The Human Giant



As a demon who had survived for 5 years, the Leopard demon was more clear than anyone else that a demon's greatest threat came from other demons. Humanity was too weak as individuals to do any harm to even some of the weak newborns while immortals had their focus on not getting plotted against by other immortals.

Demons however view other demons are prey and this became more clear the older a demon was. To develop one's spiritual energy quickly hunting human towns and villages was effective.

The older and stronger a demon became, devouring the spiritual energy of thousands of humans at a time became less effective. Only by hunting the large towns that had hundreds of thousands of people or even the human cities that held millions of people would entice those demons.

However hunting human cities was suicidal for all but the most powerful demons. Simply they were similar to hornet nests because once a city was attacked the entire population would join arms and fight. The sheer number of tens of millions of humans alone would send a shiver down any demon's back.

And if the sheer numbers couldn't kill you and you destroyed the city then they must be ready to face the wrath of the whole human race inside the region. With an enraged and berserk human race of hundreds of millions of humans hunting them and every demon down without caring for their own lives.

The hundreds of millions of humans were also known to form mega coalitions they called nations when they faced similar occurrences in the past. Each one of these nations' abilities to destroy everything in their vicinity made even demons blush as they began hunting demons and other monsters en masse.

If these nations grew large enough and the human casualties were monumental enough the human race from other regions would flood into the region. It was similar to a flood gate and once the gate was open it couldn't be stopped.

However, that was a possible trigger from the demons that have lived for thousands of years to be able to cause so much damage to the human race. In any case, there are other effective ways to increase one's spiritual energy so most demons will switch to these different methods rather than waste their time hunting humans.

One of these methods was to switch their targets and hunt other demons instead. It was dangerous but the rewards for successfully devouring another demon's spiritual energy were much better than destroying several human towns.

To temporarily have the aura of different demons in one's body was an easy way to tell that a demon had done a successful hunt and was still in the middle of digesting their gains. That was why the Leopard demon mentioned Yoze's strange aura, mistaking him to be one of those demons that hunted other demons.

When the Leopard demon saw Yoze's human companions its assumptions were reinforced. As the Leopard demon thought that Yoze was going to devour these humans' spiritual energies to help digest the demon's spiritual energy he had just obtained.

So while the Leopard demon felt more confident in its survival he was still cautious and ready to fight for its life.

While the Leopard demon was faking its relaxation and remained cautious Yoze also didn't trust the Leopard demon at all. Even with the information of the demon summit and the demon union Yoze's desire to kill the Leopard demon remained.

If anything Yoze hoped that he could devour a majority of the Leopard demon's spiritual energy without killing its body similar to the situation that happened with the Elephant demon. He wanted to figure out if he could still collect the Leopard demon's talents if it was spiritually dead but physically alive.

If he could still collect the Leopard demon's talents that would give Yoze a way to collect his enemies' talents without having to keep them alive and worry that they could counterattack or escape. Having the Leopard demon's body alive would also allow him to get a close look at the Leopard demon's body and figure out how it was able to survive with so many holes.

Just looking at the Leopard demon's unfazed face while it had a fist-sized hole that went through the leopard demon's skull. It seemed to Yoze that the Leopard demon could manipulate its flesh to seal the damage from the holes.

However, he could see that he was able to do some real damage to the Leopard demon as some drops of blood fell out of the hole and splashed on the ground. Yoze was able to see an interesting sight witnessing that as the Leopard demon's blood dried, strands of brown spiritual energy would be released into the open air. 

Only to be ripped apart and destroyed not long after being exposed to the outside world. The Leopard demon didn't seem to mind the loss of a few strands of its spiritual energy since it was too tiny of a loss to care.

"Spiritual energy inside the blood. That reminds me of how as my spiritual energy grows some of it is entering my flesh just like my inner vigor. Is the next stage of spiritual body cultivation similar to the Blood Master realm?"

Yoze felt an idea pop into his head and wanted to explore it but decided to put this thought on hold to figure out the Leopard demon's true intentions.

"Since you are preparing the Grand Swamp for the demon summit are there other demons performing this task? Since the Grand Swamp is quite large even for demons," Yoze asked wondering how the Leopard demon would respond.

The Leopard demon's answer would tell Yoze whether he should take the risk to attack now or whether he should first take Jewel to a safe area before he came back alone. If the Leopard demon was honest and told him that it was alone then he had more reason to attack it now.  

On the other hand if what the Leopard demon said was true that in a year Grand Swamp was going to be hosting the demon summit and needed multiple demons to prepare the swamp then Yoze didn't want to fight with the Leopard demon. 

Not only was there a possibility that he would have to fight with multiple demons at the same time but more importantly Jewel would become his Achilles heel. Causing Jewel to be in more danger since she would become an easy target for the demons to focus their attacks.