by Tinalynge
"Some souls refuse to wander the plains of despair. The refuse to forget the memories of their previous life, even if that means that they will not be reborn, they still value their memories more and chose to live in Diyu as an inhabitant."
"In Diyu it is illegal to destroy the soul of others, and thus it is relatively safe. However, there are a few groups of bandits which roam Diyu and harvest soul energy or rob and kill the Gods that move goods to or from the ten courts of hell."
"But don't you worry, if the bandits are going to attack then I will personally interfere." Yanluo was laughing as he spoke and Hui Yue felt his scalp go numb. If the king of hell was to personally move, was that not the same as seeing a living legend fighting? Somehow Hui Yue really wished to see that happening.
Unfortunately, the trip was incredibly calm. Their group was already intimidating. Firstly they rode on flood dragons, dragons which were all equal to immortals of creation. All of them had a bloodline of a true dragon in their bodies. Secondly, they were a hundred experts of various strength. Although they were a few new gods, the majority weren't and thus the bandits, in case they wanted to attack this group, should have amazing numbers and some very strong members to deal with the dragons and deal with the Gods.
Even some caravans that they came by were looking at them with envious eyes, and some even tried to get closer and make friends so that they could all travel together.
The same answer was given to every single one of the groups though, no one was allowed to enter their group, and those who were the pushiest ones were deterred by the guards. No one lost their lives, but everyone understood that if they kept pestering this group of experts that was a very likely result.
Thus they continued onwards in peace. Hui Yue, who had seen everything there was to see about the surroundings decided to spend the time cultivate. Although he had planned on keeping his ability to devour a secret the blue cloud was no longer a secret after being displayed at the banquet and now that he was seated on the broad back of the flood dragon did he close his eyes and shroud himself in the blue cloud, increase the speed of which he was absorbing the soul energy and the Ancestral Worldpower in the surrounding areas by at least three times.
Everyone looked at him in surprise at first when they felt how all the energy rushed towards him and saw how he, deep within this blue cloud, greedily absorbed he energy, but soon they found that because this blue cloud was drawing in energy from the surroundings the energy around Hui Yue was much denser than anywhere else and they all sat down to cultivate. To let such a chance slip away from them was silly.
The density of energy was so rich that it was even with consuming pills, their souls truly advanced by leaps and bounds.
Although some of this was because they were in Diyu, the best place to fill the ancestral worldpower pool and also the best place to strengthen one's soul, the majority of this was because of the strong absorption of Hui Yue's blue cloud.
Especially Pei Feng, Pei Ze and the young expert from the Nightcrawler Sect were benefitting greatly. These three were te closest to Hui Yue, and they were all new gods, so their souls were the ones that showed the biggest change of all the experts, their foundations were being built rapidly.
Hui Yue soon noticed that his absorption benefitted others as well, but he really did not care. Although the others were benefitting their speed of absorption could never match his, and thus he just rotated the energy in his body, sucking in so much energy that he almost felt as if his body was exploding from sheer pressure.
His body itself absorbed all the Ancestral Worldpower, and the soul absorbed all the soul energy. The more soul energy he absorbed and the stronger his soul became, the more Ancestral Worldpower his body could hold and with his current speed, which was very much akin to someone eating pill after pill and never stopping, could he feel how he was moving further and further away from being a new god and closer and closer towards the boundaries of being a true Primordial Immortal.
Diyu was as big as the outside of the Netherworld, and although they were going for the capital of the first court of hell, the city closest to Youdu, it still took them a full week to travel such a distance.
During this week they had not encountered any dangers, and they had flown the entire time. At the first couple of days Hui Yue had listened to Yanluo explain the situation below them, and he had gathered some basic understanding and information about how Diyu worked, yet as time had gone by Yanluo had said less and less, and finally, Hui Yue had spent five days cultivating.
Although five days might not seem as much, it truly was an earthshattering difference to Hui Yue. The soul energy within this area was so dense that his soul had gotten twice as strong as it was before, his body was bursting with Ancestral Worldpower and by now Hui Yue could feel what it was really like to be a God.
Not only him, the three other young generation members were also exstatic. They had benefitted greatly from joining this trial. Not only had Yanluo kept his word and provided them with first class resources for cultivation, they had also managed to strengthen their soul double of how it was before. Their strength was now twice as it had been previously! If the rest of their sects knew they were likely to be stunned in shock.
All three were painfully aware that this was all thanks to Hui Yue, but while Pei Ze put the gratitude at heart and wished to repay it later, should he have the posibility to do so, then Pei Feng and the youth from the Nightcrawler Sect were more hesitant.
They were aware that Hui Yue had done this for his own benefit and allowed for them to leech of off him, but they still felt enmity towards him in their hearts. Pei Feng could not help but feel severely threatened by Hui Yue as this young man was likely to become the top genius of the Celestial Sword Sect, and his heart burned with jealousy.
The youth from the Nightcrawler Sect felt some enmity towards Hui Yue as well, but that was more of the fact that he feared that if he allowed for this young man to survive, then he would bring the Celestial Sword Sect to new heights. He would make it rise from the position it had now and even challenge them as time went by!
As the seventh day was up, Hui Yue withdrew the blue cloud into his body once more, much to the dismay of every other cultivator flying on the flood dragons, but when they noticed that his eyes were fixated on something in the distance they all turned their heads to see what it was he was looking at and their hearts filled with excitement.
They no longer cared about Hui Yue's blue cloud and instead, they all looked at the city that was towering in the distance. The amount of Gods that appeared in their surroundings was also constantly increasing, and on the ground, one could see demons moving towards the city on feet.
The closer they got the more Gods they encountered, but unlike their previous travel, no one went close to them, everyone tried to get out of the way and make space for them, and the arrogant flood dragons all roared in the sky as they charged towards the city.
It was illegal to fly within the cities of Diyu, but these flood dragons managed to bypass the formations that had been cast over the city, and everyone within the streets looked into the sky where they saw a whole group of flood dragons flying towards the palace belonging to the first judge of hell.
Uproar exploded in the city, they all knew what it meant that someone flew within the city, it meant that Yanluo had personally appeared and to have the King of Hell appearing was simply something that many of them could not comprehend. He was the king that they had heard about but never seen, the hidden ruler of the land and the people, but he had never before arrived so arrogantly within the capitals of the ten courts of hell.
Chapter 568 - King Qinguang
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Chapter 568: King Qinguang
As they arrived in the capital city of the First Court of Hell, Hui Yue noticed that a delegation of demons with an expert standing in front was waiting for them in the main courtyard.
Everyone was looking towards the flood dragons with respect and the demon
s even shivered slightly; all of them seemed rather nervous.
The group of flood dragons all landed elegantly in the large courtyard and Yanluo was the first to disembark after which he gestured for the others to follow suit.
As soon as everyone was off, Yanluo waved to the dragons, and they took to the skies one after another. Loud screeching sounds reverberated through the city and the surrounding valleys as they soared through the skies above. Everyone below watched these rarely seen, but terrifying beasts in awe as they tore through the sky returning from where they came.
Everyone stared at these dragons until they vanished into the distance, but for where they were headed only Yanluo knew.
As they had vanished, Hui Yue once more started to look at his surroundings. He found that the person leading the delegation was looking at Yanluo with reverence; however, when he looked at all the others it seemed like he was looking at the dirt beneath his feet, none of them warranted his respect.
Hui Yue felt his heart grow slightly cold as he saw this hate-filled gaze that was aimed at him, but even so, he said nothing. He did not use his soulforce to scan the surrounding areas as he knew that would give this expert no face, and even more so because he did not need his soulforce to tell him that the person in front of him was strong to an unbelievable degree. He was clearly one of the strongest experts Hui Yue had ever come across, most likely even stronger than Huli!
"Brother Yanluo!" The man called out as he strode forward. His arms wrapped around the King of Hell and a great smile formed on his face.
"To think that you would personally come over, I never thought you put so much importance on these younguns," he said. His voice was slightly sour, but the expert did his very best to hide these emotions.
"Please follow me into my palace and relax while I set up the next trial. This time quite a few of you have managed to get through the first trial, so the next ones need to be much more difficult!"
There was some hard to hide schadenfreude in his voice as he spoke and his eyes glistened with menace.
All the experts were able to sense it this time, but no one spoke. Instead, their hearts turned cold. It was clear that he would be in charge of this trial and he would make the difficulty harder than any other trial they had experienced.
Pei Ze felt his skull grew numb and his palms started sweating. Every time he thought about the first trial he would feel terrible, but hearing that this trial would be even harder, he felt genuine fear.
He was not the only one who felt like this. Pei Feng and everyone else who had gone through the trial forcefully, those who had managed to stand against every single torture through their own will, felt scared witless, and his words caused even Hui Yue to frown.
As he listened to what this man said, Hui Yue was deep in thought. It was clear that the difficulty of the trial would become harder and harder, but the ones who had forcefully gone through the first trial would most likely feel that this one was easier.
For someone like Hui Yue and the man from the Nightcrawler Sect, it was likely to be more challenging because they had managed to get through the trial the way it was planned. They had understood it was a trial of the mind and although they had felt occasional pain, it was nothing compared to what the others had experienced.
"Brother Qinguang, no need to frighten them. I can't have all of them quitting then I would have no one left to become the new judge. Brother Chujiang already passed away; we need to find a replacement as soon as possible. The court is filled to the brim with souls waiting to be punished, and although the demons are capable of controlling it to some degree, a court without a judge will never work as well as one with a judge."
"Brother is right," King Qinguang said with a nod, but his words were very quick and not heartfelt.
"Well, come this way!" Qinguang said as he turned to show them the way into the mansion.
In front were Qinguang and Yanluo, walking side by side speaking about things that no one else could hear and behind them were the demons. They walked taking the same size steps ensuring that their advance was uniform.
After the demons were the ones who were trying to pass the trials and become the next Judge of Hell and on their sides and behind them were Yanluo's guards. These people didn’t bother to try and walk in a similar way. All of them were busy looking around at their surroundings. They seemed curious about this new city. It looked exactly like any other city, except the black smog-like soul energy which permeated every single part of the air.
The city was very much like Youdu, except it was not underground. It was on top of a hill and stretched down the hillside with buildings everywhere.
Standing in the palace, it was possible to look down over the entire city and see the river that ran through the city, the different marketplaces, and the many buildings and pagodas that were reaching for the heavens above.
The palace had been built on the very top of the hill, towering above anyone else in this capital.
The First Court of Hell was also located within this palace. It was here there was a large pavilion where King Qinguang would sentence every single mortal soul to their future punishments or would let them walk over the two bridges that led to the Plains of Despair.
The group walked through the palace. Everywhere they went they would encounter demons and souls who hurried to the corners and bowed as deeply as they could while waiting for the entourage to pass them by. They never dared to even glance at the ones who were walking past them.
King Qinguang and Yanluo were walking at a rapid pace and it was clear they had something specific in mind. The group walked past numerous gardens and buildings before they reached a small part of the palace where there were multiple small courtyards and houses.
"Each of you take a building. You will be staying here until this trial is over. You are allowed to enter the city as you please and wander the palace as you wish, but you need to have the guards by your side at all time. Should you die in the city, then you can only blame yourself!"
Hearing this, Hui Yue guessed that this expert would actually hope that they died during their time in the city, but he couldn’t possibly say that out loud.
Hui Yue quickly found a small building which he liked and chose it. Inside it was clean and beautiful, very similar to the room he had in Yanluo's mansion. These rooms contained bathrooms, meditation rooms, studies, bedrooms, and even a kitchen and sitting room.
After a short moment, everyone decided on their residence. These buildings had two bedrooms, one for the expert participating in the trial and another for the guard that was following them, and it seemed that the two would be living together.
The first day, Hui Yue spent his time within the meditation room. Even though he was unsure exactly how long they had before the next trial would start, he took this time to calm down after being on the road for as long as he had been.
He had absorbed so much soul energy on the trip, and now he needed to stabilize his foundations. Hui Yue needed to slowly adjust to his new level of strength and to do so he needed to meditate normally.
The guard who was following Hui Yue was rather surprised as he saw the young man avoid the city to instead focus on solidifying his foundation.
Time went by and soon three days had passed in a flash before he opened his eyes again and looked at the guard who was standing vigilantly by his side.
It was clear that this guard had been prepared to protect him.
"Young master the servants of King Qinguang came a while ago to inform you that it will be ten days before the trial commences. Three days have gone by so you still have a total of seven days before the trial begins. If you wish to visit the city then now is the best time."
Hui Yue stared in shock at the guard when he heard him speak. This was the first time he had heard the guard speak so much at the same time, and it caused him to be rather surprised.
He quickly got past his surprise when he heard what the guard said and nodded his head. He had managed to adju
st to the changes of his strength and now was the time if he wished to visit the city.
"Let’s go then," Hui Yue said and nodded his head. He was the only one who had not gone out of the house so far, and when he did, he noticed that the other houses were empty.
"The young masters have all gone to the city and are enjoying themselves with the different kinds of entertainment the city has to offer. Young Master Pei Ze is strolling the many marketplaces on the lookout for something amazing, while young master Pei Feng is at one of the popular brothels."
"These two are both members of your Celestial Sword Sect, do you want me to lead you towards one of them?" The guard asked, and Hui Yue, who was at first stunned that he knew about the location and actions of these two, pondered for a short while on where to go. He had nothing specific that he needed or wanted to do.
"Lead the way to Pei Ze," Hui Yue finally said as he had nothing better to do. The guard nodded his head and started to walk towards the marketplace.