The vast continent of the Netherworld — its northern reaches were filled with countless undead, and the area was known as the 'Undead World.' Those who lived there were all weak undead; the strongest among them were only Saint-level undead. Generally, once they reached the God level, the vast majority would fly southward, entering the world of the powerful — the Netherworld proper.
Only south of the Undead Holy Mountain was considered the true Netherworld.
As one of the four Supreme Realms, the Netherworld's management was quite similar to the Infernal Realm. The Netherworld had a total of eighty-one Prefectures. After Lin Lei and Bei Bei entered the Netherworld region from the Undead Holy Mountain, the first Prefecture they came upon was the Northern Prefecture of the Netherworld — the 'Northern Corpse Prefecture'!
Right now, high above the Northern Corpse Prefecture, a small metal life form less than ten meters long was flying at tremendous speed. Lin Lei and Bei Bei were inside, though at the moment Lin Lei wore a troubled expression. Just moments ago, the two of them had gone to the edge of the Undead World to take a look, and that single glance had filled Lin Lei with worry.
"The slaughter in that Undead World is even more horrific than the Infernal Realm — and far more intense! The undead are constantly killing each other, devouring one another's souls to strengthen their own! To improve their power! Father has been dead for nearly two thousand years, and George, Yeru, and Dikexi have been dead for over a thousand years. After so long… could they have died in the fighting among the undead?"
This was Lin Lei's greatest fear.
If an undead being was killed, its soul devoured — that was a true death! Even finding a Highgod would be useless.
Lin Lei couldn't help but worry. After all, so much time had passed, and the slaughter in the Undead World was far too brutal.
"Boss, stop worrying!" Bei Bei said quickly. "Whether it's your father or George and Yeru — their souls aren't weak. Even after entering the Netherworld and becoming undead, they'd be powerful ones. Powerful undead have a much greater chance of surviving."
"That's all I can hope for." Lin Lei nodded slightly.
But he also understood that every moment in the Undead World, countless powerful undead were being killed and devoured.
"We should hurry," Lin Lei said, frowning. "We need to find a Highgod. We can't just wander around aimlessly. We should find an Emissary of a Highgod, or ask a Prefectural Lord."
"Boss, do you know which Highgod Emissaries are in the Netherworld? Do you know where those Prefectural Lords live?" Bei Bei asked in return.
Lin Lei shook his head.
"Then let's find an Upper God to ask." As for the Netherworld, Lin Lei only knew the general information. Where exactly each Prefectural Lord resided — that was hard to say. Some Prefectural Lords might live inside a city, while others might reside in some remote mountain range.
Having decided to find an Upper God to question, Lin Lei began keeping watch outside.
This asking business wasn't as simple as spotting a metal life form flying by, noticing an Upper God inside, and just flagging it down. Blocking someone's flight might anger them. Even if they cooperated out of fear of Lin Lei's strength, they might deliberately give false information.
During the flight, Lin Lei kept careful watch outside.
It was on the third day, when Lin Lei was still sipping fruit wine and casually glancing out through the transparent window, that his eyes suddenly lit up.
In the distance, perhaps several li away, nearly ten thousand mid-stage Gods in a dense horde, led by several dozen Upper Gods, were chasing and killing a group of roughly a dozen people who were fleeing for their lives.
"Bei Bei, an opportunity!" Lin Lei said.
"Opportunity?" Bei Bei glanced casually. "What opportunity? It's just a bunch of bandits raiding someone." Along the way, Lin Lei and Bei Bei had already witnessed many such ambushes. But those had always involved small numbers and very little commotion.
"Follow me." Lin Lei's voice dropped low, and the metal life form vanished. Bei Bei had no choice but to follow Lin Lei toward the distant battlefield.
A huge number of bandits were running amok, killing in all directions. Those dozen or so people were frantically fleeing. However, among the bandits, the leading Upper Gods had their eyes set on two Upper Gods in particular.
"Some bastard leaked the info! We barely entered the Northern Corpse Prefecture's territory, and the bandits from all eighteen mountain ranges have joined forces to ambush us!" A red-skinned brute standing three meters tall with a pair of bull horns communicated via divine sense. His ox-eyes were bloodshot with fury.
"Big brother, calm down — staying alive is what matters now!" a young man urged.
"When we get back, I'll find out who did this!" the horned brute raged, though his speed still surged to its absolute limit. "Whether we escape — that's just fate," the young man said, glancing sideways. Those who were too slow had already been completely wiped out. Among those fleeing south, only the two of them remained alive.
Of course, some of their companions had fled in other directions. At this point, no one could worry about anyone else.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
Eight figures suddenly appeared in front of the horned brute and the young man, all watching them with cold, mocking smiles.
"Not good!" The horned brute and the young man immediately skidded to a halt. When they looked in other directions, they found people blocking those routes as well.
"You two still think you can run?" A deep, booming voice rang out. A stocky, heavily bearded dwarf no more than one and a half meters tall hovered in midair, his cold golden eyes fixed on them.
"Big brother — it's over!"
The young man and the horned brute exchanged a glance, both feeling utterly powerless.
Surrounded by bandits — this time the losses would be staggering.
"Kill us if you've got the guts," the horned brute snarled, scanning his surroundings with a cold, defiant laugh. "Kill us and you still won't get our stuff." Generally, those carrying precious items kept clones back at their base. If this horned brute were killed, he still had a clone elsewhere… meaning his spatial ring still couldn't be opened by anyone else.
The dwarf smiled coldly.
As the supreme leader of the bandits across all eighteen mountain ranges, they'd done this sort of thing more times than they could count and had plenty of experience. They knew the targets would certainly have clones elsewhere — even if killed, the treasures wouldn't be obtainable.
"You get two choices," the dwarf's deep voice echoed through heaven and earth. "First, you hand over this trip's goods. Give us your spatial rings directly. We let the two of you walk away alive. Second… you refuse, and nobody gets anything — and both of you die!"
"Then you die first!" the bull-headed man roared. His entire body instantaneously transformed into a black bull wreathed in raging flames, like a fiery phantom charging straight at the dwarf.
The dwarf merely scoffed. A massive black battle-axe fully two meters tall suddenly appeared in his hands. Gripping the great black axe with casual ease, he swung it straight at the fiery phantom. Where the black axe swept, space itself shuddered and rippled, like waves spreading across the surface of water.