Chapter 951: Nether Continent
Nether Continent
Qin Lie and La Pu walked down from the White Bone Nether Spirit Altar just like the one that Tate left behind on Soul Summoning Island and stepped onto this land of the three races that had once dominated the Nether Realm.
When he walked down from the White Bone Nether Spirit Altar, Qin Lie noticed that Tate, Luz, and the others had been waiting for a while.
An enormous and deep hole to the right of the teleportation formation gave off a stream of nether demonic energy.
Qin Lie only needed a glance to know that the dark hole was the so-called "evil nether passageway" that he had once opened under the Armament Sect. He realized that the passageway was connected to Nether Realm.
"Three years ago, Sky Mender Palace sealed this passage, making it difficult to return to Nether Continent," Tate explained. "Not long ago, when Sky Mender Palace retracted the ban, the passageway was reopened. Since then, the races of Nether Realm can come over directly through this passageway."
"In other words, they will not need to detour through the Scarlet Tide Continent?" Qin Lie realized.
The Horned Demon Ku Lu and his brother had reached the Scarlet Tide Continent without passing through the Nether Battlefield due to the "evil nether passageway" he had opened at Armament Sect.
After that, they reached Nether Continent through the teleportation formation set up in Herb Mountain.
The reason it had taken so many turns was because the Nether Continent had been sealed and the evil nether passageway couldn’t be used.
Sky Mender Palace took away their restriction on the three great races of Nether Realm. Through the efforts of Tate and the others, they finally opened the passageway again.
As the passageway had been restored, nether demonic energy would stream out of it. It would spread through the entire Nether Continent and have this continent once again become the best cultivation location for the races of Nether Realm.
The Horned Demon Race of Nether Realm, and the Dark Shadow clansmen could come to Nether Continent through this evil nether passageway.
"Starting today, we will not have to use Scarlet Tide Continent's passageway. All the races of Nether Realm can enter the Nether Continent through this place." Tate nodded.
Qin Lie looked at the sky.
The time should be daytime but the sky of the Nether Continent was shrouded by thick nether demonic energy. The blinding sunlight could not penetrate the layer.
The White Bone Nether Spirit Altar was capable of back and forth transport between Spirit Realm and this evil nether passageway that was connected to Nether Realm. This was an extremely wondrous plaza.
He could not see its end.
This plaza was covered in gray-white granite. Every hundred or so meters, he could see the statues of many Demon Gods.
The statues appeared to have been repaired and raised up. They... had been damaged in the past.
Even further away, there were pitch black pillars on which monsters he didn’t know were engraved on. When he looked closely, he realized that they were the nether beasts of the Nether Realm.
Many Dark Shadow and Horned Demon clansmen guarded this place. They rode Nether Giant Tail Lizards and other profound nether beasts. Their armor was tattered and their weapons covered in blood. Some of those weapons were even broken.
Those people were outfitted with old and poor equipment in Qin Lie's eyes. The quality was ordinary.
But their eyes were savage and gave off a thick bloody tang. They gave people a wild and savage feeling.
"Their armor and weapons are extremely damaged and low quality. They will be at a disadvantage in a fight," Qin Lie casually commented.
Tate had a helpless expression. "There is no way around it. The smaller races of Nether Realm that are skilled in artifact forging have all joined the Ghost Eye Race. And the Ghost Eye Race does not recognize the Ling Family as the imperial family of Nether Realm. They are afraid of Sky Mender Palace. They do not want to return to the Nether Continent, so we cannot receive any help from the Ghost Eye Race."
"Our resources are limited. When we lived on the Nether Continent in the past, we offended too many people. There are no artificers nearby willing to help us."
"In these recent years, I only got a few small batches of spirit artifacts through working with Heavenly Sword Mountain."
"Why not find me?" Qin Lie frowned.
"When I worked with Heavenly Sword Mountain, Flaming Sun Island hadn’t been founded yet. After the Flaming Sun Island had been established, I was afraid of dragging you down by having a close relationship with Flaming Sun Island. I was afraid that your identity will be exposed to the major personages in Central World." Tate sighed. "Our present days are not very good."
After three thousand years, the Horned Demon Race and the Dark Shadow Race were weak in Nether Realm. The Ghost Eye Race controlled the Profound Yin Nether Sea and the Nine Soul Hell, the two places on the Nether Continent that produced all kinds of treasures. The Horned Demon Race and the Dark Shadow Race couldn't use Nether Realm's valuable spirit materials to trade for great amounts of war resources.
On the other side, the Blue Flame Manor they had never taken seriously had grown stronger and taken over the territories near the Nether Continent.
If they wanted to take resources from Spirit Realm, they had to fight Blue Flame Manor. Only then could they obtain cultivation materials and help their clansmen grow stronger.
"In the past, Nether Continent and the surroundings belonged to Sky Mender Palace. In these recent years, Sky Mender Palace and Six Ways Alliance have been fighting. They took abundant benefits from other places, but near Nether Continent, they have suffered great losses," Tate continued to explain. "Blue Flame Manor is extremely strong. With Six Ways Alliance's help, they have taken over this place."
"One of the reasons that Sky Mender Palace had retracted their ban on us is due to the Venerable One, the other is that Sky Mender Palace hopes we can occupy Blue Flame Manor and cause them some trouble. At least, they want us to keep Blue Flame Manor in check, preventing them from freely moving about."
As he explained, Qin Lie finally understood that his grandfather wasn't the only reason why Sky Mender Palace had lifted their restrictions.
Sky Mender Palace may have won in other places in its war against Six Ways Alliance but they had been defeated around the Nether Continent due to Blue Flame Manor.
The lands originally belonging to Sky Mender Palace were being gradually consumed by Blue Flame Manor.
Urged by his grandfather, Sky Mender Palace lifted their restrictions on the races of Nether Realm out of consideration for the bigger picture and allowed the three strongest races of Nether Realm to return to the Nether Continent.
As the three races returned to the Nether Continent, they would spread nether demonic energy into the surroundings to recover their previous glory.
They were fated to have conflict with Blue Flame Manor.
Sky Mender Palace's goal was to have Nether Realm's races fight with Blue Flame Manor, use up Blue Flame Manor's strength so that Blue Flame Manor couldn't reinforce Six Ways Alliance.
"So that's how it is." Qin Lie indicated his understanding.
"Let's go, we will meet the new ruler of the Dark Nether Race," Tate said.
Spirit Hunting Beasts flew from afar and took on these young Dark Shadow clansmen to fly towards south.
Qin Lie stayed with Tate, Luz, and the other Soul Altar experts of Dark Shadow Race. They went towards the west, over tall mountain ranges.
They rode a crystalline war chariot, the one that was common in Spirit Realm.
Looking at the Nether Continent from above, Qin Lie saw countless vicious plants growing densely on the ground. The entire flora had sharp thorns that could easily pierce flesh.
Concentrated nether demonic energy covered all of the Nether Continent and made the environment here extremely similar to Nether Realm’s.
Along the way, he saw many Dark Shadow and Horned Demon clansmen. They walked between the ruins of many cities. The destroyed cities were similar to the obsidian palace. There were the stone statues of many Demon Gods on the ceilings, and there were collapsed temples, and pillars that had crumbled.
"Three thousand years ago, the Nether Continent had hundreds of cities, and millions clansmen of the three races lived in them."
"After Sky Mender Palace attacked, many cities were the focal points of the battles, and ended up destroyed, the temples smashed into bits."
"We repaired a very small number of cities after our return for our clansmen to live in."
Tate's expression was calm. "We will most likely have to wait for the royal bloodline of the Dark Nether Race to grow up in order to recover the glory of three thousand years ago. We have to wait for their bloodline to increase in rank to the level of Demon Gods. Then, Nether Continent will once again have hope of possessing an honored position in the Central World."
"Each Demon God of Nether Realm was the result of a Dark Nether Race member's transformation. Demon God... is equivalent of an expert in the Genesis Realm." Luz inhaled deeply. "We once had five Demon Gods! Pity, all five Demon Gods died. Otherwise, we would have never fallen to our current state."
"Luz, we have already gathered some of the soul fragments of Demon Gods to try to revive them," Tate suddenly said.
When the words were said, many Dark Shadow clansmen shook.
"Do not be too happy, while the Demon Gods can be revived again, it is... too difficult." Tate shook his head and said with a sigh, "While we are working on it, our gains are minuscule. Gathering the scattered soul fragments of the Demon Gods proved to much harder than we had expected."
After he said this, Tate looked at the five mountains ahead and said, "We've arrived."