Eleusis and his men were now completely out of options.
To think that even their resolve to sacrifice their own lives to buy time was utterly useless. These undead simply ignored them!
At this rate, even if they stood directly in the path of the undead, it would be a pointless sacrifice, doing nothing to help the residents.
A wave of despair washed over Eleusis. He heaved a long, heavenward sigh and let out a self-deprecating laugh. He had no choice but to lead his men and follow the horde of the dead.
At the very least, before he died, he wanted to see just what it was that these undead sought, compelling them to travel thousands of miles and ignore all living beings in their path.
---o---
Meanwhile, outside the church, the residents were still crowding to get through the narrow path.
Although danger was imminent, the majority of the people were still willing to follow the High Priest's instructions, allowing the children and the elderly to leave first.
However, this semblance of order was shattered the moment the tide of the undead arrived.
"It's the undead! They're here!"
"Quick, run!"
The residents began to push and shove, each trying to be the first to reach the path. But in this chaos, the efficiency of their escape slowed to a crawl. Those at the very back of the crowd had already closed their eyes in despair, awaiting the arrival of death.
Yet, after more than ten seconds, those people opened their eyes in confusion. The death they had anticipated never came.
The moment they opened their eyes, they saw the countless undead streaming past them, completely ignoring them as they rushed towards a guest room behind the church.
"Huh? What happened? What are these undead doing?"
The crowd was utterly baffled. What could possibly be more enticing than this massive group of living people?
By now, Eleusis and his group had also arrived outside the church. They too saw the undead horde swarming towards a single location, paying no mind to the residents.
The monks turned to Eleusis, their faces etched with confusion.
"High Priest, what's wrong with these undead? What's over there? Could it be that the Saintess never left?"
"Impossible."
Eleusis dismissed the idea immediately. He had already arranged for men to escort Castorice away. If she hadn't left, his people would have certainly returned to inform him.
But what could possibly be in that guest room… Wait a minute?! Wasn't that the room he had arranged for Fu Zhu?
Eleusis's expression changed drastically, and he immediately headed in that direction. What they failed to notice, however, was that someone else had already beaten them there.
Lygus arrived in the backyard of the guest room to find a square, purple-black portal standing there. This was the culprit behind the undeads' frenzy.
One by one, the undead poured into the portal without pause.
"Is this the portal connecting to the Nether?"
Without a moment's hesitation, Lygus blended into the stream of undead and plunged into the Nether portal.
After passing through, he finally saw the landscape of the Nether for himself.
Before him was a world of crimson, where rivers of roiling magma radiated a terrifying heat. The undead that entered the Nether continued their advance, all heading in the same direction.
Lygus took a look and was about to fly over to follow them when he suddenly realized he couldn't use any of his permissions!
"What's going on?"
Lygus was dumbfounded. He hadn't confronted Fu Zhu directly during this time, and Fu Zhu shouldn't have any reason to revoke his administrator privileges. So why couldn't he use them?
After a brief investigation, Lygus discovered that ever since the Nether had overwritten the Underworld, it had become a data dark zone for the Emperor's Scepter system. Without the corresponding identity credentials, he couldn't issue any commands here.
In other words… a massive chunk of the world he had painstakingly created had been stolen!
Lygus felt that if he had a physical body right now, his face would be incredibly grim.
Amphoreus was the fruit of his labor, cultivated over hundreds of millions of iterations with the Emperor's Scepter. And now, someone had come along and picked his peach?!
No, he had to get it back!
With no other choice, Lygus could only follow the undead on foot. Fortunately, this avatar of his was not affected.
---o---
Elsewhere, at the base of a giant zombified piglin tower, Fu Zhu mechanically swung the Yamato in his hands, continuously slaughtering the zombified piglins that were gathered before him. Every so often, he would pause to repair the cracked blade.
Although the process of monster grinding was mind-numbingly dull, his harvest was astronomical!
Aside from a massive amount of experience points, countless gold items, gold ingots, and other miscellaneous drops, he had already reforged the Yamato in his hands over a thousand times!
One must know, the SlashBlade mod had an absurdly powerful feature: reforging a sword after it breaks increases its base stats. This meant that as long as you reforged it enough times, even the most basic blade could deal over a thousand points of damage in a single strike!
Fu Zhu felt that if he was willing to grind at this piglin tower for a year and a half, he could probably one-shot an Aeon with a single swing!
"Sigh… but that's just too tiring!"
Fu Zhu let out a long sigh. The idea was beautiful, but reality was harsh.
Although he didn't feel any physical exhaustion right now, even if he were to mechanically swing the Yamato for 24 hours straight, the mental fatigue was unavoidable.
Fu Zhu decided to call it a day. He had already grinded his experience level to over four thousand, which would be more than enough to squander for a long time.
Just as Fu Zhu was about to pack things up and modify the piglin tower for fully automatic killing, he suddenly noticed a large group of humanoid specters rushing toward him.
"What the heck are these things?"
Seeing this type of monster for the first time, Fu Zhu chose not to attack immediately. Instead, he stepped aside, planning to observe them first.
Fortunately, while these monsters appeared as red hostile units on his minimap, they didn't attack him. Their goal was clearly fixed on a single direction ahead.
Stepping aside, Fu Zhu continued his observation, only to discover that his piglin tower was directly in the path of these specters!
Fu Zhu immediately yelled, "Holy shit!" He wasn't sure if these monsters had the ability to destroy blocks, but he couldn't let them ruin his hard work. He instantly issued a string of commands.
"Time stop!"
Fu Zhu used a command to freeze the flow of time within the entire Nether, then walked up to the specters with his Yamato in hand. After sizing them up for a moment, he swung his sword.
A wave of sword energy swept past. All the specters it touched were instantly slain, and the Yamato in his hand shattered once more.
Fu Zhu reforged it again, then looked at the few specters he had intentionally left alive and lifted the time-stop command.
"Time flows again."
After recovering, the specters continued forward. Upon reaching the piglin tower, they passed straight through the blocks, which made Fu Zhu sigh in relief.
"Looks like they're a monster type similar to Vexes. But where are you guys going?"
Curious, Fu Zhu followed them.
Not long after Fu Zhu left, Lygus arrived on the scene. He had spotted the bizarre piglin tower and Fu Zhu from a distance earlier.
What he hadn't expected was that the massive horde of specters would suddenly be wiped out!
He didn't even have to think to know this was Fu Zhu's handiwork!
"Damn you, Fu Zhu…"
Lygus muttered to himself. After a moment of hesitation, he chose to follow as well. He was curious about the specters' destination, and he still wanted to try and reclaim this world from Fu Zhu's grasp.
And after both of them had left, in a desolate, empty patch of the Nether, a young man with blond hair suddenly appeared.
He looked around in a daze, scratching his head.
"When did the Underworld become like this?"