Chapter 223
Chapter 223
Several minutes later, inside a bank in the inner-layer world, a Money Fiend was making a phone call from his office.
“This matter must be treated seriously. That fellow may be useless, but he is still one of us. Someone dared attack a member of our kind. This is a challenge to our authority!”
The moment he finished speaking, a thunderous crash rang out as the office door burst open. An enormous figure appeared in the doorway.
The Money Fiend frowned and said in displeasure, “Sir, may I ask whether you have an appoint-”
Before he could finish, an enormous hand seized his head.
“Si-”
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the Money Fiend’s head was slammed into his desk. The high-quality wooden desk exploded into splinters, sending shards flying in every direction.
“Cough…”
The Money Fiend spat out a mouthful of black blood. Then his head was hauled back up, and he found himself staring into an enormous pig’s face.
“What’s this I hear? No one’s allowed to hit you Money Fiends? Who spoiled you rotten and gave you that filthy habit?”
“Cough, cough… You… you’re fini-”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Pig-Head Third Uncle grabbed the Money Fiend by the head and repeatedly smashed it into the floor.
The Money Fiend was nearly driven insane. He was clearly under attack, so why had no one come to rescue him?
Then he noticed bloodstains beyond the window. A moment later, he was hurled across the room. Looking down through the window, he froze at the sight below.
Disintegrating Fiends littered the entire area around the bank. Even the building across from him contained no survivors.
“You… you…”
“Don’t you people say that every nearby Fiend will hunt down anyone who lays a hand on a Money Fiend? I hate dealing with trouble, so I stopped them from coming. I simply sent them on their way first. Much more convenient.”
Pig-Head Third Uncle planted a foot on the Money Fiend’s back and gripped his head in one massive hand.
“Wh-why…”
The Money Fiend wanted to understand before he died. How had he ever offended such a monster?
“My nephew hit your little brother, and your little brother threatened to make my nephew pay.”
The Money Fiend fell silent.
If he had heard correctly, the nephew had attacked his little brother first. So why had this monster come here to beat him?
Before he could make sense of it, Pig-Head Third Uncle exerted his strength and tore the Money Fiend’s head from his body.
The Money Fiend’s body instantly transformed into countless copper coins that scattered across the floor.
“Pah! Filthy.”
The Pig-Head Butcher walked away carrying the Money Fiend’s head. By the time he stepped outside, not a single sound remained in the entire area.
At another bank in a different region, a Money Fiend was running for his life while a dense, seemingly endless horde of Guiwas chased behind him.
“Impossible… How can Fiends like these exist?”
The Money Fiend felt as though he was going mad. Every Fiend in the entire region had been devoured. No matter how strong or weak, none could withstand the attackers for even an instant.
How had he never heard of Fiends this terrifying?
“W-wait… Spare me! However much money you want, I-”
Before he could finish, his body transformed into a pile of Guiwas. They stood on the ground and released piercing laughter.
Elsewhere, an entire region was drowned beneath an endless sea of blood. In another, a boundless sea of fire rose into the sky. A single figure stood calmly at its center while every surrounding Fiend burned to ash.
In yet another region, a gigantic mouth appeared in the sky and swallowed every Fiend whole. A group of Funeral Band Fiends played a single piece of music and assimilated all the Fiends who heard it.
The same events unfolded all across the inner-layer world. Every region containing a Money Fiend bank was swept completely clean.
At the Money Fiends’ headquarters, their leader roared, “Why is this happening?”
He swept every document from his desk with one arm. Achievements he had spent centuries building had been completely destroyed in less than an hour.
Worse still, every Fiend attacking them possessed terrifying power.
“The Joyous Funeral Fiend! The Drought Demon! Guiwa! Taotie! The Predator! Where the hell did so many terrifying monsters come from?”
None of these Fiends had any reputation at all. If their respective races possessed experts this powerful, they would have enshrined and worshiped them. Why would such beings personally come out to cause him trouble?
The compensation claims alone were enough to ruin him. Ordinary Fiends had even begun making runs on his banks.
The problem was that he truly had no idea whom he had offended!
“Chairman, an elderly gentleman downstairs wishes to see you.”
A shapely secretary with a giant gold coin for a head entered and spoke with great caution.
The Money Fiend abruptly realized something and hurriedly told her to invite the visitor inside.
The newcomer was a stooped little old man smoking a pipe. He lowered himself into the chair across from the Money Fiend.
“Sir, please at least let me die knowing the reason. How did we offend your esteemed faction?”
The Money Fiend could not sense the slightest trace of yin energy from the old man. That was precisely what made him so frightening. It meant the Money Fiend did not even possess the ability to gauge the visitor’s strength.
He was not one of the useless underlings below. He had recovered his memories, comprehended his own domain, and pieced together more than a dozen Taboos. He was an extraordinarily powerful Fiend.
No one in the inner-layer world should have possessed strength he could not discern. Yet now, such a person had appeared before him without warning.
“Chairman,” Village Chief Grandpa began.
He lifted one foot and tapped his pipe bowl several times against the sole of his shoe.
“We are simple country folk. Country folk have plenty of faults, but there is one thing we all do: we protect our own. One of your juniors threatened to kill a young man from our village. You frightened him so badly that he wants to run home. Does that sound reasonable to you?”
The Money Fiend was utterly dumbfounded. They had erased every one of his operations over something like that?
That was not how these things were done! It was like a game of Fight the Landlord. Weren’t players supposed to begin by testing each other with small cards before gradually raising the stakes? Who opened with the joker bomb and all four twos? Who could possibly withstand that?
He hurriedly summoned his secretary and ordered her to investigate which bastard had caused this disaster.
She soon found the answer. The only Money Fiend who had caused trouble was an unimportant loser from a distant branch of the family. A human had asked him for help, so he provoked another human and was beaten for it.
The Money Fiend fell silent.
He might be a Fiend, but he felt as though he was about to suffer a cerebral hemorrhage. This was outrageously unjust.
How many Fiends had died because of one idiot? Yet once he understood what had happened, he suddenly realized this disaster might also be an opportunity.
If he handled the matter well, wouldn’t he establish a connection with these titans? What did it matter if the rest of his clan had been wiped out? Compared to the opportunity before him, that was nothing.
“My lord, please give me one more chance. I guarantee I will resolve this matter to your satisfaction!”
Village Chief Grandpa nodded, then tapped the Money Fiend on the head with his pipe bowl.
“I have only one demand: whatever you do, don’t let him return to the village!”