Book 08 Chapter 040: Deploying in the Nether Realm
Eat?
Gu Hai ate for three days and three nights straight before finally managing to suppress that hunger.
Over these three days and three nights of gorging, Gu Hai came to understand his situation.
His Spiritual Progenitor deity king was probably too weak and needed immediate strengthening. This was the cause of his ravenous hunger.
However, even after eating so much, his Spiritual Progenitor deity king barely increased in strength—merely stabilized.
His physical body was no longer tempered by his energy but by nourishment by the Spiritual Progenitor deity king. Although the increase in strength was insignificant, Gu Hai knew that enhancing the Spiritual Progenitor deity king was the fastest way to fortify his physical body.
The Hunger Pearl made him insatiably hungry. Everything he consumed was instantly refined.
Fortunately, he was eating dead objects without strong wills to affect him, but they were not as nouris.h.i.+ng as living beings, no matter how much he ate.
Be it humans or animal spirits, most of the divinity, Essence, and energy would scatter after death. The real nourishment came from three spiritual souls and seven physical souls.
After gorging for three days, Gu Hai no longer felt like eating others when he saw them, unlike in the beginning. However, he still yearned to eat.
Kong Xuan looked at Gu Hai strangely. He, too, had devoured many beings using the peac.o.c.k race’s innate talent. However, he had to slowly digest what he ate in his stomach. Even the peac.o.c.k race’s innate talent could not allow him to do as Gu Hai did, eating everything, even enchanted treasures and spirit stones. Could all that really be digested?
After Kong Xuan consumed other beings, he would spit out their weapons or somehow expel them from his body.
However, Gu Hai ate everything, leaving nothing behind. There was no wastage at all.
“Husband, what happened to you? You frightened me!” Chen Xianer asked worriedly.
“Indeed, Husband, can you endure eating so much?” Long Wanqing asked, equally worried.
The officials also looked worried.
Gu Hai shook his head, rea.s.suring them, “I’m fine now, much better. Do not worry about me. When I was dealing with First Brother Chiyou’s corpse, his remnant will shared some cultivation techniques with me. That’s all.”
“World devouring?” Kong Xuan suddenly exclaimed in surprise, making everyone’s eyes s.h.i.+ne.
Gu Hai did not hide anything and nodded.
Astonishment overcame Kong Xuan. “The only thing in this world that can match the peac.o.c.k clan’s devouring technique is that bizarre cultivation technique of the shaman race!”
Purple Subtlety found an excuse to comfort himself and said, “I knew it! That’s why you became such a big eater all of a sudden!”
Longevity chimed in with a nod, “Indeed. If you keep eating like this, we’ll run out of meat!”
Gu Hai responded with a slight smile.
“Brother-in-Law, this world devouring technique seems to have some aftereffects. Be careful!” Long Wanyu warned.
“Alright, tell me about it later,” Gu Hai replied with a smile.
He took a moment to ease the officials’ concerns. Upon learning that the emperor was cultivating and would become stronger, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and cheered up, no longer tense.
After sending everyone away, leaving only his family, Gu Hai, Chen Xianer, Long Wanqing, Gu Qin, and Gu Han turned to Long Wanyu.
“Wanyu, what do you know? Are the aftereffects dangerous?” Long Wanqing asked in a panic.
“Yes, it can drive you mad!” Long Wanyu explained apprehensively.
“Oh?” Everyone immediately became worried.
“During ancient times, the shaman race experienced the strength of the animal spirits’ bodies and the weaknesses of theirs, so a batch of geniuses created this powerful secret technique, world devouring. It can strengthen the physical body, granting one an invincible physical body. However, internal conflict happened when they created world devouring,” Long Wanyu recalled.
“Internal conflict?” Gu Hai repeated in confusion.
“Yes. After an elder of this line of inheritance understood how powerful world devouring was, he killed all the shaman race geniuses who partic.i.p.ated in its creation to monopolize its benefits. He was the first person to cultivate world devouring. In the end, he did become very strong, so strong that he could match Jiangchen in their physical bodies. However, he eventually went mad, killing indiscriminately. Later on, Jiangchen destroyed him,” Long Wanyu said, recalling.
“Went mad?” everyone said worriedly.
“Yes, it seems that elder didn’t fully understand world devouring after killing all the geniuses who created this cultivation technique. Or maybe the secrets of its cultivation were known only to those geniuses who all died. However, all those geniuses died, utterly destroyed. The specific flaws and how to compensate for them were lost. Perhaps the elder cultivated incorrectly, and in the end, he went mad. Consuming dead things leads to slow cultivation; consuming living things is key. However, living things have their own will, and too many wills ingested can cause madness!” Long Wanyu explained.
“What do we do?” everyone asked anxiously.
“Refine it slowly. Back then, Chiyou ate too much; too many wills confused his mind, and Jiang Lianshan sealed him in the Eastern Sea to wear away these wills slowly. It took Chiyou three thousand years to grind them all down, so when he ate animal spirits again, he only ate powerful ones. The weak ones didn’t increase his cultivation by much, and it also required too much time to wear down the wills,” Gu Hai explained.
“Brother-in-Law, you know?” Long Wanyu exclaimed in surprise.
“First Brother’s remnant will told me a bit about it. I will be careful; don’t worry.” Gu Hai smiled.
Everyone nodded, knowing Gu Hai had a plan.
However, Gu Hai was left with a suspicion: did world devouring hide some secret buried in history?
Eating dead things increased the power of the Spiritual Progenitor deity king too slowly.
Gu Hai also tried eating a living thing once—a shark spirit that caused many tsunamis and killed countless people.
Gu Hai went there and devoured it.
After the five deities’ furnace refined it, its souls’ wills charged into Gu Hai’s head, giving him a headache for a day before he completely eradicated the shark spirit’s will.
“The will of a Middle Heavenly Palace Realm shark spirit entered my mind and ran wild. This world devouring really is troublesome. No wonder Chiyou and others went mad. It’s not without flaws!” Gu Hai said solemnly.
At that moment, he understood why Chiyou rarely devoured in excess despite having the mighty Hunger Pearl. It took a day to erase one will. If there were more, it might not drive him mad, but it would certainly be uncomfortable.
After returning to Borderless Heavenly Capital, Gu Hai mostly consumed spirit stones.
The emperor’s study:
Mo Yike reported respectfully, “Your Reverence, some imperial dynasties and sects in the south, which gifted cities to Ji Dihong, now want to offer cities to our Han Imperial Dynasty to show neutrality. Shall we accept?”
“Accept those cities? We don’t care about those cities. Leave them hanging for now,” Gu Hai said.
“Yes!” the officials immediately answered.
“For the land of the living, we will wait for the Huang Heavenly Dynasty’s next move. However, the Unborn Man can open a pa.s.sageway to the nether realm in slightly over two months. The Han Imperial Dynasty’s territories will extend to the nether realm!” Gu Hai announced.
The officials’ expressions changed, betraying some joy.
“The Nation Suppression Army will deter the world not only in the land of the living but also in the nether realm. Now, Myriad Bone Sinister Mountain is ours. There are some ghost sects and ghost nations in Myriad Bone Sinister Mountain’s periphery. The Blood Uniform Guard has scouted plenty of information. Those factions have vast lands but ordinary strength. It would be a waste if we did not accept this gift from heaven. We are preparing to send part of the Nation Suppression Army into the nether realm to expand the boundless territory of the Han Imperial Dynasty with the help of the skeleton race!” Gu Hai declared solemnly.
“This official is willing to enter the nether realm and expand the Han Imperial Dynasty’s territory!” many officials declared excitedly.
Now, the officials finally understood why Gu Hai did not want to advance to a heavenly dynasty.
A heavenly dynasty? Gu Hai did not want just a heavenly dynasty in the land of the living; he aimed for a dynasty spanning the realms of both the living and the dead. He sought to become the strongest faction across both realms.
“Then, the Nation Suppression Army is to start selecting talents and prepare to deploy to the northern nether realm!” Gu Hai ordered.
“Yes!” the officials answered.
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The emperor’s study, Xuanyuan City:
The damage to the Xuanyuan Sword filled Ji Dihong with irrepressible anger.
The Righteous Energy was gone. After clearing all the negative thoughts of the old consciousness within the Xuanyuan Sword, Ji Dihong infused it with a new consciousness, transforming it back into his own clone.
Meanwhile, Ji Dihong’s true body went into seclusion to refine Chiyou’s Spiritual Progenitor deity king.
The Xuanyuan Sword clone took control of the government.
Within the study, the Xuanyuan Sword clone looked at the officials.
“The Han Imperial Dynasty’s Nation Suppression Army has disappeared these days?” Ji Dihong asked.
“Yes, Your Holy Eminence. Even the Divine Demon Army has vanished. We don’t know what Gu Hai is up to!” Emperor Kong replied, frowning.
“They went to the nether realm!” the Divine Scorpion Heavenly Demon interjected.
“The nether realm?” Ji Dihong’s face sank.
“Yes. That’s why I came. After the last incident, our lord sent people to watch over Myriad Bone Sinister Mountain. Lately, many experts from Borderless Heavenly Capital have been entering it. We don’t know what they’re planning!” the Divine Scorpion Heavenly Demon explained.
Ji Dihong was silent for a while before finally slamming the table.
Bang!
The officials jumped.
“Your Holy Eminence, what’s wrong?” Emperor Kong asked in surprise.
“That scoundrel Gu Hai! Hah! Hahaha! We thought you didn’t advance to the heavenly dynasty because of us. It turns out, you’ve been plotting something else. You don’t even care about our battle! How outrageous!” Ji Dihong said coldly.
The officials were stunned for a moment, then understood.
Gu Hai intended to make the Han Imperial Dynasty a heavenly dynasty that would shake both the land of the living and the nether realm.
“Your Holy Eminence, the land of the living and the nether realm are closed off to each other. How can he manage both?” Emperor Kong asked, bewildered.
“He has the Unborn Man, who must have suggested a strategy of maintaining a pa.s.sageway between the two realms!” Cangjie replied gravely.
“What? A lifespan cultivator can create a channel that’s always open between the two realms?” Emperor Kong exclaimed.
Cangjie did not explain but looked at Ji Dihong. “Your Holy Eminence, I recently thought of a way to deal with Gu Hai.”
“Oh?” Ji Dihong was slightly taken aback.
The officials were somewhat startled. During this time, they had become thoroughly vexed because of Gu Hai. Even His Holy Eminence seems helpless against him, yet you have a solution?
“Mister Cangjie, are you sure? You know, Borderless Heavenly Capital is…,” Ji Dihong asked, frowning.
“It does not matter if Long Zhanguo is involved; my strategy will trap Gu Hai, making his comeback impossible!” Cangjie a.s.sured gravely.
Ji Dihong’s eyes brightened. “Please advise me, Mister Cangjie!”
However, Cangjie suddenly fell silent.
All the officials p.r.i.c.ked their ears up, looking curiously at Cangjie.
Ji Dihong understood Cangjie’s intention, and his expression changed. “All of you, leave!”
“Yes!” The officials left the study, feeling disappointed.
Only Ji Dihong and Cangjie remained in the study.