paranoianovel Chapter 15 On the Road!
Chapter 15 On the Road!
The fastest route from Sunset Forest to the Tiandou-Xingluo border is to head southeast, pass through the Fasno Province, and then cross a low mountain range to reach the border.
The entire journey is about 800 kilometers, and if you travel day and night, you can arrive within five days.
But Mingfei didn't plan to leave on his own.
He has a faster way.
The Gates of the Underworld.
The Gate of the Underworld is the connection between the Underworld and the Real World. It can open a door at any time, allowing one to walk out of the Underworld or into the Real World.
However, there are restrictions on where the gates to the underworld can be opened.
He could only open doors in places he had been before.
In other words, he must first personally arrive at a place before he can turn that place into an "anchor point" for the gates of the underworld.
The anchor point for Sunset Forest has been established.
He stayed here for several days, and the underworld has memorized the spatial coordinates of this forest.
He needs to establish an anchor point on the border between Tiandou and Xingluo.
That means he has to go there in person.
Mingfei took back all the undead from the underworld, including Ghost Tiger, three human soul masters, seventeen hundred-year-old soul beasts, and the Dark Underworld Python that had just begun to transform into its undead form.
The corpse of the Dark Serpent still lay on the scorched earth of the underworld, and gray mist was slowly enveloping its body, transforming it inch by inch into a spirit of the dead.
This process takes time; the transformation of a 6,000-year-old soul beast is much slower than that of a 100-year-old soul beast, taking approximately three to five days.
But Mingfei wasn't in a hurry.
As he traveled, the Dark Serpent was transforming.
By the time he reaches the border, the Dark Serpent should have already completed its transformation, becoming the strongest undead force in his hands.
When Mingfei emerged from the edge of Sunset Forest, it was already fully light.
He stood in a clearing on the outskirts of the forest and glanced back at the deep green sea of trees.
The morning light shone from the east, turning the treetops golden, and mist rose slowly through the forest like a thin veil.
He stayed in the forest for less than ten days.
But their strength has increased several times over.
From level 20 to level 26, from zero rings to two rings, from being alone to having more than twenty undead minions.
Sunset Forest gave him a perfect start.
Now, it's time to go to bigger places.
Mingfei turned around and walked towards the southeast.
He did not take the official road, nor did he approach any towns.
His identity remains a question.
A seven or eight-year-old child walking alone in the wilderness is bound to attract attention if seen by someone.
He chose a wild road along the edge of the mountains, far from human habitation, avoiding any place where he might encounter people.
Fortunately, the original owner had enough wilderness survival experience in his memories, and the physical qualities granted to him by the Hades Sword far exceeded those of ordinary children, so traveling day and night was not a difficult task for him.
On the first day, he walked about 150 li.
In the evening, he found a place to rest in a dry riverbed.
There was a natural depression beneath a huge rock, just big enough for him to curl up inside.
Ming Fei took out a piece of dried meat from the Underworld. It was the meat of a hundred-year-old soul beast that he had hunted in the Sunset Forest. It had been well preserved in the Underworld and had not spoiled.
As he chewed on the dried meat, he sank his consciousness into the underworld to check on the Dark Serpent's transformation progress.
The gray mist had already covered most of the Dark Serpent's body.
The gray mist seemed to be alive, burrowing into the gaps in the Dark Serpent's scales and emerging from the other side. Each time it entered and exited, it carried away a trace of the Dark Serpent's "impurities" from its previous life, leaving behind only pure death energy.
The Dark Serpent's body color is changing from pure black to dark purple, becoming more and more like the Ghost Tiger's color.
The conversion progress is approximately 30%.
It will take at least two more days.
Mingfei withdrew from the underworld, leaned against a rock, and closed his eyes.
His mental energy automatically spread out, covering an area of sixty meters around him, allowing him to sense any movement or disturbance.
This was not sleep, but a deeper level of rest. The Hades Sword was slowly circulating within his body, maintaining his basic bodily functions.
The next day, he walked another 160 li.
On the third day, he crossed the low mountain range bordering the province of Fasno and stood atop the mountain, gazing at the distant plains.
At the end of the plain, there is a winding river.
The other side of the river is the territory of the Star Luo Empire.
The border between the two countries is defined by this river, which has a stone bridge. There is a sentry post on each side of the bridge, where border guards from both countries are stationed.
Mingfei observed from the mountaintop for about an hour.
There weren't many people at the outpost, about twenty to thirty on each side, all ordinary soldiers, with no high-level Soul Masters. The border was quiet, with no signs of war—at least not today.
But Mingfei could smell a faint scent of blood in the air.
It's not today's blood, it's from the past. How many people have died on this border plain over the past few centuries?
Several thousand? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?
The blood of the dead seeped into the soil, piling up layer upon layer, turning the land a deep brown.
The resentment of the dead seeped into the air, accumulating over time to create a lingering sense of oppression.
Ordinary people can't smell it, but Mingfei can.
Netherworld energy.
Mingfei could sense the excitement of the underworld. The gray space was trembling slightly, and the gray mist was churning violently, as if it couldn't wait to devour the death energy and resentment that had accumulated on this land for hundreds of years.
"Don't rush," Mingfei said softly, as if soothing an excited hunting dog. "They're all ours."
He didn't rush down the mountain.
The people on the battlefield are not innocent. Soldiers from both countries fought for their respective empires, and their hands were stained with blood.
They have killed people, or at least participated in killings.
According to Mingfei's definition, anyone who has done bad things is not innocent.
It is a soldier's duty to kill the enemy, but the fact that he killed people is not cleaned up by the word "duty".
Moreover, the dead on the battlefield are not only soldiers.
There are also civilians affected by the war. And farmers in villages that have been looted.
There were also able-bodied men who were forcibly conscripted into the army.
Their deaths all stemmed from war. And neither side in the war was absolutely righteous.
Therefore, Mingfei doesn't need to have any psychological burden.
He came here not to judge anyone, nor to save anyone.
He's just here to collect resources.
Rather than letting these deathly auras, resentment, and corpses rot on the battlefield and feed the wild dogs, it would be better for them to become nourishment for the underworld and a stepping stone for him to become stronger.
Moreover, he will not let them die in vain.
After being transformed into undead, they will have a second "existence".
It is not alive, but it is not completely extinct either.
They will become part of the underworld, the subjects of the Lord of the Underworld.
They will continue to exist, continue to fight, and continue to leave their mark on this world.
.....