Inside the hall,

Conard was sitting on the throne while observing his six subordinates. They were all devil kings. Among them, the burly man in the middle had the strongest aura and was just a few steps away from reaching the Devil Emperor. He was indeed Jackson.

On his side, there were other five devil kings standing there looking at him calmly. However, one of them would frequently look down and it seemed like he was being troubled with something.

Seeing this, he asked, "Aiden, is something troubling you?"

"I.." Aiden panicked and glanced at Julia at his side.

Recalling what she said, he made up his mind and replied, "Yes emperor, I have messed up."

"Humm, what happened?" Conard released a cold aura.

Aiden immediately fell on his knees and said, "Emperor, like Jack, I've lost all my devil commanders."

The moment he said this, all the devil kings held their breath and looked at him in astonishment. Only Jack had a smile on his face thinking that he was not the only one.

"You.."

"I had warned you all to be careful after the previous incident. How dare you still come up with this?" Conard slammed his hand on the throne and the whole mansion shook.

"Emperor, please don't get angry. I managed to find out who is behind this." Aiden knew that he would get badly punished. Thus, he thought of a solution that might lessen his suffering.

"Who?" Indeed, as he thought, the emperor didn't strike him immediately but rather asked him with curiosity.

"It's a disciple of the Thunderbolt Sect," he said while pointing his index finger ahead of him.

Devil essence was released from his hands and it formed a projection of a young man wearing a mask.

"This face.." Conard murmured as he felt that it seemed quite similar to someone he knew. However, this person was already a disciple of the Thunderbolt Sect according to Aiden, and thus had no possibility of being that person he had met in the Outer Region.

"Are you sure?" He asked as he didn't believe him completely.

"Of course! How could I lie to you?" Aiden exclaimed and he continued.

"I had stationed my projection for guarding my subordinates and the group of children that I had been experimenting upon. However, yesterday, a young man suddenly trespassed my territory and my projection instantly went after him.

"I thought that my projection would be enough to deal with him but I underestimated him. He not only destroyed my projection but even killed all the devil commanders. The moment my projection was destroyed, my main body got hurt and couldn't chase after him." He even released his aura showing that it was true.

Conard nodded his head as things made sense. Especially with his divine sense, he could easily see that his cultivation had regressed.

"So, how could you be sure that he was from the Thunderbolt Sect?" He didn't understand this.

"I saw him going straight to the altar where I was experimenting. So, I'm sure that he was here for the children. Maybe he might be here for the mission?" Aiden answered while sweating inside. He was really scared of being caught.

"Is that so?" Conard stood up and approached him.

Aiden nodded while shaking with fear.

After reaching near him, Conard grabbed his head with his right hand and lifted him up.

"Emperor.." Aiden tried to speak but he found that a strange power was making him unable to speak.

Conard gathered a strong devilish essence in his left hand and said, "If only you had been careful and hid your traces then this might not have happened. You have always been careless and overconfident. I am really disappointed in you."

"Bang."

He punched straight into his stomach and threw him in the ground.

"Pfft-" Aiden threw out a mouthful of blood and slowly tried to stand. Then he bowed and said, "Thank you, emperor."

He found out that the emperor's essence was not damaging him but rather healing his soul. Even though he was punished, the emperor didn't go too hard on him. Thus, he was very grateful. He even felt guilty about lying to him.historical

Conard didn't bother him and furiously said, "The Thunderbolt Sect is really bold to send their disciple in my territory. It seems like they have forgotten about me."

The devil kings lowered their heads and didn't say a word. They knew how terrifying their emperor was. Hundreds of years ago, the sect masters of the middle-grade sects even teamed up to kill him. Yet, he escaped. Even though he was seriously injured, he still managed to kill the Sect Master of the Dragon Fist Sect.

Due to this, Conard was considered the strongest emperor among all the emperors in the Devil World and was one of the most infamous people in the Inner Region.

"I had planned to start invading the territory of the Thunderbolt Sect from next week. But it seems that they have gotten too full of themselves."

"So, we have to start it early and put them in their place," he declared in a cold voice.

"But emperor, I don't have any devil commanders.." Aiden weakly said.

"Humph, you don't need to worry about it. I just have to capture some from the other regions," Conard had a wicked smile on his face.

"I understand," Aiden replied.

"I will create a channel leading to the Wild Northern Forest tomorrow. I want you guys to slowly start invading from there. Make sure you don't reveal yourselves this early. If you get caught by the elders then even I won't be able to save you," Conard said.

They all nodded their heads.

"You don't have to worry too much after reaching there. We will have reinforcements coming. Ok! This is for today."

"I will be leaving." Conard disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Seeing him leave, Jackson who had been silent the whole time finally spoke, "Make sure you all don't disappoint him this time. Especially you Aiden. I don't want to see us fail because of you."

Aiden didn't say anything and just lowered his head. But he was furious inside. As someone with the lowest cultivation base here, he would always get bullied. So, he really wanted to prove himself this time.

"Damn, it was all because of that kid. I will make sure to find you and kill you."

***

"Ahh"

"I'm back," Davion smiled as he finally reached the sect. It has been three days since he left the sect. He wanted to return a day earlier but it took him some time to control the devil essence wreaking havoc in his body.

Yet he still couldn't completely expel it. From the looks of it, it might take a whole week for him to recover. So, there were only two options available for him. Either take a whole week to recuperate or simply level up and reach the peak state.

Since leveling up was easier, he chose to return to the sect. His experience points have nearly been filed after killing all the devil children and the subordinates of the Pope. Thus, he only needed a pill to level up.

"Let's go to the mission hall first and report the matter. Then I will visit the Alchemy Peak," he thought and went towards the gate.

He saw the same two disciples guarding the gate. He waved his hands at them and asked, "How are you guys doing?"

The disciples bowed and replied, "Senior Brother, we are fine."

They felt quite happy when they were greeted by an inner court disciple. It was something they could boast about. They previously thought that he might have a grudge against them. But now it was sure that it was not the case.

"Is there anything new happening these days?" Davion asked.

They looked at each other and exclaimed at the same.

"Yes!"

"The disciple who had been missing for a whole month finally returned."

"Oh, it seems that he had already reached," Davion muttered but the next thing made him anxious.

"It should have been good news when he eventually returned. But the information he reported even alerted the elders." They looked solemn when talking about it.

"What did he report?" Davion felt that things weren't right.

"He reported that he met a devil above the Golden Core Stage in Crocus City. Not only that, but the inner court disciple who took that mission to save him fell into a disaster."

"Actually, this was not the most surprising thing but rather the inner court disciple blocked the blow of that devil. This made everyone shocked and thus the elders were very interested in him."

"I heard that one of the elders even personally went to investigate."

"Yeah, it is quite shocking. According to the rules in the sect, such missions are generally handled by the core disciples. But who could have thought that the elder would act?"

"My God!" Davion had sweats on his forehead thinking about this. If he had only stayed there for a few more hours then he would have surely gotten caught and interrogated.

"Hope that disciple doesn't die. Such a talented disciple can easily reach the Nascent Soul Stage in the future."

"But who is that disciple?"

"I heard that he was wearing a mask and hiding his identity."

"It seems that he didn't want any fame and wanted to be low profile.." They told everything they knew and seemed quite excited while talking about him.