The origin of the Land of the Undead? He knew that all too well.
However, Chen Xu's interest was piqued. He had learned about the origins of the Land of the Undead and the other special worlds from Thor and the Lord of Heaven.
Did this necrotic elder, Disaster Bone, also know the inside story? This was interesting.
Chen Xu feigned ignorance, asking in a curious tone, "The origin? Tell me about it."
Disaster Bone nodded and slowly walked toward a tall bone tree.
He carefully reached under the tree and tapped the ground in front of it with his fingertip.
A long, rectangular box flew out from the soil and landed in Disaster Bone's hand.
Holding the box, Disaster Bone walked back to Chen Xu and opened it.
Inside was a thick scroll. Disaster Bone used his mental strength to lift it out and unfurl it in the air.
The material of the scroll was peculiar, stitched together from various types of leather; some parts were furry, some scaly, while others were smooth. It even contained sections made of tree bark and stone fragments.
The content recorded on the scroll was roughly divided into three parts.
The first part depicted a mysterious black-robed being entering a world and speaking unintelligible words to it.
The second part showed the world's transformation: the climate became chaotic, the seasons were no longer stable, life died in massive numbers, and chaos filled the world.
The third part showed the world growing larger and larger, and the mysterious black-robed being revealed its true form—a long, serpentine being.
Every living thing within that world had died, only to rise again. Skeletons—the first of the undead—appeared in the world for the first time.
This was largely consistent with what the Lord of Heaven and Thor had told him, except their narrative was on a grander scale, whereas Disaster Bone's scroll was more detailed, seemingly a record kept by the inhabitants of that world.
Could it be that this scroll was a record left behind by the living beings of that world when the Land of the Undead was reaching its ultimate state?
It was hard to imagine how much despair those beings must have felt back then.
Disaster Bone's giant skeletal finger traced the scroll, a hint of tenderness in his eyes as if reminiscing about the past.
"This scroll comes from... from a group of races that have long since been forgotten. These are the last traces they left in this world.
"This is also the origin of the Land of the Undead—a world's advancement, and a doomsday for its inhabitants. Trillions of lives were sacrificed to create a single unique existence, to create the Supreme Throne beneath you."
Disaster Bone had no idea how many times he had said these words. Every time a new Lord of the Undead ascended, he would repeat them.
The second Lord of the Undead had shared his sentiment and sighed a few times.
Those who followed had paid him no mind, leaving immediately after listening.
But no matter how many times he spoke of it, Disaster Bone's emotions would still fluctuate. Even though he had long since reached the eternal-tier, it remained the same.
Every inch of his skeletal body came from those beings who had witnessed the end. Their despair and resentment lived on within him.
The 'Disaster' in Disaster Bone's name came from exactly this. The resentment of those world inhabitants before the end had gifted him with naturally dense calamity power. He was an eternal-tier powerhouse who had attained the Dao through calamity.
Chen Xu looked at the scroll, seeing the despairing faces of the beings depicted on it, and felt a wave of emotion.
This was the tragedy of a transcendent world. Those without strength could become the price for someone else's advancement at any moment.
Disaster Bone continued speaking.
"Later, I once questioned that existence, asking why it was so heartless as to completely disregard the lives within the realm.
"But I received no answer, and those departed souls received no answer either.
"The despair of billions and the echoes of their resentment formed a curse that was placed upon this Supreme Throne."
Disaster Bone pointed his finger forward, indicating the Supreme Throne beneath Chen Xu.
Chen Xu was stunned for a moment and almost couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Was he joking? Could a mere billion souls curse a unique-tier existence? It would take the inhabitants of billions of worlds to even stand a chance.
If sacrificial curses were truly that effective, the unique-tier Dao Lords wouldn't be as prominent as they were today.
The Myriad Worlds lacked neither worlds nor the living beings within them.
If slaughtering a single world could curse a Dao Lord, then if Disaster Bone weren't an elder of the Land of the Undead—someone he needed to lead the archdukes in the war against Hell—Chen Xu would have laughed right in his face.
If curses were truly that effective, no one would bother with cultivation or martial arts. Everyone would just focus on animal husbandry, breeding fast-growing species and harvesting them every year to see who could spam curses faster.
Disaster Bone seemed to have guessed that Chen Xu wouldn't believe him; in fact, he didn't quite believe it himself either.
Calamity was a sub-category of curses. Having attained the Dao through calamity, he naturally knew the limits of curse-type powers.
However, the fates of the previous Lords of the Undead forced him to suspect that some mysterious curse lingered upon the Supreme Throne.
"Overlord, you should know that among the six special worlds, only the masters of our Land of the Undead are replaced so frequently. The Lord of Heaven and the Mother of Hell have ruled since the beginning without any talk of replacement."
Hearing this, Chen Xu had to admit it was true. The turnover of the Lord of the Undead was indeed a bit frequent.
The longest reign was about a hundred million years, while the shortest was only a few tens of millions. Compared to Heaven and Hell, it was indeed frequent.
"So, you think there's some kind of mysterious curse within this Supreme Throne?"
"Yes, Overlord. According to my observations, in the later stages of their reigns, the previous masters behaved completely differently than they did in the beginning. It was as if they had become different people.
"They became manic, began babbling incoherently, and their actions became unpredictable, as if they had gone insane.
"Whenever this period arrived, the necrotic archdukes would retreat into their own territories and stop venturing out.
"This continued until the Supreme Throne returned to the world's source and the Overlord's authority dispersed, starting the next cycle."
Manic, babbling incoherently... why did that sound familiar?
Right, didn't the Lord of Heaven mention that the world consciousness of the Land of the Undead was being tormented by extreme life essence, which was why it sought a way out and tried to use the Severing the Corpse Method to save itself?
These symptoms were somewhat similar to that. No wonder the inherited knowledge of the Lord of the Undead always had less content regarding the later stages than the early ones.
But it shouldn't be. If the extreme life essence had already been severed and turned into an independent part, how could it still affect the Lord of the Undead?
Chen Xu was puzzled. After all, his age was nothing compared to even a fraction of his predecessors' reigns.
What will be, will be. Tens of millions of years from now, even if the Supreme Throne representing the undead authority had a problem, he still had his 007 talent and an Undead Dao Court that could create its own world.
By then, he might possess more Dao principles than he had hairs on his head.
Moreover, this reminded Chen Xu that his own Undead Dao, which represented extreme life essence, might be used for more than just creation and the making of various magical races; he could shift his thinking and turn it into a curse.
The fates of so many previous Lords of the Undead were enough to prove its power.
The whispers brought by life essence would be called schizophrenia in a non-transcendent world, but in a transcendent world with an Eastern background, it would be a heart demon tribulation that had ended many immortals.
Disaster Bone's mention of this actually helped Chen Xu find his own curse system—a life-essence curse, a Heart-Demon manifestation.
External things are easy to cut off, but internal evils are hard to remove. A sharp light gleamed in Chen Xu's eyes as countless thoughts raced through his mind.
Ignoring Disaster Bone, he returned directly to the Undead Dao Court.
Disaster Bone was left standing there, wondering if his words had just offended Chen Xu.
After thinking it over, Disaster Bone couldn't be sure. He let out a sigh and walked out of his territory, heading toward the lands of the other necrotic archdukes.
He had been informed of the coordinates Chen Xu provided. Since he didn't know if he had offended the Overlord, he could only use action to make amends.
He hoped the corpses of demons would make the Overlord forget his potential offense.
Rate on N.U.
