It was normal, that spirit beasts ate all kinds of spirit herbs to raise their cultivation. Therefore, there were usually spirit beasts around rare spirit herbs. And frequent conflict with human cultivators were common. But this was the Southern Land, and no human cultivators came inside at all. Besides, there were no elixir cultivators in the demon clan, so they were not interested in most spirit herbs to begin with.

　　Under such a condition, it was perhaps possible to talk about cooperation outside Southern Land, but with the spirit river of Southern Land, cultivators couldn’t come in at all.

　　Why would they believe such a blatant lie?

　　Wait a minute. It seemed that beast race could only change form and gain consciousness at eleventh grade and then become able to lead all beasts. Before that, they only cultivated according to their instincts. Compared to the demon race who gained consciousness at first grade, they were poor indeed. It was an extreme superiority in IQ.

　　Lonemoon sighed. He was too lazy to point out the facade of peace between the demons and beasts. “Never mind. The previous demon monarch is already dead. I called you all here just to tell you, that it is time to choose a new demon monarch.”

　　The beast kings looked at one another, before they all cupped their fists. “Please instruct us, Great Immortal.”

　　“I think…” Lonemoon pointed to their side with his fan. “This rabbit is not bad.”

　　“…”

　　Huh?

　　The rabbit who was just shaking like a leaf in the wind stiffened, and then finally lifted its rabbit head. Its red eyes blinked. “… Me?”

　　“That’s right.” Lonemoon stood up directly. “From now on, you are the new demon monarch. Behave properly!”

　　“Burp~~” The rabbit was so shocked that it burped. And losing control of spirit qi for a moment, he changed into his original shape with a puffing sound. The palm-sized figure turned immediately into a giant rabbit as tall as a person. “I… burp~ I be… the demon monarch? Burp~”

　　The rabbit thought that his ears were too long that he heard it wrongly. When he was chased out of his rabbit hole, he thought that he was sure to die. And when he knew that he was going to meet the Great Immortal who killed tens of thousands of demon troops, his heart was filled with despair. As a rabbit demon at the bottom of the demon world, every single day was spent in fear of being devoured by other races. Though he had already cultivated to the seventh grade, a cultivation rare in rabbit demons, it was only medium cultivation for other races. It could only, at best, help him run faster for his life.

　　And what was he hearing now? Great Immortal actually told him to be a Demon… Demon Monarch! The kind that leads all demons? Can he be dreaming? But his best dreams were just about several carrots. When had he ever dreamed of such things?

　　“What? You don’t want to be the demon monarch?” Lonemoon asked, seeing that he didn’t reply for a long time. Both being rabbits, why is this one submissive in such a non-cool way?

　　“It’s not… not that! Burp~” The rabbit shook his head. He wanted to, of course he did! That was the demon monarch! He took a deep breath, keeping down the fear in his heart, before he replied, “Great Immortal, I’m only at seventh… grade. I’m afraid I can’t convince the public.”

　　“Rest assured with that. You can if I say so!” Things like cultivation can be gained with practice.

　　“But… but…” The rabbit looked like it was about to cry. He sniffed, gritted his teeth and said, “Thank you, Great Immortal, for favoring me. But my quality is limited, and being unable to reach eighth grade in hundreds of years, I don’t have much time left… I’m afraid of not being worthy of your trust.”

　　Lonemoon was stunned for a second. He exchanged a look with Chef beside him. They didn’t think about this matter, only considering raising someone vegetarian to deal with the casual human-eating among demons and set the warped demon minds right. That was why he had chosen a rabbit with the highest cultivation.

　　“How much time do you have left?” Yi Qing stepped forward and asked.

　　“Fifty years, Great Immortal!” The rabbit bowed his big head.

　　“That’s enough!” Yi Qing suddenly took out a big sack from his storage bag, brought it to Rabbit’s side, opened it up and poured out its contents. With a series of clanging sounds, a pile of glass beads of various colors poured out. They filled up the ground, almost burying Rabbit. The bright light from the beads even brightened the area which was darkening with the setting sun, covering it with many colors.

　　These were… internal cores!

　　Σ(°△°|||)

　　“These should be enough for you to get a breakthrough?” All of these were stored up when he hunted small animals in the past.

　　Rabbit, “…”

　　Beast kings, “…”

　　Lonemoon, “…”

　　A while later…

　　“Okay, Great Immortal! No problem, Great Immortal! I will be sure to cultivate hard and be a proper demon monarch. From now on, I am Great Immortal’s rabbit when alive, and Great Immortal’s dead rabbit when I’m dead!”

　　Yi Qing: “…”

　　Lonemoon, “…”

　　Alright, he finally had a little bit of the style of another rabbit from the past. At least on the matter of flattering.

　　——————

　　With stern support of the three beast kings, Rabbit successfully became the demon monarch. Perhaps rabbit demons were born with the talent of sensibility. The first thing that he did was inviting them all back to the Demon Palace. At first he wanted to settle them in the largest palace, but Chef refused it, and chose a back palace with the largest kitchen instead.

　　Lonemoon didn’t actually interfere with the reconstruction work of demon race. His only request was to not eat humans, and more importantly, not to attack mortal humans any more. As a good vegetarian bunny, Rabbit agreed without hesitation.

　　With those demon cores, the cultivation of Rabbit also started to grow very rapidly. Yi Qing gave him a pile of demon cores ,but he didn’t directly accept all. Perhaps also aware that he himself, being a seventh-grade rabbit demon, wasn’t able to keep so many internal cores, he only came to the back palace to ask for one or two every few days. With the reason of asking being cultivation, he kept in constant touch with them. It was very thoughtful, and very sensible of him indeed.

　　After a day and a night unconscious, Fatty finally woke from hunger! He thought that he could at least get several bowls of white rice, but before he sat down beside the table, the white rice in front of him was taken away by Father Niu.

　　“Ma- Master?” Fatty couldn’t actually believe his own eyes.

　　“From today onwards, you will formally start grain liberation.”

　　“Huh? Grain liberation? Wh-Why?”

　　“Why?” Lonemoon’s face went cold, as he glanced at him up and down. “Tell me why yourself! Touch and feel all those fat on your own body and then ask me why!”

　　Fatty, “…”

　　“Tell me, since you are a Nascent Soul cultivator now, at any rate, have you ever seen another cultivator who looks like this? You are not allowed to eat anymore!”

　　Lonemoon made the final say, formally announcing Fatty’s entrance into rice-saving mode.

　　“…” Fatty felt bitter! Weakly, he looked at the master-disciple pair opposite him, one eating, the other looking on. Both of them had not achieved grain liberation, why was there such a difference?

　　At once, he felt even hungrier, as his tummy made a loud request for food.

　　“Fatty, just bear with it and it’ll be over.” Shen Ying felt bad and comforted him. “How about… you eat a fruit first to fill the belly a little.” As she talked, she handed over an unripe green fruit.

　　“Miss Shen…” Fatty looked at her, touched. “I also know that Master does this for my own good. Cultivators are supposed to do Grain Liberation. I have planned this as well.”

　　“Uh…” No, he just thought that the five bowls of white rice you eat per meal is too much.

　　“Just that…” Fatty rubbed his belly, and a hint of confusion flashed across his eyes. “I don’t know why, but after waking this time, I often felt a vague pain in my abdomen, as though there was a heavy pressure against it. That’s why I’m especially hungry!”

　　Shen Ying’s face stiffened for a moment. She patted his shoulder and said, “Hahaha… have faith!” Hmm, it had nothing to do with me!”

　　“Rest assured, Miss Shen, I will try hard.” Fatty nodded hard. He thought about it and still took the fruit from her hand. He bit into it, and immediately, his whole face wrinkled up from the sourness. So… so sour. It felt like his teeth were gonna fall off! Are these the fruits that Miss Shen always eat on ordinary days?

　　(⊙x⊙;)