"What’s even stranger is that, while performing the Soul‑Calling Rite, all sorts of devil words I’d never learned suddenly erupted in my mind…"
Quinn Shepherd frowned. Those bizarre messages still lingered in his mind—a language immeasurably ancient.
Suddenly, a spark flickered in his heart. He manifested the true form of the Earth Star Lord: human head, serpent body, the Gate of Bearing Heaven looming behind him, and a phantom ancient scroll materializing in his hand.
Quinn steadied himself and lifted the shadowy ancient scroll. The characters on it swept before his eyes, and instantly the bird‑seal and worm‑script began to recombine at lightning speed. One after another, uncanny symbols became perfectly familiar to him—every strange glyph as natural as breathing!
Quinn’s expression went slack. The text was written in Netherworld Tongue—Netherworld script he’d never learned!
The Nethervault Demon King knew a little Netherworld Tongue and had taught him a single phrase—Gate of Bearing Heaven. At the time, the Demon King had even tricked him, nearly costing Quinn his life in the Netherworld.
As for the rest of the text, the Demon King had never taught him a word of it.
Yet now, the scroll’s myriad scripts seemed to unfold themselves—he understood them without effort, as if he’d always known them!
"This cursed land is truly bizarre. I couldn’t read these characters before, but now I can! The first page—almost like a technique, but not quite—talks about strange soul‑related knowledge, yet it’s not exactly knowledge either. It feels more like a divine art…"
Quinn was astonished. The Netherworld script in this scroll was unlike anything he’d ever seen—neither technique nor knowledge, neither pure divine art nor anything ordinary.
He hesitated, but couldn’t resist. He began reciting the first page aloud; the syllables tumbled out in a lilting, cryptic rhythm, obscure and strangely musical.
These words couldn’t be expressed in human language—there simply were no words for them, not even the meanings. Only Netherworld Tongue could reveal what they truly meant.
Quinn had barely spoken the first line before his soul shuddered. His inner yuanqi twisted, transforming into demonic qi; all around, the wind turned chill, clouds darkened, and the marsh began to churn.
He quickly stopped and glanced around. Instantly, everything returned to normal.
He pressed on, reciting further. The wind and clouds shifted again; the marsh water bubbled as if boiling, and overhead, gloom gathered into a spinning vortex. Demonic qi surged from every direction, and suddenly a stream of devil qi, like a dragon’s tail, descended from the vortex’s heart.
Quinn’s spirit reeled. That devil qi pierced straight through his brow, flooding into his Spirit Embryo Treasury, merging with his voice and spirit embryo. The embryo fed it back, and the devil qi swept through his Five Luminaries Treasury and Six Directions Treasury, even staining the sun, moon, and stars within his divine treasuries a murky, shadowed hue.
As Quinn chanted from the scroll, skeletons began to rise from the marsh, and corpses crawled up from beneath the mud.
Startled, he stopped at once, snapped the scroll shut, dispersed the Earth Star Lord form, and swept a cautious gaze across his surroundings.
The moment his voice ceased, the skeletons toppled back down.
"Too bizarre… This cursed land is just too bizarre…"
Quinn steadied his mind. He decided it was best to leave this cursed land as soon as possible.
"Maybe once I get out of here, the Netherworld Tongue in my head will fade, and I won’t be able to read the scroll anymore. Huh, my cultivation seems to have improved…"
He examined his own cultivation and couldn’t help but be amazed—just in this brief moment, his power had grown by leaps and bounds!
He’d fused his Six Directions Treasury and Seven Stars Treasury, making his cultivation exceptionally deep—no weaker than most Heaven-Man Realm experts. But such a solid foundation also meant his progress was usually slow.
Yet in just these few moments, he felt his cultivation surge—a rate of progress that was downright frightening!
"Something’s wrong… Something about this is way off. There’s definitely something strange about this ancient scroll…"
Quinn inspected himself carefully and finally discovered what was off.
He found a closed portal inside his body!
A portal facing the Spirit Embryo Treasury!
Another Spirit Embryo Treasury!
"That can’t be right… Isn’t there supposed to be only one Spirit Embryo Treasury in the human body? How could there be another? I’m not two people… But then again, no one ever told me it was impossible to have two Spirit Embryo Treasuries. Hm, this must be the Overlord Body at work…"
Once he chalked it up to the Overlord Body, it felt perfectly natural, so he didn’t worry about it further.
He mustered his cultivation and tried to force open the portal. It barely cracked before pure devil qi surged out, mingling with his yuanqi. Strange devil sounds echoed from within, pushing his cultivation back.
He stopped immediately.
"This Spirit Embryo Treasury is demonic, not divine! When I opened my first Spirit Embryo Treasury, I heard mysterious god‑sounds; now it’s devil words, driving my cultivation back, refusing to let me open this demonic treasury… I’d better ask the Village Chief later—he understands the Overlord Body best, he’ll know what’s going on!"
For now, Quinn set the matter aside. He looked around. Marshal Lyle Wei had pointed him east; he just had to keep going that way to escape this cursed land. The only problem was, the marsh was far bigger than he’d expected.
He picked a direction and marched on. After a long while, he’d walked a thousand miles and still hadn’t left the swamp.
On the way, he passed countless lakes—hundreds, large and small—all filled with water. They were scars left by ancient battles.
Reaching the shore of one lake, Quinn sensed terrifying, restless energy pulsing from its depths.
"These lakes are traces left by god‑demon battles, by divine arts unleashed long ago."
Quinn moved with extreme caution, staying well back. The divine arts of ancient gods and demons still lingered at the lake’s bottom—unstable, dangerous. Setting foot in the water could trigger something terrible.
(Irrelevant system message, skip translation.)
Just then, he saw a strange sight: rosy light rose from the lake, accompanied by delicate tinkling, like treasures gently colliding—clear and melodious.
Quinn paused, watching as the glow thickened. Within it, he glimpsed spinning lotus petals, and a massive lotus seat slowly rising from the water. The seat was battered, petals falling away, yet it seemed to exert a mysterious pull, drawing those petals into orbit around it.
Within the lotus seat, several weapons clashed like writhing dragons.
Quinn turned away and continued along the lakeshore.
Suddenly, silvery laughter rang out from the lake. He looked over and saw a group of naked girls draped in gauzy veils, playing on the water—some diving in, some sitting atop the surface, all laughing and splashing.
Quinn’s eyes lit up. He whipped out brush, ink, and paper, ground the ink, and began painting. Soon, he’d finished—a lakeside scene, girls bathing, a lotus throne.
With a leap, Quinn jumped into the painting itself, joining the girls in laughter and play—utterly carefree.
The painting stood by the lake. Inside it, the youth sat proud and triumphant on the lotus throne, girls lounging around him, arms draped on both sides, and even those extraordinary weapons gathered at his feet. It was the peak of life!
Light surged across the lake’s surface—then, suddenly, everything vanished. Something enormous was swimming beneath, speeding closer, raising ripples like little islands.
Splash.
The lake split open. Out leapt a giant eyeball, wreathed in demonic flame—the eye of a Demon God.
This Demon Eye Fiend was either long‑awakened or possessed by some lingering soul—utterly bizarre. It had grown legs and arms—four of each—and two pairs of tiny wings sprouted behind its eyeball. It circled the painting, peering in, clearly envious of the Quinn inside.
"Goo goo!" The Demon Eye Fiend quivered with excitement.
Suddenly, the Demon Eye Fiend shrank to basin‑size, flapped its wings, and dove into the painting with a pop.
The moment it entered, its eye split open, revealing a massive mouth packed with razor‑sharp teeth. It roared at Quinn: "Goo goo—!"
Quinn scrambled off the throne in a panic, fleeing for his life.
The Demon Eye Fiend, utterly pleased with itself, leapt onto the lotus throne, dragged the girls over, and wrapped its arms around them—finally, it felt it had reached the peak of monsterdom.
Quinn jumped out of the painting, swiped a brushstroke across it, and instantly froze the girls and Demon Eye Fiend in place.
"What an amusing monster—far stronger than me, but a bit thick. It didn’t realize how cunning people can be, tried to trick me with treasures and girls, and ended up getting tricked itself!"
Quinn took out his personal seal, breathed on it, stamped the lower right corner of the painting, sealing it tight. Then he rolled up the scroll and stowed it in his Glutton Dragon Pouch.
"That monster is no joke. If I ever face an enemy I can’t handle, I can let it out to fight for me."
Quinn kept walking, feeling a bit hopeful: "If I run into more cursed creatures in this land and collect them, they’d be useful! These unholy things are treasures in their own right. If Aiden Starr were here, he’d love this place. Haven’t seen him in ages…"
At last, he left the swamp and reached the ruins of a city. Fallen palaces lay everywhere, destroyed by war and long abandoned. The shattered streets were littered with broken bones. A chill wind blew, sending cracked skulls rolling with a crisp clatter.
Suddenly, the street split open—a long spine burst out like a dragon, ribs like legs, howling as it charged straight for him!
At the end of the spine was a ferocious skull—clearly a Demon God’s head, stripped of flesh, crowned with bone spikes, utterly savage, jaws wide as it lunged.
Quinn bolted, but soon found himself facing a battlefield—countless skeletons locked in combat, wielding battered spirit weapons as sand and debris flew everywhere.
He tried to skirt the fight, but the giant spine soared into the air, feet ablaze with demon fire. Gritting his teeth, Quinn charged into the fray.
Only after plunging in did Quinn realize the danger—every skeleton on the field was terrifyingly powerful, even the weakest were no less strong than he was!
Thud, thud, thud!
Drums sounded. Two hundred-foot-tall bone giants tore out their own thigh bones, grinning wildly, and used them to pound war drums. The thunderous beat sent the skeleton warriors into a frenzy.
Quinn was caught in a desperate struggle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the spine with the Demon God’s skull rampaging toward him!
"Marshal Lyle Wei is here! Monsters and demons, stand down!"
Quinn turned to see the Seven-Kill Star Lord, Marshal Lyle Wei, wielding his Command Halberd and leading a horde of corpses in a wild charge. With a deafening crash, his army swept across the battlefield, sending shattered bones flying everywhere.
Marshal Lyle Wei swung his Command Halberd, smashing the Demon God’s skull to powder. He shouted, "In life, be a hero among men; in death, a champion among ghosts! Crush these demon spawn—rule the cursed land! We shall become the curse!"
Quinn watched in awe as Marshal Lyle Wei swept through the field like a storm, leaving nothing but bones behind. The victorious skeleton soldiers grinned, excitedly picking through the remains for intact bones to replace their own broken ones.
Marshal Lyle Wei strode over. "This cursed land is extremely dangerous, young friend. Let us escort you out!"