He took a sip of orange juice from the transparent glass he held in one hand. The refreshing taste as the juice rushed through his throat made him sigh in satisfaction.
“He should not be a God. How could Gods exist in such a remote place? At best, he’s a Demigod.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. Then, he stood up from the chair, still holding the orange juice, and walked up to the mast. He put a hand on it and stared at the black fog.
Rolling slowly, the black fog finally came before the warship.
“I am Di Ting… The Lord of the Great Netherworld.” A warm voice rang out of the fog, pleasant to the ears.
“Di Ting? A nice name. I’m Alpha, the Lord of Silver Warship, and a man who travels the starry sky. Well met,” the man said. “I once heard an ancient proverb, which goes like ‘what a joy it is to have friends coming from afar!’ I’m sure you welcome my arrival, aren’t you?” he smiled, looking at Di Ting, then finished the orange juice in one gulp.
“A man who travels the starry sky? You don’t have to humble yourself, my lord. I know you’re an emissary from the Divine Dynasty…” Di Ting’s voice was still warm.
Alpha’s pupils constricted. He never thought Di Ting would reveal his identity so quickly.
“Oh? You’re an interesting native. Well then, I’ll be honest with you. Someone told me about this place, so here I am. I never expect that I will find a newly formed great world, though.” He chuckled. “It seems you’re having a hard time forming your great world. I can’t believe you excluded two small worlds.”
Di Ting’s eyes seemed to flicker in the black fog. “Someone told you about this place? Sure enough…” he murmured.
Alpha was too lazy to engage in chit-chat with Di Ting, so he went straight to the point. “I suppose you have reported your great world to the Laws of the Universe, haven’t you? If you did, you are part of the Divine Dynasty, and we will have your record. In that case, I’ll not make things difficult for you. A border emissary will come here soon and take charge of your great world. Before that, however…
“You will have to please me. After all, the Divine Dynasty’s border emissaries are not so accommodating,” Alpha said, his eyes gleaming.
Di Ting’s eyes flickered once again.
Buzz…
At this moment, one puppet after another flew over at great speed.
“Oh, my little darlings are back.” Alpha smiled as he looked into the distance, where numerous metal puppets came from with plumes of white smoke behind them. Soon, they all hovered over the silver warship.
Di Ting’s pupils constricted. When he glanced at those puppets, he saw each of them had a metal net in hand, and all the nets contained experts he knew.
“You…”
A hint of anger crept into Di Ting’s voice. He thought the man had gone too far. The Lord of the Winged Man Valley, the Great Buddha of the West Little Buddhism Realm, the Realm Lord of the Wandering Soul Realm, and many others… These were all the leaders of the small worlds under the Great Netherworld, and yet they were captured by this man. Was he trying to threaten him?
Those from the Divine Dynasty were truly unreasonable.
Suddenly, Di Ting’s pupils constricted further. He saw a familiar figure covered in blood and trapped inside one of the metal nets. ‘Nether King Er Ha? Even he’s been caught?’ That gave him pause. ‘Did this guy go to Earth Prison as well?’
“Oh?” Alpha gave a little cry of surprise as he focused his eyes and looked into the distance. A puppet was flying over from that direction, staggering with a miserable appearance. Half of its body was smashed, while the other half was covered with cracks. If its core had not been in good condition, the puppet would have exploded.
That enraged Alpha. He stepped up and glanced at it with a pained look on his face. Suddenly, the puppet’s mechanical eyes flashed, then horrible energy burst out of its body.
Boom!
It exploded abruptly, generating flames that engulfed Alpha in an instant.
Di Ting did not move. If the explosion killed Alpha, he would clap and cheer. The blast was powerful and violent enough to blow a Nine-revolution Great Saint into pieces.
“Dammit…” A gust of wind scattered the flames. Broken metal pieces and mechanical parts were everywhere, but the warship was unscathed by the explosion. Standing in the middle of the explosion, Alpha held a leaf in his hand. Frightful energy surged on his body, stopping the power of the explosion from hurting him. His eyes were cold and ruthless as he crushed the leaf with his hand.
“Who dares destroy my little darling?!”
Alpha’s face was cold. He couldn’t believe one of his metal puppets was destroyed in such a remote place. It seemed that he had to teach these natives a hard lesson…
He produced the metal plate and glanced at it, then he immediately found that the puppet that had just exploded was the one who went to the Immortal Cooking Realm. Information about the realm was shown on the plate as well.
“A small world inhabited by chefs… How dare a rubbish small world like this destroy my metal puppet?! They’re courting death!” The aura that exploded out of Alpha was extremely terrible.
In the distance, Di Ting raised his guard. The pressure exuding from Alpha startled him. He could tell now that this unexpected visitor was also a Demigod, and a seasoned one, stronger than him.
“You can get lost now! Also… If you want these men back, give me some good stuff in your great world. I’ll release them when I’m satisfied. If you can’t please me, I’ll feed them to my pets,” Alpha said coldly. Then, he flicked his sleeve, sending a powerful wave at Di Ting.
Di Ting narrowed his eyes. A white dog paw reached out of the black fog and collided with the wave, filling the air with a rumbling noise. The next moment, he turned into a light beam and disappeared.
As he had expected, this man from a great world did not come with good intentions.
…
Ying Long pulled the fragment of the Nether King Halberd from the ruin. The skin on his cheeks twitched violently, and a worried look came into his cloudy eyes as he murmured, “What happened to the Nether King…” After putting away the fragment, he sped toward Yellow Spring City.
The little restaurant was closed for business. Bu Fang stood in front of the door, wiping his hands with a square of cloth. Yellow Spring Great Sage, Tian Cang, and the others were around him, frowning and looking up at the sky.
“I have a bad feeling,” said Tian Cang.
Yellow Spring Great Sage nodded in agreement. They all sensed the fearsome aura just now. Er Ha had gone to check it out, but he had not come back since. He might have encountered danger.
Suddenly, they focused their eyes. A figure was approaching from the distant sky. Soon, they found that he was Ying Long, and he landed in front of them with a grave face. “Something bad happened, my lord.” As he said that in a serious voice, he held out a hand, showing the crowd the fragment of the Nether King Halberd.
Tian Cang’s eyes burst into a blinding light. “I’ll kill those who dare hurt my son!” Boiling with monstrous killing intent, he stepped forward and rose into the sky, turning into a stream of light and rushing into the battlefield of the stars.
When he arrived, only smoke was left in the battlefield. Tian Cang studied it, then turned his eyes to the direction where the puppet had disappeared. “Nether Prison? Is Di Ting going to start causing trouble again?” He took a deep breath. With anger surging in his eyes, he shot back toward the ground and landed in front of the restaurant.
Leaning back in a chair, Bu Fang glanced curiously at Tian Cang as the latter told the crowd his opinion.
“Impossible…” Ying Long shook his head. “Nether Prison had just completed the transformation to a great world, so it would not attack Earth Prison rashly. They do not have the power either… After all, they have just formed the great world, so their foundation is not yet stable. If they start a war now, it may cause the great world’s progress to collapse. It will do more harm than good,” said the Prison Overlord. He had been following this closely.
“Let me go to Nether Prison… I have a feeling that it’s not so simple this time.” A gentle and magnetic voice suddenly rang out. Then, Lord Dog, who lay under the Path-understanding Tree, walked out of the restaurant with his graceful cat-like steps, glancing at the crowd and yawning. At his level of a Demigod, he seemed to know something, but he didn’t tell them.
Tian Cang nodded at him and said, “Thank you.”
Lord Dog waved his paw and said, “It’s nothing. Bu Fang boy, remember to cook me a plate of steaming Sweet ‘n’ Sour Dragon Ribs.” After that, he ripped the void open with the paw and stepped into the opening, his fat jiggling.
The crowd was silent. With the life of Er Ha at stake, they did not know what to say. Suddenly, a clear sound of footsteps rang out. They raised their heads and looked into the distance. A figure was coming at them. It was a beautiful girl. When Bu Fang saw her, his pupils constricted.
“City Lord Meng Qi?” Bu Fang called out as he looked at her, puzzled. Shouldn’t she be at the Immortal Cooking Realm?
It did not take her a long time to arrive in front of Yellow Spring Little Restaurant. After bowing to everyone, Meng Qi glanced at Bu Fang with a complicated look in her eyes, then she said in a melodious voice, “Realm Lord asked me to show you all something.”
Tian Cang frowned, looking at her as she reached out her fair hand. There was a jade talisman in her palm. When she sent her immortal energy into the talisman, an image immediately emerged over it.
It was a battle. A metal puppet hovered outside the Immortal Cooking Realm and was about to scan it, but its presence was detected by the Immortal Tree, who struck it with a branch. To everyone’s surprise, the puppet counterattacked. Although it was eventually smashed by the Immortal Tree’s branch, everyone could feel its terrible strength.
“Is Nether Puppeteer Patriarch making a comeback?” Yellow Spring Great Sage said, his eyes wide.
Meng Qi just shook her head.
The image over the talisman changed. This time, it showed the West Little Buddhism Realm. A Great Buddha was severely injured by a few metal puppets, who then caught him with a metal net and brought him away. Similar scenes were shown later, involving the Winged Man Valley, the Wandering Soul Realm, the Vajra Realm, and the others.
Everyone’s heart skipped a beat when, at last, a familiar figure appeared in the image. It was Er Ha, fighting a metal puppet as well. The outcome of the battle silenced them. When Tian Cang saw the puppet blow the halberd and armor to pieces and covered Er Ha in blood, his eyes filled with towering killing intent.
“Metal puppets. It appears that Nether Puppeteer Patriarch is behind this…” Tian Cang clenched his fists, and the aura he exuded shook the void around him.
“No… It was not Nether Puppeteer Patriarch.” To everyone’s surprise, Meng Qi shook her head. “Realm Lord knows that something is not right, so he spent some time investigating…”
As she said that, the image over the jade talisman changed again. This time, it was showing a silver warship that made the hair of those who looked at it stand. A man could be seen standing at the top of the ship with his hands clasped behind his back. Suddenly, he turned his head, and his eyes seemed to be staring at Bu Fang and the rest. It was as if he could see them through the image.
The next moment, the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward, and a look of disdain came over his face. Many figures trapped in metal nets could be seen floating beside him, looking like prey…
