Chapter 434

Chapter 434: Building the Underworld, Rising Power

“As long as Young Lord Mu Lin comes, we’ll treat him as one of our own.”

“Heh…”

Zhang Hemiao snorted at Mo Feng’s words.

“Treat him as family? You just want to drag Mu Lin into your Black Sha Legion.”

Mo Feng scratched his head awkwardly when his plan got exposed, though his thick skin saved him from blushing.

“Can’t hide anything from General Hemiao,” he admitted bluntly. “But can you blame me? Young Master Mu Lin’s talent’s too damn impressive.”

His eyes shone with genuine respect.

“The undisputed number one in the world. Now I get why Tianwu City offered two years’ worth of resources back then.”

“You folks hit the jackpot with him.”

Mo Feng’s face twisted in regret. His honest answer left Zhang Hemiao with nothing more to argue.

As she struggled for a comeback, Mu Lin materialized beside them.

“I’ll help sort your land veins, purge traitors, seal forbidden power, even boost your soldiers. But joining you? No.”

“One mountain can’t house two tigers.”

The weighted proverb made Mo Feng sigh. He dropped the recruitment talk immediately.

Yet he eagerly accepted Mu Lin’s assistance. Of course, final approval required consulting the Black Sha Legion’s leader first.

Mu Lin wasn’t playing saint here. While he’d help others when possible, his current motives were clear – faith and resources.

“Your Black Sha Legion saves us but eyes our spiritual ground too.”

Not that Mu Lin blamed them. This land never belonged to the Agricultural and Martial Corps anyway. Rescues cost lives and resources – demanding payment made sense.

So why shouldn’t Mu Lin do the same?

“You grab land for us, I’ll solve your crises. Just need some resources and faith in return. Fair deal?”

…

“More than fair,” Zhang Hemiao and Yan Yunyu chimed in. “They’ll gladly pay to have their problems fixed.”

Negotiating terms – what resources, how much faith – required tedious haggling. Mu Lin delegated this grunt work to the two women.

Zhang Hemiao would escort Yan Yunyu to Black Mountain Ridge for preliminary talks. Only after they settled the details would Mu Lin step in.

…

After delegating minor tasks, Mu Lin’s other clone encountered the Thunder Legion.

After breaking their siege and deliberately displaying his abilities, Mu Lin waited for responses from both the Black Sha Legion and the Thunder Legion.

While waiting, he kept himself occupied.

“Boom!”

The Yin Soil buzzed with activity, dust swirling everywhere.

Previously, Mu Lin had never held a full territory or controlled powerful earth veins or spiritual veins.

Relying solely on himself, he couldn’t sustain the Yin Soil long-term. Thus, his Yin Soil often flickered in and out of existence, rarely remaining stable.

This left his Underworld underdeveloped.

But now things changed.

Having secured Tian Shi City, per his agreement with Zhang Hetian, Mu Lin now governed the region’s spiritual veins and all resources.

In return, he vowed to protect the land’s people like a king, ensuring peace and properly training the Agricultural and Martial Corps.

Deeming these terms fair, Mu Lin accepted.

With a base secured, he began ambitious projects.

“Fangdu City must expand. Formations will be built, and the black river water will act as a moat for now…”

Beyond ordinary construction, Mu Lin prioritized crafting hells.

The Blood Abyss, forged from the Slaughtering Blade and Crimson Holy Grail.

The Illusion Prison, woven from endless Other Shore Flower sea.

The Scorched Land Hell, born of the flame of revenge fused with raging fires.

He channeled black river water to create the Black Water Prison, dissolving all it touched.

Using the Ouroboros’ infinite cycle power, Mu Lin merged these hazardous forces.

This cycle both contained the Strange Powers and trapped enemies within, denying escape.

“Once enemies’ soul reflections enter my Underworld, the four great hells will attack relentlessly until nothing remains. No direct effort needed!”

To test this, Mu Lin gathered Strange Powers plaguing the North Wilderness due to celestial rifts.

He sorted and hurled them into the hells—especially the Black Water Prison, which received the most.

“You call yourselves dangerous? Let’s see how you fare against my hells.”

“Boom!”

The Underworld roared to life.

In the Illusion Prison, mental strength clashed violently.

The Blood Abyss seethed with parasitic filth as the Slaughtering Blade and Crimson Holy Grail spawned demonic creatures that slashed at Strange Powers, stealing their essence.

The Scorched Land Hell’s vengeful flames raged, hungering to reduce all to ash.

Many troublesome forces were sent into this realm by Mu Lin, where they fought fiercely to annihilate each other completely.

During their chaotic struggles, the flame of revenge kept absorbing these forces, growing increasingly fearsome.

The Black Water Prison stood as the most perilous zone – the only hellscape Mu Lin hadn’t fully mastered.

This prison held the largest concentration of forbidden powers Mu Lin had banished here, all exceptionally dangerous.

Their clashes with the black river manifested in bizarre, unpredictable ways.

To monitor the Black Water Prison and channel forbidden energies, Mu Lin constantly sent paper figure clones to these areas.

The transfer method proved straightforward – most strange evil spirits naturally sought human hosts.

Mu Lin exploited this by making his Substitute Paper Figures greedily absorb these corrupting forces.

As everyone knew, Mu Lin’s paper figures incorporated Quantum Theory principles during creation, granting them energy-transfer capabilities.

He’d station one paper figure in corrupted lands to soak up malignant energies,

while positioning another in the four great hells.

Linking these two through energy transmission created a conduit piping twisted forces into the hell dimensions.

"The paper wear-out rate pains me… but my assembly line produces three to five hundred daily. This burn rate doesn’t affect operations."

Through this method, Mu Lin siphoned most corrupt energies into the hells like a drainage pump.

His motives went beyond mere amusement or purging evil spirits to restore the spiritual ground.

The true goal was domination over these extraordinary forces.

While his Heart Lamp of Will could forcibly control these powers alone,

the process would drain Mu Lin’s energy and take considerable time.

Using the four great hells changed the game completely.

The strange evil forces and hell dimensions would mutually exhaust themselves in deadly conflict,

letting Mu Lin claim victory when both sides weakened.

This strategy reached peak effectiveness in the Black Water Prison.

All stubborn, indestructible forces got dumped here for gradual erosion.

Once sufficiently weakened, Mu Lin’s domineering will essence would infiltrate them like roots,

commanding: "Kneel!"

Few corrupted forces resisted this pincer assault.

Through this method, Mu Lin amassed various unique extraordinary powers.

Two left particularly deep impressions:

The first he called Breath of Decay –

a time-wielding wind that aged everything it touched to decay.

Even Mu Lin’s paper figures faded and weakened under its influence.

Channeling this wind into the black river destroyed 109 paper figures in succession.

In the end, the wind even threw the black river into chaos.

Yet being rootless – just a wisp of breath from the outer realm – it eventually fell to the endless black river water.

When defeated, Mu Lin’s will of dominance seized this breath-wind, merging it with Zhu Long’s exhalations.

From then on, winds from Zhu Long could not only shift seasons but snuff out living creatures’ time itself, making all things decay.

The second power that drew Mu Lin’s attention was salt – Sin Salt or Holy Salt.

This proved an unusual force.

Mu Lin named it so because it interacted with sin through purification.

Yes, purification of sin.

Against evildoers, the salt’s power grew stronger with their accumulated sins, easily turning sinners into Pillars of Salt.

It could even cleanse strange evil spirits and forbidden powers, restoring things to original states.

These traits seemed benign, hardly qualifying as forbidden power.

Yet when Mu Lin investigated, he found it most destructive to spiritual ground.

The Agricultural and Martial Corps’ former thousand-mile territory had become salt flats under Sin Salt’s erosion.

Any creature entering this zone or touching salt grains would be corrupted, eventually crumbling into salt.

The corruption stemmed from flawed judgment within Sin Salt.

Though unclear why, Sin Salt deemed all living beings guilty.

Merely surviving required eating – plants or meat – which Sin Salt judged sinful.

Years of sustenance made one irredeemably wicked.

(Vegetarian: "??? Isn’t that too extreme?")

More terrifyingly, spiritual energy itself was judged evil needing purification.

Thus Sin Salt’s territory became spiritual energy’s wasteland.

"Terrifying. Given rapid expansion, it could salt the entire world."

Fortunately, this world possessed innate resistance checking Sin Salt’s spread.

Mu Lin’s interference dealt critical damage.

Elsewhere, he used Substitute Paper Figures to slowly channel strange evils into hell.

Against Sin Salt, he transformed a Substitute into Ink Dragon, the River Lord, then summoned massive black river water to scour the salt flats.

Here Mu Lin first witnessed black river water challenged – early waves entering salt flats got purified into powerless clear water.

“…”

“This salt’s got real tricks.”

"But now, it’s mine."

The black river water had been suppressed, but during its clash with Black Water, much of the Sin Salt got weakened too.

Mu Lin watched their struggle and used his willing heart fire to seize control of peculiar salt grains.

He then guided more black river water to flush the salt flats while steadily gaining dominion over the Sin Salt.

As his control expanded, another layer formed in Mu Lin’s hell within the Yin Soil and Cycle of Life and Death – the Salt Hell.

…

Harnessing these two extraordinary powers made Mu Lin much stronger.

He also noticed something else.

The time required for his advancement to Earth Immortal had shortened from three months to just one.

Mu Lin understood why immediately.

"Underworld deities aren’t mere faith gods. They’re vital parts of the three realms’ cycle – capturing souls, judging sins, working with Earthly Deities to balance ley lines and maintain harmony between yin and yang realms."

"The Underworld also destroys foreign evils and absorbs their power. Its duty is preventing evil energy buildup or other abnormalities."

By clearing corrupted energies across the North Wilderness daily, Mu Lin was essentially healing the world.

The impartial way of Heaven rewards effort. Since proposing the City God theory marked him as special in Heaven and Humanity’s paths, his achievements drew greater divine favor.

Lately, Mu Lin felt deeper connection to the world. Understanding cosmic laws came easier during training. He even stumbled upon extraordinary treasures.

While fixing ley lines, he discovered a hidden secret realm containing precious items.

…

As Mu Lin worked on the land, Heaven smiled upon him. Meanwhile in Tian Shi City, reports from Mo Feng and Cai Tian about the Agricultural and Martial Corps’ deeds caused major stirs in both Black Sha Legion and Thunder Legion.