Chapter 349: A Game of Chess
"Still so mysterious; he must be plotting something again." Having been old acquaintances for ten years, Chen Xi understood, more or less, that the task Bai Mo had given her, delivered in a tone as if he were leaving a last will, wouldn't be so simple.
She didn't believe Bai Mo would die so easily. Moreover, she happened to need to hand over these materials to secure the money she had amassed over the years. Therefore, both emotionally and logically, she ought to choose to complete this mission.
"What do you think he's doing?" Hua Qing, standing beside her, was utterly bewildered by this sudden turn of events.
"Who knows? All I know is that we should prepare to leave the Huaxia Federation." Chen Xi, sensing her patron was about to fall, stomped hard on the SUV's accelerator, driving towards Tianqing.
As for the ring-shaped tattoo on her hand, she speculated it might be some kind of protective measure for them. Of course, she couldn't help but maliciously wonder if there was a slight possibility it was something to monitor whether they completed the mission.
She could feel that this thing was still subtly changing her body, bit by bit. It was clearly not that simple.
"Abyssal Race? These are your chess pieces, or perhaps, your test subjects?" Gaia, suppressed on the ninth layer of the Nine Netherworlds, saw through the scheme easily as she observed the countless bizarre life forms, reshaped from the souls of the deceased, crawling out of the only river on the first layer.
Bai Mo utilized the remaining half-tube of abyssal bloodline, along with a portion of his own legacy, and combined it with the matter absorbed into the realm, to create bodies for the vast majority of wandering souls within the Nine Netherworlds who were still in a state of ignorance.
These bizarrely shaped creatures: some continuously struck the ground, some were wildly running everywhere, some even started fighting each other. They were desperately venting an uncomfortable power within their bodies.
Such a process was undoubtedly long and painful. The vast majority of souls with insufficient willpower would eventually fall into madness, even if they were already in a state of semi-awareness.
"Such a group of lunatics, aside from their vast numbers, are completely useless. They are simply not on the same level as the Blaze Mist Warriors you command. However, for a race without ancestral heritage to have reached this stage in ten years and to have nurtured this monster can be considered a miracle."
Gaia, who had witnessed almost the entire process of Bai Mo plundering the intellectual fruits of all sentient beings over the past decade, was commenting on the situation of the Nine Netherworlds' first layer to the Crimson Realm Denizen beside her.
The three of them were unable to overcome each other, so they simply used the entire Nine Netherworlds as a chessboard, each placing their pieces and playing a grand game. Gaia and the other wanted to eventually usurp the nest, take this sealed world for themselves, and break free from Bai Mo's seal.
Meanwhile, Bai Mo, deep in slumber, sought to use the power of all living beings within the Nine Netherworlds to explore the possibility of refining these two great enemies to death. He firmly believed that since someone from the Tianxuan Continent could beat these two fellows like dead dogs, he might also find such a method.
The Blaze Mist Warriors under the Crimson Realm Denizen's command were composed of the people it and Gaia had absorbed into the light pillar at the last moment, as well as former members of the Red Radiance organization. They would serve as its elite troops and begin their gaming journey in this world.
As for Gaia, it arranged for its destined protagonist to develop freely outside the Nine Netherworlds, intending to create an inside-outside dynamic with the Crimson Realm Denizen, complementing each other.
An ability named "Halo" was implanted by Gaia at the last moment into Bei Di'en, who was still on the Moon. This thing, devoid of any offensive power and possessing only a series of auxiliary effects, was its sole mark left in the outside world.
Fearing that any power left outside might breed independent personalities, they withdrew almost all of their power, save for the portions required for their strategic deployment.
"The participants in this game are not just the three of us," the Crimson Realm Denizen said coldly.
Their gaze crossed the dozen or so passages connecting the Nine Netherworlds to the Holy Light Divine Kingdom. They saw that nearly boundless mass of light clumsily shaping angels batch after batch, while every now and then, several crooked, half-finished products would suddenly collapse and vanish.
Before disappearing, Bai Mo transmitted a small amount of information towards that ocean of Holy Light, causing this conceptual god, which previously only possessed instincts, to exhibit certain behaviors beyond its instincts, adding another variable to this game.
"Do you know where this is?" Feng Buhui, feeling himself suddenly much stronger, patted Zhang Hao's shoulder.
"No idea. Everyone else is fine, but Chairman Chen alone has disappeared." These people, who were mostly leading mass movements across the country, suddenly their vision went black, and when they awoke, they had already arrived in this bizarre place.
The Nine Netherworlds, completely enveloped by red and purple light, made it very difficult for ordinary people to discern others' faces, but these Blaze Mist Warriors, further enhanced by the Crimson Realm Denizen, evidently didn't need to worry about such minor issues.
After special modifications, their eyes could see especially clearly through the red and purple light.
"Perhaps what we should first worry about is the problem of survival. There are enemies more than twenty times our number surrounding this area."
Zhang Hao, who had the strongest life-sensing ability present, signaled to everyone to prepare for battle, because he had already detected a horde of chaotic, even insane, creatures surging towards their gathering point.
"Let them taste the punitive power of the Red Radiance!" Although they were vastly outnumbered, no one retreated. As idealists, they valued things beyond life and death.
"Ahhhhh!" A brawny man, feeling the surge of power within him, couldn't help but shout out. A fiery red light instantly enveloped his entire body like a misty armor.
Similar fire-mist armors also appeared on everyone around them. A group of fully armed warriors charged towards the enemy with a do-or-die determination to break through.
A slaughter.
The group of Blaze Mist Warriors, poised for battle, effortlessly cut down these monsters, who had strong self-destructive tendencies and sometimes even bit off pieces of their own flesh, with effortless ease.
The surprising ease of the battle exceeded their expectations. They had originally believed that, facing enemies more than twenty times their number, it would be a victory if anyone managed to escape alive, but the result was that not a single person was harmed, and they broke through the encirclement.
"Something is very wrong with these things."
"Their minds are completely chaotic. During battle, they might strike us, but it's more likely they'll hack at their companions, or even their own bodies."
"When I was cutting through their bodies, I seemed to see a look of relief in these monsters' eyes," a Blaze Mist Warrior, who had once been a monk, interjected.
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