Douluo Continent: I, Huo Yuhao, am the Master of Spirit

Chapter 341 Underworld
"Lord Ice Wolf, now I'm asking you a question."

"Are you willing to pledge your allegiance to me?"

Kerudela walked slowly to Li Guozhong, looked up at him, and for some reason, her petite body was full of power.

Li Guozhong looked down at the blue-haired princess in front of him, his eyes slightly dazed. His many years as a marshal had taught him that he would never underestimate a person because of their appearance.

The petite princess before him exuded true imperial majesty, a presence he had never felt even when facing her father, the Douling Emperor.

The Douling Emperor, who had already gone to the underworld, had no imperial majesty whatsoever; he exuded the air of a nouveau riche.

Looking at Keludela now, Li Guozhong had a sudden realization. That Douling Prime Minister was a veteran of three dynasties, and so was he.

This girl may indeed be royalty, but she could never be the daughter of that Douling Emperor!
This fierce, sharp, all-conquering aura could never be cultivated in the Douling Royal Family!

The Douling royal family is a group of pleasure-seeking, complacent people. Even if a powerful figure were to slap their emperor, they would only dare to smile and not show their fangs.

Moreover, the Douling royal family is known for adhering to old rules and does not recognize any other martial souls except the Swan Martial Soul. They also don't know what advantages the Swan Martial Soul has.

After tens of thousands of years, nurtured by so many resources, it should at least have become a Bright Swan, if not an Emerald Swan.

Good heavens, it looks exactly the same as it did 10,000 years ago.

Even within the Tang Sect, the Blue Silver Grass, which had been developed over thousands of years, eventually developed a devouring attribute by Tang Ya's generation. In terms of plasticity, the Swan Martial Soul was not as good as the Blue Silver Grass.

It was only because Tang San helped them ten thousand years ago that the Swan Martial Soul was not completely eradicated.

Although Li Guozhong vaguely guessed the truth, so what?

He already felt angry and ashamed of the former Douling royal family, and now seeing the weakness shown by the so-called nobles and elites of the Douling Empire in the face of danger made him even more furious and tremble with rage.

We don't expect them to be united, but at least they should be actively fighting the enemy. These nobles and aristocrats are better than the common people of Douling. They are ruthless in betraying national interests. They are truly like children selling their grandfather's land without a care in the world.

They didn't consider at all whether the promises made by these sea barbarians were reliable or not; they compromised today, and they would compromise again tomorrow.

The Douling Empire collapsed on its own, slowly being slowly torn apart by the Sea God family, without them even needing to send a large army.

"Your Highness, my answer is very clear!"
I will dedicate my loyalty to you!

Li Guozhong had to consider whether this was his last chance in his life to gain the merit of following the emperor.

In Li Guozhong's view, if anyone had the chance to restore the Douling Empire, only the blue-haired princess in front of him could do it.

Her eyes revealed an undisguised ambition to conquer all things, and her cultivation talent was nothing short of monstrous. If even she could not restore the Douling Empire, then this empire might truly have already met its end.

Krystra nodded in satisfaction, her voice haughty and confident as she said:

“Very good, Lord Ice Wolf, you have made the right decision.”

"Your first task now is to win over the border troops of the Douling Empire and restore control over them."

"I want an army that is absolutely loyal to me."

Li Guozhong was originally a marshal in the military. Although Xue Kui killed many high-ranking officers of the border army who were loyal to him, his influence in the border army was not so easy to eliminate.

Xue Kui's attempt to kill Li Guozhong was a miscalculation. While it might have allowed him to control the border troops through fear, it would have only resulted in a completely ineffective army.

Killing one's own highly respected general in front of soldiers is an extremely irrational decision in any world. Even Tang San wouldn't do such a thing. It would only make the army feel insecure and serve no other purpose.

After arranging things for Li Guozhong, Hathaway came to Krydera's side, placed one hand on her chest in a gesture of respect, and said:
"Caesar, the remnants of Xue Kui have been wiped out."

What are the next instructions?

Krystra looked at the distant snow and ice completely dyed red, and instead of giving instructions, asked:
"Sword Banner Lord, this is no longer your homeland. Now that you've arrived in this new world, what do you wish to do?"

"That Gush didn't really plan our fate in a strict sense, ha, in that respect he's much better than that Luke'ergos."

Heather fell silent, her eyes somewhat vacant. There was no sea monster race in this world, and the Ice Sea Mermaids were only similar in appearance, not in essence.

"I will continue to do what I want to do."

"I still yearn for a never-ending feast, in which I can play music."

Krydella looked at Heather, who was as steadfast as ever, and said:

"Then my answer remains the same as before: let your zither play for me, let your sword dance for me, and I will give you a feast that will never end, where you can play to your heart's content."

"Join me in rewriting Caesar's name in the name of conquest throughout this world."

"Once I've succeeded, I'll find a way to bring together Lord Destiny, Lord Golden Weave, Lord Yellow Purple, and others to hold a grand feast together."

For the first time ever, faint smiles appeared on the almost human-machine faces of Hazel and Xiaodie.

"Me too, just like always."

"Great Caesar."

…………

"Meow~"

In the Guterres Hills of the Gure Province of the Douling Empire, the Shadow Cat yawned, stretching out one front paw as if playing billiards, looking listless.

During this time, because it is a feline, its sense of smell is quite developed, so it accompanied Xia Die here to search for the traces of the Netherworld Butterfly.

Forget about the Netherworld Butterfly, you can't even find the Ten-Year Lonely Bamboo here. The Blue Silver Grass has probably been pulled up and juiced by the surrounding villagers. The huge hill is lifeless, just a godforsaken place.

Xia Die crouched down, gently stroked the Shadow Cat's large head, took out a cat treat from her skirt pocket, and began feeding the striker fat cat.

"You can only eat one, since you already had a can of food for lunch."

"Meow!"

The Shadow Cat ate the cat treat with tears streaming down its face. Back in Xilu City, it wouldn't even pick up a cat treat that fell on the ground. Now, it could only be described as destitute.

Two months have passed since she departed from Xilu City and arrived in the Guterres Hills. The chaos in the Douling Empire has not affected Xia Die.

Amon deliberately bypassed the Gulei Province, and the Xingluo Empire, which was closest to Gulei Province, had no interest in this desolate place. Therefore, it became a haven from the chaos of war.

For the past two months, no matter where Xia Die searched, she couldn't find any trace of the Netherworld Butterfly. She inquired with local Soul Masters and learned that the last reported sighting of this Soul Beast was 1,300 years ago.

Because the spirit beasts in the Guterres Hills are generally weak, it is the best choice for low-level spirit masters in the Douling Empire to hunt low-age spirit rings.

Thanks to the meticulous cultivation by Soul Masters who lacked understanding of sustainable development, the Guterres Hills have long since become devoid of any trace of Soul Beasts.

Rare soul beasts like the Netherworld Butterfly are usually killed the moment they show their faces.

"Young Miss, there's an emergency. Spatial turbulence has appeared in the southern part of the Guterres Hills."

“The power of death is flowing out from the spatial turbulence.”

Audrey's figure appeared out of thin air and told Xia Die the good news.

Xia Die hurriedly put away the cat treat, stood up and said:

"Sister Audrey, could you please take me there?"

Seeing her young mistress's request, Audrey naturally wouldn't refuse, and smiled as she said:
"of course."

The figure of the butterfly disappeared into thin air along with Audrey, leaving the shadow cat staring blankly into the air.

"Old Wu! Old Wu! Old Wu!"

"what!"

The empty valley echoed with heavy breaths, indicating that the cursing was very vulgar.

Fortunately, a blond priest appeared beside the Shadow Cat, picked it up, and then they both disappeared into thin air.

At this moment, in the southern part of the Guterres Hills, a black spatial rift has left a terrible scar on the world, from which invisible gales emanate, powerful enough to tear apart an unsuspecting Soul King.

Xia Die and Audrey appeared near the spatial rift. As soon as Xia Die landed, she felt an extremely pure death power permeating this space.

Aside from oneself, there is only one place in this world where one can find this pure power of death—the underworld.

"This is... pure death power."

"Is this spatial rift connected to the underworld? But how could it have appeared so suddenly?"

Xia Die didn't know the answer to this question, but Audrey had some guesses.

The Guterres Hills may have been located near the underworld. During this period, the Douling Empire and the Xingluo Empire were engaged in a major war in a neighboring province, resulting in a large number of deaths, including many high-level soul masters.

It is possible that these undead, along with some unknown factors, opened this spatial rift.

The Douluo Underworld is very powerful, and it shouldn't come into contact with reality just because of this level of undead impact.

If entering the underworld were that easy, Ye Xishui would have gone in long ago.

Whether it was sensing the arrival of Xia Die or not, the spatial rift underwent a change, with an almost tangible death force extending its claws from the rift.

"hiss!!!"

A strange hissing sound came from the spatial rift, and Audrey's eyes had turned into golden vertical pupils at some point, with the dragon king's might faintly visible.

If things go wrong, she will immediately retreat into the dream space with Xia Die.

Soon, a strange soul beast rushed out from the spatial rift. The soul beast was 25 meters long and had a wingspan of over 50 meters. Its body was dark purple and its huge wings had bone-like patterns.

This was none other than the Netherworld Butterfly that Xia Die had been searching for, but unlike the plan, the Netherworld Butterfly in front of her was far too big.

The oldest Netherworld Butterfly on record in the Douling Empire is 30,000 years old, with a body length of eight meters and a wingspan of eighteen meters.

Audrey could sense that the soul power fluctuations emanating from the Netherworld Butterfly indicated it was a ferocious beast that was at least 200,000 years old.

Just in case, Audrey had already used her mental powers to lock onto the Netherworld Butterfly, and then secretly contacted Adam to seal off the area.

They had finally found a Netherworld Butterfly, and they couldn't let it get away.

"My God!"

"I've finally found you!"

"Our clan has been breaking through the barrier between life and death for a long time before finally managing to create a small opening by taking advantage of the momentum of the dead returning to the underworld."

The enormous Netherworld Butterfly emitted an excited female voice, its massive wings flapping rapidly and creating a hurricane, revealing its inner joy.

The fairy butterfly's pointed ears twitched slightly, its voice ethereal and tinged with shyness.

"I...I am not a god."

Please don't call me that.

The Netherworld Butterfly shook its head anxiously and said:

"You are the beloved son of the underworld, destined to be its future master. Please do not underestimate yourself."

"Please allow me to introduce myself, the great Lord of the Underworld."

"Our Netherworld Butterfly clan originally lived in the mortal world, but later suffered persecution from humans and was on the verge of extinction. Fortunately, the underworld accepted us, and our entire clan moved to the place where life and death meet."

"From this point on, I began to bear the responsibility of guarding the gates of the underworld."

"Some time ago, the underworld sent us a message announcing your arrival and asking us to take you to the underworld."

"Great Mistress of the Underworld, please allow me to offer my sacrifice to you."

“I know this may be offensive, but only in this way can our clan repay the life-saving grace of the underworld back then.”

Besides, the Netherworld Butterfly also had the idea of ​​currying favor with a powerful figure. It could tell at a glance that the Lord of the Underworld had many vacant Soul Ring slots, and if it joined him now, it could at least gain some merit as a follower of a god in the future.

With the protection of the Lord of the Underworld, their race will never have to worry about continuing their lineage again.

The brutality of humans in the past left a deep impression on them, and the entire species was filled with insecurity.

(End of this chapter)