"The Underworld is currently facing a shortage of capable successors, and my brother making the wise choice to come and surrender is truly a brilliant decision. I assure you, brother, your prospects here will definitely not be any worse than those of the quasi-emperors in the outside world."
Within the ominous land, a Nether General at the Saint King level was enthusiastically guiding Zhang Huan to register his identity.
More than ten years had passed since the time Zhang Huan threatened Old Daoist Green Ox into handing over the ruins coordinates.
During this period, Zhang Huan first used the Supreme Emperor Weapon to quickly arrive at the stellar region near the Underworld, investigated news regarding the Underworld, and discovered it was indeed as the small pagoda had said.
Only then did he slowly fly to the Underworld, state his intentions, and immediately receive a warm reception.
The registration location was at a cliff a million miles away, and routine tasks such as accepting missions and claiming contributions were all handled here.
Wanting to become a member of the Underworld and processing the paperwork here was the primary condition.
It seems this Underworld is indeed lacking people.
In Zhang Huan's view, this boundless ominous land was indeed sparsely populated, and even Yin soldiers were uncommon, with the escape lights of a few Nether Generals only occasionally visible. It was chillingly quiet.
The Nether General wore an expression of undisguised envy and did not bother to hide it, mostly feeling that Zhang Huan would soon be a member of the Underworld as he chatted away carelessly.
Through his words, he recounted that the Underworld had offered many generous rewards to recruit people.
For a Great Sage like Zhang Huan, the welfare was exceptionally superior. Once joining the Underworld, he would possess privileges, richer even than the allocations of certain quasi-emperors in the Underworld previously.
Things like Primordial Life Essence, quasi-emperor insights, and Dao Fragments.
Coupled with dazzling cultivation resources, it was enough to make a side of Great Sages flock to it eagerly. If the Underworld's reputation were not so terrible, one had to assume its threshold would have been trampled flat by powerhouses from all sides long ago.
Upon hearing the specific benefits, Zhang Huan clicked his tongue inwardly.
No wonder this Nether General was so confident; the quasi-emperor insights alone were attractive enough. Coupled with the other rare treasures, Zhang Huan did not doubt that other Great Sages had already joined the Underworld.
Truly generous, but were these things really that easy to take? Zhang Huan thought of the decaying small pagoda.
Along the way, to be cautious, Zhang Huan had brought up rumors about the Underworld circulating in the outside world.
The Nether General did not care about this at all. In his view, it was merely outsiders' inability to understand the greatness of the Underworld, and the rumors were just smearing them.
Zhang Huan nodded and asked again about the reason for the Underworld's shortage of people.
When investigating among the surrounding stellar regions, the news obtained was incomplete, and he always felt that an invisible giant hand had cut off all clues, making the truth impossible to glimpse.
He figured the answers could only be obtained from within the Underworld.
Upon hearing Zhang Huan's question, the Nether General instantly fell silent as if walking on thin ice, his abnormal behavior arousing Zhang Huan's incomprehension.
As if touching a taboo, the Nether General changed his attitude completely, becoming cold, and much of the enthusiasm in his pupils was doused.
Was he afraid of something?
Zhang Huan remained calm, observing the man's words and actions, and guessed he had been gagged with a gag order or something similar, which was why he reacted this way.
After that, the Nether General no longer chatted like at the beginning, deliberately keeping his distance.
Seeing this, Zhang Huan tactfully stopped talking to him, and the two of them sped forward in silence.
Although it did not show on the surface, a sense of doubt inevitably rose in Zhang Huan's heart.
What did he trigger to cause the other party to be so deliberately distant?
Even a Saint King was this cowering; did this Underworld truly have such a bright future as he claimed?
After leading Zhang Huan to the destination and watching the Nether General leave as if fleeing, Zhang Huan furrowed his brows, inevitably keeping his guard up.
He had a premonition that this Underworld was far more bizarre than the rumors suggested, and held unspeakable truths.
Immediately after completing the paperwork, Zhang Huan officially became a Nether General, possessing his own mansion, with official missions to be assigned fifty years later.
This Underworld is quite prompt; they don't hold back at all when distributing benefits.
Although his start was unfavorable, at least there were resource compensations.
Zhang Huan nodded inwardly, inspected the place, and after confirming there were no problems, flew alone to a vast mountain peak. This was his future mansion.
It resembled a small pocket dimension. Spiritual energy continuously surged into the void, extremely abundant, and the environment was pleasant, completely devoid of any deathly aura.
A spiritual spring flowed into the mountain stream, running like a galloping waterfall. The essence was rich, and spiritual herbs clustered together, with no lack of rare plants. The spiritual energy here had precipitated for at least tens of thousands of years, making it an excellent cultivation location.
Observing it, Zhang Huan thought it looked more like a place for living people to cultivate, completely out of place with the deathly aura. It had been intentionally carved out within this Underworld to accommodate the cultivation of living beings like Zhang Huan.
When claiming the mansion, Zhang Huan remembered that the map had marked many patterns similar to this one.
If every one of them was a Great Sage who had come to surrender and possessed welfare just like Zhang Huan's... As expected of the Underworld, with a vast estate and such extravagance.
In the days that followed, Zhang Huan digested the obtained resources, and his cultivation level rose to another level.
He still remembered the Nether General's abnormality and took it to heart, intending to use the authority granted by the Underworld to review ancient historical secrets.
However, before he could set out, a Great Sage from next door came knocking. According to him, he resided a hundred miles away, also in a separate pocket dimension, and came to visit after observing for a few days.
During the conversation, this Great Sage claimed to be Saint Kun, also recruited, having entered the Underworld to escape enemies, originating from an unknown stellar region.
In his perception, the cultivation technique traces revealed on the other party were precisely the practiced Spirit Siphoning Demonic Art, completely matching the demonic art aura Zhang Huan remembered!
No wonder he wanted to join the Underworld—is he afraid the master of the demonic art will track him down and swallow him alive?
The first Great Sage he encountered in the Underworld was so special; Zhang Huan did not know whether to consider himself fortunate or...
These people who cultivated demonic arts were destined to become nourishment, fish raised by the person behind the scenes, and sooner or later they would be hunted down and eaten.
The other party entering the Underworld to seek shelter could not be considered an unwise move.
At least the master of the demonic art would still have misgivings and not dare to truly make a move against the Underworld. Living here long-term, he could still preserve himself safely in his twilight years.
He only feared that to avoid wolves, he had entered a tiger's den, meeting an even more miserable end.
Because he had already switched to cultivating the Heaven Swallowing Demonic Art, Zhang Huan did not reveal his true foundation.
Just as he had anticipated, the other party had come with requests. After talking in circles for a bit, he mentioned that external Great Sages were isolated and weak, proposing mutual assistance.
He said that at least they could help each other when falling into crisis, preventing them from failing to gain a foothold in the massive Underworld. According to what he disclosed, three external Great Sages had already agreed to the proposal.
This Great Saint Kun was dead-set on staying in the Underworld, wanting to form factions and develop power within it.
Zhang Huan's purpose for coming here was merely to devour various origins to aid the cultivation of the Indestructible Heavenly Art. Joining them was truly thankless and ran counter to his original intention.
Using the pretext of having just arrived in the Underworld, Zhang Huan proposed needing time to consider. Great Saint Kun did not make things too difficult for him and agreed enthusiastically, believing that Zhang Huan was alone and weak, and would inevitably rely on alliances if he wanted to develop in the Underworld in the future.
Taking this opportunity, Zhang Huan brought up the reason for the Underworld's recruitment to Great Saint Kun, omitting the matter of his demonic art, intending to understand it in secret.
The other party did not know the details of this aspect very well either. Although he had arrived decades earlier than Zhang Huan, he still had not learned many secrets.
Great Saint Kun recalled carefully, stating that he only knew a part. After Zhang Huan provided the rumors he had collected over many years, they pieced together a plausible truth.
It was likely that too much was expended ten thousand years ago, and now they needed to fill the vacancies.
At that time, supreme beings frequently emerged, fighting so fiercely that the Dao itself was wiped out, causing Underworld operations to become extremely difficult to carry on.
On the other side, the Void fought bloody battles to prevent them from harming all living beings.
Under such an environment, all spirits rarely shared a common hatred of the enemy, resisting the restricted area supreme beings with a common conviction in their hearts.
Naturally, the Yin soldiers and generals of the Underworld were no longer taken seriously in the outside world. If they weren't afraid of restricted area supreme beings, would they be afraid of a bunch of ghostly things?
Even though immortal treasures like the Heaven-Piercing Nether Treasure guarded the place and no one dared to offend it, the Yin soldiers and generals outside were miserable. As long as they dared to show their faces, every one that went out would die. Sometimes it was powerful figures killing them off because they found them displeasing to the eye, and sometimes they were encircled and eradicated.
Although the Underworld also possessed powerful figures, they could not possibly run all over the universe for such ant-like minions.
As powerful figures, naturally they could not handle things personally and do such miscellaneous chores.
The external situation was complex, and the Underworld could only turtle up for a time. Several quasi-emperor higher-ups discussed it, finalized acting cautiously, and since then the Yin soldiers all began avoiding people, terrified of being found out and skinned alive.
Moreover, because there were always supreme-level battles in the universe, many powerful figures were not ferried to the Underworld after death. A batch of ancient corpses from the distant past had yet to gain sentience.
Coupled with the passing of years, those powerful figures from ten thousand years ago could no longer endure and began to pass away. As long as they were not corpse puppets, anyone who gained sentience would be troubled by their lifespan.
Due to multiple factors, the Underworld's core strength was currently scarce.
This was also the reason why objects like the decaying small pagoda appeared—anybody at the Sage level and above was accepted without turning them away.
After a round of analysis, Zhang Huan also felt it made some sense. After conversing with Great Saint Kun for a while, the latter excused himself and left, perhaps because he had achieved his goal and no longer wanted to stay long and attract attention.
The deliberate avoidance of suspicion—the situation of this group of external Great Sages did not seem as good as the benefits made it sound.
Zhang Huan pondered slightly for a moment.
He had zero interest in this group of people's thoughts. If anyone else came knocking to mention it, he would still brush them off.
Instead, there were still many unknowns to unearth in this topic that even the Nether General avoided like the plague; right now, they had only pieced together a corner.
What on earth was hidden within that truth to make them this terrified?
It couldn't possibly be just to maintain the Underworld's face. Thinking carefully about that Nether General's words and actions, he felt it might also be inextricably linked to the external Great Sages like Zhang Huan in this era.
The Underworld was extremely mysterious, coming back from death to seize all fortune, and its various methods were not something a mere Great Sage could sort out.
Traveling all the way, Zhang Huan stepped across the boundless ominous land and saw many giant steles. Upon them were records passed down generation by generation across all epochs of the Underworld, along with countless biographies of figures.
The era of some ancient steles was so ancient it could not be recorded, chronicling secrets known to almost no one.
"Who goes near the monuments, defying death!"
A quasi-emperor might shook all directions as he awakened from beneath a monument, looking down with apathetic indifference.
This was a war slave, refined into a puppet through sheer force, consigned to serve the Underworld for all eternity and mechanically fulfill his responsibilities.
Seeing this, Zhang Huan hurriedly replied.
"This humble person is a Great Sage who recently joined the Underworld, bearing an identity imprint. I have admired the Underworld since long ago, and now I wish to understand the monumental achievements of the Underworld, so I came specifically to this place."
"Newly joined... not qualified to view the ancient steles. Leave this place."
Zhang Huan's heart sank as he quickly flew back, without a shred of hesitation.
Wasn't it said that his authority rivaled that of a quasi-emperor? He couldn't even understand the history of his own faction; Zhang Huan did not believe the natives of the Underworld had this restriction.
Furthermore, judging by what the war slave just said, he was also aware of the existence of newly joined living beings, meaning Zhang Huan was not the first one he had run into.
Deliberate restriction made it all the more feel like they harbored malicious intentions, and the truth remained shrouded in mystery.
Once I've gathered most of the origins, I'll find an opportunity to run.
Zhang Huan muttered to himself. If not for the fact that the Underworld collected many dead people and could easily obtain origins of all kinds, honestly speaking, he wouldn't have wanted to stay in this Underworld for even a single second.
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