets of the Black Dragon Empire, but he knew it was unlikely, after all, the emperor of the Black Dragon Empire was not a fool.

Then, the time came to that night.

Long Yi was flanked by two Dragon Knights, blindfolded and taken to an underground space filled with a pungent smell of preservative.

When Long Yi’s blindfold was removed and he saw everything around him, he couldn’t help but mutter inwardly: "Black Dragon Emperor, you truly are an idiot."

This place was a massive laboratory, with large tanks lined up in a row. In the tanks were numerous grotesque human parts, different in each tank. Strong workers hooked up these parts, put them in a cart, then brought them before an operation table. They used large stitches to combine these parts into enormous ’humans’, put these so-called ’humans’ into the cart, and moved them on to the next process. In the back, a worker took over, injecting a green glowing liquid into the stitched parts, causing the stitched areas to heal rapidly. The ’human’ was then moved to the next process.

The next worker began to inject a black liquid into the ’human’s’ body, causing uncontrollable tremor and seizures. The workers quickly bound the ’human’ with straps, hung them on a hook, and moved them to the final space.

That space was extraordinarily large, much like a huge factory, only instead of roaring machines, there were rows and rows of ’humans’ hanging there.

Long Yi watched the whole process. Reiz’s intention was clear, he was flaunting.

"This is fucking disgusting," Long Yi said, frowning.

"This is science, we’re creating life, stronger life," Reiz said proudly.

"This is stupid," Long Yi said dismissively, "You expect these things to win wars for you? Can they guard your home or help you conquer cities?"

"No, they can’t, but they can kill our enemies for us," Reiz replied.

"No offence, but without using dragons, I could probably stamp out ten thousand of these things by myself," Long Yi retorted disdainfully.

"I believe you, but the White Dragon Empire has only one of you, right? Oh wait, that’s not right, whether you choose to join us, the Black Dragon, or choose to die at our hands, you will not exist in the White Dragon empire anyway," Reiz taunted, a smile on his face.

"Come on, stop beating around the bush, tell me, what do you want to do? Let’s just get to the part where you start offering inducements. You’ve been threatening me for five days, if you’re not bored by now, I certainly am," Long Yi openly showed a trace of fear, but quickly hid it. Reiz, however, accurately caught on to this detail. He smiled slightly and said, "It’s nothing major, really. We simply wish to make use of your little female demon."

Female demon?

Long Yi was momentarily taken aback, then he understood.

So that’s it!

It was indeed accurate that the Black Dragon Empire was mass-producing undead soldiers. While it seemed quite a few here, there must be countless factories producing more of these undead soldiers. However, these undead soldiers were not easily controlled. The traditional control method involved a contract, but given the huge number of undead soldiers, this was too inefficient.

So what was the solution?

The female demon served as the most effective method. Also a creature of the undead, but with a high intellect, the female demon could use mind-control magic. By means of mental magic, one female demon could command a large group of undead soldiers in battle. Moreover, the female demon herself could also cast mental magic, excelling at causing chaos among the enemy.

Long Yi didn’t know to what extent the Black Dragon Empire’s research on female demons had reached, but no matter what, they could not possibly have a perfect female demon like Little Zi.

Little Zi was unique.

"This request is quite hard for me to accept," Long Yi said, scratching his head.

"You haven’t heard the part with the inducements yet," Reiz responded.

"Go ahead!" Long Yi’s attention was piqued.

"If you agree, I can assure you that you won’t die," Reiz proposed.

"..."

"..."

"That’s it? Just this one point?"

"Isn’t this one point enough? It’s an enormous favor to let you live," Reiz responded.

"Forget it, let’s just go back to the intimidation part."

So, once again under the torment of the Eye of Pain, Long Yi was carried back to his dwelling.

"Did your brain get damaged during the transplant? His Majesty the Emperor once promised Long Yi all sorts of benefits, he even offered him the position of Guardian Dragon Knight, why didn’t you tell him about these?" Watching Long Yi being carried away, Tilian said to Reiz.

"Hehehe, when dealing with a person like Long Yi, it’s my intent to shatter his self-esteem and pride completely, making him bow down and declare his loyalty to me, daring not to have the slightest disobedience!" Reiz said viciously.

"Heh, it appears your mind has really gone mad indeed," Tilian shook his head.

"What, you have a different opinion?" Reiz laughed.

"You can’t seriously believe that a person like Long Yi can be defeated simply with pain. Although he’s my enemy, I still have to say this. Among all the people I’ve ever met, Long Yi is the one with the firmest will. You’ve tortured him for so long, yet when have you ever seen the smile disappear from his face? I can even guess that he’s turned your torture into a form of training," Tilian said.

"What, he’s defeated you twice, and you’re afraid of him?" Reiz sneered.

"He only defeated you once, how did that turn out? It’s clear that you were an old man, yet you traded it for such a body, do you find that honorable?" Tilian counter-attacked relentlessly.

"Are you jealous of me? Or should I say, you’re jealous that I am still alive while you have to rely on undead magic to sustain your current form?"

"Death has made me calmer, preventing me from making mistakes. On the other hand, you, the foolish Reiz, are playing with fire. The Emperor made it clear, either persuade Long Yi to surrender or kill Long Yi, you haven’t accomplished either!"

"Enough, enough! Shut up, my Third Crown Prince, the Emperor appointed you to assist me, not for me to assist you! I act, you watch! Got that?" Reiz waved impatiently.

Tilian held his tongue, only coldly watching him.

As he lay in bed, Long Yi’s heart could not calm down for a long time.

Long Yi is not a cowardly man, witnessing too much death in his two lives, whether blood or bodies, to him, all these things are inconsequential.

What Long Yi had the most trouble accepting was what he saw being done inside that laboratory.

Though Long Yi is not an ethicist, the nature of that assembly line made him feel deep disgust; it was fundamentally a renouncement of human nature itself.

Comparatively speaking, the sense of crisis that the undead soldiers brought to the White Dragon Empire didn’t seem as intense.

"Little Zi, I’m unhappy," Long Yi said.

"I’m very unhappy too," Little Zi replied.

"We need to do something." As Long Yi was speaking, he took off the tiara that had always been on his head!

This tiara was originally worn to prevent Long Yi from escaping, so it had been painstakingly crafted with intricate mechanisms to prevent him from forcibly removing it. However, these devices all run on mana. The crucial factor here is that Long Yi supposedly no longer possessed any fighting aura or mana.

But Long Yi had always had mana.

With the tiara off, Little Zi immediately regained her freedom.

"We’ve completed the investigation of three districts. Next, you’ll need to investigate the environment of this last district, and be very cautious. If possible, try visiting the female demon as well. This time, try to communicate with her. Remember, the Black Dragon Empire has been studying undead magic, so they must have some countermeasures against undead creatures. If you’re in danger, don’t get tangled up, return immediately! If you can’t return, immediately call out to me, I’ll forcefully summon you back," Long Yi admonished meticulously.

The master can forcefully summon the servant, but it requires a great amount of fighting aura from the master. Of course, this is not a problem. However, if he were to use fighting aura here, Long Yi would undoubtedly reveal himself.

"Brother Long, don’t worry. I’ve already gone out three times, I won’t have any trouble today!" Little Zi said, transforming into an ordinary-looking female demon, and then disappeared through the wall.

At ease?

I’m not at ease! But for now, there’s no other good method. This time, I can only rely on Little Zi.

"Listen, Little Zi, I’m not with you, no matter what happens, you have to rely on your own judgment. If we have to fight, don’t be afraid, we’ll fight our way out!"

Long Yi hasn’t been idle these past few days. Relying on Little Zi, they have conducted reconnaissance on the Black Dragon Imperial City many times, found the main base of the Black Dragon Empire’s undead magic research, and even discovered where the Black Dragon Empire manufactures Female Demons.

What they saw was simply horrifying.

According to Little Zi’s description, she alone saw more than a hundred female demons. Yet among them, there was not a single complete female demon. An incomplete female demon is very difficult to communicate with, so Little Zi only observed from a distance, not approaching. Today, Little Zi plans to try to gather some useful information from them.

With her powerful mental perception, Little Zi navigated the palace effortlessly. Even areas full of traps posed no obstacle to her. After all, she was an energy life form, and physical traps couldn’t affect her. However, there were numerous inexplicable energy traps nearby, which Little Zi had to carefully avoid.

First, she sneaked into the lab that Long Yi had visited before, where work was still ongoing. After a few turns inside the lab, finding nothing useful, she began to search nearby.

Suddenly, a howling sound echoed.

It was a female demon! Ordinary people couldn’t hear it at all, it was the howl of a female demon.

It came from directly beneath the palace! (To be continued. If you like this work, we welcome you to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at www.qidian.com. Your support is our biggest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)