Chapter 389 – Mu Lin: I Am the Earth Immortal

As a Mortal Shedding Adept, Ji Lie possessed considerable ability. The moment Mu Lin set his sights on him, he sensed something amiss and rose to his feet with a roar.

“Who’s there?”

He warily scanned his surroundings, unleashing his Divine Sense to sweep the area.

Yet, he detected nothing.

After all, he was no Earth Immortal and had never imagined that Mu Lin could create the Netherworld and the Cycle of Despair through the opposition of Yin and Yang.

Thus, all his detection skills were aimed at the present world.

With the dimensions of their worlds being entirely different, it would have been strange if he could locate Mu Lin.

“Clan Elder Ji Lie, what’s happening?”

Since he couldn’t detect anything, the high-ranking officials of Melting Fire City, who were discussing matters with him, naturally couldn’t find Mu Lin’s traces either.

However, Ji Lie’s unusual actions made their hearts sink.

“Could it be that Mu Lin is attacking?”

Their words were filled with fear. Clearly, over the past few days, Mu Lin’s fearsome reputation had been firmly established—they were reluctant to encounter him.

Unfortunately, Mu Lin was not someone they could avoid simply by wishing it. The next moment, Elder Ji Lie shattered their illusions.

“Someone is spying. It’s likely that scoundrel Mu Lin has arrived. Activate the Arrays, put everyone on alert, and prepare for battle… Ah!!”

He was giving orders, but before he could finish, a piercing scream erupted from his mouth.

Undoubtedly, Mu Lin had launched his attack.

The flaming chain was hurled by Mu Lin, striking Ji Lie’s body with brutal force. Then, the Avici Chains coiled around Ji Lie’s Soul Reflection like serpents.

It was this lash that caused Ji Lie to let out a harrowing wail.

The scream was intense and grating, and his expression twisted in agony.

Just by witnessing this, the others knew that Ji Lie was enduring boundless suffering.

It was excruciating pain, so severe that even Ji Lie, a Mortal Shedding Adept, could barely withstand it—his hands had curled into claws, digging fiercely into his own skull.

With such force, he gouged bloody holes into his head.

That a single lash provoked such an extreme reaction was not because Ji Lie, as a Mortal Shedding Adept, was unaccustomed to pain.

The reason for his intense reaction lay with Mu Lin—having absorbed the Resentment of hundreds of thousands and transformed it into flame Malevolent Ghosts and vengeful Malevolent Ghosts, each of his attacks carried the power of the Flame of Retribution, inflicting excruciating agony.

This power, upon contact with the body, tormented the victim with the sensation of their internal organs being scorched.

Simultaneously, the endless suffering once endured by those hundreds of thousands of vengeful souls was poured into the victim’s soul spirit.

Such pain was never meant to be borne by mortals.

Moreover, Mu Lin’s recent attack struck directly at the soul, amplifying Ji Lie’s sensitivity to pain tenfold.

With these factors combined, he let out such a piercing scream.

“Thwack!”

“Rip!”

Because the attack struck the soul directly—a soul with little defensive power—a single blow from Mu Lin shattered Ji Lie’s Divine Soul.

At this moment, Ji Lie also sensed something was wrong. Under the torment of extreme pain, his consciousness shifted from the Yang World to the Netherworld, taking residence in his Soul Reflection within the Yin Earth.

Under normal circumstances, he should have launched a counterattack by now.

Unfortunately, the current situation was far from normal, and he had no chance to fight back.

Mu Lin’s earlier strike had already shattered his Divine Soul, and what plunged him deeper into despair was that the burning Avici Chains had already coiled around his Soul Reflection.

The Avici Chains themselves possessed abilities such as silencing, sealing, and Fixation… Once the chains ensnared his Divine Soul, Ji Lie found himself unable to utilize most of his powers, let alone break free from the chains’ restraints.

Secondly, the Vengeance Flames continued to burn fiercely upon the Avici Chains, the raging fire constantly scorching Ji Lie’s soul, subjecting him to endless agony. Under such torment, he had no mental capacity to unleash powerful Spells; he could only wail unconsciously and struggle in vain.

“The overseer has been captured… Attacking others in the Netherworld is truly effortless.”

With this thought, Mu Lin willed his mind, and dozens more flaming chains flew out from his body, reaching toward the Soul Reflections of the other high-ranking officials in Melting Fire City.

Outside, those individuals had already sensed something amiss due to Ji Lie’s piercing wails. Some scanned their surroundings, trying to locate the hidden enemy.

Others erected various protective barriers, attempting to block Mu Lin’s attacks.

Still others moved swiftly while shifting outward… They were trying to escape.

Yet, all efforts proved futile. Those scanning their surroundings found nothing.

Those who erected defenses could not affect the Soul Reflections within the Netherworld.

As for evasion and escape, they could not avoid the binding and restraint of the Avici Chains, which could traverse space and appear directly beside them.

It must be said that the ability of the Netherworld and the Cycle of Despair was far too overpowered.

By leveraging the opposition of yin and yang, it created the Netherworld and Soul Reflections, then attacking the reflections within the Netherworld inflicted the same damage upon the enemies.

Such an ability, paired with the Avici Chains, essentially guaranteed an instant kill against Cultivators of the same level.

Lower-level Cultivators fared even worse—for them, this ability was practically unsolvable.

Even Mu Lin, when he first unleashed the Cycle of Despair and grasped its profundity, was awestruck for a long time.

“But then again, during my Gang Sha stage, I refined hundreds of portions of Gang and Sha Qi, comprehended countless skill essences, and even fused with Divinity… With such accumulated foundation, it would be strange if the innate divine ability I comprehended were no different from other Mortal Shedding Adepts. Being powerful and unsolvable is only fitting.”

While marveling, Mu Lin used the Avici Chains to bind the other high-ranking officials. Effortlessly, he captured the souls of everyone into the Netherworld and bound them securely.

Afterward, Mu Lin did not kill them. Instead, he used the Vengeance Flames to continuously scorch their souls, subjecting them to endless agony and torment, forcing them to emit piercing wails incessantly.

By doing so, Mu Lin was not only venting his own anger but also seeking to Dissolve the resentment of the malevolent spirits within him.

The resentment of the hundreds of thousands of wrongfully slain individuals was too immense. Even Mu Lin could not resist it at all times, nor did he have the heart to hinder their vengeance.

Thus, Mu Lin sought to alleviate part of their resentment by tormenting the high-ranking officials of Melting Fire City.

This approach had some effect.

“Hum!”

With a shudder coursing through his entire body, nearly a hundred fiery specks of light, mingled with Mu Lin’s power, scattered back onto the earth.

The soul spirits that returned were no longer human but had transformed into Purgatory Imps—jailers guarding the Flaming Hell.

They were created by Mu Lin using the remnants of hundreds of thousands of soul spirits, combined with the power of the City God, making them a type of soldier similar to Netherworld Soldiers.

The difference was that, wielding Vengeance Flames, they were most adept at inflicting endless pain and torment upon others.

For this reason, they were unsuited for capturing soul spirits but were better suited for torturing Malevolent Ghosts in Hell.

“It’s just a pity that these few high-ranking individuals alone cannot dissolve the vast Resentment within me. I must kill more people…”

“Kill, kill, kill…”

“They all deserve to die…”

“It hurts so much—they were the ones who beat me. Kill them…”

As Mu Lin lamented, the vengeful spirits gathered within him grew restless once more, influencing him, urging him to slaughter the three thousand armored soldiers and even the tens of thousands of mining slaves in the cruelest ways possible.

Naturally, Mu Lin was unwilling to do such a thing.

Among the three thousand armored soldiers, many were accomplices, and killing them was one thing, but among the mining slaves were many innocent people, and he had no desire to slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.

However, while Mu Lin did not wish to kill, the Resentment within him paid no heed. Consumed solely by hatred, it continuously roared, demanding that Mu Lin slaughter all living beings and annihilate everything.

Fortunately, Mu Lin’s soul was resilient enough, and the Avici Chains were powerful enough.

By binding himself with the chains, Mu Lin temporarily sealed himself away, along with the killing intent within him.

Meanwhile, as Mu Lin sealed himself, the Ghost Soldiers he had created using pure soul power did not cease their actions.

Under Mu Lin’s command, they brandished Soul-Binding Chains and charged toward the armored soldiers and the wicked among the mining slaves.

As for how to distinguish the wicked, this naturally relied on the City God’s Authority of judgment.

Seeing the good and evil in others through their souls was the signature skill of the Orthodox God of Nether Bureaucracy.

“Hiss!”

“It hurts so much!”

“Who’s there? Show yourself! Have the guts to face me one-on-one… Ah!”

In Mu Lin’s Netherworld, Earth Immortals, due to their unity of body and mind with heaven and earth, could quickly detect anomalies and sense another world.

Mortal Shedding Adepts might also, due to being attacked, have their consciousness descend upon their Soul Reflection in the Yin Earth.

But those below Mortal Shedding rarely possessed this ability.

Those who were attacked, unable to enter the Yin Earth, could only rage helplessly in the Yang World.

The three thousand armored soldiers were no exception.

Even though these soldiers were considered an elite force, having experienced battlefield combat and possessing some knowledge of military formations, the difference in dimensions rendered all their resistance futile—no matter what they did, they could only watch helplessly as their companions fell one by one.

This situation soon drove them to despair and collapse.

“Malevolent Ghosts!”

“This is impossible to fight! Run!”

“Don’t kill me, please don’t kill me…”

“Bastards, move aside! I’m the captain, let me go first…”

The collapsing armored soldiers fled in all directions, but like flies scattering chaotically, the Cultivators could not escape the pursuit of the Ghost Soldiers.

Then, their soul spirits were captured by Mu Lin’s jailers and brought to his side.

In the end, these individuals—whether accomplices to evil or those guilty of heinous crimes—would all be subjected to severe torment by Mu Lin using Vengeance Flames…

“Not quite. As an Orthodox God of Nether Bureaucracy, I am imposing punishment upon them, allowing them to atone for the sins committed in their lifetimes—this is not mere torment.”

Having found a suitable justification for his actions, Mu Lin continued using these villains to dissolve the resentment within the soul spirits in his body.

And whenever the resentment of a soul spirit fragment was dissolved, that fragment would merge with Mu Lin’s power, giving birth to a Netherworld Imp within the Netherworld.

Among the armored soldiers, there were quite a few who had abetted tyranny—a full two thousand of them. Among the mining slaves, there were also no shortage of villains.

After slaughtering them all and subjecting them to torment, Mu Lin had dissolved the resentment of thousands of soul spirit fragments and created eight hundred Netherworld Imps—since they were soul spirit fragments, it took several, or even over a dozen, fragments to create a single Netherworld Ghost Soldier.

Even then, it required merging with Mu Lin’s power to succeed.

…

After a chaotic battle, once Mu Lin’s Ghost Soldiers had exterminated all the villains, the innocent armored soldiers, blacksmiths, and mining slaves in Melting Fire City had all fled as well.

With no humans left, the Netherworld of Melting Fire City became an empty, desolate expanse.

Seeing this, the vengeful wraiths within Mu Lin immediately began howling, trying to influence him, urging him to go elsewhere to seek revenge.

Driven solely by hatred, they desired to destroy everything.

Unfortunately, Mu Lin did not act as they wished.

“Don’t rush. We don’t need to go anywhere—our enemies will come to us. As long as we endure for a while, we can continue our revenge.”

While soothing the soul spirits within him, Mu Lin began to infiltrate his power into Melting Fire City’s City Defense Array.

And once the City Defense Array fell under Mu Lin’s control, the Spirit Veins here also came under his command.

As is well known, a City God is a territorial deity with the duty of protecting a town or city.

Consequently, the Spirit Veins within and around the city also fall under the City God’s control.

“Boom!”

After gaining control of the Fire Spiritual Crystal Mine, the Vengeful Wraith created by Mu Lin saw its aura surge once more.

The flaming wraith now stood over three hundred meters tall, and its aura had reached the peak of Mortal Shedding Adept, just one step away from Earth Immortal.

“No, the Vengeful Wraith now is practically half an Earth Immortal.”

“Only those who control a Blessed Land can be considered Earth Immortals… If an Earth Immortal from the East Sea Kingdom comes here, they will lose the power boost from their Blessed Land. In contrast, I have the Fire Spiritual Crystal Mine as an energy source, granting me virtually limitless power. I wonder if, in this state, I can repel an Earth Immortal’s assault!”

(End of Chapter)