Duanmu Yan sat behind a square table piled high with scrolls, flipping through them one by one. In front of the table stood several members of the Demon Clan, completely disguised as humans; they were the highest echelon responsible for the various espionage agencies.
After a long while, Duanmu Yan slightly furrowed his brows and spoke, "Magical fruits?"
After he had killed five holders of the Fengtian Order, he left Great Yong and returned to the Demon Clan for three months. To his surprise, upon returning to Great Yong after three months, he did not encounter the scene he had imagined of a bleak wasteland littered with countless famine victims.
The desolate wasteland was indeed there, but how could there be no deaths from starvation under a condition of total crop failure?
All because of these so-called magical fruits?
"Yes, my lord," a Demon Clan member replied solemnly, "The biggest change in our plans is due to these magical fruits that the Seventh Princess cultivated. We have no idea how the Seventh Princess managed to cultivate this variety, and moreover, the yield is so incredibly large. Relying on her alone, she is actually able to supply food for all the mortal population of Great Yong—It's truly unimaginable."
"There are hundreds of millions of mortals in Great Yong, and each person needs at least several hundred pounds of grain per year, right?" Duanmu Yan frowned deeply and said, "Hundreds of millions of people would consume at least a hundred billion pounds of grain per year, if not more. And that estimate doesn't even factor in the water content of the fruits themselves. Can she really provide so much?"
"She has already supplied over one hundred billion pounds of magical fruits, and it's unclear if there are more," another Demon Clan member said softly. "My lord, could these hundred billion pounds of magical fruits be a reserve that the Seventh Princess had been accumulating all along and just kept fresh using spells and barriers?"
"Why would she accumulate so many magical fruits for no reason? Surely she couldn't have foreseen the famine this early?" Duanmu Yan shook his head.
He was a man whose fate was unpredictable; even if there were a supremely powerful being capable of calculating fate, they would not be able to foresee the changes he caused, so how could anyone have anticipated this in advance?
Duanmu Yan pondered for a moment, then asked, "What do the spies at the Seventh Princess Mansion say?"
A Demon Clan member sighed helplessly and said, "My lord, we already had few spies in the Seventh Princess Mansion, and last year they were all eradicated by the people sent by the Seventeenth Prince."
"The Seventeenth Prince…" Duanmu Yan was somewhat helpless and could not help but smile wryly.
According to the predictions of the Demon Ancestors, coupled with his personal sensing of tokens, the Seventeenth Prince was very likely the reincarnation of the Prison Demon God.
Wasn't this just like a flood washing away the Dragon King Temple—an ironic case where one's own kin fights against each other?
"Has the Seventh Princess left Di Hong City in recent years, and is there a chance to eliminate her?" inquired Duanmu Yan.
"In recent years, the Seventh Princess has only left her mansion once, which was that time in the Beiyuan Mountain," another Demon Clan member replied, shaking their head slightly.
"It's hardly possible to kill her within the scope of Di Hong City…"
Duanmu Yan frowned slightly and said, "Then kill the people carrying out famine relief. If we keep killing, perhaps the Seventh Princess will show up in person. The ones responsible for famine relief should be the pacification historians of Great Yong, right? Who is the current pacification historian?"
"The guard of the Seventeenth Prince, Baili Fengzhi," a Demon Clan member said.
Duanmu Yan nodded slightly and said, "I wonder which member of the Fire Phoenix Clan gave birth to this half-demon with a human, able to cultivate the Fire Phoenix Divine Body to perfection. She probably absorbed the soul of an entire Divine Beast Fire Phoenix. No one from the Fire Phoenix Clan has ever had such a fortune. The Divine Beast Fire Phoenix fell at the Northwest Pass back then, and its soul and body both vanished without a trace. It seems... this fortune has fallen into her hands."
"However... after all, she's just a half-demon, so let's find an opportunity to capture her. It would be best to bring her back to Eternal Night; if not, killing her will suffice as well."
With that, Duanmu Yan made his decision.