Capter 532: Youdu
Leaving the map shop they entered the busy streets of Skydragon Fortress, but none of them wished to stay in this place any longer.
"I can feel that we are being followed," Hui Yue sighed. Ever since they had left the City Lord's mansion, someone had been tailing them. It was obviously only a matter of time before the City Lord would once more try to kill him.
"We have everything we need now let’s leave this city and go to Diyu. It will not be long before the trials start, and when they do, we need to be there. Depending on what kind of trials there are, we can all join to increase our chances of winning. But if it is likely to be deadly, then it is enough for just myself to join."
Looking at the beasts, Hui Yue was quite harsh as he spoke again, "You guys have been Gods for a long time, but you never left the Divine Beast World or the red realm. Although you have comprehended a few daos, you are on the same level as me, or lower, and I have the support of the red gem, the shining star, the wings, and the black figure within my core. They will assist me if I am truly in a life-threatening situation."
Although Hui Yue said this hoping it was true, he had a feeling that the black figure would not be willing to assist him. Even if he were in life-threatening danger, he probably wouldn’t help, but a strange smile appeared on Hui Yue's lips as he looked at Huli with an odd glance. With Huli's help, he might be able to bargain with this stubborn memory of his.
No one noticed the strange glance that Hui Yue sent Huli, and he quickly straightened his back and cleared his throat embarrassedly.
"Anyway let’s head out!" Hui Yue said after clearing his throat. Turning around, he moved towards the city gate. Just outside the gate was a massive platform, where one was able to land and take off from when flying out of the city.
As they reached the platform, Hui Yue was shocked silly. It was filled with people in small groups and had other experts calling loudly for Gods to join them. It resembled a marketplace, except instead of merchants selling their wares it was packed with experts looking for those who would be willing to travel with them to Diyu.
Traveling alone to Diyu was incredibly risky. This was the Netherworld; a world filled with Gods and currently, it had a lot of attraction to any expert who wished to become stronger, and this world filled with gods unexpectedly also had a great allure to bandits.
Many experts would leave Skydragon Fortress and go to Diyu. Some would go alone or in small groups, and if a bandit group were to intercept them they could potentially gain big; however, if they were to attack a group of high ranked individuals then they were likely to suffer severely losing quite a few members. Therefore, they usually went for small groups or people who traveled alone. Even if they were strong, they could be overwhelmed with sheer numbers.
Seeing that groups of up to twenty or thirty Gods were traveling together, Hui Yue frowned. Should they also look for others to travel with or should they risk it alone? Looking at his group, he saw five Immortals of Creation and felt calmer. He knew that inviting others could indeed help them while traveling Diyu, but it was not safe to invite people to join them that they did not know. They could just be out to rob them or lead bandits to ambush them.
There were many things to think about, but due to the fact that they had five Immortals of Creation in their group, and one of them was Huli while the other was Cai Jie, Hui Yue felt safer.
Although he was not an Immortal of Creation, as long as Huli was by his side if needed he could rely on the black figure to banish all the bandits to some random galaxy. His control over the dao of space was strong enough to banish a very powerful dragon so it would be a cinch to banish a group of bandits as well.
Thinking this, Hui Yue felt a lot safer, and he made the decision that they would travel by themselves. Worst case scenario was that they come across a group of bandits, but even so, they should be able to survive either by fighting or fleeing.
"Let us leave!" Hui Yue said to his friends, and when he spoke, he found that all of them were agreeing with him. Traveling on their own was indeed the best idea in the eyes of all of them.
"We need to be careful with the guys who are following us," he suddenly said. "It would be bad if we meet bandits and they choose to attack us as well. We need to kill them as soon as possible."
Saying this, Hui Yue's eyes glistened with a cold gleam. It was clear that he was not happy that they were being followed.
Everyone turned serious as they thought about this while Hui Yue was thinking deeply. "Let’s set out," he said suddenly causing everyone who was worried about the people tailing them to be shocked. Despite their shock, none of them questioned Hui Yue. If he said they should leave, then they would leave. It must mean that he had some plan for how to deal with this group of experts that was following them.
Hui Yue was the only person who could use soulforce and so he knew the most about the experts behind them.
Together the group took to the sky, and a map appeared in Hui Yue's hands. The map was a map of the entire Netherworld, and he found that there was quite the distance between Skydragon Fortress and Diyu, in fact, they were at the opposite ends of the world.
"It is good that we have already started our journey," he said with a sigh. "Although we can fly swiftly, this world cannot be compared to Divine Beast World. The Netherworld was so large that it could easily contain a thousand Divine Beast Worlds. It seems that it will take us at least two months of constant flying to reach Diyu."
Hearing this everyone was shocked. Hui Yue was busy looking at the map figuring out which way they would travel.
"We could fly directly there, but to do so, we will need to cross a few very high mountain ranges. Mountain ranges that are likely to house the bases of many bandits and for this reason I think going directly there is the fastest but also the most dangerous."
"Our other choice is to go on a bit of a detour. It will most likely take an extra month, but we will not go through that many danger zones. We will mainly be traveling across mortal areas."
"The map distinguishes mortal from immortal areas?" The bull asked full of surprise, and Hui Yue nodded his head. "The map we have is very detailed. It also points out which areas we need to avoid at all costs, and where the Immortal Cities are on the way to Youdu, the capital of Diyu."
"So what do you think, the longer way which is more secure but takes an extra month, or the shorter, more dangerous way?" Hui Yue asked.
The many beast Gods looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. None of them really cared; they would rather just follow Hui Yue's decision.
Huli was the same, and Cai Jie contemplated for a moment before he looked at Hui Yue, "We have the time. The question is if we want to wait at Youdu or if we want to spend a longer time traveling. Personally, I would rather spend a month extra traveling than being in Youdu because the capital of Diyu is not a peaceful place. It’s the capital of hell!"
"Killing might be frowned upon and illegal in all the other immortal cities, but it is not illegal in Youdu. I have never been there before, but from the stories I have heard, it is permeated with darkness and murder."
"Also we need to keep another thing in mind. Youdu is underground. It is the capital of hell, and there is no sunlight present. It is only bathed in blood and darkness. It is not a place where we wish to stay for long."
The more Cai Jie spoke, the more serious the expressions of Hui Yue and the others became. Diyu was indeed the place for the dead. Not only did it have the Plains of Despair it also had Youdu and the Ten Courts of Hell. It was no place for the living, but since they were looking for a king of hell, it was only natural that he would be in this kingdom of death.
"I have been in Youdu before," Huli finally sighed. "It is indeed the capital of hell. The inhabitants are dead people who have given up on reincarnation. It is also home to many demons who works for the officials, but more importantly, it is the place where the Ten Kings of Hell live. The strange thing is that of the Ten Kings of Hell there are nine who are average gods, and then we have Yanluo who is the king of hell, but although he is the king of hell, he is also the 5th judge of hell, being one of the ten judges that everyone wishes to join."
"The ten kings have their own manors within the capital but in the middle of the capital is a palace. Who lives in this palace no one knows. No one ever enters or exits apart from the Ten Kings of Hell. This palace is the biggest mystery in all of Diyu, and many have entered only never to be seen again. There is a formation surrounding it making it impossible for anyone below Pangu's level to force their way through."
"Well, no matter how dangerous and dark Youdu is, that is our destination," Hui Yue said determinedly. "We need to enter Youdu so that we can take the trials. For now, let’s take the safer way. Waiting in Youdu does not seem like the most entertaining way to spend our time so seeing more of the Netherworld will be fine."
Hearing that Hui Yue had made a decision, everyone nodded their heads. Although they had five Immortals of Creation in their group, only two of these were very strong. The others did not have much understanding of the daos, and thus they would be at a disadvantage when they were up against any bandits.
Moving out, Hui Yue and the group vanished from Skydragon Fortress. Their speed was really quite swift, but the moment they turned into streaks of light that shot to the horizon two groups of experts appeared at the platform outside Skydragon Fortress.
One of these groups had large wings, and two of the group flapped these wings and vanished into the distance as they set off after Hui Yue and his group while the other seemed to be hesitant about what to do. After considering for a moment, one of the experts took to the sky and vanished in the way that Hui Yue had vanished moments before.
The two groups that had been following Hui Yue were left in Skydragon Fortress where they looked at one another. One group was overbearing, and they stared at the other with disdain. The other group could only bow deeply, all of them were wearing city guard outfits displaying their occupation. They dared not stay behind long after the other group left into the distance, and while bowing all the time, they retreated to the City Lord's mansion with the news of Hui Yue and his group having vanished into the distance.