Chapter 1898: 531 Mrs. Wolf

…

Shadow Demon Clan.

This group does not conform to the conventional understanding of “Shadow Demons” in the material world.

Because the Shadow Demon Clan and Shadow Demons themselves are two different devils.

Within the Nine Tier Purgatory,

Shadow Demons are considered to possess the highest level of infernal bloodlines, born from shadows and mastering unfathomable abilities in the domains of shadow, arcane energy, and space.

Moreover,

each Shadow Demon possesses top-tier assassination skills, escape capabilities, and intelligence gathering abilities.

Thanks to their extraordinary talents and gifts,

most Shadow Demons possess between 18 and 20 levels of professional advancement by adulthood.

Compared to other demons,

it is much easier for Shadow Demons to become legendary creatures or even to advance to a Legendary Class.

They are an extremely powerful and revered group within Purgatory.

However, there is a flaw among the Shadow Demons.

This type of demon can only be born slowly through a special collision between the Purgatory Blood River and the Shadow Plane,

and they cannot reproduce on their own.

The Shadow Demons have discovered that whether they breed internally or intermarry with outsiders, their offspring will lose most of the Shadow Demon bloodline talents and become relatively mediocre.

Despite this, most Shadow Demons are very keen on reproducing.

This has artificially bred a new race of demons in Purgatory–

the Shadow Demon Clan.

The bloodline talents of the Shadow Demon Clan are far inferior to their forebears, mainly evident in their lack of spellcasting abilities.

Their combat abilities are no better than other middle-level demons.

Fortunately, the Shadow Demon Clan is a very unified devil race.

With the protection of their Shadow Demon lords as forebears, this group also holds some weight in Purgatory.

It is said that members of the Shadow Demon Clan are very cautious and low-key in their actions.

However, this rumor clearly does not match what Matthew was currently witnessing.

He couldn’t help but quickly go over the preparations he had made before setting out and then tried to continue negotiating:

“We come from Blood Sand City, heading to the Tears of Barthor for a trade mission.”

“We are also commissioned by the Purgatory’s Son…”

Matthew took out a meticulously forged document to persuade the other party and played up the connection to the Purgatory’s Son.

However, the Shadow Demon Clan member in front of him seemed very impatient.

He snatched the document, threw it casually to a nearby attendant, then looked down at Matthew from a height:

“This has nothing to do with the Purgatory’s Son.”

“No matter what background you have, you must obey the local lord’s conscription–this is Barthor Purgatory, Wind-Supporting Slope, not your Blood Sand City, you’d better understand that!”

“Quick, everyone drop your goods, get off the wagon, and follow us!”

“Don’t even think about running away, this is Wind-Supporting Slope, and our squadron’s Wind Demons will keep a close eye on your every move, no one can escape their surveillance!”

Matthew exchanged looks with the others.

They chose to compromise temporarily.

The reason for compromise was simple–

Firstly, this location was too close to the Wind Demon Inn; even if the trio fought with all their might, they couldn’t guarantee that some wouldn’t slip through the net.

If their movements were leaked as a result, it would mean all previous efforts were in vain.

Secondly, the most troublesome part about the members of the Shadow Demon Clan was that most of their leaders had signed deep soul contracts with their lord forebears.

If the leader died or was severely injured,

the forebears, as the contract holders, would almost instantly receive the news.

The knight in front of him, so arrogant and acting under the banner of the Phantom Baron in the Wind-Supporting Slope, was likely truly a confidant of that lord.

And the Phantom Baron was a confidant of Glacia.

If this triggered a chain reaction,

subsequent actions would become unpredictable.

Lastly,

the number of members in this Shadow Demon Army was too great!

Aside from the first batch of Shadow Demon Clan members riding Shadow Nightmares, Matthew later saw a massive army on the hill slope,

numbering at least two thousand.

This was not a small number.

Normally, if there were only a small squad of demons, they could attempt to escape using illusions, hypnosis, maze spells, and the like.

But the numbers were too great.

The effectiveness of illusions would be greatly reduced.

This was one of the drawbacks of mental domain spells like illusions and hypnosis–

even if you became an Illusion Master,

easily hypnotizing a few people at a time,

once the numbers exceeded a hundred, it became immensely difficult.

And for more than a thousand,

the difficulty exponentially increased.

Furthermore, such a large-scale march by the Shadow Demon Army must have some hidden reasons behind it.

Matthew and his companions also wanted to gather more information before taking action.

Thus, they temporarily endured the other party’s arrogance.

“Escaping isn’t a problem, but with the terrain of Wind-Supporting Slope, we can only run back or up, and we are likely to be discovered either way…”

Matthew calmly thought through their next steps as he stepped away from the wagon.

The group cooperated and stood aside, then a swarm of Shadow Demon Clan soldiers surged forward.

They took away the wagon Camela had transformed into, and then started pushing Matthew and the others, cramming them into a much larger wagon.

The wagon resembled an open-air prison, surrounded by wooden crates and fitted with iron bars.

After being stuffed inside, they soon heard the sounds of locking from outside.

The wagon itself had no cover,

Matthew, standing inside, could clearly see the outside situation.

He observed that the wagons of the Shadow Demon Army were mostly loaded with regular war supplies and goods.

Only two or three wagons, similar to his own prisoner wagon, were in sight.