Living in the deep palace

"Lord of the Nine Netherworlds? He won't be for long."

Su Chen grinned maliciously and thrust his other hand into the chest of the Nine Netherworld Ghost Emperor.

puff!

Blood splattered.

Su Chen's palm pierced through the Ghost Emperor's chest and grabbed the black heart that was beating violently and radiating a strong aura of reincarnation!
"Ahhh-"

The Nine Netherworld Ghost Emperor let out a shrill scream, a scream of excruciating pain from his very essence being touched.

"This heart... smells good."

Su Chen leaned closer and smelled it, a satisfied look appearing on his face.

"It contains some of the fundamental rules of the underworld, as well as your insights from tens of thousands of years of reincarnation..."

"Bring it to you!"

Su Chen suddenly pulled!
collapse!
That black "Heart of Reincarnation" was uprooted!

The Nine Nether Ghost Emperor's aura instantly weakened to the extreme, and his cultivation level, which was originally at the mid-stage of the Great Luo realm, plummeted like a deflated balloon.

"No...give it back to me...that was my Dao Fruit..."

The Nine Netherworld Ghost Emperor stretched out his trembling hand, trying to take back the heart.

But Su Chen didn't even glance at him. He opened his mouth wide and threw the still-beating heart inside.

grunt.

Swallow it.

Rumble——! ! !
Su Chen's inner universe instantly boiled over.

The Longevity Tree sensed this extremely special "reincarnation" power, and its seven branches swayed in unison, emitting joyful Dao sounds.

At the eighth node of the tree trunk, a light that was a mixture of dark and pale colors suddenly shone.

The light spun rapidly, transforming into a miniature phantom of a six-path wheel.

Immediately afterwards, a tender branch, as black as jade and engraved with patterns of spider lilies, slowly emerged.

【The Eighth Branch of Immortality: The Branch of Reincarnation】!
Effects: Controls the cycle of life and death, constructs an independent underworld, allows those whose true spirits are immortal to be reborn under the Dao Tree, and can also forcibly cast enemies into the animal realm or the hungry ghost realm, never to be able to rise again!
"It's done!"

Su Chen's eyes flashed with a sharp light.

With the birth of the eighth branch, he felt a strange connection to this "underworld".

It was as if... he was the true master of this place!
"Since we've already eaten the heart, let's not waste this body either."

Su Chen looked at the dying Nine Nether Ghost Emperor in his hand, and the [Mouth of Gluttony] opened once more.

"You...you are a devil..."

The Nine Netherworld Ghost Emperor only had time to utter a final, desperate curse before being swallowed whole by Su Chen.

The once mighty Ghost Emperor perished, transforming into fertilizer for the Tree of Immortality.

"belch--"

Su Chen let out a burp, and his aura surged again. Although he was still at the early stage of the Great Luo realm, he was not far from the middle stage.

More importantly, his current spiritual power has increased several times over after devouring the Ghost Emperor's Great Luo Primordial Spirit!
The original feeling of being "top-heavy" completely disappeared, replaced by a sense of perfect, unhindered control.

"His Majesty is dead?!"

Below, the million Yin soldiers who were still putting up a stubborn resistance collapsed instantly when they saw their invincible Ghost Emperor being swallowed whole by that giant.

"Run! It's a man-eating demon!!"

The army was defeated like a mountain.

Countless ghost soldiers abandoned their armor and weapons, trying to escape back to the Gates of Hell.

"Want to run?"

Su Chen returned to his normal human size, stood in the void, and looked down at the routed army below.

He slowly raised his right hand, and the newly grown [Reincarnation Branch] trembled slightly.

"Reincarnation Town!"

hum!
A massive phantom of the Six Paths of Reincarnation appeared behind him, slowly rotating.

An absolute command from the soul level instantly enveloped the entire battlefield.

The fleeing ghostly soldiers suddenly froze, their eyes flashing with ghostly fire, and finally...

pat!pat!
The million Yin soldiers turned around in unison and knelt down in front of Su Chen in the sky!
That was the authority bestowed upon Su Chen by the [Reincarnation Branch]—the Lord of All Ghosts!
Any spirit born in this underworld, as long as it has not transcended reincarnation, will be subject to his control!
"Submit, or... be annihilated." Su Chen said calmly.

"We... surrender! We pay homage to the Lord of the Underworld!!"

The deafening shouts echoed throughout the underworld.

Even those originally unruly ghost generals were now trembling and prostrating themselves in fear.

"very good."

Su Chen nodded in satisfaction.

This not only allowed them to devour a Great Luo Ghost Emperor, but also to gain a million elite Yin soldiers for free. This is a huge boost to the combat strength of the Immortal Realm.

"Giant spirit, withered bones."

"My subordinate is here!"

The two flew to Su Chen's side, their eyes filled with admiration.

"Recruit these ghost soldiers and clean up the battlefield."

"Then……"

Su Chen turned around and looked at the huge gate to the underworld, and the faintly visible world of the netherworld behind it.

"Break down the door!"

"The real treasure is still inside."

Rumble!
The gates of hell were pushed open by the combined efforts of the Giant Spirit Guards.

An intense, overwhelming aura of malevolent energy swept over us.

Su Chen looked around.

The world behind the door was not as desolate as I had imagined.

The earth took on an eerie dark red hue, as if it had been soaked in blood.

And on that land, the mountains and fields were covered with a fiery red flower—the red spider lily!

Flowers bloom without leaves, and leaves grow without flowers.

These flowers emitted an eerie light, and at the center of each flower's stamen was a crystal-clear... Soul Crystal!
"This is... a Soul Source Stone?!"

Lady Dry Bones cried out in alarm, her breathing rapid.

Soul Source Stones are treasures a hundred times more precious than ordinary source stones! They are top-grade materials for cultivating the divine soul and refining external avatars! In the outside world, even a piece the size of a fingernail would be fought over by Golden Immortals.

And here...

Covering the mountains and fields!

Hundreds of millions!

"Is this the true essence of the Underworld...?"

Su Chen was also shocked by this extravagant gesture, and then a deeper greed appeared in his eyes.

"move!"

"Empty it up!"

"Scrape the earth three feet deep! Don't leave a single flower or stone for the Heavenly Court!"

"Yes!!!"

The army of immortals roared like hungry wolves, swarming into this treasure land like locusts. However, Su Chen did not move.

His gaze passed over the sea of ​​red spider lilies and looked toward the very center of the underworld.

There stands a towering, black mountain.

At the summit of the mountain, a faint golden light seemed to be shimmering.

Within that golden light, there was a scent that made Su Chen feel extremely uncomfortable, yet strangely familiar.

That was... Buddha's light?
"How could there be Buddha's light in the underworld?"

Su Chen frowned slightly, and a legend suddenly flashed through his mind.

If hell is not empty, I will never become a Buddha.

"Could it be... the remains of the Great Vow Ksitigarbha?"

"In Chen Sheng's memory, that Great Vow Ksitigarbha was a top expert in the Fifth Realm. Even the combined forces of the Skeleton Venerable, Chen Sheng, and the Underworld Lotus Saint Master, three Fifth Realm experts, were no match for him..."

"If it really is that kind of thing..."

Su Chen licked his lips, and his figure vanished from the spot in an instant.

"That's an ingredient a hundred times more precious than the Nine Netherworld Ghost Emperor!"

……

As the Gates of Hell were violently breached, the will of the Immortal Emperor Su Chen swept across the "Netherworld," a world that had been silent for countless epochs, like an unstoppable torrent.

This world presents a suffocating dark red hue.

There was no sun in the sky, only a broken, purple crescent moon hanging in the horizon, casting a cold, desolate glow. The earth was not as desolate as one might have imagined; on the contrary, it was "full of life"—but this life belonged to the dead.

The hillsides are covered with red spider lilies, as red as blood, so alluring they make one's heart tremble. A gentle breeze blows, and the sea of ​​flowers ripples, as if countless red-clad ghosts are dancing in the wind.

Beneath that sea of ​​flowers lies not soil, but a thick layer of bone meal.

"I'm rich...this time I'm really rich!"

Lady Skeleton stood at the bow of a bronze flying boat, her hands trembling as she scooped up a handful of dark red soil. Mixed within the soil were a dozen or so crystals, each the size of a grain of rice, emitting a ghostly blue luster.

[Soul Origin Stone]!
In the outside world, this is a top-tier rare treasure that only powerful cultivators at the Grand Luo Golden Immortal level would be willing to use to temper their primordial spirit. A single Soul Source Stone the size of a grain of rice is enough to increase the soul strength of a Golden Immortal cultivator by 10%, without any side effects!

In the black market of the Void Realm, such a Soul Source Stone can often be exchanged for a low-grade acquired spiritual treasure, or even be priceless and unavailable!
But here...

Lady Bone gazed upon this vast, boundless plain of the underworld, where every inch of land contained these crystals. In some places, due to tectonic activity, the Soul Source Stones were even exposed, piling up into glittering little mountains!

This is no hell! This is clearly a treasure trove paved with gold bricks!
"The Dao Ancestor has decreed! Dig!!"

Lady Dry Bones took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in her heart, and issued a command that was almost a scream.

"Forget about those low-level Other Shore Flowers, focus all your efforts on mining Soul Source Stones! Giant Spirit Guards are in charge of crushing the surface rock layers, Longevity Guards are in charge of collecting and sifting, and the surrendered Yin Soldiers are in charge of transporting them!"

"Be quick! Be stylish! Even if you have to dig with your hands or gnaw with your teeth, you have to clear out all the resources in this area before the Dao Ancestor comes down from the mountaintop!!"

"Roar--!!!"

The three thousand giant spirit guards let out excited roars.

For this group of brutes who only cultivated their physical bodies and whose souls were relatively weak, these Soul Source Stones were simply a holy medicine to make up for their shortcomings!

boom! boom! boom!
Giant Spirit One charged ahead, wielding the Sky-Splitting Axe with incredible speed, each strike carving a deep trench hundreds of feet deep into the earth. Countless hidden Soul Source Stone veins were violently unearthed, then stuffed into storage bags by the swarming Longevity Guards and Yin Soldiers behind him.

The entire outer perimeter of the underworld instantly transformed into a bustling, massive construction site.

The one who caused all of this, Su Chen, had already crossed the sea of ​​flowers and arrived at the very center of the Underworld.

Here stands a colossal black mountain that pierces the clouds.

The mountain is not made of rock, but of countless black soul crystals compressed to their extreme. These soul crystals seal away powerful vengeful spirits from ancient times who could not be reborn. They roar and curse within the crystals, and the resentment they emit is enough to cause even a Golden Immortal to instantly go berserk.

This is the core of the Underworld—the [Soul Gathering Mountain].

With his hands behind his back and his bare feet on the black mountainside, Su Chen walked upwards step by step.

With each step he took, the vengeful spirits beneath his feet screamed in terror, for the aura of chaos and reincarnation emanating from Su Chen was the most terrifying poison to them.

"That good-for-nothing Nine Nether Ghost Emperor has occupied this treasure land for tens of thousands of years, yet he only dares to build a palace at the foot of the mountain, and doesn't even dare to go up to the mountainside."

As Su Chen walked, he felt the increasingly terrifying pressure emanating from the mountain, a cold smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"It seems that even he can't control what's on the mountaintop."

"but."

"He actually refined it."

"He should have reached the fifth realm long ago. Back then, I didn't even dare to fight him! Now, I'm afraid I'll get lucky. Jiuyou is truly a piece of trash..."

The higher you go, the stronger the suffocating pressure becomes.

As we reached the mountainside, a pale golden mist began to permeate the air. This mist exuded an aura of compassion, grandeur, and universal salvation, which clashed sharply with the eerie and terrifying atmosphere of the surrounding underworld.

"Buddha's light?"

Su Chen stopped and reached out to grab a wisp of light mist.

Zizizi!
The moment the light mist touched Su Chen's palm, it made a sound like a branding iron hitting water, attempting to purify the "demonic nature" and "murderous sins" within Su Chen's body.

"interesting."

"Having been dead for countless millennia, you still think you can convert me with your remaining shred of power?"

A purple glint flashed in Su Chen's eyes, and he clenched his fist tightly.

Snapped!
That wisp of Buddha's light was crushed and dissipated into specks of golden light.

"My path is not within the Three Realms and Five Elements, nor within the salvation of gods and Buddhas."

"Whoever I want to eat, that person will be my food. If Buddha tries to stop me, I will eat Buddha."

Su Chen didn't linger. Braving the golden light that filled the sky, he instantly accelerated.

boom!
He smashed through the last layer of the protective barrier on the mountaintop and landed at the highest point of Gathering Souls Mountain.

At the top of the mountain, there was no magnificent palace as imagined, only a flat platform thousands of feet in circumference.

The platform's ground wasn't black, but rather a warm, jade-like white, covered with densely packed golden scriptures. These scriptures weren't static; rather, they flowed slowly across the ground like water, emitting faint, intermittent chanting sounds.

In the very center of the platform sat a skeleton.

A pure golden skeleton, radiating the aura of a Great Luo Golden Immortal at the peak of perfection, even touching the edge of the fifth realm...
Although the flesh and skin of this skeleton had disappeared, the bones were crystal clear, as if they were cast from the finest divine metal. It sat cross-legged, its hands forming a strange mudra, as if it were suppressing something, or perhaps guarding something.

Above its head floated a scroll of scripture that was neither gold nor jade.

The scripture was entirely black, yet edged with gold. There were no words on the cover, only a slowly rotating...reincarnation mark.

"The Sutra of Reincarnation..."

Su Chen's gaze was instantly drawn to the scroll of scriptures.

The [Reincarnation Branch] within his body trembled wildly at this moment, as if it had seen a long-lost relative, or as if it had seen the most delicious prey.

"It's indeed a good thing."

"This golden body must be the remains left by the 'Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva' who made a great vow in the ancient underworld, right? Although it is not his true body, it is a golden body that embodies a trace of his obsession and merit."

"As for this scripture..."

Su Chen narrowed his eyes, "This should be the 'core controller' of this fragment of the Netherworld, and also the supreme manual that records the true Dao of Reincarnation."

"That fool, the Nine Nether Ghost Emperor, is begging for food while guarding a mountain of gold. If he could comprehend this scripture, he would probably have already attained the Great Luo Immortal Perfection, and might even have a chance to break through to the fifth realm."

Su Chen strode towards the golden statue.

However, the moment he stepped into the golden body's hundred-zhang range.

Om-!
The once lifeless, golden skeleton suddenly had two golden flames ignite in its eye sockets.

A grand, desolate sigh, filled with endless sorrow, resounded in Su Chen's mind.

“Benefactor…stop.”

"The sea of ​​suffering is boundless, but turning back is the shore." (End of Chapter)