Warlock Apprentice

Chapter 1041: Section 1042: UFO Little Demon
 

Ni Ming Lake, situated next to the Twilight Mountains, bordered on the right by Kayami Forest.

Geographically speaking, Ni Ming Lake was unremarkable, but curiously, it attracted nearly half of the demons from the third layer of the Abyss and was even listed as a forbidden area by the Wizard.

For within the legendary Demon City—Lassudral—was located on the small island at the heart of Ni Ming Lake.

To be precise, Lassudral’s location wasn’t on the island itself; the island merely provided the spatial coordinates for entry. Lassudral truly resided within a piece of unknown Void.

At that moment, the waters of Ni Ming Lake were rippled.

A shadow with blue skin elegantly advanced through the lake like a swimming fish until it finally arrived at Lake Heart Island.

Besides its light blue skin, it resembled humans in form, but it lacked ears. In their place were two downward-curving, arc-shaped horns—indicating that it was, in fact, a Half-Blood Demon.

Pulapa, was its name. In Demon Language, it stood for a nameless weed—insignificant and humble, yet with vigorous vitality.

In the entire third layer of the Abyss, Pulapa belonged to the most humble category, regardless of whether judged by power or bloodline—it was at the bottom.

After all, its bloodline consisted of half Indigenous People, and the other half… a small, phantom Demon.

The small, phantom Demon was a kind with a very low floor but a very high ceiling.

Having a low floor was widely accepted; many small, phantom Demons would remain at the lowest rung of demon society throughout their lives, with some Half-Blood Demons naturally more powerful than small, phantom Demons from birth. This indicated clearly how weak a small, phantom Demon was.

As for having a high ceiling, that was a title small, phantom Demons had coined for themselves, unrecognized by any other demon. A story circulated among the small, phantom Demons that, in the ancient cold era, one of them had risen to become a Demon Lord not weaker than a Demon God.

It was because of this story that the small, phantom Demons believed they had a high potential.

But the veracity of this story was hard to examine, given that the ancient cold era occurred over a hundred thousand years ago. Aside from their own kind, no one else had even heard it.

Pulapa was a Half-Blood Demon with a clear sense of self-awareness. Although it knew the story, it, unlike its forebears, did not believe it to be true. Pulapa thought it was very likely that an ancestor of the small, phantom Demons had concocted the tale out of pride.

For apart from that mighty “ancestor” in the story, the strongest among the recorded small, phantom Demons to date was only a fortunate predecessor who had barely managed to climb to the bottom rung of Intermediate Rank Demons.

If they were to speak of a high ceiling, why had only one Intermediate Rank Demon emerged?

After facing reality, Pulapa had long stopped dreaming of becoming more powerful. It felt that simply living a good life was enough and being with its parents without separation would be best.

However, even this small wish was shattered.

Its parents were killed by humans just a year earlier.

Upon receiving this news, Pulapa was stunned for half a year. Unlike other demon races, small, phantom Demons, often mocked and scorned, tended to live solitarily. Even when they took Indigenous People of the Abyss as mates, they did not abandon them.

Its parents had loved each other and raised it with care.

For safety, they even moved far away from the demon race’s heartland to a very remote place and avoided humans from a distance whenever they saw them.

Yet, despite living so cautiously, they could not escape tragedy.

Pulapa hated the humans who had killed its parents. It wanted to seek revenge on the humans but was powerless to do so. As a feeble Half-Blood Demon, it was equivalent to a Wizard Apprentice among humans, and humans possessed all sorts of wondrous weapons and artifacts; it couldn’t defeat anyone.

It was at that time that Pulapa began to understand the importance of personal strength.

It started to think about improving itself, but the information in its bloodline offered no shortcuts to rapid self-improvement. The only way was to temper itself, but even true small, phantom Demons couldn’t rise through such hardship, let alone Pulapa with only half a demon bloodline.

After several months of fruitless experimentation, Pulapa, harboring hatred for humans and a strong desire to enhance its own power, came to Lassudral.

Rumor had it that Lassudral had everything you could wish for.

This was Pulapa’s third month in Lassudral. During this period, it dedicated almost all of its energy to earning Demon Gold Coins in Lassudral. Only when tired would it leave Lassudral to rest at the bottom of the surrounding Ni Ming Lake, where the gentle waters soothed and quietly restored its strength.

Now, after its rest, Pulapa stepped onto Lake Heart Island once more.

Its gaze was resolute; for the sake of its goals, it could not slacken. Even though… within its heart, it harbored doubts—could it really become stronger, could it really avenge its parents?

Lake Heart Island was not large, devoid of any grass, with only a few uneven mounds of earth.

Pulapa manipulated the water to fashion itself a set of lake-green clothes. Such dressing was actually rare among demons, but some powerful demons had their own fashion, and the middle and low-tier demons started to imitate them, sparking a trend. However, they only dressed this way within Demon City, as if by wearing clothes that represented civilization, they could restrain their uncivilized barbarism.

Pulapa’s choice of clothing was not a nod to fashion but purely taught by its mother.

Once dressed, Pulapa approached a small mound not far away.

As it walked, ripples like those on the water’s surface suddenly appeared before it, and the very next second, it passed through these ripples, entering an endless Void.

In the darkness of the Void lay a floating island city.

At the highest point of the city, atop a terrifying tower, was a radiant orb. Its light illuminated the entire city, making it a city that never slept!

This is the great, never-fallen Demon City of the Void—Lassudral!

As soon as Pulapa entered, he was at the edge of the island.

Looking down from the edge of the island, one could see a dark vortex in the void below, around which numerous strangely shaped demons flew to and fro.

Lassudral was not just a demon city, but also a hub leading to the inner layers of the Abyss.

The dark vortex below was connected to the inner layers of the Abyss.

At that moment, a demon that had burst from the vortex below steadily landed on the floating island, right near Pulapa.

This was a demon over three meters tall, with ferocious bone wings sprouting from its back.

After it landed, it discovered Pulapa, who was cowering behind a large rock not far away. A glint of cruelty flashed in its bloodthirsty eyes, and amidst Pulapa’s terrified expression, it flicked its finger.

A dim black light shot straight towards Pulapa.

Before he could react, the large rock in front of him exploded into fragments, and he was sent flying into the air by the force, only to crash down harshly on the ground, his body in utter disarray.

The Bone Wing Demon laughed a few times; Pulapa’s wretched state seemed to please it. It did not strike again but left behind the word “riffraff” before flying into Lassudral.

Pulapa trembled all over, his eyes filled with anger, sorrow, and self-doubt.

In the lawless Demon City, as long as one didn’t disrupt the overt order, no one would say a thing even if the Bone Wing Demon had killed him.

Pulapa licked his wounds in solitude; after a long time, he slowly got up and limped into Lassudral.

His mother had once told him that to become strong, one must endure setbacks, a necessary process of growth.

Although he knew these were just comforting phrases, what else could he do now besides convincing himself?

…

The structure of Lassudral was quite different from the cities of the indigenous people. Here, even the shortest building door was over three meters high. With doors so tall, the buildings themselves were massive, as if one had entered a city of giants.

Despite the large buildings, most of the demons walking on the streets were roughly the same size as Pulapa. These huge doors were not really meant for them but for creatures like the earlier Bone Wing Demon or other high-ranking great demons.

Oftentimes, one could gauge the clientele of a shop simply by the size of its doors.

Take, for example, the giant fortress visible from miles away here. It was actually a shop, but its scale was such that even giants could be accommodated—belonging to the highest tier of shops.

Or, for instance, to Pulapa’s right.

Hidden among the trees, there was a small, low wooden hut. Ignoring its position on the very outskirts of Lassudral, just its two-meter-tall door showed that its clientele was probably on the lower end.

Truthfully, even Pulapa felt that a two-meter door was too short; he just needed to stand on tiptoes to bump his head.

Moreover, the eaves of the cabin appeared low, making it seem like it would be so cramped inside that breathing would be difficult.

Had there not been a shop sign above the door, Pulapa wouldn’t have believed it was a store.

“Eh?” Suddenly, confusion flickered in Pulapa’s eyes, “When was this little wooden hut set up here? When I left the day before yesterday, this spot seemed to be an empty lot.”

Could it have been established in the last two days?

Pulapa looked at the shop’s sign with suspicion, which was written in a terrible font in Demon Language.

Illusion.

It didn’t sound like a respectable shop at all.

Pulapa continued walking and arrived at the place where he usually worked, a Hunting Museum owned by a Half-Blood Demon.

The door was four meters high, considered a normal size among the shops of Lassudral.

His job was actually very simple: to clean the prey that the owner hunted.

Pulapa could work here partly because the Eerie Water he released had the effect of “preserving freshness and enhancing taste,” but mostly because of the owner’s pity.

Speaking of which, the owner seemed to possess a powerful fire Demon Bloodline. When Pulapa first saw the owner, he was somewhat afraid due to the natural elemental counter.

Who would have thought that he would be able to continue living in Lassudral, thanks to the seemingly fierce but kind-hearted owner?

“You’re here? Today’s prey has been placed in the storage behind the Exhibition Room. After cleaning, remember to display them,” said a large, fiery-haired man with an imposing set of abs and a fierce face.

He was the owner of the Hunting Museum, Night.