Han Shuo and his group made their way in complete darkness for about half an hour before Donna, who was leading the way, suddenly said, "Alright, we have made it past the Light Elemental boundary. Everyone can take out their lights now!"
Upon hearing these words, the few young people who had been affected by Han Shuo's mischief immediately pulled out gems that glowed brightly in the dark. The darkness was dispelled and the setting became clearly visible.
After travelling for some time, Donna suddenly stopped her footsteps when she saw that there were several branches of paths ahead. She turned to cast a curious glance at Han Shuo.
This was the key to the secret that the dark dragons had kept for so long. As soon as Han Shuo saw the forks, he immediately stepped forward and explained in a serious manner, "From this point on, there will be many more branches. One misstep and you will end up anywhere but the third layer of the underground world, so you all better follow closely behind me".
At this critical moment, those who had been joking along the way turned solemn and expressed their agreement.
Han Shuo once again took the lead of the group. From the first fork in the road, they were faced with countless choices. There were countless narrow and wide paths for them to choose from. Silently, Han Shuo made his way forward, following Gilbert's instructions.
After many twists and turns through these complicated tunnels, Han Shuo finally led them to a huge, dark hole.
The dark hole before them, which appeared to be bottomless, led directly to the final layer of the underground world. "Alright. Get down from here. This will take some time. Everyone be careful and good luck!" Han Shuo said with a calm voice. He turned to look at Donna before taking the lead and jumping into the hole.
"There probably won't be any danger, but it's always good to be careful," Donna said smiling to the group and jumped in after Han Shuo.
After entering the deep hole, Han Shuo found himself back in pitch black darkness. He was not disoriented or nervous at all. The surroundings were visible to him after he unfolded his consciousness.
As he looked around, he suddenly remembered that back in the Abyss Realm, he had had a similar experience when he entered the Void. But unlike when he descended into the Void, Han Shuo did not encounter countless dangers in this place. It was a smooth and uninteresting fall.
Even though he was descending rapidly, Han Shuo was still able to take in the surroundings. All he saw were ordinary rocks; nothing to pique Han Shuo's interest.
After the rest of them had jumped into the hole, Han Shuo was able to use his consciousness to clearly perceive the location of Donna and the others falling above his head.
The descent took another half hour. When Han Shuo finally landed on the ground, even before his eyes took in the scene around him, a chill ran down his spine.
An evil and sinister aura filled every nook and cranny, giving Han Shuo an extremely familiar, fuzzy feeling.
After sensing carefully for a moment, Han Shuo suddenly discovered a faint presence of mystical yin aura in the air. This filled Han Shuo with both doubt and joy.
The Mystical Yin Aura was some of the purest energy left behind by deceased souls. Under normal circumstances, the energy would gradually dissipate between heaven and earth over time. Only in a unique natural environment, or in a Mystical Yin Formation used by a demonic arts practitioner, would the energy gather.
Han Shuo was delighted with this discovery, as the mystical yin aura could be transformed into demonic yuan. It had an unimaginably beneficial effect on his cultivation.
The Mystical Yin Aura was as useful to Han Shuo as the five attribute yuan energies were to the five elite zombies. It was a most wonderful energy that could accelerate the speed at which Han Shuo generated demonic yuan by more than ten times.
Therefore, Han Shuo was very pleasantly surprised to discover that the mysterious yin aura filled every inch of the air right after he landed.
Without much thought, Han Shuo became absolutely certain that there was a naturally formed place of Mysterious Yin that gathered Mystical Yin Aura. His heart was filled with uncontrollable excitement.
After reaching the realm of the Nine Changes, Han Shuo would have to cultivate for a long time to slowly accumulate and deepen his demonic yuan. He didn't even know how much more time he would have to sacrifice to reach the Omen Realm. Even though Han Shuo had the memories left behind by Chu Cang Lan to guide him, there was still no way to avoid the slow accumulation of Demonic Yuan that required a long period of time.
However, by cultivating in this place of Mystical Yin Accumulator and using the Mysterious Yin Aura accumulated here, Han Shuo was able to shorten this time by at least ten times!
Han Shuo was so wild with joy that he almost couldn't contain himself and screamed out in surprise. But when he realised that the rest of the group was about to land, he suppressed his excitement as best he could.
"Oh? This place is strange indeed. There's a strange kind of energy that doesn't seem to belong to any of the eight elemental energies!" Donna immediately sensed the strange energy around her and exclaimed in surprise.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh! Several figures landed next to Han Shuo. They were all astonished and looked around curiously.
After hiding his delight, Han Shuo turned his attention to other aspects. He discovered that there weren't too many differences between this layer and the last two layers of the underground world. Since there were rocks high above their heads that emitted light, this layer did not appear to be as dark.
Han Shuo looked into the distance. The landscape appeared to be largely identical to the last two layers. The only difference he could make out was that when he expanded his consciousness in all directions, he could not see a trace of life - not even a small insect. It was so desolate and empty that it might frighten some.
Donna closed her eyes and felt for a moment before she suddenly asked Han Shuo, "How do we proceed?"
Han Shuo shook his head and explained, "I have no idea. This is as far as the dark dragons know. They know how to get to the third layer, but they have no idea how to navigate through here!"
Donna furrowed her brow. She seemed to be considering which way to go next.
"Sister Donna, I have my grandfather's notebook. Let me have a look at it," Li Wei suddenly spoke at that moment. She immediately took out an old notebook and leafed through it.
The moment Li Wei took out the notebook, Han Shuo turned his attention to her. With a thought, an invisible and shapeless spirit demon gently flew out of his body. Han Shuo secretly observed Donna's expression and noticed that there weren't any unusual changes on her face. Han Shuo was greatly relieved and slowly guided the spirit demon to Li Wei's side.
Compared to other demon generals, Spirit Demons, being the highest class of them all, had an even more extraordinary way of concealing their aura. They could change their own form to blend in with their surroundings. It was extremely difficult to be detected. Although Han Shuo had great confidence in the spirit demon he had personally refined, he was still a bit worried because Donna possessed extraordinary strength. However, seeing that Donna did not react to the appearance of his spirit demon, Han Shuo believed that she was unaware of his presence.
Observing through his spirit demon, Han Shuo discovered that there was a crude sketch on the notebook in Li Wei's hand. There were also some symbols etched into it. After reading the drawing carefully for a moment, Li Wei suddenly pointed with her hand and said, "Go in that direction!
Donna and the others were very trusting of Li Wei and no one objected. They went in the direction Li Wei pointed.
Han Shuo was stunned. The direction Li Wei was pointing in was exactly where the mystical Yin aura was most intense. Although the others couldn't sense it, Han Shuo, as a cultivator of demonic arts, could sense it with great sensitivity.
What was certain was that the direction Li Wei was pointing to must be the centre of the naturally formed environment that gathered the Mystical Yin Aura, where the Mystical Yin Aura was the strongest.
Han Shuo showed no abnormal behaviour. As the party made their way in that direction, he silently followed.
"Look! It's Emperor, Eriksson and their party!" Li Wei shouted softly.
Han Shuo suddenly increased his speed and approached Li Wei in a streak of faint dark light. When he looked closely, he discovered that Eriksson, whom he had met in the interplanar transportation matrix of the Primordius Dragon, was indeed straight ahead. Apart from Eriksson, all the gods Gilges had seen in his last moments were present.
"They seem to have run into trouble!" Donna gasped.
Surrounding Eriksson and his party were a dozen or so greyish shadows, moving quickly. They seemed to be attacking the party. These mighty gods seemed to be resisting the attacks of the shadow figures and even seemed to be overpowered by them!
Han Shuo's consciousness pulsed. He noticed that the shadow figures looked very familiar. After a moment of careful sensing, Han Shuo was startled!
Mystical Demons! They were mystical demons!
Han Shuo was extremely astonished and quickly turned around in his mind. He immediately realised that the dozen or so Mystical Demons must have been powerful beings that had lost their lives in this place of Mystical Yin. After their deaths, their souls were affected by the energy and transformed into mystical demons.
The demon generals were divided into Original Demons, Yin Demons, Mystical Demons and Spirit Demons. Although Mystical Demons could not evolve and were not the most remarkable, they were more than enough to cause these powerful gods from distant material planes immense pain. The dozens of mystical demons flashing with faint shadows were many times more powerful than the ones Han Shuo had previously refined.
Han Shuo came to a conclusion: these mystical demons must have possessed extremely powerful souls before they died. Otherwise, there was no way they could have transformed into such formidable mystical demons. Perhaps those souls had previously fought here and were gods from distant, high-level material planes.
That was the only possibility!
Han Shuo was even more shocked when he came to this conclusion. His eyes glistened as he focused on the fluttering shadows. After carefully sensing with his consciousness, Han Shuo was finally certain of his conclusion.
"Those greyish shadows, what the hell are they? How could Emperor and his group have such difficulty resisting them?" Li Wei cried out in shock.
"Do nothing for now. Let's just see what happens!" Donna instructed in a soft but abrupt tone.
"It's too late. Get ready to defend!" shouted Han Shuo.
"What? What do you mean?" Donna was alarmed and looked at Han Shuo in confusion.
These mystical demons were extremely sensitive. They could sense the aura of any living being from several miles away. Han Shuo knew this better than any of them, but he offered no explanation.
In fact, Han Shuo did not need to explain. As soon as he finished those words, some of the dozen mystical demons several thousand metres away shot rapidly towards Han Shuo and his party. Those faintly discernible shadows arrived in the blink of an eye and pounced on them.
In an instant, Donna and her party were thrown into a state of confusion. The Mystical Demons were unique life forms that had no physical body. Most physical attacks were completely ineffective against them. Because Donna and her people did not yet understand the properties of the Mystical Demons, they had great difficulty in resisting them. Some of these mystical demons immediately entered their bodies and attacked their flesh, while others attacked their souls.
"Ah! What is this thing?" When a mystical demon entered Li Wei's body, she lost her head in fear and screamed loudly. She couldn't have been more terrified.
Even Donna, who had remained unperturbed until then, seemed incredibly nervous. She was trying to use her energy in every possible way to resist the invasion of the mystical demons.
Han Shuo had the calmest mind in the crowd. No one understood the characteristics of mystical demons better than him. He was very clear about the strengths and weaknesses of mystical demons. In fact, by using a certain demonic art technique, Han Shuo could even use a formation to trap these mystical demons and allow the spirit demons he had refined to assimilate their energies.
However, Han Shuo could not do this at this moment. Still, he had a much better time against the Mystical Demons compared to the rest of them.
Mystical Demons could not evolve like Spirit Demons. They were afraid of high temperatures and could suffer fatal blows when exposed to certain soul attacks.
Although Han Shuo wasn't as strong as Donna and the others, by relying on his understanding of the characteristics of mystical demons, Han Shuo secretly used mystical glacial spellfire to raise his body temperature while using his consciousness to form unique attacks, beating back a mystical demon with the undulation of his soul. It was almost effortless for him.
Han Shuo did not explain anything about the strengths and weaknesses of mystical demons to these allies of his, because he did not know if these people would become his enemies in the future. Besides, the spirit demons he was refining shared certain characteristics with mystical demons. Therefore, it was in his best interest not to reveal any information about mystical demons.
Han Shuo was indifferent to seeing Li Wei in fear and helplessness against the mystical demons. In fact, he was secretly pleased.
If Li Wei had used her necromancy magic and fought the mystical demons with soul attack methods, she would have no trouble defending herself. However, it was a pity that she was completely ignorant of the characteristics of these mystical demons that had been mutated by this place of mystical yin. All her methods of attack were ineffective. All she could do was use her divine energy to painfully resist the onslaught.
"Ah... Ah..." Han Shuo pretended to cry out in pain as he stealthily directed one of his spirit demons to where the mystical yin aura was most intense.
Although the spirit demon was of a higher class and didn't have enough energy, it wasn't as powerful as those mystical demons. However, since spirit demons were similar to mystical demons in terms of life form, even though these mystical demons could sense Han Shuo's spirit demon, they considered it to be one of their own and paid no attention to it.
As he continued to put on an act, Han Shuo continued to manoeuvre his spirit demon.
After a while, Han Shuo's eyes suddenly lit up with a gleam of disbelief. He was so astonished that his body shook uncontrollably. Even his soul was almost injured by this mystical demon.
Han Shuo was overwhelmed with shock because he had discovered through his spirit demon that the so-called Mystical Yin Place was not naturally formed after all, but rather it was an oversized Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester!