Following the Owl Devil's explanation, Liora had a rough understanding of his ability.

For the ability to work, the subject needed not to resist. In addition, each time he activated his ability, the Owl Devil would be affected by his target's emotions.

The stronger the target, the more he would be affected and the longer it would take him to recover.

If he were to continuously use his ability on ranked Devils, he would very soon go insane.

Hearing this, Liora, who was contemplating whether to take the Owl Devil under her command, dismissed that idea.

She thought that although the Owl Devil's ability may be somewhat useful, its niche use and several limitations made it pretty tasteless overall.

Thinking of this, Liora shook her head and turned her focus back to reality.

Her gaze shifted, landing on the many ranked Devils standing not far away.

While she was busy digesting the Ant Devil's memories, none of these Devils had made any moves—not even trying to escape.

Obviously, the Ant Devil's death and the Owl Devil's submission had woken them up.

Two Devils had died at her hands, one had been crippled, while the Owl Devil had surrendered.

By now, there were fewer than ten Devils that could actually oppose her, and with their strength, they would never be her opponent.

Seeing them look at her blankly, Liora pondered what to do with them.

Having already killed the strongest among them, the others posed little threat to her.

However, killing them all wouldn't benefit her much.

"I currently have about one million Slaughter Points. Even if I were to kill everyone in the room, I would still not be even close to second place."

The gap between the top two and the other places in the Crucible Ranking was huge.

Before her rise, there was not a single Devil possessing more than a million Slaughter Points other than the Unknown and the Blasphemer.

On the other hand, the Blasphemer possessed five and a half million points, while the Unknown had more than six million.

From this, one could understand not only the difference in their strength, but also in their means.

Thinking of this and considering her next plan, Liora finally made a decision.

"You have two options: submit and let me place a restriction on you, or follow your companions into death...", her voice soon spread throughout the hall.

--

Half an hour later, Liora walked out of the hall with brisk steps, followed by almost a dozen Devils.

Obviously, under her threats, none of the Devils chose to resist; instead, they made the same decision: to submit.

Glancing at Alpha, who had been waiting outside the hall, Liora waved her hand and ordered:

"Find a room for these people to stay in.", she said, and pointed at the Owl Devil before continuing:

"Let this guy be in charge of their group."

As soon as he heard her words, the Owl Devil's eyes shone with excitement. He felt that the reward for being the only person who willingly surrendered was finally coming.

But Liora's next words poured cold water onto him.

"If anything goes wrong and any of them show signs of resistance, have his head chopped off and fed to the dogs."

After saying this, Liora didn't stay any longer and walked away.

Her last words were only to intimidate the Owl Devil. She didn't believe that any of them would be daring enough to disobey her.

After all, they had already seen what the consequences of betraying her were—the deformed corpse of the Torturer was still lying quietly inside the hall.

--

Back in her room, Liora played calmly with the freshly collected souls floating in her palm and took stock of today's harvest.

The souls she obtained were only a small part of these gains, and perhaps the least important among them.

"The Blasphemer is indeed a peculiar Devil. According to the Ant Devil's memories, he has secretly built a rule-abiding city somewhere in the Crucible."

"The city's residents are all weak Devils, captured by the Blasphemer the moment they reached the Crucible and instilled with his ideals."

In fact, the Ant Devil was one of these kidnapped Devils, which was also the reason why he was so resolute in not betraying the Blasphemer's information.

Based on his memories, Liora understood that even though the Ant Devil didn't agree with his ideals, he still admired the Blasphemer very much, like a son admiring his father.

Liora couldn't help but roll her eyes when she recalled this information.

It was fine for the Blasphemer to like order as he was obviously affected by his bloodline, but why did the Ant Devil, an ordinary Cicada Devil, also lose his mind?

Shaking her head, Liora stopped thinking about it, feeling that it was impossible for her to understand such madmen.

Whether the Blasphemer was simply charming or had secretly influenced the captured Devils, it was none of her business.

What she should be thinking about was her next course of action.

"Besides the Blasphemer, there's no other person in the city he rules that can threaten me. Killing is strictly prohibited there, and as such, all of its residents are stuck at the threshold of the Young Devil stage."

"The Ant Devil was merely an accident, which is also why he was allowed to leave the city and roam in the Crucible."

Liora believed that her next battle was going to be straightforward, with little room for conspiracies.

At this point, the only thing that mattered was one's personal strength. As long as Liora was stronger than Blasphemer, she'd be able to kill him and reach the first place on the Crucible Ranking.

Thinking of this, after she called Alpha and gave her a few reminders, she shut herself in her room.

Then, taking out a wooden chest, she opened it, revealing the mysterious blood droplet hidden within it.

"With my current strength, I can't enhance my strength through the System, unless I invest hundreds of thousands of Evolution Points."

"Whether it is defense, attack, or auxiliary abilities, I've reached the limit of the Young Devil stage."

As such, Liora shifted her focus to the only other method she possessed that could improve her strength—researching the mysterious blood.

The Tongue of the Abyss had already significantly increased her means of combat, and she was certain that she had only scratched the surface of the blood's mystery.

As long as she further researched its uses and obtained all the knowledge hidden within it, she would not only be invincible in the Young Devil stage, but even as a Lesser Devil.

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