Chapter 197: Chapter 197 – Hero, Demon King and Challenger

“Is that so?” Hearing Chen Heng’s words, the young man seemed to understand.

In actuality, even stupid people would have noticed some things.

He was not stupid and had somewhat noticed some of the things that Chen Heng had said.

It was just that he was not as clear about it as Chen Heng.

Hearing Chen Heng’s words, the young man felt as if his eyes had been opened.

At that moment, the middle-aged man spoke, “But… There were some places where people established a new order, but the outcome was still quite bad; why is that?”

Hearing this, the young man once again looked at Chen Heng.

Indeed, they had seen many places during their travels.

In some places, the order had completely fallen apart, but in some places, they had helped establish a new order.

However, what surprised them was that the outcome of the new order often did not turn out well.

Those who took power did not act much differently from the nobles in the past, and they were sometimes even more savage and tyrannical.

Why was that?

“This has to do with another principle.”

Chen Heng thought for a moment before speaking, “And this is the root of this catastrophe.

“Order falling apart is only the surface problem; the actual problem is because there is not enough food and other resources. For example, imagine that you only have enough food for five people, but there are ten people who are hungry. There is bound to be conflict.”

“This is the root of this catastrophe,” Chen Heng said as he sighed, “Because of the demon beasts, there are a large number of refugees.

“Because the refugees lost their original supply of food and resources, as well as their homes, they escaped to safer places. However, that does not mean those safer places will have enough food for them.

“If you do not solve this problem, even if the people in power have changed, things will still decline. That is the same for this town.”

Chen Heng looked out and said, “The reason I was able to maintain the order here was simply because I could take out enough food to pacify the people so they did not starve to death.

“Otherwise, those who are starving would definitely set their sights on those who were still doing well, resulting in a collapse of order.”

This was indeed the root of everything.

For example, the mayor from before—did he really just want to chase the refugees away? Did he not know that the refugees were also a source of fortune? Perhaps he did and perhaps he didn’t, but because his conditions were limited, he had to make that decision.

If one wanted to take in refugees, one needed to have enough food, and not everyone was that prepared.

Apart from Chen Heng who had foreseen this from a long time ago and began preparing a long time ago, who would have done such a thing?

As such, it made sense that those people would make such a decision.

Then again, even if they made different decisions, they would still be used and disposed of by Chen Heng.

Hearing Chen Heng’s explanation, the young man and middle-aged man came to a realization and understood the true source of danger.

The crisis of food was undoubtedly the most pressing issue.

If they could not solve this issue, no matter what they did, the crisis would not end.

Of course, the demon beasts also had to be cleared out.

If they did not clear out the demon beasts, they could not restore order and start producing crops again.

As they walked, the young man asked many more questions.

Chen Heng answered them all, but when he encountered questions he could not answer or was too lazy to answer, he would just shake his head.

Soon, they arrived at a room.

“Alright.”

Standing outside the room, Chen Heng looked at the two people and said, “You can stay here for now. I will have people let you know when we set out; don’t forget to give a reply.”

Chen Heng smiled and spoke calmly, not seeming high and mighty at all.

After the two people nodded, he smiled and walked off.

As a Sorcerer, Chen Heng was quite busy. Not only did he have much research to do, but he also needed to do training, treat people, and prepare for the demon beast expedition.

If it wasn’t for the fact that the young man had Fortune, he would not waste so much time and energy with them.

Seeing Chen Heng hurriedly leave, the young man sighed in amazement, “What an incredible person.”

Even though they had only interacted for a short period of time, his impression of Chen Heng was very favorable.

Chen Heng was about the same age as him, but his knowledge and capabilities were outstanding.

This made the young man sigh and feel great respect.

“I’ve decided, James.”

Looking at Chen Heng walking away, the young man’s expression became resolute, “I want to temporarily stay here and observe.”

“You’ve decided, Ali?”

The middle-aged man looked at the young man and asked, “You don’t want to go and have a look at other places?”

“Let’s stay here for a while,” Ali said as he looked at his friend, “I feel that I can learn much here.”

“Since you’ve made your decision, I’ll stick with you,” James nodded and showed his support.

On the other side, Chen Heng walked towards his room.

On the way, many people greeted him and gave him gifts that they had prepared.

Chen Heng smiled and talked to all of them, but he politely refused the gifts.

Soon, he returned to his room.

After returning to his room, he became his normal self again, and his face became cold.

His weary-looking face returned to normal and the paleness and rings around his eyes all disappeared. He looked completely normal and did not seem tired at all.

Sitting on a wooden chair, he picked up a cup of black tea as he looked at the book on the table.

He thought for a moment before picking up a pen and making a note.

“Ali, possesses Fortune, mysterious background, powerful strength, might be the Hero.”

After writing this, Chen Heng fell into his thoughts.

This world was just a simple little world, and there would only be two people who possessed Fortune: the demon king and the hero.

These two people were the main characters, so it was only natural that they possessed powerful Fortune.

From the faith energy that Ali had, Chen Heng was able to conclude that he was not the demon king.

In that case, he was most likely the hero.

In other words, he was the main character who would defeat the demon king.

This suited his image.

Ali was tall and valiant-looking, and he looked serious but pure. He was friendly and selfless and very much fitted the image of a hero.

He would be a suitable person to carry the common people’s hopes and defeat the demon king.

Since the hero had appeared, then the demon king would most likely appear soon too.

What Chen Heng was currently curious about was just how the hero and demon king would come to fight, and how the passageway to leave this little world would open.

……..

Chen Heng was very curious.

However, what he was sure of was that the hero had not grown to his peak yet.

Even though the faith energy he had was powerful, it was only a few times greater than Chen Heng’s.

It would still take some time for him to reach that point.

If that was the case for the hero, what about the demon king?

At that moment, Chen Heng felt quite curious and thought to himself.

…

“Achoo!”

Outside a border city, the self-proclaimed demon king held a lollipop that he had snatched from someone as he sneezed.

“Who’s cursing me?” the demon king muttered.

“Lord demon king, who dares to curse you?”

“Those who dare to curse your esteemed grace should be destroyed. Please allow us to annihilate this world for you!”

“Let’s start from this city!”

Behind him, the black-robed people furiously shouted, looking enraged.

Looking at those people, the demon king felt quite speechless.

Fortunately, after going through this many times, he had become used to these people and had long since ignored them.

Regardless of what they said, he would just ignore them and pay them no mind.

After all, apart from the demon king, no one else could hear them.

The demon king shook his head and walked up.

This city was not very big and there were not many people living in it, and it was still somewhat peaceful.

There were demon beasts attacking the surrounding cities, but this city was an exception and no demon beasts came close.

This was because of the demon king’s presence.

Even though he could not affect all demon beasts, he could at least influence the surrounding demon beasts.

Controlling them not to attack this city was very simple.

Even though he was the demon king, not only did he not destroy cities, but he was even protecting this city. Even though that seemed quite disgraceful, it had been quite difficult for him to wake up and come over, so he did not want to see it immediately become ruined.

Even though the demon king represented people’s negative faith energy, this did not mean that the demon king liked those things himself.

The demon king casually took a biscuit from a stall and tossed out two copper coins before turning to leave.

“Oi, that’s not enough money!” the owner of the stall shouted.

The demon king looked quite surprised, “Wasn’t it two copper coins last time?”

He felt quite confused.

Could it be that someone wanted to cheat the demon king?

“That was the price before,” the owner of the stall explained.

Recently, because of the demon beast catastrophe, all kinds of goods’ prices had gone up.

Even though this city had not been destroyed, it had been affected and prices of goods had skyrocketed.

Hearing this, the demon king nodded and seemed to understand.

It was his fault.

The demon king tossed out another two copper coins before leaving.

Behind him, his followers furiously glared at the stall owner.

However, the demon king ignored them and only turned and looked in a certain direction.

He seemed to sense something and gave a slight smile.

“The hero candidate has appeared…”

The demon king muttered as if he thought of something amusing, “I wonder what kind of situation it will be this time.”

As the demon king, he stood on the opposite side of the hero.

Within this little world, they could somewhat sense each other.

Now that Ali had appeared in Chen Heng’s territory, the demon king had sensed him.

Of course, what interested the demon king was not just this hero candidate but something else as well.

“Aiya…”

An interested smile appeared on his face as he muttered, “The trial challenger is there as well. How lively.

“Maybe I should go and have a look.”

He clapped his hands and made this decision.

Following this, he began to travel in the direction that he had sensed them in.

Currently, Chen Heng did not know what was coming.

Sitting in his room, he looked through the information before him.

It had been a few days.

At Chen Heng’s command, his mercenaries began to attack demon beasts and clear out the demon beasts that had invaded their territory.

During this process, Chen Heng was not surprised to find that Ali and James were very useful.

They were incredibly powerful and their faith energy was even more terrifying than Chen Heng’s.

Their powerful faith energy gave them great strength; even if they were just ordinary people at the start, they could rival Great Knights.

Moreover, they had not been ordinary people but elite warriors.

The two of them performed very well in situations like this.

In every battle, they were the most outstanding figures.

Chen Heng had obtained some information about them.

Chen Heng was reading with great interest right now.

“Hmm, how extraordinary,” Chen Heng muttered to himself as he read through the information.

According to the information, after Ali and James joined the mercenary group, they liked to help others and would happily help with anything asked of them.

Ordinarily, they were friendly and passionate, and during battles, they were incredibly valiant.

They could be said to be perfect.

In just a short period of time, they had become quite famous in the mercenary group and had quite a lot of followers.

Chen Heng was reading with great interest.

To ordinary people, the performance of these two people was quite dangerous.

In just a few days, these two people had gained great favor and reputation among the people.

If this went on, Chen Heng’s authority would be in danger. If he was an ordinary person, he would have started to feel wary.

However, Chen Heng felt that this was quite interesting.

“Should I say, as expected of the hero?”

Putting down the pieces of paper, Chen Heng became more and more certain as to Ali’s identity as the hero.

Chen Heng was not surprised by Ali’s performance.

From how he saw it, it was quite normal for the hero to produce such effects in a short amount of time.

If he did not have the power to quickly affect the people around him, how could he carry the positive faith energy of this world and challenge the demon king?

After reading through the information on Ali and James, Chen Heng began to go through other documents.

The documents he was reading was about the demon king awakening in the past.

Even though he had confirmed the hero’s identity, he still did not know much about how to leave this world.

According to the research of that senior, he could only leave this world after the chapter between the hero and demon king concluded.

As such, if Chen Heng wanted to find a way to leave this world, he had to wait until the demon beast catastrophe was over and the demon king had been defeated.

But this was just a general direction for him to follow.

As for what he should do specifically, he still had no idea.

Chen Heng was unable to confirm if that senior of his had succeeded.

However, what he was certain of was that many seniors had failed and could not leave.

The magic skill book and Kodo Beast heart were proof.

If they really left, why would they not bring those things away with them?

Evidently, they had not been able to leave.

As such, apart from investigating Ali and James, Chen Heng had been investigating this too. However, this had not been very easy either.

The only thing he could go off were the records of previous demon beast catastrophes.

Many records were quite hazy and even as a true Sorcerer, some records seemed quite fantastical to him.

For example, some records said that the demon king destroyed 3,000 worlds in one day and devoured three billion people…

The various records caused Chen Heng’s mouth to twitch.

3,000 worlds…

However, there were some pieces of useful information in some records.

Such as records about the hero.