Volume 3: Artifacts Chapter 105: Entering Hell
Darikova followed the waiter into a private room. The room was in a mess, with various garbage left by the previous guests on the tables and chairs. The wine flowed down the table and onto the floor. Under the table lay a drunk hostess who was unconscious.
The waiter skillfully grabbed the girl's legs and pulled her out, then said to Darikova with an apologetic smile, "There are so many guests today, we are a little short of staff, someone will come to clean up soon.
The person you are looking for is next door."
Darikova was not there to consume. When she saw the waiter's instructions, she stepped on the sofa and put her ear against the wall to listen to the sounds coming from next door.
I only heard the door of my room being slammed shut by the waiter.
Darikova didn't care. Since she couldn't hear any sound, she looked for a gap that would allow her to see the next door.
But with a slight "hissing" sound, white smoke suddenly spewed out from all over the room.
Damn, that guy tricked me!
Darikova quickly took out a black mask and put it on her mouth and nose, pulled out a dagger from her boots with her right hand, and pulled out a magic wand from the leather sheath on her back with her left hand. She tapped the mask with the magic wand to release the detoxification magic, and then rushed to the door with the blade.
Before her enchanted dagger touched the door, the whole room shook violently, the floor disappeared, and Darikova fell down along with the table, sofa and a pile of debris.
Hulking, if I can get out alive, I will never forgive you!
At this time, Luke had already arrived at Hell through the teleportation array entrance of the Tower Bar.
A year and a half had passed since I last came here, and the Chiyan Territory had changed a lot. The original palace of Chiyan that didn't even have a door had been demolished, and now a large theater designed by a designer from Nutao City had been completed. The spacious stage was filled with lights and speakers, and a semi-enclosed open-air auditorium was being built.
Building such a modern opera house in hell is a great test of the heat resistance of all components. In order to satisfy the devil Chiyan's wish, the City of Raging Waves really worked hard and overcame many technical difficulties.
The devil Chi Yan, who wanted to become the most popular idol in hell, was rehearsing very attentively on the unfinished stage. He held an electric guitar and sang loudly with the accompaniment of the band, and the enchanting succubus danced with him. The audience was full of his demon fans.
Luke did not disturb the rising demon Chiyan, and prepared to inspect the current Chiyan territory.
The last time I came here, it was a refugee camp. The creatures of Hell dug a nest anywhere and made it their home. The demon Chiyan ran a gang in the dungeon and had human subordinates to manage him, but when he came to his own territory, he was completely free to do whatever he wanted.
After Luke reached a cooperation agreement with the demon Chiyan, Nutao City sent a group of officers and management talents. After a year and a half of training, Chiyan's territory finally had the prototype of a city. The roads and buildings were replanned, and all the demons in the territory were registered and arranged to live in their respective areas according to their different races.
The next step is to select suitable soldiers according to the registration records and recruit them into the Red Flame Army. The officer corps of Nutao City will conduct strict discipline and command training for each recruit team, and select those with outstanding performance to be transferred to the officer training corps.
The hell race, who likes disorder, is very opposed to this kind of training, and many conflicts have occurred during this period. But Chi Yan is a non-mainstream demon. He can see that discipline training has significantly improved the combat effectiveness of his army, so he concentrates on his music and lets the human instructors train as they want. If a conflict occurs, Chi Yan will not ask the reason. If any demon is causing trouble, he will throw it into the lava river, leaving it to fate to live or die, and let it drift wherever it wants.
As more demons were thrown, they became more obedient.
The training efficiency has been greatly improved. Although the discipline and execution of the Red Flame Army cannot be compared with that of human armies, in hell... it is definitely the number one elite.
With the weapons and equipment provided by Nutao City and the advice of human advisers, the newly reorganized three-headed dog army of the demon Chiyan was able to devastate all around with ease, and in a short period of time the area of the territory doubled.
The surrounding demons were also frightened by the might of the three-headed dog army and paid tribute to it.
Then, under Luke's suggestion, the demon Chiyan became the general agent of the Nutao City Arms Hell Region. The demons who attached themselves to him became lower-level wholesalers, and relying on the crisscrossing lava rivers of Hell, they made their arms business flourish.
The weapons of Nutao City are also highly praised by many forces in Hell due to their excellent quality, and the orders are increasing again and again.
Now, through arms trade, the City of Rage can obtain extremely cheap high-quality minerals from Hell. Relying on stable and reliable arms channels, the demon Red Flame has consolidated its expanded territory and continuously absorbed powerful demons and devil descendants to enhance the strength of its three-headed dog legion.
According to recent statistics, the Raging Waves City Officer Corps has trained 10,000 qualified soldiers for the Three-Headed Dog Legion. After the foundation is laid, the speed of training will be much faster. The Demon Red Flame directly controls more than 2,000 square kilometers of territory with the Three-Headed Dog Legion, and the land attached to the Red Flame Territory exceeds 10,000 square kilometers, which can easily pull out 100,000 hell troops.
Chi Yan can say without any modesty that he is the most powerful demon in this limbo area of hell, and his name has been known by the ancient demons deep in hell.
"Lord Luke! Lord Luke!" A demon in full armor ran over and called out Luke's alias: "Our lord invites you to his Red Flame Theater."
Luke stopped touring the Red Flame Territory and followed Dumo to the opera house.
In the dressing room of the opera house, Chi Yan took off his costume with the help of the demon and put on makeup. When he saw Luke coming, he drank a sip of throat water, then shook hands and hugged him warmly.
"Congratulations, Duke of Raging Tide." The demon Chiyan pulled Luke out and said, "I admire your courage in leading a human empire to challenge the Shining Gold People. I have always thought that although I cannot provide you with direct help, I will definitely be optimistic about your business in Hell.
It's just that Hell suddenly has a new competitor."
Luke didn't know where Chi Yan was taking him, so he followed him and asked, "Who is the other party?"
"We'll discuss this in detail later." Chi Yan walked to a door and said mysteriously, "I have a gift for you."
Luke followed Chi Yan in.
This is a closed room, similar to a human interrogation room. A woman is tied to a metal chair with a black cloth hood on her head.
Luke asked in confusion, "Who is this?"
Chiyan walked up behind the woman and put his hand on her head: "I don't know. My men said she entered the Tower Bar after you and asked the bartender about your whereabouts.
The people at the bar sent her here out of concern for your safety.
Wow! What a delicious soul! Self-discipline, perseverance, courage, intelligence... the soul of a strong human being can make the best tasting food..."
The devil Chiyan sniffed greedily, as if he was going to take out the woman's soul immediately.
Luke couldn't understand why he was followed and targeted as soon as he arrived in Dongdu: "Chiyan, it's not time for you to eat yet. Take off her hood, I want to ask her who sent her."
"I can wait."
The devil Chiyan took off the woman's hood.
When Luke saw the woman's appearance, he couldn't help but exclaimed, "Darikova?"
"You are..." Although Luke was disguised, Darikova still recognized him: "Luke, you are Mr. Luke! You are really not dead!"
The devil Chiyan asked: "Do you know each other?"
Darikova turned around and saw Chiyan. Even though she had been trained to stay calm, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Evil... Devil!"
She had heard that there were cracks leading to hell in the dungeon of Winter Capital and that traces of hell demons were often seen, but she never expected that she would actually encounter a demon at such close range.
Thinking about what I just heard, this demon wanted to eat my soul and he was not kidding.
Darikova looked towards Luke, unsure of the man's relationship to the demon.
Luke said to Chi Yan, "Wait for me outside. I have some questions for my friend."
"So it's your friend. Luckily she wasn't hurt... I'll be waiting for you outside."
Darikova watched in disbelief as the demon left the room and carefully closed the door. She looked at the man in front of her with unfamiliar eyes: "Who are you? Why are you pretending to be dead? And why can you command a demon?"
Luke walked behind Darikova and removed her shackles and restraints: “I need to think about your question before answering it.
Now I need you to answer my question first."
Darikova flexed her wrist, looked around the closed room warily, and waited for Luke to sit down opposite her before saying, "What do you want to ask?"
"How did you find me?"
Darikova replied: "The hooligans chasing you are my informants."
"Is it such a coincidence?" Luke was surprised by the coincidence. "But I didn't hurt them, but you chased me to the underground tower bar. How do you explain this?"
Darikova thought for a moment and said, "I met Herkin, and he asked me to catch up. Maybe the commission I received was also arranged by him."
"It turned out to be him! I should have guessed that he would be hiding in the dark waiting for me to leave." Luke realized that he was still a little behind Hercules in this professional field.
Darikova said: "I have answered your questions. I am suddenly not interested in any deal between you and Hulkkin. Let me go. Now I don't have any questions for you to answer... You can trust that I won't say anything outside."
"I can't let you go," Luke said.
"Why?"
"Because Hercule is using you to test me. He's trying to see if I'll kill you."
Darikova understood what Luke meant.
He knew the secret between Hercules and Luke, but he couldn't kill them himself, so he handed himself into Luke's hands.
Darikova asked Luke, "Are you going to kill me?"
"Killing you will eliminate a huge hidden danger for both Hercules and I, but I haven't figured out how to deal with you yet. So I can't let you go yet. I need some time to think about it. You stay here during this time."
Darikova asked: "What is this place? Aren't you afraid that I will escape?"
Luke laughed and said, "This is hell. If you can escape from hell, I won't have to consider whether to kill you or not."
"Hell!" Darikova looked at the room and furnishings again: "This is different from what I imagined?"
"This is a construction project we undertook. There is a cooling system inside. If you want to go outside, you need to take precautions against high temperatures." Luke stood up and took out a badge and handed it to Darikova: "Wear this, and the Hell Demons here won't embarrass you. You can move freely in this territory, but it's best not to leave this building too far.
I have something else to discuss with the devil Chiyan, so I can't accompany you.
Have fun in hell."
Have fun in hell... This doesn't seem to be a blessing, but it also seems to be fine.
Darikova took the badge blankly, then stared blankly at Luke as he walked out.
The door is wide open. Can I really move freely in hell?
Who is he?
Luke found the demon Chiyan outside, and then went to another room to discuss the rival. As for Darikova, he really hadn't figured out how to deal with her.
Helkkin should have heard about his engagement with Agatha, so the significance of Darikova's existence is lower than the hidden dangers she brings. If he does not kill her but releases her, Helkkin is likely to do it himself.
Now all I can do is keep Darikova by my side and slowly think of a safe solution.
Luke and Demon Chiyan came to a quiet and closed room, and Demon Chiyan began to tell the information he had collected.
A while ago, a group of unidentified human merchants entered Hell. They found an ancient demon named Madman.
It is unknown what kind of agreement this group of human merchants reached with the demon madmen, but the demon madmen now have a large number of high temperature and corrosion resistant weapons. Then the human merchants found other demons and sold weapons to them using the same method.
This direct sales model, without middlemen making a profit from the price difference, will have a great impact on the distribution model of the demon Chiyan. Although the hell market is large and has not yet affected Chiyan's business, if it cannot respond in time, it will definitely be difficult for Chiyan's arms business to continue in the future.
"Your Excellency the Duke! I have secretly sent demons to ambush these human merchants many times, and none of them came back alive. They dare to roam between the demon territories, so they must be very powerful."
Luke thought about it and said, "If I'm not mistaken, this group of human merchants may be disguised as the Shining Gold People. The Shining Gold People must have known that the Raging Wave City is using weapons to exchange mineral resources from Hell, so they plan to start a trade war with us in Hell.
Direct sales require a complete and safe logistics system to be established in Hell, and Hell obviously does not have such conditions. The larger the scale of the other party's direct sales, the greater the logistics costs and risks will be. Don't send demons to cause trouble for that group of human merchants, just ambush them on the path where they transport goods, don't rob them, just destroy them, and move to another place after doing one job.
The Shining Gold People cannot and dare not enter Hell on a large scale. To transport goods, they either hire Hell Demons or use real human workers, so it should not be difficult to ambush them.
At the same time, you send demons to infiltrate their direct sales areas and spread rumors, saying that a certain demon lord clearly received one hundred sets of excellent armor, but said that only ten sets were good, and he insisted on buying one hundred sets of armor at the price of ten sets of armor.
I will teach you these two moves first, and then we will see how the Golden Man reacts."
The devil Chiyan laughed loudly: "Your Excellency the Duke is so powerful, I will arrange for the demon descendants to do it now!"
