The development of the situation was essentially as Octo had predicted.

If there was anything he had guessed wrong, it probably was only one thing—

That was, right from the beginning, the Demon King had never planned on talking to them at all, which is why he repeatedly angered them, causing them to lose their rationality.

Unfortunately, by the time Octo realized this point, it was already too late, and his reaction was even slower than some unqualified person.

"Frost Shock!"

A pale blue arc of light sliced through the dark space, landing precisely in the center of the Lizardman delegation.

As early as when Alakdo pledged the loyalty of the Weaving Shadow Nest on behalf of the clan, Luo Yan had been preparing his spell!

Although ice magic was not his forte, it was the most effective against Lizardmen who resisted fire and piercing.

The reason these creatures were called "four-legged snakes" partially stemmed from their aversion to the cold.

Five Lizardman guards failed to dodge in time and were directly hit by the pale blue arc of light.

The exploding frost scattered, as if even the air had frosted over!

The five geckos did not even have the chance to cry out before they instantly turned into five ice sculptures.

And that wasn't all!

The Earth Cave Spiders, who were originally on the same side as them, showed no mercy as they kicked them while they were down—

Or rather, added insult to injury.

"Splat!"

Dozens of spits of murky phlegm aimed at the delegation of the Earth Dragon clan, which weren't entirely useless, but were more insulting than they were damaging.

Alakdo shamelessly raised his voice and shouted as if claiming credit.

Lord Demon King, make your move! I've held them back for you!"

Luo Yan didn't have time to pay attention to this fellow.

At that moment, his focus was entirely on the large gecko that had narrowly escaped the disaster.

This fellow.

His level was possibly not much lower than his own!

"Roar—!"

Seeing his kin turn into statues in a blink of an eye, Octo's eyes turned blood-red with regret that he hadn't seen through the Demon King's tricks sooner, caught off guard by the suddenly overturned table.

Escape was now impossible.

The cowards from the Weaving Shadow Nest were rushing towards the entrance of the great hall, just waiting for him to walk straight into their trap.

Knowing there was no hope for survival, Octo roared and, instead of retreating, advanced, drawing his scimitar and charging towards Luo Yan.

"Champion's Blood!"

The blood that had been frozen suddenly flowed as if industrial methanol had been injected into his veins!

The cold was dispelled!

With the blessing of the Dragon God, a faint golden light coated him!

That was the power of "Qi"!

It appeared that these geckos weren't just cosplaying as the Dragon clan; they'd even adopted their heritage.

The might that burst forth in that instant may have already exceeded that of Gold Level!

But—

Thinking he could take down a Mage playing on his home turf with just a burst of energy, this guy was still too naive.

Even before the negotiations had started, Luo Yan had already stacked his buffs to the limit.

"Die!!!"

Slashing—!

Octo swung his scimitar fiercely, his attack whirling like a tornado, toward the unmoving Demon King.

The explosive cyclone whizzed past the pitch-black cloak and slammed into the stone pillar behind the Demon King.

The marble pillar, thick enough for two to embrace, was forcefully severed and collapsed amidst the billowing dust.

A fierce smile twitched at the corner of Octo's mouth, not expecting that the so-called Demon King was nothing more than this.

However, before he could even relish the moment for two seconds, that ferocious expression froze into astonishment on his face.

He dodged?! How was that possible!

His amber pupils moved swiftly as he tried to locate the Demon King's silhouette amidst the swirling dust, but he only saw skeleton soldiers, squeaking and pouncing toward him.

"Brothers!"

"Chop him down!!!"

"My experience!! My experience!!!"

Octo's mouth curled with disdain.

Trivial tricks!

Just as he was about to slash the skeletons in front of him, he felt a snake's venomous gaze crawl over his body. Next, he felt his strength drain at a visibly fast rate.

This was—

Soul Drain?!

Without hesitation, he jumped back forcefully, trying to put distance between himself and the Spellcaster.

But just as he leaped, a premonition of death swiftly followed in his footsteps.

It was that zombie!

Octo was horrified and tried to twist his body, but being incapable of leveraging anything in mid-air, he could only watch helplessly as his back collided with the raised blade.

"Hungry..."

Bond, who had been storing his strength for a long time, raised his head just like a batter on a baseball field, swinging the heavily rounded greatsword forward with all his might!

Thud—!

The battle-worn greatsword broke on cue.

Yet, the broken blade unhesitatingly pierced Octo's spine!

Boiling blood sprayed into the air, adding a savage streak to the already blood-red hall.

Octo had no time to utter a last word, tumbling over Bond due to inertia and after several rolls, he quietly took his last breath.

"Guessed you'd jump back."

Soul Drain was quite effective against a bronze opponent but took a bit longer against steel-level ones.

As bait for creating a window of attack, however, the move was still as effective as ever.

He hadn't called Bond over to guard him because he was waiting for that guy to jump in and then out.

From behind the granite pillar, Luo Yan cracked a faint smile and put away the mirror in his hand.

Also, his coordination with Youyou had gotten much smoother.

The latter only needed one look from him to obediently stand in its appointed spot.

As for the players.

It seemed they still needed some time to settle down.

Watching Bond lunge forward, wanting to gnaw on Octo's corpse, Luo Yan raised his magic wand and tightened his grip on the dog leash in his hand. Then, chanting a spell, he swung a green light with a flick of his wrist, hitting Octo's chest that was gushing with fresh blood.

"Awaken—"

"My servant."

The dried blood no longer spurted out, and Octo, reanimated in the form of Undead, slowly stood up. Clutching the broken blade, he forcefully pulled it from his body and threw it to the ground.

Unlike Bond.

He emitted a strong sense of killing intent—or perhaps resentment—as if he could go berserk at any moment.

However, as Luo Yan watched the swaying Lizardman puppet rise, a hint of delight flickered in his eyes.

"...The soul level is actually Gold Level?"

He had hit the jackpot!

Although Undead couldn't cultivate like the living, an Undead Mage had many ways to strengthen the reanimated puppets.

Simply put, the upper limit of strengthening was determined by both the Undead Mage's own power and the Dead Soul's level.

Take Bond, for instance.

Without Luo Yan actively raising his soul level, his strength's ceiling was Bronze.

But with Octo, just a bit of strengthening, and unleashing the combat power of a refined steel level wouldn't be a problem!

However, why would a Gold Level soul appear on the first floor of the labyrinth?

It seemed that during Reggie Dragon's term, a lot of things happened here that even Hell didn't know about...

While Luo Yan was refining the champion warrior of the "Earth Dragon Clan," Alakdo and a group of envoys from the "Weaving Shadow Nest" were respectfully prostrating on the ground.

If there were any doubts about Lord Demon King's strength, Alakdo now didn't dare to harbor any suspicion and wholeheartedly submitted himself at the feet of Lord Demon King.

The players had wanted to rush up and chop them down too, but just as they thought to do so, they couldn't move again.

"Damn!"

"I thought it was a BOSS fight!"

"Why can't I move again?!"

"Who exactly is the tool here?!"

"Skip! Skip it! I want a bloodbath! I want rivers of blood!"

"Skull for the skull throne! Blood for the blood god!"

Hearing the nonsensical complaints, Luo Yan almost couldn't help but laugh out loud.

If not you guys, who else could be the tools?

"Enough, I'll give you the chance to bathe in blood, but not now."

As soon as Luo Yan's words fell, the creaking noises bubbled up again.

"Ohhhh!"

"Lord Demon King is looking at me! He looked at me!"

"Yikes! I thought NPCs didn't interact with people?"

Luo Yan: "..."

Although he had played games before, he always felt that this bunch was unexpectedly difficult to understand.

Is it because the times have changed?

Luo Yan approached the five ice sculptures and tapped them with his wand.

The sculptures shattered upon contact, breaking into chunks of corpses on the ground.

"Youyou, once the CG animation ends, find a few players to deliver this stuff to those Lizards," he instructed.

"The war has begun."

Youyou, seemingly gentle and considerate but actually loving nothing more than chaos, eagerly responded.

"Alright, Lord Demon King!"

After arranging the affairs of the Lizardmen, Luo Yan continued to address Alakdo in the language of Hell, speaking methodically.

"I come to this land with the will of the Demon God, to take over the mess Reggie Dragon left behind."

"Now, let's talk about your loyalty."

Alakdo answered with fidelity.

"Please give your orders, respected Lord Demon King! Although there may have been some misunderstandings before, our loyalty is beyond doubt!"

Luo Yan didn't bother with pleasantries and commanded.

"I need a thousand adult 'Diggers' to help me expand my domain. And another 1000 'Weavers,' I need their silk to make tools."

"Besides that, I also need 1000 'Hunter' eggs to expand my army."

"Go back and tell your chieftain, as long as he delivers what I want, I can ensure that the name 'Weaving Shadow Nest' continues to exist in my labyrinth."

"Furthermore, my servants thirst for blood; they will indiscriminately attack all living things they see in certain areas of the labyrinth. I will command them to avoid your nest, but you'd do well to put up some offerings outside of it... such as Earth Cave Spiders from other tribes."

Heeding the call of the Demon King is an inescapable duty for the monsters in the labyrinth.

Yet, upon hearing these grandiose demands, Alakdo's body couldn't help but tremble slightly.

"Yes..."

He meekly agreed and then, under the Demon King's watchful eye, hurried away with the Earth Cave Spiders that accompanied him.

As the envoy from Weaving Shadow Nest departed, Luo Yan gave further orders to his deity status.

"Youyou, mark those envoys with a green tag to prevent players from bothering them," he ordered.

"Also, prepare the update for version a04, allowing players to choose whether to enter the game as 'insect-like' or 'skeleton-like' avatars."

The conditions for implanting a soul mirror image primarily include two factors: the target must be a viable container for a soul, and the target must not be occupied by a complete soul.

Adult Earth Cave Spiders are unsuitable as containers, including the adventurers he had confined in the Stone Prison... their bodies already host their own souls and their physiques have fully adapted to the natural shape of their inherent souls.

Forcefully stuffing a foreign soul into them is equivalent to injecting Type A blood into veins flowing with Type B blood.

As for rituals involving the devouring of souls for sacrifices, that's a different matter, and not without significant side effects.

In any case, allowing players who want to become Earth Cave Spiders to reincarnate into spider eggs about to hatch, and then catalyzing their growth with the power of faith, seems to be the most appropriate choice at this time.

In the future, this process could be accomplished through a facility known as the "Altar."

The acolytes of Hell could directly sacrifice spider eggs to 'summon' mature Earth Cave Spiders en masse, and most of the Earth Cave Spiders in the labyrinth came to be in this manner.

The batch of spider eggs Luo Yan had players collect previously was partly about to hatch, which could serve nicely as containers for souls.

"Received!," Youyou chirped playfully and promptly went away to prepare the update announcement.

Having completed all his plans, Luo Yan opened his status panel to take a look, and as expected, his experience points had surged a significant amount, nearly equal to the experience of slaying hundreds of Earth Cave Spiders!

But what surprised and delighted him even more was another matter—

The daily increase in his faith points was finally outpacing the daily consumption!

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