A Demon's Journey

Azaroth had his plans for giving away the land for free. He knew that as the condition of Kloras Town currently was, no one would want to buy land here.

The only way he could get humans to settle here was to give them special perks. However, he had to select the perks carefully so that they would benefit him and not be counter-productive to him.

The first step was to give away the land to merchants.

Now, the merchants will send the laborers here to build their respective villas or estates. Azaroth could also make use of those laborers.

Furthermore, the merchants' aid would be extremely beneficial to Azaroth's next phase of his plan.

Azaroth fetched out some beverages from the Rhodes Mansion once all of the merchants had presented their papers to him.

He had brought wine, beers, and ale.

The merchants and even those brokers were quite happy. The servants poured the drinks and soon enough, Azaroth along with the merchants and brokers were drinking in celebration.

Azaroth talked a bit with the merchants and gathered some information regarding their hometown.

Three of them were from Wrihull City while the others were from towns near Wrihull City. Although to a warrior, this kind of information was somewhat useless. It wasn't the same for Azaroth.

Now, he was an administrator of this town. In a certain sense, the Mayor was a leader of the town. He could make some independent decisions regarding his own territory.

Moreover, Azaroth also had Rhodes House behind his back. Although his family wasn't unconditionally supporting him, this influence was enough to stop a majority of people from scheming against him.

Among these merchants, the least talkative man was Jake Stones. Azaroth got a feeling that this man was waiting for an opportunity.

"When we came, I lay my eyes on a fairy-like woman with Blonde Locks," one of the merchants who had laid his eyes on Laura said while drinking, with a trace of yearning in his eyes, "Lord Mayor, I was wondering who she is."

Azaroth remained calm and answered him, "Her huh? She is my retainer. What of it?"

"Ah right. There was also a devilishly seductive woman." Another merchant joined in and asked Azaroth, "Is she also Lord Mayor's retainer?"

"That's correct." Azaroth could easily guess what they were about to say next. He didn't interrupt them though. He was about to witness an interesting show after all.

"At what price would Lord Mayor be ready to leave with the blonde-haired retainer?" the guy said, his voice husky, "I think she'd be a good fit to be my maid."

Azaroth smirked and replied, "Hmm. An interesting proposal. But alas, you don't possess the capital to buy her."

The man thought Azaroth was merely joking. He smiled in return and confidently spoke, "Name the price, Lord Mayor. You might be surprised."

"Haha…" Azaroth began laughing all of a sudden.

His abrupt laugh perplexed the merchants and everyone else around him. They were unsure if he had gone insane or not.

Azaroth's arm suddenly moved and a crispy sound resounded in the area. A moment later, his arms returned to their original position while the red side of the merchant's face ahead of him was blazing red.

For some seconds, the merchant even felt that the right side of his face was burning.

The other merchants and people were instantly shocked. They never expected Azaroth to suddenly slap that merchant so strongly. Even the merchant felt as if he had sobered up after that slap.

Azaroth then glared at the other merchants who were also interested in buying his retainers, "Anyone else in the line?"

The other merchants who had spoken began to chuckle while sweating nervously. They didn't want to be slapped as well.

The merchants soon stood up and began leaving. This scene just now showed that Azaroth wasn't afraid of using force against them.

They had already received quite some advantages. It was best to withdraw since staying here anymore wouldn't provide them any benefits.

Jake Stones was about to leave as well. But before leaving, he paused for some moments and turned in Azaroth's direction, "I have a connection with many households buying the food supplies. As long as it's above a certain level of quality, I can provide a good price for it."

Azaroth nodded his head and spoke, "I will contact you when it's time."

"The next batch of people who will receive the information regarding the sale in this town will be farmers. I know quite a few of them in my town." Jake Stones further added.

Azaroth raised his brows and more or less understood that this Jake Stones knew of what he was planning ahead.

But still, it wasn't that hard to guess. So he didn't need to think so deeply regarding it.

"I will be thankful for your help then."

At those words, Jake Stones frowned. According to his deduction, Azaroth should have requested him to talk to the farmers.

Why was it that he merely thanked him?

Soon though, Jake Stones had a forced smile on his face. He understood that this indicated Azaroth knew someone who had a wide network.

And this was the truth.

Tronte was the one spreading the news about Kloras Town as Azaroth asked him to.

The merchants soon left the area. They planned to send their laborers and begin construction for their villas here.

Azaroth bid them farewell while thinking 'This administration business will waste too much of my precious time. Fortunately, I have already broken through to the 3rd Stage of Heavenly Demon Meditation Technique or else my cultivation would have slowed down because of managing this town.'

Before even landing in this town this time, Azaroth had a detailed strategy of what he wanted to do and how he would do it.

The two spies in the distance were somewhat disappointed. From what they understood, these merchants heard of some sort of special offer and personally appeared to claim it today.

The only thing they found surprising was that they all arrived at the same time.

Sean and Gibson met with each other and Sean couldn't hold it in any longer, "He is clean till now. The only thing that might be slightly suspicious is how he treats his guards. But that's a subjective matter, not at all useful for the King."

Gibson though felt that something was wrong but he didn't exactly know what it was. He seriously looked at Sean and told him, "Let's send this information to the King and await further orders."

"Hmm. Alright."

~~

Soon, 3 more days passed.

It had now been a week since Azaroth's retainers began their gravity training regimen. And unsurprisingly, they were slowly getting used to it.

The person who showed the greatest improvement was actually Sargan. The time he spent on training his body using these gravity arrays was almost as much time as spent by Noah.

This showed that his determination to become stronger was second to none.

After Sargan, it was Noah who improved the most.

His weak muscles were now developing rapidly. The process of tearing and rebuilding his muscles was undergoing so quickly that Noah would constantly experience great pain while doing any action.

Whether it was moving his arm, walking, running, or jumping.

Yet, he didn't rest at all. He was adamant about growing stronger as well.

Ralph improved greatly as well but his improvement wasn't as drastic as Noah's or Sargan's improvements.

Azaroth advised him to take proper rest and his meals were also different from others.

All of Azaroth's retainers except for Ralph were eating food that would enhance their physical strength, meanwhile, Ralph was given the food that would enhance his spiritual strength along with helping him keep his lean body.

A lean body possessing great strength was a deadly combination. It could be considered the best of both worlds because the person would possess impressive agility and great strength at the same time.

Maintaining this kind of physique was extremely difficult though. The individual must have strict diet control and know just which exercises he has to follow. He must also know when to train and when to rest.

Azaroth also followed this kind of training but in a different manner. He had designed his Heavenly Demon Physique in such a manner that it would digest any extra energy in his body and convert it to Ardor.

Azaroth wasn't going to give away his personal techniques to these people. They were worth a hundred times more than a skill like Nether Devil God Mantra.

Naturally, this value wasn't because of how good the skill was. But because if it was revealed, many of his secrets would be known.

Every Demon who reached the level of Demon God would have reached that stage by creating his own cultivation technique. It might have been modified using other techniques but they mostly tried to keep their techniques unique and prevent them from spreading.

Once a cultivation technique spreads, its strengths and weaknesses would be known quickly.

This information would generally become the cause of the fall of a Demon God.

Naturally, although the Heavenly Demon Physique and Heavenly Demon Meditation Technique worked for increasing the Demonic Ardor of his Triquetra Ardor, the speed of cultivation wasn't satisfactory.

He had to modify his techniques. Azaroth possessed multiple cultivation formulae of Demons and Humans but he didn't possess any cultivation formulae of the Celestials.

When he had tried to mind control them or soul read the celestials, they would mostly explode or their memories would seem to be sealed by a higher entity.

Azaroth couldn't unlock the seal in their mind and thus, he never managed to gather their cultivation formulae.

Among the women, Yrellea showed the maximum improvement while Tiana and Laura lagged behind the two.

Laura was the only one of Azaroth's retainers who hadn't yet become accustomed to the gravity arrays. Although she was making improvements, Azaroth was dissatisfied with her progress.