I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

In order to prevent Dandan and Yingying from revealing any flaws, Lee Read feigned nonchalance, but firmly locked his mind on the peculiar tree.

[Analyzing... 6%...]

It's a demon that hasn't been included in the Demon Illustrated Handbook, with strength comparable to Galarek's—Lee Read judged.

[Analysis interrupted, record saved]

As the three demons moved, the demon on the tree suddenly disappeared. Lee Read didn't even understand its method of movement, only guessing that it was related to the "tree" itself.

Soon, Lee Read sensed the same aura on a tall pine tree ahead, and "it" reappeared—again, twisting its trunk and peeking out from under the cover of the leaves' shadows.

Is it monitoring? Does it know the Shadow Demon well?

[Analyzing... 9%...]

Lee Read suppressed the questions in his heart and continued moving steadily, only expanding the range of his perception to every tree nearby, constantly watching the monitor.

"Jackals... are torturing," Yingying confirmed the general direction of the target and retracted some of the shadows, deforming and probing into the depths of the cave to obtain more information.

"Torturing who?" Lee Read deliberately blocked the line of sight from the tree, casually communicating with Yingying.

"Humans," Yingying's handwriting constantly deformed, always remaining on the eggshell, "Judging from the shadows... it should be a noble, but unfortunately, I don't know what they're saying..."

"Besides the tortured humans, there are more than a dozen humans tied up, wearing luxurious clothes, they should all be nobles," Yingying continued to report on the situation inside the cave.

"The methods are still so crude..." Yingying commented.

"What methods?" Lee Read didn't immediately realize what Yingying was talking about.

"The methods of torture, which is to eat their organs bit by bit in front of the humans, starting from the lower body..." Yingying seemed to think this was quite low-end, "I thought the second-best in the Forbidden Forest would have some new tricks, but it's just like the pure-blooded demons in the Abyss Maw, only knowing how to eat."

"Friend, that's not very polite," Dandan felt implicated, "Some demons eat to torture, some demons eat to grow their bodies... and I'm still growing my body."

Dandan also noticed the slight rustling on the bark and switched to communicating through the common demon language written in particles.

"Oh," Yingying had no desire for food and couldn't empathize with Dandan.

"They are torturing that human... about where the treasures and magical materials are hidden," Dandan located them through Yingying and received the content of the conversation through its "radar."

"They are also praising that human... for having cultivated a good skin," Dandan displayed the dialogue between the torturer and the tortured on the eggshell in a standard dialogue format.

"Your thigh doesn't taste very good, but your skin is really chewy... has it been soaked in some kind of magic potion?" the jackal said.

"Oh God, oh damn... I am a guest of the Transformation Ritual... you must release me now... oh, don't eat anymore..." the tortured person said.

"Aga, aga... delicious, delicious... how about eating your mouth next? Don't worry, I'll only eat the upper half, you can still talk... and we can all understand what you're saying..." the jackal said.

"Huh?" Lee Read looked at the dialogue on the eggshell for a while, becoming more and more confused, "Friend, I know you have good hearing, but please don't repeat everything, just say the main points."

"That human is a fallen noble... this time he came to Demon King City to participate in the demon transformation ritual, but as soon as he was ready, he was caught by the jackal family in the Forbidden Forest," Dandan summarized helplessly, "The jackals know that this human has a noble status, so they are squeezing him dry, squeezing him dry, skin and bones."

"Or... they are playing with him," Lee Read also roughly understood how the jackal family... lived when the Demon King City was not open.

Stealing people and things from Demon King City for fun, satisfying their desire for food and killing.

"Walk slower, tell me about the layout near the jackal family's camp, the sentry posts, the number, and draw a map," Lee Read transmitted to Yingying, becoming more and more skilled, "It's best to mark any jackals that you think are special or powerful, and I'll plan a route..."

Lee Read even referred to "The Empire of Tass Border Defense Line in the Year 231 of the Calendar" and sent Yingying a map template.

At the same time, Lee Read slowed down, not delaying the analysis of the one on the tree.

[Analyzing... 29%...]

Soon, Yingying spread out a map—the map was a simplified cross-sectional view of the cave, which detailed the number of jackals and the corners of the terrain, and marked several jackals that Yingying thought were special.

Lee Read instantly recorded this map in his mind, and according to Yingying's markings, roughly planned the action route.

First of all, the interior of the cave is not stable. There are still many skeletons that have been dead for a long time, but they are inexplicably in powder form and cannot be transformed into skeletons at all, which is probably due to Finley's last wish; there are five relatively "special" jackals, marked with a hexagram shape on the map, located at the entrance of the cave, the first corner, the side cave where the torture site is located, the junction of the inner and outer caves, and the deepest part of the cave.

"We need the outside too, another one, so we don't get discovered by the sentries," Lee Read's task this time was very simple—sneak in without being noticed, collect information on the jackal family, and try his best not to injure any jackals.

The reason, of course, was not because he was afraid of conflict with the jackal family, but because killing too many would affect the odds of the fourth game—the more prosperous the jackal family looked, the more profit there would be.

If he really wanted to do something in advance, he would have to collect almost all of them before talking about it, preferably causing their entire family to die suddenly as soon as they stood on the arena.

Just as he was thinking, Yingying also displayed a bird's-eye view of the outside of the cave; Lee Read counted, there were less than ten jackals outside the cave, in three groups, on guard, while most of the jackals were entrenched inside the cave, some resting, some eating, and some torturing.

[Analyzing... 67%...]

After memorizing the location and number of the jackal family, Lee Read leisurely took a step and was about to conceive the infiltration action when he was suddenly frightened by Dandan's actions.

"Wait, they're going to play a game in a while!" Dandan jumped up and blocked the handwriting in front of Lee Read's face, "A hunting game!"

"Explain in detail..." Lee Read held Dandan with a few tentacles, like a play between demons.

After carefully reading what Dandan heard, Lee Read realized what the dozen or so human nobles tied up in the cave were for—after torturing the nobles for their accumulated wealth and magical materials, these injured nobles would have their wounds sewn up by the jackals using secret methods, and then placed on the open space in front of the cave to play a hunting game with pursuers and escapees.

The pursuers were naturally the jackal family, and many small jackals were already eager to try; while the escapees had no chance of survival, only becoming prey that brought joy and fresh meat to the jackals, destined to be swallowed down to the last fingernail.

However... if the jackals' attention was all on the nobles, this would be good news for Lee Read, who wanted to take the opportunity to analyze them.

Lee Read re-conceived the infiltration route and escape method for a while, and then sent Dandan a clever plan.

"Huh? Friend, what does this mean?" Dandan asked, feeling Lee Read's thoughts, puzzled.

"I'll give you a chance to perform," Even though Lee Read hadn't collected any jackals yet, it didn't affect adding a layer of insurance to this operation first.

"No problem..." Dandan silently went over the escape plan a few times, inexplicably feeling a little happy—maybe, finally... it could get beaten up.

Next, Lee Read, Dandan, and Yingying continued to walk unhurriedly, bathing in the moonlight of Green Time, not in a hurry at all—Lee Read was only waiting to analyze the onlooker on the tree before deciding how to complete today's mission under its nose.

[Analyzing... 79%...]

And seemingly unable to discern the purpose of the three demons, the one on the tree, after swaying with them for a quarter of an hour, finally couldn't hold back its curiosity and appeared.

"Where do you come from, and where are you going?"

The one on the tree asked a philosophical question as soon as it landed.