The rain of corpses lasted for nearly half an hour, who knows how many bodies fell—truly a shocking sight!
When the corpse rain finally stopped, Rat Immortal hurriedly brought Deaf back underground. There, they saw the dozen or so stone statues standing motionless around the altar, the teleportation light already extinguished.
They looked toward the palace and saw a sapphire-blue flood-dragon coiled atop the roof, its head raised high, long whiskers drifting in the air. Quinn Shepherd stood on the dragon's head, gazing at the altar in the statue's palm.
The two hurried across the long floating bridge to the palace, climbed to the rooftop, and Deaf glanced down, momentarily stunned.
Below, although the stone statues around the altar were motionless, each had lifted its head—their stone eyes all turned this way.
"Quinn, what happened?" Deaf asked nervously.
"They're looking at me."
Quinn Shepherd spoke softly, "Do they realize that I'm the one who killed their kin?"
Deaf shook his head. "To them, this demon army was always meant to be sacrificed. Even if you hadn't killed them, they'd have been blood-offered anyway. You don't need to dwell on it. On the contrary, you stopped them from awakening that statue—which is a great thing, sparing countless commoners of the Everpeace Empire from death."
Quinn stared straight at him. "Grandpa Deaf, I've never killed so many people before. Maybe many have died because of me, but to personally bury this many lives—I'm still a little shaken. Some of those demon soldiers were already dead when they arrived, some weren't, but once they rushed into the Gate of Bearing Heaven, they died all the same. I counted—over a hundred thousand. I've never personally killed so many... Just now, in the Gate of Bearing Heaven, I even saw countless paper boats drifting in the darkness, underworld couriers sitting on them, guiding these souls away. It was me who buried them..."
Deaf was stunned, unsure how to comfort him. After a moment, Deaf said, "Back when I was Crown Prince of the Heavenly Diagram Kingdom, our nation was destroyed. I awoke from seclusion and walked alone through the palace and the streets—everywhere, corpses. Because the resistance was so fierce, the invading Wolfmark Kingdom suffered heavy losses; in revenge, their king ordered a massacre of the city."
He stared blankly, as if still trapped in the shadow of that past, silent for a while before continuing: "I saw my father's and mother's heads hanging on the palace gates, saw the heads and bodies of consorts and nurses. Some soldiers took my father's head, speared it, and paraded it around in triumph. I ran into the streets and saw Wolfmark soldiers looting everywhere, beheading, raping, pillaging at will. When I reached my own prince's manor, my wife and child were dead—my daughter trampled to death by warhorses..."
His eyes widened, unable to escape that shadow—the depths of his gaze still held the scene of Heavenly Diagram's capital destroyed. It was hell on earth.
"I was obsessed with books and painting, lost in my art and indifferent to state affairs, which led to my family's and country's ruin. I tore off my own ears—if they couldn't hear the world's suffering, what use were they?"
"I used the bones of my people as brushes, the blood in the streets as ink. I turned that place into hell. Heh—Wolfmark's army was all dragged into hell, a million soldiers, buried by me... But what does it matter? The old home, the old country, will never return; the dead won't come back to life. So I hid myself in the Great Ruins."
Deaf looked up at Quinn Shepherd, raised a finger and tapped his chest. "Quinn, harden your heart. Don't be like me—don't wait until your country and family are lost before you steel yourself. By then, it's already too late. This is war; there's no right or wrong. On the battlefield, your heart itself must become hell, must become the Netherworld!"
Quinn's mind suddenly cleared. He bowed and said, "I understand."
Deaf smiled. "All these sins—let Tu Bo settle them after we're dead. Our job now is to send more enemies to meet Tu Bo!"
Quinn Shepherd laughed loudly. "Send them to Tu Bo!"
Rat Immortal looked at the stone statues below. "What's wrong with those statues?"
"No idea. They just suddenly stopped moving."
Quinn Shepherd was puzzled as well. "These statues are extremely powerful—their bodies are fossilized, incredibly hard. Even though their ritual failed this time, they're bound to try something else. They won't give up so easily."
Suddenly, the stone statues around the altar leapt one after another into the abyss below. Quinn quickly looked down and saw them burrowing into the earth, vanishing in no time.
"Uh..."
The three exchanged glances. Quinn looked toward the blade on the statue's forehead—it shone with a dazzling brightness, as if it had split the statue's head open with a single strike.
The blade's surface was so smooth, not a trace of pattern could be seen—brighter and clearer than the finest mirror. On that mirror-like blade, the Primordial Spirits of Granny Sue, the Imperial Preceptor, Mute, Butcher, and the others appeared flat, battling gods of High Heaven within the reflection. They couldn't see anything outside.
Suddenly, waves of gray mist surged from nowhere, filling the underground space. The three stood within the fog, which grew thicker and thicker, until mountains and rivers seemed to surge forth from within, engulfing them.
Not only them—even the statue that had burrowed up from underground and its shining blade were swallowed by the mist, leaving only faint glimpses of chains.
After a while, the mist stopped swirling. Around them appeared towering mountains of white bones, rising out of the sea of fog. The underground space beneath the mist now seemed packed with bones.
Countless bones crawled over the mountains—a truly eerie and terrifying sight.
"The Dead-Alive Realm!"
Quinn Shepherd's heart trembled. He looked deep into the sea of mist, and there, at its farthest edge, was a dock—the only road into the Dead-Alive Realm!
The Dead-Alive Realm and Nether City had descended to the depths beneath the Godsever Mountains, overlapping with this strange underground space!
"Does anyone have a Nether City Coin?" Quinn asked urgently.
Rat Immortal and Deaf had never seen such a scene; both shook their heads. The Flood-Dragon King was a deity of High Heaven—naturally, he wouldn't have a Nether City Coin either.
At that moment, a tattered boat sailed out of the misty sea. Quinn waved his hand and called loudly, "Boatman, could you give us a ride?"
The oar creaked as the boat moved between the sea of mist and the mountains of bones. Quinn was thrilled, while Rat Immortal and Deaf were on high alert, nervously watching the approaching shabby boat.
After a moment, the boat arrived before the palace, floating in front of the Flood-Dragon King's massive head, looking tiny by comparison. The boatman wore a rain cloak and a bamboo hat, which hid his face.
The Flood-Dragon King lowered his head. Just as Quinn was about to jump aboard, a skeletal hand reached out from beneath the rain cloak, and a chilling voice came from under the bamboo hat: "Young friend, do you have money?"
Quinn shook his head.
"Treasure boats don't carry penniless passengers."
The boatman said, "Small business, thin profit. Come back when you have money—it's never too late to enter Nether City then."
Quinn was disappointed. Suddenly, he noticed the skeletal hand—it had only four fingers, with one broken off, as if severed by a sword.
A shock ran through his body, but at that moment the boatman rowed away, vanishing into the depths of the misty sea.
"When did Nether City change boatmen?" Quinn called out loudly.
A chilling voice echoed from the misty sea, but strangely, it carried a hint of joy: "The day I died, they changed the boatman!"
Quinn called out, "Have you ever seen the Heavenly Demon Patriarch?"
"Heh, when you have money, come in and see for yourself..."
Quinn was stunned. Rat Immortal was suspicious and quickly asked, "Human Emperor Quinn, do you know that underworld courier?"
Quinn nodded. "He seems to be an old friend—one who also had only nine fingers. The finger he lost was severed by the Village Chief."
"You mean, that's Jasper Ling?"
Rat Immortal suddenly understood, both shocked and delighted. He called out loudly, "Senior Brother Jasper, do you still remember your old friends?"
There was no reply from the misty sea.
Rat Immortal called out several more times, but still received no answer, leaving him feeling lost and disappointed.
Suddenly, the mist surged and retreated westward, vanishing in moments. Quinn looked up and saw that the Titan Saber still gleamed on the statue's forehead, but Granny Sue and the others were no longer within the blade.
"Did Nether City abduct Granny Sue and the others?"
Quinn's heart leapt with alarm. He, Rat Immortal, and Deaf rushed to the surface. Suddenly, the light was blinding—a rising sun shone on their faces, and behind them, the darkness of the Great Ruins swiftly receded.
"That's where the corpses of more than a hundred thousand demon soldiers fell."
Deaf pointed to a spot in the Great Ruins and said to Quinn, "You teleported about a hundred miles."
Quinn activated the Fiery Firmament Heaven Eye and looked over. There was only a single mountain of bones; of the demon army, only skeletons remained—no flesh, no blood.