“Old friend? Soul Origin Realm? Redemption? Hell's madness?”
The content of the call plunged Chen Xu into deep thought.
The fact that the caller referred to a Lord of the Undead as an old friend suggested it knew one of his predecessors. This meant the caller had been around for a very long time, though he didn't know which Lord of the Undead it had been close to.
Unlike the Lord of Heaven or the Mother of Hell, who had been the same since ancient times, there had been many Lords of the Undead.
As for the Soul Origin Realm, Chen Xu guessed it was likely the name of this fantastical world around him.
However, the terminology differed from that of the myriad worlds, which called this place the Core Illusion. This discrepancy suggested the caller hadn't left this place in a long time and was out of touch with current naming conventions.
The parts about redemption and Hell falling into madness were even harder for Chen Xu to grasp.
Redemption aside, what did it mean for Hell to fall into madness? Wasn't Hell already inherently mad? Among the six special worlds, Hell was the only one that had begun expanding outward shortly after its birth.
It had spread the flames of war to the myriad worlds and turned demons into the source of fear for all beings.
If it had 'fallen into madness,' did that mean Hell hadn't always been the way it was now?
As Chen Xu pondered this, the Hunyuan Dao Lord spoke from ahead.
“Everyone, my silver thread's tracking sense cannot function within this Core Illusion. I will leave a beacon here, and the four of us will split up to search for traces of the Hellfire.”
“Every half-hour, regardless of what happens, we will return to the beacon to regroup and share our findings. What do you think?”
The Hunyuan Dao Lord tapped the space beside him, injecting a mysterious Dao rhyme into a soul particle. This Dao rhyme connected the four of them.
The Dao of Causality. This Hunyuan Dao Lord had actually gained insights into Causality.
Chen Xu was slightly surprised, but only briefly. After all, this was a Dao Lord who had participated in the crusade against Hell; it was understandable that he would possess rare Dao rhymes.
This suggestion to split up suited Chen Xu perfectly. He had been worrying about how to find an opportunity to seek out the source of the call.
Thus, Chen Xu was the first to speak. “I have no problem with that. This place is mysterious and not somewhere to linger. Splitting up is more efficient; the sooner we figure things out, the sooner we can leave.”
“Fellow Daoist Chen is right. I have no objections either,” Li Taiji agreed.
Seeing that the other three were in favor of splitting up, the Extreme Martial Dao Lord naturally had no objection and nodded.
Seeing this, the Hunyuan Dao Lord took a step forward and vanished from the spot.
Chen Xu also flew straight upward. Indeed, the 'lowest depths' of the Soul Origin Realm mentioned in the call were actually situated above them.
He couldn't quite wrap his head around it, but the direction he perceived was definitely up.
Chen Xu sped along, not forgetting to secretly use the Kunpeng's power of devouring to swallow many of the surrounding soul particles.
His Nephalem project happened to require soul particles. Had he known there were so many inside the Spirit Core of the Sea of Spirit, he wouldn't have had to wait for Flideng and the others to extract them from slain pirates.
Soon, Chen Xu arrived at the location from which the call had originated.
He waited on the spot for the next call to confirm the exact position.
“Undead...”
“Found you!”
The moment the mysterious call surfaced, Chen Xu locked onto the location. It was an unremarkable soul particle that looked identical to all the others around it.
Chen Xu approached and touched it. In the next instant, the world spun, and up and down were inverted.
When his senses returned to normal, Chen Xu found himself in a new world.
The surroundings were empty except for an endless expanse of water and a massive, whale-like creature constantly falling before him.
Or rather, was it a whale carcass?
It was an unimaginably colossal creature, resembling a whale in appearance.
There wasn't a single wound visible on its body, yet it was sinking downward at a very slow pace.
Every moment, a vast number of tiny grains shed from the massive whale body and floated upward until they hit the ceiling of this space.
That ceiling was the Core Illusion, and those grains were soul particles.
In other words, the soul particles outside and all the soul creatures in the Sea of Spirit originated from this massive, whale-like being.
Just then, the familiar call rang out again, but the content had changed.
“You have come, Lord of the Undead... and yet, you are not the Lord of the Undead.”
Chen Xu was certain this voice came from the creature before him, but no matter how he sensed it, he was sure it possessed not a single shred of soul fluctuation.
How could a creature without soul fluctuations communicate?
“Who are you?”
Since he couldn't figure it out, Chen Xu asked directly. Since the other party had called him here, it should be willing to answer.
“Who am I? As expected, you are not him.”
The whale fell silent for a moment before continuing.
“It matters not. I do not know what happened in the Land of the Undead, but since you have inherited the mantle of the Lord of the Undead, you surely will not stand idly by.”
“I am the pioneer of the Sea of Spirit, the creator of the six special worlds, the sovereign who walks between reality and illusion, the Astral Behemoth—Thor!”
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu fell silent.
He could understand 'pioneer of the Sea of Spirit'; he had already suspected this mysterious creature might be the master of this realm, an existence similar to the Lord of Heaven or the Mother of Hell.
But what did 'creator of the six special worlds' mean? Weren't the six special worlds self-evolved? Was there outside interference?
As for Astral Behemoths, they were a special type of creature in the vast Cosmic Sea. They were extremely rare and had mysterious origins, as if they had sprung directly from the vacuum of space.
Thor's response only made Chen Xu's questions multiply.
“What do you mean by 'creator of the six special worlds'?”
“What do you mean, 'what do I mean'? It is exactly what it sounds like. This is soul communication; do not tell me you cannot understand my meaning.”
“But what does your meaning mean? Didn't the six special worlds evolve autonomously from their own World Wills? What does 'created' mean?”
“Ha! If autonomous evolution could produce special worlds, there are so many worlds in the myriad worlds—why have only six emerged?”
“Do you think it is easy to guide a world to its extreme?”
“Other than I, the great Thor, no one else could have done it!”
Chen Xu said nothing. He had no way to verify these ancient secrets; he could only carefully sense the fluctuations of the soul communication to see if there were any lies.
“Then why did you guide me here? What do you want?”
“Hell has gone mad. Disregarding our past ties, it actually reached its hand into the Sea of Spirit. Fortunately, it thought I had died long ago, and I managed to catch it with a sneak attack. That was the only reason... the only reason I wasn't killed.”
“Damn it, how did it become so strong? Even though I struck first, I was nearly killed on the spot.”
“Get to the point.”
“Do not be in such a hurry; the process is just as important. With the last of my strength, I used the power of authority to expel Hell from the Sea of Spirit, but it left behind the Hellfire.”
“That manifestation of the Path of Corruption is truly troublesome. It has contaminated many soul particles in the Soul Origin Realm.”
“I was heavily wounded by Hell and lacked the strength to purge the contamination, allowing it to take root and invade the very origin of this realm.”
“Now, to prevent the Sea of Spirit from falling into the hands of Hell, only one option remains.”
“What option?”
“To blow up the Sea of Spirit and completely annihilate it within the Cosmic Sea! Let this cursed Hellfire perish along with the Sea of Spirit!”
Rate on N.U.
