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Chapter 769: Gate of the Nine Netherworlds

Hearing such words, although everyone harbored a hatred as deep as the sea for the denizens of the Red World, who had once wreaked havoc on Earth, they couldn't help but feel a certain empathy for their kind.

Anyone who learned that the world they inhabited was merely a breeding ground for some higher-dimensional entity, and that all their efforts were simply to make themselves more delicious, would hardly feel good about it.

From this perspective, Bai Mo's image became considerably more noble. At the very least, he still offered everyone a choice, rather than letting them remain oblivious until their dying breath.

"Transmigrating is indeed much easier now," Ji Er Ke Fu remarked.

"Counting from the First Year of the Daoyuan Era, the Land of White has sent back one thousand three hundred and fifty-six unintentionally arrived transmigrators to you, and an additional ninety-seven individuals chose to remain on my side."

"There were actually ninety-seven people?" someone nearly blurted out, scoffing.

But upon further thought, they felt a sense of clarity. If the world the transmigrator's former self came from was a living hell, and they had nothing to their name, then choosing to remain in the Land of White was not an unreliable option.

After all, while the Federation offered freedom, it was the freedom for the strong to do as they pleased, and the freedom for the weak to be left to their own devices.

......

Bai Mo informed everyone in the Federation about his agreement with the Zerg Mother, leaving it to each of them to decide whether or not to get involved in this war.

"No, those are two different worlds."

"Why would you believe her?"

"It's merely a past projection; is anyone among you truly able to bring their main body there?"

"......"

"What's more, my main body must remain on the Sun, and with her power, summoning my main body from such a vast distance would be a fantastical notion."

Based on his memories from that time, Bai Mo could roughly deduce that the Zerg Mother's stage should be eighth-stage. Of course, he didn't rule out the possibility that, by some stroke of luck, she might advance to the ninth-stage within the next hundred to eighty years.

However, he believed this would be extremely difficult, because even he, being frantically empowered by the force of Daoization, estimated he would need at least another one to two hundred years to advance to the ninth-stage True Sun Star Lord level.

Whether it was the deep-level transformation of the Sun or the accumulation of his own power, both required immense amounts of time.

Back then, Bai Mo had spent a full decade transforming Earth; now, facing a Sun tens of thousands of times larger than Earth, even if he was far stronger than before, the time required would be even more immense.

"So his main body can only remain on the Sun..." Bai Mo's unintentional remark instantly put many people's minds at ease.

However, whether this "unintentional" remark was truly unintentional, or merely half-intentional, only Bai Mo himself knew.

Regarding this summons from the Zerg Mother, many of the True Immortals in the Federation were still quite tempted.

Not for any other reason, but simply having the opportunity to exchange insights with powerful individuals of the same stage from other civilizations was already well worth the price. Even if their avatars could never return, it would still be an extremely worthwhile endeavor. Those at the forefront lacked not resources, but the knowledge of what truly constituted a resource.

A single conversation with a peer, a clash of a few ideas, could perhaps allow them to avoid decades of detours. Relying solely on the path provided by Bai Mo alone was far too insecure; it was nothing new for pioneers to dig pits for those who followed. Morality alone held no binding power.

Who could guarantee that the pioneer was a good person, and would remain a good person? For someone like Bai Mo, who had a known history, this was even more true. The controversy sparked by his invention of the Xuanhuang Fruit had not completely subsided even today.

There were still those who believed that the emergence of the Xuanhuang Fruit was setting a trap for future generations, preventing them from cultivating more powerful Spirit Hub combination Spirit Pictures, forcing them to settle for cultivating a single spirit organ instead.

Yet, over the past century, countless hundreds of millions had gained the opportunity to embark on the path of cultivation precisely because of the Xuanhuang Fruit's advent. This alone was a deed of boundless merit.

If not for the Xuanhuang Fruit, the Federation's current three hundred billion cultivators would likely be tens of billions fewer. Compared to all other similar products, the Xuanhuang Fruit remained the most affordable and cost-effective. Although its side effects were quite strong, affordability was the undeniable truth.

Other superior spiritual materials that could open the path of cultivation for mortals would cost at least three to five million Federation credits. At the Federation's current wage levels, one would truly have to work a lifetime to save enough money to buy a single portion.

And even if one genuinely had those three to five million, it would be better to buy seven or eight Xuanhuang Fruits and cultivate immortality with the entire family, young and old. For the majority who couldn't let go of worldly ties, watching their family members grow old and die while they alone pursued immortality would be an incredibly difficult thing to bear.

What's more, in these years, there had been far too many cases of families breaking apart due to the issue of distributing cultivation spiritual materials. If a family of four—parents and two children—had just enough savings to buy one Xuanhuang Fruit, then no matter who received it, it would inevitably lead to tragedy.

Who wouldn't desire immortality?

But what if the price of immortality was to strip one's closest relatives of the chance to pursue it?

Of course, none of this concerned the lofty True Immortals; they could casually fight a battle and burn through tens of billions of credits, enough to buy a hundred thousand Xuanhuang Fruits.

......

"Speaking of the Nine Netherworlds, are any of you interested in coming?" Bai Mo suddenly asked.

With a sweep of his sleeve, a terrifying, pink-hued monster with a gaping maw emerged from the void above.

Apart from an unfathomably deep maw that seemed to lead nowhere, the monster's body showed no other discernible organs. Its form appeared to be composed of countless densely packed tentacles.

"This is the gate to the Nine Netherworlds," Bai Mo stated, pointing at the monster's maw, which subtly glowed with an eerie, multicolored light.

"It looks somewhat like a Reaper." Those who had experienced the runaway battle a century prior, just before the Moon was about to leave Earth-Moon orbit, recalled the terror of that day.

Endless monsters had poured forth from that pink celestial river, formed by Bai Mo and spanning the distance between Earth and the Moon.

And this monster, capable of swallowing more than half a city in a single gulp, was the largest of all those creatures from back then. However, times had changed. When facing this monster back then, the Federation's peak military strength consisted of only a few six-stage powerhouses, and they ultimately had to deploy their ultimate weapon, the Blazing Sun Star-Melting Cannon, to barely repel it.

Now, looking back, the monster's power level was merely at the pinnacle of the six-stage, an existence that had yet to step into the seven-stage.

Any True Immortal present could now utterly crush it within ten moves.

However, while easily dispatching it was one thing, confidently striding into that monster's maw, which led to an unknown destination, was an entirely different matter.