The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Seeing that the children didn't react, the middle-aged human kicked the leader of the children in a fit of rage and yelled, "This is the Demon God! Disrespecting the Demon God is not allowed!"

The children finally came to their senses and hurriedly lowered their heads.

But Daniel laughed and said, "It's alright, the Demon God will forgive you. Take them down and get to work, understand? Whether I can return to the front lines depends entirely on you."

"Okay, okay, sir, please take care."

The middle-aged man smiled obsequiously at Daniel and politely ushered him away.

After Daniel left, the middle-aged human sighed and said, "Come on, come down with me. Remember to tear a strip of cloth from your clothes to cover your mouth and nose. Don't be afraid of the cold; it's not windy here, you won't freeze to death."

After saying that, the middle-aged man took the initiative to demonstrate, wrapping a rag around his face.

"Grandpa, what exactly are we going down there to do?"

The middle-aged man glanced at the boy in the lead and asked, "You were sent down here without knowing anything?"

"Yes, of course we know. We are here to serve the Demon God."

The leader of the children said, "We just don't understand why we need to bring mining tools when serving the Demon God."

As the middle-aged man led the children down the slope, he glanced at the enormous chunk of flesh below and said, "That goes without saying. We gave you the tools for mining, so naturally you're here to mine."

"It's just that this mine contains the sacred remains of the Demon God."

"Holy Remains? What does that mean?"

The youngest child kept reading this awkward word.

The leader of the children said to the youngest child, "It means corpse."

The youngest child immediately shivered.

"Yes."

The middle-aged man led the children to the lowest level of the abyss and introduced, "This is the corpse of the Demon God. The Demon God loved His people, so He offered His corpse here as a form of Holy Communion to His people."

As a former devotee of the goddess, the middle-aged man knew that this passage was copied from the goddess's teachings, but the goddess used bread and milk as her Holy Body and Blood to celebrate Mass.

This so-called demon god, however, truly offered up his own corpse and rotten blood.

As one of the first humans captured and brought to the Eternal Land, the middle-aged man knew that these doctrines were all nonsense, fabricated later. This was a strange creature that had been dug up by the demons after it died.

After discovering some special uses for this strange creature, the demons began to call it a god who would save them. Later, they discovered that the demon god's flesh and blood were edible and had some special effects, so they kept dragging humans to the permafrost to dig for it.

Is this really a god? The middle-aged man didn't know, because he had never heard of a god's corpse before. But since the demon lord said it was, the middle-aged man had no choice but to nod in agreement. He even studied the demon god's teachings diligently and became a minor leader.

The stench, the rotting flesh, the dead gods—this was truly an abyss.

The children were clearly terrified. At first, they thought that serving the demon was like serving the goddess, singing at mass every day and learning from the priests and nuns. But now it seemed that while they didn't know about singing and learning, they definitely did attend mass.

When the children looked closely, they discovered that these dark chunks of flesh were actually twitching and occasionally twitching.

"Is the Demon God really dead?"

The youngest child gripped the shovel tightly, his eyes revealing obvious panic and fear.

"Don't worry about him being dead. As long as you are sincere, you can safely excavate the Demon God's remains. Once you've excavated enough, you can get a large sum of money to go back and reunite with your families."

The middle-aged man continued, "And here we get two meals a day, and the cold winds of the frozen ground don't reach down here. All we have to do is work day and night. Isn't that easy?"

"But remember, you absolutely cannot eat these chunks of meat, understand? Not even a little bit! Only demon warriors are allowed to enjoy them. If you eat them, even your families will be in danger! We, as lowly humans, are not qualified to enjoy the flesh and blood of the demon god."

The children nodded understandingly. This black flesh, which reeked of a foul odor, was probably cut from a corpse. I doubt anyone would dare to eat it.

Soon the children began to integrate into the environment of the abyss, because digging out chunks of flesh was not difficult. All the workers had to do was cut the chunks of flesh off, then put them on a cart with a shovel and send them to the designated place. Some hard parts might have scabs, which needed to be broken with a pickaxe, and they also had to be careful not to get sprayed with putrid blood.

Looking at the children, the middle-aged man turned his back. These children would probably never be able to leave this abyss again. Even if they dug enough, all that awaited them was death.

The demons' secrecy measures were simple: no workers were allowed to leave the abyss. If someone dug enough, they would be killed after the worker was sent out.

It's simple, but very practical.

Of course, there are a few exceptions, namely, the truly naturalized humans, or rather, the honorable demons.

After settling the children, the middle-aged man received a notice to go to the surface to receive the Demon King's investiture and become an honorary demon. The next day, the middle-aged man left the abyss under the "guards" of two demons.

To make sure he wasn't hiding anything on his person, the middle-aged man changed into clothes prepared by the demons. Although the north wind was biting above the abyss, the middle-aged man, who hadn't been to the surface for a long time, greedily breathed in the fresh air and saw his wife and children.

The man's wife was mute and couldn't speak. Upon seeing the man, she happily hugged him. The child, who looked to be only six or seven years old, seemed a bit slow-witted. He had a large pancake hanging around his neck, which had long been stiffened by the north wind, but the child still grabbed the pancake and started biting into it, completely unaware that his father had returned.

Just as he was about to exchange a few words with his child, the demon guard reminded him, "Time's up."

Left with no other choice, the man grabbed his wife's shoulders and said, "Tell the demon lord what's wrong. Don't fight back when he hits you, understand? Wait for me to come back later."

Then, the man took out a few copper coins from his pocket, stuffed them into his wife's hand, and left with the demons.

The ceremony for awarding the medals was rather simple, but the platform on which the Demon King appeared was exceptionally luxurious. The entire platform was carved from pure white marble, and every inch of it was polished smooth as a mirror, with a slightly warm luster.

The platform was covered with a thick plush carpet, the edges of which were embroidered with exquisite vine patterns in gold thread. The man could even feel the warmth emanating from the carpet.

And King Antipas the Demon King also made his appearance on the red carpet. This was the first time the man had seen the Demon King at such close range. Apart from his clothes, the Demon King looked no different from the other green-skinned demons. But the man smelled a familiar scent on the Demon King: the scent of flesh and blood cut from the corpse of a demon god.

The man dared not have any thoughts and could only kneel and worship along with the others.

Just then, a woman incredulously passed through the heavy guards, knelt down, and, holding a child, cried out to the Demon King, "Your Majesty, please, save my child! He is dying!"

The woman held the child high, but the child had curled up in the biting north wind and looked beyond saving.

The Demon King pointed a finger, and a dark gray magic circle appeared on the child's body. Then, the child, who was frozen red, seemed to be corroded by something and turned into a monster covered in mud. The man on the high platform witnessed all of this, which was less mud and more the rotting corpse of a demon god.

But seeing the mud monster in her hands cry out like a child again, the woman wept, "My child, my child has come back to life! Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty the Demon King, thank you!"

"No need to thank me, this is the power of the Demon God. It was the Demon God who brought your child back to life."

The people below immediately knelt down and thanked the Demon King, as well as the Demon God who had granted him the divine power to bring the dead back to life.

The man waiting on the stage to receive his medal looked with some fear at the monster in the woman's hand, thinking of his own son with a pancake hanging around his neck. Could this really be considered alive? The man didn't know.