Chapter 394: Y’zaks’ Past
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren was stunned to learn that Y'zaks had a daughter; it was the last thing Hao Ren would have thought about the demon. He was surprised not because Y'zaks was missing his daughter, but because he had a daughter!
"You have a daughter?" Hao Ren looked at Y'zaks, still a little shocked. He examined him if he was drunk. "Are you serious?"
"You sound like I can't have a daughter." Y'zaks grinned at him. "You think I shouldn't have a child?"
"No, that's not what I mean. I just feel that having a daughter doesn't really suit your style." Hao Ren did not mince his words. "I mean, judging from your looks, your child should be 1.2-m tall with 8-feet-wide shoulders. He would have a two-feet-wide, hairy chest and an alloy flail."
Y'zaks shot Hao Ren a sideways glance and said, "So, by your logic the flail came together since he was born?"
Hao Ren nodded instinctively but quickly realised that it was ridiculous. "Umm, it would be a little bit challenging, though."
"...Only you guys talk with me. There was no one I could talk to in the past." Y'zaks paused for a moment, then sighed. "I'm going off topic... Anyway, I'm serious—I really have a daughter. Age wise, she could very well be your great grandmother already. But in our world, she's just a little girl. She's this tall and she's always running around."
Y'zaks gestured with her hand at the height of top of the table. Hao Ren was thinking the guy must be drunk and mistaken he was in his stock form. At the height Y'zaks was telling, her daughter was just as tall as where his belly button was— was there such a demon species?
He kept mum because he knew that Y'zaks had kept this to himself for at least half a year. He had just found someone to talk to. It was rare for the great demon to share about his past.
"Let me tell ya, in fact I had family and career." Suddenly Y'zaks steered the conversation, talking about his career now. "In the demonic world, I'm a king. In the word of human, they call it 'The Devil'
"What ranking is that?" Hao Ren asked, pursuing the topic with his question. "It sounds pretty cool."
Y'zaks laughed was a little flattered. "It's pretty high-ranking, the highest ranked demon of all. In wour world, war was a constant affair; war between different factions, and within the same faction. We have our own territories. Stronger demons would command millions of other lower demons and fight with other similiarly ranked demons. They don't have permament territories; whoever could win the war get to keep the territories until they are defeated again. These demons are known as 'demon commanders' or 'warlord'. They are just small fries, their tiny forces are more like bunch of bandits which could be wiped out anytime by others or their own men.
"Sometimes among these demon commanders, some are more capable than others. These more capable demons would seize a larger piece of territory and turn it into their home base. They occupy it for a long time and no one could shake them off their position. At the same time their forces are more stable. These are known as seigniors.
"Further up the rank are those who could fight well and have brain at the same time. These brainy demons command a large following of seigniors, like a country, who could even occupy an entire independent dimension, have their own system of governance just like humans do with their own countries, armies, people and inheritance. These demons are known as king."
It was the first time Hao Ren had ever heard of such details from Y'zaks. It seemed that society in Y'zaks' home town was different from the legends told on earth, and definitely not the same 'local demons' like Vivian had described. So the same race in different worlds would always develop their unique civilisation independently from others.
Hao Ren became interested. "So you've a country to rule?"
"Used to. And it was the strongest one since time immemorial; much bigger than the largest empire humans have ever built." Y'zaks nodded then said, "But it was then wiped out."
Biggie sighed and then continued. "So you must be curious why a demon like me could have thought of world peace—I have done my homework and I know that demons in other worlds are constantly at war with each other, people like me are diamonds in the rough.
"But I was used to be like the other demons—constantly fighthing among themselves and those who found a moment of peace would start to strategise ways to invade the human world. I was one of them."
"Then how did you change?" Hao Ren looked at Y'zaks curiously.
"Because of one human." Y'zaks looked at the shaojiu bottle in his hand as if he wanted to find the reflection of his long lost friend on the glass. "He was an alchemist, like a scholar in your world."
"Back then I had just successfully seized a piece of territory and chase away the rest demons from the surroundig areas. Simply said, I was from a demon commander becoming a siegnior. Like any other young, hot-blooded seighnior I was impatient to prove my capability but there hadn't a worthy opponent nearby. So I made a decision other demons would have made—I seduced some human shamans and opened up a gateway in the human world and invaded a country."
"Many demons did what I did." Y'zaks's brows slightly raised. "The space dimension in our world is very different from yours. Our universe is made up of many seemingly messy but internally organised, independent spatial pockets which are connected by an unstable channel. Each pocket might contain a continent or several planets. Such dimensional structure allows various races and kingdoms to exist but also causes them to go to war with each other. There are many kingdoms in the human world, widely distributed and strong, which become the perfect targets for the demons to invade and destroy to show off their own strength. This would show that demons are intelligent enough to open a massive dimensional door as well as strong enough to exterminate any enemy at the other side of the dimensional door.
"The country I had chosen to invade was mediocre. I didn't even bother with their frightened people and fragile human soldiers—which I guessed it was a good thing—as when we marched into their capital, their king and his officials had long fled to another dimension through a teleporting gateway. Then my flag was raised on the castle as the country was officially declared one of the territories of demon and humans were demoted as slaves.
"Then I start to look through the things which I had taken possession after winning the war, searching in the treasure vaults and shaman towers for alchemical items which were highly regards by various races.
"Then I met this weird fellow—a slender, stooped old man. He was in a rundown shaman tower near the castle, draped in ragged human alchemist robe, unshaved like a homeless man, conducting experiments in his alchemy lab. I suspected that he had stayed in the tower for many years—as he didn't even realise war had broken out in his country. When my men stormed through the door, he just turned his head and scolded them for messing up the experiment data."
Y'zaks said with a wacky face. "I think I should thank the dumb demon guard who didn't kill the old man but strictly followed my order to the letter that was to report back any strange items he found; he treated the old man like some strange thing and asked me to check it out. As I shrank my body and went through that alchemy lab door, guess what happened?"
Hao Ren noticed that Y'zaks had completely immersed in his own memory, so he played along and asked more leading questions. "So what happened next?"
"That old man ordered me out of the lab!" Y'zaks guffawed heartily. "When four demon guards stormed into his lab, and then another hour had passed before I came, he had been burying his head in the parchments and hadn't realised they weren't his students but a bunch of demons!"