Mia's true form, the Nether Fox, was a full hundred meters long, with a back more than ten meters wide.
Roger had more than enough room to sit on her back, and the ride was quite comfortable.
Gray divine power formed a protective barrier as Roger gazed down at the endless land below.
Fierce winds howled, and clouds swept backward.
From ten thousand meters up, even the Netherworld's otherwise monotonous scenery seemed a little more lively.
"Master, at our current speed, we should reach the Undead Sacred Mountain in a few decades."
Although Mia was traveling at full speed, maintaining this pace was easy for a supreme divine beast like her.
If she pushed herself to her limits, she could go even faster.
"That sounds about right. Our tribe is a little too far out of the way." Roger nodded.
The Undead Sacred Mountain stood more or less at the center of the Netherworld.
Farther south lay the Undead Realm.
Beings who died in the countless material planes would be reborn there.
If they cultivated to the deity level, they could awaken the memories of their past lives.
Once Roger reached the Undead Sacred Mountain, he planned to take a trip around the Undead Realm, capture a few Lowgods, and perform a Soul Search to see whether their material planes also lacked teleportation arrays.
He could also take the opportunity to see what the material planes were like in this timeline.
The journey was dull.
Even when they encountered bandits.
The bandit gangs of this era were led by a few Midgods at most.
The moment they spotted Mia's flying speed from afar, most were too frightened to approach.
Thus, Roger and Mia encountered no trouble along the way.
Instead, whenever Roger spotted an interesting divine beast or Special Life, he would have Mia land so he could capture it and study it.
Roger had now reached the Six-Star Devil level in the death edict, and his development of soul space had also progressed considerably.
He could combine Mind Gray Mist with the soul control branch to perform a Soul Search, directly obtaining the information within their souls.
Having reached this stage, Roger could be considered truly proficient in the death edict.
The next step was to advance further.
In other words, he needed to keep refining his methods until he could perform a Soul Search on Midgods, or even Highgods.
Moreover, when studying the souls of Sanctuary-level Special Life, Roger could "see" their insights into the laws.
But at his current level, Roger still could not extract the soul fragments containing those insights.
By Roger's estimate,
extracting soul fragments would require, at the very least, comprehending a fusion of five branches.
In other words, he would need to reach the Asura level.
Roger was currently a Six-Star Devil, still quite far from that step.
Fortunately, Roger's comprehension of the death edict was progressing smoothly, with almost no bottlenecks.
In the blink of an eye,
several decades passed.
After Roger had dissected who knew how many divine beasts and Special Life on Mia's back,
a mountain, bone-white from top to bottom, finally appeared on the distant horizon.
The Netherworld Continent was truly vast. It had taken them decades of travel just to reach this place.
"Master, it's the Undead Sacred Mountain!"
Mia had sharper eyesight and spotted the Undead Sacred Mountain first.
Seeing their destination at last, Mia was beside herself with excitement.
They had spent decades traveling at an intense pace without a break.
Even if her body was not tired, her mind still grew weary.
Besides, Roger not only rode her during the day, but often rode her at night as well...
Fortunately, Mia had a strong constitution. Even after all Roger put her through, she remained full of vigor.
There was a reason she was called a supreme divine beast.
Her endurance alone surpassed that of the vast majority of divine beasts and Special Life.
"Yes, we're finally almost there."
Roger also saw the outline of the Undead Sacred Mountain.
It certainly lived up to its future status as one of the Netherworld's iconic locations.
Along the way,
Roger had dissected quite a few divine beasts, as well as many Special Life.
Unfortunately,
he had not encountered a single supreme divine beast or particularly powerful Special Life.
On reflection, that was only natural.
Although this was still the early period following the birth of the world,
when all kinds of divine beasts and Special Life were being born in great numbers,
the Netherworld was so vast that finding one was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.
Besides, supreme divine beasts were exceedingly rare to begin with.
Most of the divine beasts Roger encountered were ordinary ones.
Bashé and Nijun, for example.
Their innate divine abilities were generally mediocre, only effective against opponents of the same level, and boosted their strength by roughly tenfold.
The same was true of Special Life. Their innate abilities mostly enhanced speed or attacks, while even those that enhanced defense were rare.
Nor were those enhancements particularly great. They fell far short of Hemmers, the "Golden Mountain" life-form that would later be born in the Divine Plane of Earth.
This made Roger realize
that encountering Mia back then, and even managing to enslave her soul, had truly been an extraordinary stroke of luck.
As the saying went, a mountain in sight could still be a punishing ride away. Although they could see the Undead Sacred Mountain, Mia still had to fly at full speed for three days before they actually arrived.
Thud!
They landed on the bone-white summit.
Looking around, Roger saw no sign of a teleportation array, just as expected.
Roger reassured himself and turned his gaze elsewhere.
To his surprise, an ancient castle stood here.
It was built entirely of enormous blood-red stones and looked rather imposing and solemn.
"Who goes there?"
Just as Roger was examining the strangely shaped ancient castle,
a harsh shout rang out.
Immediately afterward, a group of Midgods flew out of the ancient castle, led by a cold-looking man who radiated a Highgod's aura.
"Master, it looks like someone has already claimed this place," Mia said, having returned to human form.
Her current level was unremarkable, only that of an ordinary Highgod. But her powerful divine body and outrageously strong innate divine ability allowed her to dispatch two formidable opponents in short order.
As for these Midgods, she could slaughter them by the group.
Naturally, Mia did not take these people very seriously.
"It's fine. Let's see what's going on first." Roger did not take them seriously either.
"We're Ascetics from far away. This mountain looked unusual, so we came up to take a look."
After keeping a safe distance from the other party, Roger called out.
"Ascetics? You're not welcome here. Leave at once!"
The cold-looking man watched Roger and Mia warily.
Mia in particular concerned him. He could sense a savage aura lurking within her.
It was an aura unique to divine beasts.
Because of their innate divine abilities, divine beasts generally posed a considerable threat.
Especially when one did not know what kind of divine beast they were or how powerful their innate divine ability was.
"Call out whoever is in charge here. I have a few things to ask."
Roger looked at him and spoke calmly.
If the other party knew what was good for him and cooperated, Roger would not go on a killing spree. But if he kept behaving like this,
then a fight would be unavoidable.
Few who cultivated the death edict had good tempers, especially after Roger had spent these past years refining so many souls and dissecting so many living beings for study.
"Hmph! Who do you think you are, ordering my master around? If you don't leave, we'll attack!"
The cold-looking man brandished his long saber and let out two piercing whistles in succession. Then a large number of Midgods and another Highgod flew out of the Bloodstone Ancient Castle.
"Someone causing trouble?"
The newly arrived Highgod was clearly a little stronger, and he eyed Roger and Mia without restraint.
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