Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“I will go and take a look!”
The talented were generally bold; Jiang Yi was no longer the Jiang Yi of yesteryears. Though the Devil Star Vines were impressive, they had also been sliced apart by Jiang Xiaonu. Based on Jiang Yi’s current peak-stage Heaven Monarch strength and the Mystic Divine Palace, the Devil Star Vines were not going to trouble him much.
Boom!
As a precautionary measure, he gave some orders to Qian Wanguan and took out his Mystic Divine Palace as he immediately flew downwards. A huge explosive sound could be heard as the Mystic Divine Palace forced its way into the passageway. Its restrictions glistened as it automatically exerted outward pressure on the dirt and soil. Its speed was very fast and had already sped tens of thousands of feet underground, disappearing from Qian Wanguan and company’s line of sight.
After a hundred thousand feet downwards, Jiang Yi slowed down and—at the same time—sent out his divine senses to scan the way forward. What surprised him was that his divine senses were very strong and could easily scan fifty kilometers; even when he was down here, he could detect five kilometers around him without difficulty. However, he could not seem to find the end of the two passageways. He did not know how much deeper they stretched downwards.
Twenty-five kilometers, fifty kilometers… two hundred and fifty kilometers!
Jiang Yi followed the passageways and pressed on. Finally, after traveling for a few thousand kilometers, he reached his destination. He used his divine senses to check the surroundings; what he discovered shocked his soul spirit to the core.
There was another Underground World here that seemed boundless. There were also countless corpses of humans and beasts alike. There was a black mist emanating a stench of dead corpses and of dead air in there. The scene was much more frightening than the Fengdu City; this place was the true Netherworld.
“Blood sea! Devil Star Vines!”
Jiang Yi detected that in the distance, there was a blood sea where the Devil Star Vines were. He had also found the missing bodies. Many of them were inside the blood pool. At this moment, those dismembered bodies were being reconstructed; when they came out of the blood pool, they joined a huge army of zombie soldiers that had been assembled.
“Could this really be the Netherworld, where the dead are brought here and turned into zombies and zombie soldiers? Their soul spirits will then reincarnate?”
Jiang Yi thought about the strange legends that he had heard as a kid, and his hair stood up. Although he was very strong now, he still instinctively felt a certain fear dealing with vague and eccentric things like this. He sighed deeply for a moment and controlled his Mystic Divine Palace to fly into the Underground World.
“Howl-howl!” “Tsk-tsk!” “Gu-Gu”
As the Mystic Divine Palace flew down, it immediately alerted the masses of zombie soldiers and zombie beasts. They started to converge towards the Mystic Divine Palace, but they were destroyed by it the minute they came into contact with its restrictions. As these zombie soldiers and zombie beasts had no soul spirits, they only knew how to attack with everything they got; and so like a flying moth to a flame, they surged forward incessantly.
Tsk! Tsk!
The huge Devil Star Vines scurried out of the blood sea and—in a flash—entangled itself onto the Mystic Divine Palace. It then started to pull the Mystic Divine Palace towards the blood sea.
“Wow!”
The Mystic Divine Palace heavily smashed into the blood sea and blood splattered like rain everywhere. Jiang Yi did not activate the restrictions to resist but allowed the Devil Star Vines to pull the Mystic Divine Palace into the blood sea. His divine senses scanned the vicinity and realized that the blood sea could actually obstruct one’s divine senses. Furthermore, the blood sea had an immensely strong corrosiveness attacking the Mystic Divine Palace’s restrictions at the moment.
As he could not use his divine senses, Jiang Yi also did not want to waste the Mystic Divine Palace’s energy. He controlled the Mystic Divine Palace and hurriedly flew upwards, breaking the Devil Star Vines’ hold on the palace and shot out of the blood sea. Jiang Yi did not attack the Devil Star Vines either; he controlled the Mystic Divine Palace in a certain direction and sped there.
The Mystic Divine Palace’s speed was too fast; the Devil Star Vines could not even follow up. However, countless zombie soldiers and zombie beasts flew towards the palace along the way. As they were too weak, they turned into blood mist immediately upon impact with the Mystic Divine Palace’s restrictions.
“Just how big is the Underground World? How many zombie soldiers and zombie beasts are there?”
After flying for almost two hours, there was still no end to the Underground World. Jiang Yi could not even keep count on the number of zombie soldiers and zombie beasts he had seen. There should be hundreds of millions at least, right? He had also encountered a few more blood seas and dozens of Devil Star Vines.
How fast was the Mystic Divine Palace? How far could it fly in two hours? Jiang Yi figured that if he flew straight for two to three days, he could probably be able to traverse the Stellarsky Continent. However, at this moment, Jiang Yi’s divine senses still could not detect the end.
“Could it be this place is really the Netherworld where dead bodies are brought? To fall into oblivion forever?”
He flew for another ten minutes before stopping the Mystic Divine Palace. Jiang Yi had detected so many Devil Star Vines; if they wanted to attack humans, the Stellarsky Continent would have long been annihilated. That actually gave him a little comfort.
Many years ago when he was trying to steal the honey of the Black Wasps, he had encountered these Devil Star Vines and had discovered the Underground World. Since this Underground World is so big and there were so many Devil Star Vines—if they wanted to attack humans, they would have done so long again. That, in itself, could prove something: the Devil Star Vines would not proactively attack humans that were alive.
He switched to another direction and flew for a few hundred kilometers. After confirming that he could not find any leads, he started to fly upwards, with a belly full of questions. If this Underground World was not the Netherworld, there must be a big, shocking secret hidden here.
It was a pity that he didn’t have the time now to investigate further. He had to return to the East Imperial Continent; Jiang Yunhai, Yun Tianqing, and company were waiting for him to rescue them.
When he reached the surface, he realized he was indeed very far away from Qian Wanguan and company. Jiang Yi controlled the Mystic Divine Palace and flew to where Qian Wanguan was. That journey took him almost two hours. After confirming that all the sea demons on the continent had been killed and that the formidable sea demons in the Desolate East Sea had more or less been wiped out, Jiang Yi brought Qian Wanguan and company and headed west.
After the Mystic Divine Palace started its Heaven Evasion, it took them almost a day before they returned. Zhan Wushuang and Situ Yixiao had already gotten back; they had no leads as well.
“Go!”
Jiang Yi controlled the Mystic Divine Palace’s restrictions and started to teleport people inside. He did not place the members of the Jiang Clan, the Zhan Clan, and the Qian Clan in the Moon Mirror Lake; he placed them in the Evil Spirit Ridge instead. However, he teleported all the demonic beasts in the ridge to a corner and used restrictions to trap them, preventing them from hurting anyone.
“For now, you guys can stay here first. You all can cut down trees and build your houses. There are many energy elixirs here; you guys will not need to eat solid food to survive. The essence energy here is very concentrated; you guys can rest here and cultivate at the same time.”
Jiang Yi gave some instructions and then let Qian Wanguan and Zhan Wushuang settle everyone down. He then teleported himself and entered Yin Ruobing’s Mystic Thearch Pavilion.
“Jiang Yi, what’s wrong?”
Yin Ruobing was just inspecting the Heaven Painting when she discovered that someone was teleporting over. She took a look and saw that Jiang Yi had become very haggard; his mental state of mind was very bad. She hurriedly walked over, extremely concerned.
“Huff-huff…”
Jiang Yi then told Yin Ruobing everything that had happened on the Stellarsky Continent. He then looked at Yin Ruobing and asked, “Ruobing, could you help me to analyze all this? What should I do to rescue my grandfather and the rest? My brain is in a mess now.”
Yin Ruobing became silent as her eyes glistened. A moment later, she shook her head and said, “Jiang Yi, this matter is definitely not the doing of the Wu Clan. If it was really the Wu Clan behind this, then Wu Shang would have really gone mad. If he really did this, he would become the public enemy of the entire world. If the other eight clans knew about this, they would definitely join hands and wipe out the Wu Clan. Whoever did this is too depraved of humanity; none of the clans would tolerate such an act. No matter how much Wu Shang hates you, he would not want to become public enemy number one, right?”
“It’s not the Wu Clan?”
Jiang Yi frowned as he asked bewilderedly, “Then who did this? The She Clan? The Tu Clan? Or could it be other clans who have enmity against me?”
“I am not sure…”
Yin Ruobing sighed slightly and said, “However, based on what I think, none of the Nine Thearch Clans would do something as heartless and inhumane as this. All the Nine Thearch Clans have our clan rules that take on the responsibility of protecting humankind. Whoever dares to cause such a large-scale massacre would become the enemy of the Nine Thearch Clans.”
“Then what should I do now?” Jiang Yi felt very confused and troubled; he was completely at a loss on how to proceed.
Yin Ruobing said very resolutely, “Very simple. You should return to the East Imperial Continent and look for the Buddha Thearch, the Night Empress, the Xuan Thearch, and others. Ask them to help investigate. Once the mastermind is found, then you can think about what to do next.”
