Novels online

Chapter 342: The Nine Netherworlds

Thirteen colossal pillars of light had emerged across the globe. These giant beams, piercing the heavens and penetrating the earth, stretched high into the sky, serving as the power sources for the new world's manifestation from the illusory into reality.

An astonishing quantity of spirit materials and spirit stones, amassed in the warehouses near each of his avatars, were burning furiously, sustaining the immense consumption required for the new world's opening.

Bai Mo had paid a colossal price to outmaneuver these two entities, who were a full realm higher than himself.

At the Tianqing experimental site, after he detonated the colossal Soul Crystal, nearly a hundred million remnant souls instinctively began pouring into the new world, a realm where illusion and reality intertwined. Remaining on Earth, their fragile souls would soon vanish into ash under the sunlight.

Thus, these human souls, who had perished ten years prior, became the first inhabitants of the Nine Netherworlds, even though most had lost their sanity, retaining only a sliver of instinct.

"Welcome to my Nine Netherworlds." A portion of the consciousnesses of the Red World's Disciple and Gaia, having been drawn into this ethereal new world, sensed Bai Mo's nearly ubiquitous presence within it.

The entire world was barren. Aside from the half-illusory, half-real surface and countless aimlessly wandering spectral souls, they found nothing else; everywhere was monotonously desolate.

Only a dim light illuminated the sky, keeping time perpetually in a state of twilight.

However, there was little time for thought. They were immediately pulled deeper by an irresistible force originating from the deepest reaches of the Nine Netherworlds.

This power was utterly indefensible for them, especially for Gaia, who possessed the realm but lacked the strength to match, retaining less than one percent of its power; it was directly pulled away. The Red World's Disciple, having recovered a significant portion of its strength, was also slowly drawn closer to the gravitational source under Bai Mo's pressure.

Passing through layer after layer of boundaries, the world grew increasingly bizarre and fantastical. By the sixth layer, even the illusory ground had completely vanished, leaving only an empty world, interspersed with occasional energy flows, and, of course, a strong spectral soul or two passing by from time to time.

Of course, this so-called "strength," in Gaia's view, was merely that of a slightly larger ant, not worth much attention.

They were either ability users in their former lives or ordinary people with exceptionally strong wills, enabling them to persevere until now, retaining a portion of their self-awareness and willingly venturing into the deeper parts of the Nine Netherworlds.

Outside the new world's portal in Tianqing, Bai Mo's main body was reduced to an extremely faint phantom, his features quite indistinct. Yet, the Red World's Disciple's remaining consciousness outside could still sense the faint smile on his face, as if it wasn't he who was vanishing.

"It's useless. You can't pull all the thought duplicates we've hidden in everyone's hearts into this illusory world," Gaia's mental state reversed.

"Is that so?" Bai Mo didn't retort, merely continuing his work in silence.

"What's going on! I feel like something is trying to come out of my body!"

"Are you kidding? There aren't any xenomorphs in this world, are there..."

"I'm not kidding, I feel something too."

...

It started with the people around the pillars of light; they felt an abnormality in their bodies, but couldn't pinpoint the problem. As time ticked by, more and more people experienced this peculiar sensation, spreading outwards from the pillars of light.

"Ah! It's coming out!" A meaningless shout instantly drew the attention of those nearby.

However, to the onlookers, nothing happened to the person shouting; it seemed more like they were seeking attention. But the person who made the sound truly felt that something had detached from their body.

In a flash, the Red World's Disciple and Gaia were brought to the ninth layer, a pure white world illuminated by ubiquitous white light. They finally saw the source of the attraction—a singularity of light already connected to the Nine Netherworlds by countless light rays.

"Is that you?" Gaia asked.

"Stay here." Such a voice echoed throughout the entire world.

"Impossible!" both exclaimed in unison.

However, they soon discovered that transmitting information from the ninth layer outwards was becoming increasingly difficult.

"How could you have learned information-blocking barriers in such a short time!"

"And there's not just one layer, there are nine layers of barriers generating." The two informational lifeforms, with parts of their consciousness scattered across various layers, quickly realized this fact.

Even if the outer eight layers weren't as strong as this ninth layer, their cumulative effect meant that the information they could transmit was rapidly diminishing.

Not only that, Gaia also discovered that its control over its informational bodies remaining in other layers was weakening, a phenomenon previously unimaginable!

"How long will it take for a new will to emerge in the informational bodies isolated outside?" Bai Mo knew he didn't yet possess the ability to kill these two monsters, so he sought to isolate a part of their bodies to cultivate a new personality, allowing different wills to tear each other apart for control.

He subverted the method of the Hua Gai Soul-Splitting Sutra, attempting to make them split into more personalities, while he covertly supported these personalities, trying to find a way to kill informational lifeforms.

"If he can bring us to this core, he must be confident enough that we won't destroy it..." Gaia continuously pondered countermeasures.

"Yes, this is my Nine Netherworlds." Bai Mo's voice sounded at the opportune moment.

Utilizing the irresistible attractive force generated by the spatial expansion when the Void Profound Crystal unfolded into the new world, he had "captured" the two of them into the Nine Netherworlds.

In his own home ground, he could do so much more. This half-illusory, half-real world, much like Ramdo's divine kingdom, could provide immense amplification.

Even if he still couldn't kill them, he could certainly suppress them, preventing them from projecting information into the current world to cause trouble. Bai Mo could even foster their puppet personalities, thereby continuously challenging their main bodies and weakening them repeatedly.

"No!!!" Gaia could faintly feel that Bai Mo was, in turn, using its main body as the source of attraction, one by one extracting the information it had latent in the genes of all life, attempting to erase all its influence.

"Since you want to use this world as a tomb to confine us, then we'll drag all living beings down with us!" Realizing that the trend of their sealing could not be reversed, they came up with an even crazier countermeasure.

A desolate world devoid of life was unbearable for informational lifeforms like them. Conversely, as long as there was a sufficient number of lives, it didn't really matter which world they were in. What was the difference between filling the Nine Netherworlds with life and being on Earth?

Bai Mo no longer bothered with them. The layers of information-blocking barriers had already determined their inescapable fate. As for how many lives would perish during the sealing process, that was not within his considerations.