Death... and me

"Why should we even listen to you?" Sifo asked back with a dark expression. Of course, he kept most, if not all, of his focus on Placake and the other demon beasts while he said that. "You had a guaranteed future in the humanoid races' territories. Instead, you decided to run away and put our entire force after you."

Rean didn't seem to mind it, though. "That doesn't seem like a good thing, right? You say that we had a guaranteed future there. However, I don't remember having ever asked for it. Does that mean if I had asked for you to simply let me and my sect go, would you do that?"

"Impossible," Sifo answered straight away.

Rean smiled in response. "See? That's not a guaranteed future. That's basically imprisonment. I quite like my freedom the way it is right now. That's why we decided to leave. Besides, do you have any idea how hard it was to develop the Circuitry Formations? I had to literally start from scratch on my own. Well, Havek joined later and helped me make a lot more progress, though."

"On your own?" That took Sifo and the rest of the experts aback. Everyone there thought Rean had received that knowledge from somewhere else. He did... but he wouldn't talk about the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm's system. Without that, they couldn't know if it was true or not.

Placake then asked, "Why did you appear here? It seems like you wanted this situation to happen."

It was then that a black-haired twin appeared as well, using Rean's leaving point to come out. Obviously, that was Roan. "I did indeed plan for this. The fact was that we didn't want to make an appearance, but you seem to have somehow found out about Qia and Calina. Was it Erithean?"

Probal immediately answered. "That demon beast there attacked the Huring Sacred Land and killed most of the cultivators there. She also captured the cultivator that went by the name of Erithean and brought him to the demon beasts' side. We don't know if he's still alive or not."

Linfia narrowed her eyes after hearing that. "Hmph! That's because that Erithean guy lied to me. Anyone who lies to me won't have a good end. That's a personal rule of mine, regardless of who it might be."

Rean glanced at Linfia after that. "So that's what we can expect from the demon beast races, uh? The possibility of being killed at any moment. Seems like we made the right choice to have lured both sides here."

"Wait..." Placake immediately intervened, calmly stating, "Linfia is a special case. Don't consider everyone to be like her. Besides, we didn't kill your friend. He's well alive."

Roan shook his head. "Whatever. Erithean was basically the only friend we had in Huring Sacred Land. As for the others, we don't care too much." Rean and Roan also knew Erithean's granddaughter, Cassia, but their relationship wasn't anything more than acquaintances. There was also the guy who Roan got the Starlight Body Cultivation Technique from, but that was more like a mutual trade between them.

Roan then returned to the main topic. "We came here because we need to find those two girls and their companions. The humanoid races would have never let us come, so we had to do it ourselves."

Rean nodded in agreement. "Now that we found out the demon beasts know about them, we had to change our plans. We want to make a deal with all of you. You help us find the girls, and in exchange, we share what we know about the Circuitry Formations. How about that?"

Sifo found it strange. "Why would you lure us here for that? You could have done that deal with the demon beasts on your own."

"Would they even consider hearing our request if you weren't here?" Roan asked back as if stating a fact.

The demon beasts and the humanoids looked at each other for a moment. Both sides knew that due to the twins' cultivation, they wouldn't consider that at all. Instead, they would first try to force the information out of the twins.

Placake faintly smiled after hearing that. "Very well. In exchange for what you know about Circuitry Formations, we'll try to find your girls and their companions. We just need more specific details, and you can leave it to us to do the searching."

"Do you think we'll just watch and let you take the twins away with the Circuitry Formations?" Probal asked as he prepared to attack. If the deal was over like that, the humanoid races would definitely prefer to simply kill the twins instead.

"Hmm?" Rean looked at Probal with a puzzled expression. "This deal wasn't for the demon beast races alone. It was for both of you. As long as both sides accept, then we'll give you the information equally. Isn't that good for everyone?"

"Ridiculous!" Sifo immediately exploded. "You're humanoids, just like us! How can you simply give them this knowledge like that? The overall situation of the humanoid races should take priority above all else."

"Who said that?" Rean and Roan couldn't care less. First of all, they were on this journey pretty much against their will. Let's not forget that it was the Soul Gem System that had dragged them to this side of the universe.

"Also..." Roan suddenly looked in the direction where the devils' territory could be found. "If we're really talking about the overall picture, then becoming stronger than the devils should be your main priority. The demon beast and humanoid races can resolve their differences after the devils are driven back to the Underworld."

"This..." Both demon beasts and humanoids went silent. They would be very idiotic if they said that the devils didn't pose a higher threat than each other. After all, that's why humanoids, demon beasts, and spirits allied in the first place.

"Can't you see it?" Rean suddenly asked. "You have the chance of increasing both your races' overall strength. Perhaps it might be the trigger to take back the territory conquered by the devils. It's not like the humanoid and demon beast races are afraid of each other anyway. You should really consider the bigger picture here. And you can get all of that by simply agreeing to help us find our girls."

"Last but not least." Roan faintly smiled. "We can leave this place anytime we want."