117: Chapter 117 The Nationwide Hunt and the Interdimensional License

That old whisper from the depths of the soul, filled with greed and hunger, was like a ladle of cold water splashed into a boiling oil pan, instantly detonating the surging undercurrents of the entire Netherworld!

Almost at the same moment Lin Chen felt that whisper—

“Woo—woo—woo—!”

Bursts of urgent, sharp horn blasts, seemingly compressed from the wails of countless souls, echoed from all directions of the Barren Bone Plain, and even from more distant and deeper regions of the Netherworld, forming a heart-palpitating resonance!

Simultaneously, on Lin Chen's system map, all the light dots representing the “Thousand Faces” foul bloodline flared with blinding red light, like sparks doused in gasoline, and began to frantically move and converge toward the Barren Bone Plain—the location where Lin Chen and his team were—at an unprecedented speed!

“Boss! Something's not right!” Zhang Hao was the first to cry out in alarm; his Mind Reading had captured the surging, chaotic malice approaching like a tsunami from the far distance. “So many! So many thoughts filled with killing intent are coming for us! From every direction!”

Su Qingyu and Little Red Clothes also instantly entered a combat state. The Yin Soldier Legion automatically contracted, forming a defensive circular formation, while the engineering golems let out low rumbles as their muzzles turned outward.

Without needing Zhang Hao's reminder, Lin Chen had already seen the terrifying sight through the map—red dots representing enemies were pouring out from every corner of the Netherworld, like an ant colony under absolute orders, forming several massive red torrents that tore through the gray nether mist and converged on the temple stronghold they had just destroyed! This scale was hundreds or even thousands of times larger than the sub-altar they had taken down before!

“It seems we've poked a hornet's nest—no, we've poked the Palace of Yama.” Lin Chen sneered. Instead of fear, his face held a sort of “as expected” excitement. “That so-called ‘God’ who hides his head and shows his tail has issued a global manhunt.”

“A... a global manhunt?!” Zhang Hao's ghostly face turned even paler (though he was already white). “Boss, with this kind of momentum... should we strategically... avoid their sharp edge first?”

“Avoid?” Lin Chen glanced at him, his eyes looking as if he were staring at an idiot. “Why avoid? High-level nether talismans and labor delivered right to our door—it would be a waste not to take them.”

Just as he finished speaking, the first wave of enemies appeared on the horizon like a black tide!

They were no longer just black-robed cultists, but a mixture of various native Netherworld Bizarre Monsters bewitched and controlled by the Thousand Faces Cult—roaring Skeletal Behemoths, drifting wraith clusters, twisted Stitch-monsters... Their numbers were so vast they covered the sky, and the yin winds and resentment they stirred up almost dyed the sky ink-black!

“For our God!”

“Sacrifice the bloodline!”

“Kill—!”

Frantic shouts and eerie roars mixed together, forming a wave of sound like mental pollution that hammered at everyone's eardrums and souls.

“Nether Talisman Turrets, saturation coverage strike! Coordinates, three kilometers ahead, fan-shaped area!” Standing in the center of the formation, Lin Chen was as calm as if he were playing a strategy game, directly issuing commands to the engineering golems.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!

Dozens of Nether Talisman Turrets roared simultaneously, consuming massive amounts of nether talismans to condense destructive energy beams. Like the whips of divine punishment, they lashed violently into the densest part of the surging enemy tide!

In an instant, flesh and blood flew, and soul bodies shattered! A large swath of the enemies in the front was cleared instantly, with severed limbs and soul fragments falling like a rainstorm!

However, the enemies behind seemed to have no fear at all, treading over the “corpses” of their companions as they surged forward even more frantically! Their eyes were blood-red, completely fallen into a state of fanaticism; they even began to devour and fuse with each other, turning into larger, more deformed monsters that continued to charge through the artillery fire!

“Yin Soldier Legion, Arrowhead Formation! Strike that group of Stitch-monsters on the right wing trying to flank us!” Lin Chen ordered again.

“Kill!” Fifty thousand Yin Soldiers, led by their Myriad Commander, crashed boldly into the enemy crowd like black arrows. Blades flashed, soul fires splattered, and the enemies were instantly sliced apart and submerged!

Su Qingyu floated in mid-air, her hands waving as she scattered purification-type nether talismans like raindrops. They specifically countered the wraiths and mental pollution entities, leaving wails in their wake. Little Red Clothes and her stitch-monster doll moved like ghosts along the battlefield's edge, efficiently and cruelly hunting down stragglers or those who looked like leaders.

Zhang Hao wasn't idle either. Using his wall-walking and Mind Reading, he appeared and disappeared unpredictably on the battlefield—sometimes stabbing a sub-leader in the back, sometimes shouting at a cultist mid-spell, “The god you believe in is an eyesore!” accurately disrupting their mindset and causing magical backlash with excellent results.

The battle reached a fever pitch from the very beginning!

On Lin Chen's side, relying on superior equipment, strong individual power, and Lin Chen's precise command, they temporarily held back the tsunami-like attack and could even push back. But the number of enemies was simply too great and seemingly infinite; as soon as one batch was killed, two or three more immediately replenished them! They were like puppets controlled by some higher will, disregarding casualties just to exhaust and overwhelm them!

“Boss, we can't go on like this! The nether talismans are being consumed too fast! We can't finish killing these ghost things!” Zhang Hao shouted anxiously while dodging a blast of corrosive energy. He had read the chaotic thoughts of some enemies; they had only one command—exhaust the “bloodline carrier's” strength at all costs, then capture him alive or... decompose him on the spot!

Lin Chen had also noticed this problem. Although his reserve of nether talismans was massive, it couldn't withstand this kind of bottomless war of attrition. Moreover, he could feel several more powerful auras, already at the Ghost General level, rapidly approaching from different directions! These were true high-level cadres, incomparable to the previous sub-altar master.

“It seems that just fighting head-on is a bit of a losing business.” Lin Chen's eyes flickered. While casually pointing out a nether talisman beam to blast a Skeletal Dragon trying to break the defensive line into pieces, he rapidly thought of a countermeasure.

Fighting a war of attrition was exactly what the opponent wanted.

He had to break the deadlock!

His gaze turned to the system interface again, landing on the newly unlocked Investment Promotion function, and a bold idea instantly formed.

“Playing human sea tactics with me?” The corners of Lin Chen's mouth curled into a cold, extremely mocking arc. “I'll give you a ‘borrowing a knife to kill’—no, ‘inter-planar law enforcement’!”

Ignoring the earth-shaking battle cries and the constant energy rumbles outside, he quickly operated the system and directly clicked on a hidden sub-item under Investment Promotion—Inter-planar Emergency Response and Temporary Employment Service.

An interface popped up, listing various strange service providers from different planes:

【Mount Celestia · Holy Light Purification Squad】: Specially handles undead, resentment, and evil faith pollution. Fee: Calculated by purification area and evil concentration, 50% advance payment.

【Mechanus · Logic Arbitrators】: Skilled in breaking mental control, thought confusion, and rule distortion. Fee: Calculated by complexity and time spent.

【Elemental Planes · Ruinous Storm Summoning】: Provides large-scale, indiscriminate elemental destruction services. Warning: May cause uncontrollable secondary disasters. Fee: Calculated by storm level and coverage area.

...

Lin Chen's gaze swept quickly, finally stopping on a service that seemed to have the best value for money and most met the current “clearing the field” needs:

【Abyss (17th Layer) · Dretch Cleaning Company】: Provides efficient, cheap, and sustainable large-scale low-level demon mercenary services. Characteristics: Vast numbers, fearless of death, voracious appetite, partially recyclable. Expertise: Clearing fodder, wars of attrition, creating chaos. Fee: 1,000,000 nether talismans per 100,000 Imp per hour. Minimum hire: 500,000 units. Note: The employer must bear any collateral damage and subsequent banishment costs.

“That's the one!” Lin Chen's eyes lit up. Using demons to deal with these brainwashed lunatics and Bizarre Monsters was a perfect professional match! Plus, the price was reasonable and the quantity was sufficient!

Without hesitation, he placed the order!

【Ding! You have ordered the [Abyss (17th Layer) · Dretch Cleaning Company] service. Quantity: 500,000 Imp. Duration: 1 hour. nether talismans consumed: 5,000,000. Establishing temporary planar portal... Please ensure the receiving area has sufficient “food”...】

Following the system notification, the void in front of Lin Chen was suddenly torn open, revealing a massive scarlet portal with sulfur and magma flowing along its edges! A scorching, chaotic aura filled with the desire for destruction instantly surged out, creating an extreme contrast with the cold silence of the Netherworld!

“Roar—!!!”

In the next second, like a bursting dam, countless low-level Imp with dark red skin, horns on their heads, holding crude, rusty weapons and dripping with saliva, let out deafening roars. Like a red tide of death, they swarmed out of the portal!

They didn't need any instructions at all; their blood-red eyes instantly locked onto the dense Thousand Faces Cult army and Netherworld Bizarre Monsters ahead, which emitted a “delicious” soul aura!

“Food!!”

“Kill! Eat!!”

“For... for Chaos!!”

Five hundred thousand Imp formed a violent red steel torrent, crashing brutally into the flank of the Thousand Faces Cult army in the most savage and primitive manner!

In an instant, the situation on the battlefield changed abruptly!

The enemies who were originally besieging Lin Chen's group were suddenly cut in half by this sudden, even more frantic, and hungrier fresh force! The roars of demons, the shrieks of Bizarre Monsters, the screams of cultists, and the clashing of weapons... all kinds of sounds mixed together as the scene spiraled completely out of control, turning into a bloody three-way melee in a meat grinder!

The Thousand Faces Cult's offensive was instantly disrupted; they were forced to divert a large portion of their forces to deal with this group of demons who were completely unreasonable and ate whatever they saw!

The pressure on Lin Chen's side was suddenly lightened.

Zhang Hao watched with a stunned expression, his jaw nearly hitting the ground. “Bo... Boss... you... you summoned... a pack of demons?! And it's a paid service?!”

Su Qingyu was also bewildered, clearly not expecting Lin Chen to break the deadlock in such a way.

“Business cooperation, mutual benefit.” Lin Chen clapped his hands as if he had done something trivial. “They get food and commissions, we get peace and victory. It's a win-win.”

He looked at the extremely chaotic battlefield ahead, where the Imp were frantically tearing at the enemies, and several powerful Ghost General auras were temporarily blocked by this demonic torrent. He nodded in satisfaction.

“Alright, the small fry are being handled.” Lin Chen's gaze crossed the chaotic battlefield and turned once more to the coordinate on the system map representing the special homologous signal located in an unknown chaotic region.

“Now, it's time to go meet that... ‘old friend’ who sent me the ‘signal’.”

(Hook: Lin Chen leads his core team, quietly slipping away from the main battlefield and sneaking toward the direction of that ancient signal. Behind them, the war between demons and cultists turns the entire Barren Bone Plain into a true living hell.)