Hong Bao went and settled down in the Chun Feng Sect with Liu Cheng’s help. As for the demons that Sect Master Xian had worried about … well, one of them was leisurely lying on his throne, a charming smile on his lips and a strand of his copper-colored hair twisted around his finger. "So that self-proclaimed Goddess of Love has been more or less banished to the human realm." He gave a short laugh and sat up straight, gracefully crossing his long legs and resting his hands on top. "One hundred days aren’t long in the Nine Heavens. But I guess she must feel that it’s an eternity while she’s in the mortal realm. Wouldn’t she have to spend a hundred years there? Somebody as arrogant as her should be boiling with rage by now."

The demon standing in front of his throne nodded. "There have been several conflicts already. She’s not willing to work together with any of the ascended deities and treats them like servants. As for the other gods … They might be trueborn but with her identity as the daughter of the previous God of War, she naturally feels that all of them are beneath her. She’s trying to give commands even though she isn’t in charge and supposed to be punished with going there."

The demon king laughed again at that. "Well, that was to be expected. Ah, the gods are really making this too easy for me." He motioned at the man to leave, not giving him another glance. Instead, he reached up to the gem embedded in his earlobe and opened the space inside. He should have a map of the mortal realm somewhere there … He sifted through his belongings and finally, his face lit up. He took out the map, following the faint lines on the paper scroll with his eyes. The place where the gods should converge to deal with the people they wanted to ascend to the Nine Heavens should be …

His eyes narrowed and he tapped the armrest of his throne but he finally found the spot. It was one of the bigger human cities, the capital of some country. There was a cultivation sect close by that should have a high prestige if he remembered right. People from there would likely ascend often so the gods had probably wanted to supervise their ascensions as well even though they didn’t really need to do anything in regards to these cultivators.

This kind of large city also had another advantage for the gods: Because of its size, the appearance of new faces and the disappearance of old faces wouldn’t be too easily noticed. The gods wouldn’t have to pay too much attention to what they did either. Even if they behaved differently than the humans, people would merely believe that they were visiting the city and came from a place far away where things were done differently. After all, which of these mortals had actually traveled far enough to realize just how similar they were to the humans in other kingdoms?

Naturally, the gods weren’t the only ones that could use that kind of environment. The demon king’s lips curved up. Well, since they had taken the pains to find a place to settle down that was this advantageous to him he shouldn’t disappoint them. This time when they were rife with internal strife was just too good not to be used against them. If he still waited, then he wouldn’t be suitable as the demon king.

He put the map away and got up, his body disappearing from his palace and reappearing at a spot not too far away from that human city he had found as if he had stood there in the first place.

He took a moment to gaze at the city. Compared to the ones in the immortal realms, it wasn’t too shabby. It lacked in terms of spiritual energy but the mortals had at least managed to build a wall around it and stationed some guards at the gates to uphold order.

His gaze touched on the people waiting in front of the city’s main entrance and he narrowed his eyes. They seemed to be showing something to the guards before they were let in and, well, there was one thing he needed to take care of if he wanted to go inside. Not that he needed their approval or anything but if he went to play he should do it properly.

He gathered the spiritual energy around him and turned it into the unique dark energy of the demons, changing his appearance. Contrary to the demons, the gods had one advantage in regards to living in the human realm: They looked like the humans. They had the same black hair and dark eyes and there was nothing about their bodies that gave them away.

It was different for the demons. Depending on their bloodline, they might actually look closer to one of the demon beasts than to the humans or gods. Well, his own bloodline was good enough that his appearance could be counted as that of a human if not for his hair and eye color. It wasn’t a hindrance though. Just a bit of energy was able to make him look like one of them and keeping that appearance up wouldn’t be a problem even for several years. Sure, some gods might be able to see through the spell but that wasn’t a problem either.

He didn’t need to pretend to be anybody else than he was. That so-called Goddess of Love … She would be willing to do as he said as soon as she found out just what his position in the demon realm was. After all, wasn’t it much better to be on the side of the demon king than being a nobody’s side in the Nine Heavens? Ah, it was merely a question of who had the better arguments.