Chapter 458: Demon Abyss Clan’s Cruelty

The Star Demon Mother Tree immediately planted its roots into the hollow, completely covering the enormous cavity and preventing even the slightest trace of demonic aura from escaping.

However, Xiao Shou noticed that after the Star Demon Mother Tree took root here, the leaves and the thirteen fruits on the tree visibly began turning a deep purple at an astonishing speed.

The fruits grew even more dramatically, doubling in size.

By the time the three purple Demon Moons disappeared from the sky and two purple Demon Suns rose, all the fruits had reached a diameter of more than two meters. At that point, their growth in size stopped, and mysterious purple-gold patterns began forming across their surfaces.

The twelve slightly smaller fruits, each only a little over two meters in size, had fewer mysterious purple-gold patterns on their surfaces, and their patterns finished forming after only a short while.

The situation was different for the enormous fruit that had been larger than the others from the beginning. It had now grown to more than two and a half meters and was approaching three meters in diameter.

Not only were the golden patterns on this enormous fruit much more intense than those on the other twelve fruits, but the patterns themselves were also far more intricate.

The patterns on the twelve other fruits had already finished forming, yet the patterns on this single enormous fruit had not even reached one-third completion.

Time slowly passed.

Seeing that the Star Demon Mother Tree remained here and showed no other activity besides nurturing the fruits, Xiao Shou simply focused his attention on sensing what was happening to the humans inside the city.

Why did the Demon Abyss Clan imprison and torment them?

Perhaps he could also discover why there were no female-looking demons in this place.

These questions had been gnawing at Xiao Shou so badly that he could hardly stand it. Now that he had the opportunity, he immediately began searching for the answers.

Through the Star Demon Mother Tree’s senses, Xiao Shou gradually learned the truth from the cries, wails, and discussions of the humans throughout the city.

This place had originally not been part of the Demon Abyss Realm. It was a cultivation world called the Water Virtue Realm. Long ago, it had been invaded by the Demon Abyss Clan, who had contaminated its World Stone, causing the environment of the Water Virtue Realm to rapidly transform into one resembling the Demon Abyss Realm.

During that period, the powerful cultivators of the Water Virtue Realm fled one after another, taking their trusted followers, disciples, talented disciples, and members of their bloodlines with them. They abandoned the helpless mortals and low-level cultivators who remained behind, leaving them to be slaughtered and tortured by the Demon Abyss Clan.

All the humans in this world were descendants of those people from that era. Under the torment and abuse of the Demon Abyss Clan, they lived lives worse than those of pigs and dogs.

They were not only subjected to torture as regularly as their three daily meals, but were also treated like livestock. Under the commands and amusement of the Demon Abyss Clan, they were forced to mate with women who were suffering the same torment in front of the demons. After giving birth, their children would continue their miserable fate.

Humans who had become numb to pain and torture, showing no emotional response, would be killed and eaten. Those whose anger, hatred, and cries of pain became too intense would also be offered to the upper-ranking demon nobles before being killed and eaten.

This was because the hatred, suffering, and other negative emotions of humans were the best nourishment for the Demon Abyss Clan.

The entire city was filled with human hatred and suffering. They were unable to live, unable to die, and raised like livestock. These negative emotions lingered within the demonic aura, contaminating it and giving birth to small demon infants.

The demon soldiers and Demon Generals at the lowest levels of the Demon Abyss Clan were all grown from these demon infants nurtured by the contaminated demonic aura.

As for the high-level members of the genuine Demon Abyss bloodline, they were born from the Demon Abyss Fruits nurtured by an enormous Demon Abyss Mother Tree beside the World Stone of the original Demon Abyss Realm.

According to legend, ever since the ancient battle between immortals and demons, when the Ancient Demons were defeated and exterminated by the immortals, a strange demonic tree appeared beside the World Stone of every Demon Realm.

The demonic tree absorbed the demonic aura of the Demon Realm to grow and nurture its fruits.

However, compared with demonic aura, it had an even greater preference for the resentment of humans.

The moment a Demon Abyss was born from a fruit, it already possessed the appearance of an adult male human, becoming a male demon.

Once their cultivation reached a sufficient level, and they had collected enough human essence blood and large amounts of pure negative human emotions to offer as sacrifices, the Demon Abyss Mother Tree would take a drop of their blood and use it to nurture a new Demon Abyss Fruit on one of its branches.

That was how the Demon Abyss Clan of the ancient era had continued their bloodline from generation to generation.

Until an unknown period of time ago, one Demon Abyss discovered that the human women he tormented became pregnant very easily. However, within only one or two months, the fetus would either die in the womb or be miscarried.

But if he fed the woman the flesh and blood of her own kind while allowing her to absorb human resentment, the fetus would survive for a longer period of time.

That demon decided to give it a try. After the woman he had recently toyed with became pregnant with a demon infant, he began forcibly feeding her enough human flesh, blood, and resentment.

With a sufficient supply of human flesh, blood, and resentment, the demon infant truly survived. However, the moment it was born, it devoured the human mother who had carried it.