The cooperation between Red Mud City and Blackstone City had made managing the cities much easier for Lu Li and his group.
After all, they weren’t members of the Yao Race.
Their main task here was to infiltrate, understand whether the Yao Race had adapted to the Human Race’s rules, and gather information about Frenzied Beasts.
Unfortunately, the Miasma Plain was filled with only Demon Soldiers and Demon Generals.
That is, at the level of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment.
Their understanding of Frenzied Beasts was similar to their own.
And the Demon Kings—equivalent to the Golden Core Stage—would never station themselves in such a remote location.
So after coming up empty-handed from their inquiries, the group began to deduce.
If they could meet a Great Demon King—equivalent to the Human Race’s Nascent Soul Stage—and pose questions in the identity of the Saintess of the Demon Race, they might obtain more information.
But they estimated that if the Great Demon King swept his Divine Sense, everyone except Lu Li would be exposed.
Thus, after some casual conversation, the group dispersed to their own tasks.
As Blackstone City gradually started operating on its own without needing their push, Liu Qingyun organized the Snake Clan and Rat Clan to jointly advance their research into Frenzied Beasts.
The Spirit Testing Plate created by Yuan He could clearly distinguish between Awakened Demon Race demon beasts and ordinary beasts.
Combined with the Yao Race’s simple values and the new rules of Blackstone City, the beasts that tested as having no Spiritual Wisdom at all would become food for the demon beasts—and naturally, they could be used for ordinary testing.
“So how’s the progress?” Lu Li looked at the now-exhausted Liu Qingyun and Yuan He.
“What about the relationship between Frenzied Beasts and Mad Cores?”
“I can only say the progress is minimal.” As Liu Qingyun sat down, Shen Popo brought over the Calming Tea they had gathered from the Secret Realm earlier.
“Thank you. The Yao Race is very secretive about Mad Cores, so the research is extremely crude. After we took over, very few demon beasts were willing to help.”
“That’s because demon beasts have Demon Cores in their bodies, while Frenzied Beasts have Mad Cores. They’re afraid that if the Mad Cores shatter, the unique aura inside them will cause them to lose their Spiritual Wisdom too.” Yuan He sighed, took a sip of tea, and wore a rarely serious expression.
“But from our experiments, feeding ordinary beasts Mad Core powder actually has a chance of granting them intelligence.”
“How high is the probability?” Liu Qingxi picked up her Jade Disk and began recording.
“Very low. We’ve killed over ten thousand Frenzied Beasts these past few days, and we can’t just feed them all to one beast.” Yuan He shook his head.
“So far, only one has succeeded.”
“Mm… Maybe we should change our approach.” Lu Li closed his eyes in thought.
He hadn’t served long as Saintess of the Yin Yang Sect, so he hadn’t fully mastered many abilities or methods.
These days, he had been learning from scratch alongside Liu Qingxi—organizing documents, comparing numbers.
That was actually more headache-inducing than strategic planning.
“Oh? Do you have a new idea?” Liu Qingxi turned to ask.
“A little. I’ve been reading Human Race documents and a lot of Yao Race records recently.” As Lu Li spoke, he picked up a few books with his fingers.
“I’ve found a peculiar phenomenon.”
“Although this phenomenon seems obvious, very few have pointed it out.”
“That is, the Human Race also has cases of intelligence deficiency, but far, far fewer than the Yao Race.” Lu Li flipped through the books.
“Why is that?”
“The Human Race speculates that it might be a unique plague—infection affects intelligence.” Liu Qingxi spoke up.
“And indeed, some diseases produce such results.”
“But the Yao Race, on the other hand, says it’s a human plague… However, it’s normal for both sides to have conflicting views on this unique situation.” Yuan He joined the conversation.
“Anyway, too few Yao Race members in Blackstone City and Red Mud City are willing to participate.”
“…Wait. I think what Lu Li said… might be important.” Liu Qingxi thought for a moment, then looked up again.
“Go on?”
“I was thinking—what’s the biggest difference between the Yao Race and the Human Race?” Lu Li picked up the statistics he and Liu Qingxi had compiled recently.
“It’s not cultivation level, nor rules—it’s the number of offspring born.”
“Why do Beast Tides occur in the Yao Race? Because the breeding frequency between large numbers of beasts and low-level Yao Race is too high, and their numbers are too massive.” Lu Li pointed to a few years’ worth of messy Yao Race records.
“As the numbers increase, so does the incidence of Frenzied Beasts being born.”
“But the Human Race doesn’t reproduce as easily, so cases of unawakened intelligence appear much less frequently.” As Lu Li spoke, Liu Qingxi jolted, and quickly cast several Mysterious Lights.
Everyone looked up to see a comparison between the Human Race and Yao Race regarding cases of unawakened intelligence.
In the Mysterious Light, the Human Race’s unawakened intelligence numbers were extremely sparse, while the Yao Race’s Frenzied Beast numbers towered high.
“But Liu Qingxi, if we equalize the proportions between the Human Race and the Yao Race…” As Lu Li explained, Liu Qingxi rapidly adjusted the data in the Mysterious Light.
“Humans can only bear a child once every twenty-odd years, and cultivation families put even more effort and time into raising their children.” Lu Li waved his slender hand and adjusted the seemingly huge numbers.
“Not to mention that if a prenatal instability or soul defect is detected, some physicians will recommend terminating the pregnancy.”
“But in the Yao Race… or rather, the Rat Clan, this situation doesn’t occur.” Lu Li looked at another vast astronomical figure.
“So it seems that in Heavenly Deduction City, over the past twenty-odd years, the number of unawakened intelligence cases hasn’t even reached a thousand—averaging only about fifty per year.”
“That’s it!” Hearing this conclusion, Liu Qingxi immediately stood up. “The Rat Clan’s situation is completely different from the Human Race’s!”
“They breed too quickly. In just this month…” Yuan He reached out and grabbed the Rat Clan’s birth records for the month.
“They’ve given birth to a full eight hundred thousand young rats. Among them, about two hundred are born without intelligence, bordering on Frenzied Beasts.”
“I understand. From the Human Race’s perspective, twenty-odd years is just over a thousand. But according to the Rat Clan’s numbers…” Liu Qingxi’s mind stirred, and those numbers began to swell rapidly.
“In a single year, they can produce over a hundred thousand Frenzied Beasts with no intelligence. In twenty-odd years, that’s an absolutely terrifying number.”
“Most critically, the Yao Race doesn’t consist only of the Rat Clan.” Lu Li looked at the mountain of documents piled on the table.
“When all these numbers are added together, they naturally become a Beast Tide.”
“However, this is just our speculation.” Liu Qingxi pondered for a moment.
“And Blackstone City’s situation is clearly much better than other cities. This is… Ah! That’s it!”
When she mentioned this, Lu Li and the others all suddenly realized.
Because Blackstone City was the closest city to humans.
Being adjacent to human cities, it would regularly purchase large amounts of resources from the Human Race. Naturally, they gradually brought human ideas about reproduction back to the Yao Race.
Instead of simply breeding,
it was better to pursue healthier offspring.
Moreover, the Yao Race also had Demonic Cultivators.
The breeding frequency of Demonic Cultivators was basically similar to that of Human Race cultivators—they would only consider such matters once every forty or fifty years.
“Yuan He and I will go investigate Red Mud City’s situation.” Liu Qingxi stood up again.
“The Crocodile Tribe also has Demonic Cultivators, but they have more ordinary demon beasts, so they might provide clues.”
“And I need to check on Lan Zhu’er’s side—see if she can convince White Miasma City to cooperate with us.” Lu Li also stood up and looked at Liu Qingxi, who was starting to memorize the text on the documents.
“I’ll leave this matter to you.”
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