189: We asked you to defend against the Underworld, and you come here to become its king?

"What about these Nether Kings?"

Xia Yuan asked.

You crushing thousands of Commander-rank Nether Beasts is one thing, but what's the deal with so many Nether Kings?

"Well, this involves my secret. I can only say that I won't do anything to harm Xuanwu City. On the contrary, this entire area is under my control. Not only will it not attack Xuanwu City, but it will serve as my base of operations to counterattack the Netherworld!"

"Holy crap..."

Hearing Lin Chuan's grand pronouncements, Xia Yuan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

"You brat, they told you to defend against the Netherworld, and you ran over here to become the King of the Netherworld? I'm really looking forward to seeing that day, damn it!"

Xia Yuan laughed and cursed. If that day really came, dying would be worth it.

"King of the Netherworld?"

Lin Chuan gave a wry smile. Then he asked:

"Uncle Xia, do you know how many Temples there are in the Netherworld? How many King-level Nether Beasts and Nether Spirits are there?"

"One or two hundred? As for the number of Nether Kings, maybe over a thousand?"

Xia Yuan guessed.

He stated a number that he thought was astronomically high.

"Heh heh..."

Lin Chuan chuckled, then said: "The number of Temples, conservatively estimated, is no less than three thousand; the number of Nether Kings is at least tens of thousands."

"Are... are you kidding me?" Xia Yuan looked horrified, unable to believe it.

"I'm not kidding. I have fully controlled this Nether God Temple, and through it, I can sense the number of Temples throughout the entire Netherworld.

Our side is still considered the Elementary region. Venerable Xia's side belongs to the Intermediate region, where the number of Nether Kings should exceed ten. As for the deeper areas, there might be even Advanced regions."

Xia Yuan: ... Following this, there was silence.

A few minutes later, Xia Yuan stood up, looked at Lin Chuan, and said seriously: "What do you plan to do?"

"Uncle Xia, what I'm doing, you've seen it all: silently accumulating strength and constantly encroaching upon the Netherworld's territory. At the very least, I want to first eliminate the threat of the Netherworld here at Xuanwu City."

Lin Chuan spoke truthfully.

"With that promise, Uncle Xia is relieved. If there's anything I can do, just say the word. After I go back, I really need to enter secluded cultivation. I can't even compare to your subordinates; I'm truly useless."

Xia Yuan exclaimed.

"Uncle Xia, if you don't advance to the King Rank soon, forget my subordinates—you won't even be able to defeat me."

Lin Chuan continued to twist the knife.

Xia Yuan: ... "Uncle Xia, I actually have something I need your help with," Lin Chuan said after thinking for a moment.

"What is it?"

"I want you to take me to see Venerable Xia."

"He is currently fighting a group of Nether Kings. Why go there? The war is intense right now."

"I know, that's why I want to go," Lin Chuan said.

"Are you saying...?" Xia Yuan almost forgot about the force Lin Chuan had under his command.

"Yes. If we can completely resolve the threat on Venerable Xia's side, the overall strength of Xuanwu City will definitely increase significantly."

Lin Chuan nodded and said.

Furthermore, Lin Chuan urgently needed to improve his mobility. Going through the Academy Secret Realm and then spatial Transmigration every time was too slow.

The entrances to the Netherworld in the various regions of Xuanwu City are different, all passing through Secret Realms, like spatial wormholes, which are many times faster.

The Mid-level Temple Nether King of the You Clan wanted to deal with Lin Chuan, and Lin Chuan coincidentally wanted to raid his old lair.

With Xia Jing's help, it would definitely yield twice the result with half the effort.

However, whether it succeeded or not depended on Xia Jing's reaction.

To be safe, sending a Clone would suffice... Without dwelling on it for too long, Xia Yuan agreed to Lin Chuan's request.

However, halfway there, Xia Yuan kept reminding Lin Chuan: Maybe don't expose yourself yet.

After all, he couldn't gauge his grandfather's thoughts.

Maybe, if they disagreed, he would directly treat Lin Chuan as a Nether Spirit and execute him... The Xia family, generation after generation, had almost the entire clan resisting the Netherworld. Now, suddenly telling him that he could join forces with Nether Spirits to fight other Nether Spirits? Who knows what might happen.

"Uncle Xia, it's fine. I believe Venerable Xia will make the right choice."

Lin Chuan said with a smile.

Tens of thousands of Yu Ming Army soldiers were dying every moment by the mouths of Nether Beasts, and Lin Chuan didn't believe Xia Jing would remain indifferent.

Furthermore, if things went wrong, this was only a Clone.

It was just that he might not be able to stay in the Academy afterward.

Led by Xia Yuan, and passing through checkpoint after checkpoint, Lin Chuan finally entered the Netherworld Secret Realm where Xia Yuan was located.

An ordinary person, let alone breaking in, couldn't even find this place.

This Secret Realm was much larger than the Academy Secret Realm. Looking out, it was almost entirely military camps, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The fighting seemed to have temporarily ceased. Everywhere there were wounded soldiers resting.

The visible wounded still retained a certain degree of combat power, at least. As for those who were not visible, they were either severely injured and hospitalized, or all their contracted beasts had died in battle, leaving them completely crippled, worse off than ordinary people.

When Xia Yuan brought Lin Chuan over, Xia Jing was in the main camp, eating hotpot and drinking wine. He seemed to be in good spirits.

"Marshal."

"Venerable Xia."

"Come over, want to eat something with me?"

Xia Jing greeted them.

Xia Yuan and Lin Chuan immediately sat down.

"I heard that things are quite lively on your side too, with Nether Kings advancing one after another. Is that true?"

Xia Jing asked.

"Uh, yes, there is."

Xia Yuan glanced at Lin Chuan, then nodded.

"So, you've come for reinforcements? I asked the Dean, and he said he could handle it."

Xia Jing asked doubtfully.

Xia Yuan: He can handle my ass. It's more like he's barely holding on with his life... But thinking about it now, it seems there really isn't much danger; the Dean really can handle it.

"We didn't come for reinforcements. Lin Chuan has something he needs to discuss with you." Xia Yuan didn't know where to start, so he decided to let Lin Chuan speak for himself.

Reinforcements? It's more like they came to offer aid!

"Oh, what do you need, kid?"

Xia Jing asked with a smile. He still thought highly of Lin Chuan.

"Venerable Xia, do you still have any king-rank soul pearls here? I'm here to exchange my military merit."

Lin Chuan said with a smile.

Xia Yuan: ???

How is this different from what we discussed? Did he change his mind?

"Just this? king-rank soul pearls? We have plenty."

As he spoke, he directly pulled out a handful, estimated to be five or six pearls.

"What, you've accumulated two hundred thousand military merit again so quickly? Haha..."

Xia Jing laughed strangely.

To be honest, two hundred thousand military merit was quite a greedy amount. Killing a single King-level Nether Beast in battle only counted as one hundred thousand military merit.

Lin Chuan wasn't sure exactly how much military merit he had. Anyway, he always had Nether One carry his identification plate during large-scale hunts or when killing King-level Nether Beasts, and he had only recently retrieved it.

"Bring the identification plate, let this old man take a look."

As he spoke, he casually took out an instrument.

"military merit: One million one hundred seventy-nine thousand five hundred forty-one."

"Pfft..."

Xia Jing immediately spat out a mouthful of wine.

Disbelieving, he took out his own identification plate.

"military merit: Eight hundred seventy thousand..."

He quickly put it away.

There was no need to continue reading the rest.

Of course, these eight hundred thousand-plus points were almost entirely earned from slaying King-level Nether Beasts over the years.

"Kid, are you sure you didn't come here to exchange for the position of Marshal?"