Chapter 1 The Dimly Lit Tunnel

The long, narrow tunnel glowed with a light that, while still dim, was comparatively brighter.

This time, no large amounts of black water poured in.

This meant that the other side of this [Door] was not the River Styx from whence they came.

This was both good news and bad news.

As far as Gu Shen was concerned...

He would have preferred to escape the Black River directly, climb over the Black Snow Mountain, return to the main control boat, and join the team "encircling" Meng Xiao. He knew his physical condition very well, and acting tough was not a good choice in this situation.

However.

Opening a [Door] that allowed them to move forward was already the best of a bad situation.

Gu Shen dared not gamble.

His judgment of the labyrinth's rules was ultimately just a guess. If the Judge were to close the [Door] again, perhaps finding the next opportunity would require another thousand chops. At this moment, time was life. If Meng Xiao, in another dangerous situation, escaped before him, then he and Mu Wanqiu might have to explain themselves here.

"Go?"

Mu Wanqiu's eyes were somewhat uncertain.

She couldn't tell whether the [Door] was good or bad, but she could hear the answer from Gu Shen's previous tone.

"Go."

Gu Shen adjusted his breathing and was the first to walk into the [Door].

...

...

The world behind the [Door] was unexpectedly calm and open.

Even...

Bright.

It turned out to be a magnificent underground palace, with towering stone pillars supporting the dark sky. The palace stretched out in layers into the distance, seemingly without end, with thin, gauze-like mist swirling in all directions.

Dim, pale, cold candlelight was held high by bronze figures, as if offering a tribute.

Looking into the distance, strands of pale ghostly fire were densely arranged, floating in the air, swaying with the mist. These bronze lamps looked like people who had their lower bodies rooted in the stone walls, presenting the vastness and desolation of the underground palace to the "comers."

"This was once a complete 'ancient ruin'..."

Mu Wanqiu followed closely behind Gu Shen, stepping out of the [Door]. She looked at the scene before her, and couldn't help but be lost in thought, muttering softly.

Rustling sounds came from behind.

She turned her head slightly.

She saw that the [Door] behind her was slowly closing, without anyone noticing.

Gu Shen's prediction inside the maze was correct.

Even without the [Judge] taking action, the broken stone wall would repair itself...

Presumably, the ancient characters on the maze stone wall had already changed.

This also meant that even if the exit stone wall was broken now, they would not be able to return to where they were before.

However... she didn't plan to go back anyway.

"I heard that the investigation corps, when carrying out missions in the frontier, have a very small chance of coming into contact with so-called 'ancient ruins'," Gu Shen said. "Have you encountered them before?"

"I have... but it's completely incomparable to what's in front of us."

Mu Wanqiu held her knife.

She slowly said, "No matter how much the history of the Five Continents advances, it's only been six hundred years... I'm sure you know where we came from six hundred years ago."

Six hundred years was just a blink of an eye in the long river of time.

But for the humans of the Five Continents...

It was already all the years they could find in the books.

"Instead of calling it an 'ancient ruin,' it's more like 'evidence that humans lived six hundred years ago'."

Mu Wanqiu's voice was very soft. "Most of the 'ancient ruins' encountered outside the fortress contain buried corpses. They are proof of humans migrating to the Five Continents. We still can't imagine what that journey was like. All we know is that many people died on the way... The continents of the [Old World] underwent crustal movement, and their corpses were covered and buried, sinking with the rocks, turning into fossils over long periods of time. Each discovery of an 'ancient ruin' is an excavation of the history of six hundred years ago."

Gu Shen looked at the huge and magnificent palace.

"Mr. Turing has done some related research."

When he was meditating in the cemetery, he read related confidential reports, and slowly said, "In the ancient times when order collapsed, the human homeland had been completely destroyed... At that time, no one knew where a safe place to live was. During their journey, they tried to build different homes in the [Old World], but they were all destroyed. Before the giant wall was built, they thought they were safe."

After the destruction.

Those false, broken homes became ancient ruins.

Speaking of which... it was a bit funny.

Because the wheels of history were crushing humanity, but they hadn't completely rolled over... The collapse of order was happening all the time, and broken source matter was still impacting the giant wall.

Who knew that many years later, the current Five Continents would not be reduced to "ancient ruins" in the mouths of later generations?

"This palace, although old, shouldn't be that old, maybe a couple decades."

Gu Shen squatted down.

He gently pinched a little dirt and rubbed it hard with his fingers.

"Another divination?"

A trace of suspicion flashed in Mu Wanqiu's eyes. She learned from Gu Shen and squatted down, pinching a little dust, but the Judge didn't notice anything, and refused her request to get closer and smell it.

"The evidence is the 'bronze figure lamps' hanging on the wall."

Gu Shen didn't look up, and slowly said, "The Nagano Li family has collected many similar bronze lamps... so I know very well that the bronze figure lamps here are not genuine, but carefully copied fakes, only used for continuing the fire."

"Fakes? How is that possible?"

Mu Wanqiu raised her eyebrows. "The magnificence of this palace is astonishing... The master who built this palace was such a heroic figure, how could he use fakes?"

"Because there are only four genuine products, and they are not sealing objects, scattered all over the world."

Gu Shen smiled and said, "The history of genuine bronze figure lamps may not even be six hundred years old, let alone these fakes... I guess this palace was built by the Underworld King twenty years ago."

He said it casually.

Mu Wanqiu asked in confusion, "How can you be so sure?"

"..."

Of course, Gu Shen couldn't say that it was because he was the new Underworld King, and the Underworld Fire in his eyebrows felt familiar with this palace.

He could only gloss over it, briefly and concisely: "Divination... isn't necessarily accurate. You can understand it as a guess with a very high probability."

Don't ask, the answer is divination.

Mu Wanqiu had many more questions, but when she heard the word divination, she had to give up.

"You also know that the Underworld King wasn't a popular figure... He can indeed be called a generation of heroes, but every move he made was supervised by the other god seats of the Supreme Council."

Gu Shen slowly said, "If he wanted to build this underground palace without being noticed, he was destined to be unable to collect genuine bronze figure lamps... In this case, using 'fakes' isn't something to be ashamed of, after all, it was a last resort."

He knew too well how difficult it was to collect the four bronze lamps of joy, anger, sorrow, and joy.

With the guidance of the wish technique, plus the Li family's inhumanely massive investment, it took nearly a year to find only two.

The previous Underworld King didn't dare to act like that.

With the Supreme Council supervising him, if he wanted to find "genuine products," he could only quietly go out on his own, which was almost like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Underworld King..."

Hearing this familiar title.

The old dream in Mu Wanqiu's mind seemed to be replaying once again. She subconsciously looked towards the end of the long palace, and a faint impulse to worship arose in her heart.

However, this impulse was quickly suppressed by her.

She knew that her [Judge] had some kind of special affection for the Underworld King.

But the Gu Shen next to her... didn't seem to have any reverence for the Underworld King.

That dream of hers must be kept well hidden.

She suddenly asked again, "Since you can use the 'bronze figure lamps' to identify the age... what were you doing pinching those dust particles just now?"

"To sense the spiritual aura."

Gu Shen stood up and clapped his hands. "Didn't you notice anything strange?"

Mu Wanqiu frowned slightly.

Her mental power has always been keen.

But the dust she had just pinched didn't have anything unusual about it.

"I... didn't notice any problems."

"No problem is the biggest problem." Gu Shen said, "It would take just the Underworld King himself so long to build such a huge palace... But there isn't even a trace of transcendent aura in this dust. It looks like it's been sealed for many years, so much so that you mistakenly judged it to be an 'ancient ruin.' Isn't that the biggest problem?"

If this was really a divine temple built by the Underworld King for himself, then naturally he wouldn't need to lay every brick and tile himself.

However, this broken palace did seem to have encountered some major change.

For example... a war.

The blue bricks here were already broken, and a desolate aura was scattered in all directions, but there was no trace of "war" in the air...

Blood, bones, corpses, fragmented source matter, scattered spirits.

These were all proofs of the "deceased."

But... the huge palace was empty.

Even cleaner than the land after a heavy rain.

Mu Wanqiu looked at the silent palace in front of her and subconsciously said her feelings: "It's like someone has cleaned this place..."

Yes.

This place was so clean, it was as if someone had cleaned it.

But... how could anyone come to the bottom of the River Styx?

She shook her head and threw away this absurd idea.

"Continue forward?"

Mu Wanqiu looked at Gu Shen.

Gu Shen looked towards the end of the hall, lost in thought.

At the end of the hall, in the distance where countless veils of mist swayed and ghostly fire flickered, burned a very small point of light.

That was the devil's deal with him.

It would provide him with an eternal guide, pointing to the source of the mental toxins in the Dolu River disaster.

At this moment, the source pointed directly to the depths of the Underworld King's palace.

Gu Shen noticed that the guy living in his ruler hadn't spoken for a long time. Since he had rejected the last deal, that guy had fallen into a long silence.

But silence didn't mean disappearance.

Without the black silver seal, the devil could see everything that happened in the outside world.

Gu Shen's mental power had recovered a bit. He separated a strand and sank into the ruler space, wanting to see the current situation of this guy. However, what he didn't expect was that the mental space of the Ruler of Truth was unprecedentedly clear.

The bright places were extremely dazzling.

The dark places were a thick fog.

In the farthest place, the throne and the black shadow were submerged in the thick fog.

Gu Shen's spirit continued to sink, and finally he came to the dividing line between darkness and light. He looked in the direction where the devil's throne stood, pondered slightly, and said in a deep voice: "I know you've been watching... I have a question I want to ask you."

After waiting for a while, there was no response.

This time, nothing came from the darkness.

It was different from any previous time.

In fact, whether it was rejection or agreement, it was a kind of information transmission.

But at this moment, what Gu Shen got was extreme emptiness and nothingness.

He wasn't willing to give up and continued, "Perhaps we still have a chance to make a deal. You can propose a condition you want."

It was still silent.

The devil sat in the endless fog, no matter what Gu Shen said, it didn't respond. The fog at this moment was too quiet, the devil seemed to be half asleep, and didn't pay any attention to Gu Shen.

This kind of silence also made Gu Shen give up the idea of continuing the conversation.

He recalled the words the devil had said to him before he stepped into the [Door].

It said that behind the [Door], there was something more terrifying than Meng Xiao, much more terrifying—

Was this just alarmist talk.

Or... was it true?

Before leaving the ruler, Gu Shen said seriously: "I want to know what happened in this palace. What will I encounter at the end? If you change your mind, you can find me at any time."

After Gu Shen left.

The thick fog slightly dispersed, revealing the towering and majestic dark throne.

The devil lazily leaned on the throne.

It had never fallen asleep, nor was it drowsy. During the previous conversation, it had maintained this posture, staring at Gu Shen mockingly and silently through the black fog.

...

...

Mu Wanqiu sensed Gu Shen's abnormality.

After she finished asking her question, this guy stood there, and his mental power suddenly converged... This was a characteristic of mental immersion in sealing objects.

Although she was very curious about Gu Shen as an S-class, Mu Wanqiu's sense of morality was still very high.

When Gu Shen was unconscious before, she didn't take the opportunity to search his belongings, but such things... often happened in disasters.

Although the Northern Continent military had strict military discipline, it was only aimed at the transcendent individuals in the corps, their comrades.

If they encountered outsiders, the Northern Continent transcendent individuals would not be soft-hearted.

However, what means did this guy rely on to escape Meng Xiao's pursuit?

Mu Wanqiu also fell into thought.

What she couldn't understand even more was Gu Shen's understanding of the Underworld King and Underworld River information...

It was said that the Underworld King twenty years ago was from the Eastern Continent.

Gu Shen contributed greatly to the cemetery incident, perhaps he was related to that Underworld King, and coming to this disaster may have been instructed by the Underworld King... These explanations were completely reasonable, but Mu Wanqiu vaguely felt that something was wrong.

After the Underworld River nightmare.

She used her S-class authority to investigate a large amount of information about the Underworld King. This was a secret of the Supreme Council, and should not be known to anyone, not even S-class individuals... But the Underworld King was confirmed to have died twenty years ago, and he was the most excluded one in the Supreme Council.

She found a small amount of information in the Northern Continent database.

Twenty years ago, that Underworld King left the Five Continents through the giant wall of the Northern Continent fortress.

Then he disappeared in the [Old World].

Finally, the news of his death came back.

Twenty years later, no one knew how he came back...

Until now, he has not appeared in front of the world, nor has he appeared a second time.

In a strange way, a whimsical idea popped into Mu Wanqiu's mind.

Was it possible that the Underworld King was already dead?

And the one in front of her was the real Underworld King?

She subconsciously looked at the fiery light burning in Gu Shen's eyebrows, and a faint expectation arose in her heart...

Although the two sides fought in the source armor battle, their abilities were not fully displayed.

Her Judge and Gu Shen's fiery light had never truly met.

If her [Judge] was sensitive to the Underworld River, then it should also be sensitive to the Underworld King—

"...Heh."

After a moment.

Mu Wanqiu's eyes were disappointed, and then a hint of self-deprecating smile appeared.

The Judge had no interest in the fiery light in Gu Shen's eyebrows.

That's right.

Even if the Underworld King had passed away, the successor shouldn't be Gu Shen. This kid was said to be blessed by the Gu family and taken care of by the Bai family, and was a promising seedling favored by two War God Seats. If he was really related to a certain fire seed, it should be the War God fire seed.

Mu Wanqiu didn't know.

At this moment, Gu Shen's mental power was weaker than ever before, and he was also blocked by the "War God Golden Hoop." It was a blessing to be able to squeeze out such a small strand.

Just as she was disappointed, the faint flame suddenly swayed.

The Judge behind her let out a soft exclamation, as if attracted by something, and subconsciously leaned over, and even stretched out a finger, about to touch Gu Shen's eyebrows.

"...?"

At the same time, Gu Shen returned to normal.

At the same time, Mu Wanqiu manipulated the Judge who stretched out his finger. Before he could touch Gu Shen's eyebrows, he suddenly turned into a cloud of phantom, as if blown by a strong wind, and drifted away.

"Let's go."

He looked strangely at the scattered white mist in front of him, and then looked at Mu Wanqiu: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing..."

Mu Wanqiu quickly changed the subject and said, "Did you use divination again?"

"Sort of."

Gu Shen scratched his eyebrows, feeling that something was strange.

...

...

The palace left by the Underworld King was really big.

And very dark.

These bronze people who held lamps over their heads with both hands, with half of their bodies fused with the stone walls, looked extremely strange... Their existence seemed to prove that the master of this palace did not hate "light" as much as the legends said.

After all, the Underworld King himself was also a "god seat" who held a fire seed.

The meaning of his existence was also to dedicate light and hope to the human race, different from other god seats.

The exploration of this palace was very smooth, and Gu Shen held the cross pendant tightly throughout the whole process.

But the mental fluctuations from the pendant remained stable.

As they got closer and closer to the "light spot," the magnificent main hall located at the end of the darkness gradually revealed its outline. The bronze lamps gradually went out. These fake human lamps were still rooted on both sides of the stone wall, but the lamps in their hands were no longer lit. The main hall at the end of the line of sight was shrouded in black mist... Gu Shen and Mu Wanqiu's expressions both became very serious.

"What's the result of the divination?"

"Not good."

"I suggest avoiding this main hall..."

Gu Shen put away the tense pendant, and sighed helplessly after saying half of it: "Okay, there's nothing in this damn place. We only have one path to choose."

He really had no choice. The position of the "light spot" showed that it was in the direction where the main hall was located.

The devil's deal seemed very cost-effective.

But in fact, the route to find the "light spot" was extremely tortuous.

And this Underworld King's palace was completely different from what he had expected when he stepped into it.

Empty, it really looked like someone had cleaned it!

The only thing that was still somewhat valuable should be the "fake bronze lamps" on the wall, but these lamps were also fused with the stone wall, and could not be taken away completely, and could only be damaged.

No disaster, no ominousness.

Even more no opportunities and good fortune.

No... to be precise, disaster and ominousness should have been left in the main hall.

Mu Wanqiu also observed very carefully along the way. She wanted to find the connection between her Judge and the Underworld King... This palace might provide a lot of clues, but unfortunately it was really too clean here.

There were no clues to speak of.

She knew very well that she had to go to this main hall.

"I have a question." Mu Wanqiu asked softly, "Where are the [Doors] that we opened in the 'maze' before?"

The stone walls here were far more solid than those in the maze.

She couldn't destroy them.

Not to mention Gu Shen in his weak state.

Obviously... the construction of this underground palace was done with great care by the master of the palace. After the [Door] from which they came closed, there were no [Doors] that could be opened here.

Then where were the other spaces?

"I'm not..."

Gu Shen subconsciously opened his mouth, and then stopped before the last two words blurted out with some guilt.

He was silent for a moment, squinting his eyes and looking at the main hall in the distance: "If we use the process of elimination... it can only be there."

There should be at least one [Door] in a closed space.

This place had been explored.

There must be a [Door] in the main hall.

The two looked at each other and slowly groped towards the darkness.

"When we fight later... you can hide behind me."

Mu Wanqiu glanced at Gu Shen, who had a weak aura, and took the initiative to walk in front, speaking lightly.

"It's really touching, a reliable teammate."

Gu Shen clicked his tongue and sighed.

He smiled, didn't act tough, and silently walked behind, while his expression returned to seriousness.

Two fingers pressed on his eyebrows.

The fiery light was very weak, only a wisp... Now his situation was indeed not suitable for fighting.

The two of them groped into the dark main hall, one in front and one behind.

Suspended beams and horizontal wood, the light gradually faded.

The wind swirled around, and everything was silent.

Gu Shen narrowed his eyes. His mental power was actually under great pressure... and gradually returned to his body.

And in the darkness.

With a "crack" sound.

Mu Wanqiu in front suddenly stopped.

Her mental power was also suppressed, and her vision was shrouded in mist in the darkness. She was walking forward well, but suddenly bumped into something hard.

" !?"

Mu Wanqiu, whose spirit was tense to the extreme, directly pulled out her long knife.

The battle knife was unsheathed, and a ray of cold light burst out with a clang.

This brief moment of light.

Illuminated this desolate hall that had been silent for who knows how many years.

In that moment, Gu Shen saw one suit of broken armor after another sitting in the dust, rusted and covered with cobwebs, and broken, withered bones.

And in front of Mu Wanqiu, such a tall skeleton stood silently.

To be precise.

It was suspended.

The neck of this skeleton was crooked, and it was pierced by a slender silver thread. Its feet were one meter off the ground, and it was currently swaying slightly in the wind, making a slight sound of bone cracking.

The moment the knife light was unsheathed, the entire hall returned to silence.

"Crack, crack, crack."

The sound of broken bones rose and fell, like a tide enveloping the two of them.

Immediately afterwards.

One pair of scarlet pupils after another lit up in the darkness of the main hall.