Being a Saint since the age of myth

The old man paused, then continued, "Originally, we were still considering what sort of opportunity we should find to send Tenma into Hell to collect soapberry fruit."

"But this time, Tenma's soul fell into Hell, so we thought that after rescuing him, you could venture deeper into Hell and collect the soapberry fruit while you were there."

"So Tenma's soul falling into Hell wasn't entirely a bad thing?" Wuxin shook his head with a laugh.

"You could say that!"

The Pope nodded and said solemnly, "However, Tenma is no ordinary person. His soul is certain to be receiving special attention from the Underworld as well."

"So you must set out as soon as possible and find Tenma's soul before the Specters do."

"If it falls into Hades's hands, things will become even more troublesome!"

At this, Wuxin's expression grew grave as well. "But the Underworld is so vast. How am I supposed to find Tenma's soul?"

"Use this!"

The Pope descended the steps and opened his right hand, revealing a silver-gray fragment of armor before Wuxin's eyes.

"This is a fragment of the Tenma Constellation Cloth. It has a profound karmic connection to Tenma. Together with Lady Sasha's blessing upon it, it can guide you to his soul in the Underworld!" the old man explained solemnly.

"With this to guide me, there shouldn't be a problem!" Wuxin breathed a sigh of relief and carefully accepted the armor fragment.

"Is there anything else you need to prepare? If not, set out as soon as possible, young Crateris!" Pope Sage asked earnestly.

"No! I can leave at any time!" Wuxin shook his head.

"Then go! Lady Sasha and I will await your good news!" Sage said, patting Wuxin on the shoulder.

"I'll be sure to bring it!"

Wuxin nodded, then stepped back twice and concentrated the power of his Cosmo at his fingertips.

"Sekishiki Meikai Ha!"

Three silver streams of energy flowed from his fingertips and, under his control, poured into a spatial node ahead.

Then, guided by the power of death, Wuxin connected with the unseen Yomotsu Hirasaka. A dimensional passage seething with foul death energy opened before him.

Just before his departure, Sasha, who had barely spoken, perhaps because she was in such low spirits, finally spoke again.

"May your journey be safe, Crateris! You must come back with Tenma!"

"I will, Lady Sasha! Please rest assured!" Wuxin nodded and stepped into the dimensional passage with one foot.

Suddenly, as though remembering something, he asked, "When I passed the Libra Temple earlier, I noticed that the Libra Cloth was badly damaged. Lord Dohko and the others must have been through an extremely fierce battle."

"How are Lord Dohko's injuries now?"

"Mr. Dohko..."

At those words, Sasha's eyes reddened again. She involuntarily covered her small mouth, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Seeing this, Pope Sage sighed. "Dohko suffered serious injuries fighting Heavenly Violent Star Kagaho in Italy. Then, on his way back, Heavenly Noble Star Minos led a group to ambush and surround him outside the barrier."

"Dohko fought desperately against the Heavenly Noble Star, risking his life to gravely wound him. Only then was Shion finally able to kill him!"

"Dohko... died???"

The sudden news shook Wuxin. His other foot had already crossed into the dimensional passage, and as the ground vanished beneath him, he helplessly tumbled inside.

Chapter 56: Entering the Underworld

By the time Wuxin recovered his senses, he had already passed through the dimensional passage and arrived in a dusky yellow world. The passage behind him closed as well.

Dohko actually died?

He had yet to fully digest this shocking news.

It was simply too unexpected.

In his memory, the first Gold Saint to fall in the Holy War had been Pisces Albafica. Yet now it had become Libra Dohko, truly catching him off guard.

Dohko was no ordinary person. In a sense, he possessed an exceptionally powerful destiny, just like Tenma.

After all, he was not only one of the protagonists of this Holy War, but also one of the protagonists of the next.

By all rights, someone like that should have had a tenacious fate and absolutely should not have died so easily.

Yet the reality was that Dohko had died just like that, inexplicably.

This development was a far greater change than Wuxin replacing Yuzuriha and the others in entering the Underworld to rescue Tenma.

Damn it, the changes to the future are becoming harder and harder to make sense of! Wuxin could not help cursing inwardly.

The greater the changes became, the more it meant that the story he had once known so well could truly be nothing more than a story.

Aside from some basic information, it would be hard for it to provide him with anything useful anymore.

He could no longer view this world according to the original story's progression either, or he would only die a miserable death.

At that thought, he could not help sighing helplessly.

"Sigh..."

Only after sighing did he gather his scattered thoughts and survey his surroundings.

The sky here was a dusky yellow, and so was the ground. Countless wandering ghosts had formed an eerie line, leaping one after another off an enormous cliff ahead.

So this is Yomotsu Hirasaka?

Although he had long since mastered Sekishiki and could connect with the Underworld's Yomotsu, this was his first time entering this place himself.

With such a bizarre sight, it truly lived up to being a world of death, forbidden to the living.

Leaving everything else aside, the dense aura of death in the air alone was more than an ordinary person could withstand.

If an ordinary person fell into this place, they would likely be saturated by the dense death energy and turned completely into a living corpse in less than a minute.

Even warriors who had mastered the power of Cosmo could not remain here for long, unless they could freely control the power of death as Wuxin could.

They too would be saturated by the death energy here; they could merely endure longer than ordinary people.

However, this was not yet the true Underworld. It was the space between the Underworld and the human world, as well as the entrance through which ordinary souls entered the Underworld.

With Wuxin's abilities, he could easily open a passage directly into the Underworld. But with the situation so tense, rashly entering it directly would make him easy to detect.

After all, the Underworld was the Specters' territory, with the Twin Gods stationed there in particular.

For safety's sake, Wuxin had chosen to come to Yomotsu Hirasaka, intending to enter the Underworld through its proper entrance here.

"Before entering the Underworld, though, I need to disguise myself further!" Wuxin curled a finger, immediately drawing the surrounding death energy toward him.

Then he compressed and gathered that death energy, condensing it over the surface of his Cloth.

In the end, the originally silver Crateris Cloth was coated in pitch-black, becoming a suit of black armor that exuded a chilling aura of death and foul energy.

"Yes, that should do!" Looking at his handiwork, Wuxin nodded in satisfaction.

The death energy completely concealed the Cloth's original appearance, making it no different from a Surplice. He could easily operate in the Underworld disguised as a Specter.

As long as he did not reveal it himself, others would find it almost impossible to see through his disguise.

At the same time, this dense death energy could conceal his own living aura, making it easier for him to move through the Underworld and sparing him a great deal of unnecessary trouble.

After all, a living person was extremely conspicuous in this Underworld filled with death.

After checking his disguise once more and confirming that nothing had been overlooked, Wuxin followed the line of souls forward.

Below the cliff at the very front of that line lay the entrance to the Underworld.

Just then, a patrolling ghost guard noticed Wuxin.

"Hey, where did you come from? How come I've never seen you before?" the guard demanded, carrying a scythe over his shoulder.

"Are you questioning me?" Wuxin lowered his voice and released his Cosmo's aura to press down on him.

He was merely an ordinary ghost guard, not even one of the 108 Malefic Stars, equivalent to an Apprentice Saint in Sanctuary. Wuxin had no need to explain himself to him.

"So you're a Lord Malefic Star! Please spare me, my lord! Spare me!"

Feeling the pressure of his Cosmo, the ghost guard immediately fell to his knees, not even daring to raise his head.

"Hmph!"

Wuxin snorted coldly. Without another word or pausing, he headed straight toward the nearby cliff.

None of the other ghost guards dared stop him, afraid of inviting undeserved disaster upon themselves.

In the blink of an eye, Wuxin reached the cliff.

He glanced down into a bottomless abyss. It was as though a terrifying giant beast waited below with its jaws open, letting the souls above leap down without end.

Besides that, he also sensed a strange, faint pull coming from within the abyss, as though it sought to draw his soul out of his body.

He knew that this was the natural attraction the Underworld's laws exerted upon souls.

"Underworld, here I come!"

Without fear, Wuxin leaped straight down.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Wind whistled around him without cease, while vast amounts of death energy rose from below, supporting the falling Wuxin like clouds.

As the death energy below grew denser, Wuxin's descent slowed rather than accelerated. He fell more and more slowly, until he even began to drift like a feather.

After drifting in midair for an unknown length of time, Wuxin suddenly felt his vision blur. He left the dark abyss behind and arrived in a red world.

The sun here was red, the sky was red, and even the land bore a faint red tint. It was as though the entire world had been soaked in blood.

"I've finally reached the Underworld!"

Wuxin could not help voicing his feelings.

However, upon leaving the abyss of Yomotsu Hirasaka, he also lost the slowing protection of its dense death energy and once again accelerated toward the ground.

Boom!

With an enormous crash, Wuxin struck the ground, blasting out a crater more than ten meters across.

Still, an impact of this level posed no threat to him, and he withstood it with ease.

Nearby, some walking corpses and ghosts were drawn by the commotion and slowly approached.

Wuxin had no interest in paying them any attention. With a light stamp of his foot, he released a shock wave that sent them flying.