The Failed Underworld

The land all around was barren red earth, crimson as blood. The ancient sacrificial altar, battered and weathered, had nearly crumbled into dust with the passage of ages.

Little Fatty Niu Ren had finished carving on the altar. Xiao Chen held the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree in his hands and prayed with his whole heart, wishing for the departed spirit to manifest before him.

Though he did not know what race Keke belonged to, its latent power was unquestionably immense. Boundless potential meant its soul-force was extraordinarily strong. A being like that, after death, ought to come to the Heavenly Crucible.

With Little Fatty Niu Ren's help, Xiao Chen barely mastered the Barbarian sacrifice's soul-summoning method and completed the invocation.

Wuwu…

Eerie, ghastly howls arose around the blood-colored altar. Shadows of souls danced in the air, gathering from all directions.

"Bad, this is wrong! Why are we summoning so many souls?" Little Fatty exclaimed in alarm. "Did something go wrong? These lonely ghosts don't think we're offering them a feast, do they?"

The nearby souls converged rapidly. One human-shaped soul, five or six meters tall, bared its fangs and claws, leaping directly onto the altar.

Before Xiao Chen and Niu Ren could act, the Black Dragon King struck.

Clang!

The clear sound of a divine sword being drawn rang out across the blood-colored altar.

Swish!

A beam of divine light flashed across the sky, ferociously striking the vicious soul shadow.

A ball of nether fire burst in the sky. The massive humanoid soul shadow vanished in an instant.

Clang!

The sword sound came again. A sword-light sank into the Black Dragon King's spine.

Such means… not only stunned the soul shadows for a moment, but also shocked Xiao Chen and Niu Ren. The Black Dragon King's divine sword was too sharp. Even a demigod likely could not withstand it.

In the distance, a sinister wind howled. Waves of bloody, baleful aura surged as a colossal soul shadow manifested. The fierce souls around the altar scattered in terror.

"Gods, what is that thing?"

Niu Ren stared, dumbfounded. A behemoth a full fifty meters long, churning clouds of blood and baleful mist, charged from the distant sky. It was fearless of the iridescent light above and could ride clouds in flight.

Boom! Boom!

From other directions, several more colossal beings appeared, driving sinister clouds and ghostly mist forward. In the ink-black clouds, enormous beast claws the size of several rooms reached out.

Clearly, the mightiest holy souls of the surrounding region had arrived. Xiao Chen and Niu Ren were surrounded.

"The summoning ritual isn't working? Why didn't it call forth the little white beast's spirit, but instead brought these ferocious soul kings?" Little Fatty looked as if he might cry.

Xiao Chen frowned. The old men in the Pure Land had been right to warn him; this place was far too dangerous—truly a journey of nine deaths and one life.

But just then, the blood-red altar suddenly flickered with streaks of blood-light. Space twisted. A dark passage manifested.

"The summoning ritual worked!" Little Fatty shouted in surprise. "Could this be a spatial passage?"

At that moment, demonic clouds roiled and blood-light surged. The terrifying behemoths had already charged close. Their enormous claws came crashing down like the sky falling.

If those claws struck them, they would surely be annihilated—bones and souls scattered. These were the most ferocious of the ferocious souls.

"No way out! Are they forcing us to jump into that dark passage?" Niu Ren shouted anxiously.

But before they could act, the entire ancient altar suddenly began to sink. In an instant, it plunged underground, carrying the dark spatial passage with it.

As if heaven and earth were overturned, a continuous rumbling sounded. The ancient altar sank deep, and then the shattered surface gradually healed. The original ground became perfectly level, once again a patch of crimson blood-earth.

The several charging behemoths paused, staring suspiciously. Then, warily eyeing one another, they retreated and finally dispersed.

Underground, Little Fatty exclaimed, "Where have we sunk to?"

Xiao Chen was silent for a moment. "If I'm not mistaken, we've entered the true interior of the Heavenly Crucible."

"You mean this is inside the Crucible?"

Xiao Chen nodded. "It should be. We've gone from outside the Crucible to inside."

"This…" Little Fatty wanted to cry. His voice trembled. "Barbarians have never dared to enter the Crucible's interior. There aren't even many legends about it. The outside was already terrifying enough, but inside… we're inside the Crucible now…"

"Who… wants to open the gate of the underworld?" At that moment, a sinister spiritual fluctuation emerged from the dark spatial passage that had sunk into the ground.

"Holy crap, a ghost!" Little Fatty nearly jumped out of his skin. On Dragon Island, devils had been the inescapable nightmare of his clan. The sinister atmosphere before him instantly connected to those terrible memories.

"Why did you open the gate of the underworld?" The bleak spiritual fluctuation came again.

Xiao Chen replied, "We followed the recorded method to summon a departed soul."

"Only an altar near the Heavenly Crucible can open the gate of the underworld in the shortest time. Endless ages have passed. Few use these altars anymore."

By now, Niu Ren had finally calmed down. "The Barbarians have always used them, but not to open the gate of the underworld."

"I know what they use them for—to refine beast souls…"

Xiao Chen asked calmly, "Who are you?"

"I am an old spirit who has drifted for endless years."

"So you're a ghost? What's the difference from those powerful spirits outside the Crucible?"

After a long silence, a solitary sigh came from the spatial passage. The spiritual fluctuation spoke again: "Once you fall into darkness, you can never escape…"

"What do you mean?" Niu Ren asked.

After a long, dead silence, the spirit in the dark passage asked back, "Do you truly believe there is an underworld? Reincarnation?"

"Doesn't it exist?" Niu Ren retorted.

"If it does, then you are already in the underworld, right now." The spirit's reply was icy cold.

"Isn't this the interior of the Heavenly Crucible? How could it be the underworld?" Little Fatty Niu Ren argued.

But Xiao Chen shuddered. He asked, his voice filled with shock, "You mean to say… Ancestral God Suiren, in forging a Heavenly Crucible, was actually trying to forge an underworld?"

The old spirit sighed. "Several dark domains were chaotic and disordered. Those who fell into them could never return to the realm of the living. The Ancestral God wanted to create rules, establish order. Hence the matter of fusing the Heavenly Crucible with several dark domains—a deed that shook the ages. But in the end, the forging… alas!"

"We've fallen into hell. We've entered the underworld. We… we couldn't be dead already, could we?" Niu Ren cried out.

"This is a failed underworld. All the paths leading to the various dark domains have long been sealed off." The old spirit's words were chilling. "You've only pried open a crack between the failed underworld and the dark lands. It will close soon."

"What kind of space is it on your side?"

"A dark realm fit only for souls to dwell. Yang power cannot be preserved; it drains away completely, leaving only yin power. If one tried to return to the yang realm on your side, the result would mostly be annihilation. Once fallen into darkness, you can never return—unless you train to an extraordinarily powerful state, only then might you reverse it."

"But… there are legends of the Ten Kings of the Underworld!" Xiao Chen was deeply puzzled.

"Those are merely the ideal underworld once imagined by Ancestral God Suiren, mistakenly passed down by later generations…"

The information was staggering. Xiao Chen found it hard to believe. If that were the case, then when Keke fought the Golden Lion King earlier and was said to have been sent into reincarnation, it had actually entered one of those dark domains?

If so, that little creature was incredibly formidable! To be able to survive so long in a dark land with only yin power, then return unscathed—no wonder it went berserk afterward. It must have gone through a lot of suffering.

The old spirit seemed starved for conversation and spoke freely. "When you reach the Deathless Longevity realm, you will naturally understand these matters, because you will touch upon these domains."

Niu Ren also had a sudden realization. "No wonder the sacred mountain gathers so many powerful souls. So this is a failed underworld, naturally attracting them."

Just then, a rumbling sound came. The passage between the dark domain and the failed underworld was about to close.

"We opened the passage to summon a little beast called Keke. How did it become you…"

"I happened to be by the passage… If you use that altar often to open a channel to this coordinate and come chat with me, I can help you investigate…"

Boom!

The dark passage sealed completely.

Xiao Chen and Niu Ren stood dumbfounded. How could they get out? Above them seemed to be endless void—there was no layer of earth. This Heavenly Crucible was a separate world of its own, seemingly boundless. Dim, with ghostly mist drifting, it was terrifyingly sinister.

Above, there was no retreat. They had no choice but to grope forward through the dreary Heavenly Crucible, searching for an exit.

But where could they find one? They trod on endless bones, walking for days without discovering anything. There was no end in sight. This place truly seemed to be an independent world.

They encountered many wandering evil spirits. If not for the sacred, holy radiance of the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree protecting them, Xiao Chen and his companions would likely have been long reduced to dust and bones.

On the seventh day, Xiao Chen and the others discovered a stretch of ruins. When they entered the area and stepped into a grand but broken ancient hall, the two of them and the dragon all felt a deep sense of dread.

At the center of the hall, a skeletal throne hovered in midair. Seated upon it was a snow-white skeleton. When it saw them enter, divine light flickered in its eye sockets as it fixed its gaze upon them.

"You… who are you?" Niu Ren stepped back.

"King Chu Jiang of the Ten Courts of Hell."

The spiritual fluctuation clearly transmitted into Xiao Chen and the others' minds, making them draw in a sharp breath. But what shocked them even more was yet to come. King Chu Jiang tossed down a Dark Wood Token. "Here, Xiao Chen, a letter for you—a distress signal."

Xiao Chen picked up the Dark Wood Token from the ground in bewilderment. Instantly, he felt as if struck by lightning. On it was a crooked little claw print, almost identical to the mark Keke had once left in its random pressing.