Chapter 59: Empress Elise's Plan

"Master, I can fly you there."

Upon confirming that the destination was her own home, Iris offered a suggestion. Although there were not many people out at night, there were still pedestrians around, and wearing this maid outfit made her feel rather embarrassed.

Moyu waved his hand. "No need, we have a car."

Iris looked puzzled.

A white compact car appeared around the corner, drove straight toward them, and stopped right in front of the two.

Sitting in the driver's seat was a mirror image.

The moment the car stopped, the mirror image vanished.

Curious, Iris asked, "Master, when did you release a clone?"

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask."

She did not dare to say any more.

Naturally, Moyu was not going to reveal the details of his abilities.

After snatching the security guard's phone, he had gone to look for a car nearby, 'borrowed' this vehicle from a 'kind-hearted' passerby, and used the backtracking deviation to have the mirror image spawn directly near the car.

With the timing calculated properly, it led to the scene just now.

Moyu kicked the Husky at his feet and said, "Alpha, drive."

"Understood, Station Master."

Alpha extended a mechanical arm, pulled open the driver's door, and sat in the driver's seat. Its dog paws rested on the steering wheel while the mechanical arm operated the accelerator, brakes, and gearshift.

Moyu and Iris sat in the back.

When he told her to head to Iris Manor, Iris objected. Operating the car's navigation map, she set the destination to a small hill near the manor, explaining, "We can observe the entire manor from up there."

Moyu nodded and agreed with Iris's suggestion.

The car started moving.

For the current Alpha, driving a car was an extremely simple task.

Moyu looked out the window, full of interest.

He observed his surroundings, searching for any crimson text prompts.

At the street corners, people were gathered in twos and threes—all of them with dull expressions, sluggish movements, and eccentric behavior.

The moment he saw them, Moyu thought he was looking at zombies, but there were no crimson text prompts; those people scattered about were merely vagrants. Where had he seen this kind of street scenery before?

Finding no monsters, Moyu felt disappointed.

There were many vagrants on the street, visible almost everywhere.

As the car moved and time passed, Moyu's expression kept changing—from initial excitement to calm, and then to a gloomy scowl.

Iris keenly noticed this shift.

After a month of getting along, she had become quite adept at reading facial expressions and could always catch Moyu's moods. She would pick times when Moyu was in a good room to make mistakes, because getting beaten then would feel refr—bah, because the beating would be very light.

Iris curled her body up, trying to minimize her presence as much as possible.

***

Yet suddenly, Moyu reached out, grabbed her slender, white wrist, and with a slight tug, pulled her right over.

Iris sprawled across Moyu's lap.

The standard beating posture.

Subconsciously covering her backside, Iris pitifully pleaded, "Why?! I... I didn't do anything wrong!"

Moyu raised his palm, smacked her hard once, and then pointed out the window, shouting, "Look at what you've done! I'm asking you! Where are the vampires? Where are the vampires?! How is there not a single vampire on the street?! I can't even see a trace of them!"

"Weren't your plans supposed to wipe out the two vampire families? Weren't you going to integrate the vampires and turn Black City into a gathering place for them? We've walked half the city, and where are the vampires?"

"No, forget not seeing vampires—there isn't a single monster at all! What on earth have you been doing for the past twenty years?"

Flustered, Iris argued back, "It's not like I did this! How would I know?"

"You dare talk back!"

Slap!

"Yow!"...

At a crossroads, the traffic light was red.

Cars formed a long queue.

Inside a black sedan, a father and son were arguing.

"Dad, I'm really not lying, he started it!"

In the passenger seat, the boy argued his case passionately while stuffing a sandwich into his mouth. Suddenly sensing something amiss, he turned his head to look at the adjacent lane.

The adjacent vehicle was a white compact car.

An argument was going on inside that car too, and quite a heated one at that.

More importantly, crouching in the driver's seat was a Husky, its paws resting on the steering wheel, panting with its tongue hanging out, looking in two different directions.

Perhaps sensing his gaze, the Husky also turned its head to look at the boy.

Man and dog locked eyes.

The Husky tilted its head slightly in greeting.

Plop.

The sandwich fell from the boy's hand, and he subconsciously nodded in response.

The traffic light changed, and the compact car accelerated away.

"Dad! That car just now was being driven by a dog!"

"You really are lying!"

Feeling the profound weight of fatherly love, the boy cried bitterly, yet still insisted he had seen a dog driving...

"Alpha, roll up the windows."

"Yes, Station Master."

The windows rolled up.

Moyu picked up Iris, settled her in his lap, and gently rubbed her sore backside.

He always did this after spanking her.

At times like this, Iris was remarkably docile and obedient.

Moyu was extremely puzzled.

Along the entire way, he hadn't seen a single crimson text prompt, nor had he found any trace of vampires.

This was highly abnormal.

Even if Iris had retreated in defeat and left this place, deep into the night, he should have occasionally spotted one or two red characters. It was impossible for it to be this pristine.

Where did the problem lie?

He lowered his head and whispered into Iris's ear, asking the question weighing on his mind: "After you annihilated the two major vampire families, what was your next step? How were you planning to target the demon hunters? How were you going to develop and grow?"

Iris choked back a sob and replied, "Integrate all vampires, eliminate family concepts, establish a unified racial perspective, and achieve ideological unification. Then... then clear out all other monsters and weak vampires within the Texas territory, and take the elite forces into the shadows."

Moyu: "?"

This was completely different from what he had imagined.

He pressed further, "Why do that?"

Iris explained, "Because you humans are very good at civil war. Without external pressure and a common enemy, you will end up fighting among yourselves."

"If all the monsters are wiped out, it would actually be a bad thing for the demon hunters; they wouldn't be able to extort more resources from the rulers. Since ancient times, they have deliberately allowed monsters to develop in order to make extortion easier."

Moyu nodded.

Wasn't this just like the heroes visiting the pleasure quarters after defeating the Demon King?

Iris continued:

"After entering modern society, human technology has become sufficiently advanced, growing powerful enough that the demon hunters dare not clash head-on with the military. Once awakened individuals increased in number, they didn't side with the demon hunters either."

"An ordinary person wielding firearms can pose a threat to a demon hunter who has spent years in ascetic training. Anyone can pick up a firearm, but becoming a demon hunter requires a certain amount of talent. The demon hunters are actually the heretics and the minority among humans."

"The only reason demon hunters remain so active is the backing of a few powerhouses, coupled with their exceptional urban combat capabilities. When monsters and ordinary people are mixed together and the military cannot carry out carpet-bombing, the demon hunters are needed to step in."

"Transcendents, ordinary people, and monsters. These three exist in a delicate state of balance. But if you pull out the monster pillar, the remaining two will naturally erupt into conflict."

"Having a common enemy unites everyone outwardly, but once the target disappears, the muzzle will turn inward. As long as we fan the flames in secret, you humans will kill each other off. Only after you have both suffered heavy losses will it be our true time to strike."

Iris finished speaking in one breath.

Moyu fell silent.

Judging from the subsequent historical development, the latent period was indeed followed by a separatist era of monster outbreaks.

Humanity was utterly defeated.

He looked out the window.

The black night revealed no crimson text prompts whatsoever.

Everything was developing according to Iris's plan; Black City had been cleansed, and in the end, she had succeeded.

Moyu said, "Transcendents should become the leaders of humanity."

Iris shook her head. "History proves it doesn't work. In the ancient history of the Central Continent, there are records of two dynasties established by demon hunters, but their existence was very short-lived—barely a hundred years before being overthrown by ordinary people. The last dynasty was the Gothic Dynasty, and ever since then, transcendents have gradually faded from the public eye."