Chapter 567: Towards the First Court of Hell
A group of ten flood dragons was flying in the air, each one of them carrying a group of experts on their backs, all of them flying further and further into the darkness of Diyu.
These flood dragons were carrying Yanluo, the remaining contestants for the position of the Judge of Hell and their guards.
This group of around a hundred people was incredibly intimidating as such a large group of Gods descended into the deeper parts of hell.
At first, before their trip, Hui Yue had expected that they would be filled with desolate atmosphere on their trip, that they would see the barren land with no life, but he quickly found that he was mistaken.
The sky was filled with Gods which traveled through Diyu from city to city and county to county. Many caravans were transporting goods from Youdu and the outside of Diyu or even from the vast Galaxy to the different courts of hell.
These caravans were also all flying on magical beasts rather than flying on their own, and they all numbered at least fifty men in each group.
On the ground, which Hui Yue had thought was barren and dried up, he found small villages filled with demons. It was clear that Diyu was not only the land of the dead, the land of souls but also the homeland of the demon race.
These young demons were all farming medicinal herbs of the most ordinary kind such as moon shade mushrooms, blood grass, poisonous ivy. All of the medicinal herbs that they harvested were also growing rapidly in the air filled with soul energy. The dark environment was the ideal place for these dark herbs to grow and Diyu did not only import things, but they also exported a lot of things, especially some very basic medicinal herbs.
Hui Yue thought he had learned a lot about the Netherworld, Diyu and the ten courts of hell when he was studying in the black palace, but only now did he realize that he had not even touched upon a fraction of all the mysteries that existed within this land of death.
On the trip, Yanluo explained everything to them about what they saw below.
These demons were all Gods, but many of them lived like the mortals lived in the other worlds and the rest of the Netherworld.
Only now did Hui Yue understand that although Demons was a race created by the judges of hell, it was now a race as abundant in the galaxy as humans and that they also were living in all layers of society, that they also married one another and had their own descendants. Not many demons had been created, the majority was born naturally.
It was not only demons one could see. Throughout the villages, there were also some souls. These souls were often a lot weaker than the demons, but all of them were treated equally with the Gods.
"Some souls refuse to wander the plains of despair. The refuse to forget the memories of their previous life, even if that means that they will not be reborn, they still value their memories more and chose to live in Diyu as an inhabitant."
"In Diyu it is illegal to destroy the soul of others, and thus it is relatively safe. However, there are a few groups of bandits which roam Diyu and harvest soul energy or rob and kill the Gods that move goods to or from the ten courts of hell."
"But don't you worry, if the bandits are going to attack then I will personally interfere." Yanluo was laughing as he spoke and Hui Yue felt his scalp go numb. If the king of hell was to personally move, was that not the same as seeing a living legend fighting? Somehow Hui Yue really wished to see that happening.
Unfortunately, the trip was incredibly calm. Their group was already intimidating. Firstly they rode on flood dragons, dragons which were all equal to immortals of creation. All of them had a bloodline of a true dragon in their bodies. Secondly, they were a hundred experts of various strength. Although they were a few new gods, the majority weren't and thus the bandits, in case they wanted to attack this group, should have amazing numbers and some very strong members to deal with the dragons and deal with the Gods.
Even some caravans that they came by were looking at them with envious eyes, and some even tried to get closer and make friends so that they could all travel together.
The same answer was given to every single one of the groups though, no one was allowed to enter their group, and those who were the pushiest ones were deterred by the guards. No one lost their lives, but everyone understood that if they kept pestering this group of experts that was a very likely result.
Thus they continued onwards in peace. Hui Yue, who had seen everything there was to see about the surroundings decided to spend the time cultivate. Although he had planned on keeping his ability to devour a secret the blue cloud was no longer a secret after being displayed at the banquet and now that he was seated on the broad back of the flood dragon did he close his eyes and shroud himself in the blue cloud, increase the speed of which he was absorbing the soul energy and the Ancestral Worldpower in the surrounding areas by at least three times.
Everyone looked at him in surprise at first when they felt how all the energy rushed towards him and saw how he, deep within this blue cloud, greedily absorbed he energy, but soon they found that because this blue cloud was drawing in energy from the surroundings the energy around Hui Yue was much denser than anywhere else and they all sat down to cultivate. To let such a chance slip away from them was silly.
The density of energy was so rich that it was even with consuming pills, their souls truly advanced by leaps and bounds.
Although some of this was because they were in Diyu, the best place to fill the ancestral worldpower pool and also the best place to strengthen one's soul, the majority of this was because of the strong absorption of Hui Yue's blue cloud.
Especially Pei Feng, Pei Ze and the young expert from the Nightcrawler Sect were benefitting greatly. These three were te closest to Hui Yue, and they were all new gods, so their souls were the ones that showed the biggest change of all the experts, their foundations were being built rapidly.
Hui Yue soon noticed that his absorption benefitted others as well, but he really did not care. Although the others were benefitting their speed of absorption could never match his, and thus he just rotated the energy in his body, sucking in so much energy that he almost felt as if his body was exploding from sheer pressure.
His body itself absorbed all the Ancestral Worldpower, and the soul absorbed all the soul energy. The more soul energy he absorbed and the stronger his soul became, the more Ancestral Worldpower his body could hold and with his current speed, which was very much akin to someone eating pill after pill and never stopping, could he feel how he was moving further and further away from being a new god and closer and closer towards the boundaries of being a true Primordial Immortal.
Diyu was as big as the outside of the Netherworld, and although they were going for the capital of the first court of hell, the city closest to Youdu, it still took them a full week to travel such a distance.
During this week they had not encountered any dangers, and they had flown the entire time. At the first couple of days Hui Yue had listened to Yanluo explain the situation below them, and he had gathered some basic understanding and information about how Diyu worked, yet as time had gone by Yanluo had said less and less, and finally, Hui Yue had spent five days cultivating.
Although five days might not seem as much, it truly was an earthshattering difference to Hui Yue. The soul energy within this area was so dense that his soul had gotten twice as strong as it was before, his body was bursting with Ancestral Worldpower and by now Hui Yue could feel what it was really like to be a God.
Not only him, the three other young generation members were also exstatic. They had benefitted greatly from joining this trial. Not only had Yanluo kept his word and provided them with first class resources for cultivation, they had also managed to strengthen their soul double of how it was before. Their strength was now twice as it had been previously! If the rest of their sects knew they were likely to be stunned in shock.
All three were painfully aware that this was all thanks to Hui Yue, but while Pei Ze put the gratitude at heart and wished to repay it later, should he have the posibility to do so, then Pei Feng and the youth from the Nightcrawler Sect were more hesitant.
They were aware that Hui Yue had done this for his own benefit and allowed for them to leech of off him, but they still felt enmity towards him in their hearts. Pei Feng could not help but feel severely threatened by Hui Yue as this young man was likely to become the top genius of the Celestial Sword Sect, and his heart burned with jealousy.
The youth from the Nightcrawler Sect felt some enmity towards Hui Yue as well, but that was more of the fact that he feared that if he allowed for this young man to survive, then he would bring the Celestial Sword Sect to new heights. He would make it rise from the position it had now and even challenge them as time went by!
As the seventh day was up, Hui Yue withdrew the blue cloud into his body once more, much to the dismay of every other cultivator flying on the flood dragons, but when they noticed that his eyes were fixated on something in the distance they all turned their heads to see what it was he was looking at and their hearts filled with excitement.
They no longer cared about Hui Yue's blue cloud and instead, they all looked at the city that was towering in the distance. The amount of Gods that appeared in their surroundings was also constantly increasing, and on the ground, one could see demons moving towards the city on feet.
The closer they got the more Gods they encountered, but unlike their previous travel, no one went close to them, everyone tried to get out of the way and make space for them, and the arrogant flood dragons all roared in the sky as they charged towards the city.
It was illegal to fly within the cities of Diyu, but these flood dragons managed to bypass the formations that had been cast over the city, and everyone within the streets looked into the sky where they saw a whole group of flood dragons flying towards the palace belonging to the first judge of hell.
Uproar exploded in the city, they all knew what it meant that someone flew within the city, it meant that Yanluo had personally appeared and to have the King of Hell appearing was simply something that many of them could not comprehend. He was the king that they had heard about but never seen, the hidden ruler of the land and the people, but he had never before arrived so arrogantly within the capitals of the ten courts of hell.