Karl’s hysterical screams echoed from the direction of the blood-red hexagram.
His soul, wrapped in hellfire, had sensed something wrong the moment he entered the hexagram.
Although this space was also filled with a rich aura of corruption and the environment bore some resemblance to Hell...
One crucial thing was missing.
The oppressive gaze of the Mother of Hell.
Every time these demon kings, and even the Hell Archdukes, returned to Hell, they had to face the Mother of Hell's scrutiny.
“How much of today’s world invasion quota was completed?”
“Did the casualty ratio of Hell demons exceed the target declared at the start of the year?”
“How is the intelligence work regarding Heaven’s movements and the corruption of the innocent progressing?”
And, most importantly.
“Are you carrying any of that disgusting, nauseating holy light aura on you?”
Multiple events were independent and required multiple judgments.
If even one judgment failed to pass, your favorability with the Mother of Hell would drop.
And when favorability fell below a certain threshold, you would face the Mother of Hell's wrath.
Perhaps you would be seized by her and instantly refined.
Perhaps you would be beaten half to death and then thrown into the Promotion Game or fed directly to other demon kings.
The Mother of Hell was like the most demanding and tyrannical corporate boss, scrutinizing all the subjects of Hell with the most brutal KPIs.
Upon entering this space, Karl did not immediately feel the Mother of Hell's scrutiny, which was when he realized something was wrong.
After a closer look, he discovered that this space was actually an incredibly massive soulstone—one specifically customized for Hell demons.
Karl immediately manipulated his hellfire, attempting to break out of the soulstone.
For a demon king, they did not fear death.
Even if their soul was shattered, they could be respawned by the Mother of Hell.
However, the process of respawning was somewhat lengthy, usually measured in tens of thousands of years.
But if the soul was intact and only the physical body was lost, the recovery speed was much faster.
With the Mother of Hell’s supreme mastery over flesh, she could mold a demon king’s body in minutes.
It just required the creatures of a few worlds to make a small contribution, sacrificing their flesh and souls as materials for the demon king's body.
This was why Karl feared the soulstone so much.
The seal of a soulstone made it impossible to escape and impossible to resurrect in Hell.
Furthermore, losing his freedom was not what Karl feared most.
The Mother of Hell would never consider special circumstances for her demon kings.
The KPIs were there, whether you were sleeping, resting, or dead.
The Mother of Hell would not mercifully press the pause button just because you were sealed.
If a demon king or Hell Archduke was sealed for a long period, unless an accident occurred, there were usually only two outcomes.
One was being used as material and consumed.
The other was that because the KPIs were never completed, favorability with the Mother of Hell would plummet past the lower limit, and she would personally step in to ‘optimize’ them.
Neither was something Karl wanted to see.
Thus, Karl did not hesitate to use his soul as fuel for his hellfire to burst forth with extreme speed.
Just as Karl was about to touch the blood-red hexagram to return to the Akhan world, the hexagram abruptly dissipated.
“No!!!”
Karl let out a howl of despair.
Outside, in the Akhan world, the original blood-red hexagram had also vanished.
All that remained was a giant, black-and-red soulstone floating in the air.
And that madman, Professor Aaron, was stroking the soulstone with trembling hands.
A look of pure satisfaction was plastered across his face.
“Professor, you...?”
Seeing this, Zhang Jingping immediately knew that this soulstone was Aaron's handiwork and that everything had been his conspiracy.
Facing his prize pupil’s inquiry, Aaron smiled once again.
“What, do I, Aaron, look like a clown willing to sink into corruption in your eyes?”
“Hahaha, Jingping. Many years ago, I knew that for mortals like us who want to transcend and pursue the truth, steady cultivation and research alone are far from enough.”
“Only by taking risks, using oneself and even an entire world as the price to catch a big fish, can one find the chance to attain the Dao!”
“So, you used the entire Akhan world as the price just to capture this demon king?”
Hearing Zhang Jingping's question, Aaron suddenly turned around, revealing a hideous expression.
“My dear student, do I look like an idiot to you? I am mad, not stupid.”
“My target was merely a Hell Archduke, but I don’t know what happened—the object of the corruptive prayer suddenly upgraded from a Hell Archduke to a demon king.”
“And...” Aaron looked toward the other side, where the Angel Priests were.
“There was also the interference of Heaven’s power. Oh, and the undead. Heh, perhaps Akhan was cursed by some entity; so many powerful factions from across the Cosmic Sea have squeezed into this remote place.”
“Then, Professor Aaron, how do you plan to take this soulstone away in front of three priests and a necrotic archduke?”
Seeing the surrounding undead, Zhang Jingping had long known that the top man on Blue Star—his former student, Chen Xu—had intervened.
Presumably, these priests were also helpers called in by Chen Xu. On Blue Star, only Chen Xu could speak with Heaven.
“Take it away? Hahaha, why would I take it away? The soulstone is complete, and a demon king is sealed within. My goal is already ninety percent achieved.”
As his mad voice fell, Aaron struck the soulstone, sending it flying toward the three priests.
Chen Xu’s clone appeared in its path ahead of time, intercepting the soulstone and bringing it back into the Undead Dao Court.
“Jingping, remember what I often told you? The result is certainly important, but what matters more is the process of obtaining that result.”
A rune gradually appeared in Aaron’s eyes, and his body began to turn illusory.
“I used action to practice my madness and used the result to verify my experiment. The fruit of Akhan does not belong to me, but there are so many other Akhans in this world. I’ll just find another one. Hahahaha...”
After a burst of wild laughter, Aaron vanished from the spot. This mad Archmage had used the lives of an entire world to verify a hypothesis, a possibility—a possibility of approaching the truth.
In the final moment of Aaron’s disappearance, Chen Xu vaguely sensed an aura from him that only belonged to the eternal-tier.
In other words, even though Aaron did not obtain the soulstone, this mad experiment had already allowed him to find the path to the eternal-tier.
At this moment, Chen Xu’s true body also manifested, appearing atop the ruins.
The Akhan world was already a wreckage. Below the ground was thick corruption, above the ground was necrotic aura, and higher still was the aura of holy light.
Three domineering energies had carved up this once peaceful land. Restoring the Akhan world to its former peace would likely be quite difficult.
Furthermore, Chen Xu could no longer sense Akhan’s World Will; it had likely vanished during the battle.
The space itself had been shattered into a sieve; the World Will was likely in a similar state.
Chen Xu raised his soul power and teleported all ten-plus mage towers to the Land of the Undead. He kept the towers, but as for the people inside, if they wanted to leave, he would not force them to stay.
If they didn't want to leave and were willing to stay in the Land of the Undead, they could serve as the first batch of foreign labor.
The three open cities were nearing completion under Big Boss's vigorous promotion and would soon be ready for use; they were in desperate need of people.
After dealing with the mage towers, Chen Xu pointed a finger and sent the exhausted Zhang Jingping back to the Blue Star world.
Only then did he look back at the three Angel Priests.
Before Chen Xu could speak, Valo, the Priest of Courage, bowed slightly.
“Great Lord of the Undead, Valo, the Priest of Courage, sends his greetings.”
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