Deep resentment and vengeful souls that refused to dissipate filled every corner of this Overlord's Palace.
Anyone unaware of the location would have thought they had stumbled into a palace within the Land of the Undead.
Even Chen Xu felt that the environment here was more characteristic of the Land of the Undead than his own Overlord's Castle.
Looking at the overwhelming, crowded resentment, Chen Xu activated his mental strength to swallow some of it, breaking it down to extract any residual information.
"Boredom! Imprisonment! Boredom! Pain!"
Chen Xu shook his head, casting aside these negative emotions.
Whether it was because too much time had passed or because these fragments of resentment didn't contain actual soul parts, there was nothing but pure negative emotion within them—not a single shred of useful information.
Chen Xu spread his mental strength slightly, carefully letting it creep outward to probe the depth of the resentment.
He quickly found a direction where the resentment felt significantly thicker and headed that way.
Chen Xu first bypassed a side door and then began descending into the underground levels.
Once underground, the architectural style and decor were worlds apart from the surface. "Crude" didn't even begin to describe it.
Even the goblin architectural style was a hundred times better than this.
Such a rough construction style made Chen Xu wonder if the missing Element Overlord had designed it this way on purpose.
After all, judging by the rows of cells and the various skeletons within them, this was clearly a dungeon for prisoners.
These prisoners were likely adventurers who had illegally trespassed into the Elemental Spirit Realm, only to be captured by the Element Overlord and imprisoned here until they died.
Chen Xu guessed that this crude architecture was likely a form of punishment, forcing the prisoners to endure the torture of ugliness in the final moments of their lives.
Chen Xu used his mental strength to gently nudge one of the skeletons.
At the slightest touch, the bones crumbled into powder.
There wasn't a trace of residual soul left within the remains; only the mutated resentment continued to fill the dungeon.
As Chen Xu continued his exploration, he discovered that the dungeon had a total of ten levels, with each level holding over a hundred prisoners.
It seemed the Elemental Spirit Realm had attracted many adventurers in the past, as well as reckless mages seeking the truth.
Chen Xu reached the final level. The temperature here was extremely high, and there was no floor; boiling lava flowed below.
The cells were suspended, fixed to the ceiling, and the skeletons inside them emitted a faint aura of immortality.
This was a trait only Mythic-tier beings possessed. This final level of the dungeon was reserved exclusively for Mythic-tier creatures.
With the help of this lingering Mythic trait, Chen Xu was able to extract several memory fragments from the remains of the prisoners on the tenth level.
By piecing these fragments together, he formed an initial impression of the Element Overlord.
A fun-seeker. A pure, unadulterated fun-seeker.
The Element Overlord was intensely interested in information from the outside world. From details about various transcendent civilizations down to the trivial gossip of commoners, the high-and-mighty Element Overlord accepted it all.
Every prisoner held in the underground dungeon had one chance before they died: if they could tell a story that satisfied the Overlord, they would be granted a pardon and allowed to leave the Elemental Spirit Realm.
In the beginning, some adventurers did indeed tell stories that satisfied the Element Overlord, gaining their freedom and leaving the realm.
This ridiculous rumor was spread by those lucky few.
However, as the Element Overlord heard more and more stories, its threshold for satisfaction rose. Ordinary tales could no longer excite it, and fewer and fewer people were granted pardons.
The unlucky ones who followed were all locked away in this dungeon, suffering the erosion of time until they perished.
Furthermore, Chen Xu learned a crucial piece of information: the origin of elemental summoning magic was one of those pardoned lucky ones.
That person had been a scholarly mage. However, a mage's life is often dull, and their way of speaking is usually a dry, flat narrative. He knew he couldn't satisfy the ruler of the Elemental Spirit Realm with mere storytelling.
So, that mage took a different approach. He saw the true need behind the Element Overlord's thirst for stories: freedom. A freedom to explore the outside world.
Thus, elemental summoning magic was born. Through summoning rituals, elements were given the possibility of leaving the Spirit Realm.
The Element Overlord was overjoyed. It not only pardoned the mage but also gave him a vast amount of wealth, asking him to help promote elemental summoning magic in the outside world.
After leaving the Elemental Spirit Realm, the mage kept his promise and spread the magic across the Myriad Worlds.
Soon, elements one after another responded to the summons and traveled to the Myriad Worlds, bringing back news to the Element Overlord.
From the most common, low-tier basic elements to Mythic-tier Element Lords and even Eternal-tier Element Monarchs, everything progressed smoothly, just as envisioned.
But fate always enjoys playing tricks, and elements were no exception.
Just as the Element Overlord was filled with anticipation, hoping to leave this prison through summoning and breathe the fresh air of the outside world, a devastating piece of news arrived.
To summon the Element Overlord was not simply a matter of summoning his person; it required summoning the entire, massive special world of the Elemental Spirit Realm along with him.
The required mana was elevated to an inconceivable level.
Never mind an Eternal-tier being; even if a Unique-tier Dao Lord were to attempt it, they would be drained dry of energy long before meeting the summoning requirements.
The Element Overlord's dream was shattered.
The process of going from despair to hope and then back to despair caused the Element Overlord's mind to warp. It became irritable and ceased pardoning any adventurers who entered the realm, even if their stories were truly moving.
At the same time, it sent out its Element Monarchs to capture that original mage and bring him back, imprisoning him in the lowest level of the dungeon to be burned to death by the subterranean fires.
After sorting through these thoughts, Chen Xu frowned, feeling a sense of ill omen.
Among the six special worlds, Hell was the first to go mad. The Sea of Spirit was outright dead. The Blank Zone was senile. The Lord of the Undead had killed himself through Severing the Three Corpses.
As for the Lord of Heaven, it was unclear if he was still himself. Now, even the last sanctuary—the Element Overlord, who was thought to be the least affected since he was simply unable to leave—showed signs of having gone insane.
Unlike the natural madness of Hell, the Element Overlord had been driven mad.
Six special worlds, six World Lords, and each of their fates was incredibly tragic. This made Chen Xu, who had inherited the power of the undead, mutter a curse about his bad luck.
Having finished exploring the dungeon, Chen Xu returned to the surface. The information in the dungeon was merely the past; it didn't explain why the Element Overlord had gone missing.
Chen Xu had to continue his search. If the Element Overlord had truly vanished, he would reluctantly take it upon himself to look after this masterless Elemental Spirit Realm.
The Lord of Heaven held the Sea of Spirit in his hands, so it was only reasonable for Chen Xu to manage the Elemental Spirit Realm. One for each of them—it was perfectly fair.
Back on the surface, Chen Xu delved deeper into the palace and soon locked onto a room that lingered with a massive amount of Unique-tier aura.
Chen Xu phased inside without making a sound. Upon entering the room, he immediately sensed a familiar aura.
Authority! An Authority power similar to the Bone Throne in the Land of the Undead.
Taking another step forward, Chen Xu followed the guidance of the residual elemental Dao principles and entered the Dao layer of the Elemental Spirit Realm.
There, Chen Xu saw a shimmering object that looked like an Element Core.
And a remnant soul. A remnant soul of the Element Overlord.
Chen Xu looked at the remnant soul, then at the Element Core, and a realization flashed through his mind.
"No way... Did another one sever himself?"
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