Though 'Y'zaks' on the throne didn't show any anomalies, the fact that he hurriedly cut the meeting short had Hao Ren suspected something was amiss.
They left the hall of the throne and followed a higher demon to the lounge. The earlier demon commander had returned to his job. No one spoke until they arrived the guest rooms until the higher demon nodded politely at Hao Ren and said, "This is a lounge designed for human race, and please feel at home."
Then the higher demon looked up at Lily's chin and said, "We have a dedicated kennel for canine, should we bring it some fresh meat or something? Besides, it doesn't look like a cerberus. Would it quarrel with the cerberus?
Lily snarled and growled at the higher demon but unfortunately the demon didn't understand her.
Hao Ren smacked Lily's mouth and said to the demon, "No thanks. She just needs an open space. She could turn into a humanoid but you don't need to know how. When Helcrown could get out from the space storm, nothing would be impossible!"
The higher demon stared at Lily, flabbergasted. Then it turned to Lanina, still confused. "Great Sage, would you prefer your own room?"
"No, I stay with them for the moment." Lanina waved and said, "We have something to discuss. You may leave us alone."
After the higher demon, Lily, and Vivian (who would be responsible for the safety of Lily during her formshifting) left, Hao Ren and the rest quickly entered the room and were surprised to find that the lounge was really different from the rest of Helcrown in terms of archectural style; it had bright white walls and floors, earthly wooden furnishings, and even a bookshelf full of human books. The rather spacious rectangular room was
entirely decorated in human style of this world. Hao Ren was amazed. "It seems this city has everything ... I was still worried that human wouldn't have survived in this ice-capped fortress just now!"
Y'zaks grinned. "We have human, dwarfs, elves, and orcs in this city, and a dedicated metropolitan area for every race. You think the grand unificatioion that I was talking about was mere propaganda?."
"To be honest, this city is amazing, it could fly!" Hao Ren totally marvelled at the strength and imposing look of Helcrown which was beyond his imagination. "No wonder the whole could merely defeat you back then, you are using zenithal technology to push against the earth!"
Suddenly, Y'zaks had a puzzled expression on his face. "Actually, I was surprised that the hover system of the royal city works!"
"Eh?" Nangong Wuyue's brows twisted. "You mean floating system hasn't been functioning?"
"It hasn't. Although many years ago I'd redesigned the foundation of the city according to the works left behind by the old man, but due to the lack of a key power source, the planned floating city is also an empty one in the end." Y'zaks scratched his bald head. "until the fall of Helcrown, the power source of the floating system was still unavailbel ... where did they get the energy from?"
"About the fake Y'zaks ..." Hao Ren looked up at Lanina, "did you find anything amiss?"
"It was hard to tell by just looking, but I didn't dare to look too closely." Lanina's brows knit together. "Even if he has only one-tenth the strength of the king, acting too obviously would only arouse its suspicion, so I'd to be careful."
Hao Ren nodded his head and suddenly revealed a mysterious expression on his face. "Nothing, perhaps the MDT might come back with something."
"MDT?" Nangong Wuyue was very surprised, as she had only noticed the MDT which had been lying on Hao Ren's shoulder all the while pretending to be an body armour had gone missing. "Wait a minute... Did you leave it in the throne hall ?!"
Hao Ren made a snap and said, "Of course, I've been strategising all this while from the moment we entered the city way to monitor the impersonator. I wouldn't think twice to sacrifice the MDT for that."
Nangong Wuyue, "....."
"I was just joking," Hao Ren hemmed twice before reached into the dimensional pocket and took out a mini holographic projector and placed it on the table. The projection flashed a few times and projected the image of the throne hall. The visual was taken from an obscure corner on the side of the throne. The mad demon king was sitting on the huge throne in the middle of the hall as it tilted his head and then remained motionless like a stone sculpture as if in deep thought. The MDT hadn't moved a muscle like a block of metal after it entered into silent. No one would discover its existence. "MDT, what's the situation?" Hao Ren inquired.
The screen flashed a bit, then the voice of the MDT was heard through the projector. "I'm watching. You've finally found me to be useful—high-tech intelligence gathering! This is what a MDT supposed to do! You know?"
"Yeah, yeah, just keep your eyes on it." Hao Ren replied with a perfunctory voice and asked the MDT to shut up while he lamented: the brick had finally lowered it's expectation unlike previously when it was pestering wanting to command an entire fleet of spacecrafts. Now it seemed to be pretty happy doing surveillance work at the corner of a wall. Apparently after while being a brick, its life goals were lowered too.
The MDT was still watching the demon king impersonator closely. When Lily and Vivian were back, Vivian immediately knew what Hao Ren was doing. "Spying on the fake demon king, eh?"
"Yup, if it's fake, the cat would be out of the bag sooner or later," Hao Ren nodded, "especially after it had just met with Lanina, it must've known that Lanina would soon be able to figure it out. So this' the time to act ..."
Suddenly, the MDT interrupted Hao Ren. "But, I've been watching here for ten minutes since you left, but the impersonator hadn't moved."
"Huh? Never move?" Though Lily was in human form, one couldn't help but imagine her ears standing erect.
"It has been sitting still like a fossil," said the data terminal, "and never blinked an eye.."
Nangong Wuyue looked at Y'zaks, face weird. "Saying that it's in deep thought is an understatement."
Y'zaks didn't say a word. At this time, the visual th MDT transmitted back began to show movement!
The door of the Throne Hall was pushed open, a greenish gray, old demon which had an eye blind came in. The first thing the old demon did when it came in was to carefully scan the surroundings before carefully locked the door behind him and walked up to the throne. It was holding a plate which had some wield stuff on it. It must be food.
"He is my housekeeper, Zadamor," Y'zaks suddenly frowned. "What is he doing there?"
As the housekeeper came before the throne, he coughed, then what happened next had everyone's jaw dropped to the ground:
'Y'zaks' on the throne finally made some movement; it sat up slightly and then its chest armor and skin opened, revealing a layer of alloy door. The door opened and a folding ladder popped out before a small figure climbed down the ladder from inside 'Y'zaks'!
That little figure had a strikingly golden hair, wearing a beautiful black dress, looking almost like an eight-year-old in human age and no more than one-metre-three tall. She jumped down the ladder and turned around, exposing a beautiful face with a pair cute horns on its head which proved that she was of demonic bloodline.
The little demon girl who popped out from the body of 'Y'zaks' ran up quickly to Zadamor and grabbed the food in the plate and stuffed it in her mouth as if she hadn't eaten for years. She yelled as she ate. "Uncle Zadamor, Lanina is back! She is safe and sound!"
"I know, I know. It seems things are getting better and better." Zadamor was stooped and looked weak and old from the inside out which was rarely seen in demons. "Your Highness, you did great today. Just keep it this way and no one would discover."
The little girl nodded. "Of course, I tuned it personally, it's going to be OK. However, there's still some glitches with Papa Three, the control is too complicated, it can only make some simple movements. There would be problem if it couldn't perform soon. And it's not known when the psychic connection in Papa Four could be configured."
"Rest assured, Your Royal Highness, with the data you provide, and the skills of dwarven masters, there shouldn't be a problem."
Witnessing the whole time, Hao Ren was flabergasted. "... what?"
Y'zaks slammed on the table, his facial muscles quivering. "Y'lisabet ... Y'lisabet!"