Chapter 448: Is the Imperial Nether Clan Part of the Devils?
The community of devils was a large one, and the devils existed in various shapes and forms. Naturally, the different species of devils had differing strengths as well. Some of them looked like demonic beasts, some looked like humans, and some looked like the other surface races. In short, they resembled a lot of the surface races, with the only difference being the fact that they cultivated through absorbing devilish energy.
The Devil Domain was the territory of the devils, and here, they far outnumbered the surface races. The surface races did not dare to easily step into the Devil Domain. Only those with enough strength dared to enter. It was rumored that there were nine layers to the Devil Domain, with each layer corresponding to a different strength.
The first two layers were the layers the surface races explored the most, and only those at the Dragon Ascension Realm and above would dare to enter the third layer and beyond. Yu Caidie brought her group straight to the depth of the first layer. There, they would find the path heading to the second layer. So far, they had encountered about five waves of attacks from the devils.
Fortunately, these devils weren't too powerful, and they were able to easily defeat the attackers and continue their journey. Along the way, Xiang Shaoyun had personally witnessed many battles between the various races and the devils. Like anyone from the surface, he did not wish to see the devils invade the dominion. Otherwise, that would be a disaster to those living on the surface.
Of course, he was sure that the devils at the first layer were still not strong enough to break free of the formation’s suppression. Only those from the latter layers would have the strength to do so.
The current him couldn't be bothered to think too much about all that. Presently, he was occupied with thinking about the sensation he had started to have after entering the Devil Domain, a sensation as if something was calling out to him.
That sensation seemed to be coming from his very blood, causing him to wonder if he really had the bloodline of the devils. After flying continuously for a few days, the group finally stopped to rest. When resting, each of them occupied a different spot, only maintaining a certain proximity with the rest of the group.
Xiang Shaoyun took the chance and went toward a certain corner before taking out the bottle of devil blood he had purchased. He wondered if he should consume it. After some hesitation, he opened the bottle and poured the content down his throat.
As the blood entered his belly, he felt a burning sensation, but it only lasted a split second. He then sensed his blood start to fuse with the devil blood. The blood within him stirred, and a certain transformation started happening to his body.
He could feel his heartbeat speeding up as the power of his bloodline started spreading throughout his body, causing him to emit a small amount of a certain aura. His Nether Soul Domain was also stirring. Abruptly, a large amount of devilish energy converged around him, giving him a fright.
He quickly suppressed the power in his bloodline, finally stopping the convergence of devilish energy around him. He looked around nervously and was glad to find that nobody had noticed. After all, this was a place abundant with devilish energy. These people lacked understanding of devilish energy and naturally wouldn't notice the change of the devilish energy in the air.
Xiang Shaoyun heaved a breath of relief as he thought, Is the Imperial Nether Clan part of the devils? It's a pity I know too little about them.
He possessed the Nether Soul Domain, and according to the white tiger soul and Devouring Ghost, this was an innate talent of the Imperial Nether Clan. However, Devouring Ghost had also told him that the Imperial Nether Clan was a race residing in the surface world.
Whatever. Whether this will be good or bad for me, I'll deal with it when the time comes, Xiang Shaoyun decided to stop worrying about it.
He was now certain that the devilish energy here would not harm him one bit. In fact, he could even absorb the devilish energy to grow his strength. Unlike the others, he no longer needed to expand his energy at all times to protect himself from the corrosive nature of the devilish energy.
After a night of rest, the group set off again. They were traveling at their fastest speed, and they weren't even bothered to attack any devils they encountered on the way. They would only fight back against the devils actually attacking them.
After traveling in this manner for about half a month, they had deeply penetrated the Devil Domain. Here, they were starting to encounter Devil Kings, and the devilish energy had become much denser. Even so, there were still a lot of people from the surface to be found.
These people were here for contribution points and for the materials they could harvest from the bodies of the devilish beasts. As these devilish materials were much more valuable than demonic materials, many devil hunting groups could be found here.
Along the way, Xiang Shaoyun had seen a large variety of devilish materials. He wanted to get some for research, but when he saw how much of a rush Yu Caidie was in, he gave up on that idea.
In any case, he also knew that here in the first layer, most of the devils were weak low-level devils. The materials from them wouldn't be very useful for him anyway. He could always start gathering devilish materials after getting the yin devil wind for Yu Caidie.
When they were about to reach the entrance to the second layer, they suddenly saw a large number of flying devilish beasts flying in their direction. The people hunting for devilish beasts in the vicinity were all given a fright.
They were currently looking at a beast tide they had only heard stories of. Facing a beast tide, if one did not withdraw, one would eventually die through exhaustion no matter how strong one was.
"These are devil falcons! There are over 10,000 of them!" Tang Longfei cried out in alarm.
"I don't know what is driving them crazy, but we better avoid them," suggested someone.
"Everyone, work together and pierce through them," Yu Caidie commanded.
They hesitated slightly but still decided to obey her. They formed a formation of two straight lines and charged straight into the tide of devil falcons. As they charged, they released their kingly aura that was powerful enough to expel any devil below the Emperor Realm.
There were a lot of devil falcons here, but they were rather weak individually. Of all the devil falcons, only about 10 of them were Devil Kings, and they weren't even late-stage Devil Kings. That was why Yu Caidie had made the command to charge through the tide.
Working together, they pressed forward and blasted a large number of devil falcons out of their way, splashing devil blood everywhere. These were the geniuses of the various organizations. If they couldn't even get through this obstacle, they should just forget about the yin devil wind.
The only reason one of them had suggested they avoid the tide was so they could preserve more strength, not because he was afraid of these devil falcons. To their surprise, after charging through the tide of devil falcons, a tide of even more powerful devils appeared before them.
They did the same and charged through the second tide as well, but they had exhausted a considerable amount of their energy doing so. They continued traveling, but they kept encountering Devil Kings. Fortunately, these Devil Kings were of the lower stages and were not able to pose them much threat.
However, Xiang Shaoyun had not gotten to kill too many devils. It was not that he was showing the devils mercy, but the people around him were too eager to perform in front of Yu Caidie and had killed most of the devils before he needed to do anything.
Shortly after, they finally arrived before the entrance to the second layer. The so-called entrance was in truth a pitch-black cave about one or two kilometers wide. It was large enough for thousands of people to go through at a time. A large amount of devilish energy with much thicker density was pouring out of the entrance.
"Go!" Yu Caidie said as she took the lead and charged straight into the entrance with her mount. The others followed without hesitation. The second layer was where they would be truly tested.