Versatile Mage: I Awakened Nine Stars

"So I don't understand. I don't understand why the human situation is so pitiful. Every day the news reports that a beast tide has occurred in some corner of the world, and a city has been submerged. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced or even left dead in the wilderness... Let's not talk about these, just the city of Bo. I want to know why."

Jiang Shaoli patted Xu Shen on the shoulder and said, "Your idea is correct, but you have not yet understood the most fatal weakness of human beings."

"what?"

Jiang Shaoli said: "The demon world is more clearly divided into different levels than the human world. The ruler of a demon empire is at least a sub-emperor. Within the empire, there are tribes of all sizes. The weaker tribal leaders are at least commander-level, and the stronger ones are monarch-level. The tribes check and balance each other, which is complicated and orderly.

If you slaughter some smaller tribes, maybe those demon kings will turn a blind eye. But if you attack the monarchs for no reason or hunt ordinary demons, it shows obvious intentions of aggression and expansion. If you were the ruler of a demon country, what would you think and what would you do? "

"If it were me," Xu Shen thought, "I would probably think it was a provocation or a declaration of war."

Jiang Shaoli nodded and said, "You are right. However, for humans, the cost of starting a war is extremely high, but it is not the same for demons. For a slave-level demon, the shortest time from birth to adulthood is a few months, and the longest is only ten years. Relying on the huge base of demons, there are millions or even tens of millions of slave-level demons reaching adulthood every year. Even for such a weakest demon, it is easy to kill an ordinary person. And such demons are only the lowest consumables in the Demon Empire, and no ruler will begrudge their sacrifice. For the Demon Kingdom, the so-called beast tide is not only free of cost, but in order to slow down the speed of resource consumption, the rulers of the Demon Empire will deliberately launch wars between tribes to eliminate the over-reproduction of demons."

Xu Shen listened to Jiang Shaoli's story, deep in thought.

"Xu Shen, remember, ordinary people are always our mages' weak points, and they are our roots that we mages can never cut off. Young children are always wondering, we have so many forbidden spell mages, even hunting down the invincible monarch is just a matter of two moves, but why are there so many demon tribes in the country.

I will tell you why now. As a forbidden spell master, the strongest in the human world, we can certainly take revenge, today I kill a monarch, tomorrow he kills a commander, but what about after that? When you, Deputy Senior Mingzhu, get jealous, you know that after beating the younger one, there are still the older ones to come. Isn't it the same in the demon world?

Behind the servants are the generals, behind the generals are the commanders, behind the commanders are the monarchs, and behind the monarchs are the emperors. One move can affect the whole body. Who can you offend? The beast tide launched by a mere commander-level demon almost destroyed Bo City. Have you ever thought about how many demons a monarch or even an emperor can mobilize?

Facing a beast tide of hundreds of millions of demons, even a forbidden spell mage can save a few cities and a few people? How can ordinary people who are defenseless cope with it? When the emperor gets angry, hundreds of millions of people will die and the world will become a purgatory. Is this what you want to see? And the demons can launch such beast tides indefinitely. How many times can humans withstand it without extinction? "

"No, that's not the case." Xu Shen shook his head and retorted, "If that's what you said, then what's the point of the existence of super-class mages and forbidden spell mages? If they don't dare to hunt the monarch for fear of offending the emperor, they will definitely not dare to hunt the commander for fear of offending the monarch. If they are afraid of this and that, then what's the point of practicing? They can just go home and sell sweet potatoes. Sensible humans should raise themselves to the most plump appearance and then actively feed them to the monsters."

"I will tell you now the meaning of our existence," Jiang Shaoli said, "The reason why humans can live in a world full of demons is because we are really capable of killing monarchs and even emperor-level demons. We are afraid that they will launch a beast tide against humans, and they are also afraid of being killed by us. It is because of our deterrence that the current demon country, when its people are overpopulated, would rather start a war among tribes than launch a beast tide against humans."

Xu Shen had a slight realization and said, "Does this count as pinching each other's balls?"

Jiang Shaoli was speechless: "You can give examples."

"But I still have doubts. I don't believe there must be an old one behind the young one. Is there really no one left alone?"

Jiang Shaoli smiled bitterly and said, "What you said a few hundred years ago was of course correct, but at that time there were also forbidden spell masters who thought the same as you, so they specifically targeted these solitary monarchs. This move actually accelerated the speed at which monarch creatures attached themselves to the Demon Empire, causing the Demon Empire to continue to expand.

As a result, the territory that humans had slowly eroded and won over for hundreds of years has been shrinking back, and it can be said that all the previous efforts have been wasted. In today's demon world, it is really rare to find a solitary monarch, which is why I can't find a suitable light demon for you to use as armor."

Xu Shen was dumbfounded. "According to what you said, the demon world beat the younger ones and the older ones were forced out by humans? Does this count as shooting oneself in the foot?"

Jiang Shaoli said: "Of course it is, but this is also one of the measures taken by mankind to continuously explore the path to prosperity. Although we have taken the wrong path and paid a bloody price, as long as humans exist, this kind of trial and error will not stop. The human race will eventually find a way out!"

"Well said!" Xu Shen slammed the table and stood up.

This is very encouraging!

He thought for a moment and said, "But according to what you said, if we are tied to ordinary people, our eggs will always be in their hands. Humans will always be afraid to act rashly, and it seems that there will never be a day to get ahead."

Jiang Shaoli smiled and said, "There's no need to be so pessimistic. In ancient times, humans relied on demon countries and tribes to survive cautiously. How come today, they can also compete with powerful demons?"

"This……"

"The truth has been said before," Jiang Shaoli said, "The resources in this world are limited, and no one is willing to give others a bigger share. Demons are no exception. Their rules are more bloody and naked than those of humans. The most fundamental purpose of a demon empire is always to seize resources. Therefore, there is no possibility of peaceful coexistence between demon empires. Limited resources are a disadvantage, but for us humans, it has become the best umbrella of protection. Only in this way can humans survive in the cracks and even have the opportunity to develop and grow to this day."

"What's more," Jiang Shaoli said sarcastically, "the longer you live, the more you cherish your life, and the less courageous you become. Compared with demons, although humans have a short lifespan, this also makes them willing to sacrifice their lives and dare to dethrone the emperor. When a group of forbidden spell masters who have run out of energy come to the door, even the emperor-level demons will be afraid. Because of this, it is common for humans to break the bottom line of demons, but it is less and less common for demons to break the bottom line of humans. This step-by-step development has led to the human beings of today."

Xu Shen thought about it and said thoughtfully: "Since resources are limited, the best strategy for the demons should be to divide the cake well, and then try every means to join forces to strangle potential challengers to the order. In this way, new emperors and forbidden spell masters should not exist."

Jiang Shaoli glanced at Xu Shen in surprise. This kid's brain was really quick.

He nodded and said, "You are indeed very smart. Because resources are limited, no one is willing to give others a bigger share. The reason why it is extremely difficult for new demon kings to be born in this world is not because they are not qualified, but because most of the demons with the potential to become kings will be killed in advance. Therefore, the so-called demon's 'ascension calamity' is not that mysterious. Whether it can successfully ascend depends only on whether it can successfully break through the siege of several demon kings."

"A siege by several emperors... just?"

Jiang Shaoli's careless look when talking is really annoying.

But remember that I am also a human being.

Ah, that's okay.

Xu Shen said, "That's not what I want to say. The challengers to the new order are not just the demons with the potential to ascend to the emperor, but also humans. Although we humans have a short lifespan, on average there are forbidden spell mages born every year. If we add them up, they are enough to challenge the old order."

"You're right. However, when we humans break through forbidden spells, the noise is minimal. It's not as earth-shattering as the demons. Most of the time, by the time the demons come to us, they've already broken through and disappeared."

"So, since the emperor cannot limit the number of forbidden spell mages, with the rapid development of humans, this world will sooner or later belong to humans."

Jiang Shaoli shook his head and said, "If you think so, you underestimate the wisdom of the emperor-level demons. They have a long lifespan, and in order to reduce consumption, they sleep most of the time. Fortunately, humans have a short lifespan, and most of the time they don't need to take action. These forbidden spell masters will lie in the coffin by themselves."

"That joke is hell."

"But sometimes, when there are too many forbidden spell mages active at the same time, these emperors will become alert. They will keep making small moves to test the bottom line of humanity bit by bit," Jiang Shaoli sighed. "A beast tide is a tool for the Demon Empire to clean up over-breeding, but it is not the same for humans. Humans are too weak and their population base is an order of magnitude lower than that of demons, which means they are destined to conflict with demons. Humans can never afford it. Few people can bear to pay such an unequal price.

Therefore, global magic organizations such as the Holy City and the Magic Association control the core of the earth, control the number of forbidden spell mages, limit the actions of forbidden spell masters, and kill forces such as the "victims" that may arouse the demons' vigilance. With this appeasement strategy, they carefully maintain a fragile balance with the demons, safeguarding the fragile but precious peace of mankind, while secretly accumulating strength and keeping a low profile, hoping that one day, they can completely reverse the offensive and defensive trends. "

When he mentioned the word "victims", Jiang Shaoli looked at Xu Shen deeply.

"Is that so? So, does this count as self-castration?"

Xu Shen felt a little sad.

It turns out that everything that seems unreasonable is actually so reasonable in essence.

Jiang Shaoli did not respond. He laughed at himself and said, "Sometimes I think that a Forbidden Spell Master cannot defeat an Emperor-level demon. I don't know if humans have taken the wrong path of cultivation, or if they do it on purpose."

Xu Shen inexplicably thought of the ancient cultivation methods. Although they were difficult and arduous, the achievements they made were enough to rival those of emperors.

Are these cultivation methods buried in history because they are not suitable for human development?

The choices made by a race are always wonderful.

It may rather break than bend, and then one day completely disappear in the long river of time.

Perhaps, those who are a little luckier will leave some traces in this world, which will be accidentally known by the intelligent races of later generations.

Perhaps they will pay tribute to this race and its spirit of preferring death to glory.

And what does this mean to this race?

Therefore, the ancestors of mankind chose another path with supreme courage and perseverance, even if it meant burying the path of spiritual practice that the predecessors had opened up at a terrible price, and living on in a miserable and humiliating way.

Perhaps our ancestors also wanted to see a day when a few humans would sit peacefully in a clean coffee shop, listening to melodious and elegant music, and casually talking about the race that would rather die than surrender...