237: Chapter 237 Realm Growth, Demons, and Necromancers

"Rashly cultivating in correspondence with celestial bodies will, at best, make you a disciple of their lineage, and at worst, result in your fortune being seized by them, leaving your destiny beyond your own control—that is the truly tragic outcome."

"Our path of the Five Elements, however, has different understandings and trajectories across the many cultivation systems in the outside world, making it relatively safe to practice."

"Take the Bronze Human Race's path of Water and Fire that I have been observing these past few days; they mostly cultivate law imagery related to disasters. This differs greatly from the imagery we pursue, which aligns with human understanding."

"Beyond the Five Elements, the only methods that are truly good for cultivation are the four: Wind, Thunder, Yin, and Yang."

"It is just that Wind and Thunder are dangerous, while Yin and Yang are ethereal, making it difficult to seek relevant resources in a universe with such strict laws. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Having had the pros and cons explained to them, the three naturally understood his good intentions and nodded heavily.

After the master and his disciples talked in detail for a while, they went off to attend to their own affairs.

Wang An calmed his mind and used his Yin Spirit to roam the Netherworld Realm.

In an instant, he crossed 100,000 li underground, entering an afterlife world filled with Yin energy, flowing Yellow Springs, forests of Yin locust trees, and towering ghost cities.

As this Yin Spirit appeared in the Netherworld Realm, the status of the Lord of the Netherworld immediately manifested; imperial robes of heaven and earth draped over his body, and rings of divine law appeared behind his head, radiating light that could dissolve the world's suffering, sins, deliver all living beings, and facilitate reincarnation.

Below, in the City of Wrongful Deaths, Yin spirits whose lifespans had not yet ended saw this sacred scene and immediately knelt.

"Praise be to the Lord of the Netherworld, the Pardoning Earth Sovereign, the Heavenly Venerable of Reincarnation."

"Praise be to the Lord of the Netherworld, the Pardoning Earth Sovereign, the Heavenly Venerable of Reincarnation."

Wang An ignored the Yin spirits in the City of Wrongful Deaths and instead arrived at the central location of the Netherworld spring.

He had constructed a sacred heavenly palace here to enclose it, and in the very center of the spring, a purple lotus flower, exuding faint law imagery of the Netherworld, reincarnation, and rebirth, was blooming; its aura had surprisingly already reached the high-grade of the second rank.

With many disciples now accepting his [Netherworld Edict], they came here every month to clear out Yin spirits and send them to reincarnation.

This Netherworld Realm grew stronger day by day, and the second-rank mid-grade [netherworld reincarnation lotus], absorbing the wisdom of all living beings, naturally grew rapidly, reaching the high-grade stage in just over a decade.

The three related laws of the Netherworld, reincarnation, and rebirth had all achieved Dharma nature; it was indeed much faster than his own progress.

Of course, the cultivation of the [netherworld reincarnation lotus] was naturally his as well; they were originally two sides of the same entity.

Gazing at the lotus that had inherited one of his Yin Spirit thoughts, Wang An's Yin Spirit sighed softly.

"It is a pity that the divine abilities of 'Mediation of Creation' and 'Embryonic Transformation' are too distant and unreachable; otherwise, I could use this to open up a Netherworld Incarnation, which would be a mid-rank level 3 powerhouse the moment it was born."

Afterward, he communicated with his [Lord of the Netherworld] status and sank into the outer layers of this Netherworld world, the lower three layers: the Ice, Fire, and Thunder Hell.

Such a nascent Netherworld Realm was naturally lacking in origin and small in size, unable to fully evolve into the eighteen levels of hell from myths and legends.

Even this much had been evolved from Wang An killing three mid-rank Netherworld demons over the years.

Netherworld demons were aberrations born from thousands of evil Yin energies and thousands of sins.

As the saying goes, "When a human dies, they become a ghost; when a ghost dies, they become a 'Ni'; when a 'Ni' dies, they become a 'Xi'; when a 'Xi' dies, they become a 'Yi'."

And the true form of these Netherworld demons is the 'Ni'.

Such existences naturally do not exist in reality, and they are not even creatures of this physical universe.

After slaying them, Wang An also investigated their specific source, and upon finding it, he confirmed they came from the spatial rift through which that Star Beast had crossed.

Although this spatial rift had completely healed, in the deeper layers of space, a portion remained that allowed Yin-attributed creatures to pass through as tiny currents.

However, this is not the reason for their potential birth; the most likely reason is that the other side of the original space was covered by some terrifying, deep-layer spatial ruin that had surfaced.

Only in the ruins of a world that has experienced great disasters and calamities could such Netherworld demons be born.

Entering the first layer, the Ice Hell, he saw a creature a thousand meters tall, with a belly as large as a ball, no head, and a giant mouth growing on its belly; other than that, it had no facial features, and its intense desire to devour hit him in the face even from a distance.

However, in the Ice Hell, a weak wind containing cold Yin laws blew all year round, and everything with a spiritual soul that it passed over would be frozen.

This gluttonous demon was slowly seizing evil ghosts and fierce spirits that had been cast into this place, unable to dissolve their sins and obsessions, and swallowing them into its mountain-like mouth.

After devouring them, in a short while, small gluttonous demons about 3 meters tall would crawl out from the top of its head.

However, these demons did not exceed the mid-rank level and could not withstand the cold Yin law wind of this place, so they were immediately frozen and turned into powder.

It was indeed turning the evil ghosts with obsessions that even the Ice Hell could not wear down into physical demon entities, which then turned back into soil to nourish the Netherworld Realm.

He carefully sensed the sword intent he had injected into the core of the gluttonous demon, ensuring he could destroy it at any time, and then paid no more attention to it as it slowly crept toward him.

He continued to sink into the next layer, the Fire Hell, which was much livelier than the Ice Hell; thousands of small demons were fighting here, and as Wang An reduced the range where the Fire laws ravaged this place, in less than two hours, several low-rank level 3 bloodthirsty demons were spawned.

This time, Wang An, using his Lord of the Netherworld status, hid on the side to observe them slaughtering and devouring each other; then, after a day had passed, a prototype of a blood-thirst law was born, and in addition, this bloodthirsty demon had grown to the mid-rank.

"Roar!"

He saw this flesh giant, a thousand zhang tall, roaring crazily to the sky, releasing its desire for slaughter; just as it wanted to charge into the layer of hell above, endless Netherworld fire descended, scorching the flesh giant.

It didn't take long before it was refined into a fist-sized energy crystal, though the energy inside was chaotic, mixed with various desires and emotions.

Wang An appeared in the Fire Hell, gazed at this crystal prototype of the blood-thirst law, collected it into his Heavenly River divine ability to purify it, and then shook his head.

"Tasteless to eat, but a pity to discard."

Although this was a second-rank resource, its value was only slightly higher than a second-rank mid-grade [Dharma Essence Crystal].

It was basically impossible to exchange it for resources containing laws, and since he himself would not cultivate such laws, it had no use for him at the moment.

He continued to sink into the Thunder Hell.

The cracked, pitch-black earth here covered the entire world, dark clouds permanently shrouded the sky, and the area was much larger than the layers above.

"Crack!"

"Boom!"

Countless demons broke through the fragile defensive barriers of the outer layers and entered the Thunder Hell, where the dark clouds above constantly rained down different levels of lightning to slaughter the demons.

This hell was evolved from the principles of Thunder he had comprehended himself, combined with the origin of the Netherworld Realm.

After absorbing the essence of countless demons that had been killed and tempered by lightning, it had transformed into a ten-thousand-li Thunder Hell.

Wang An's Yin Spirit looked toward the distant outer perimeter of the realm, at the pitch-black hole from which demons constantly surged; sensing the densely packed, terrifying number of demons inside from afar, he also felt a headache.

At this moment, several faint law fluctuations came from that pitch-black rift.