After I died, my personal maid rebelled.

The wind howled, the staff glowed, and corrupting chains continuously formed from the void, coiling and searching for a place to land.

The chains crashed into the stone wall a hundred meters away, taut with all their might. Oswald, who was falling, flipped over and stepped onto the chains, instantly activating his spiritual vision.

Before him came solid stone walls. Oswald looked around warily and found himself in a huge passage, with a green lawn just tens of meters below.

Sunlight streamed into the meadow from who-knows-where, and butterflies fluttered among the grass. Compared to the withered yellow of the northern grasslands in October, this place felt as warm as spring.

Just now... was it that boss monster that activated its skill?

Oswald continued his anxious search for his missing companions, but apart from Barton, who was hanging in mid-air with one hand clinging to the chain, the others had vanished without a trace.

Manipulating the chains, they slowly descended, bringing Oswald and Patton to the grassy ground. He landed lightly and urgently asked the still-shaken Patton, "Did you see what happened?"

Patton gasped for breath, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead. "Sir, there wasn't this patch of grass here before. Instead, there was a passage leading straight to the bottom of the abyss. The soldiers all fell to a lower level."

"Where's Kindrum?" Oswald took off his sunglasses and rubbed his temples vigorously.

"Kindum is in your hands."

Upon hearing this, Oswald quickly looked down and found Kindem, who was pale with fright, nestled in the crook of his other arm.

They quickly put Kindem down, and the trembling dwarf fell to the ground with a thud, slowly hugging himself tightly.

As the two were talking, the passage above their heads disappeared rapidly, and a spiral staircase reappeared, connecting to the grassy area beneath their feet.

"This should be the safe zone." Oswald raised his staff, and a thick chain formed, rapidly climbing up the stairs.

A few minutes later, the chains dragged a mangled suit of armor to Oswald.

"It seems we're on the fourth floor."

Oswald did not lose his mind due to the sudden situation. In fact, he was now absolutely certain that this was an invitation from some being.

Otherwise, why would this happen when I was the first to step onto the stairs?

After checking the magic within his body, Oswald understood that he would have to move forward alone from now on.

He then turned and coldly ordered, "Barton, you take Kingdem back to Broad Valley now."

Barton didn't react for a moment. "And you, sir?"

"I'm going to bring the soldiers back, and also accept someone's invitation."

……

Boom!

The bubbles burst, a terrifying thunderclap reverberated, and the soldiers who had briefly fallen into a coma awoke one after another.

What exactly happened? Where did they fall into?

They opened their eyes and found themselves suspended in mid-air, perched on giant bubbles with a radius of three or four meters.

At the very bottom of the underground city, a muddy pool emitting a ghostly purple light filled their entire field of vision.

The mud pit seemed to have a life of its own, floating irregularly and slowly releasing bubbles from its center into the air. By this time, the top of the building was filled with bubbles, and the soldiers were gradually being squeezed against the stone wall.

"Damn it..."

A soldier was trapped between two bubbles and immediately lost the ability to move. To make matters worse, the sharp points of his armor were pressing against the bubbles and were rapidly sinking in.

Boom!

The moment the bubble burst, the sound wave vibrated violently, blood gushed from the soldier's seven orifices, and he fell unconscious from the air, crashing into the active mud.

"brother!"

Taking advantage of this brief moment, seeing the active mud suddenly turn and rush towards the unconscious soldier, the other soldiers took the initiative to leap down from mid-air, jump into the mud, immediately draw their swords, and rush forward, cutting through the surging waves of mud.

They had a clear division of labor: three of them were responsible for blocking the incoming mud, while the remaining two used all their strength to dig out the wounded soldiers who had sunk most of their way into the mud.

The group reunited, still unsure what the purple mud was. In any case, they had to get back to the dry shore!

But... in this godforsaken place, there isn't a single patch of land where you can stand still!

They had nowhere to retreat; the mud clung to their legs, and as soon as one foot was pulled out, the other would sink in. They were helpless in this situation except to keep moving.

Time passed second by second, and after countless waves of mud were cleaved through, the mud pit finally stopped attacking.

The soldiers dared not relax, gripping their sword hilts tightly and staring intently ahead.

At this moment, a purple light was gathering in the center of the mud pit, and a tall figure with a furry exterior but an extremely black body crawled out of the mud pit.

The figure's features were indistinct, but it seemed to have ram's horns and horse-like hooves, with a long, snake-like tail swaying behind it.

It crawled and rolled around, and soon it went from having four limbs to walking upright. With its human-like hands outstretched, it began to take over everything in the space.

Purple light bloomed in the mud as it moved, and bubbles in mid-air burst one after another, yet it was as silent as a pantomime.

The space was floating, and the sound waves gathered together, blowing past the soldiers' ears like a gentle breeze.

"Outsiders..." it said.

The soldiers were puzzled. The figure stopped and quickly looked up at the rooftop.

In an instant, the top floor shattered, and countless decaying chains, symbols of death, fell down, along with a massive mass of monster flesh and blood. Oswald, covered in blood, broke through the entire dungeon and, surrounded by chains, arrived before them.

The flesh and blood cascaded into the mud like a waterfall, splashing up high clouds of mud. Oswald stepped lightly on the mountain of corpses, looking down at the dark figure.

"God?" Oswald tilted his head, revealing a ferocious smile.

After a brief moment of astonishment, the soldiers quickly cheered and rushed toward their Duke with a mixture of shock and adoration.

"Your Grace! We're here!"

Oswald noticed the group of young men who had miraculously survived, but he dared not relax for a moment, not even taking his eyes off the tall figures.

He waved his staff, and the chains rushed towards the soldiers, lifting them up one after another, and sending them like a drop tower from the deepest part of the underground city to the safe fourth floor.

The soldiers' exclamations faded into the distance. Oswald twirled his staff again, and a figure manipulated some kind of energy wave, directly communicating with the system in Oswald's mind.

"On the chessboard of the universe, we each have our own roles. The being you brought has become a special existence, and he must leave our world."

[......]

[This system can't think of anything sophisticated to say, host?]

Oswald almost crushed his staff. Is it possible that we're on a public channel right now?

(I have some in my memory; pick a few to use.)

[Among countless systems, I reign supreme; renowned throughout the ages, I pluck stars from the heavens. Having gathered to seek the Dao and aspire to the highest peaks, I naturally choose to advance fourfold...]

[Okay, that's it. Host, take it down! What are you whining about? This system will give you back your magic potion. Just do it!]

Upon hearing this, both sides suddenly entered a combat state.

Vast magical power surged into his body. Oswald pointed his staff forward, and the figure simultaneously raised his palm. The invisible energies in the space collided, squeezing out transparent spatial folds.

Amidst the earth-shaking tremors, a startling creak was heard, and the two energies ceased their entanglement and rushed directly towards each other.

Everything shattered before their eyes. The figure's body instantly disintegrated into a pile of black, hair-like matter, while Oswald was thrown away by the sound waves, his outermost skin and flesh splattering out.

"Ahem!"

Never before had Oswald encountered such a terrifying opponent. He fell into a pile of flesh and blood, and the light of his staff shone brightly once again.

An endless chain of corruption covered the ground, and a hand emerged from the black hair, pointing precisely at Oswald.

Thunder roared, and one bubble after another spewed from the mud, crashing headlong into the corrupting chains. The aura of immortality was shattered, and the explosive force of the bursting bubbles exceeded Oswald's imagination. His chains all broke and dissipated in the overlapping waves of sound.

Another invisible energy surged forth, sending the flesh and blood of the monsters around him flying. Oswald gripped his staff tightly and used his undead magic to create a protective shield around himself.

At the same time, the magic circle beneath his feet rapidly unfolded, and Oswald began to absorb all the magic power, including that of the corpse, from the entire lowest level.

A purple light flashed, and the figure that had been reassembled at some unknown time suddenly appeared in front of Oswald. The magic shield shattered upon contact. After closing the distance, the two pointed at each other again, and the violently surging magic collided and tore through space.

Both were sent flying hundreds of meters backward at the same time, their figures twisting and turning into a mass of black fur and flesh, while Oswald's flesh was peeled off in large quantities, revealing the purplish-black magic crystal in front of his spine.

Upon landing, the reorganization was completed immediately. The purple light in the mud flowed into his palm, and the figure seemed to realize the reason why Oswald was so sturdy, pointing to his magic crystal.

This time, however, Oswald was faster.

The magic circle on the ground shattered, and the monster's corpse released a massive amount of magic power, which quickly flowed into the blood-red magic circle that had already solidified and been outlined in mid-air.

Broken, decaying chains drooped down, intertwining and colliding into a denser mass that entered the magic circle, causing the astonishing change.

The figure waved its hand again, and the violent magic was directly blocked by the magic shield that Oswald had deployed. Just as it was about to flash, an invisible magic force from Oswald shattered it on the spot.

Meanwhile, the undead serpent made of chains crashed heavily into the mud, its massive jaws, formed by the chains, opened, and swallowed the mass of black fur whole.

The giant python writhed wildly in the mud, causing the stone walls of the underground city to collapse one after another, and gray and purple lights clashed wildly... grinding against the twisted human figure, the giant python soon stopped moving and delivered the substance, which was no longer recognizable, to Oswald.

An arm, its white bones exposed, stretched out, and Oswald grabbed a clump of black fur and swallowed it whole.