Chapter 996 – Entering the Underworld

Gazi, gazi, gazi, gazi!

The sound of bones clanking was heard inside the dark mist. If a Dark Mage from the Ark Continent was present and was able to hear this, then he would immediately know that this was the sound of a large number of moving undead.

However, it was a pity that this wasn't the Ark Continent. This was the Underworld, such sounds could be heard everywhere, it was quite normal here.

Groups upon groups of grey skeletons were slowly moving forward in the Dark Mist. These were the lowest ranked skeletons in the Underworld. Only such skeletons would make this sound when walking, higher-level skeletons would never make this sound.

In the Underworld, everywhere was full with these unintelligent grey skeletons. These things only had two uses. First one was for cannon fodder while the other one was food for the other undead. Aside from these two, there were no other uses for these grey skeletons.

Every day, batches of these grey skeletons would be born in the Underworld. Some of these grey skeletons would be born with intelligence. They would then start killing other grey skeletons to make themselves stronger and more powerful. Finally, they would become silver or even gold skeletons. But in most cases, these grey skeletons would just be killed.

However, this group of grey skeletons were evidently led by someone. They were neatly lined up as they moved forward. If there was no dark mist, one would be able to see a white bone carriage in the middle of this group. Inside the carriage was a mage wearing a black robe. This robe was very strange. It completely wrapped around the mage's body, there was nothing left uncovered.

Beside this mage were two undead. One of them was a skeleton who wore full-body armor. On the slits of the armor, one could see the skeleton's bones. Moreover, his bones were different compared to the other skeletons. It seems to have crystallized, it glistened from time to time.

The other undead was a zombie. He wore tattered clothes and had long and sharp fangs. One could see his status from his appearance, he was a Zombie King.

Naturally, this was Zhao Hai's group. The grey skeletons around them were Guli's subordinates. Zhao Hai plans to take them all into the Space in the future so that they would be upgraded.

It was precisely because of this that Zhao Hai had Guli round up as many grey skeletons as possible. After all, nobody would want to manage these grey skeletons here in the Underworld.

At this time, Zhao Hai who was sitting there, suddenly said, "Guli, how far is Three Saint City from here?"

Guli's deep voice replied, "Young Master, it's quite close. We would reach it in one hour. Three Saint City is a place that the three of us has established. It is the biggest city in this generation. You can find Zombies, Skeletons, Lich and even High-Level Darkness creatures within. There are also some Vampires in the city."

Then Zhao Hai said, "Interesting. I didn't expect that you could establish a large city in the Underworld. Do you do trades as well?"

Guli nodded and said, "Yes, we also do transactions. However, we don't use the same currency as the Humans. Instead what we use to trade are fiery souls and spirit stones."

Zhao Hai replied, "I know about fiery souls, each Undead has one inside their bodies. But why would they be used as currency? Also, what are spirit stones?"

Guli went on to explain, "Just like you said, fiery souls exist inside all Undead. When an undead is killed, one would be able to obtain these fiery souls. These souls have two uses, first, one could absorb the souls in order to strengthen themselves. The second purpose is for exchanging for things that you want. Spirit stones are like magic crystals from the Ark Continent. But unlike magic crystals where you can acquire from both mining and magic beasts, spirit stones can only be acquired through killing magic beasts. There's no such thing as a spirit stone mine."

Zhao Hai was puzzled, "So the undead can get stronger and stronger as they absorb fiery souls? What else do you need?"

Guli nodded and said, "Right, we get stronger if we absorb fiery souls. However, after reaching a high level, it would be very difficult to improve if you only absorb fiery souls. Only by absorbing high-level fiery souls or souls stones could one improve. But high-level fiery souls could generally be found on powerful undead, and killing those undead is very hard. Because of this, we need to look for other means to promote our strength. In the Underworld, there are special plants and ores that we can use. And some of these plants and ores are useless to low-level Undead. Even if they have peak-level fiery souls, they still wouldn't be able to absorb it. Therefore, whenever low-level undead gain these resources, they would generally go to the city and trade them with the correct level of fiery souls."

Zhao Hai nodded, he understood what Guli said. The Underworld wasn't a safe place. But as long as an Undead reaches bronze-level, then they would be able to attain intelligence. And at this time, if they want to level up, then they would need massive amounts of fiery souls. If they only hunted and killed undead by themselves, then their progress would be very slow. Moreover, they will be more likely to meet powerful undead. When that time comes, they would be the one being hunted.

Because of this, those bronze undead who found high-level plants would go to the city in order to exchange for large amounts of items that they could use at their current level. Then when they absorb those things and become stronger, they would be able to subdue massive amounts of undead, which in turn would hunt fiery souls for them. Then they would use these fiery souls to exchange for more precious materials to get stronger. Doing it like this seems to be very troublesome, but in fact, this was the safest method in the Underworld. Even if one was a Gold Skeleton, then it was still possible for them to meet a Crystal Skeleton and be turned into food. Naturally, this wasn't the only method to get stronger. If one obtains a high-level resource that would make one stronger, then they wouldn't hesitate to absorb it. They wouldn't save it and bargain for more value with the other undead. In the Underworld, there was no such thing as savings. If you get something you can use, then you should use it right away, you need to get stronger as soon as possible.

Zhao Hai turned his head to Guli and said, "Are there laws in your city? If a skeleton brings their item to the city and gets robbed by the other undead, wouldn't they lose everything?"

Guli immediately replied, "There are laws present in the city. No matter how low-leveled an Undead creature is, as long as they enter the city, then it would be impossible for them to be killed. If they were killed, then the killer would be punished. In Three Saint City, if there's a murderer on the loose, then the three of us would send our subordinates to kill them off. If the murderer is strong, then the three of us would personally go."

Zhao Hai nodded, then he asked once more, "What level are you now? Are you enough to shake the Underworld?"

Guli replied, "My current level is Skeleton King. It's considered to be high-rank among the skeletons. Above me are Skeleton Saints. There are only a few of these experts in the Underworld. And there is also a more powerful rank than Skeleton Saints, and they're called Skeleton Gods. They only exist in legends, not one managed to appear in the Underworld."

Zhao Hai nodded, then he turned his head to Jiang Zheng and said, "Jiang Zheng, how are the zombies ranked?"

Jiang Zheng immediately replied, "There is also a very strict classification for zombies. The lowest level is called the Carrion, after that are Dry Corpse, Jumping Corpse, Ironskin Zombie, Copperskin Zombie, Clawed Zombie, Fanged Zombie, Black-haired Zombie, Red-haired Zombie, Green-haired Zombie Kings, and then Zombie Saints. This one's rank is Green-haired Zombie King, a rank that is the same as Guli.

Zhao Hai nodded,. The levels of the Undead were much stricter compared to the Ark Continent and the Divine Race. But they were indeed strong. No wonder they became a hegemonic group in the Underworld.

Zhao Hai looked at Jiang Zheng and said, "Jiang Zheng, do you also need fiery souls to get stronger? Do the Zombies have fiery souls as well?"

Jiang Zheng nodded and said, "Yes, Zombies need fiery souls to upgrade as well. In addition to fiery souls, we also need to soak in Blood Ponds. These Blood Ponds can be seen everywhere here in the Underworld, they aren't special things. But after one becomes a Copperskin Zombie, they won't need to use Blood Ponds anymore. After we reach that stage, we would be like the skeletons. We would either need high-ranked fiery souls or high-level materials."

Zhao Hai nodded, then he turned towards the front. Naturally, he couldn't see anything. Zhao Hai discovered that the eyes were the most useless things in the Underworld. This was because of the Dark Mist. In the Underworld where the visibility was less than ten meters, your eyes would just be as good as decoration. One could only use spirit sense to 'see' ahead.

It was good that Zhao Hai already had powerful spiritual sense, this allowed him to see far away. Otherwise, he would be blind in the Underworld. Zhao Hai had just felt that Three Saint City wasn't that far away.

After thinking about this, Zhao Hai couldn't help but turn to Guli and ask, "Guli, in the Underworld, you Undead could see using your sense, but how about the Dark Creatures? Do they also use spiritual sense? Are their eyes useless?"

Guli promptly replied, "Young Master, the Dark Creatures also rely on spiritual sense rather than their eyes. In fact, most Dark Creatures in the Underworld don't have any eyes."

This information gave Zhao Hai a shock, he didn't expect the Dark Creatures to not have eyes. He couldn't help but be curious, "So the Dark Creatures have no eyes? That's interesting."

Guli immediately said, "Young Master, there are only few creatures in the Underworld who have eyes. An example of this are the Dark Creatures known as vampires. Their eyes are very special, it allows them to see through the Dark Mist."

The mention of vampires sparked interest within Zhao Hai, "Vampires, huh. Interesting, I want to see one."

Then Jiang Zheng said, "Vampires are quite similar to us Zombies. They're essentially Undead and not Dark Creatures. Unlike Dark Creatures, Vampires don't have heartbeats, making them undead. However, their progression is very interesting. They start out as a Dark Creature called Vampire Bats. This Vampire Bat is divided into; Black Vampire Bat, Red Vampire Bat, Silver Vampire Bat, and Gold Vampire Bat. Then after that, they undergo metamorphosis, becoming a low-level Vampire called Vampire Barons. After Vampire Barons are Vampire Viscount, then Vampire Count, then Vampire Marquis, Vampire Duke, Vampire Prince, and the most powerful rank being Vampire King."

Zhao Hai nodded. After many years of development, the Underworld had already established its own power hierarchy. Its civilization wouldn't lose out against others. This made Zhao Hai thing about it more as his curiosity increased.

While they were speaking, Zhao Hai felt that they had already arrived at Three Saint City. To be honest, Zhao Hai still wasn't used to this kind of detection where you use spiritual force instead of eyesight. Zhao Hai turned to Guli and said, "Guli, is this it?"

Guli nodded, "Yes. Young Master, wait for a moment." After he said that, Guli released his spiritual force forwards. Before long, several spiritual forces replied back. This gave Guli and the others a signal to proceed.

However, the grey skeletons that Guli managed to subdue were left outside the city. Upon seeing this situation, Zhao Hai couldn't help but ask, "Should we leave them here or should I take them to the Space?"

Guli replied, "If Young Master wants to send them to the Space now, then that's fine. But if you don't, there's no problem with leaving them outside the city. After a while, I'll send some of my subordinates to round them up. Since they would be under their control, they shouldn't be able to go away."

Zhao Hai began to think about how the Grey Skeletons seem to be treated as livestock here in the Underworld. After Guli and the others subdued them, they would be reared in a pen. They would only be released when they were needed. It's kind of interesting in its own way.

Zhao Hai waved his hand and said, "Then let's do it according to the rules here. In any case, there are far more of these things roaming around in the Underworld."

Guli nodded, then he commanded the bone carriage to enter the city.