Dawn City, Data Center.
Before Broken Armor could offer any advice, Feng Qi, taking advantage of the fact that Little Black had not yet arrived, continued to hastily go through the knowledge stored in the database.
He was hopeful about whether the concept of creating a pseudo-Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault could become a reality.
However, he understood that there would be many challenges to overcome in making it happen.
For instance, whether his spiritual sea was large enough to hold such vast amounts of information.
Or whether damage to his spiritual sea would lead to the loss of data—these were some of the questions that needed to be addressed.
But since he had come up with the idea, it was worth trying.
According to Wei Wei's guess, she believed that the original Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault was very likely to have been the spiritual sea of a Pillar God, which then evolved into the miraculous Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault.
The process of creating the pseudo-Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault was very likely to be a process of creating a miracle.
As long as his spiritual sea continued to grow, there would come a day when it could become a special existence comparable to the Sacred Spirit Consciousness Vault.
Feng Qi didn't dwell on the issue for too long.
Time was limited, and the most important thing now was to continue going through the database and learning as much knowledge as possible.
This knowledge would lay the foundation for the next timeline.
After going through some knowledge, Feng Qi would always pause to restore his energy and read some historical information.
During this time, Feng Qi came across a piece of historical data.
It showed that Zhang Daowen had once suffered severe injuries, and during this period, Dawn City had almost been destroyed, putting the human race in an extremely perilous situation.
The hostile force at that time was referred to in the data as the "Hell Without End."
However, there was no mention of the race or force behind it in the data.
Feeling curious, Feng Qi turned to Zhang Daowen, who was standing beside him with his hands behind his back, and asked:
"Xiao Wen, what kind of race is this Hell Without End? Why is there no specific introduction in the historical records?"
Zhang Daowen took a deep breath in response to Feng Qi's inquiry:
"That force doesn't have a unified race; it's a collective term for the various races that came from that place."
"What do you mean?"
Zhang Daowen's expression gradually became solemn as he explained:
"Uncle Qi, the place where that force is located, if translated into our human language, is hell—specifically a place of extreme evil, so I called it Hell Without End…"
From Zhang Daowen's explanation, a new force appeared in Feng Qi's mind.
But this force was completely different from any of the races Feng Qi had encountered before.
Zhang Daowen said that when he first came into contact with "Hell Without End," he didn't know its exact origins. Later, he spent a lot of money in Fate City to acquire intelligence about this force, which was how he learned about it.
Hell Without End was not so much a force but more like a place.
To trace the origins of Hell Without End, one had to go back to the ancient times and the superpower known as the "Hell Race."
At its peak, the Hell Race occupied multiple small worlds, far surpassing forces that only controlled several layered worlds. It was undoubtedly a superpower, and even 1500 years later, it could still be considered as one.
The Hell Race possessed a miraculous item known as the "Hell," and its name came from this item.
This miraculous item had a very special function. Inside it was a vast, self-contained space, filled with endless tortures and sufferings.
Any life thrown into this space would endure ceaseless torment and pain.
The miracle "Hell" would absorb the pain produced by the lives imprisoned within it, generating a special energy.
This energy, known as the Source of Pain, was key to the rise of the Hell Race.
In those days, the Hell Race captured the lives of other races from the Domain World, throwing them into Hell Without End to provide the Hell Race with an unending source of pain energy through their suffering and torment.
That is why Hell Without End was also referred to as Hell.
Being thrown into Hell Without End by the Hell Race meant living a lifetime of endless suffering.
No one knew the exact number of races that were thrown into Hell Without End at the peak of the Hell Race, but according to the intelligence Zhang Daowen received, the estimate was around three billion lives.
This was an enormous number.
Over time, the Hell Race's peak faded, and its decline came swiftly, lasting only a few years.
According to the intelligence, the Hell Race was utterly defeated when it clashed with another, even stronger superpower. After enduring for a while, the once mighty force ultimately fell apart, and its territory was completely overtaken by another powerful race.
However, before the Hell Race disbanded, its leader chose to integrate or seal the miracle "Hell" within a space to prevent the enemy from obtaining it. After that, no other force would ever possess the miracle "Hell."
As the years passed, the traces of the Hell Race faded.
But Hell Without End did not disappear.
Without the Hell Race's control, the cruel tortures of Hell Without End ceased, but the three billion lives inside it still remained.
Fortunately, they no longer had to endure the endless torment.
Unfortunately, without the resources that the Hell Race once provided, the resources inside Hell Without End gradually dwindled.
A brutal competition soon ensued.
Three billion lives fought bloody wars over the dwindling resources.
Unlike the external wars, there were no racial allegiances in Hell Without End initially. Most were lone wolf warriors, fighting solely for resources.
But as the competition grew fiercer, alliances between different races began to form.
During this period, three extremely powerful organizations emerged.
The first group was called Ku Yuan.
This group was the most unique within Hell Without End.
Their lives had been changed through endless suffering. Negative emotions had completely eroded their personalities, transforming them into negative beings.
Ku Yuan could be considered the origin of all pain.
They no longer needed food; instead, they sustained themselves by feeding on the negative emotions generated by other lives.
This group was the most extreme faction in Hell Without End. They possessed the purest form of evil and loathed anything beautiful.
Ku Yuan produced many strong individuals and was one of the first forces to succeed in challenging the Hell Furnace.
According to the intelligence Zhang Daowen obtained, the Hell Furnace was a road filled with suffering, and it was the only exit from Hell Without End.
But this road was nearly endless, and the chances of passing through it were almost nonexistent.
However, many strong individuals from Ku Yuan boldly took on the challenge of the Hell Furnace Road.
Before each challenge, the strong members of Ku Yuan would form small teams and assign numbers to the teams based on strength.
Once on the Hell Furnace Road, when their internal pain energy was nearly depleted, the member with the lowest number would become the food for the group. The other members would cannibalize them to replenish their energy.
By feeding on their own kind, many Ku Yuan members passed through the Hell Furnace and completed the challenge of the miracle.
However, Ku Yuan was not the most powerful force in Hell Without End.
They were few in number and lacked cohesion. Despite the individual strength of Ku Yuan members, their overall strength was not enough to claim the title of the strongest force in Hell Without End.
The strongest force in Hell Without End was Jiao Tu.
A ruthless and violent force made up of bloodthirsty butchers.
If Ku Yuan was the first force to succeed in challenging the Hell Furnace, then Jiao Tu was the first force to adopt this challenge method.
The strongest members of Jiao Tu had secretly begun challenging the Hell Furnace Road long before the Hell Race was gone.
Every time the Hell Race threw a batch of "newcomers" into Hell Without End, some of them were taken by these ruthless individuals, turned into fodder for the Hell Furnace.
The original founders of Jiao Tu even fought against the Hell Race at one point.
Though they were always defeated, the brutality of Jiao Tu earned them a notorious reputation in Hell Without End. They were not a race but an alliance of the most vicious beings.
By the time the Hell Race was still around, Jiao Tu had already existed. Some of the strongest members had even united to establish a strict set of rules known as the Jiao Tu Code.
Anyone who violated the Jiao Tu Code would face death.
For example, members of Jiao Tu were prohibited from eating food dropped by the Hell Race. Even if they were about to starve to death, they could not consume it.
Any member who ate food from the Hell Race would be considered a traitor to Jiao Tu and would be devoured by the other members.
The Jiao Tu Code also stated that all members must feed on other lives that had suffered similar hellish tortures. This was the only way to replenish their physical energy.
Over the years, the rules of Jiao Tu never changed. There were no higher-ups in Jiao Tu; anyone could rise to the top.
Only the strongest had a voice in the group.
This organization gathered the most ferocious beings in Hell Without End. They hunted other lives, rising through combat or dying in battle.
Their brutal way of life had created an entire faction of evil warriors.
When Hell Without End could no longer send in newcomers, the food supply for Jiao Tu members also dwindled.
Eventually, only a very few Jiao Tu members managed to survive and leave Hell Without End. However, every one of the surviving Jiao Tu warriors was a butcher drenched in blood.
Among them, the strongest had millions, even tens of millions, of corpses beneath their feet.
They were the most savage of butchers. Even without a race behind them, every one of them had struggled to escape hell and was a demon in their own right. For Jiao Tu members, fighting was as natural as breathing.
The third faction in Hell Without End was an anomaly called Wu Xu (Disorder).
This faction was formed in response to the oppression of Jiao Tu, causing many lives to come together in unity.
In the harsh competition, many wise beings were born in Wu Xu.
They formulated strategies, attempting to use tactics to battle Jiao Tu, but time and time again they were crushed by Jiao Tu's overwhelming combat power.
During this period, a mad scholar emerged within Wu Xu.
He proposed a life transformation plan, using the pain energy that filled Hell Without End to transform himself into a pain-based lifeform, thus gaining the strength to fight against Jiao Tu.
The reference was the lifeform of Ku Yuan.
This plan ultimately succeeded, and the transformed lives became half-pain-based beings.
Though they didn't possess the immense strength of the Ku Yuan lifeforms, they retained some degree of sanity.
From then on, pain transformation became a kind of initiation for joining Wu Xu.
All lives wishing to gain Wu Xu's protection had to undergo this brutal transformation.
With this unholy transformation, Wu Xu gained the strength to stand on par with Jiao Tu.
But this transformation came with serious drawbacks. The hearts of Wu Xu members gradually filled with resentment and hatred, and they began to despise order.
Thus, the name Wu Xu (Disorder) was born.
In the following years, the sages of Wu Xu continuously updated their transformation plans.
Wu Xu warriors were divided into five main categories: Hatred, Despair, Death, Pestilence, and Darkness.
After stepping out of Hell Without End, Wu Xu became a very formidable force, and it was the most unified of the three major forces to emerge from Hell Without End.
Apart from these three factions, there were many smaller groups within Hell Without End.
But, without exception, all of them were vicious and terrifying lives. The path they took to escape Hell Without End was paved with countless corpses, and none of them could be considered benevolent.
The warriors emerging from Hell Without End shared a common trait.
They all bore the marks of Hell Furnace. Even if they discarded their physical forms, the marks would remain on their souls.
This mark was not a form of torture. On the contrary, it made the warriors who left Hell Without End stronger.
It was like the Heart Refinement Platform, a mark given as a gift to those who completed their challenges.
But Hell Without End was the opposite of the Heart Refinement Platform.
The Heart Refinement Platform helped the challengers' hearts grow. Even if they endured much pain during the challenge, after the challenge, all that remained were the insights gained from the experience.
Hell Without End, however, retained all the suffering. Only the most extreme demons could pass the Hell Furnace Road.
The meat grinder of three billion lives was like a death breeding ground.
In the end, only a very few managed to escape.
Ku Yuan, Jiao Tu, and Wu Xu—none of them were weak.
These were not racial factions, but they were more terrifying than most of the established races.
After listening to Zhang Daowen's narration, Feng Qi's expression became serious. He then turned to Zhang Daowen and asked:
"Which faction member did you fight?"
"It should have been a member of Jiao Tu. His right arm bore the burning mark of Hell Without End, but he carved a cross-shaped blood wound over the mark. According to the information, this behavior is unique to Jiao Tu warriors. They use this mark to distinguish themselves from other beings from Hell Without End."
Zhang Daowen paused for a moment before continuing:
"Uncle Qi, actually, the Jiao Tu warrior I fought was heavily injured, but he fought like a mad wolf, completely disregarding his own wounds. In the end, I didn't defeat him. He killed himself in the battle. His injuries and excessive exhaustion wore him down, but he still inflicted a serious injury on me... I'm not sure where he ranked within Jiao Tu."
Upon hearing this, Feng Qi nodded thoughtfully.
He was well aware of Zhang Daowen's strength.
He had limited information about other future regions, so he didn't consider them at the moment.
But in this barren region, Zhang Daowen was undoubtedly among the strongest.
Being seriously injured by a heavily wounded Jiao Tu warrior showed just how terrifying Jiao Tu's battle power was.
"Is there any risk?" Feng Qi asked at this point.
"That was five hundred years ago. If there were any revenge, it would have come long ago. According to the information I've received, aside from Wu Xu, Hell Without End isn't very united. Jiao Tu and Ku Yuan aren't united, so there's no need to worry about revenge... I was concerned at the time, which is why I went to Destiny City to buy intelligence."
Upon hearing Zhang Daowen's words, Feng Qi sighed with relief.
If the Jiao Tu members intended to seek revenge on humanity, it would certainly pose a significant threat in the future.
Just as Feng Qi was about to ask Zhang Daowen more about Hell Without End, Po Jia suddenly appeared beside him, speaking softly:
"Boss, it seems like Xiao You can't hold on much longer."
Hearing this, Feng Qi's heart sank.
It had finally come.
He still had a lot of knowledge to go through, but time was clearly running short.
[Time to clock out, rubbing my hands in anticipation.]
Feng Qi couldn't help but roll his eyes upon hearing the narrator's comment, then mentally gave it the finger.