Journey to the Underworld

"Issue the Heavenly Court's decree in my name! Spread the word throughout the Cangming Realm—spare no effort in capturing Gu Qingfeng at all costs!!"

The Heavenly Court's Holy Lord roared like a madman amidst the ruins of the treasury, his voice shaking the heavens and reverberating across the entire Heavenly Court.

Soon after, the Heavenly Court sprang into action. This ancient sacred land unleashed an unimaginable, terrifying force in an instant. The legacy of a dual-emperor lineage was no joke.

When the Heavenly Court gave its command, who in the world dared to disobey?

It was easy to foresee that, with the decree's proclamation, Gu Qingfeng's name would soon resound across the entire Holy Domain—even throughout the Cangming Realm!

Before long, the world would come to know of a madman named Gu Qingfeng, who had openly insulted the Five Supreme Sovereigns and plundered the Heavenly Court's treasury in its entirety.

This was an earth-shattering event. In the hundreds of thousands of years since the Heavenly Court's founding, it had never suffered such a devastating blow.

Meanwhile, the protagonist of this incident, Gu Qingfeng, had already rushed nonstop to the Underworld.

His choice of the Underworld wasn’t a deliberate provocation against the Underworld’s Lord—it was simply because the Underworld was the farthest from the Heavenly Court.

Gu Qingfeng knew those five old dogs were cunning beyond their years. With the Heavenly Court’s example fresh in their minds, they would surely be on guard.

Thus, he needed to exploit a time advantage, which meant targeting the most distant location—the Underworld.

Thanks to the Heaven-Sent Array, the journey from the Heavenly Court to the Underworld was instantaneous. But he wasted no time and immediately sprang into action.

After all, the Underworld’s Lord was a Heavenly Sovereign. Even without a formidable array like the Heaven-Sent Array, his travel speed would be nothing to scoff at. There was no room for delay.

The Underworld was built beneath a vast mortal empire spanning hundreds of millions of miles—not just underground, but within a separate pocket realm beneath the earth, forming a stark contrast with the world above: the Yin and Yang realms.

The reason for its construction beneath a mortal kingdom traced back to the Underworld’s founder, Zang Tiandi.

Zang Tiandi had attained the Dao through the Six Paths of Reincarnation, forging an immortal physique known as the Reincarnation Immortal Body.

His descendants and disciples inherited his legacy, naturally specializing in the Dao of Reincarnation. To better cultivate this path, they established the Yin and Yang realms, observing the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

The mortal kingdom of the Yang realm wasn’t truly part of the Underworld—it was merely a tool for cultivation, a pasture for harvesting souls.

The Yin realm beneath it was the true Underworld, where the souls of all the deceased from the Yang realm were imprisoned.

The Underworld controlled the mortal kingdom’s cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

The living beings of the Yang realm were nothing more than puppets whose souls were toyed with at the Underworld’s whim. If the Underworld decreed death at the third watch, none would live to see the fifth. If it ordained rebirth as livestock, humanity was out of the question.

Elsewhere, death was the end—but in the Underworld, death was only the beginning.

This was precisely why the mortal kingdom could never resist the Underworld. Even if one fought with their life, death would only condemn them to the Eighteen Hells, where torment was eternal.

Gu Qingfeng bypassed the Underworld’s barriers entirely, entering directly via the Heaven-Sent Array.

Before him stretched an endless expanse of land—jagged peaks, layered ridges, and ancient vines as thick as coiling dragons, sprawling across the mountain ranges.

A thousand-zhang waterfall cascaded down with a thunderous roar.

It might have sounded majestic, but the earth was a dark crimson, like congealed blood.

The mountains were bone-white, as if piled from countless skeletons.

The vines were blood-red, covered in a slick, viscous liquid—likely blood vessels extracted from some colossal creature.

As for the waterfall, it was formed entirely of blood, its pungent metallic stench assaulting the senses from a great distance.

It was a scene straight out of the underworld.

Oh, right—this was the underworld. Never mind, then.

Gu Qingfeng gazed at the picturesque yet macabre landscape, his strikingly handsome face suddenly twisting into a vicious grin.

"A place so saturated with yin energy must be teeming with ferocious ghosts, no? Hehehe...

Seems this venerable one came to the underworld at the right time. The harvest here might even surpass what I reaped in the celestial realm."

He licked his lips, their crimson hue deepening under the bloody glow.

"Still, the priority now is to locate the treasury."

Gu Qingfeng frowned slightly. The underworld was vast beyond imagination, and the treasury’s location—being of utmost importance—was undoubtedly well-hidden.

The celestial treasury had been easy to find, thanks to the Righteous Sun Heavenly Lord’s ties to the heavens. But the underworld’s vault? That would be far trickier.

Looks like I’ll need to... persuade someone of high rank for answers.

With a thought, his body shrank to near-invisibility before darting deeper into the underworld.

Though he had refined his entire constitution into the Chaos Embryo, it didn’t mean his prior abilities had vanished. They’d merely fused into the embryo, growing stronger.

Chaos was the origin of all things—and their inevitable end.

Every law and principle in existence was but a derivative of Chaos.

Of course, Gu Qingfeng wasn’t yet capable of mastering all universal laws. His Chaos Embryo remained incomplete.

But with each constitution he devoured, the embryo would grow more potent, and his arsenal of divine techniques would expand.

The Immortal Demon Body Refining Scripture recorded that, in the Cangming Realm’s billion-year history, a Chaos Body had emerged once before.

Yet that had been the most rudimentary form.

Born from the union of a Solar Immortal Body and a Lunar Immortal Body, that individual possessed a natural Chaos Embryo, later cultivating it into a Chaos Body.

Why "rudimentary"? Think of it like mixing pigments.

Blend a hundred colors, or ten thousand—the result is still a chaotic mess. But the quality? Worlds apart.

A Chaos Body forged from Yin-Yang fusion could never rival one tempered by all the world’s myriad paths.

And Gu Qingfeng? He was walking the latter road.

Reduced to a speck, he streaked through the underworld without bothering to conceal his aura. There was no need—Chaos inherently veiled celestial scrutiny.

Unfamiliar with the terrain, he chose a mid-sized palace to infiltrate.

Too grand a palace might house a Heavenly Sovereign; too humble, and its occupants would know nothing of value. Mid-sized was just right.

Inside, he glided past layers of grim guards and restrictive arrays as effortlessly as if strolling through his own home.

Guided by his experience with palace layouts, he navigated toward the main hall—where the master typically resided.

As he approached, agonized shrieks leaked through the tightly sealed doors.

The doors were crafted from premium materials, their soundproofing impeccable. Yet the screams still pierced through. Just how tortured were those inside?

"What's going on?" Gu Qingfeng muttered to himself, then turned his gaze toward the two guards stationed at the gate.