Underworld Blood Lake (1)

Leng’Er: “……”

“Mm this story tells us that we shouldn’t sit for too long at the same place, otherwise we might develop hemorrhoids,” Ling Chen said earnestly.

“What… are haemorrhoids?” Leng’Er asked with a confused look.

“Haemorrhoids are… hmm… ah… they’re not good. Leng’Er will know after she grows up,” Ling Chen said helplessly while scratching his head. “Alright, forget about that one. I’ll tell you a different fable. This one’s called… The Old Man Who Moved A Mountain!

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“The story goes like this: there was a man named Yu Gong. There were 2 large mountains in front of his house, making it so that his house never had any sunlight. As such, he started moving rocks every day to move those 2 mountains away. An old man called Zhi Sou laughed at him and said, ‘You idiot, these 2 mountains are too big. You’ll never be able to finish moving them.’ In response, Yu Gong said, ‘After I die, there’s still my son, and after my son, there’s still my grandson. I’ll have an innumerable number of descendants, who will one day move the 2 mountains away.’ This matter was spread quite far away until the Emperor of Heaven heard it. The Emperor of Heaven was very touched, so he sent Sola Aoi, Sakura Ria, Yui Hatano, Hime Kamiya, Maria Ozawa, Azusa Yamamoto, Yui Seto… and other ‘goddesses’ to help Yu Gong give birth to descendants… the next day, the old man Zhi Sou also started to move rocks…”

Leng’Er: “??????”

“This fable tells us that no matter what we do, we should be determined and resolute. Only by being determined will we have victory and hope, as well as the love of goddesses,” Ling Chen said in a deep tone.

Leng’Er still looked incredibly confused, and she said in a small voice, “Those goddesses… all have such strange names… why did they help Yu Gong have descendants?”

“Err… this… that…” Ling Chen sighed. It seemed that this fable was still too deep and wasn’t understandable by kids. It seemed that he couldn’t keep reading that book of fable stories. Wait, that book of fable stories seemed to be called… ‘Adult Fables’. He should probably throw it away as soon as he got home.

“Leng’Er will also need to grow up to understand that one,” Ling Chen said in a complicated tone.

“Fable stories aren’t fun at all.” Leng’Er shook her head in dissatisfaction. “I don’t want to listen to fables anymore. Can master tell me a better story?”

A better story… A better story… Ling Chen gripped his hair as he gnashed his teeth. He had spent his younger years in a dim world, and he didn’t know many stories. He had already told her all the ones he knew about. The book he read most recently was the ‘Adult Fables’, and he had enjoyed it immensely. However, now that he thought about it, it wasn’t very suitable for kids.

Ling Chen’s eyes suddenly lit up as he smiled at Leng’Er. “Alright, I won’t tell Leng’Er anymore fable stories then. How about an ‘epic’?”

“An… epic?”

“That’s right. They’re usually quite long, and they take a few days to be told. They’re much better than stories that are told very quickly,” Ling Chen said confidently as he patted his chest. “This story is called ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. I’m sure Leng’Er will like this story.”

In his younger years, Ling Chen did not have any close relatives, and all of the stories that Ling Chen knew were from Xuanyuan Dia Wu. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the first epic that Xuanyuan Dia Wu had told Ling Chen. Although she was quite young at the time, she was incredibly intelligent and had a shocking memory. She told the entirety of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Ling Chen perfectly. That story, full of its ups and downs, moving moments, and intense scenes and grandeur, was firmly imprinted in Ling Chen’s mind, and he could now even remember every character and event.

It would take him quite a long period of time to tell Leng’Er the entire story.

Leng’Er lightly nodded and came closer to Ling Chen. Her snow-white hands were hugging the doll in front of her chest, and her face rested against the doll as she silently listened to Ling Chen talk.

“This is how the story began. A long time ago, there was a dynasty called the Eastern Han Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a useless emperor called Emperor Ling of Han, who caused the Yellow Turban Rebellion, sending the country into chaos…”

day passed…

days passed…

days passed…

The distance between the place Ling Chen was first transported to in the Underworld and the Underworld Royal City was 500 to 600 kilometres. With Snow Cherry’s Movement Speed and the fact that they could avoid all of the Undead on the ground, they should have arrived within 2 days. However, because the light in the Underworld was quite dim and the ground was covered by a grey fog, it made it difficult to navigate and greatly reduced their speed. Moreover, after Ling Chen started telling Leng’Er the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, she was completely hooked, and she would ask him to continue telling her the story whenever he logged on. If he stopped for even a bit, she would pout, looking incredibly wronged… as such, Ling Chen would spend almost all of his time telling the story to her. Often, he would lose himself in the story-telling, and when he came back to his senses and called out Xiao Hui to point out the way, he would find out that they had been off by 90 degrees or so and sometimes have to completely turn around!

Under these circumstances, Ling Chen finally reached the Underworld’s central region after 3 days, and he went closer and closer to the Underworld Royal City.

As Ling Chen flew from the north-east to the centre of the Underworld, Ling Chen felt that the more towards the south-west they flew, they hotter it became. In the north-east, the air was quite cold and sinister, but here the air felt slightly hot. What made Ling Chen quite confused was that Undead didn’t normally like ‘hot’ environments. Ling Chen looked towards the west and found that the sky towards the west was covered with a faint red glow. Although it was mostly covered by the deathly grey aura of the Underworld, Ling Chen’s eyes were perceptive enough to pick up on it.

However, the confusion within Ling Chen’s heart did not affect his storytelling. “After Zhao Zi Long battled ruthlessly in the Battle of Changban, he successfully broke through the encirclement with fatty Liu. When he reached the bridge, he ran into Zhang Yi De, who yelled out, ‘Zi Long, hurry and go! Leave the rest to me’… after Zhao Zi Long safely left, Zhang Yi De mightily stood in front of the bridge, facing Cao Cao’s million-man army by himself. When Cao Cao’s army came to the bridge, Zhang Yi De wielded his viper halberd as he roared, ‘Yan Country’s Zhang Fei is here. Who dares to come and fight to the death?’ His voice was as loud as thunder, causing the wooden bridge to crumble and the water to flow the opposite way. Cao Cao was so scared that he turned and ran, while Xiahou Jie was so scared that he fell off his horse and died. The million-man army subsequently turned around and fled in terror…”

Ling Chen’s narrative paused there because he saw a gigantic figure giving off immense pressure through the grey fog.

The Underworld Royal City!

Ling Chen’s mind instantly felt refreshed. After travelling for 2 and a half days, he had finally reached the central city of the Underworld. Reaching this place meant that he was incredibly close to his final destination: The Underworld Blood Lake!

“And then… And then…” Leng’Er, who was left at a cliff-hanger, wasn’t happy that Ling Chen had suddenly stopped, and she shook his arm as she tried to get him to continue.

Now that they were so close to the Underworld Royal City, Ling Chen was no longer in the mood to tell Leng’Er stories, so he casually finished, “Then… Then because Zhang Yi De purposefully destroyed public property, he was restrained by the public security bureau. Mm, that’s the end of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It was good, right? Ahhh… Leng’Er, look, there’s a city over there!”

Leng’Er’s eyes instantly started becoming red.

Ling Chen hurriedly waved his hands as he tried to salvage the situation, “Don’t be angry, Leng’Er, don’t be angry. I was just joking just then… there’s still a lot left of the story, and the ending definitely wasn’t like that. I’ll keep telling Leng’Er the story tomorrow, okay? We need to do something important today.”

However, Leng’Er was quite obedient and well-behaved. She didn’t continue nagging Ling Chen to tell her the story, but she instead turned and looked towards the Underworld Royal City. While silent, her dark eyes started to become hazy.

She felt that within her half-spirit body something started to jump and beat.

The Underworld Royal City was the Underworld’s central city, similar to the Forgotten Continent’s Forgotten City. However, although it was the central city, the Underworld Royal City was also quite rundown and didn’t have the splendour of a capital city. Instead, it only gave a feeling of gloominess and suppression. Standing quite far away from the entrance, Ling Chen saw Undead Warriors standing guard. The Underworld was a secret place in the Mystic Moon world, and it wasn’t somewhere players could casually go. He had only been able to easily enter because of Leng’Er.

Since he had come, he should at least take a look around the Underworld Royal City – perhaps he could receive some sort of hidden quest and get something that he couldn’t obtain in the outside world. However, the Underworld Royal City was where the high-level Undead gathered. They all had powerful Undead energy and intelligence that was no less inferior than normal humans. Ling Chen was a player, and while his aura of life would not be detected in low-level places, this was the Royal City filled with high-level Undead, so Ling Chen wasn’t completely confident that he wouldn’t be discovered.

Once it was discovered that he was a living human, the consequences were easily imaginable.

After thinking about it for a while, Ling Chen ultimately decided to pass on entering the Underworld Royal City and took to the skies once again, flying towards the Underworld Blood Lake… his goal was to go to the Underworld Blood Lake to find an Orb, not to adventure around. It was better safe than sorry.

The Underworld Blood Lake was north of the Underworld Royal City, and it was less than 10 kilometres away from the Underworld Royal City’s northern gate. However, Ling Chen had no idea just what the Underworld Blood Lake looked like. As such, Ling Chen could only fly slowly and look down, searching for the Underworld Blood Lake.

As he flew further and further from the Underworld Royal City, there were less and less Undead. After about 15 minutes, a single high-level Undead Warrior unhurriedly walked past below Ling Chen. Ling Chen’s eyebrows jumped as he quickly descended and landed in front of the Undead Warrior, giving him a big fright. The Undead Warrior subconsciously leapt back, and at that moment, Ling Chen’s eyes flashed, activating a [Deity Curse].

“Ding… the Libra Orb’s effects have been activated, [Deity Curse]’s cooldown time has been reset.”