The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 426 The Underworld and Out of Control

Faced with a supernatural power that Mercury could not comprehend, the surface dwellers could not refuse his demands and cooperated with Mercury to complete the oath.

After the oath was taken, the people on the surface felt bound by a mysterious force and had to obey Mercury.

Mercury appeared with a group of subterranean people, intending to lure the surface people into a trap and capture them.

Having achieved their goal, they led the surface dwellers back to Colette City.

That night, Mercury did nothing to the surface dwellers; instead, he distributed all the supplies meant as bait to them in Colette City.

The supplies included a large amount of food and fresh water, all produced in underground shelter number 87. In terms of both nutrition and taste, they were superior to the food consumed by people on the surface.

That night, most of the people on the surface enjoyed the most extravagant meal of their lives.

If it weren't for the deaths of several leaders before their eyes, they would have thought the hunt had ended in a great victory.

However, for the surface dwellers, life and death are commonplace, and it is not unusual for their leader to die during a hunt.

Although the leader is dead, the necessary supplies have been obtained. How can this not be considered a victory?

win.

Surrounded by the aroma of food, the surface dwellers quickly recovered from their injuries.

Only a few people were not blinded by the appearance of peace and remained immersed in pain and unease.

For example, Hella.

She tried to escape, but found herself on the edge of Colette City, her limbs bound by invisible ropes, unable to obey her commands. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't leave the city.

Left with no other option, she had to return to her residence.

Hela didn't sleep all night. The next morning, she was drawn by the noise outside and left her residence. She found a dark building suddenly appearing in the empty, dilapidated square.

Mercury appeared before the people and called the black building a miracle, a temple sent down by the gods for them.

He told the surface dwellers that he would select qualified surface dwellers to enter the temple.

Those who successfully pass the training and trials will gain extraordinary power and become servants of God.

At that time, the surface dwellers will not only regain their freedom, but will also receive the same supplies as last night every day.

Under coercion and enticement, the surface people completely submitted. They cooperated with Mercury's selection process, sending those qualified to become test subjects into the black building.

Hela, as one of the most qualified candidates, received great attention and became one of the first experimental subjects to enter the Black Building.

Hela's life in the secret research facility is very similar to Amber's life.

Their lives are difficult and harsh, requiring them to develop their bodies to the fullest extent, learn various combat skills, and strengthen their souls and wills by participating in rituals.

And most importantly, based on their individual talents, they tried to awaken the divine seed implanted in the experimental body by Mercury.

The only difference between Hela's secret research facility and Amber's is that all the nascent forms of imagined divinity within Hela's facility are related to death.

In the underground shelter dimension, a sudden outbreak of pollution and mutation resulted in the deaths of hundreds of millions of people.

Let alone the Desolate Realm, even in the Realm of Reason, very few planes would experience such an extinction-level catastrophe.

To some extent, the conditions of the Underground Sanctuary plane are exceptionally favorable. The immense aura of death and the abundance of wandering souls make it a natural breeding ground for fantastical divinity related to death.

That's why Mercury called this place the Temple of Death.

He and two other members of the Light Society used a ritual to gather the death energy and souls of the entire planet into the secret research institute, providing the experimental subjects with the conditions for awakening.

With the powerful supply of death energy, the test subjects grew rapidly, among whom Hela was the most remarkable.
Hela is extremely talented in fusing with divinity, and the illusory god who resonates with her is Hela, the goddess of death at the level of a chief god.

In addition, her origins as a surface human gave her physical talents far superior to those of ordinary humans, making her more adaptable and quickly making her the most outstanding among all the experimental subjects.

Before long, the entire Death Temple Research Institute revolved around her.

Unfortunately, this is not a good thing for Hela.

To stimulate the divinity of the goddess of death within her, researchers subjected her to various extremely dangerous environments, just to give her a close-up experience of death.

Each experiment would torment her to the point of near death, and then, as she lay dying, the death energy from the plane would be infused into her body to promote the growth of her illusory divinity.

Experiencing death is not enough; she also needs to get used to the death that comes with it.

Therefore, she has to fight to the death with different test subjects every day.

If the secret research institute that creates the idealized divinity is like raising a poisonous insect, then Hela is the king of poisonous insects.

From Hela's perspective, Wu Chang could sense that every time she killed a fellow experimental subject, she would absorb the illusory divine fire within the subject's body, as well as the subject's soul.

These souls are filled with resentment, but their resentment is not towards Hela, but towards the Light Society, which caused all of this.

The resentment of the dead accumulated within Hela, making her hatred for the Light Society, especially for Mercury, even heavier.

But she had already signed a contract with Mercury, which meant that she could not attack Mercury, nor could she even go against his will.

She couldn't even commit suicide unless Mercury allowed it.

Mercury took advantage of this, and proceeded with Hela's transformations without restraint, even relishing Hela's resentment towards him.

Hate and love are the two strongest human emotions. Strong resentment can often give rise to even stronger fantasies of divinity.

Thus, during Hela's transformation in the secret research institute, the divinity of the goddess of death within her continued to mature, and her physical body also began to transform into the mythical Hela, becoming half beautiful and alluring, while the other half remained deformed.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Mercury launched the final plan.

"The Underworld".

During the time he was training Hela, he was capturing surface dwellers, and now the number of surface dwellers gathered in Colette City has exceeded one million.

The Underworld Project, as the name suggests, involves Mercury using Hela to transform the entire surface of the planet into a desolate, death-filled underworld.

While Hela devours all life on the surface, transforming it into the underworld, the underworld is also helping Hela take her final step to become the true ruler of the underworld.

Mercury told Hela his entire plan without any hesitation, stating bluntly:

"I will use the lives of millions of people on the surface as a starting point, and through their lives, I will awaken the hundreds of millions of souls that are still dormant on the surface and died in the mutation."

"When the world begins to change, everything you know, including your family and friends, will disappear."

"If you don't want all of this to happen, then try to control death, control the underworld. I have a premonition that your existence will become my supreme masterpiece, even surpassing Gaia, on whom they have placed their hopes, and becoming the most powerful divine divinity."

After announcing the plan, Mercury placed Hela in the underground space at the center of the research institute and began activating the Underworld Project.

Guided by various instruments, Hela's divinity began to run rampant. Grayish-white light spread outwards from her center, frantically devouring all life.

The first to be devoured by her were the other experimental subjects within the Death Temple Research Institute.

Hundreds of test subjects were overwhelmed by her deathly divinity, their souls drained away.

The grayish-white light continued to spread outwards, leaving the secret research institute and entering Colette City.

All the surface dwellers gathered in Colette City have signed contracts with Mercury, and must cooperate with Mercury's plan to create a god.

They could only watch helplessly as the divine force of death surged forth, unable to resist.

Wherever the gray light passed, flowers and plants withered, the land became desolate, and any surface dwellers who came into contact with the aura of death would have their souls extracted on the spot, just like the test subjects, and fall to the ground and die.

Project Hades is a massive undertaking, and according to Mercury's estimates, it will take at least one or two years to transform the entire planet.

However, once the plan begins, as long as Hela's divinity serves as the catalyst to draw upon the accumulated death power within the planet, the subsequent transformation will be completed in a matter of time.

He doesn't need to be there the whole time for everything to go smoothly.

Mercury spent three days in the secret research institute, confirming that the Divinity of Death had covered Colette City, reaping the souls of millions of surface dwellers and irreversibly transforming the surface world into the underworld.

He then left the secret research institute and traveled to other dimensions.

He looked terrible when he left, as if he had encountered some serious trouble.

Although Hela was imprisoned in the underground of the research institute, she "saw" everything that happened outside through the divinity of death, and knew what she had done.

Seeing everything she knew destroyed by her own hands, her heart gradually grew numb and filled with despair, as if she were slowly dying like the planet itself.

She didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps ten days, perhaps a month—when a voice suddenly roused her. "I've seen your research records. If I were to give you a chance for revenge, what would you be willing to give up?"

Hela's lifeless pupils focused again. She looked towards the direction from which the sound came and found that a door had appeared on the wall not far away. The voice that had awakened her was coming from inside the door.

Hela did not hesitate. Both she and the souls she absorbed into her body made her answer to this question without hesitation.

"all."

“I like this answer.” As the voice rang out again, a man walked out of the door and stood in front of Hela.

Hela didn't recognize the man who suddenly appeared, but Wu Chang was very familiar with him.

He didn't recognize the man's face, but the man's aura was very special—an artist's air that appeared melancholic and elegant, but was actually a disguise for madness.

Just one glance reminded him of Lu Langfeng, who had appeared in Wanghai City.

Although the man in front of him used a different face, he was certain that the other party was the painter.

The painter greeted Hela and said:

"You don't need to be too nervous. I just like your determination, not that I really want you to give up everything for it."

"In this world, the one thing you need to do is very simple: eat me."

Hela looked at the painter in confusion, "Eat it? Why?"

The painter tore open his shirt, revealing a tattoo-like design on his chest: two intertwined snakes, resembling Mercury's caduceus.

He didn't hide anything and said it bluntly:
"Because I'm being targeted by a troublesome guy who's an expert tracker. Even if I kill the body I control, the mark will still follow my other bodies."

"With this mark in place, my consciousness cannot return to my world through the Pillar of the Present World. Therefore, I need someone to swallow it and transfer its existence."

Hela was very familiar with Mercury and recognized the mark on the painter's chest at a glance. Her tone became excited as she said, "Mercury?"

The painter looked at Hela in surprise. "You know that guy?"

Hela said, "I have a contract with him that I cannot disobey his orders. If you have a way to help me break the contract, I can help you."

The painter smiled and said, "Of course there is a way. That's why I came to you."

The painter took out a stone slab from behind him. The slab looked extremely ancient and seemed to have some kind of pattern engraved on it. However, he covered it with a piece of drawing paper so that Wu Chang could only see the faint lines.

Looking at the stone slab, Wu Chang suddenly remembered the information he had obtained from the Miracle Walker during the Misfortune-Covered instance.

Amber was able to escape from the secret research facility where she was located because the painter, while exploring the middle layer, accidentally stumbled into the secret research facility of the Light Society and stole an important tool used by the Light Society to create imaginary divinity.

In order to escape the pursuit of the Light Society, the painter revealed the Light Society's creation of artificial divinity, exposing the Light Society, which was hiding in the shadows, to the four major organizations. He escaped the pursuit by relying on the conflict between the two sides.

However, judging from the current situation, the painter will not be able to escape the pursuit of the Light Society so easily. He has been marked by Mercury and is being chased in a very bad way.

The stone slab he took out at this moment, if nothing unexpected happens, should be the very tool he stole that could create fantastical divinity.

The stone slab looked ordinary and unremarkable. Other players, even if they saw the stone slab, would not think it was an item, let alone believe that it could create divinity out of thin air.

Even Wu Chang couldn't see anything special about the stone slab, but it was precisely because he couldn't see anything special about it that he revealed its information.

If nothing unexpected happens, that stone slab must contain the Primordial Spiritual Pivot, which can support the large-scale use of the Light Society, and the amount of Primordial Spiritual Pivot contained within it is certainly not small.

If Wu Chang were truly facing the painter at this moment, he would definitely try to snatch the stone tablet from the painter's hands. Unfortunately, he is currently only in Hela's resentment, and can only act as an observer, watching everything unfold.

The painter said, "Relax, and whatever happens next, do not resist."

Seeing Hela nod, he turned his back to her and drew something on the paper covering the stone slab. As the painter stopped drawing, Hela felt the divine nature of death within her become uncontrollable, as if it was about to leave her body.

Her long training had instilled in her an instinctive desire to reclaim control of her divinity, but then she heard the painter's voice in her ear.

"Don't resist."

Hela gave up resisting and allowed the divine essence of death to leave her body. In less than a minute, all the divine essence of death that had accumulated in her body was extracted.

As Wu Chang sensed Hela's changes, he realized that once the imagined divinity within the experimental subjects cultivated by the Light Society matured, it would likely be forcibly extracted in this way.

Hela, having lost her divinity, instantly reverted to an ordinary surface dweller.

The artist then took out a paper house, pulled out a paper figure from it, and stuck it on Hela's body.

The paper figure quickly transformed into Hela's likeness. By the time the painter took the paper figure away, the contract Hela and Mercury had signed had already been transferred to the paper figure.

“The divinity within you is controlled by Mercury. With them around, my paper dolls cannot function. Now that the contract has been terminated, you are no longer under Mercury's control.”

Hela felt her body lighten, and no longer would the power of the contract control her mind or prevent her from acting if she wanted to resist Mercury.

The painter's skill impressed Wu Chang, who couldn't help but admire it.

No wonder he managed to evade the pursuit of the Light Society after stealing their goods; he's got some skills.

The painter threw Hela's paper figure aside, and after it landed, it transformed into another Hela.

He then manipulated the stone tablet to inject the extracted divine power of death back into Hela's body.

The painter's actions not only helped Hela terminate the contract, but also, through the extraction and injection process, dispelled the hidden tricks left by the Light Society in its utopian divinity through the stone tablet.

Even though Hela possessed a fantastical divinity, she was unable to utilize it effectively. Her divinity was nearing maturity, but her actual combat strength was inferior to that of a demigod. Any official member of the Light Society could easily subdue her.

But now it's different. Freed from her constraints, Hela can fully unleash the power of the divinity of death.

Her power surged, transforming her from a demigod into a true lower-level god in the blink of an eye. However, compared to Hela, whom Wu Chang had encountered, she was still somewhat weaker.

The painter put the stone slab back into his personal space and said:

"Now it's your turn to keep your promise."

Hela sensed the divine power of death within her. Divine power gathered in her hand, transforming into a black longsword, which she plunged into the painter's chest.

With a twist of her wrist, she roughly sliced ​​off the double snake pattern on the painter's chest and swallowed it whole.

Gudong.

Hela swallowed the flesh and blood, and the double snake pattern that originally appeared on the painter's chest was transferred to Hela's body.

The painter looked down at the hole in his chest, smiled, and said to Hela:
"Thank you, we're even now."

As soon as he finished speaking, the painter transformed into a paper figure with a hole in its chest and fell to the ground.

Thanks to the artist's skill, their movements went completely unnoticed by the researchers above.

It wasn't until the painter left and the researchers noticed the abnormal data from the instrument that they realized something was wrong.

Unfortunately it was too late.

The first thing Hela did after breaking free of her restraints was to seek revenge. Her target was not only Mercury, but also all the researchers inside the building.

The test subjects were all dead, so she didn't need to hold back at all; all she had to do was go on a killing spree.

Amidst the researchers' horrified gazes, Hela, wielding two swords, burst through a wall strong enough to withstand a demigod's attack and emerged from the underground space.

Researchers in the secret research institute subjected her to relentless training and forced her to constantly kill other test subjects in order to master combat skills.

Now, it's their turn to experience the combat skills she's honed.

Faced with Hela, who had complete control over the divinity of death, the staff inside the secret research institute were powerless to resist.

What followed was a one-sided massacre, like a cat-and-mouse game.

Hela became completely immersed in the killing, releasing her pent-up resentment and familiarizing herself with her own power through the slaughter.

When she turned around, she found herself riding a three-legged white horse, holding a rake in one hand and a broom in the other. There was no one else alive in the entire secret research institute except for her.

She canceled all her powers and returned alone to the underground space of the research institute, where she sat and waited quietly.

She didn't have to wait long before she saw Mercury, dressed in a full suit, rush out of the door left by the painter.

She smiled at the bewildered Mercury, then plunged her sword into his chest.

"You are finally back."

(End of this chapter)