Beneath the Nine Nether, not all was chaos and madness.
Over countless years, the great evil spirits had already formed their own factions. As mentioned before, the Nine Nether was divided into regions, each ruled by its own power.
Among them, the most powerful was the Lord of the Central Nether Prison.
The strength of this being was equivalent to the peak of the Heavenly Sovereignty Realm, second rank's summit.
If it could leave the Nine Nether and appear in the mortal realm, bolstered by the nature of its own evil essence, it would become a terrifying super boss.
And in the late stage of the Descent of the Nine Netherworlds questline, that was exactly the case.
The Lord of the Central Nether Prison, together with the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity, were the two bosses that had to be slain to complete the questline. Failure to kill them would trigger the A Thought of Compassion ending.
If that ending occurred, the evil spirits would flood into the mortal world, breaking the balance between realms and leading to total collapse.
That was precisely the outcome the Lord of the Four-Phase Calamity desired most.
At present, however, the great passage between the Nine Nether and the mortal world had yet to open. Lü Fuyi and the Lord of the Central Nether Prison had only made contact through a few rifts.
Thus, Gu Fangchen impersonating Lü Fuyi now carried very little risk of exposure.
The massive evil spirit before him was nothing more than a mass of rotting flesh and corruption. But upon sensing the pressure of the golden wheel, its foul heart trembled. After a moment's hesitation, it took the form of a man in a crimson robe,
the ghost general Ruoye, subordinate to the Lord of the Central Nether Prison.
He too knew that their Nether Prison had recently cooperated with the Dao of Destruction in the mortal realm, and could sense the karmic aura on Gu Fangchen's body. In a thick, broken accent that grated like rusty iron, he asked,
"Our... Lord of the Nether... is in seclusion. Has no time to appear. Why... do you come here?"
He could still speak human words, but barely, his tongue twisted them as if he were a savage long isolated from mankind, nearly incomprehensible.
Fortunately, Gu Fangchen had heard these lines eight hundred times in the game, and could recognize every syllable perfectly.
In truth, this was precisely what he wanted, to not see the Lord of the Nether, so he could act freely.
Since contact between the realms was currently cut off, he could fabricate whatever he pleased, and no one could correct him.
He composed himself, cupped his hands, and spoke solemnly:
"The Lord of Calamity is also preparing to open the passage linking the Nine Nether and the mortal world. Time is short, and I require your assistance."
Ruoye found nothing suspicious.
After all, not just anyone could descend bodily into the Nine Nether.
This man mentioned the Lord of Calamity by name, and clearly knew of their plan to connect realms, he was obviously one of their own.
Ruoye rasped,
"What kind... of help... do you require?"
Gu Fangchen smiled faintly and produced a scroll of formation diagrams.
"Please help me construct this array."
Ruoye accepted it. On the scroll was sketched a rough map of the Nine Nether, with the formation marked between the Eastern Nether and Southeastern Nether-Forge regions. His belief strengthened, this man truly belonged to them.
How could anyone from the mortal world know the geography of the Nine Nether so well?
Ruoye did not understand human formations, but he knew that those two locations were where the murky qi of the Nether gathered most densely.
The Lord of the Nether had once said that this murky qi was formed from the resentment of shattered divine souls ground to dust within the Nine Nether.
In mortal terms, it was akin to a nation's dragon vein.
But the Nine Nether's was a Vicious Dragon Vein, once fully formed, it would become a first-rank evil spirit, one even Ruoye could not withstand.
Unfortunately, the formation of such a vein required a vast span of time, tens of millennia to condense completely.
Perhaps in ten thousand years, such a monster would be born...
Ruoye frowned.
"What... array is this? What does the Lord of Calamity intend?"
Gu Fangchen narrowed his eyes and looked up toward the faint light seeping from the "bottom" of the Yellow Springs. He smiled.
"This array is called, Heaven and Earth Reversed."
"As the saying goes, 'Before the army moves, the provisions must first arrive.' If the two realms are to connect, it must begin with the earth veins. With this as the anchor in the mortal world, once the passage opens, the Nether's murky qi will flow forth. Then none of you need worry about adapting to the mortal realm."
In truth, this was the very formation the Dao of Destruction later used to help the evil spirits invade the world.
Its effect was simple, transfer the Vicious Dragon Vein of the Nine Nether into the mortal world.
Gu Fangchen's act of fabricating a "dragon vein" for Gu Yuye was not only to expose his true nature, but to strike him down in his moment of greatest triumph.
The dragon vein Gu Yuye currently possessed had been forged jointly by the Dao of Emotion and the Du Gu Clan using a "Mirage Array."
He believed himself clever, thinking that once he gained the fame and prestige of possessing a dragon vein, nothing else would matter.
Even if the Demonic Sect later revealed it to be false, it would no longer matter. His reputation would be cemented, the "Mandate of Heaven" his to claim, truth or falsehood be damned.
But Gu Fangchen would make the false become true.
Ruoye's eyes widened in shock, then gleamed with wild excitement.
"Marvelous! Truly marvelous! I shall summon our forces at once. My thanks, envoy!"
Attempting to mimic mortal courtesy, he bowed slightly and asked awkwardly,
"Would the envoy care to rest-"
Before he could finish, Gu Fangchen vanished before his eyes.
Ruoye blinked, clutching the scroll, murmuring in awe,
"This envoy is indeed swift as thunder..."
...
Wenwu Tower.
Xu Fu sat cross-legged, forming seals and chanting softly.
Behind her, a vast mirror of starlight and water unfolded. Within its depths, the stars turned, forming an intricate celestial fate chart.
Below, Cao Tianzhou, thin as a skeleton, raised his eyes toward the long-lost sky. In his bony hand, he held a rusted long blade.
At his feet lay two dried corpses, one large, one small, covered by tattered rags.
Countless glowing scriptures swirled around him, forming an unbreakable barrier.
He could sense what Xu Fu was attempting. Looking down at his body, he saw lines of red thread emerging,
the karmic lines of the Sixth Division Star Lord.
Once severed, it would remove a portion of the Star Lord's fate chart, unraveling his karmic web.
Karma techniques required a fate chart as their base.
Thus, severing even one such line meant not merely losing a sixth of his power, it would cut away at least half.
From that point on, his karmic arts would never again be whole, unable to conceal himself from Xu Fu's sight.
"Sigh... Half a life spent surviving, achieving nothing. Cao Tianzhou, oh Cao Tianzhou, what a useless man you are."
"In the end, even this life of yours does not belong to you."
He exhaled heavily, laughing bitterly.
He had hidden here in the Demon Suppression Prison for years, hoping that one day he might escape and slay the villain who had defiled his wife and daughter.
But he had never reached that day.
"Cao Tianzhou," a calm young voice echoed from above, "I borrowed your life once. Now, I'll return it to you."
Cao Tianzhou froze. Looking up, he saw a handsome young man leaning down, extending a hand toward him.
"Give me the blade," the youth said.
"The one you could not kill, I'll kill for you."
...
Lu Mingyuan clutched the stump of his severed arm, panting violently. Cold sweat dripped down his face and neck.
Never in his life had he been so humiliated.
Only now did he finally see what kind of foe he had provoked.
The woman in the azure dress raised her hand again, sword fingers pointing,
and the sword intent roared skyward.
"Enough! Stop! Senior, please, stop! I don't want the dragon vein anymore!"
Lu Mingyuan broke completely, shouting as he flung the small dragon in his grasp back toward the Wenwu Tower below.
Then his eyes turned venomous. One-handed, he formed seals and reactivated the formation.
Boom!
The grand array surged to life, enveloping the Wenwu Tower, sealing both the little dragon and Gu Fangchen within.
"Suppress!"
He pressed his palm downward. The array blazed bright, its power of suppression descending like a mountain.
Today, no matter what, Gu Fangchen had to die!
He had never lost face like this before.
This humiliation, he would wash it away with blood!