Chapter 21 Future Plans

In the reception hall of Jinling Sect, four demon kings sat on both sides of a huge oval table, and Wen Rui sat in the main seat.

The four demon kings sat down in tacit understanding according to the locations of their demon camps and demon caves.

The southern demon king, Black Bear, is named Xiong Ba and also known as the Mighty Bear King. This demon king’s territory is located in the plains, guarding a key transportation hub. He used to make a living by robbing passing human merchants. A hundred years ago, he robbed a convoy of the Chamber of Commerce under Wen Rui. After that, the mountain stronghold was repeatedly bombed by the Jianshi aircraft group, and they bombed it every time until it was bombed into submission and signed a non-aggression treaty with the Chamber of Commerce. Only then did he gradually become familiar with Wen Rui.

The northern demon king, the leopard spirit, whose name is Bao Sanniang, is also known as the mountain-drilling king. The demon cave is located in the northern mountainous area of Lishan Mountain. He leads a group of small demons to mine the spiritual stones, spiritual gold, and gemstone veins in the mountains. Most of the output is sold to Wen Rui, and he exchanges it for food, meat, weapons, tools, clothing and other commodities from Wen Rui.

The Western demon king, the water buffalo demon, was called Niu Miao and was also known as the King of the River. His lair was located on an island in a large swamp in the west. He usually led a group of water monsters to act as pirates and rob ships traveling on the swamp.

The Eastern Demon King Wolf Demon, nicknamed Wolf Two, said that he had an older brother, but he died before he could transform, so he called himself Wolf Two. He also gave himself a nickname, the Plateau Wolf King. He led a group of wolf demons to haunt the Eastern Plateau, living by water and grass, hunting gazelles, marmots, and pikas. When food was scarce, he would also harass the shepherds' sheep and cattle. He heard that the Rui caravan often fed them when they passed by, so he regarded them as his brother.

There are spirit stone mines available for mining in the areas occupied by these demon kings. The leopard spirit is luckier as it has rich mineral resources and does not need to plunder, while the other demon kings have to do some cost-free business of killing and robbing to supplement their income. It was not unfair for them to be targeted by Fashan in the first place. They were afraid that the Western religious forces behind Fashan would unite and hire someone to assassinate Fashan, which would be the behavior of an undoubted evil demon.

At this time, they were already full of wine and food, so Wen Rui got straight to the point: "Everyone, I invited you all here today because I have something important to discuss. But before we get to the point, I have a question for you all."

"Boss Wen, if you have anything to say, just speak up." "What's the problem?" "Master Wen, please speak up." "Brother, what are you asking?"

"Everyone, have you ever thought about what to do in the future?"

"In the future?" The black bear laughed and said, "Just do what you have to do. Eat meat with big mouthfuls, drink wine with big bowls, and live happily! Give birth to a bunch of cubs, teach them skills, and let them inherit my legacy."

Bao Sanniang frowned slightly and said, "I can only guard the mine and continue digging. If the mine is exhausted, I will consider a way out at that time."

The water buffalo spirit had a stern face and said solemnly, "Master Wen, I have not made any plans yet. For now, I can only muddle through like Big Brother Bear."

Wolf Two scratched his head and said, "I don't care. Big Brother, if you need me, I will follow you and be your bodyguard. But I am worried about the group of wolves under my command. Without my control, they can kill all the herdsmen on the grassland. Those idiots can't learn the 'sustainable exhaustion of fish' that you taught me."

"Third sister Bao, your family's spirit stone mine only has less than 300,000 spirit stones left."

Wen Rui first spoke to the Leopard Girl, "And they are all deep-layer associated minerals. I guess there have been frequent mine collapses recently? The rest of the spiritual gold and gemstone mines have also reached the point where they are useless. With your technology, the amount of manpower required for ore selection and screening is too high. You definitely don't have enough manpower. If the ore quality is not good, I will lower the price."

Bao Sanniang's face changed, and her eyes became sharp, but she was glared back by Wen Rui's indifferent gaze. She didn't know why Wen Rui knew so much about the situation of her mine. She suspected that her subordinate Xiao Yao was bribed, but she couldn't guess who he suspected.

"As for the other brothers who are doing business without capital." Wen Rui lowered his voice and said mysteriously: "You also know that I have some connections above, and there is wind blowing down from above..."

"What wind?" "Brother, just tell me directly, don't keep me in suspense."

"We need to crack down hard!"

"Hey, what does 'crackdown' mean?" "Crackdown?" "What does it mean?"

"Strike hard means a special campaign to severely crack down on the evildoers who are causing chaos in the world!"

Wen Rui whispered, "The secret of heaven cannot be leaked. I am risking being struck by lightning to tell you the secret. You should go out and don't spread it around. Otherwise, you will be targeted and you will regret it when the lightning strikes!"

The three demon kings looked at each other in bewilderment, never expecting that there was a demon hiding in their lair and disaster coming from the sky.

"Boss Wen, is your news true?" Xiong Baxian couldn't help but speak: "It has been hundreds of years since the last war, and I have never heard that the Heavenly Court has carried out a large-scale campaign to eliminate the demons from the lower world."

Wen Rui sneered, "You guys stay in the cave all day, how can you know the general situation of the world! The Heavenly Court has a history of exterminating demons. Usually, at the end of the human dynasty, the world will be in chaos, and the demons will take advantage of the situation. The Heavenly Court will send heavenly soldiers and generals to exterminate them, clearing obstacles for the upcoming new dynasty and accumulating luck."

"It has been more than 500 years since the Western Zhou Dynasty granted fiefs to the princes. The trend of decline is becoming more and more obvious. I think the royal power is gradually declining. According to King Wen's divination, it is estimated that the dynasty will change in less than 200 years."

"Brother, you also know King Wen's hexagram technique?" Lang Er was surprised and said, "No wonder you are so smart."

"Didn't King Wen fall into trouble in Chaoge? He was imprisoned in a dungeon by Emperor Xin, who sent people to feed him meat pies made from his own son."

Wen Rui spoke eloquently: "At the beginning, I knew that I could not persuade the obsessed Emperor Xin, but I could not sit idly by and watch him commit such evil and ruin the fate of the Shang Dynasty, so I pretended to be a jailer to deliver food, replaced the human meat pie, and also collected Ji Bokao's remains. As a reward for this good relationship, King Wen passed on the secret art of divination to me."

Wen Rui did not deceive these demon kings, but King Wen's divination technique is just so-so, and its prediction accuracy is worrying. It cannot be taken lightly, but it cannot be taken too seriously either.

As for the Heavenly Court's crackdown, that is pure fabrication. Anyway, these demon kings cannot go to heaven for verification.

Although Wen Rui's words were fabricated, he made it sound very serious. Considering his identity, several demon kings couldn't help but feel nervous and began to worry about their lives and property.

Bao Sanniang smiled, patting her chest and said, "Fortunately, I do a business that does not harm nature, so I have escaped a disaster this time."

"Don't worry, you can't run away."

Wen Rui smiled and said to her, "How many times have the coveted independent cultivators and disciples of the Chan sect come to rob your mine? You always coaxed them with kind words, pretended to yield, and kept saying that you would give yourself to others in order to seek peace. In the end, you tricked them into the cave and secretly killed them."

Bao Sanniang was horrified. This time she was sure that there was a traitor among her little monsters. It had to be at least a big monster above the rank of commander, otherwise how could Wen Rui know everything clearly.

"The net of heaven is vast and nothing can escape it. I know all the dirty things you do behind your back. How can the heaven not know?"

Wen Rui said coldly: "So I want to ask you, what are you going to do in the future? Do you want to stick to this path until the end, or..."

The four demon kings looked at each other, and Wolf Two spoke first: "Brother, don't keep me in suspense. Show me a clear way."

Bao Sanniang sighed and said, "Brother Wen, I don't want to be in fear all day long, waking up in the middle of the night for fear that the righteous will come to kill me, but what else can I do?"

"Tsk, let the heavenly soldiers come to fight us. At worst we'll have to fight. I'll be happy every day I can. Besides, they may not necessarily come to fight against me, old bear!" Xiong Ba said calmly, shaking his bear head.

The water buffalo spirit Niu Miao lowered his head in deep thought, without saying a word. Seeing their attitude, Wen Rui frowned slightly and said, "This is just like 'You won't cry until you see the coffin, and you won't regret until you die'. Forget it, I'm too nosy. Anyway, the crackdown won't affect me. Second brother Wolf, stay here, and I'm sorry I won't send the rest of you off."

"Hey, hey!" Xiong Ba glared at him and said, "Don't speak half of your words, kid. How can I sleep well when I go back? I'm afraid you'll plot against me. Just say what you want to say."

"Yes, Brother Wen, we are listening."

"Please give your instructions, Sect Master."

Wen Rui said solemnly, "Do you know why I am willing to associate with you as a disciple of a famous and upright sect? I remind you in advance that it is not just because I am a disciple of Jiejiao."

The demon kings did not say anything. Xiong Ba even stretched out his bear claws and scratched his head. He was obviously puzzled. Except for Wen Rui, the human cultivators either fled or drew their swords to kill them when they saw them.

As disciples of the Jiejiao Sect, and even disciples of the Lishan Immortal Sect who were demon cultivators like them, their reactions to these demon kings were no different from those of the human cultivators.

"You are definitely not good people, but fortunately, you and your demons have not yet crossed the bottom line, and there is still a little room for salvation."

Wen Rui said seriously, "I am willing to interact with you, instead of trying to exterminate you like I did with the other two demon kings entrenched in the Lishan Mountains. The biggest difference is that you don't eat humans, but those two demon kings do."

The four demon kings then showed a look of realization.

Just like rice feeds a hundred kinds of monsters, not all monsters eat humans. In Journey to the West, there are monster nests that take the initiative to do business with humans and send their little monsters to human cities to buy goods.

"Cannibalism and genocide are the two greatest evils that must be punished by heaven."

Wen Rui said in a deep voice: "Intelligent creatures do not eat intelligent creatures. This is an iron law engraved in the genes. Once violated, there will be punishment from heaven. You have never eaten human flesh, so I can still treat you as my own kind. You should cherish this tiny bit of good in the midst of all evil, and stop before you start to do evil again!"

"Boss Wen, are you telling us to stop robbing humans?" Xiong Ba crossed his arms and said, "If we don't rob, where will our food, clothing and daily necessities come from? Are we going to give you all the spiritual stone ore produced on our territory and buy from you? You really have a good plan!"

"You can produce all your own food, clothing and daily necessities, and I can even buy the surplus products with spirit stones!"

Wen Rui immediately retorted: "A wise man once said: Labor gives people real status. Labor is the essential characteristic that distinguishes humans from animals. If a monster does not work, it will always be a monster! It will never escape the fate of being killed!"

He raised his finger and pointed at Xiong Ba: "You occupy such a large plain, why don't you grow crops or mulberry and hemp?"

Then he pointed at Niu Miao and said, "Why don't you catch fish? Why don't you collect pearls?"

Pointing to Wolf 2, he said, "Why don't you let your cattle graze? Why do you have to steal the shepherd's cattle and sheep?"

Finally, he pointed at Bao Sanniang and said, "The same goes for you. If I don't take your ore, will you go down the mountain to rob it?"

Xiong Ba slammed the table and said angrily, "We don't know how to do it! Besides, we demons are not used to using human tools. Look at my claws. My demons are even rougher in transformation and their claws are not as flexible as mine! Do we use our claws to dig the ground? Even if we can dig the ground, we can't spread the seeds evenly and we can't harvest the wheat!"

"Master Wen, we demons do work less and plunder more nowadays. But this is not our nature. In ancient times, Emperor Jun and Taiyi ruled the heavens, and the demons in the lower world lived together. Each tribe made corresponding tools according to their body shapes, and they also farmed, wove, raised livestock, and built nests and houses like humans."

Niu Miao smiled bitterly and said, "But now the demon tribe is scattered and mixed, with different sizes and different stages of transformation. It is impossible to use unified tools. When they want to work, they get half the result with twice the effort. It's a waste of effort with little benefit, so they like to rob from humans more and more."

Wen Rui nodded to him and praised: "Brother Niu said it well. The means of production are the most important and decisive factor in the means of labor. This is indeed the main reason why the demons gradually became plunderers instead of producers!"

At this point, Wen Rui stood up, glanced at the four demon kings one by one, and said seriously: "I have thought of this a long time ago. So if I can provide you with labor tools suitable for the demon race, which are more advanced and labor-saving than human tools, are you willing to organize your demons to completely switch to production?"

"Brother, I can try, but I may not be able to do it well."

Niu Miao and Bao Sanniang looked at each other, hesitated and did not respond.

"Old Bear doesn't have the brains. Even if you give me tools, my men won't be able to do the work!"

"What if I am willing to teach you? I plan to form a demon production alliance. The Jinling Sect will provide free production tools and free training to the demon caves and demon strongholds that join the alliance, and will also send teachers to be stationed there."

Wen Rui continued, "If there are any clever little demons in your tribe, you can send them to the Jinling Sect to study abroad. I will help you circulate your products, whether it's a trade between demon caves and demon villages, or transporting them to human towns for sale, I will take care of them all!"

"When you become producers, you will be respected and given the same rights as humans. Then the righteous monks will not dare to kill you easily. Otherwise, it will not only fail to slay the demons and uphold the Way, but will create karma and disrupt the Way! Killing laborers will definitely be affected by karma and you will be punished!"

The four demon kings looked at each other again. Except for Wolf Two who nodded slowly, the other three demons looked embarrassed.

Xiong Ba suddenly burst into laughter: "Boss Wen, stop joking. There is no such good thing. I don't understand what you mean by labor. Is it that great? Are you trying to scheme against us again? Make us slaves and let you control us? If you want me to listen to you, beat me in a duel!"

He stood up suddenly, waved his sleeves and said, "Brothers, I'll take my leave first. Go ahead and build any alliance you want. I'm sorry I won't accompany you."

After saying that, he walked towards the main door of the reception hall with a gait of eight characters.

Bao Sanniang also stood up and said with a smile: "Brother Wen, let me go back and think about it."

Niu Miao stood up without saying a word, bowed, and followed Bao Sanniang.

Wolf Two scratched his head and said, "Brother, how can we wolves herd cattle? When cattle and sheep see us, they act as if they have seen ghosts and run away faster than rabbits."

"Alas, you don't even need tools to herd sheep. Sheepdogs only know how to herd sheep. Any dog can teach you!"

Wen Rui sighed and said, "Okay, you go back first. Next time I'll get you a dog. You can see how the dog herds sheep and learn from it. Don't harass the shepherds. Before you learn how to herd sheep, I'll supply food to your tribe. The synthetic dog food tastes okay, but the texture may not be great. Just bear with it for now."

After sending off the four demon kings, Wen Rui sat in front of the oval table, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, stroking the stubble on his chin, and thought: "The demon tribe has always believed that the strong are respected. If we don't defeat one or two troublemakers in an open and honest way, this alliance will really not be able to be formed!"

(End of this chapter)

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