Chapter 1916 - 1915: Netherworld / Mission Accomplished

——A short while earlier——

Vissen

He Ao lowered his head, gazing into the dust-choked void ahead. The space around him was gradually sinking into silence; some kind of bitter, deathly chill was seeping up from the depths of the earth, diffusing through this dim space, through this ancient city.

Twisted flesh was born out of the void, condensing into a vague shape not far in front of He Ao.

Very soon, flesh and cheeks grew upon that form, reshaping it into a towering Red Giant.

The Red Giant lowered his head, flexed his limbs once, then looked down at He Ao with a smiling, faintly mocking gaze. "Well? Denos, I didn’t resist in the slightest just now. I can resurrect infinitely many times—but how many times can you kill me?"

He lowered his head to look at He Ao, raising both hands. A fierce, all-ruling might descended upon He Ao’s body.

In that instant, He Ao felt his own body lose all control for a brief moment.

At the same time, one Undead after another, one monster after another, surged out from behind the Red Giant. Twisted crimson radiance coiled around these Undead, coiling around their bodies; in the blink of an eye, their bodies rapidly swelled, becoming several times their original size.

Sulan took a step forward, and those endlessly surging Undead creatures covered in crimson light likewise advanced a step.

Countless Undead spread like a tide, carpeting the ancient streets and houses, carpeting the entire Kovotra Ruins.

"Denos," Sulan lifted his head, looked at He Ao, and said with a smile, "My Undead are endless. My Life is endless. What will you use to contend against me?"

As his words fell, his body abruptly vanished, and in the span of a heartbeat he appeared right before He Ao, driving a kick into He Ao’s body.

He Ao tore free of that formless dominating force, raised his black Longsword, and blocked the incoming kick.

Boom—

With a deafening roar, his body slammed into the cliff at the edge of the Kovotra Ruins, gouging a huge pit into the cliff face.

Countless stones collapsed, burying his body beneath them.

"Oh?" Sulan looked, amused, at the billowing dust and smoke, laughing as he spoke. "Denos, you’re not that strong after all. Your body is even weaker than I imagined. Your attack power is indeed formidable—but how many strikes can you muster?"

He stood upon the ground, and an unending flood of Undead charged toward that stretch of ruins.

The corners of his mouth split in a grin. "You know, while you lot were fighting in Heaven just now, I wasn’t idle. My Lord granted me vast power, for me to digest, Swallow, absorb."

He raised his hand; crimson brilliance flowed at his fingertips, wisps of violet light coiling upon that crimson brilliance, exuding a faint, formless pressure.

By now, those countless Undead had already reached the front of the ruins.

Boom—

A violent explosion flared from beneath the ruins, blasting all the stones above into the air. A jet-black sword light swept out from the underside of the sky in a single instant, cleaving those charging Undead into halves that fell to the ground and dissolved into vanishing dust.

That aged Black Shadow rose from the smoke, bursting out of the thick haze and taking flight into the air.

He Ao lifted his gaze slightly, looking at Sulan whose fingertips shone with radiance, and rasped, "Since you have been ceaselessly digesting the power your Divine Being bestowed upon you, have you not sensed anything different?"

"What’s different?" Sulan gave a cold, mirthless chuckle, fixing his gaze on He Ao. "Denos, after all these years your bad habits haven’t changed in the slightest—you still love to sound the alarm, to use baseless threats to Intimidate others and achieve your ends."

He raised his hand, his entire figure lifting into the air. Dazzling crimson brilliance wrapped his body; diffusing violet radiance leaked out from within that crimson glow, while a dreadful, twisted might spread beneath the Firmament.

"Did you think I’m still that child from back then, whom you could trick at will?" Sulan lowered his head, gazing at He Ao, his grin feral. "Everything is over, Denos. No matter what schemes you hold, what designs you harbor, before absolute power, before endless Life, all of it is illusory. So long as my Lord still exists, so long as the Netherworld’s power endures, I possess an Undying Body. What do you have to fight me with?"

"I mean," He Ao looked at him calmly, "do you not find anything strange?"

He lifted his hand; the black Longsword gathered in his palm. "Do you not feel that the power around us seems to have...changed?"

"Changed how?" Sulan snarled with a twisted grin. "You’re trying to scare me again."

The crimson brilliance upon his body flickered. Though his mouth spoke with mockery, he lowered his head and began to sense the changes in the surroundings.

Very quickly, his once-arrogant expression showed a trace of oddity.

That massive body hanging in midair gradually stilled. He raised his head, checked the movements of his body, and stared at He Ao with some confusion. "What have you done?"

"Some things that needed to be done." He Ao gripped the pitch-black Longsword in his hand, and the surrounding void gradually cooled.

An unseen, desolate wind swept through the valley, swept through the streets, swept across the houses.

Amid those densely packed Undead creatures, some ancient obsessions were slowly being awakened.

They were frail silhouettes, they were pairs of phantom eyes.

There were stooped Elderly, and there were tender children.

They stood within the ancient houses, upon the undulating streets, within the intersecting traces of this ancient city.

Those figures stood among the ruins of this ancient city, lifting their heads to look upon the surrounding scene.

The murky sky was eerily still; the Harpies had forgotten to howl; trembling skeletons sat rigid upon the ground.

The dusky sky was unnaturally quiet; cold wind blew through the ancient streets, through the narrow doorways, through this ancient city.

As though this were merely a calm, unremarkable day eight hundred years ago—like every day that came before.

"What kind of damned trick is this?" Sulan stared down at the city below, staring at the many Illusions within those streets. "Some inexplicable sleight of hand—watch me destroy all of it for you!"

He raised his hand, summoning the Undead upon the earth.

Yet those Undead seemed bound by some formless force, freezing in place. Even as the crimson brilliance upon them flared to a blinding radiance, nothing about them changed.

He Ao watched all this in silence, lightly turning his palm. One by one, those Undead wrapped in radiance shattered into endless dust, dispersing upon the earth.

And as Sulan spoke, the figures standing across the land slowly shifted their gaze, turning to look upon him.

"Fiends and phantoms!" Sulan looked at all of this, looked at the dissipating Undead, and cursed under his breath. "A pack of useless trash!"

He raised his hand, attempting once more to summon fresh Undead.

But this time, the channel behind him did not open; no new Undead emerged from behind him.

"What’s going on?" His brows drew together at once, as he cast a bewildered glance around.

He tried again, yet still no new Undead stepped forth.

He looked at He Ao with a trace of anger. "Denos, what have you done?"

He Ao regarded him and said evenly, "This is the second time you’ve asked me that question."

Hearing this, Sulan paused slightly, sinking into a brief silence.

Then he lifted his head to look at He Ao, crimson radiance in his hands flaring once more. "No matter what you’ve done, I am under the Favor of a Divine Being. So long as the Netherworld exists for even a single day, I shall remain Undead."

"Are you really Undying?" He Ao looked at him and asked again.

Hearing this, Sulan froze once more. He sank his mind, as if trying to completely perceive something.

In the end, he lowered his head, looked at He Ao. "You cut off the Netherworld’s power? How could you possibly do that, the Netherworld’s power cannot be cut off."

"Not cut off." He Ao slightly shook his head. His body floated in the sky, the pitch‑black Longsword gathering in his hand. "Right now, this place is the Netherworld."

The slow cold wind brushed his clothes, brushed his cheeks, brushed across this desolate sky.

He stood in the cold wind like the master of the world.

He gazed at Sulan before him and said calmly: "Only, it’s my Netherworld."

High above the Firmament, that purple eye in the mist burst out dazzling light, as if preparing to lower its power.

But every beam of light was intercepted by that gray‑white eye, unable to disturb even the slightest below.

Line after line of text faintly appeared in He Ao’s field of view.

[Netherworld Land]

[Dusky dimness, muffled song, unfathomed Netherworld Land, none return once gone.]

[Available time: 00:01:23]

[Spend two Exchange Stars to redeem 5 minutes of usage for Skill "Netherworld Land"? (Exchange Stars currently available: 5)]

Netherworld Land is the ability of the "Dead".

The effect is simple as well: select a region, and this region will be assimilated by the New Netherworld’s power, becoming an extension of the New Netherworld.

If this region itself is close to the New Netherworld, or has the New Netherworld’s power extending into it, the assimilation effect will be strengthened.

And as the Skill user, within this "Netherworld Land" that is an "extension" of the New Netherworld, He Ao possesses the same absolute dominion as the "Dead".

Of course, this ability also has a "price", a price related to the nature of the Netherworld.

That is: "The living do not enter the Netherworld."

All non‑Myth Life that remain within the assimilated "Netherworld Land" will be assimilated into Dead.

After the effect of Netherworld Land disappears, these Dead will also enter the New Netherworld together.

Naturally, this price is almost nonexistent inside the Kovotra Ruins, because there were no people here to begin with.

Those underground workers, when they helped He Ao summon the projection, He Ao opened a Space‑Time Channel in reverse and sent them to the Vissen overhead.

Vissen is not safe either, but it’s better than Kevort. And with He Ao’s power at the time, he simply couldn’t send them to a more distant place.

However, the "side effects" of Netherworld Land also extended into some other effects. These "obsession Illusions" remaining on the ground of Kovotra were born under the stimulus of Netherworld Land.

The people who once existed in Kovotra had already been completely Sacrificed; their flesh and souls were both eaten by the Grim Reaper.

But the Grim Reaper did not eat them completely clean, still leaving some scraps of residual spirituality behind in this city.

Under normal circumstances, those remnants of spirituality should have long dissipated.

But the Grim Reaper constructed a Seal over this region, and under the influence of the Sealing power, that spirituality was preserved.

Perhaps, back then the Grim Reaper deliberately wanted to keep this spirituality as backup fuel for the Sealing Array.

But regardless, these crippled fragments of spirituality survived.

Under the stimulus of the New Netherworld’s power, this spirituality was supported and manifested as Illusions.

"You replaced the Netherworld power in my body?" Sulan lifted his head and looked at He Ao, as if understanding something. "With the Fake Realm power forged by that Pseudo‑God of yours?"

"Now, you only have one life left." He Ao raised the Longsword in his hand, holding it horizontally before him.

Sulan’s Undying Body was because Netherworld power had been constantly supporting him. In fact, He Ao had long been observing how to cut off that power.

But He Ao discovered that in a sense, Sulan had already been "assimilated" by the Netherworld.

With Angel Tier power, it was impossible to sever the connection between the Netherworld and Sulan.

However, he could attempt a "replacement".

In one Resurrection, when the Netherworld finished pouring in an enormous amount of power, Sulan’s connection to the Netherworld would enter its weakest state.

And at that moment, He Ao unfolded Netherworld Land, using the homology between the New Netherworld and the Netherworld to gradually replace the Netherworld’s connection.

This replacement was a slow process, so at the beginning, Sulan could even still borrow the Netherworld link to summon Undead.

Of course, in principle it sounded simple, but operationally it was rather troublesome, requiring a series of Mysticism constructions.

Without the Secret Wizard Talent Sequences, he would have been absolutely unable to accomplish this.

In a certain sense, the Secret Wizard could also be counted as his world‑shaking intelligence.

Most of the time he didn’t need to deliberately think things through, nor did he need a deep grasp of the principles—he only had to hand it over to his brain, let it run on its own, and the answers would emerge.

"Heh." Sulan gazed at He Ao, yet his whole demeanor grew more silent. "Denos, you think you’re so remarkable? You think that without an Undying Body I can’t beat you?"

He lifted his hand slightly, his once hunched back slowly straightening.

He grasped the void, and a blazing Red Giant light‑blade was slowly drawn out of the emptiness. He gazed at He Ao. "Just now I didn’t resist because I wanted to toy with you. Now that I’ve received the power of my Lord, you think I’d still fear you?"

He Ao watched his face and suddenly said in a low voice, "The Grim Reaper made you Sacrifice Kovotra; the Talent Sequences granted to you actually contained a huge amount of Netherworld power, didn’t they? Being bound to the Netherworld also means you’ve lost all hope of ever leaving the Grim Reaper—you can only be the Grim Reaper’s dog."

His tone was calm. "From beginning to end, you were a chess piece the Grim Reaper had fully arranged."

This was the truth behind Kovotra’s destruction.

From Sulan’s perspective, he needed to Sacrifice Kovotra to exchange for the chance to become an Angel, and to take revenge on the Kwoatra people who had ’betrayed’ him.

From the Grim Reaper’s perspective, he needed an Anchor related to the War God, to set up an Array targeting the War God, and also needed a "dog" to serve as the vanguard against the War God.

Kovotra’s initial faith in the War God helped this city survive the primordial cataclysm of the savage era’s early days—but it also became the toll of its final destruction.

[Quest Completed]

[Quest evaluation settling...]

[Returning to the original world in 90 seconds]

[Return immediately (90)]