Under the guidance of Big Foot and the five other Void Bugs, Yake's vehicle slowly moved toward the spatial rift. Meanwhile, Wei Huan stood on the balcony; ten teleportation gates had swung open, and the undead elites waited behind them, poised and ready, prepared for any eventuality.
Without a Boundary Gate, crossing the spatial rift was much slower. They traveled through a void where directions were indistinguishable; only those who cultivated the Laws of Space could sense the subtle differences within. Luck was not on their side today; as they traversed the void, they encountered a spatial turbulence—perhaps a result of their continuous disruptions in this area of space.
To counter this, all twenty-three Void Bugs left the vehicle, risking becoming lost in the void. Ultimately, they successfully led the way, guiding the group through the turbulence without further mishap. Once the space stabilized and the exit of the rift appeared, Wei Huan ordered all team members back into the vehicle.
"We're almost there," Big Foot said, returning and pointing to a nearly imperceptible black streak ahead. "That's it. The entrance is small; it can't accommodate many people crossing at once."
Wei Huan nodded, staring at the black crevice. He felt the dark energy surging from the other side and knew he had entered this alien world. After a moment's thought, he summoned Dot Mom. Instead of using her to carry them, he threw her through the spatial tunnel first. The tunnel was unstable and the exit narrow, but once she entered this world, Dot Mom would not be forced back into the Great Tomb due to spatial constraints. A single branch of Dot Mom was an entire army; sending her ahead was the best arrangement.
After successfully sending Dot Mom, Wei Huan wanted to throw the Magic Eye Lord through as well. It would be ideal to summon the entire undead army here to avoid being "spawn-killed" upon arrival.
Big Foot saw his intent and said hurriedly, "Boss, we have to leave this spot immediately." He explained quickly, "We don't have the ability to roam through space yet; we can only perform spatial leaps. That is to say, we can't stop. If we stop, we'll get lost in the void."
Wei Huan was indeed unfamiliar with the path of Space. Hearing this, he nodded and signaled Yake to keep the vehicle moving. However, as a precaution, he deployed the Magic Eye Lord in front of the vehicle, letting it cross first. The vehicle followed closely behind.
His vision, however, saw the true face of the alien world a step ahead.
Just like the images in the video, this was a subterranean world resembling an abyss. The sky was pitch black without light—naturally, there were no stars. Volcanoes emitting billowing heat were the only source of light, giving the entire world a distinct red hue. The air was thick with the stench of sulfur intertwined with dark energy—a dark force that burned with a searing heat to incinerate all. It was different from the cold, sharp Nether Power Wei Huan cultivated; it wasn't comfortable, but it wouldn't suppress him either.
Upon the crisscrossing rivers of lava, many demons were leaping and walking. A single glance revealed no fewer than a hundred thousand, including many who appeared quite powerful. These strong demons were shrouded in black flames; some were humanoid, others bestial, but most had hideous, beast-like faces and a pair of black horns.
Wei Huan also noticed that the more magic patterns they had on their bodies, the more powerful their aura was. There were at least several hundred such Great Demons. However, compared to the army of nearly a hundred million seen in the video, this was far too few.
Wei Huan didn't know for a moment whether this was a good or bad thing. If there were fewer demons here, then the pressure on Mu Zhong's side would be immense. He hoped the traps Mu Zhong left behind could clear a wave of them. Furthermore, the defenders held a great advantage, and with their backs to the Boundary Gate, they could retreat at any time. Wei Huan wasn't overly worried.
Right now, he needed to focus on finding the enemy's "pain point" as quickly as possible—attacking until they were forced to change their plans and return to reinforce their home. That would not only relieve the crisis on Mu Zhong's end but also bring them closer to victory.
These thoughts seemed numerous, but they were merely a flash in Wei Huan's mind upon seeing this world. He was a veteran of a hundred battles; when it came to large-scale world wars, no human had more experience than he did.
Even as he thought, Wei Huan ordered Dot Mom to release her descendants. The "Dogs," "Grandsons," and "Great-Grandsons" flew out first. From beneath their abdominal cavities, more Burrow Beasts flew out rapidly, which in turn released the Facehuggers. Their numbers doubled terrifyingly; in an instant, the sky was filled with flying Facehuggers like a white ocean, surrounding the massive, world-towering Burrow Beasts as they crushed everything in their path.
On a battlefield of this scale, Dot Mom alone was sufficient to handle it.
Such a massive disturbance immediately alerted the demon army stationed here. The demons let out ear-piercing roars. Amidst the successive howls, the demon army actually gathered in an orderly fashion and charged toward the Burrow Beast horde. The two forces, black and white, collided with a crash, instantly entering a desperate life-and-death struggle.
Through this battle, Wei Huan gained a basic understanding of the strength of these garrisoned demons. They were roughly at the same level as those in the Beast World—average strength at Rank 5 or 6, with Rank 5 being the majority. They were no match for the Burrow Beast army.
However, there were several high-level demons among them whose strength was nearing Rank 7. Ordinary Burrow Beasts and Facehuggers were no match for them; they possessed tough skin, immense strength, and a fighting technique that was actually quite aesthetically pleasing. Their wildness reminded Wei Huan of Xu Qingqiang.
Xu Qingqiang relied on his powerful life-leeching ability to fight; gradually, he had developed his own "Way of Slaughter." Every gesture was filled with power; every throat-slit or heart-pluck was graceful. Not a single punch was wasted; naturally, every kick was fatal. This kind of combat technique derived from slaughter was "flesh-to-bone" and extremely formidable.
And these Great Demons actually felt similar. Wei Huan's Rank 6 Burrow Beasts and Facehuggers couldn't withstand a single hit from their slaughter techniques, shattering into bone fragments that scattered across the ground.
But while ordinary Rank 6 undead were no match for them, they were no match for the elite Queen-lineage. "Dog" simply led the grandsons and great-grandsons to toss out several green Death Casting Nets. The Great Demons, who were so graceful a moment ago, immediately became "meals on a plate," divided and devoured.
Among them, a Facehugger with a body as red as amber crawled back and forth in the large nets, its movements particularly striking. It could easily leave marks on the skin of the Great Demons that ordinary Facehuggers couldn't tear. It circled a Great Demon with a "chirping" sound, and demonic blood flowed all over the ground. The moment it left, the undead army swarmed up, tearing the Great Demons to shreds and wiping them out completely.
However, no true Rank 7 demons were seen. They had likely been taken to the main battlefield. Only a group of demons at Rank 6 Peak remained; since they hadn't reached Rank 7, they were no match for Wei Huan at all.
The Facehugger army was massive and powerful, originally capable of overwhelming this garrison on its own, not to mention the Nether Phoenix constantly circling in the extradimensional space, deploying its Nether Domain. There was also the Magic Eye with its nine muscular tails; within its line of sight, any enemy it gazed upon would suffer hallucinations. Sometimes, simply being a moment late in seeing an opponent's move was fatal.
With the assistance of the two Pseudo-God-level undead, it took the Facehugger army only ten minutes to occupy the area and kill all the demons. Not one was left.
The small vehicle slowly descended from the rift in the sky. By the time it actually landed on this soil, the demon army had been completely annihilated, leaving only countless corpses across the lava-covered ground.
Wei Huan stood on the vehicle's balcony, his gaze falling upon the body of the nearest Great Demon. He extended his arm and made a grasping motion. In the void, a phantom was snatched up by him, held loosely in his palm. The phantom crashed back and forth inside his hand, unable to escape. Wei Huan held it up and looked down.
Within the clump of black flame in his palm, the soul of a Great Demon—with a thick tail, a strong humanoid frame, but a face like a snarling beast—flew about like mist, baring its fangs and claws.
Wei Huan had a thought and tossed the soul of this Great Demon to a Shura Horse. Following Wei Huan's order, the Shura Horse devoured the soul to merge with it. In the next second, its aura intensified; in the blink of an eye, it evolved from an ordinary Shura Horse into an Epic-level undead.
Its aura grew stronger, but its appearance remained unchanged, though it looked sturdier and more majestic. Its dark skin looked as if it could drip oil. While dark energy circled its body, one could see flickering, faint streaks of light like black lightning.
This was the Power of Destruction. The Shura Horse's Power of Destruction had increased.
Destruction is a Law power. Shura Horses are born with an affinity for it, making them more aggressive in combat. Even defenses that other undead cannot break can be easily breached by a Shura Horse under the blessing of the Power of Destruction. However, Shura Horses were a low-level race back in the Dark Beast World, and after becoming undead, they lost what little intelligence they originally had. Therefore, since Wei Huan recruited them, their Power of Destruction could not improve through cultivation; it could only rise through each evolution.
Now, this Shura Horse had devoured a high-tier Rank 6 Great Demon. Not only did it raise its level to become an Epic Hero, but more importantly, its Law of Destruction had improved significantly, surpassing even the Shura Horse that had become Legendary after eating a Black Dragon's soul.
It made sense. Consuming beasts could strengthen the physical body, but consuming demons of the same dark energy naturally increased one's control over the Dark element. Different worlds bestow different directions for evolution; if everything were the same, there would be no point in the Heavenly Demon Race occupying them.
He wondered what the Heavenly Demon Race gained from these two worlds.
Wei Huan had originally intended to let the Shura Horse eat this soul and then send it back to the Great Tomb to be crushed to nourish the soil. But now, it seemed unnecessary. Since they could be upgraded directly, it was better to be faster. He needed higher combat power now; the enemy was a demon army of hundreds of millions—a hundred times the size of his own undead army. Human wave tactics were destined to fail, so he had to pursue a strategy of high-quality elite troops.
Wei Huan captured more souls to feed the Shura Horses but didn't stay long. Yake told him, "They've moved."
Wei Huan nodded. After feeding the last captured Great Demon to a Shura Horse, he commanded: "Depart!"
The vehicle flew in one direction. Dot Mom, left behind, rapidly shrunk into a tiny white jellyfish the size of a fist, floated onto the vehicle, and finally settled on Wei Huan's shoulder. Meanwhile, on Wei Huan's other shoulder, the Nether Phoenix had perched. The two Pseudo-God-level undead released a rich Nether Qi to help Wei Huan recover his Nether Power.
The others retreated far away, unable to bear it. Even the main combat team, who were with Wei Huan long-term, could not get close to him right now; not even Yake, the "Fallen Elf" who was also of the Dark element, could manage it.
However, Yake could at least stand on the balcony. His face was tight, his eyes a golden eagle-like hue, his gaze unfocused as he stared toward the unknown. He said, "One Great Demon is heading in one direction with twelve other demons."
"Follow them closely."
"Yes."
Green flames still flickered in Wei Huan's left eye. The Magic Eye Lord stayed on the roof of the vehicle; acting as his eyes, it could see much further. However, those demons were of a high level; they couldn't follow too closely, so the Magic Eye Lord was temporarily of little use.
The Ghost Crow army had already been sent out, but they were certainly inferior to Yake and his "Eagle Eye" ability when it came to gathering intelligence. The Ghost Crows lacked intelligence and were insufficient at analyzing data. In this strange world, every second counted; a single second's delay could result in infinite changes. One couldn't afford to wait for the Ghost Crows to fly back and forth.
For a long time, neither spoke. The vehicle simply trailed the thirteen demons they had deliberately let escape from a distance, waiting for them to lead the way to... anywhere. Whether it was the location of this world's Demon King or the other spatial rift opened by the three Heavenly Demons, anything was better than wandering blindly in an unfamiliar land.
However, after following for an hour, Wei Huan realized these thirteen demons were likely not heading to where the Heavenly Demons were, and he began to hesitate. The Heavenly Demons had taken the demon army to the Beast World; he didn't know if Mu Zhong could hold the line.
"Boss," Yake suddenly spoke, having realized the problem as well. "The Heavenly Demon Race was able to send an army of over a hundred million to another spatial rift in less than a day. That place shouldn't be too far. We aren't moving slowly, yet an hour has passed. I'm afraid we're heading somewhere else."
Wei Huan's lips tightened. After a few more seconds of thought, he said, "Continue following."
"What about Boss Mu?"
"If they don't go there, we won't find it anyway," Wei Huan said, his voice deep. "The Challenge World isn't that easy to enter."
Yake thought about it and agreed. "The Challenge World has Challenge Rules. If life from other worlds could enter and exit at will, the rules would be a joke. Powerful races like the Heavenly Demons probably aren't unique on the Thousand-Race Battlefield; otherwise, the battlefield would have had a result long ago. Since the Heavenly Demons clearly know where we come from but haven't entered our Challenge World to cause trouble, it means that no matter how strong they are, they simply cannot enter."
As Yake analyzed, he became more convinced: "Boss Mu and Commander Fang are at the garrison base guarding that spatial tunnel. They are in an invulnerable position."
Wei Huan didn't speak. This was something he had already considered; the reason he was still hesitating was naturally because concern breeds confusion. Steadying his mind, Wei Huan said, "Keep a close watch. If they split up, tell me."
"Yes."
---
A day passed in a flash.
The Demon World had no sunrise or sunset, but the vehicle kept its own time. The time system in this Demon World was the same as the Beast World—a 1:2 ratio compared to the Challenge World. At the same time, the world felt roughly the same size, like the flip side of the Beast World—one in the light, one in the dark; one above, one below. They were like twins, perhaps proving that light and dark coexist and time runs in parallel.
However, the Great Demon still hadn't reached its destination. From its initial frantic sprint to its current stop-and-go pace, Wei Huan was gradually becoming impatient.
Big Foot offered a suggestion: "Boss, do you want to try Soul Searching?"
Wei Huan looked at him with confusion. 'Soul searching?' He didn't know he had that ability.
Big Foot said, "Haven't all these ghosts and monsters appeared? In the novels and TV shows I used to watch, they'd kill someone and search their soul. They say the soul can't take it and will be obliterated, but won't you find out what you want to know instantly?"
Wei Huan remained silent because he didn't know how. On the path of the Nether, the further he walked, the more he realized there were many parts he hadn't mastered. He could neither recruit Heroic Spirits nor perform Soul Searching.
However, he wasn't in a hurry. Like a small tree growing, it is destined to sprout branches and leaves at a certain stage. This was a stage he had to go through to grow vigorously and eventually become a towering tree. So, after a few seconds of silence, he nodded. "We can try."
The thirteen demons ahead naturally couldn't be disturbed, so Wei Huan had the vehicle slow down. He found a demon nest, killed the strongest demon inside, and captured its soul. Just as he transformed his divine sense into a thread and pierced it into the demon's soul, the soul stiffened and trembled. It struggled in agony for a while, then suddenly expanded like a balloon and "popped."
Wei Huan was slightly stunned.
Big Foot said, "The first step is always the hardest. I'll go down and hunt some demons for you." Big Foot had the ability to teleport; he spotted a demon with a strong aura lurking in the mountains, teleported over, and killed it instantly. Three seconds later, he reappeared before the vehicle and presented the demon's warm corpse to Wei Huan.
Wei Huan raised his hand, capturing the demon's soul. After a few seconds of pondering, his divine sense turned into even finer threads and pierced into the soul's body. After another attempt, the soul still couldn't withstand his probing and exploded in his hand.
When he turned his attention back, Big Foot was already there with his Void Bug team, carrying three demon corpses. "Boss, you focus on your research; we'll handle the hunting."
Wei Huan captured the three demon souls and said, "Thank you."
Big Foot grinned. "Just give the order."
For a time, everyone in the vehicle had their own task. Yake tracked the thirteen demons, controlling the vehicle's speed to maintain the tail. Big Foot and his men hunted demons for Wei Huan to help him develop the Soul Searching method. The fact that Wei Huan hadn't used it before and the Challenge World hadn't taught it didn't mean he couldn't use it. Since he played with souls, if he could command them, he could explore them. Once he mastered Soul Searching, he would never fear the secrets of a strange world again. As for Brother Hammer, he remained perpetually by Wei Huan's side as the final line of defense, rarely moving and never slacking.
Everyone was busy, and though it was tiring, the time wasn't so hard to endure. Otherwise, an idle Wei Huan would constantly think of Mu Zhong, the other battlefield, and whether his choices were right or wrong. That would be a mistake; once a decision was made, it shouldn't be easily changed. He had led his army to this day based on a decisiveness others couldn't match; whether right or wrong, he wouldn't let himself regret it.
Even knowing Mu Zhong would be fine, he still worried incessantly. Unbeknownst to him, Mu Zhong had already integrated into his blood and marrow, impossible to strip away. Therefore, even knowing everything was okay, he still needed to get back as soon as possible; he could only be at ease once he saw Mu Zhong's safety with his own eyes.
He had to penetrate the mysteries of the soul and find where those memories resided as quickly as possible.
And so, Wei Huan devoted himself to his research. All twenty-three Void Bugs were out, tirelessly bringing him the corpses of freshly killed demons. From day to night, then night to day, the Void Bugs worked around the clock, their faces haggard and tired. Wei Huan also stood on the balcony for a day and a night. He wasn't exactly exhausted; if time weren't so urgent, the feeling of slowly immersing oneself in research and exploring secrets was quite good.
Wei Huan had initially been concerned about the situation on the other battlefield, but after becoming completely immersed, he forgot the passage of time. The feeling was like cultivation; sinking deep into it, he entered a certain state.
Upon reaching the pinnacle of this single-minded focus, the final "seed of enlightenment" buried deep in Wei Huan's soul suddenly burst open. Wei Huan felt his mind suddenly clear. The threads of divine sense, which had already been as fine as possible, suddenly blossomed like a flower, fluttering out divine sense countless times smaller than a nanometer.
This divine sense danced like willow catkins in the wind, slowly spreading out before piercing fiercely into the demon soul in his hand under his control. The demon's body instantly stiffened and trembled, its soul expanding just as before, seemingly about to explode.
But during this process, countless fragmented images appeared before Wei Huan's eyes like a revolving lantern.
It worked!
The demon soul ultimately couldn't withstand the agony of being stirred and peered into; it "popped," and the soul dissipated into smoke.
"Ugh!"
Wei Huan shook his head. Caught off guard, his own divine soul vibrated slightly, and his head throbbed.
"Boss?" Brother Hammer appeared, speaking with concern.
Wei Huan raised his hand to stop Brother Hammer from supporting him. Once he stabilized his soul, the headache quickly receded. As he stood firm again, his eyes sparkled with light: "Go and kill those thirteen demons. We don't need them anymore."
His Art of Soul Searching was newly formed. From now on, this world held no more secrets from him!