Chapter 1 The Terrifying Undead Army

The army of the dead wandering in Tartarus was a terrifying sight to behold.

No, perhaps it shouldn't be called an "army"—because Hades, the former ruler of this hell, was dead. The undead who were once under his command had also lost control. They were originally a legion, but after losing their supreme commander, the countless undead creatures had become leaderless wanderers. They roamed aimlessly across Tartarus’s collapsing wasteland, blindly crawling like ants.

But this leaderless undead army did not mean a decrease in danger. On the contrary, because they had lost unified command, the land was overrun with scattered undead creatures. Roads that were once safe to cross were now occupied by wandering corpses.

Hao Ren and his group overlooked the situation from a high ground. They saw the plains leading to the "Copper Palace" filled with swaying skeletons and rotting zombies, as well as translucent soul phantoms appearing and disappearing without a trace. These seemingly fragile creatures existed in numbers that would drive a person with trypophobia to suicide. Hao Ren had no doubt that as soon as one undead fell, millions more would come swarming. If his group forced their way through, they could probably make it, but it would undoubtedly consume a lot of physical and mental energy—and they hadn't even seen the gates of Olympus yet. To suffer such losses in Tartarus was not a wise move.

"Didn't you demon hunters sweep through this place once?" Hesperides looked at Hasse with some dissatisfaction. "You even charged into the Copper Palace and killed Hades—how come you didn't take care of these skeletons on the plains while you were at it?"

"No, my comrades killed all the undead creatures they encountered," Hasse said, his face unreadable, but his eyes seemed somewhat helpless. "It's just that half of the undead that were killed got back up."

Hao Ren also noticed some details about the undead creatures: almost all of them were injured. Some were missing arms and legs, some had only half a body left and crawled on the ground, and some didn't even have heads, but were headless corpses wandering aimlessly. Even more skeletal undead were simply pieced together. The bones on their bodies were of different sizes and crooked. If dark energy hadn't forcibly connected those limbs, the joints would probably fall apart before they could even move.

This was an army that had been destroyed once and then risen again.

The demon hunters' holy magic was exceptionally effective against undead dark creatures, and undead burned by the holy flame could never be resurrected. However, the primary mission of the demon hunter legion that attacked Tartarus was to kill Hades, so they focused all their energy on the Copper Palace. They did not waste precious holy water and magic on the cannon fodder undead creatures on the plains, but only temporarily killed them with silver weapons. As a result, after they left, about half of the corpses on the Tartarus battlefield got back up.

Moreover, the corpses on the plains outside the Copper Palace were only a minor trouble. The bigger trouble was inside the Copper Palace—where there were undead of higher "quality."

Hades's underworld palace had three layers of walls. Outside these three layers of copper walls was the plain of corpses, and inside the walls was the true residence of the Lord of the Underworld. This space was a failed product of the Olympus "gods" developing their home, but it was a successful "graveyard" for experimenting with necromancy and collecting soul power. Hades was sent to guard this out-of-control laboratory, and he naturally had his own ways of passing the time. Over the centuries, he studied his forbidden spells day and night in the Copper Palace. The corpses and souls of various creatures were his experimental materials. He created countless undead creatures, some powerful and some disgusting, and then used these monsters as guards, placing them throughout his palace.

Outside the three layers of walls were ordinary undead, while inside the walls were the "experimental products" personally created by Hades.

Even though those experimental products had also been killed once by the demon hunters, their strength was still quite formidable.

But this was still the best way to reach the Olympus "God Realm."

"I can use blood magic to temporarily conceal the aura of the living," Hesperides said, looking at everyone. "This way we can at least fool the ordinary undead on the plains. Once we enter the Copper Palace, the undead on the plains outside won't be a concern. They wouldn't dare enter Hades's temple—even if Hades is dead."

"Good idea, but there's still a problem," Hao Ren said with a wry smile, spreading his hands. "Try putting a blood magic on me."

Hesperides didn't understand, but Hao Ren's initiative made her quite willing, so a non-lethal blood sphere condensed from her hand and slammed into Hao Ren's face: "You told me to hit you...ah?"

The blood sphere didn't even touch Hao Ren's skin before it dissipated in mid-air.

The little bat spirit was shocked: "Your face is enchanted?!"

Hao Ren almost choked on his own saliva: "Your face is enchanted! I'm just magically immune in terms of constitution, at least immune to Vivian's magic. Don't even mention your blood magic, even Vivian's ultimate move that she charges up is useless against me—so far the only thing in her power that I can't completely resist is that Crimson Moon, and all magic below the level of the Crimson Moon is useless."

The little bat spirit was stunned: "Where did you get this face-of-the-world kind of setting?!"

Hao Ren looked innocent: "Blame me for having innate talent points?"

Hesperides struggled: "Then we can only charge through the sea of undead...maybe we'll have a chance if we charge head-on..."

However, after thinking about it, Hao Ren had another plan: "No need, I have a better plan."

Immediately, even little Hesperides, who had been obediently following behind the adults, cast a curious gaze over.

"You guys use shadow magic to cover yourselves and sneak into the Copper Palace. I can't hide anyway, so I'll just run onto the great plains and attract the aggro, helping you lure away as many skeletons and zombies as possible—we'll meet at the main entrance of the Copper Palace."

Hesperides never expected Hao Ren to come up with this plan. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Hao Ren as if he were an alien: "You actually have this kind of courage?"

Hao Ren was immediately choked by the little bat spirit's annoying statement and rolled his eyes. Lily was a bit more conscientious: "No, landlord, that's too dangerous! You can't fight so many undead alone—you'll be on your knees if they swarm you!"

Hao Ren chuckled and waved his hand: "Don't worry, I have my own arrangements."

Seeing that Lily's face was still full of worry, Hao Ren had to explain with a serious expression: "I really have a way to break through—but I can't do it with you guys. Let me be clear, crossing this plain alone is like walking into an uninhabited land, but you guys might not be able to handle my method..."

Looking at the confident expression on Hao Ren's face, Lily and Hasse couldn't help but believe him seven or eight parts. Hesperides curled her lips: "Tch, you make it sound real."

Even though she said that, the expression on the little bat spirit's face clearly showed that she believed him.

The plan was thus finalized.

Hasse and Hesperides and the others quickly made preparations. The four gathered together, and then the little bat spirit chanted a spell. A layer of black and red light suddenly rose from the air, enveloping the four of them, and then gradually disappeared.

It didn't seem like anything had changed, but in Hao Ren's perception, everyone's heartbeat, body temperature, and breathing had become invisible. Even that inexplicable "life aura" had become ethereal.

He shuddered. It was fine when he was surrounded by his companions, but now that the four of them had become "fake undead," he closed his eyes and felt like he was standing in a morgue...

"How's the effect?" Hesperides glanced at Hao Ren smugly.

Hao Ren nodded, sincerely convinced: "Dead as a doornail."

Hesperides: "..."

Under the cover of blood magic, the four carefully walked down the high ground and headed towards the undead-filled plains.

To Hao Ren's tense gaze, the undead actually ignored the "living people" walking beside them, allowing Hesperides and her group to swagger through the territory of skeletons and zombies.

Hao Ren nodded, took a deep breath, turned to look in another direction, and took out two plasma hand cannons from his dimensional pocket.

Looking at this dark world filled with undead bones, representing the end of the mythical age, he sighed with emotion:

"Grandchildren!!"

"Boom!!"

Hearing the earth-shattering explosion behind them, the four people under the cover of the "Blood Canopy" spell couldn't help but stop. Hesperides looked back in the direction they had come from, but only saw a small mushroom cloud rising into the air, mixed with countless exploded rotten limbs and bone fragments.

The entire sea of undead on the plain was alarmed by this sudden movement. After a moment, countless groups of undead gathered and began to shamble towards the direction of the explosion.

Hesperides frowned. Although her relationship with Hao Ren wasn't usually good, she couldn't help but worry a little at this moment—perhaps Hao Ren's "lone enemy" bravery finally touched this stubborn little bat spirit. In any case, she opened her mouth: "Is that guy sure he's okay?"

This time, Lily, who had been very worried before, wasn't worried at all: "It's okay, it's okay, the landlord is awesome."

"Then why were you trying so hard to stop him just now?"

"Oh, but if the landlord says it's okay, then it's definitely okay."

Hesperides was dumbfounded by this husky's simple and straightforward thought process, and was speechless.

Simple-minded people are so happy.

Suppressing the thoughts in her heart, Hesperides once again focused her attention on the matter in front of her. She carefully maintained the effect of the blood canopy, leading the team towards the pure copper palace standing at the highest point of Tartarus.