Leave it to me.

"B-Deputy Commander Lan?"

Several demonic beasts in the patrol squad gasped in sudden shock.

The surrounding demonic beasts that had been alerted by the commotion had also been arriving one after another just in time to catch Xu Zhe's words, leaving them all stunned.

They had all heard of Lan Zhen, a deputy commander-level figure within the Vermilion Bird Army who had long since betrayed his kind to ally with the demon race.

This was a secret that the various demon lords had only shared with the demon army after Lan Zhen's identity was exposed during the previous great battle.

However...

"Wasn't it previously reported that Deputy Commander Lan had fallen in battle?" a demonic beast asked with a puzzled expression.

The battlefield at that time had been utterly chaotic. Lan Zhen had been trapped within an independent domain, locked in a mortal combat to the death with Deputy Commander Liu. Very few demonic beasts had actually witnessed that scene, so the news of Lan Zhen's death had merely been spread by that small minority.

Now, seeing this very same Deputy Commander Lan—who had betrayed the human race and aligned with the demon race—appear right before their eyes, many of the demonic beasts found themselves quite bewildered.

"Hmph! Since I chose to fight my way back then, how could I possibly fail to leave myself a contingency plan?"

Xu Zhe, transformed into the guise of Lan Zhen, wore an arrogant and cold sneer on his face as he spoke, "Dying in battle was merely a facade; that was just an avatar of mine. Now that my true body has escaped back here, is this how you greet me?"

As his voice fell, a towering, overwhelming pressure swept outward like an invisible, heavy mountain, pressing down fiercely upon the gathered demonic beasts.

"Deputy Commander Lan, please calm your anger! We will go and report this to Lord Lord immediately at once!" A few demonic beasts with slightly higher cultivation bases immediately replied with trembling voices.

Lan Zhen was, after all, a mighty expert at the early stage of the Tribulation Transcendence realm, comparable to a Demon King among the demon race.

No matter where one went, strength was ultimately everything.

Even though Lan Zhen was a traitor to the human race, upon coming to the demon race, he was still not someone these ordinary demonic beasts dared to offend.

"Go!"

Xu Zhe nodded indifferently and waved a hand.

The immense coercive aura vanished instantly in a flash.

The multitude of demonic beasts felt as if a great weight had been lifted, drawing long sighs of relief in their hearts as they marveled inwardly. A human powerhouse comparable to a Demon King was indeed truly extraordinary.

"Please wait a moment, Deputy Commander Lan."

The few higher-cultivation demonic beasts hastily took their leave, turning around to rush off and deliver the report.

Xu Zhe nodded without a word, clasping his hands behind his back and gazing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. A gentle breeze swept past, fluttering his robes—what an aura of a supreme expert!

Yet, hidden within the palms behind his back, he was dusting away a handful of talisman ash that had already burned to cinders.

The Prestige-Manifesting Talisman: a type of talisman capable of emitting pressure comparable to that of a Tribulation Transcendence realm cultivator.

Xu Zhe had made thorough preparations this time, determined to make his disguise as the Tribulation Transcendence expert Lan Zhen utterly foolproof.

The only flaw was that he could not afford to enter combat with peers of the same realm, or his disguise would instantly fall apart.

Therefore, he still had to put on a sufficiently convincing act to avoid ever needing to actually fight!

"Sigh, but this ultimately amounts to deceiving others; it's hardly an area of expertise for an upright person like me."

Xu Zhe let out an inward sigh, yet he felt helpless. Living in this world, things could not always go smoothly according to one's wishes.

"Deputy Commander Lan!"

At that moment, a booming voice akin to a thunderclap rang out from not far away.

A demonic lord with the body of a man and the head of a bull came hurrying over, flanked by several other lord-level demonic beasts.

Sensing the aura emanating from Xu Zhe—whose realm and cultivation matched the Lan Zhen of their memories without the slightest discrepancy—the several demon lords confirmed his true identity and immediately wore looks of ecstatic joy.

"Wonderful! For Deputy Commander Lan to return is truly... um... bringing flourishing honor to our humble dwelling!"

The bull-headed demonic beast bellowed at the top of its lungs.

"Hearing earlier that Deputy Commander Lan had fallen on the battlefield, we were somewhat skeptical. To think that Deputy Commander Lan is truly possessed of such mighty strength; it was impossible for you to simply perish like that," a female fox demon stepped forward, her tone dripping with flattery.

Pity it was a male.

The other lord-level demonic beasts also greeted Xu Zhe one after another, their attitudes exceedingly friendly and even tinged with a hint of eagerness.

This actually caught Xu Zhe somewhat off guard. He had assumed his human identity would inevitably draw some degree of alienation, yet reality proved remarkably blunt: strength was all that mattered, and might made right no matter where one went.

Upon closer reflection, however, it was hardly strange. Lord-level demonic beasts were merely at the Body Integration realm, sitting just one major realm away from Tribulation Transcendence, yet the gap in strength between the two was as vast as heaven and earth.

Otherwise, the Demon Kings in this region wouldn't be so terribly scarce to begin with.

Ah, speaking of Demon Kings, why had only lord-level beasts come over, with not a single Demon King in sight?

Had I, Xu Zhe—no, had my persona as Lan Zhen lost its prestige, or had you demon folk grown too full of yourselves?

"Where is the Demon King of your clan?" Xu Zhe asked in a cold voice, maintaining his arrogant posture.

Upon hearing this, the multitude of demonic beasts instantly wore bitter expressions.

"Deputy Commander Lan, during that previous battle, our clan suffered heavy casualties. Both the Tiger King and the Bone King have fallen in battle, while the Fox King suffered severe injuries and has already retreated to the ancestral grounds into closed-door seclusion..." a demon lord replied with a sigh.

The Tiger King was clearly that tiger-headed Demon King who had died at the hands of Chu Xiaotong's avatar—a fact Xu Zhe was well aware of.

As for that Bone King, it was presumably an ancient, ancestor-level Demon King of the demon race, who had likewise perished by Chu Xiaotong's hand. How utterly tragic.

Yet, which one was the Fox King?

It hadn't seemed to appear on the battlefield. Who on earth had reduced it to such heavy injuries?

"The Fox King is injured? How is it I knew nothing of this? Who was responsible?" Xu Zhe asked with a frown, perfectly maintaining Lan Zhen's tone and demeanor.

"It was a human powerhouse clad in black. According to our original plan, the Fox King led a troop utilizing a battle formation to infiltrate the rear of the human army, preparing for a flanking ambush. But suddenly, a man in black appeared out of nowhere, striking at us without a single word of nonsense the moment they met."

At this point, the demon lord lowered its voice and continued, "It is rumored that that black-clad powerhouse completely annihilated the Fox King's accompanying troop with a single strike, and even inflicted severe injuries upon the Fox King in that same single blow. It was only by utilizing the battle formation that the Fox King managed to escape back here."

"Oh?"

Xu Zhe wore a look of astonishment.

Inwardly, he was equally stunned. To think that the demon army had actually had another Demon King leading a flanking maneuver at that time?

That was truly a close call.

Had the flanking maneuver genuinely succeeded, Demon King-grade beasts would have been terribly troublesome to deal with.

Yet, where on earth had that black-clad person popped out from to put a stop to it all?

According to the demon lord's description, anyone capable of instantly obliterating a demon squad with a single strike while inflicting heavy injuries on a Tribulation Transcendence Demon King must possess strength at least on par with Chu Xiaotong's, or perhaps even slightly surpass hers.

Could it be Chu Xiaotong's master?

A guess immediately sprouted in Xu Zhe's mind. Aside from Chu Xiaotong, the only one in the Southern Heavenly Continent possessing such strength should be her master.

Yet that was probably rather unlikely.

Had Chu Xiaotong's master made a move, there would have been no need to conceal her identity, nor would she have remained absent from the public eye afterward. If not for hearing the demon lord mention it just now, presumably no one on the human side would have ever known that a Demon King had attempted a flanking ambush back then.

"Does Deputy Commander Lan have any insights? Can you deduce the identity of that black-clad powerhouse?" At that moment, the demon lord looked at Xu Zhe with eyes full of anticipation and asked.

"Not a clue."

Xu Zhe shook his head, saying in a deep voice, "Human powerhouses are countless in number, and the majority of them live in seclusion from the world. Having spent my time continuously fighting on the battlefields, it is all the more difficult for me to acquire such intelligence. I'm afraid... we would need the Bai family to take action if there is any hope of investigating this."

"Deputy Commander Lan jested. The Bai family of the Northern Territory has always held themselves in high esteem, deigning to take orders only from those few lords. Right now, they are all the more preoccupied with that grand scheme to bring about the fall of the Northern Territory as quickly as possible. At such a critical juncture, how could they possibly investigate this matter on behalf of our clan?" The demon lord's brow knitted into a tight knot.

Xu Zhe's eyebrows twitched as well.

Oh ho, caught them in a slip of the tongue.

The Bai family's collusion was practically nailed down now; it was all recorded by his Myriad Forms Jade Plate.

Then, his next target...

"Now that you mention it, those people of the Bai family are utterly lacking in vision, narrow-minded in perspective, and fancy themselves superior, little knowing that I wouldn't even deign to associate with them." Xu Zhe nodded in agreement.

Upon hearing these words, the numerous demonic beasts instantly beamed with joy.

"Deputy Commander Lan speaks the truth! What is so great about the Bai family? Even now, aren't they still obediently following the arrangements of those few lords, ceding the Northern Territory to our clan?" the demon lord replied with a somewhat inflated ego.

"More than that. It would be one thing if the Bai family readily relinquished the Northern Territory, but they didn't dare to do so too blatantly. Having carried out their stealthy operations for so long now without managing to find an opportunity to hand it over, they are simply dragging our feet." Xu Zhe wore a look of utter contempt and disdain.

The surrounding demonic beasts saw it in their eyes and heard it in their ears, their moods instantly soaring with delight and relief.

They felt that this Deputy Commander Lan was simply too agreeable, echoing every single thought straight from the bottoms of their hearts.

"However..." At this point, Xu Zhe spoke once more, his expression turning grave. "We must uncover the identity of the person who attacked the Fox King. Since the Bai family are useless mud that cannot be smeared onto a wall, we ought to seek assistance elsewhere."

"Could Deputy Commander Lan be referring to seeking those human prodigies?" the demon lord asked with hesitation.

"Indeed. However, I have rarely interacted with them. What is your relationship with them like?" Xu Zhe nodded and asked.

"They did secretly visit the Demon Realm previously to discuss the grand scheme with us. But in my view, those fellows Cao Wu, Lin Chuan, and Ma Lin are utterly mediocre, completely unclassifiable trash—I haven't the faintest idea how they are worthy of the title of prodigies. However, that Zhang Yunfan possesses a certain extraordinariness; even the late Bone King spoke of him with high praise and left behind a method of contacting him."

The demon lord mused thoughtfully, "Perhaps we could ask Zhang Yunfan for assistance. Presumably, they would not refuse."

"That would be for the best."

A faint smile surfaced on Xu Zhe's face.

Inwardly, he had only one word running through his mind:

I want to laugh!

He had originally expected that he would need to lurk and disguise himself for a very long time—and even face all sorts of crises where his identity might be exposed—before he could achieve anything substantial within the demon race.

To think that everything would unfold with such smoothness.

Before he had even needed to display his true skills, irrefutable evidence of human traitors was already safely in his hands.

As expected, kind-hearted people never had terrible luck.

An upright person like him—who was utterly unsuited to deception, cautious, and simple-minded—was actually quite capable of handling such perilous and hazardous undercover work.

"However..."

At that moment, a slightly troubled expression appeared on the demon lord's face as it looked at Xu Zhe and said, "Deputy Commander Lan, as you are aware, the Bone King has already sacrificed itself for our clan's great cause, while the Fox King is in closed-door seclusion to heal its wounds. Although two Demon Kings from the western front are slated to come and take over our army, they apparently have yet to set off. Given our current status, strength, and seniority within the clan, we are likely not yet qualified to directly contact that Prodigy Zhang. I wonder if Deputy Commander Lan might..."

Before it could finish, Xu Zhe nodded without the slightest hesitation.

"Consider it done, no problem at all. I will step forward to contact that Zhang Yunfan on your behalf. With my status and standing, let alone Zhang Yunfan, even Chu Xiaotong has to grant me a modicum of face. By all means, hand the method of contacting Zhang Yunfan over to me."

......