The Story Never Ends
Chapter 239 - Taking Subordinates

"BAM"

The eight devil kings fell flat with their faces on the ground and could finally catch their breaths. Nonetheless, they couldn't relax as they knew that the monster was giving them time to make their decisions.

They looked at each other with ugly expressions, hoping that one of them would speak first and break the silence. But how could they come up with a decision when they knew that they would be betraying Devil Emperor Joziah if they submitted?

Furthermore, if they didn't agree with him, who knew if he would kill and silence them. On top of that, they were enjoying their current life. Neither did they have to work hard nor serve anyone like slaves.

They simply cultivated every day by allowing their subordinates to gather resources for them. It could be considered that they were living a lavish life of an overlord that even Devil Emperors envied.

So, they struggled to come up with a decision. Listening to how arrogant and wild his ambitions were, they also knew that following him wasn't going to be easy. It was a route filled with battles, wars, dangers, and blood.

Who knew if they were just going to become cannon fodder for this monster in the end?

While they were hesitating, Bjorn surprised them all including Davion.

"Emperor, let me serve you wholeheartedly and become your trusted blade." He transformed into a purple fifty feet tall devil and raised his hand, releasing a tiny phantom that seemed similar to him.

"This…" Davion was confused as it was his first time witnessing such a thing.

Noticing his hesitation, Bjorn hurriedly exclaimed, "Emperor, you can rest assured that we haven't given a part of our soul to Devil Emperor Joziah yet since he doesn't care about us. So, you can accept it without any worries."

"You fool! How can you give away a part of your precious soul this easily?"

"Doesn't he know that his life and death will be completely under the control of that monster from now on?"

"He must be bootlicking him, trying to get onto his good side."

"Damn! Won't we look bad if we don't give away our portion of souls like him?"

The other devil kings cursed inwardly and clenched their fists in anger. Prior to this, they even had the thought of merely serving him for a while and later escaping secretly after replaceing a good opportunity. But now, it was all useless.

Davion, seeing their expressions and Bjorn's sincerity, somewhat guessed what it could be. Thus, he showed a calm expression and accepted it, putting it straight into an orb inside his spirit ring.

As for how he obtained it? It was easy. By killing many devils in the human world, he had obtained a lot of these soul preserving orbs that were popular in the Devil World.

"Emperor, I am Devil King Averi. Please accept my sincerity." A female devil king, wearing revealing clothes, was the second one to give away her portion of soul.

Similarly, others followed one by one. Nevertheless, there were three devil kings, who refrained from doing so as they declined in a straight manner.

"Emperor, we are the followers of Devil Emperor Joziah and we would never betray him." They spoke confidently while taking out skulls that were leaking traces of a devil emperor's aura.

"How can you guys have that? When did you all earn his favor?" Bjorn exclaimed in disbelief.

"We are secretly giving him half of our resources every year, and we even ran into a ten thousand year old devilish willow seed that would allow him to break through not long ago." They answered smugly, hoping that this would scare away the monster in front of them.

"Is that so?" Davion shook his head, and the pressure released by him reached a whole new level, making them suffocate.

"Wait! You can't kill us. Devil Emperor Joziah thinks highly of us. He promised to help us reach the Devil Emperor Realm."

"Yeah. I don't think you would want to offend the other party, do you?"

They spoke while shuddering and clutching the tokens in their hands.

"Maybe we should let them escape," Bjorn suggested in a low voice. Although the emperor was strong, he wasn't sure who would win after Joziah broke through.

"Humph! I don't want to hear these words from you once again." Davion harrumphed coldly and everyone in the vicinity coughed out a mouthful of blood while those three devil kings died in an instant thereafter with their eyes wide open.

"Emperor! Forgive us." The surviving devils kneeled on the ground, lowering their heads in reverence.

Davion pointed his fingers at them, shooting balls of devil essence in their bodies.

"This.."

They felt extremely comfortable as their injuries were healed in the blink of an eye. Not only that, but their cultivation base increased by a small margin.

However, Bjorn's aura became stronger and stronger as time passed, unleashing powerful shockwaves, pushing away the devil kings.

"Did he break through?" They cried out in astonishment.

Davion smiled seeing this. Different from them, he had injected a devil seed containing tones of his devil essence inside him, making it possible for him to read the Devil Emperor Realm in a jiffy.

Since Davion's essence was purer and way stronger than Bjorn's, it swiftly suppressed his essence, transforming his purple essence to brown. Along with it, his body too changed color and became bigger at the speed visible to the naked eyes.

"Roar!" Bjorn howled loudly in excitement.

"Thank you for your grace, emperor." He bowed once again.

"Call me Lord from now on." Davion waved his hand annoyingly.

"I will keep that in mind." Bjorn returned to his human form, changed into a new set of robes, and came over the dead bodies of the fallen devil kings.

He then smoothly took off their spirit rings and humbly offered them to Davion, impressing him greatly.

"Shameless!" The other devil kings looked at him disdainfully.

"He has thrown away the pride of a Devil Emperor."

But the question was, would he even mind these fellows? Didn't they realize how much benefit they can get by following the lord?

"Fools." He scoffed in a low hearable voice.

"You.." They became furious but didn't dare to talk back at him like in the old days, knowing the difference in strength.

"You all don't need to worry and get jealous. I can promote you all if you work harder." Davion spoke, reminding them that they still had a chance.

Unlike common devils that had only one source of energy and limited ways to recover, he had access to other sources of energies that could be transformed with one another, allowing him with many ways of recovering.

Or more simply, he could use Qi replenishing pills to recover his devil essence like how his spiritual energy could convert into devil essence.

That's why he didn't need to get worried about wasting too much of his devil essence. In addition, these devils were all at the peak stage of the Devil King Realm and didn't need much essence to break through.

Having these thoughts, he decided to give them some benefits, believing that they would loyally devote themselves to him thereafter.

And as he had expected, their eyes lit up and their expressions became better.

"Now, tell me everything you know about Joziah." He commanded solemnly.

"Lord, are you perhaps trying to overthrow him first?" Averi inquired with her seducing voice.

"Yes. We will strike tomorrow." Davion nodded.

"Isn't that too hasty?" The others couldn't help but exclaim.

"Why are you all so frightened? Can't you see that we have two devil emperors now? We can easily outnumber him." Bjorn patted his chest, showing his confidence.

"It makes sense." Averi nodded and began explaining everything.

"He reached the Devil Emperor Realm a thousand years ago by chance due to his weird devil ability that allows him to manipulate his size as he wished. I heard that he used to become small as an ant and infiltrate other's mines and treasuries, sneakily stealing their resources and steadily getting stronger without catching their attention."

"Why does it sound like a thief?" Davion was amazed.

"Indeed, he is. But he was caught many times in the process due to secret formations. Regardless, he was able to defeat and break free from his opponents by bolstering his strength rapidly in a short time, using his ability to increase his size."

She still had a fresh memory of Joziah crushing an unruly Devil Emperor by his palm that was as big as a mountain.

"I understand. But we aren't backing away in any way." He showed his razor-sharp teeth at her, sending chills down her spines.

"Now tell me how the regions and territories are divided here.." This was the most important thing he had to know. What if a Devil Sovereign and a Saint were governing this area? Wouldn't he fall into a great disaster if he overstepped some boundaries or took things too far?