Pef scanned the empty volume where the demon had been.

The faint shape of a tunnel was evaporating, lined with abyssalforce and a contour of quasi strings. As he watched, the strings drew together into a circle, then vanished.

'Some kind of teleport?' he mused inward. Quasi strings were the hallmark of Tier 2 abilities, and he didn't feel ready to meet Demon High Lord. Not yet.

'Abyss call. The Legion has something similar called Recall. Very useful for recovering scouts from behind enemy lines.' the glove explained patiently.

'So, the new Demon Lord returned to his base to report. About me.'

The glove remained silent.

Pef chose a random direction and blinked towards it. He wouldn't head towards that galactic arm, now that demons would be expecting him there. Slavery and collars sounded a real possibility.

Still, he did have a lead with the Soultrader Guild. Just needed to find one of those traders.

A month later, he veiled himself in the Indigo cloak and approached a demon planet.

A dozen other races were kept busy mining some minerals, while a hundred demons and three Demon Lords were overseeing the slaves. As the demon guard had hinted, the slaves all wore some kind of collar, inscribed with a number of magical arrays, violet and blue.

Cautiously, Pef snuck inside one of the mines. Passing beside him, filthy and tired slaves were pushing wagons filled with many red rocks and a few green rocks, some even glowing.

He pushed forward, reaching the processing area, where various metallic mills and machines were grinding slabs of rock into smaller bits. Stealthily, he confiscated a few bits and stored into the glove compartment for analysis.

'Red Impure Jade, Green Immortal Jade and normal jade. Red ones can serve as energy source for many arrays and artifacts. But the green one is actually valuable. You can store memories and qi arts on them. Also, pills stored in immortal jade containers become stronger over some time.'

'What is some time?' Pef wondered inward.

'A thousand years at least, a million is better.'

Pef moved even further in, where thousands of slaves were chipping away at the wall. Behind them, three lesser demons were randomly whipping the miners in between chugs from a jade bottle.

Pef looked inward, as Xie was steaming with fury.

"Want a bite from these demons?" his avatar asked her. She nodded wordlessly.

"Okay, but there more at stake here. Aria, prepare your island to receive casualties. Lin, you're Xie's support. The rest of us are looting the jade and the slaves, agreed?" Pef asked his family.

With a yell of anger, Xie flew towards the demons, bashing them with her maul and crushing bones. Lin flew behind her, ready to support at need.

The rest of the Legion spread out throughout the mine, grabbing slaves and jade with equal glee.

In a few minutes, the halls grew silent and empty. Only the jackhammer sounds of Xie's maul were still heard. The poor demons were only paste, although not dead. Somehow they kept regenerating, in a futile gesture.

Pef watched for ten more minutes, a bit worried about Xie's state of mind. Then again. Healthy exercise was good, right?

"Time to go, love. There are a thousand mines more. I think these poor demons learned their lesson." he said in a firm voice.

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Xie turned towards him, blinking incredulously. "Really?"

"No." Pef laughed and cored the demons. Their mangled bodies vanished in violet flames.

With a large swoop, his wives re-entered the inner world and Pef floated away, wearing the Indigo cloak again.

Inside the ocean world, Aria was busy healing the starved miners, while Pef's avatar and the others began trying to decipher and remove the slave collars.

Pef made his way towards the next mine, just as the demon camp rose in alarm. Frantic voices and abilities shaking the mountains told their story. The demons were on to the game.

One by one, starting with the slaves sporting white auras, the slaves were being liberated of their collars. It shouldn't have been possible without beheading the poor slaves, so that's what they did.

A swift slice, a slap to toss the collar away, then plop the head back on, and heal it back as new. Healing the flesh wasn't difficult in the inner world, where willpower and belief were more important than nature's laws or cultivation levels.

Sadly, halfway through the procedure, the slaves still wearing collars all collapsed and died, their body and souls turning into violet flame as well. Only gray and red collars remained, devoid of their power.

'How can this happen, my glove? Isn't my inner world absolute?' Pef asked with gritting teeth.

'These people took vows, guaranteed with their soul. Soultraders Guild, I'd guess.' The glove said, not actually guessing.

Pef sighed and turned around. A thousand people saved. And among them, 23 with white auras.

It wouldn't work next time, as the demons were ready to execute all slaves, rather than risk more getting freed.

It was time to negotiate.

He flew towards the demon compound, letting the glove record and translate the yelling or orders being passed around.

A vocabulary of various words and meaning formed inside his mind. His avatar in the inner world was also collecting and compiling words from the liberated slaves.

After an hour or so, after inspecting the looted mine, the demons gathered for an announcement.

A Demon Lord stepped forward, holding red daggers in each of his six hands. "We have lost a month of profit in mine 3221. Also, I had to execute two thousand escaped slaves. The Soultrader Guild will not be happy. A treasure ship is on its way with a Soultrader. He'll be here by next day, to inspect the mine."

The other demons seemed terrified at the news, heads bowed and some of them even crying.

Pef decided it was the right time to begin negotiations. His knife flashed, coring the Demon Lord responsible for killing the slaves. As his body began to evaporate, he revealed himself and collected the loot with calm moves. This demon had a storage box on him, but it was locked. No matter, someone around surely knew the key.

"Hello, my friends. Don't worry, I'm here on a mercy mission."

The stunned demons gathered and pointed various weapons at him, except one of the Demon Lords who was simply watching amused.

The second Demon Lord decided to attack, with a 20-meter-long scythe that appeared in his hands.

Our hero just stepped back and to the left, grabbing the weapon and pushing the arc of the cut even more, until it did a full circle and bisected the demon and his core.

With a flourish, Pef collected the loot again, only a conch shell with storage remaining.

"As I was saying. I have some business with the Soultrader. Let's not make this into a big problem, okay?"Pef asked politely, while weighing the shell in his palm.

The last Demon Lord nodded slightly, and he tossed the locked shell into his hand. It must have held something valuable if the Demon was willing to deal.

'Human, you want the collar box open?' the demon asked with a mind pulse.

'Yes.' Pef answer curtly.

'All right. Deal!' the Demon Lord replied with a cunning smile.

A wand glowing green and blue appeared in the demon's hand, and he tapped the locked box. With a click, the cover sprang open, revealing a green jade slip inside.

Pef picked it up cautiously.

'Human, you can't unlock the collars with that. Only the Soultrader can. Not that he will.' the Demon Lord advised him with a cruel grin.

'Only this jade can collect the vows though.' Pef mused back.

'Indeed. It's nice finding a clever human, once in a while. But, you only have one day till he arrives. I look forward to your gruesome death, human.' the demon sent with a pleasant smile.

"My friends, for your own safety do not leave this compound. I have some jade to collect, and wouldn't want to hurt you in my rush." Pef yelled towards the other demons.

The Demon Lord shook his head gently and the weapons were lowered.

'Great!' Pef exulted inside. Now that the negotiations were complete, it was time to loot the entire planet. Rare jade and slaves combined.

He still had to digest the two Demon Lords qi strings, but he wasn't that worried. After all, tomorrow was another day of negotiations.

With a blink, he entered the next mine, and started the looting once again.

Back in the demon compound, Ferublah the Fifth was exulting inside. Two of his rival brothers dead, all at the human's hand. And he gained the First's treasure for free.

Too bad he didn't get a chance to grab a core, but the human cultivator kept the cores on him. Tomorrow wasn't too late for his Descent. High Lord Ferublah was such a proper title. Truly, today was a day of miracles!