Chapter 403: Chapter 398: Mutation Chapter 403: Chapter 398: Mutation “Demons!” Muria gently tapped the desk, his face revealing a look of contemplation. Over forty reports related to demons had appeared in three days. The number was staggering at first glance.

However, it should be noted that these reports came from all over the Lockman Kingdom. Spread out, not every province would even have a single demon occurrence.

If it were not for some officials and nobles reporting these incidents, causing Muria, who is ruling the kingdom, to take notice, hardly anyone would care about these weak demons. The trouble they caused was minimal, to such an extent that it could be easily ignored.

“Mia, pass down my decree. Whether it’s a demon, a demon follower, a demon kin, or anything related to demons, report it back to me immediately.”

Muria instructed a blonde beauty standing by his side without turning his head. This personal maid who had been following him since his youth immediately went down to convey Muria’s orders.

“Mels!” Muria used the connection of their contract to directly summon the Great Devil he had subjugated during his adolescence.

“Master!” With mysterious, strange, and evil arcane magic array, Mels, in the form of a middle-aged gentleman, emerged from the magic array and prostrated himself on the ground, respectfully kneeling and saluting to Muria.

“Hmm?” Muria, who was about to instruct Mels, slightly fixated his gaze. His dazzling gold eyes flashed with electricity, revealed in all its brilliance, he saw through the aura Mels tried hard to hide: “Are you about to break through to the legendary rank?”

“It won’t be long, thanks to the Master’s grace, I shall be able to break into legend.” Mels reported to Muria with an even more humble posture than before, his head touching the ground.

“So soon.” Muria smiled, “No wonder so many demons and devils are desperate to enter the material world.”

“Master, even if I breakthrough to the legendary rank, I will remain your loyal servant.” Mels quickly expressed his loyalty to Muria. He had signed a contract of servitude with Muria, his life was in Muria’s hands, how could he not be respectful?

In addition, even sans the constraints of the contract, Muria, who could summon a group of Ancient Dragons at any time, possessed the power to kill him instantly. This fact didn’t allow Mels to harbor any kind of selfish thoughts.

“Heh!” A light smile appeared on Muria’s face. “It seems you have consumed quite a number of souls while establishing the intelligence organization.”

“Your Majesty, indeed, I have devoured many souls, but most of them are evil creatures among humans. I have consumed very few human souls. I can assure you, every human soul I devoured was an unforgivable evildoer.”

“Hmm, I trust you don’t have the audacity to disobey me.” Muria nodded in agreement. Devils are highly intelligent evil creatures. They know what they should do and what they should not do.

There are too many evil people among humans. Even if Mels opened his belly to eat, he wouldn’t be able to finish them all. So, he didn’t need to risk upsetting Muria and losing his life by devouring the souls of ordinary humans.

“Look through these documents.” Muria threw the demon sighting reports on his desk in front of Mels. “You send people, or you go personally, to investigate why demons would appear at those locations. It’s best if some demons can be captured for interrogation.”

“Master, there is no problem in interrogating the demons, but the demons so weak must have been eradicated already by the local nobles.” Mels flipped through the documents and said with some difficulty. All the demons had been killed. Where would he capture them?

“There should be some remnants left.” Muria tapped the desk. “Additionally, according to these reports, this is only the beginning. More demons will definitely appear later.

I want to know how they appeared in the Lockman Kingdom. Apart from devouring souls, causing slaughter and chaos, what else do these creatures want to do? Who is controlling them behind the scenes?”

Looking at these demon incidents now, there must be some existence or force wanting to create havoc in the Lockman Kingdom. The demons themselves, due to their chaotic nature, are reckless and hardly ever get anything done.

Creatures of chaos are naturally born troublemakers. Any well-planned matter would become a mess in their hands. They are natural disruptors of order.

“Understood, master, I will report everything you want to you as soon as possible.” Mels laughed and accepted the order, then excused himself.

“Hmm, go start your investigation.”

Time flowed slowly. Muria stayed in the capital, Scarlet, aside from teaching those two non-human Lolita their combat skills, he dealt with various government affairs and matters related to the Martial Arts Competition, rarely going anywhere else.

The month-long registration period passed quickly. Based on the reports from officials all over the place and after summarizing, over a hundred thousand talents throughout the Lockman Kingdom had qualified to participate.

This was an astonishing number. According to Muria’s stipulation to gain the formal qualification to participate, one had to defeat ten peers. With a hundred thousand people qualifying, it meant over a million people were eliminated. The intensity and cruelty of the preliminary round could be well imagined.

After selecting the hundred thousand contestants, Muria immediately announced that the “Golden Dragon Cup” martial arts competition would officially begin in half a month. The large-scale competition with generous rewards instantly attracted the attention of most people in the Lockman Kingdom.

It led the populace to ignore the ongoing changes in the kingdom, like the increasingly frequent appearances of demons, a significant mutation phenomenon in the wilderness plants, and a startling number of evolved and mutated creatures among the monster species.

For instance, creatures with dragon blood were experiencing dragon vein awakening, bloodline purification phenomena, or among the ogre tribes, an astonishing number of two-headed ogres were appearing… Many monsters with ancient bloodlines, which had long been dormant and unnoticeable, were experiencing bloodline awakening phenomena.

“The occurrence of demons is increasing, and the scale and power of the demons are also growing with each event.” Muria said, furrowing his brows in contemplation. “According to Mels’s investigation, although some demons are summoned via blood sacrifices by demon followers, the majority of the demons appeared in the Lockman Kingdom through accidentally opened spatial rifts, independent of any summoning.

Moreover, according to experiments, the price of summoning a demon through blood sacrifice is much lower than before, low to the point where killing a few chickens could summon a low-level demon. This is very problematic.”

In the face of this situation, Muria could only order the great nobles and city officials to use all means to capture and kill the demon followers infiltrating the Lockman Kingdom.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read