The treacherous paths of the borderlands gradually smoothed out as Li Yu and Demon Lord Malos walked deeper into the territory of the House of Night. The transition wasn't instantaneous but over the course of several days. The ambient tension that defined the Demon Realm began to fundamentally shift.

  The most immediate change was the roads. The muddy and rutted trails used by desperate refugees slowly gave way to widened paths paved with crushed and compacted stone. This was clearly not done recently, showing that the queen had not done much for infrastructure yet. The road was old and it didn’t look newly created. It was understandable since not much time had passed. Every few miles a tall obsidian pillar stood by the roadside. Draped on it was a pitch black banner bearing the silver crescent moon.

  They were not just markers of territory; they were markers of absolute authority.

  As they crested a low hill, the first true settlement of the Night Queen's expanded domain came into view. It wasn't a military fortress but a sprawling, makeshift agricultural town situated in a wide but shallow valley. The Night Queen had absorbed tens of thousands of refugees and providing sanctuary meant providing sustenance. She had clearly mandated the establishment of farming zones to feed the massive influx of new people.

  There was just one glaring and unavoidable problem. Demons were weapons of destruction and forged in a realm of eternal slaughter. They were not farmers, or at least few were. It was a specialization that few of their kind had mastered. Higher level cultivators didn’t need such nourishment and it was seen as a useless kid. The mindset was ‘let the weak worry about it.’

  Li Yu and Malos walked down into the valley and the sheer absurdity of the scene unfolding before them made Li Yu stop dead in his tracks.

  To their left, a massive, four armed brute demon was standing in the middle of a freshly plowed field. He was tasked with weeding the rows of delicate spiritual herbs and crops. Instead of gently pulling the invasive weeds, the brute was wielding a massive, blood stained battleaxe. He was screaming at the top of his lungs as he furiously hacked at the dirt. Clods of earth, weeds and shredded spiritual herbs flew into the air with every devastating swing.

  "Die, parasite! Submit to the House of Night!" The brute roared as he was cleaving a small weed into dust. He was also completely destroying a five foot radius of the crop in the process. Delicate control was not within his vocabulary. Li Yu didn’t immediately go to help, he wanted to first understand and see what was going on around here.

  Further down the road, a squad of Flame Demons had been assigned to warm the soil for a batch of temperature sensitive seeds. They were currently standing in a circle around a massive, blazing inferno that had completely consumed an entire field of newly sprouted spirit wheat.

  "More fire!" The lead Flame shouted proudly while watching the crops turn to black ash. "The harvest must be purified by the flame! More fire equals more life!"

  Near the edge of the town, a Night Demon overseer in gleaming silver armor was sitting on a wooden stump with his face buried in his hands. He looked like a man whose soul was actively trying to escape his body. Those that knew how to farm were spread too thinly within the current empire. There were not enough teachers to teach.

  "Fascinating," Malos murmured to himself. Since he didn’t rule over a kingdom, he never had to truly learn how to farm either. However, he was wise with his age, experience wisdom. He at least knew the basics. He stopped to observe a muscular Stone Demon who was repeatedly punching the ground with fists the size of boulders. "What exactly is that one doing?"

  Li Yu walked up to the edge of the field. "Excuse me. What are you doing to the soil?"

  The Stone Demon paused and was panting heavily. He wiped sweat from his rocky brow and puffed out his chest. "Tilling it, traveler! The overseer commanded that the earth must be broken before the seeds are planted. So, I am breaking it! I have defeated three rows of dirt already! More will fall before my might! We are taking back this land."

  Li Yu stared at the massive, cratered trenches the demon had punched into the field. "You're supposed to turn the soil, not beat it to death. If anything you are compacting it down which is counter productive."

  "Dirt is stubborn," the Stone Demon grunted while rearing his fist back for another strike. "It only respects strength. I will show it who is the boss around here. It will listen to my commands soon."

  Li Yu let out a long and exhausted sigh. It was mixed with slight amusement and laughter. He then went and walked back to the main road.

  "It's a miracle they haven't all starved," Li Yu muttered as they continued walking toward the town's central market. It was an ongoing joke in the cultivation world that giving a demon a hoe was more dangerous than giving them a sword. They simply did not possess the temperament for creation.

  Clearly the farming wasn’t going well in these territories. At least not within this area. They must either be relying on hunting beasts for food, a common thing among demons or buying crops from other places.

  "I find it incredibly charming," Malos smiled. His dark eyes alight with genuine amusement. The Demon Lord had spent his life watching empires rise and fall in the blink of an eye. Watching a group of demons wage a holy war against vegetables was exactly the kind of unscripted novelty he was enjoying. He wouldn’t be in such a place and among the people to see such a scene normally.

  They entered the bustling market of the agricultural town. Despite the catastrophic farming methods, there was a surprising amount of goods flowing through the stalls. The sheer volume of refugees meant that eventually, by brute force and sheer numbers, some crops actually survived to be harvested. Some had a skilled enough hand.

  Li Yu paused at a small wooden stall. The vendor was a scrawny goblin with a missing arm. He grinned widely and gestured to a pile of lumpy, purplish vegetables.

  "Travelers! Supreme grade spiritual cabbages!" The goblin smiled while rubbing his hands together. "Grown with a unique cultivation method! Guaranteed to increase your Qi capacity!"

  Li Yu looked closely at the pile. The "cabbages" were literally just smooth river stones that had been haphazardly painted green and purple. Some of the paint was still wet and dripping onto the wooden planks.

  Li Yu looked at the goblin and was wondering if he was serious. "Those are rocks."

  "They are extremely dense cabbages!" The goblin defended instantly. His eyes darted back and forth. "The density traps the spiritual energy inside! You just have to boil them for... a few weeks!"

  Before Li Yu could tell the scammer off, Malos stepped forward.

  "I will take three," Malos said while reaching into his robes and tossing a few spirit stones onto the counter. It was a sum that could have bought the entire stall and the building behind it.

  The goblin stared at the glowing stones and was completely paralyzed by shock. He quickly recovered and snatched it with blinding speed. He shoved three painted rocks into a burlap sack and thrust them into Malos's hands. "A wise purchase, Lord! The wisest!"

  The goblin immediately abandoned his stall and was sprinting down the alleyway before the wealthy fool could realize he had been robbed. He didn’t even try to hide his escape. Li Yu crossed his arms and was staring at the Demon Lord. Confused by his actions. "You just bought painted rocks."

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "I did," Malos agreed happily and was examining one of the wet, purple stones. "Because his sheer, audacious confidence was worth the price of admission. To try and scam two cultivators in broad daylight with a painted rock takes a certain kind of resilient optimism. I haven't been the target of hustle in over two thousand years. It feels incredibly refreshing."

  Li Yu shook his head but a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You're insane."

  "I am simply enjoying my travels. Like you told me to." Malos smiled as he replied as he slipped the rocks into his robes as if they were prized artifacts. He was going to store them away and maybe take a look at them later. Perhaps the memory would return to his mind when he saw it again later.

  They continued their journey through the town and onto the main road that led deeper into the territory. By the end of the next day, the true nature of Queen Morrigan's rule became starkly apparent as they approached the towering gates of a major trade hub known as Ironhorn City.

  The city was heavily fortified. The walls were thick and reinforced with newly carved defensive arrays that hummed with lethal Demonic Qi. The gates were guarded by a full company of the Night Demon Vanguard. They stood in perfect, disciplined formation with their silver crescent armor gleaming. They weren't lounging or extorting bribes from the travelers entering the city; they were meticulously checking identities and scanning for hostile intent.

  It was an incredible display of military discipline, something rarely seen outside of the absolute core capitals of the Demon Realm. But as Li Yu and Malos walked through the gates, the cost of that discipline became evident.

  Hanging from thick iron chains along the interior of the city walls were dozens of corpses. They were fresh. Some were common thieves and missing their hands. Others were heavily scarred warlords who had clearly tried to test the Night Queen's authority. Mostly unknown ones that wanted to try their luck. Their bodies were left there to rot. A brutal and visceral reminder to every refugee and merchant who entered the city.

  The markets inside were bustling and prosperous but the atmosphere was rigid.

  They found a seat at an open air tavern near the city square. The two ordered a meal of roasted meat and strong wine. Li Yu watched the heavily armed patrols march by. The streets were clean and the merchants were trading without fear of being randomly slaughtered but the underlying tension was palpable. It was a society held together by the crushing threat of violence.

  "It's a mixed bag," Li Yu observed quietly and keeping his voice low so as not to attract the attention of the Vanguard. "There's no chaotic bloodshed in the streets. People are safe from the warlords outside. But the taxation must be brutal to fund these arrays and the punishments are..." He glanced up at the hanging bodies on the wall. "...absolute."

  Malos took a sip of his wine as his eyes swept over the bustling city square.

  "It is a masterpiece," Malos corrected softly.

  Li Yu looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You think this is a masterpiece? It's a military dictatorship built on terror."

  "Remember where you are. It is a Demon Realm, Li Yu," Malos said. "This is not the human world you came from. Even in your realm, I bet things were like this in many areas as wel. This realm is a cauldron of apex predators who only respect strength. Do you know what the Rotting Bone Lord's territory looked like before he died?"

  Li Yu shook his head.

  "His cities were literal slaughterhouses," Malos explained. "He demanded a tithe of flesh from his own citizens every month just to feed his cultivation. Lord Ignis? She regularly burns her own border towns to the ground for reasons unknown to anyone. The Gale Ape allowed his beast armies to hunt commoners for sport. People that lived on his lands or were forced to do so lived in fear everyday."

  Malos gestured to the crowded market where a demon mother was safely buying a loaf of bread for her child. A heavily armed soldier walked past without giving them a second glance.

  "You see a dictatorship built on terror," Malos continued. "I see a very stable and prosperous domain. Perhaps one of the best in the entire realm. Queen Morrigan understands the assignment perfectly. She knows that you cannot govern demons with hope or lofty ideals. You must govern them with certainty. The certainty that if they follow her laws, they will live and prosper. And the absolute certainty that if they break her laws, they will end up on that wall. This place is better than many others here according to your perspective of things."

  Li Yu fell silent and was absorbing the Demon Lord's perspective of things. It was true that his views were from an outsider. Not someone that lived and grew up here. What Malos said tied perfectly into the harsh lesson he had learned the day before about the quicksand of morality. Li Yu had realized that he couldn't play the savior with half measures; he had to act with absolute resolve.

  There were different ways to achieve the same thing. Some

  Queen Morrigan was doing the exact same thing on a macro scale. She wasn't trying to be a benevolent, flawless savior. She was being a pragmatist. She was applying a brutal measure of fear to prevent the total, catastrophic violence that was tearing the rest of the world apart.

  She executed a dozen thieves to save ten thousand merchants. This was how she did things, how she thought it was best to rule over these lands.

  "It's not pretty," Li Yu finally admitted while taking a drink. "But considering the alternative... I suppose it's actually quite better than a lot of places. She's giving them exactly what they need right now: a heavy hand."

  "Indeed. At least that’s how she knows or thinks is best. There could be other ways as well. There is never just one answer." Malos smiled. "Her expansion is measured. Her laws are draconian but fair. She is not overreaching. I must admit, whoever is truly pulling the strings of the House of Night. Or whoever they believe is pulling the strings, has given her the perfect shield to rebuild her empire."

  Li Yu’s face was neutral. It wasn’t showing a hint of pride. He knew that the 'shield' terrifying the entire realm was technically the consequence of the Veiled Lotus's strike on his behalf.

  "I'm glad she's doing well," Li Yu simply said.

  A sudden commotion at the other end of the market square drew their attention.

  A group of Vanguard guards had cornered a familiar figure. It was the scrawny goblin from the agricultural town, the one who had sold Malos the painted rocks. He had apparently followed the trade caravans to Ironhorn City to try his luck in a wealthier market.

  "You dare peddle fake spiritual goods within the walls of Ironhorn?!" The Vanguard captain barked while drawing a gleaming curved sword. "The penalty for defrauding merchants is the loss of your hands!"

  The goblin was on his knees. He was wailing and begging for mercy. His bag of painted rocks spilled out onto the cobblestones. Li Yu sighed at the sight. The goblin was indeed pushing his luck.

  Malos then suddenly stood up. The Demon Lord smoothed his grey robes and casually strolled over to the commotion and was looking entirely like a harmless mortal scholar.

  "Excuse me, Captain," Malos said smoothly as he stepped between the Vanguard guards and the weeping goblin.

  The Night Demon Captain scowled. "Step aside, citizen. This rat is a fraud."

  "A fraud?" Malos gasped in mock horror. "Captain, I assure you, this merchant is a visionary! I purchased three of his supreme cabbages just yesterday and my cultivation has never felt more robust."

  The Captain looked at Malos as if he had lost his mind. He pointed his sword at the wet, painted rocks on the ground. "Those are stones, old man. He painted them."

  "Nonsense!" Malos declared loudly as he went down to pick up one of the purple rocks. He held it up to the light of the setting sun. "This is an ancient, petrified earth radish. The density is simply a sign of its supreme quality. In fact, I came all the way to this city specifically to buy his remaining stock!"

  Malos reached into his robes, pulled out more spirit stones and handed them to the completely bewildered Vanguard Captain.

  "For the city's tax coffers, of course," Malos smiled warmly. "I will be taking the merchant's entire inventory."

  The Captain looked at the glowing spirit stones in his hand. He looked at the goblin, then at Malos and finally shrugged. He sheathed his sword.

  "If you want to waste your wealth on rocks, old man, that's your business," the Captain grunted. He waved his guards away. "He is your problem now. If I see him again though, I won’t spare him."

  The Vanguard patrol marched off. The goblin stared up at Malos with tears streaming down his ugly face. "Lord... you saved my life. You bought my rocks again! Why?"

  Malos pocketed the painted stones with a satisfied sigh. He looked down at the goblin.

  "Because, my little friend," Malos said softly. His dark eyes were twinkling with a chaotic, unpredictable joy, "I felt like doing so. That is all."

  Li Yu watched from the tavern table. He was shaking his head as Malos walked back over, his arms full of wet, painted river stones.

  The Demon Lord was unhinged, the Night Queen was a pragmatic dictator that seemed to know how to rule these lands and the demons were still fighting a losing war against agriculture. As the twilight deepened over Ironhorn City, Li Yu realized that he was actually enjoying the journey in this world.