The divine ark left those Netherworld creatures far behind, and its speed kept increasing—this had never happened before!
On deck, Ben Coates and the others hurriedly grabbed the railings to keep from being thrown off. "Did that little brat Quinn Shepherd put on the silver helmet and start the ship?"
Ben Coates looked at Quinn Shepherd, only to see him clutching the railing as well, without the silver helmet—clearly, he wasn’t the one piloting the divine ark.
Ben Coates was momentarily stunned. If Quinn wasn’t steering, then who was piloting this divine ark?
Could there be some terrifying presence hidden aboard, or is there a ghost on the ship?
Ever since they boarded this strange ship, bizarre events kept happening. To this day, no one had fully explored the ark—if anything, they’d run into more and more weird incidents, enough to give anyone the chills just thinking about it.
The divine ark sped through the Netherworld, a land of utter darkness—no sky, no earth. Sailing through this boundless blackness was truly terrifying.
They traveled like this for an unknown length of time before a sudden crash nearly sent everyone flying. A few soldiers and witch kings failed to hold on and were flung overboard—no sooner did they hit the darkness outside than their flesh melted away, leaving only bones that clattered to the ground.
"There’s land below!" someone shouted.
Quinn Shepherd looked down. The divine ark had slammed into the peak of a mountain, punching a huge hole in it. That crash was what sent those soldiers and witch kings flying.
The mountain quickly faded into the distance, and beneath it Quinn could just make out stretches of land. Strangely, the land wasn’t connected—each slab floated in the darkness like an island.
Boom—
Two massive land plates collided in a fierce spectacle, grinding against each other. Instantly, thousands of volcanoes erupted across the slabs—rivers of magma and thick black smoke shot two or three hundred miles into the sky. It was a sight to behold.
Countless bolts of lightning flashed between the clouds and the magma, tearing open the sky. Chilled rocks rained down in a terrifying rockstorm—the falling boulders struck with comet-like force, trailing long fiery tails.
The ground shook, and magma, rocks, and acid rain fell together—like the end of the world itself.
The divine ark barreled through the downpour, and everyone on board instantly unleashed their qi to form giant shields, blocking the deadly rain from smashing them to bits.
Suddenly, a clattering sound rang out—not magma this time, but diamonds. Fist-sized diamonds, ancient 'vajra stones,' rained down from the sky, products of thunderstrikes, scattering across the entire ship.
The divine ark tilted, sweeping all the molten rock and diamonds overboard, then skirted past a blazing volcano and sailed on.
Magma poured down the volcano like fire dragons. Quinn Shepherd glanced over and was startled—amidst the quaking, world-shattering chaos, millions of people were climbing the mountain.
Heads bowed, these people trudged soundlessly through the apocalypse, like walking corpses. Each step seemed almost impossible, yet they kept moving, drawn by some deadly attraction up ahead.
At the front, many had already reached the volcano’s summit and, without a flicker of awareness, leapt straight in—instantly swallowed up by the geysering magma!
Beyond this volcano, thousands more dotted the continent—and beyond this continent, there were thousands more like it.
Who could possibly count how many trudged through this world-ending chaos, only to throw themselves into the volcanoes?
"They’re not people—they’re ghosts!"
Quinn Shepherd’s heart pounded. He realized these were the souls of the dead, without bodies—and not just human souls, but spirits of beasts, demons, dragons, phoenixes, even Skyfiends.
The divine ark weaved between volcanoes, with countless souls trudging between them.
Each volcano erupted, fiery magma shooting skyward with a deafening roar.
Ben Coates’ face went pale. He muttered, trembling, "Yellow Springs... Yellow Springs..."
Quinn Shepherd was momentarily confused—he had no idea what Ben was talking about.
"What Yellow Springs?"
"They’re descending into the Yellow Springs!"
Suddenly Ben Coates howled at the top of his lungs, "This is the world after death! We’re riding on Tu Bo’s horns!"
Quinn Shepherd shivered as he finally understood Ben’s words. Their ship was sailing between Tu Bo’s twin horns—these continents weren’t continents at all, but cross-sections of Tu Bo’s horns!
The Earth Sovereign’s Ninefold Oath—the ‘ninefold’ refers to the nine bends of Tu Bo’s horns, twisting like rivers.
Tu Bo’s twin horns are also called the Nine-Bend Yellow Springs—two rivers of the underworld.
Quinn Shepherd’s scalp tingled. Yellow Springs—it was a fitting name. The volcanoes kept erupting, magma lighting up each layer of land, so from afar it looked like yellow or red rivers.
It’s just... those horns were impossibly huge!
Was this really a god?
Heh heh, heh heh...
Ben Coates had clearly suffered a deep trauma. Now he looked half-crazed, muttering, "This is the truth I saw... I can’t die, I mustn’t die. If anyone wants to die, let them—I have to survive..."
At last, the divine ark broke through the continent and sailed away. Quinn Shepherd glanced back, finally able to see the full shape of those twin horns—magma erupted from each slab of land, linking them together, so the continent above became the sky of the one below.
Countless slabs linked together, twisted into nine great bends—seen from afar, they looked just like the Nine-Bend Yellow Springs.
Endless souls, drawn from worlds beyond counting, trudged onto these lands and hurled themselves into the Yellow Springs.
And yet, these were nothing but the unimaginably vast horns of Tu Bo!
He looked down—the horns stretched on endlessly, plunging deep into the darkness, their tips unseen. Beneath them should be Tu Bo’s head; legend said he had a tiger’s head and bovine horns, but Quinn couldn’t see where his head was at all.
Quinn Shepherd shrank back, determined never to sign a Tu Bo Oath lightly. If such a contract ever took effect, you’d never escape its grip!
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He felt a pang—his father had still signed a Tu Bo Oath.
Once signed, a Tu Bo Oath is almost impossible to undo.
The divine ark sped ever faster, arriving over another land—a world in the throes of collapse, shrouded in darkness. Countless Paper Soul-Ferry Boats drifted from the gloom, each carrying the souls of the dead.
Many Paper Soul-Ferry Boats slid past the divine ark, heading for the land of the Ninefold Oath. The souls aboard were all ragged Skyfiends—not the fierce monsters Quinn saw in the Great Ruins, but weary, sick, and old.
Thousands of Paper Soul-Ferry Boats drifted by—clearly, the number of dead Skyfiends was immense. Quinn Shepherd frowned. Normally, so many Skyfiends wouldn’t die at once, even in a massive war.
"Souls, return—"
A faint tremor echoed through the darkness—a demon god, somewhere beyond the world, was chanting in demon tongue. Quinn Shepherd looked toward the sound and glimpsed a four-headed, eight-armed Nethervault Demon King, weeping in the black starry void. Across the worlds, his form and voice were blurred and indistinct.
"It sounds like the Nethervault Demon King crying..."
Quinn Shepherd was stunned. That figure in the ruined world looked just like the Nethervault Demon King—so powerful that even the collapse of the Nethervault Realm couldn’t muffle his form or voice. He was calling to his kin’s souls, trying to summon them back.
"Souls, return!
None should descend to this Netherworld.
Earth Sovereign’s Ninefold Oath, its horns towering high.
Blood and bone bind us, chasing the living and the dead.
Three-eyed, tiger-headed—its body like an ox.
All are willing souls.
Return! Beware of bringing calamity upon yourselves.
Souls, return! Enter the gate of restoration.
The priest calls you, walking ahead...
The divine ark sailed on; gradually, the Nethervault Demon King’s chant faded, his cries lost in the distance. The ark had left the dying Nethervault Realm—so many Skyfiends perished only because their world was collapsing.
Quinn Shepherd looked back at the countless Paper Soul-Ferry Boats drifting from the Nethervault Realm into the Netherworld, sorrow welling in his heart. Perhaps this was the future awaiting their own world.
After a long while, they reached another continent shrouded in darkness. Dots of divine light illuminated the gloom—dim and misty, with some Netherworld creatures moving in the shadows.
The divine ark slowed down. At last, the passengers could see what those divine lights were: each one came from a village idol or the glow of ancient ruins.
They had arrived at the Great Ruins, deep in the darkness.
Quinn Shepherd’s heart stirred—the Great Ruins, at night, overlapped with the Netherworld!
A part of the Great Ruins merged with the Netherworld; for its denizens, two worlds overlapped. At night, Netherworld creatures roamed, and the Netherworld dominated, suppressing reality. By day, the real world prevailed.
In the darkness, every patch of light marked an entrance to reality.
If they entered a ruin or village protected by a god-statue, they could leave the Netherworld and return to reality!
The divine ark’s purpose was to deliver them back to the real world.
The ark slowed further, and at last, its destination became clear—a patch of ancient ruins blazing with divine light, driving back the darkness. Majestic palaces stood there, battered and broken, but the towering god-statues still shone.
The divine ark drifted to a gentle halt, floating above the ruins. Below, strange beasts lay quietly among the wreckage, and travelers passed by, coexisting peacefully, all sheltering from the encroaching darkness.
They all looked up, curious about the ship’s sudden appearance.
Quinn Shepherd summoned two White Bat Demons and the Dragon-Qilin, then leapt from the ship; Ben Coates and his followers did the same.
"Great Sovereign..." A witch king gazed at Quinn Shepherd, eyes flickering with inquiry.
Ben Coates shook his head. "We’re in the Great Ruins now—follow its rules, and don’t stir up trouble."
Quinn Shepherd looked up at the ship, his expression complicated. The divine ark slowly turned, shifted course, and finally left the ruins, plunging into darkness.
That tree-being must have taken the divine ark back to the Netherworld to search for Quinn Shepherd’s family.
——The apartment still hasn’t turned on the heat. So cold!