"Ice Wolf Lord, now I ask you."
"Are you willing to pledge your allegiance to me?"
Kerudela slowly walked to Li Guozhong, looking up at him. For some reason, her petite body exuded an imposing aura.
Li Guozhong looked down at the blue-haired princess before him, his eyes momentarily dazed. His years as a marshal had taught him never to underestimate someone based on appearance
. This petite princess possessed true imperial majesty, a majesty he had never felt even when facing her father, the Douling Emperor.
That Douling Emperor, who had already gone to the Underworld, had no imperial majesty whatsoever; he reeked of nouveau riche.
Now, looking at Kerudela, a realization flashed through Li Guozhong's mind.
The Douling Prime Minister was a veteran of three reigns, and so was he.
This girl might indeed be royalty, but she could never be the daughter of that Douling Emperor!
This fierce, sharp, all-conquering aura could never be cultivated in the Douling Royal Family!
The Douling Royal Family is a group of pleasure-seeking, complacent individuals.
Even if a powerful figure slaps their emperor, they only dare to smile, not show their fangs.
Moreover, the Douling Royal Family is notoriously bound by old rules, recognizing only the Swan Martial Soul and no other martial soul whatsoever, unaware of any advantages of the Swan Martial Soul.
After ten thousand years, with so many resources nurturing it, it should at least have evolved into a Bright Swan, if not an Emerald Swan.
Good heavens, it's exactly the same as it was ten thousand years ago.
Even the Tang Sect, with its Blue Silver Grass following the path of poison, after ten thousand years of development, by Tang Ya's generation, it had developed a devouring attribute.
The Swan Martial Soul is less malleable than the Blue Silver Grass.
It was only because Tang San helped them ten thousand years ago that the Swan Martial Soul didn't completely die out.
Although Li Guozhong vaguely guessed the truth, so what?
He already felt anger and shame towards the former Douling royal family, and now, seeing the weakness displayed by the so-called nobles and aristocrats of the Douling Empire in the face of crisis only fueled his rage.
He didn't expect them to unite, but at least they should actively fight the enemy.
These nobles and aristocrats were even quicker to kneel than the people of Douling, betraying national interests without a second thought—truly like children selling their ancestral land without a care in the world.
They completely disregarded the reliability of these sea barbarians' promises; they compromised today, and they would compromise again tomorrow.
Being slowly eroded like this, the Douling Empire collapsed on its own without even needing the Sea God family to send a large army.
"Your Highness, my answer is clear!
I will offer my loyalty to you!"
Li Guozhong had to consider whether this was his last chance to gain the merit of supporting the new emperor.
If anyone had the opportunity to restore the Douling Empire, in Li Guozhong's eyes, only this blue-haired princess before him could do it.
Her eyes revealed an undisguised ambition to conquer all things, and her cultivation talent was nothing short of monstrous. If even she could not restore the Douling Empire, then this empire might truly have already met its end.
Kerudela nodded in satisfaction, her voice haughty and confident:
"Very good, Ice Wolf Lord, you've made the right decision."
"Your first task is to win over the Douling Empire's border troops and restore control over them."
"I want an army that is absolutely loyal to me."
Li Guozhong was originally a marshal, and although Xue Kui had killed many high-ranking border troops loyal to him, his influence within the border army wasn't so easily erased.
Xue Kui's attempt to kill Li Guozhong was a miscalculation.
While it might control the border troops through fear, it would only result in an army with no fighting power.
Killing one's own highly respected general in front of soldiers is an extremely irrational decision in any world; even Tang San wouldn't do such a thing.
It only creates fear within the army and serves no other purpose.
After arranging things for Li Guozhong, Heather came to Cerrudra's side, bowing with one hand to her chest, and said,
"Caesar, the remnants of Xue Kui have been wiped out.
What are the next instructions?"
Cerrudra looked at the distant snow and ice completely stained red, offering no instructions, but instead asked,
"Sword Banner Lord, this is no longer our homeland. Having come to a new world, what do you wish to do?"
"That so-called Ancient One didn't strictly plan our fate. Ha, in that respect, he's much better than that Lukuergos."
Heather fell silent, her eyes somewhat vacant. This world had no sea monsters; the Ice Sea Mermaids were only similar in form, their essence was different.
"I... what I want to do remains the same."
"I still crave a feast that never ends, a feast in which I can play music."
Krydela looked at the ever-present Heather and said,
"Then my answer is the same as before: let your lyre play for me, let your sword dance for me, and I will give you a feast that never ends, a feast in which you can play to your heart's content."
"Together, let us rewrite Caesar's name in the name of conquest in this world."
"Once I succeed, I will find a way to bring together Lord Destiny, Lord Golden Weave, Lord Yellow Purple, and others to hold a feast together."
Heather and Xia Die's almost human-like faces showed a rare, faint smile.
"I, too, remain the same."
"Great Caesar."
...
"Meow~"
In the Gutres Hills of the Gurei Province of the Douling Empire, the Shadow Cat yawned, one front paw stretched out as if playing billiards, the whole cat listless at the moment.
During this time, because it was a feline, its sense of smell was quite developed, so it accompanied Xia Die here to search for traces of the Netherworld Butterfly.
This hilly area was devoid of the Netherworld Butterfly, not even the Ten-Year-Old Lonely Bamboo could be found.
The Blue Silver Grass had probably been pulled up and juiced by the surrounding villagers. The vast hills were lifeless, a desolate wasteland.
Xia Die squatted down, gently stroking the Netherworld Cat's large head, and took out a cat treat from her skirt pocket, beginning to feed the refusing fat cat.
"You can only eat one, after all, you already had a can of food at noon."
"Meow!"
The Netherworld Cat ate the cat treat with tears streaming down its face.
Back in Xilu City, it wouldn't even pick up a cat treat that fell on the ground; now it could only be described as destitute.
Two months had passed since they left Xilu City, and the chaos of the Douling Empire hadn't affected Xia Die.
Amon deliberately bypassed the Gulei Province, and the Star Luo Empire, the closest empire to Gulei Province, had no interest in this desolate place, thus making it a haven from the chaos of war.
For the past two months, no matter where Xia Die searched, she could not find any trace of the Netherworld Butterfly.
She inquired with local Soul Masters and learned that the last sighting of this type of Soul Beast was 1,300 years ago.
Because the Soul Beasts in the Guterres Hills were generally weak, it was the top choice for low-level Soul Masters of the Douling Empire to hunt low-age Soul Rings.
Thanks to the meticulous cultivation by Soul Masters who didn't understand sustainable development, Soul Beasts were long gone from the Guterres Hills.
Rare Soul Beasts like the Netherworld Butterfly were usually killed the moment they appeared.
"Young Miss, there's an emergency! Spatial turbulence has appeared in the southern part of the Guterres Hills."
"Death power is flowing out of the spatial turbulence."
Audrey's figure appeared in the air, telling Xia Die this good news.
Xia Die hurriedly put away the cat treat and stood up, saying,
"Sister Audrey, could you please take me there?"
Seeing her young mistress's request, Audrey naturally wouldn't refuse, smiling as she said,
"Of course."
Xia Die's figure disappeared into the air with Audrey, leaving the Netherworld Cat staring blankly into the air.
"Old Wu! Old Wu! Old Wu!"
"Ha!"
The empty valley echoed with heavy yawns, indicating a very foul curse.
Fortunately, a blond priest appeared beside the Shadow Cat, picked it up, and then they both disappeared into thin air.
At this moment, in the southern part of the Guterres Hills, a black spatial rift left a terrible scar on the world, from which invisible gales emanated, powerful enough to tear apart an unsuspecting Soul King.
Xia Die and Audrey appeared near the spatial rift. As soon as Xia Die landed, she felt an extremely pure death power permeating this space.
In this world, besides herself, there was only one place to find this pure death power—the Underworld.
"This is... pure death power."
"Is this spatial rift connected to the Underworld? But how could it suddenly appear?"
Xia Die didn't know the answer to this question, but Audrey had some guesses.
The space where the Guterres Hills are located may have originally been close to the Underworld.
The Douling Empire and the Xingluo Empire had been engaged in a great war in the neighboring province recently, resulting in many deaths, including many high-level Soul Masters.
It's possible that these undead, along with some unknown factors, opened this spatial rift.
The Douluo Underworld is incredibly powerful; it shouldn't have come into contact with reality due to this level of undead impact.
If entering the Underworld were so easy, Ye Xishui would have gone in long ago.
Perhaps sensing Xia Die's arrival, the spatial rift underwent a change; an almost tangible death force extended its claws from the rift.
"Hiss!!!"
A strange hissing sound emanated from the spatial rift, and Audrey's eyes had somehow transformed into golden vertical pupils, the dragon king's might faintly visible.
If things went wrong, she would immediately retreat into the dream space with Xia Die.
Soon, a strange soul beast rushed out of the spatial rift.
The soul beast was twenty-five meters long, with a wingspan exceeding fifty meters, its body a dark purple, and its massive wings adorned with bone-like patterns.
This was none other than the Netherworld Butterfly that Xia Die had been searching for, but unlike the plan, this Netherworld Butterfly was far too large.
The oldest recorded Netherworld Butterfly in the Douling Empire is 30,000 years old, eight meters long, and has a wingspan of eighteen meters.
Audrey could sense the soul power fluctuations emanating from that Netherworld Butterfly, indicating it was a ferocious beast at least 200,000 years old.
Just in case, Audrey had already locked onto the Netherworld Butterfly with her mental power and then secretly contacted Adam to seal off the area.
They had finally found a Netherworld Butterfly; they couldn't let it escape.
"My God!"
"I've finally found you!" "
Our race has been breaking through the barrier between life and death for a long time, only managing to open a small gap by taking advantage of the momentum of the returning spirits from the outside world."
The enormous Netherworld Butterfly emitted an excited female voice, its massive wings flapping rapidly, creating a hurricane, revealing its inner joy.
The butterfly spirit's pointed ears twitched slightly, its voice ethereal and tinged with shyness.
"I...I am not a god."
"Please don't call me that."
The Netherworld Butterfly shook its head anxiously, saying,
"You are the beloved son of the Netherworld, destined to be its future master. Please don't underestimate yourself."
"Please allow me to introduce myself, the great Lord of the Netherworld."
"Our Netherworld Butterfly clan originally lived in the mortal world, but later suffered persecution from humans and was on the verge of extinction.
Fortunately, the Netherworld accepted us, and our entire clan moved to the border between life and death."
"Since then, we have shouldered the responsibility of guarding the gates of the Netherworld."
"Some time ago, the Netherworld sent us a message, announcing your arrival and asking us to take you to the Netherworld."
"Great Lady of the Netherworld, please allow me to offer a sacrifice for you."
"I know this may be an offense, but only in this way can our clan repay the Netherworld's life-saving grace."
Besides, the Netherworld Butterfly also had the idea of currying favor. It could tell at a glance that the Lord of the Netherworld had many vacant soul ring slots.
If it joined now, it could at least gain some merit as a follower of a god in the future.
With the protection of the Lord of the Underworld, their race would never have to worry about survival again.
The brutality of humanity had left a deep impression on them, filling the entire race with insecurity.
(End of Chapter)
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