Changes in the Netherworld, the Dragon and the Blood Flower, Breaking Through Level Forty, Setting Out for Star Dou (4K)

That night.

"One piece, another piece, and yet another piece, two pieces, three pieces, four and five.

Six pieces, seven pieces, eight and nine, set them beside me and feast away."

With a million earned in a day, His Majesty was delighted. Inspired by the occasion, Lin Qing's poetic muse stirred, and he composed a verse!

Night was the time for Soul Masters to meditate and cultivate, and Lin Qing was no exception. After dinner, he holed up in his bedroom and engraved several Class 4 Soul Guidance Arrays, then eagerly sat cross-legged on his bed, surrounded by an entire ring of rare metals.

Although the scene looked eerily like a cult ritual, that hardly mattered. Form and posture were secondary; the important thing was that tonight, he could finally open his stomach wide and feast to his heart's content!

The scents of various metals drifted into Lin Qing's body, sending pleasure from his toenails to the crown of his head. Their lung-soothing effect was even more intoxicating than a light sniff of the rich fragrance rising from a beautiful girl's feet as she bent over and peeled off her white socks!

His breathing grew calm and steady, and the corners of his lips rose slightly. Activating his Gold-Eating Beast talent at full power on the night before his departure for Shrek City, he let his Machine Element happily devour the abundant metallic energy around him.

Gray.

Endless gray.

The sky was gray, its clouds low and heavy. There was no cycle of sun and moon by which to judge the time, and dust covered every inch of barren ground within sight.

Standing atop a low hill, Lin Qing gazed into the distance.

Humans, Soul Beasts... countless souls formed a winding dragon of a queue, stretching from one shore to another.

Within this world, the two races that fought to the death on the Douluo Continent had inexplicably laid down their hatred. With numb expressions, they walked slowly onward, stripping away, bit by bit, the memories they had cherished throughout their lives as they approached the depths of the world shrouded in ghostly mist.

"My most comfortable night, ruined..."

Lin Qing sighed forlornly. This was not his first visit.

It had begun on the night he awakened his Martial Soul at six. Whenever he entered meditation at night, his consciousness would occasionally descend into this gray world. It was like staying up all night watching an emotionally oppressive old film, only to wake with his heart racing and his back drenched in cold sweat.

Unable to communicate with the passing souls, Lin Qing had helplessly spent five years as this world's solitary observer. Watching the same scenes repeat themselves over and over, he had gradually grown more certain of his theory.

The Netherworld, the world governing death and reincarnation.

The Douluo Continent's Netherworld was extraordinarily mysterious. Only Ha Luosa, the Pluto Douluo of the Legend of the Dragon King era, had touched upon it at all. His Martial Soul, the Underworld King Sword, innately possessed a trace of Netherworld power.

According to legend, Ha Luosa was the son of destruction chosen by the Plane Consciousness to take revenge on humanity for wantonly slaughtering Soul Beasts to create Soul Spirits and upsetting the Douluo ecosystem's balance.

Lin Qing was absolutely certain that he did not have the Underworld King Sword as a second Martial Soul. He had no idea why the Netherworld occasionally invited a living person's consciousness over as a guest.

How rude of the Netherworld! Since I'm already here, couldn't you at least serve a fruit platter?

Because it did not affect his real life, he had not told Grandma Lin or Lin Lan. After all, even a transmigrator knew precious little about the Netherworld. Rashly telling them would only torment the loved ones who cared for him.

Those Soul Beasts and humans were reflected in his clear, silver-gray eyes. Evil Spirit Orcas and Demon Soul Great White Sharks floated forward side by side, while a stooped old man walked beside a towering, powerfully built Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear... no matter how mighty or overbearing they had been in life, their souls were merely spirits of the dead, subject to the Netherworld Rules as they reincarnated.

The cycle of life and death had always been thus.

"ROAR-"

A savage roar suddenly exploded across the heavens, coming from somewhere impossibly high and distant. Terrifying pressure swept past, and the Netherworld's wasteland trembled.

Lin Qing instinctively looked up. Thunder rolled in every direction, and gray lightning struck down without restraint. Its glare lingered like wounds that would never heal, turning the dim firmament hideous and terrifying.

Then the sky split.

A gray-white dragon burst through the clouds, blotting out the heavens.

Its colossal body bore no scales. A bony shell covered every inch of it, and exaggerated bone spikes jutted outward from both sides of its spine like sharp spears meant to pierce every obstacle ahead. Its skeletal wings covered the entire sky above Lin Qing, and its pressure poured down from every direction.

Compared with such a beast, Lin Qing was no more than a grain of sand. Yet its pressure did not oppress him. Instead, a faint sense of kinship stirred deep within his soul, as though something inside him was resonating with the skeletal dragon across the vast distance between earth and sky.

At the same time, the gray-white dragon locked onto the tiny figure standing straight-backed on the ground.

"Dead Dragon, the child of destiny chosen by the Netherworld has arrived."

The voice was light and gentle. A gorgeous flower, red as fresh blood, bloomed atop the dragon's head.

"Heaven has eyes! The Netherworld shall not perish!"

The dragon gave an impassioned howl, releasing the towering fury it had suppressed for ten thousand years.

The Netherworld maintained Douluo's cycle of reincarnation. The living were forbidden entry; only the dead could enter, and even the gods of the Divine Realm could not easily set foot there. All things followed the workings of this ancient world.

Until ten thousand years ago, when a group of uninvited guests shattered its order. Under divine protection, the souls of dead Soul Masters broke free of the Netherworld Rules and attacked its guardians with a clear objective.

The guardians rose in resistance, but ultimately could not defeat the invaders who had plotted for so long. Only two survivors remained, fleeing from place to place as they protected the seed of the Netherworld's origin and awaited a savior riding seven-colored auspicious clouds.

Now, that consciousness had appeared across the boundary between life and death, yet looked more like a little monkey wearing a tiger-skin apron.

"Flower, is he the savior the Netherworld has waited so desperately for?" Its expectations dashed, the dragon spoke hesitantly.

"The Plane Consciousness cannot be questioned. We are guardians. We ought to return our power to him."

Blood Flower's answer was decisive. Sensing danger closing in rapidly, the dragon hesitated no longer. It brought its claws together and forcefully tore at the Netherworld's space.

Space was like a painted scroll ripped in half by monstrous strength. A deep fissure opened in the void, continually shedding flecks of light, and an exceedingly fine gray thread fell straight toward the ground.

The gray thread passed through the skeletal dragon's shadow, its sharpness surpassing the glimmer in Lin Qing's silver-gray eyes. Like a raindrop falling onto a lake, it gently merged into his Sea of Consciousness.

At that instant, Lin Qing suddenly realized that something seemed to have been missing from him all along, and now that gap had finally been filled. A seed called the Netherworld Rules had been planted in his mental world, waiting for the day it would flower and bear fruit.

"Impudent beasts! You have already chosen the path to death!"

A deep, hoarse shout crushed the thunder's roar. From afar came the ringing sound of waves striking reefs.

A blood-red great hammer descended from the sky, its broad head even larger than the skeletal dragon's vicious-looking skull. Demonic patterns covered it densely, and its murderous aura seemed both divine and demonic as it fought the Netherworld's origin, which sought to reject it.

From Lin Qing's perspective, the hammer did not seem to fall very quickly. To the dragon, however, it was an unavoidable strike locked onto its head. Its irresistible force compressed the air into rows of scarlet waves, piling a howling wall of wind before the bloody hammerhead.

With its final concern resolved, the skeletal dragon had no intention of retreating another step. Its eyes fixed on the approaching hammer, it fiercely folded its wings. Layers of bone armor rose, and the blood-red flower atop its head burst into bloom, scattering a dazzling sea of flowers through the sky.

BOOM-

The instant the three clashed, shattered, spiderweb-like cracks exploded through space. Lin Qing's consciousness left the Netherworld, his final memory that of an azure figure charging into the battlefield to help the hammer's owner surround and attack the dragon and Blood Flower.

"Whew... those two Netherworld creatures really were troublesome..."

A tall, burly man panted heavily. His bare chest and abdomen were stained with blood and crisscrossed with wounds, yet his movements remained rough and unrestrained as he shouldered the Blood-Red Great Hammer, now reduced to two meters long.

Deep within the collapsed earth, the dragon breathed slowly, more than half its bone spikes broken. Blood Flower's radiance had likewise faded by eighty or ninety percent. Holding a scepter, the Azure Figure was setting about sealing them.

"Ta."

The man put away his great hammer, gently shifting his gaze away from the Azure Figure, and used his spiritual power to summon the companion who had joined their invasion of the Netherworld.

"What are your orders, Your Excellency?"

A refined, courteous voice promptly answered.

"Those two beasts worked together to transfer away the Plane Divine Artifact the Netherworld nurtured over endless ages. It is the only key capable of freely opening a passage between the Netherworld and the Douluo Continent. I cannot pursue it. We dead cannot leave the Netherworld."

"This... that person in the Divine Realm places extraordinary importance on the Netherworld. Losing the Plane Divine Artifact could have unthinkable consequences." The other party sounded troubled.

"It isn't that bad." The man sneered. "The Plane Divine Artifact is certainly not complete yet. Fully unleashed, it is actually a Super Divine Artifact. A moment's carelessness on my part allowed those two Netherworld creatures to exploit an opening.

"Strange, though. We cannot return to the Douluo Continent, so how could a living person from Douluo enter the Netherworld, especially at such a critical moment...

"Never mind. The Netherworld Godhood is unharmed, after all. Losing one divine artifact won't stir up much of a storm. Who knows how many years someone must patiently wait before the artifact fully sprouts? Everything remains within our control."

"You are absolutely right, Your Excellency. We need only focus on conquering the Netherworld. The Douluo Continent is a world that person keeps an eye on. The God King's wisdom reaches the heavens, and his calculations leave nothing overlooked."

"Well said! The Netherworld Godhood will certainly belong to my great-grandson! Once he devours it, the Sea God can seize the opportunity to become the Divine Realm's sixth God King. With two God Kings sharing one body, Life and Destruction will be nothing to fear." The man laughed heartily. "Now that the Netherworld's strongest guardians have been sealed, they can nourish the godhood and accelerate its formation.

"Xiao Xi and I will guard the Netherworld Godhood. Take Sword and Bone and warn those watchdogs: if they want a share of the leftover scraps, they had better guard the Netherworld's gate properly. If they discover a living intruder, slaughter them immediately. Do not ruin the God King's grand plan!"

"Yes, Your Excellency Haotian."

Lin Qing's bedroom, inside the Pindao Dao Soul Tool shop.

His vision slowly aligned with the little home in his memories. Lin Qing raised a hand and rubbed his eyes, an unusual light shining in his silver-gray pupils. The swaying world stopped, and its chaotic lines settled back onto their outlines, people becoming people and objects becoming objects again.

"Things don't look good for the dragon and the flower..." Lin Qing murmured wistfully.

The unprecedented battle in the Netherworld had shaken heaven and earth, yet he had only been a powerless spectator, unable to change its course. The gray thread in his Sea of Consciousness had not displayed any dazzling, miraculous effects either. It seemed just as powerless as he was.

"Hm? My Soul Power..."

His Soul Power had broken through to level forty!

His Machine Element had worked diligently all night, bringing an eleven-year-old ultimate Quasi-Soul Ancestor into the world. Gold-Eating Beast was simply unrivaled, perfectly compensating for an ultimate Martial Soul's only disadvantage.

The joy of his breakthrough replaced his thoughts about the truth behind the upheaval in the Netherworld. This meant his cultivation would have risen another step before he reached Shrek City.

After getting up, washing, and tidying everything, Lin Qing bid Grandma Lin farewell and took out the Gold Card containing Xu Jiujiu's advance payment. The old lady firmly refused it. Holding his hand and shaking it, she said with a wistful expression:

"Don't waste time. Hurry up and set out, you rascal. Once Grandma sells Soul Tools for a couple of days, we'll have food to spare."

Realizing that his family did not need him quite as much as he had imagined, Lin Qing set off sorrowfully on his journey to hunt for a Soul Ring and find his sister.

He was not worried at all about Princess Jiujiu coming to demand her goods, because her order had been a preorder with a one-year delivery window.

Besides, though the monk had gone out begging for alms, his little temple still held its ground.

With an eighty-year-old lady guarding the shop, Lin Qing could hardly pull the rotten stunt of fleeing with a million. Next year, the Star Luo Empire would host the Soul Master Tournament. Whichever Soul Master Academy he chose to attend, he would return to Star Luo City before the deadline to deliver the goods.

Lin Qing made a circuit of the old city district. Shrek City was far away, and hunting Soul Beasts would mean another fierce battle. One could not wage war without supplies.

He bought flatbread in the eastern market, sauced meat in the western market, fruit in the southern market, and pickles in the northern market.

Young Master Lin of Star Luo splurged lavishly. Her Highness's generosity yesterday had given him confidence in abundance.

Leaving bustling Star Luo City, Lin Qing unfolded his Flying Soul Tool and soared straight into the clouds.

The vast sea let fish leap freely; the lofty sky let birds fly wherever they pleased!

Brilliant silver light streaked northward. His ultimate metal talent was not limited to devouring and sublimation; it was also very convenient in everyday life. For example, Lin Qing consumed much less power when using Soul Tools, and the dense Soul Power of his ultimate attribute lasted exceptionally well.

The Soul Rings a Soul Master absorbed had to match their attributes. Traces of the gold-element Soul Beasts his Machine Element craved could be found in all the major Soul Beast forests. In Lin Qing's memory, the place with the most metal-attribute Soul Beasts was the Jingyang Mountain Range within the Sun Moon Empire.

But it was truly beyond his reach, so he could only settle for the next-best option: the Douluo Continent's largest Soul Beast gathering ground, the Star Dou Great Forest.

The Star Dou Great Forest covered an immense area. The side facing Shrek Academy was practically hell in terms of danger. Ordinary Soul Masters entering Star Dou to hunt Soul Beasts generally chose to approach from the Star Luo Empire, raising their sense of security several notches.

As a Quasi-Soul Ancestor, Lin Qing had already entered the Star Dou Great Forest three times to hunt Soul Beasts. Lin Lan and Grandma Lin had accompanied him to obtain his previous Soul Rings. This time was entirely different. Grandma was too old to risk danger, and he had not told her the good news of his breakthrough.

An ultimate Martial Soul with level-forty Soul Power offered basic self-defense capabilities. Besides, Doraemon Qing's four-dimensional pocket was packed with all manner of bizarre Soul Tools.

Though the Overdrive series enjoyed widespread praise, Lin Qing liked keeping something in reserve when doing business. Everything sold on his shelves was a second-tier product. No one yet knew about the truly far-ahead arsenal.

He did not rush. Whenever his Soul Power consumption exceeded thirty percent, Lin Qing landed and absorbed power from a Class 4 Milk Bottle to recover. Danger lurked everywhere away from home, and human Soul Masters could be more dangerous than Soul Beasts. A lone traveler had to be ready to fight at any moment.

Fortunately, his journey went smoothly. Two days later, the air grew cool, and the rich breath of life refreshed his heart and mind.

Next stop, the Star Dou Great Forest!