Volume I: The Emperor's Sword Chapter 151: Journey to the Netherworld

Inside the Myriad Fathom Tower, absolute silence reigned, as quiet as death.

Hundreds of disciples stood in orderly lines on either side. Some had reaped rich rewards, some were in a disheveled and wretched state, and many had suffered injuries, gritting their teeth in pain.

Not a single person dared to make a sound.

This was because the four elders remained utterly silent, sitting motionlessly in their grand armchairs with grim expressions.

The Transformation Realm had been closed for half a day already.

Out of the more than one thousand disciples who had entered the realm, less than a fraction managed to return.

"Our Yan Sword Palace has suffered too heavy a loss this time! Of the thirty Sword Children, fewer than ten have returned. This is a severe blow to our foundation! Sword Head! We cannot simply stand by and watch. Qingyao must still be inside the Transformation Realm; I beg you to save her!"

Unusually, a hint of entreaty laced Quan Yu's voice.

"Against the rules of the Sword Burial Ground, we are powerless," Qin Shangzhang sighed softly.

Hearing this, Quan Yu turned deathly pale, appearing to age a decade in a single instant.

She was naturally overbearing, unreasonable, and unforgiving, acting much like a resentful shrew. No one in the Sword Palace wished to provoke her, and even the elders of the East and West Courts would take a detour when they saw her.

Yet Quan Yu harbored genuine affection for her beloved disciple, teaching her everything she knew without holding anything back.

Mu Qingyao was the apple of her eye. Now that she was trapped in the Transformation Realm with her fate unknown, how could Quan Yu not be frantic?

"I am returning to the sect! I will petition the Elder Council to reopen the Transformation Realm!" Quan Yu said urgently.

"The Elder Council?"

Gu Shaoyang let out a dry laugh and said, "Do you honestly believe a mere Qi Refining realm disciple holds enough weight to alarm the Elder Council, let alone make them reopen the Transformation Realm? The Sword Burial Ground is not a place that can be opened or closed at a whim."

Quan Yu's expression shifted multiple times before she finally collapsed back into her seat.

Qin Shangzhang closed his eyes slightly and said softly, "Let us wait a little longer."

The great hall fell back into silence, the oppressive atmosphere suffocatingly heavy.

Xue Ziyi kept her fists tightly clenched, her face completely devoid of color.

Yun Que had not come out!

Not only Yun Que, but Wu Dachachuan and the group of sword attendants were nowhere to be found. Only Luo Xiaoyu had managed to return, and the number of North Court disciples who escaped the realm could be counted on one hand.

Xue Ziyi's heart had sunk to the very bottom; she knew Yun Que's prospects were grim.

Ma Yong and Niu Bucai wore gloomy, distressed expressions, sighing in silence.

Such a fine young disciple, how could he just vanish like that?

Not far away, Qian Yuxiu stood haughtily with a smug expression, casting a look of contemptuous amusement toward Xue Ziyi.

Huan Zhi stood beside her.

Wretched as he looked, he had made it out alive. Even if he had merely picked up a pebble from the Transformation Realm, he was still counted as a winner.

With not even a person coming out, Xue Ziyi had lost this wager without the slightest suspense, leaving her no room for redemption.

Xue Ziyi had no mind to entertain Qian Yuxiu's provocation. She would gladly forfeit the sword stones if only her junior brother could return alive.

Whatever was lost could be won back another day.

But once a person died, no number of future opportunities would matter.

While Xue Ziyi worried over Yun Que's life and death, her junior brother was no longer in the world of the living.

To be precise, he was no longer in the mortal realm.

At that very moment, Yun Que found himself in a bizarre and unfamiliar realm.

Above him stretched a scarlet-tinted sky, devoid of sun or moon!

Beneath his feet lay a cracked, fissured earth, swept by fierce winds and flying grit!

Jagged, monstrous rocks dotted the landscape. There was no vegetation whatsoever; the air was permeated with a chilling ghostly aura, and countless wandering souls fluttered and wheeled across the sky.

The Netherworld!

The Land of the Nine Youths.

This was a world belonging exclusively to the dead!

The moment they arrived in the Netherworld, everyone was stunned by the sight before them.

This looked nothing like a mere spatial rift; it was a completely different world!

Zhou Yuanliang was dumbfounded, his jaw slack with shock, while Yi Hongwen was even worse off, his legs turning to jelly with fright.

Han Jiao, Han Ning, and Lando were utterly speechless, staring blankly at the drifting phantoms in midair.

Yun Que looked around, his heart growing heavier by the second.

The Netherworld was far from simple.

Aside from the terrifying boundary pressure, countless perils lurked within.

The wandering souls in the sky posed little immediate threat, but the fiendish ghosts on the ground were certainly not entities to be trifled with.

Hovering not far from the group were dozens of ghost-faced fierce beasts.

These alien creatures possessed slender necks, massive heads bearing hideous ghostly visages, long manes trailing behind their skulls, and bodies resembling camels.

Judging by their auras, every single one of these ghost-faced beasts possessed the strength of a Tier 1 fierce beast.

Furthermore, they radiated the peak aura of Tier 1 fierce beasts!

Any single one of them was enough to contend with a tenth-layer Qi Refining cultivator!

Hiss— Hiss—!

Catching the scent of living beings, the ghost-faced beasts snapped their grotesque heads around to lock their gaze upon the intruders.

"What in the world are these freaks?!"

Zhou Yuanliang tried to summon his flying sword, but the moment the blade touched his hand, its tip began to melt.

In the blink of an eye, a top-grade magical artifact sword dissolved into flying ash right before their eyes!

Zhou Yuanliang froze on the spot.

He refused to believe what he was seeing.

Even when caught in the shredding force of a magical treasure, a top-grade flying sword should have at least left some debris behind.

Yet now, not even a trace remained!

How was one supposed to fight this?

Refusing to yield to such absurdity, Yi Hongwen drew two mid-grade flying swords.

The result was identical: instant pulverization.

Han Jiao and Han Ning each tried drawing their flying swords, and even Yun Que pulled out two top-grade swords.

All of them turned to fine dust!

Yun Que had anticipated that the Netherworld would be a harsh place, but he had never imagined it would be this terrifying, rendering the flying artifacts of the mortal realm completely non-existent.

If magical artifacts failed, what about magical treasures?

Seeing the surrounding ghost-faced beasts closing in, Yun Que had no time for hesitation and directly drew the Thousand-Leaf Sword.

Fortunately, the magical treasure did not instantly disintegrate, but its aura was feeble, and the green leaves forming the blade withered at a visible rate.

Magical treasures could manifest in the Netherworld, but only for a limited time.

Given enough time, they too would crumble into dust just like ordinary artifacts.

Yun Que knew this was likely related to their low cultivation realms; if a Foundation Establishment or Core Formation powerhouse were to channel a magical treasure with full force, it ought to persist much longer.

Hiss— Hiss—!

Over a dozen ghost-faced beasts encircled the group, their slender necks standing straight up as they opened their maws and exhaled foul, stinking breaths.

"Lando, try to see if you can pacify them," Yun Que said at a rapid pace.

"Alright!"

Lando acknowledged, slowly extending her hand toward one of the ghost-faced beasts.

Snap!

The sound of sharp teeth biting empty air sent chills down everyone's spine.

"It's no use! They aren't beasts; they can't be communicated with," Lando said, a mix of terror and shock in her voice.

She had never encountered such a bizarre phenomenon before.

Even with high-tier fierce beasts, she could sense the existence of their divine consciousness, but these monsters possessed no consciousness at all—they were like lifeless objects!

Yun Que was not surprised.

This was the Netherworld, after all; the monsters here were presumably all derived from inanimate objects.

"I'll handle them."

Stepping forward without hesitation, Yun Que launched a fierce counterattack.

Perhaps having never encountered living humans before, the ghost-faced beasts stupidly charged forward, hoping to tear into their prey, only to have their slender necks cleanly sliced through one after another.

Thud, thud.

Massive heads rolled across the ground.

Without expending much effort, Yun Que eliminated the dozen-plus ghost-faced beasts.

He looked back at the Thousand-Leaf Sword; it had begun to turn a withered yellow. Continued use would easily ruin it.

Stowing the Thousand-Leaf Sword into his storage ring, Yun Que chose a direction and said,

"This way. After ten miles, there will be an exit."

With their hearts in their throats, Zhou Yuanliang and the others stared about nervously and began moving at top speed, striding as if flying.

Before they had even covered a hundred paces, a series of shrill, piercing shrieks echoed from behind.

It sounded much like a rat whose tail had been cut off—loud and clear enough to be heard distinctly from over a hundred paces away.

The group turned back in astonishment.

The source of the cries was none other than the ghost-faced beasts whose necks had just been severed!

The massive beast heads were rolling wildly across the ground, emitting sharp, shrieking cries as they spun.

A sickening sense of foreboding rose in everyone's chests.

"They're not even dying from that?!" Zhou Yuanliang's face scrunched up in despair, driving him to the verge of madness.

"They're calling their companions!" Lando used her Beast Spirit Root affinity to decipher the meaning of the cries.

Near boulders of varying heights in the distance, more ghost-faced beasts began to emerge, numbering twenty to thirty!

And those were just the ones visible within their line of sight.

No one knew if even more ghost-faced beasts were lurking behind the other boulders.

Even for a barbarian princess raised as a hunter, she now felt a biting cold pierce her marrow and cold sweat stream down her back.

Without a single usable weapon, encountering this many peak Tier-1 fierce beasts meant no Qi Refining cultivator could possibly escape death.

"What do we do?!" Yi Hongwen's face was devoid of color as he muttered continuously, "We're going to die, we're going to die!"

Zhou Yuanliang and the others were equally at their wits' end.

Magical treasures could not be used indefinitely; after a few more strikes from Yun Que, once the treasures pulverized, they would once again face inescapable doom.

Gazing at the approaching ghost-faced beasts, Yun Que took a deep breath and summoned the Outlander Sword Soul.

Artifacts would shatter, and magical treasures would wither, but the Sword Soul could endure in the Netherworld!

Because the Sword Soul was not a living entity.

It was the product of a fused intense obsession and unyielding sword intent, allowing it to exist across both realms!

The Outlander Sword Soul materialized into a tall, imposing figure, standing quietly by Yun Que's side like a comrade-in-arms, ready to face life and death together.

"I'm counting on you, brother."

Yun Que murmured silently in his heart, raising a hand to summon the Sword Soul into a heavy sword.

The heavy sword was edge-less, appearing dull and clumsy, yet its sharpness blazed brilliantly in the atmosphere of the Netherworld!

It was a sword, and yet it was a man.

An outlander who once lived by the sword and died by the sword!

Facing the charging horde of ghost-faced beasts, Yun Que stepped forward.

There were no flashy techniques.

Only the ultimate, archaic methods of slaughter.

Chop, slash, cut, sweep!

Every single move was freighted with heavy killing intent.

To Zhou Yuanliang and the others, what unfolded before their eyes was not an exquisite, marvelous duel, but a bloody, primitive massacre!

Single-handedly, Yun Que cut down more than thirty ghost-faced beasts in succession.

Severed heads littered the ground in a rolling tide!

The astonishing spectacle left everyone struck dumb, utterly speechless.

Yun Que's combat prowess refreshed their understanding yet again.

So combat could be this pure!

This exhilarating!

At that moment, Yun Que's mind was as clear as water, and wave after wave of insight regarding swordsmanship followed closely behind.

Though the mortal realm possessed whetstones, the Netherworld path could likewise polish my blade!