Chapter 13: North Bones Prefecture
The vast continent of the Underworld was covered in countless undead in the north, known as the Undead Realm. Those who lived there were all weak undead, with the highest being merely Saint-level undead. Generally, upon reaching the divine level, the vast majority would fly south, entering the world of the strong—the Underworld.
South of the Undead Sacred Mountain was considered the true Underworld.
As one of the four supreme planes, the Underworld was managed very similarly to Hell. The Underworld had a total of eighty-one prefectures. After Linley and Bebe entered the Underworld region from the Undead Sacred Mountain, the first prefecture they entered was the first prefecture in the northern lands of the Underworld—the North Bones Prefecture.
At this moment, high in the sky of the North Bones Prefecture, a small metal lifeform less than ten meters long was flying at extreme speed. Linley and Bebe were inside, but Linley was currently frowning with worry. He and Bebe had just taken a look at the edge of the Undead Realm, and that look had made Linley anxious.
"The slaughter in the Undead Realm is even more terrifying and dense than in Hell! The undead constantly kill each other, devour each other's souls, strengthen their own souls, and improve their strength! My father died nearly two thousand years ago, and George, Yale, and Dixie died over a thousand years ago. In such a long time, could they have died in the undead slaughter?"
This was Linley's greatest concern.
Once a formed undead was killed and its soul devoured, it was completely dead! Even finding a Sovereign would be useless.
Linley couldn't help but worry, after all, too much time had passed, and the slaughter in the Undead Realm was too brutal! "Boss, don't worry!" Bebe quickly said, "Whether it's your father, or George, or Yale, their souls aren't weak. Even if their souls enter the Underworld and turn into undead, they'll be powerful undead. Powerful undead have a much greater chance of surviving."
"I can only think that way." Linley nodded slightly.
But Linley also understood that in the Undead Realm, at every moment, a large number of powerful undead were being killed and devoured.
"Now we need to hurry." Linley frowned. "To find a Sovereign, we can't just run around aimlessly. We need to find a Sovereign's emissary or a Prefecture Lord to ask."
"Boss, do you know which Sovereign's emissaries are in the Underworld? Do you know where those Prefecture Lords live?" Bebe asked back.
Linley shook his head.
"Better find a Highgod to ask." Linley only knew general information about the Underworld. As for where each Prefecture Lord of the Underworld lived, that was hard to say. Some Prefecture Lords might live in cities, while others might live in some remote mountain range.
Having decided to find a Highgod to ask, Linley began to pay attention to the outside.
When asking someone, you couldn't just see a metal lifeform flying by with a Highgod inside, stop them, and ask. Blocking their flight might anger them. Even if they were intimidated by his strength and answered, they might deliberately deceive him.
During the flight, Linley watched the outside.
On the third day, Linley was drinking fruit wine and casually looking out through the transparent window. But this time, his eyes lit up.
In the distance, a few miles away, densely packed nearly ten thousand Demigods, led by dozens of Highgods, were chasing more than ten people who were fleeing in panic.
"Bebe, here's our chance!" Linley said.
"Chance?" Bebe glanced casually, "What chance? Isn't that just a bunch of bandits robbing?" Along the way, they had already encountered many scenes of bandit robberies. However, those robberies usually involved few people and little commotion.
"Follow me." Linley said in a low voice. The metal lifeform disappeared directly. Bebe had no choice but to follow Linley, flying towards the distant battlefield.
A large number of bandits were robbing everywhere. The more than ten people were frantically fleeing in all directions. However, the leading Highgod bandits were chasing after two Highgods.
"Which bastard leaked the news! We just entered the North Bones Prefecture not long ago, and the bandits of the Eighteen Mountain Ranges actually joined forces to rob us!" A three-meter-tall, red-skinned, muscular man with a pair of bull horns transmitted his thoughts. His bull-like eyes were bloodshot with anger.
"Big brother, don't get angry. The priority now is to escape." Another young man urged.
"Once we escape this time, we must find out who it was." The bull-horned muscular man was furious, but he still pushed his speed to the limit. "If we can escape, we'll be lucky." The young man glanced into the distance. Those who were slow had all been killed. Among those fleeing south, only the two of them were still alive.
Of course, some of their companions had fled in other directions. At this point, no one could care about anyone else.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" ...
Suddenly, eight figures appeared in front of the bull-horned muscular man and the young man. These eight sneered at them. "Not good!" The bull-horned muscular man and the young man immediately stopped. When they looked in other directions, they also found people blocking their way.
"You two still want to escape?" A deep voice sounded. A stocky, bearded dwarf, only one and a half meters tall, floated in midair, his cold golden eyes fixed on them.
"Big brother, it's over!"
The young man and the bull-horned muscular man looked at each other, both feeling powerless.
Surrounded by bandits, they had suffered a huge loss this time!
"Kill us if you dare." The bull-horned muscular man swept his gaze around and sneered angrily, "Kill us, and you still won't get our things." Generally, people carrying precious items would leave a clone in their lair. If this bull-horned muscular man was killed, because he still had a clone elsewhere, outsiders still couldn't open his spatial ring.
The dwarf sneered coldly.
As the overall leader of the Eighteen Mountain Ranges bandits, they had done this kind of thing many times and had experience. They knew that the other party definitely had clones elsewhere, so even if they killed him, they wouldn't get the treasure.
"I'll give you two choices." The dwarf's deep voice echoed through the sky. "First, hand over the items from this trip. Give us your spatial rings directly. We'll let you two leave. Second... if you don't hand them over, then no one gets anything, and you two will die!"
"Then you die first!" The bull-headed man roared. His entire body instantly transformed into a flaming black bull, charging at the dwarf like a fiery phantom.
The dwarf sneered disdainfully. A black battle-axe, two meters tall, suddenly appeared in his hand. Holding this black battle-axe, the dwarf casually slashed at the fiery phantom. Where the black battle-axe swung, space trembled like ripples on water.
Suddenly—
A yellow light descended from the sky, spreading directly, covering an area of a thousand meters. It formed a semi-spherical, yellow, huge dome, trapping the surrounding Highgod bandits, including the bull-headed man and his brother, inside. Finally, at the bottom of the dome, a circular tray formed from the divine power of the earth held the semi-spherical dome up.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"
In an instant, the thirty-three Highgod bandits and the bull-headed brothers trapped under the dome all trembled, unable to resist, and fell straight down, crashing heavily onto the circular tray formed from the divine power of the earth. The group stood up with difficulty in terror but couldn't even float.
Everyone looked up at the sky in fear.
A sky-blue-robed, brown-haired young man and a straw-hat-wearing youth stood side by side in midair.
"Lord!" The bearded dwarf immediately bowed respectfully. "My name is Cleopatra, overall leader of the Eighteen Mountain Ranges in the northern region of the North Bones Prefecture. May I ask what the Lord requires? The Eighteen Mountain Ranges will do our utmost to fulfill it!" The other thirty-two Highgod bandits also quickly bowed.
Within this gravitational zone, they had already felt its terror: "Heavens, such a powerful gravitational space! If he wanted to kill us, it would be a massacre."
Within this area, it would be too easy for Linley to kill them.
"Lord, my name is Amo. I am willing to serve you." The bull-headed man also bowed immediately, and the young man beside him bowed as well. In the Underworld, they all knew when to be proud and when to be respectful. Clearly, the person who had appeared now was an existence they couldn't match.
A smile appeared on Linley's face.
"I have a question for all of you." Linley spoke.
"Please, Lord, speak." The bearded dwarf quickly said. The bull-headed man also listened attentively.
Linley said calmly, "I would like to know if there are any Sovereign's emissaries living near the North Bones Prefecture."
"I know this. The Prefecture Lord of the North Bones Prefecture is a Sovereign's emissary." The bearded dwarf immediately answered. The bull-headed man also said, "The North Bones Prefecture Lord is a super powerhouse in our Underworld and is indeed a Sovereign's emissary."
Linley was delighted.
It seemed that the North Bones Prefecture Lord would know a lot about where the Sovereigns were.
Bebe immediately asked, "Where does this North Bones Prefecture Lord live? You, speak!" Bebe pointed at the bull-headed man.
The bull-headed man bowed respectfully and said, "The North Bones Prefecture Lord lives on a large prairie a few thousand miles east of Hyde City. The Prefecture Lord built a castle and mansion there, and there are also hundreds of thousands of garrison troops stationed on that prairie. Ordinary people are not allowed to enter... Of course, with the status of you two Lords, it would be easy to visit."
"Outside Hyde City?" A map immediately flashed through Linley's mind. He was already very familiar with the approximate locations of cities in the Underworld. Now, he had a clear position in his mind.
"Is it outside Hyde City?" Linley turned to look at the dwarf, who also quickly nodded.
Only then was Linley sure.
"Alright, all of you, disperse." Linley said indifferently, simultaneously retracting the Blackstone Space.
The bandits and the bull-headed brothers were both stunned for a moment, then looked at each other.
"Thank you, Lord!" The bull-headed brothers immediately bowed, then quickly fled south.
Many bandits immediately wanted to chase.
"Still want to kill?" Bebe shouted, startling the group of bandits. Linley glanced at them, then looked at the dwarf and said calmly, "Let this deal go."
"Yes, yes." The dwarf quickly complied.
"Cleopatra, a good name." Linley smiled faintly, then soared into the sky with Bebe and disappeared over the horizon.
"Big brother, should we chase?" The other bandits looked at the bearded dwarf.
"Chase what? We can't catch them now. Besides, if we had really chased, that Lord probably would have killed us all with a flick of his hand." The dwarf said coldly. The other bandits couldn't help but shudder. "Alright, clean up the spatial rings on the battlefield and go back."
Immediately, the dwarf led the vast group of men back to their lair.
The Eighteen Mountain Ranges bandits were indeed a large force among the bandit factions of the North Bones Prefecture. Their leader, Cleopatra, was a figure close to a Six-Star Demon.
The Eighteen Mountain Ranges had eighteen leaders, of course, the dwarf was the overall leader. At this moment, one of the Eighteen Mountain Ranges, a bald, muscular man in black battle armor, flew directly towards the castle. The bandits at the castle gate quickly bowed respectfully: "Chief!"
"Hmph." This bald, black-armored man strode into the hall, looking furious.
"Chief, why are you so angry?" A gentle voice sounded.
"Hey!" The bald, black-armored man sat down in the main seat of the hall, grumbling indignantly, "You don't know. Today, our brothers from the Eighteen Mountain Ranges joined forces, and we were about to succeed. But out of nowhere, two super powerhouses appeared, asking us about Prefecture Lords and Sovereign's emissaries. They let those two fat sheep slip away."
"That's really bad luck." The gentle voice said.
"Sigh." The bald, black-armored man stood up. "Alright, George. Some brothers in the mountains died this time, and the various teams need to be reorganized. Go and help me arrange it. I don't have the mood to do it myself."
"Yes, Chief." A young man with a friendly smile replied.
If Linley were here, he would recognize him at a glance—this was his brother, George!
PS: Chapter one is here!