In the other parts of the underground world, Jerigh, Roley, and the rest of the ninth rank cultivators had found themselves in similar situations.
A few had managed to appear in small groups, and were now exploring the underground world together, while others had found each other only after a bit of solitary search. Some of them even appeared right above a few of these villages, and were forced to fight their way out of them with the worshippers of death of death.
Unfortunately, they weren't in range of 'Karmic Aura', so, they had to fight with their own strength against multiple enemies.
Far away from the spot Daniel had landed on, there was another village.
This village was extremely quiet, and similar to the rest of the underground villages, it was covered in small bones, and above the small altar placed in the middle of it, was another small-sized dismembered corpse.
On the ground, dozens of black-cloaked people lied motionlessly. The majority of these bodies were torn to pieces, split in half, or simply lied over a large pool of blood.
From one of the tents of the small village, a twenty-odd years old young man completely covered in blood walked out. In his hands, were two single-edged swords which were still dripping of the blood of the people he had just killed.
His face was serious, and he showed no trace of remorse or fatigue.
This young man, was of course, Jerigh.
After he had appeared right in the middle of one of the villages of the worshippers of death, he immediately noticed the bones scattered on the ground, and the body of the kid that had been recently sacrificed on the altar.
Before the worshippers could even react in surprise to his sudden appearance, he unsheathed his two swords and had turned them into harmless pieces of meat, that lied strewn on the dusty ground.
Near one of the tents, a nineteen years old girl dressed in a black cloak was hugging her legs and shivering in fear. She was the only one Jerigh had kept alive.
Unfazed by his recent onslaught he slowly approached the girl, which after noticing him, started to shiver even harder and scream in panic "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!! I DIDN'T!!"
Jerigh took a knee in front of her, grabbed her chin with his left hand, and forced her to look at him. He then said "Are there any survivors?" There was no need to say, after four years and the help of the group's effect, Jerigh had managed to learn the human language perfectly.
Unfortunately, that hadn't helped him in becoming more talkative. In fact, if possible, it had made him become even more quiet. One could easily say that Jerigh's motivation for learning human language was so that he could understand others, and not for communication.
"T-t-there a-a-are.. I-in t-the ma-ma-main altar.." Responded the girl while trembling in fear. She was so scared, that Jerigh could hear her two rows of teeth chatter uncontrollably.
"Where.." Asked Jerigh with his usual indifferent tone.
The girl looked at Jerigh straight in his eyes, and said with a trembling voice "P-p-prooomise you wo-won't k-kill meee.."
"I promise."
After hearing the last two words uttered by Jerigh's mouth, she weakly raised her arm and pointed in the distance.
Her arm immediately fell limp on the floor as a flash of light shined through the dark, followed by the sound of her head rolling down the shoulders.
Jerigh had been raised in a brutal environment. He had had to fight against other weak children to survive, steal from them.. Even lie. He did not possess any concept of 'honor', and to him, his word had only as much worth as it was useful the information he managed to obtain with it.
Once back up on his feet, he looked at the direction indicated by the girl, and started walking.
—–
These scenes appeared all around the underground world.
Luckily, Daniel hadn't asked to eighth rank cultivators to tag along, or those who would have ended up right into one of the villages, would probably not survive the experience.
But since Daniel had only invited ninth rank cultivators, they had overall managed to fare well for themselves, as there were no ninth rank cultivators members of the worshippers of death within these small villages.
On another part of the underground world, Roley was in the middle of combat. He was the only cultivator at the eight rank that had joined Daniel, and Daniel had allowed him to come because, thanks to the group's effect, he would be able to fight back against an early ninth rank cultivator.
Unfortunately, the two had been separated, and he had landed just a hundred meters from the village, causing him to be spotted right away.
This village was populated by about twenty cultivators. Ten of them were under the sixth rank, while of the remaining ten were composed by, four at the sixth rank, four at the seventh rank, and two at the early eighth rank of cultivation.
In the beginning of the battle, Roley had decided to remove the small fry right away. So, he caged every cultivator under the eight rank of cultivation into a spatial cube.
This spatial cube immediately started to shrink, pressing on the bodies of the cultivators at the sixth rank and lower, and turning them into a cubic meter of red paste.
Unfortunately, the cultivators at the seventh rank of cultivation were able to hold on long enough for the cultivators at the eight rank to attack the spatial enclosure, and free them just in time.
Now facing four cultivators at the seventh rank, and two at the eight rank, Roley was in a huge disadvantage. His comprehension of the various essences would give him a huge edge against one, or maybe even two cultivators at his same level of cultivation.. But that didn't mean that he would be able to avoid damage from the attacks of a cultivator at the seventh rank with his weak spiritual cultivator body.
For the following hour, Roley used the best of his cultivation and comprehension to resist the numerous attacks of the six cultivators, but he was slowly gaining injuries, and consuming too much spiritual essence.
As the situation was starting to become grim, he noticed two shadows appear behind the two eighth rank cultivators, and stab their short swords straight through their hearts.
He used the surprised caused by the sudden support to send three diamond spears towards three of the four seventh rank cultivators, piercing their heads.
He then trapped the last cultivator into a large vortex of wind, which threatened to slice his body the very moment he tried to move by tearing his large black cloak to shreds, and revealing the half naked body of a middle aged man.
Roley turned to look at the two shadows, and said "Thanks for the help."
The two shadows had now turned into the clear silhouettes of two martial cultivators. They were two twins at the early ninth rank of cultivation, and their ability was assassination.
They were two of the three leaders of a sect called 'The Sect of Eternal Sleep'. Their names were Fiol and Qiol, and they were two of a triplet of twins along with their third brother Viol.
The sect of eternal sleep had joined Daniel's pocket dimension just a few months earlier, when the three of them, along with the remaining members of their sect, had been found injured, and forced to endlessly roam a dead valley contained within a formation created by a spiritual cultivator at the peak of the ninth rank of cultivation.
The reason why Daniel had decided to take them in, was because of when he had observed the formation..
Proceeding in their travel towards the Nestreia continent, Daniel and the rest had had to fight against the creator of the formation which had trapped them. Unfortunately, they hadn't managed to kill this powerful cultivator, and instead, had forced him to flee due to being outnumbered thirty to one.
When Daniel found the formation where the members of the sect of eternal sleep were imprisoned, he had spectated to a moving scene.. The three leaders were personally digging a grave for one of their sect members, who had just passed away from fatigue.
What had left Daniel impressed, was not the fact that the three of them were digging a new grave.. But the presence of hundreds and hundreds of similar graves disseminated all over the place in ordered lines.
After freeing the three of them, and the few members of the sect that had survived, Daniel had noticed the green numbers above their heads.
After talking to them, he found out that the sect of eternal sleep's interest for assassination arts was not meant to be used by others for contracted killing, and that was simply a series of inherited abilities that they wished to preserve.
The reason why they had imprisoned, was because they had refused to give up their treasures to the peak expert that had trapped them into the formation, which was exactly the reason why Daniel and the rest of his group had had to fight him.
Unlike the majority of the sect leaders and school masters, the three leaders had joined Daniel's group just a few days after they had seen how he ruled his pocket dimension. How fair the treatment, how willingly helpful his group members were, and how peaceful life was.
When Daniel had summoned the experts to explore the underground world, the three of them had been amongst the first to step forward.
After appearing within the underground world, Fiol and Qiol had landed within sight of each other, but unfortunately, there was no trace of Viol.
The two of them nodded quietly in response to Roley's thanks.
Even if they had an higher cultivation than his, they still respected him as a superior, as they knew that Roley was extremely close to the person to whom they had offered their loyalty.
Roley turned to look at the middle aged man caged into the gales of sharp winds, and said "Tell us if there are any survivors, and where your leaders are."
—–
Similar scenes appeared all over the territory.
Ferocious battles took in many places, and in the end, the powerful cultivators from Daniel's group would usually manage to slaughter the worshippers of death that inhabited the villages, and from them, they would obtain the location of their main base within the underground territory.
Back in the village near where Daniel had landed.
The place was a mess. A few corpses were stuck into enormous and transparent diamonds, some were frozen to their very core, or hanged from a large unusual tree that stood out of place within the underground territory.
A martial cultivator at the late eighth rank of martial cultivation was currently kneeling in front of Daniel, which had just brandished the sword gifted by Bohs, to slice both of his arms clean off.
Daniel was, of course, furious beyond words. In his left hand, a small flower with purple petals had appeared out of nowhere. Any herbalist would recognize this flower as a poisonous plant. This plant's poison was extremely slow, but incurable.
He grabbed the hair of the martial cultivator, and yanked his head backwards, forcing him to open his mouth. Then, he stuffed it with the poisonous flower before using his spiritual essence to shove it down his throat.
"I am sure you have heard of this flower.. A Nimisia flower.. Commonly known as 'promise of death'.." Said Daniel while looking at the terrified eyes of the martial cultivator.
Unhappy with the slow effect of the poison, took a time sphere out of his spatial ring, and stuck it in the space right next to the martial cultivator.
"This is a time sphere.. It can't help death essence to devour your life essence faster.. But it will help the poison spread a lot faster in your body. Enjoy the time you have left." Said Daniel with a vicious tone right before locking the space around the cultivator, and filling it with pure essence of darkness.
For the following hour, the worshipper of death felt the true desperation, sadness, and resignation of a premature death. He could feel it lingering on him.. Get closer.. And devour his very being.
From spectating the man's death, Daniel finally comprehended the concept of premature death.
