Zhou Ji successfully navigated through numerous obstacles and returned to the demon territory.
When he handed over a large pile of Dragon Saliva Grass to a demon elder, the elder lavished him with praise.
"Hahaha..."
"Well done! You've solved our urgent need, the Demon Alliance, and made a great contribution this time!"
After the praise, he rewarded Zhou Ji with many treasures and even offered guidance on his cultivation.
"I haven't misjudged you. The situation is tense, and our Demon Alliance desperately needs excellent talents like you."
The demon elder patted Zhou Ji's shoulder affectionately, making Zhou Ji feel overwhelmed with gratitude. At that moment, he wished he could lay down his life to repay the elder's recognition.
As for his human identity, it had long been cast aside.
He was now a part of the demon race, their most loyal warrior, with his blade forever aimed at humans.
Among the demons, there were many individuals with human origins who, for various reasons, served the demons loyally.
Furthermore, before the war began, several human factions had opportunistically defected to the demons.
These surrendering humans, in order to pledge their loyalty and prove their allegiance, often charged to the forefront of battles.
The appearance of these human traitors on the battlefield invariably dealt a severe blow to human morale.
"Next, I will allocate another five million immortal stones to you. Continue to go to human territory to procure supplies and inflate their prices."
"Work hard, and I won't treat you unfairly!"
"I want humans to also experience the taste of skyrocketing prices, a populace plunged into misery, and widespread discontent!"
Due to his outstanding performance in the previous mission, Zhou Ji received generous rewards from the demon elder.
This time, armed with five million immortal stones, he secretly infiltrated human territory, preparing to make a grand display.
Meanwhile, on the demon side, the large quantities of Dragon Saliva Grass that Zhou Ji had brought back had resolved their urgent crisis.
The major powers among the demon leadership immediately divided the Dragon Saliva Grass.
They were desperately in need of healing elixirs, and with scarce resources, they could only ensure that a small number of high-ranking demons had access to healing immortal pills.
Many cannon fodder, when injured, had no immortal pills for treatment and could only endure the pain, significantly reducing their combat efficiency.
This time, the demon powerhouses learned from past lessons. The Dragon Saliva Grass they possessed was no longer sold externally.
Instead, it was combined with other immortal herbs and elixirs to refine healing immortal pills, which were then distributed or awarded.
In this manner, the healing immortal pills were directly issued from the upper echelons to the soldiers at the lower levels, bypassing the market circulation entirely.
This prevented human merchant caravans from inflating the prices of healing elixirs.
Healing immortal pills, which were previously unobtainable even at high prices, were now directly distributed by the demon leadership.
Many of the lower-level cannon fodder rejoiced, singing the praises of the wisdom and foresight of the demon leaders.
A demon, who had been injured in battle and whose condition had been prolonged, finally received two free healing immortal pills today.
He was so excited that his lips trembled, and he could barely speak.
"Excellent! Our demon immortals are truly wise and mighty, unparalleled in their strategies, and they care for the common people!
Good! Very good! Extremely good! Absolutely outstanding..."
This demon, enduring the pain of his wounds, with trembling hands, ingested the healing immortal pills and then circulated his cultivation technique to refine them.
"Mmm! Ahhh..."
"Pfft..."
However, as soon as he began refining them within his body and circulated them for a few cycles, he was struck by excruciating pain throughout his body, causing him to cry out in agony.
Then, he spat out a mouthful of black blood and collapsed on the ground, dead.
Similar scenes were unfolding simultaneously in many other places.
Many of the cannon fodder were injured, but not mortally. Sometimes, they could still fight on despite their wounds.
Now, they had finally received the healing immortal pills, only to discover that these pills contained the poison of Immortal Dissolving Powder, which directly sent them to their demise.
When the demon powerhouses discovered this situation, most of the distributed healing immortal pills had already been consumed.
One pill killing one cannon fodder was highly efficient.
A large portion of the injured cannon fodder perished.
Since the war began, the number of demons killed by their own people surpassed the total number of demons who died on the battlefield.
Even the lowest-level cannon fodder had emotions.
This sudden turn of events caused public sentiment to surge, with greater resentment than before when there were no healing elixirs.
Even many cannon fodder began refusing to go to the front lines to die, making it impossible to continue the war.
"Zhou Ji, you scoundrel!"
"Find Zhou Ji for me! I will punish him!"
The leaders of the Demon Alliance were enraged.
Although these leaders bore significant responsibility, at this moment, they urgently needed someone to scapegoat to appease public anger.
Zhou Ji was the most suitable candidate for the scapegoat.
The disaster originated from him; the poison was brought back by him from human territory, and moreover, he was of human origin.
Those who are not of our kind are bound to have different intentions!
Zhou Ji's human identity already made him more susceptible to the demons' suspicion.
Now, with the accident, through various rumors, Zhou Ji was being portrayed as a human spy who had meticulously infiltrated their demon race.
All the demons' fury was being directed towards Zhou Ji.
If Zhou Ji were to appear in demon territory now, he would instantly be torn to shreds by these enraged demons.
Just as the demons were all actively searching for Zhou Ji, eager to kill him and drink his blood...
In a secret chamber, Xiao Fei was inviting Zhou Ji for tea.
"Zhou Ji, you might not be aware of your predicament. The entire demon race is looking for you now, wishing they could eat your flesh and drink your blood..."
Zhou Ji, covered in wounds, was hanging upside down by two chains, swaying back and forth.
Xiao Fei sat leisurely behind a tea table and briefly explained the situation on the demon side to Zhou Ji.
"You... you... you framed me! You are despicable and shameless!"
"Hahaha... I've always enjoyed witnessing your pathetic rage stemming from intellectual deficiency!"
Xiao Fei, at this moment, appeared like a villain who had achieved his wicked desires.
With a gentle wave of his hand, two cultivators raised their Divine Beating Whips and began lashing Zhou Ji repeatedly.
"To be honest, the meager intelligence you possess is worthless to me!
Your only value now is to surrender and appear on the battlefield to kill demons!
Nothing more!"
Xiao Fei said coldly.
He did not covet Zhou Ji's Heavenly Immortal realm combat power; any of his giants were more useful than Zhou Ji.
In Xiao Fei's eyes, Zhou Ji's value was far less than the five million immortal stones he had brought this time.
Xiao Fei was using Zhou Ji for another purpose.
He intended to employ a stratagem of "borrowing a knife to kill" and eliminate those human traitors who had surrendered to the demons.
At the very least, he wanted to ensure these traitors had no foothold among the demons.
"You have no other choice now: death or surrender."
"Crack, crack, crack..."
After another series of whip cracks, Zhou Ji finally yielded.
"I surrender!"