Chapter 1 The Barren Red Earth

The dark red, barren land was covered with enormous, bizarre black rocks. Twisted, scorched otherworldly plants grew sparsely in the crevices, and lava flowed down distant mountains. Poisonous vapor spewed from the cracks and holes in the ground. Scarlet clouds churned in the sky, accompanied by rolling thunder, a terrifying sight like an endless sea of fire hanging upside down. Amidst this hellish landscape, all kinds of low-level demons wandered aimlessly across the plains. Everywhere, one could see demons fighting for inexplicable reasons—chaotic monsters that didn't even qualify as low-level demon warriors, short-lived creatures born directly from this chaotic space. They possessed almost no reason, controlled entirely by violent impulses. If they survived in battle, they would have a chance to advance, but most of these low-level demons would die quickly, becoming part of the energy cycle of this space, in an endless cycle of birth and death.

This was the space where demons lived—a place that challenged the limits of survival, yet one that those frenzied and violent creatures enjoyed.

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace, concealed by the murky clouds high above, sped through the air, avoiding the groups of low-level demons wandering across the red wasteland. Its radar system detected a massive pit on the plain, around which almost no demons roamed, so it landed nearby.

Hao Ren led his companions out of the spaceship and casually stowed the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace into his personal dimension. Then, everyone took a deep breath, intending to experience the atmosphere of the Demon World.

Lily immediately jumped up and down. The ultra-sensitive husky was choked by the strong sulfur smell in the air, tears almost streaming down her face. She grabbed Hao Ren's arm and jumped around like crazy: "Gonna die, gonna die, gonna die... choking to death, choking to death, choking to death..."

While she was acting like this, Nangong Wuyue was truly losing HP. The siren girl's eyes were glowing green, and she was gasping for air like a fish out of water: "I'm really gonna die... this place is so dry... water... where's the water?"

"Water sources are rare in the Demon World, and not very useful for us. Only I would build cities near water sources to accommodate other races," Izhaks said, looking a little worried at the two half-dead girls. "If you can't stand the environment here..."

"Forget it, I'll just endure it," Nangong Wuyue gasped for a while before finally recovering. She waved her hand and tried to squeeze a little moisture from the surrounding air to form a protective barrier, sighing with a bitter face. "It's even harder than squeezing water in the desert... I really admire how you can live in a place like this."

Lanina didn't think there was anything wrong with the environment at all. She even took a deep breath comfortably, her face full of happy smiles: "The scent of home... it's been so long since I've been back, I really miss the sulfur smell."

Hao Ren looked back in the direction the spaceship had come from. Even though they had flown so far, the towering pillar of smoke was still incredibly imposing, connecting heaven and earth as if supporting the sky. The pillar was smooth and straight, and at this distance, it was almost impossible to tell that it was formed of gas. Only the faint, undulating纹路 on its surface proved that it was not solid. He was amazed by everything he saw in the Demon World, but the pillar of smoke was the most astonishing: "What is that exactly?"

"The Helheim Smoke Column, below it is the Helheim Crater, also known as the Great Demon Pit," Izhaks said with a grave expression. "This smoke column is over two hundred kilometers in diameter, and the crater below is one of the most incredible things in all the Demon Worlds. There is a huge cavity inside that crater, and no one knows where it leads. It is said that even the most powerful demons have failed to reach the bottom of the Great Demon Pit. For tens of thousands of years, the Helheim Crater has been spewing out this smoke column, but after the smoke rises high into the sky, it disappears into a spatial rift. No one knows where it eventually drifts to."

"You guys really have all sorts of strange things here." Hao Ren clicked his tongue in wonder.

Izhaks nodded solemnly: "Yes, the Demon World is the most unstable form of spatial vesicle, and many unnatural landscapes appear. By the way, it's best not to get close to that smoke column. Without the protection of a spaceship, ordinary people would die. The temperature inside the Helheim Smoke Column is extremely high, and masses of gas at thousands of degrees often suddenly rush up from the crater. The smoke and dust are poisonous and mixed with nerve toxins that can cause even demons to lose control."

"The Helheim Smoke Column is the armory of Ceratos's Legion," Lanina interjected. "The demon lord Ceratos has a plague legion that uses poison and nerve toxins in battle. Their weapons are forged below the smoke column. Thanks to this smoke column, that old lunatic is one of the most powerful demon lords, even Wang... Izhaks was wary of him back then."

"Don't call me that anymore," Izhaks suddenly remembered that he should have Lanina change her address. "I'm not a demon lord anymore, and calling me that here could expose us... just call me Old Wang like everyone else."

Hao Ren rolled his eyes: "I'm suddenly realizing how prescient you were when you named yourself..."

It took Lily a long time to finally understand: "... Old Wang just means former Wang!"

Izhaks scratched his bald head awkwardly: "Coincidence, coincidence..."

Vivian fanned herself with her hand, frowning as she looked around: "Alright, stop talking nonsense, let's get down to business. Lanina, you know the situation here, make a plan for what to do next."

"We need to get to the Obsidian Plains as soon as possible. That's where the princess disappeared," Lanina nodded, "First, we need to leave this place. This is Ceratos's territory, and he and Wang... Old Wang are mortal enemies. The nearest portal requires crossing the Foundry Pit, so we should just go straight through it—detouring around the Foundry Pit would make us more likely to run into patrolling squads."

"Can't we use spatial teleportation here?" Hao Ren weighed the data terminal in his hand.

Lanina shook her head: "It's best not to. Demons are experts in spatial studies. Even the space magic of other races in this world originated from demons. They can easily sense unfamiliar space gates within hundreds of kilometers. And the demon lords are very cautious. They monitor all spatial phenomena within their territory to prevent others from breaking in."

Then, the female demon smiled mockingly: "Fighting all the time, even the demon lords have to worry about waking up one day and having their heads chopped off by enemies. That's daily life in the demon world. Back then, Wang... Old Wang almost ended this chaos, but in the end, he was stabbed in the back by that idiot Ceratos. It seems that idiot likes this kind of anxious chaos."

Hao Ren wanted to say that the data terminal's teleportation function was high-tech and might bypass the monitoring, but after thinking about it, he decided not to take the risk. After all, the terminal's teleportation function was just a convenient measure for saving effort. It wasn't a specialized spy device, and the teleportation wasn't encrypted. If the demons here noticed, it would be a disaster—Izhaks was such a powerful person, but back then, he was beaten up and hung upside down for months in this place...

"What is the Foundry Pit?" Nangong Wuyue remembered Lanina mentioning the name and knew that Izhaks had been imprisoned in a cage in the Foundry Pit by the great demon named Ceratos, so she asked.

Lanina pointed to the cracked, overturned land in the distance, the edge of the massive pit that everyone had seen from the sky before the ship landed: "That's the Foundry Pit. Ceratos imprisons the hostile demons he captures at the bottom of the Foundry Pit, torturing them and extracting their souls to inject into the hellfire demons, expanding his legion. But that place should be gone now. Ceratos suffered an unexpected disaster, ha."

Izhaks had been imprisoned in the Foundry Pit back then, and when the Xi Ling god who passed by took him away, he casually killed the demon guards who tried to stop him. This one action destroyed the entire Foundry Pit, and Lanina couldn't help but laugh when she mentioned it, her slender succubus tail swaying in the air. Lily looked at it from the side and was a little restless, but fortunately, considering that the air here was bad for her beautiful fur, the husky finally resisted the urge to turn her tail out and wag it along.

While paying attention to their surroundings and guarding against the sudden encounter with wandering low-level demons, the group ran towards the massive pit.