Chapter 997

“What?! Return to the world of immortals? Do we not need to guard the ancestor planet anymore?” In the Gates of the Abyss by Kunlun Mountain on Earth, the Deaf Prince’s trademark tones boomed in all directions. They were insulated by the formations within the gates, so his words didn’t travel to the outside world.

“They want us to return so we can activate our tribulation… or rather, escape it so we can return to our previous selves.” Jing Dichen remained calm and frowned slightly at the little fox. “Compared to Changxi, I like my current identity more.”

She spun around in a circle, luxuriating in the self of a heavenly dragon that was the third princess of the Unsullied Sea. She was an honest-to-goodness idle prodigal who did whatever she felt like, whenever she felt like it.

While these six had fully recovered their earliest memories, they'd lost their original identities somewhere along the endless cycle of reincarnation and completely turned into latter-day lifeforms. This was similar to Tianqi’s process and how he’d scoured himself through reincarnation and washed the core essence of a mountain god from his being.

The prodigal alliance all rather enjoyed their current selves. No one felt the desire to become a mighty demon god again, to be a lofty character on high so far removed from anyone else. This also included Taiyi, who now wanted to quietly live out his days as the third young master of the Lin Clan.

“Some things aren’t up to you.” The little fox shook her head. “You six will be grand pure realm at the most with your capabilities, even with the reinforcement of the treasures of human dao. You’ll be of no help to this era, but if you return to your origins, you’ll be six connate demon gods. You can judge for yourselves which is more important and what the right decision is.”

Off to the side, Jing Huaci and Houtu looked at the six with great amusement and some schadenfreude.

As the reincarnation of the Queen Mother of the West, Jing Huaci’s situation was different from the six prodigals. Kunlun Mountain was her dao arena to begin with, and although she was only peak grand pure realm now, her cultivation would continue to increase as long as she remained on the mountain. Breaking through to great emperor and chaos realm was only a matter of time.

That left Houtu, who hadn’t gone through the cycle of reincarnation at all. The little fox had directly hauled her back from the great wilderness, so these worries didn’t apply to her.

“In… that case, the six of us will go meet our tribulations,” Beicang Qiong heaved a sigh. “During the great wilderness, the Flame Emperor collected our soul force and the Great Emperor of the Eastern Peak pulled us out of death with the power of reincarnation. If we die again this time, there will be no one to save us. We need to protect ourselves with our own power.”

“Let’s head back to the world of immortals!” Feng Ruyu, Bai Qi, and the others stood up as well. They were unwilling and possessed no alternative, but there really was no other choice available to them. This had to be done—for themselves, for all life beneath the heavens, and for this realm.

……

Lu Yun and Qing Yu had no idea where they were. They were following the void in the deepest part of hell, but they didn’t end up in the Hadal Battlefront. Instead, they came to a marvelous place.

A stone the size of a fist and sparkling with rays of remarkable radiance led the way—the Stone of Three Lives.

Hongjun had used the stone as a foundation with which to integrate the hell of human dao and construct the wheel of reincarnation. When he returned from his tribulation, he returned the treasure to Lu Yun. He’d borrowed it in the great wilderness and returned it in present day.

The Stone of Three Lives was a powerful treasure born in the netherdark. It nurtured the power of reincarnation and was also the foundational stone of the human dao hell.

After untold years of tempering and fortifying, it was more than a hundred times stronger than when Lu Yun first obtained it; it was almost in the chaos realm itself. He was now entering the path of unknown space with it because he wanted to search for other fragments of the human dao hell.

In the final years of human dao, hell was smashed into pieces and scattered into the void. The part that the Tome of Life and Death controlled was just the biggest and most central fragment that remained. Lu Yun could use the Stone of Three Lives to sense where the others were and collect them to reintegrate them back into his hell.

“Where are we?” He and Qing Yu walked hand in hand through a place without any source of light. They moved in a world of complete darkness.

“We’re not in the world of immortals or the lower realms… and of course we’re not on the ancestor planet.” She deduced with a frown on her face. “We’re not in the chaos either! We seem to be in an undiscovered realm.”

Qing Yu was very certain that they were in a defined realm, but that this realm wasn’t located in any of their known space.

“Be careful,” Lu Yun suddenly raised. “If my hunch is correct, the prisoners in the Hadal Prisons come from here.”

Qing Yu nodded slowly.

Hummmm.

A strange sound came from ahead of them and the stone quivered in Lu Yun’s hand. It seemed to form a strange connection with something in the darkness.

“The fragment of hell is ahead of us!” Lu Yun’s eyes lit up.

The two subconsciously picked up their pace and walked swiftly toward a hazy glow appearing in the gloom. An enormous bridge loomed quietly out of the dark, covered by a dense carpet of something that looked like flies.

“...don’t move!” All of Lu Yun’s hairs suddenly stood on end and he grabbed Qing Yu, swallowing lightly.

“What is it?” Qing Yu stopped as well.

“Take a close look at that. What’s that covering the stone bridge?” He swallowed hard and carefully posed the question.

Qing Yu focused her gaze on the bridge and noted things that looked like flies… but they were much bigger at roughly three meters long. They glowed with a dim red, but that eerie glow was overshadowed by the din of the bridge, so it wasn’t that apparent.

“Corpseflies!” Qing Yu kept her voice down with great effort. “Don’t those things only exist in a zombie’s body? And the ones we saw beneath Myriad Formation Summit were only the size of a palm…” her voice trailed off.

The flies beneath Myriad Formation Summit were born of Yushen’s body. They’d been palm sized only because her resentment had blown up her body several thousand kilometers long. The ones before them were three meters long! If they were truly inside a giant zombie, how big was it for flies of this size to appear?

Were they inside a giant zombie, or were they inside a giant corpse coffin like Myriam Formation Summit?

Lu Yun and Qing Yu didn’t dare speculate too hard on this.

“If my guess is right, that stone bridge is the Bridge of Forgetfulness… It spans the yin and yang worlds in the hell of human dao,” Lu Yun murmured. “Let’s get that bridge first before we do anything else!”

He strode out and walked up to the bridge. [1]

1. Old Lady Meng is the goddess of forgetfulness in Chinese mythology, who serves soup on the Bridge of Forgetfulness or Nai He Bridge (奈何橋). This soup wipes the memory of the person so they can reincarnate into the next life without the burdens of the previous life.