Chapter 323 - 218: Mystery of the Royal Clan, Enigma of the War

The sight that met his eyes stunned Yu Fei. He saw four human specimens—two male and two female, their appearances handsome and flawless.

Qian Meng's soft voice drifted over.

"These are the royalty of the Origin Demon clan. They are all beings of the 7th rank or higher, comparable to human Grandmasters!"

As the group drew closer, they realized the four specimens were extremely tall. The two male Origin Demon royals stood around three meters high, while the females were about twenty centimeters shorter.

"It's not unheard of for humans to be three meters tall, but it's extremely rare. Usually, such height is the result of an illness and is accompanied by other genetic disorders."

"But the Origin Demon royalty… they're all this size. They understand our language, and they even train in Cultivation Techniques…"

Yu Fei stared blankly at the four royal corpses, his mind a complete jumble. 'I could have accepted it if the Origin Demon royalty were just humanoid,' he thought. 'Even if they had beast ears or a tail.'

The secondary sexual characteristics of the naked Origin Demon royalty were identical to those of humans. They looked exactly like humans who had been perfectly sculpted and then scaled up proportionately.

'But how could such a coincidence be possible?'

Qian Meng's lecture continued. "The Origin Demon royalty are all exceedingly beautiful and possess incredibly powerful martial skills. If you encounter one on the battlefield, run as far away as you can. The vast majority of human Grandmasters are weaker than an Origin Demon royal of the same rank."

"These creatures, both male and female, are utterly bloodthirsty and cruel. They have the ability to command all low- and mid-rank Origin Demons."

Yu Fei couldn't resist asking, "Mr. Qian, have any genetic comparisons been done on them?"

Qian Meng paused, taken aback. Few Martial Artists ever thought to ask that. 'This young man is sharp.'

"Of course, we have."

Martial Artists were constantly absorbing and learning from the scientific systems born of the mundane world.

"The results were not optimistic. The genes of the Origin Demon royalty show a high degree of overlap with human genes—they're nearly identical. For others, like the Lesser Demons or Spider Demons, the similarity is quite low…"

"Alright!" Qian Meng clapped her hands, drawing everyone's attention.

"A final, critical warning. Do not get your hopes up just because the Origin Demon royalty resemble humans. Past incidents have proven that these creatures are bloodthirsty, cruel, and utterly untrustworthy. They are bent on nothing less than our annihilation, so do not believe a single promise they make.

All past events have proven that the Origin Demon royalty have no concept of honoring a promise.

Compared to the low- and mid-rank demons, they are the truly terrifying threat."

The crowd's minds were reeling, a thousand questions bubbling to the surface. But before they could process it all, Qian Meng led them to the final exhibition room.

"The final type of Origin Demon we'll discuss is one we've named the Terror Demon. We've never captured a live specimen, so what you're about to see is a model."

Before them stood a sculpted model, two meters high and roughly three meters long.

Its back and abdomen were covered in bone armor. It had six legs, and extending from its sides were twelve bone-chain tentacles, each about twice its body length. The base of each tentacle contained a feeding orifice and an excretory cavity.

"The Terror Demon's brain is located within its abdominal bone armor. Its eyes are on the bone chains, with sixteen compound eyes on each one. Its auditory system is distributed across its six legs…"

The Terror Demon's physiological structure was utterly bizarre, as if the traits of numerous creatures had been haphazardly stitched together. It was an unsettling and nauseating sight.

The mere sight of the Terror Demon's form made Wuo Lingxue feel sick to her stomach.

"So this is the Terror Demon? It certainly looks terrifying enough!"

But Qian Meng shook her head and explained.

"It's not called the Terror Demon because of its looks. It's because this model in front of you… is a one-to-ten scale replica!"

"What?… One-to-ten?"

Wuo Lingxue's face instantly turned deathly pale, and the others were frozen in shock.

"Does that mean the real thing is twenty meters tall and thirty meters long? And its twelve bone chains are sixty meters long?"

A size like that was beyond their comprehension. One of the experts in the group instinctively touched the throwing knives at his waist, wondering to himself, 'Could my little three-inch blades even scratch this so-called Terror Demon?'

"If you encounter a Terror Demon on the battlefield, your first and only priority should be to run. Its energy level may only be rank six, but no one short of a Grandmaster can stand against it. To actually kill one requires several Grandmasters working in tandem.

The creature's size is immense, and what's more, upon death, a Terror Demon produces a massive explosion with a blast radius of ten thousand meters…"

Jiang Nianwei muttered to herself, "Is that something humans can even fight?"

Qian Meng said reassuringly, "Fortunately, under normal circumstances, Terror Demons rarely appear. They only emerge during major wars."

"So, that concludes our overview of the Origin Demon clan. The reason I've shown you all this is so you can understand their traits, kill them more effectively, and keep yourselves from getting hurt. Understand?"

…

The looks of horror were still etched on everyone's faces as they walked out of the Lingxi Biological Research Institute. Their general education had never covered the true nature of the Origin Demon clan. Today was their first real lesson on the subject.

Anyone could tell that a great secret was hidden behind the Origin Demon clan—a secret that was somehow connected to humanity itself. Unfortunately, eight hundred years had passed, and that secret remained unsolved.

The Martial Saints who vanished into the depths of the Abyss had sacrificed themselves in vain. It was a true pity.

Yu Fei couldn't help but speculate. 'Aside from the eerily human-like Origin Demon royalty, the other demon types seem to have developed purely as weapons of slaughter. There's no way natural evolution could produce such bizarre creatures.'

'But if this is the result of artificial intervention and engineering… then what kind of power lies behind it all? What sort of technological civilization could be capable of something like this?'

'And why wouldn't such a powerful civilization just crush humanity directly?'