Gacha games can't save this bizarre world.

Once the pioneers of many civilizations realized that the entire world depended on a single egg, they all began to try to limit the giant egg's absorption of nutrients and delay its hatching as much as possible.

The West is more direct; the gods consume people's souls, treating them as consumables, extinguishing them upon death.

The East is more particular, seeking ways to conserve the flow of spirit and soul, allowing spirituality to reincarnate and soul power to be conserved. This ensures sustainable development during the transition period.

The duty of the ferrymen on the Sanzu River is to harvest the soul power of the dead to prevent it from falling into the giant egg.

Now, the Western pantheon has collapsed, the rules of the underworld have long been broken, and evil spirits are everywhere in the underworld, with no one to care.

These evil spirits will eventually be absorbed by the giant egg.

Now that we know what they want, things are much easier. Everyone present is extremely wealthy.

Although soul power is difficult to obtain, those present were able to acquire it.

Several sorcerers specializing in necromancy contributed a dozen or so ferocious necromancy spells they had on hand, directly refining and extracting their soul power.

They also added the spiritual energy magatama to create "literary coins".

The boatman on the Sanzu River was wearing a straw raincoat and a large, jar-like hat, typical of Japan, that covered his face.

Someone stepped forward and showed the "coins" in their palm. The boatman indeed reached out to take them; the dry, bluish-black hand, with cracked nails, was quite frightening.

The crowd filed onto the boat, which turned out to be enormous inside. Even with seventy or eighty people on board, it wasn't crowded at all.

The two princes stood at the bow of the ship, surrounded by several bronze-level experts.

The Sanzu River was a turbulent, murky sea, with shadows of varying sizes flashing by beneath its surface. The largest was like a whale, while the smallest was an unknown monster of bronze-level origin, exuding an overwhelming sense of oppression!

Countless other souls struggled and screamed in the river, their cries a consequence of the waves, and none of them could escape. Their ultimate demise awaited them.

While humans began crossing the river, on the other side, Shuten-dōji, Hiyō-e, and the nine-tailed fox Daji, whose origins were quite remarkable, were also having a gathering.

The three great demons were discussing how to deal with the current situation.

To be honest, staying in the underworld to serve Izanami is not a good choice.

Not to mention the lack of freedom, look around, are there any good-looking people here? Is the defiled Mother Goddess joking?

Izanagi was so frightened away that there has been no beautiful thing in the underworld since then.

Of course, red spider lilies are beautiful, but dangerous.

Finally, the three great demons decided to temporarily unite and cross the river. They wanted to go to the temple and compete with the two imperial princes for the divine status of the Great God.

If this succeeds, at least we can leave the Underworld. If it fails, we can just say that Izanami stole it, and that she just didn't manage to.

For the demons, crossing the Sanzu River was much easier. The nine-tailed fox Daji simply pulled out a strangely styled psionic mechanical boat and carried the entire group of demons across the river! This left the other two demons pondering deeply.

……

Kirimi is here again, calling out to Nanaya Saki: "Come and see, the excitement is about to begin!"

Nanaya Saki didn't want to go, but Kirimi said, "Oh, right, your father is there too."

Nanaya Saki hesitated for a moment, but finally followed.

Gui Lijian smiled slightly. Ghosts, too, can be skilled at manipulating people's hearts.

Their destination was also that mysterious shrine; he wanted to awaken the Eight Heroes. This was no easy task.

At this moment, Zhao Hao was entangled by a monster from the Netherworld. This thing had a strangely shaped head, which was five or six meters long, and its body was more than ten times the length of its head.

Its claws have seven webbed toes, and its body is covered with spots of varying sizes. Upon closer inspection, you'll find many eyes of different sizes hidden among them...

This thing should be collectively called Netherworld Monsters; this one is just the stronger one, a Bronze 2-star.

"Damn it, I don't have time for you!" Zhao Hao stomped his foot, and with the wind wings sprouting from his back and the aerial flight technique, he flew at an astonishing speed.

To my utter surprise, that ugly and grotesque monster could fly, even though its two small wings were only half the size of its body and were deformed. It's safe to say it didn't fly with wings.

The monster was of low intelligence; once it set its sights on Zhao Hao, it chased after him relentlessly!

Chapter 446 The Shrine of the Dead Lord, the Awakening of the Eight Heroes

The monster chasing Zhao Hao flew with all its might, and dozens of "holes" of varying sizes appeared on the back of its body. Spiritual energy spewed out from those holes like purple flames!

They actually switched to jet propulsion and accelerated again!

They were getting closer and closer to Zhao Hao.

It opened its massive mouth in mid-air and howled excitedly, startling countless demons and monsters nearby, who scattered in all directions. It was like a particularly mischievous dog encountering something it was extremely interested in, relentlessly pursuing it!

And seeing that Zhao Hao was not far away, it actually pouted its huge mouth and spat!

The purplish-red saliva, as sticky as glue, sprayed out in large swaths, landing on the unfortunate monsters on the ground, instantly corroding their flesh and bones!

Zhao Hao really didn't want to waste time with this brainless thing; now was not the time to kill monsters and farm Fate Points.

However, this thing was incredibly persistent. It even started spitting.

Zhao Hao's anger exploded.

"Come on! I'll beat you to death today!" Zhao Hao landed on his own initiative, ready to settle things with it.

The strange creature also charged down excitedly, just like an aerial bomb, and crashed to the ground with a "bang," creating a large crater.

With a series of strange cracking sounds, the monster's bones were breaking and tendons were snapping. Zhao Hao initially thought it was trying to commit suicide!

However, the monster seemed completely unfazed by its injuries. The wounds inflicted by the broken bones stopped bleeding, closed, and healed in the blink of an eye. The broken bones twisted and re-entered its body, regrowing...

Zhao Hao felt an itch to see it; no wonder this thing looked so strange and ugly, its bones could just grow back however they wanted.

"Damn it! I'll kill you!" Zhao Hao drew his demonic sword, White Serpent, and immediately launched into a New Year's greeting sword technique.

The white serpent formed from psionic energy was over ten meters long in the air, flicking its red tongue as it lunged at the strange creature.

The blade's spiritual energy shone so brightly it was blinding; with a single strike, a four- to five-meter-long spiritual energy blade aura shot out, accompanied by a hurricane.

With a "plop" sound, purple blood gushed out, like a fountain.

……

The two Japanese princes boarded a ferry on the Sanzu River and headed towards the other side.

The Sanzu River is very special; it looks only a few dozen meters wide, yet you can still see the scenery on the other side.

But when we actually got to the river, we found that it stretched as far as the eye could see!

This is also a characteristic of the River Styx, after all, it runs through all the underworlds of the entire world, making it extremely mysterious.

As the prince departed, the temporary alliance of three great demons also set off. They traveled on the ship of the nine-tailed fox spirit Daji, a very strange mechanical vessel.

Even a thousand-year-old demon like Shuten-dōji of Mount Ōe had never seen anything like it; it looked like it was made using a very retro puppet technique.

Even the flying moth didn't know the origin of the boat that could ferry people across the River Styx; it could only tell that the entire boat used an extremely sophisticated sealing technique.

Furthermore, he expressed doubts about the identity of this nine-tailed fox Daji.

Because he was originally a monster from the Celestial Empire, he was just a minor monster there, and when he couldn't make it there, he came to Japan.

Having escaped the dormancy of spiritual energy by chance, he is now a great demon, and has accumulated an extremely large amount of demonic power by utilizing the characteristics of the demon moth clan.

Because he came from the Celestial Empire, he had some understanding of the infamous concubine Daji.

It is almost certain that Daji, the fox spirit among the three demons of Xuanyuan Tomb, was executed by Jiang Ziya.

Even if there were some secrets involved, such as King Zhou preserving her remnant soul, she wouldn't have ended up in this remote and impoverished place.

In Fei Yao's mind, even if she was doing well in Japan, it was just showing off in a remote and impoverished place. She still carried a bit of pride in her status as a superior nation.

This being of unknown origin, who calls herself Daji, possesses immense power but doesn't seem like an ordinary demon. She commands many elite demons and has mastered some strange and unheard-of techniques... Just who is this demon?

To be honest, the flying moth is quite perceptive and self-aware.

My original plan was to take advantage of the chaos in Japan to seize a spiritual vein node in Heian-kyo, hoping to gain as much as I could, treating it as free money. I intended to make a short-term profit, but I'm now stuck with it.

They fell into a trap and were outmaneuvered by a powerful being.

If he weren't already in grave danger, he would have run away immediately. He's been forced into this situation!

The flying moth cried out inwardly, "How difficult! How difficult! How difficult!"

These two groups have already crossed the river and left, and another group has appeared.

That was Saiō of Ise Grand Shrine, who came to the underworld through another means, and Senke Hidee, the priestess of Izumo Taisha Shrine.

Both groups were well-prepared and took relatively safe and legitimate routes.

The two sides together had six bronze-level warriors, but few iron-level warriors, totaling less than twenty.

After all, in a place like this, Black Iron is somewhat in a precarious position.

The two princes on either side were tricked by the powerful Emperor Sutoku and Izanami, falling directly into a trap and becoming passive and precarious throughout. However, Prince Ise and Hidee Senke were well-prepared.

On the land of Japan, the descendants of Amaterasu Omikami are absolutely not to be underestimated.

During its long reign spanning thousands of years, the descendants of Amaterasu had long since become one with the entire Japanese kingdom.

It can be said that they have ways to influence even the underworld.

So, the two groups of people appeared here.

Saiō of Ise Grand Shrine sat in an extremely luxurious carriage, gilded and silvered, and inlaid with various jewels and ornaments.

The carriage was larger than a typical small villa, and the horses pulling it were also quite large, over three meters tall at the shoulders, with incredibly muscular and spirited steeds. The six enormous white horses galloped in unison through the air, pulling the carriage across the Sanzu River.

The emperor's chariot is drawn by six horses, and since the prince's status is comparable to that of the emperor, he too is drawn by six horses.

This chariot was offered to the Ise Grand Shrine by the imperial lineage a thousand years ago, and the six horses are said to be descendants of divine horses bestowed upon them by Emperor Taizong of Tang during the Tang Dynasty, capable of walking on air even in the underworld.

Meanwhile, Chika Ei-e stood at the bow of the ship, which was bright red and had an ancient and simple design, looking like a natural creation.

The ship, carrying everyone, transformed the inert, dark spiritual energy unique to the surrounding underworld into waves, carrying everyone across the Sanzu River.

This ship was made of fusang wood, modeled after the ship that carried Takemikazuchi and his grandson to Ashihara no Nakatsukuni to take over the entire human realm—the Amaterasu-shu. That ship later became a god!

Not long after the two set off, several female ghosts from the underworld arrived at the riverbank with a large group of demons.

That was a really, really big group!

From the air, there are more students than middle school students doing exercises; there must be at least several thousand.

Size, height, one eye, one horn, two heads, four wings, six arms... some are worm-like, some are murderous, some are humanoid, each one is very strange and extremely fierce.

Seven or eight female ghosts from the underworld, all of them of bronze rank, led their group to the banks of the Sanzu River. The Manjusaka flowers all burrowed underground to hide.

How could this ghost from the underworld be beautiful, being Izanami's handmaiden?