Chapter 24 Masquerade

The area around the Demon Gate was a wide open space with no cover. Hao Ren and the others didn't dare to approach it rashly. They could only find a strange, black, giant rock a few hundred meters away from the gate to hide behind, looking for an opportunity to sneak past.

"That's the gate," Izhaks took this opportunity to educate the others about the knowledge of this world. "In this world, at least within the explored regions, space vesicles are the only form of space. Each space vesicle has one or more natural channels connecting it to other spaces, like the one in front of you. These gates are the most important military strongholds for each space, and the rulers of each space will send heavy troops to guard the gates in their territory. Of course, I'm only talking about natural gates. Artificial ones are too random and usually unstable, only lasting for a short time."

"The ten demon planes all have direct gates to each other," Lanina added in a low voice. "The one in front of us leads to the Seventh Plane. The other side of the gate is our former territory."

"So these stable gates are all naturally formed?" Nangong Wuyue looked at the magnificent obsidian structure in the distance. "If the gates are natural, what's the use of the platform underneath and the pillars on both sides?"

Izhaks casually replied, "No use. Just looks impressive."

Hao Ren had been wondering about the principles of the Demon Gate, but he almost choked on blood at this moment... The pile of obsidian slabs hundreds of meters away, carved with intricate patterns, looked like some kind of magical creation. An uninformed person might think they were supporting the huge space rift, but it turned out that the space gate was a natural thing, and the demons built such a large pile of things just to pretend they had a great advantage...

"Alright, this question is not important right now. What's important is how we can sneak past," fortunately, there was Vivian among them. The usually calm and reliable vampire girl coughed twice to make everyone face the big problem in front of them. "There are hundreds of demon sentries just at the entrance alone, and there are probably even more guards in the guard towers and under the gate's base. Our combat power... we definitely can't force our way through."

Lanina frowned, "If we run into scattered low-level demons, we can still disguise you as my human servants as we initially discussed, but it's probably not possible here... Stable gates are the lifeblood of each space, and the inspections are very strict. We probably need the military insignia of the Cerberus Legion to pass through."

Hao Ren looked up and scanned the surrounding scorching plains, trying to find a Cerberus Legion demon who was alone so he could snatch an insignia. Seeing this, Lanina shook her head, "Don't even think about it. The demon guards near the gate will never act alone, and they have secret means of communication with each other. It's difficult to kill one without being noticed."

"What about shadow stealth?" Vivian suggested an idea. "The shadow power in this space seems to be very strong. I can envelop you in shadows..."

"The demons' sensitivity to shadow magic is not to be underestimated, and there are sensors near the gate. We don't know the form of the sensors, so we can't target the stealth," Lanina continued to shake her head. "If it really doesn't work, we can only wait for them to change shifts, seize the opportunity to kill the demons leaving their shift. Those guards are the least vigilant..."

Before Lanina could finish speaking, everyone suddenly heard a rumbling sound from afar, like a giant beast running!

Hao Ren poked his head out to look. He only saw dust flying in the distance. Sure enough, a giant beast rushed out of the flying dust. It was a behemoth that looked slightly similar to a wolf, but its height reached four or five meters. The giant beast's eyes were blood red, its face was ferocious, and its sharp teeth were stained with indelible blood. Its body was covered with sharp, black-red fur like steel needles. Dark red flames burned in the gaps of the fur, making it terrifying to look at.

This giant beast ran all the way from the scorching plains, rushing straight towards the gate. The guard demons near the gate were nervous at first, but after seeing that it was just a wild animal, they lost interest. They swayed lazily, watching the giant wolf rush into the Demon Gate. This seemed to be a very common occurrence.

"What was that that just passed by?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

Lanina craned her neck to look in the direction of the Demon Gate: "Oh, a type of hellhound, a wild species. You can often see them in the demon plane."

Nangong Wuyue was immediately surprised: "Hellhound? Hellhounds look like that? I remember hellhounds should be those things with two heads, magma overflowing from their bodies, short, thick heads, mouths full of rotten teeth, and drool flowing while they run..."

Lanina nodded: "What you said is also a hellhound, but it's a domesticated breed. They are specially cultivated for ornamental purposes. The one that ran past just now is a wild species. The original form is like that. Domesticated hellhounds will also turn into that after three or four generations of crossbreeding with wild ones."

Hao Ren suddenly felt that the demons' aesthetic was a very magical thing. They forcibly created two ugly and earth-shattering heads out of an animal that was originally decent, and they even shamelessly said it was for ornamental purposes...

Nangong Wuyue curiously asked again: "Speaking of which, why don't the demon guards care about animals crossing the border?"

"Of course they don't care," Lanina replied. "These natural gates have tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years of history. They are older than any demon king. Before they were occupied by a certain demon king, they were already migration channels for wild animals. Many animals even have to cross the gate to migrate back and forth between several spaces to complete the process of reproduction. It's not just the demon plane that is like this. The spaces inhabited by other races of humans are similar. Similar ancient gates have become part of the ecological cycle. Guards will not intercept animals."

Vivian pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked up at Lily: "I suddenly have an idea..."

Lily immediately felt a chill run down her spine, and quickly moved to Hao Ren's back while maintaining her squatting posture: "Bat, what are you going to do... I'm warning you, I'm much prettier than that thing that ran past just now. Don't think about putting anything on me..."

Hao Ren turned his head and glanced at Lily, feeling that it was time for this husky who only knew how to eat her fill to make some sacrifices...

Thirty minutes later, everyone had retreated back to the Demonforged Mine. Lily squatted on the ground with a nervous expression: "Are you sure this will work?"

Not far behind the others lay an extra-large hellhound that had already stopped breathing. It had been captured by Lanina earlier. These creatures were everywhere nearby. The demon plane was not short of this. Izhaks was busy skinning the hellhound, while Nangong Wuyue was trying to squeeze moisture from the air to clean the poisonous blood and deadly stench from the fur. The whole scene was very bloody, very unsuitable for children, and very wild survival. Lily glanced at it and couldn't help but shiver a little: "...You want to fool them by putting this thing on me? Demons aren't stupid."

Vivian patted Lily on the shoulder: "That's why I'm going to use my magic to help you make up—don't worry, there's a branch of blood magic that specializes in mimicking other creatures, so it can naturally mimic other biological tissues. I'll fix the uncoordinated parts for you when the time comes..."

Lanina also chimed in from the side: "It's alright, they won't be able to tell. The mutation rate of hellhounds is particularly high. There are often strangely shaped guys. Sometimes demons also like to give wild hellhounds some strange biological modifications—as long as you don't walk upright, the guards won't be suspicious."

Hao Ren glanced at Lily and said with a chuckle: "Stop complaining. Big Guy and I still have to let you bite us in the mouth, okay..."

After Lily transformed, she was five meters tall, and looked indeed large, but the space where people could hide was ultimately limited. Even if she was draped in an extra-large fake fur, only a few petite girls could hide underneath it. Therefore, Hao Ren and the others had carefully planned in order to sneak past. The idea amazed Lanina.

Lily had no choice, and finally let out a long sigh, picking up her beloved spicy stick...

A moment later, a silver giant "wolf" appeared in front of everyone. Nangong Wuyue and Lanina immediately busied themselves draping the newly processed hellhound fur over Lily. Vivian used blood magic to create disguised festering flesh to help cover up the imperfect areas. Then the girls crawled under the fur to hide, leaving only Izhaks and Hao Ren standing outside.

Lily looked down, licked Hao Ren, and then bit the two of them around the waist in one bite, rushing out of the Demonforged Mine towards the Demon Gate in the distance!

The rumbling sound of the giant beast running immediately attracted the attention of the gate guards, but the demon guards saw a hellhound that had failed to mutate, carrying two humans running towards them. The demon aura and the human aura—were all normal. So the guards relaxed their vigilance.

Hao Ren still remembered that he had a line. When Lily ran in front of the gate, he let out a heartbreaking roar to show authenticity: "Help! They're eating people..."

With a buzzing sound, the "mutated hellhound" rushed into the Demon Gate, disappearing without a trace.

The several demon guards at the door looked at each other. One of them shrugged: "The wild dog has quite an appetite."

Another smacked his lips: "There are really a lot of humans coming to the demon plane these days."

"Yeah, but most of them are feeding the dogs..."