As the death energy grew within Long Chen’s body, the surrounding pressure on him lessened. Long Chen could now control the Demon Moon Furnace and refine pills with Ling-er.

When Ling-er’s body appeared within the black whirlpool, she was able to absorb the laws of death directly, injecting it into the Heart Corroding Bone Rotting Death Spirit Pills and increasing their quality.

Long Chen hadn’t expected to run into such an opportunity here. It should have taken him at least half a year to even over a year to refine enough pills to raise himself to the third step.

That was because the laws of the Martial Heaven Continent possessed far greater life energy than death energy. Extracting the death energy was very difficult, and it took a great deal of time.

At this moment, Long Chen had practically forgotten just how precarious his current situation was. Ling-er was continuing to refine the pills, but he was now focused on the details, fixing many minor imperfections. The pills were refined rapidly and with even greater quality.

Refining this pill with endless death energy was incredibly easy. The top grade pills were tossed into lightning to temper and then into his mouth.

Long Chen continued to crazily eat pills, increasing his cultivation base. Around a month passed.

Finally, his death energy fully suppressed his life energy and had reversed his life and death energy ratio to ten-ninety. His life energy was now incredibly pure and condensed.

His cultivation base had reached the sixth Heavenstage of Netherpassage, and his death energy now occupied ninety percent of his body’s energy. At the same time, his life energy had reached the pinnacle of purity.

Since he had reached the sixth Heavenstage, he had set foot into the third step of Netherpassage.

In the instant he reached that level, he had a feeling of absolute control. His death energy made him feel like he possessed the power to take the life of all living beings.

His primal chaos space and astral spaces had also grown, giving him greater power.

“It’s time to leave.” Long Chen took a deep breath. He began flying toward the distant crack in space. Within this spatial whirlpool of death energy, he was like a fish in water, easily moving through it.

However, when he got close to the crack, a powerful wave of power sent him flying back.

“This spatial crack will only allow you to enter, but not leave. Your chances of getting out are very remote,” said Evilmoon.

“There must be a way.” Long Chen shot forth like an arrow, summoning his divine ring and battle armor. He slashed the invisible barrier that he felt.

Cracks appeared in the void, showing signs of bursting.

“There is a chance!” Long Chen was delighted despite being knocked back once more. However, his expression fell when he saw the spatial cracks vanish in just a moment.

“Again!” Long Chen used the full power of Split the Heavens this time. The void once more cracked, on the verge of exploding, but just that little bit meant that he was unable to get past.

“Evilmoon, help me out!” shouted Long Chen.

“Fine. This should convince you,” replied Evilmoon helplessly.

Not knowing what Evilmoon meant, Long Chen attacked once more. These two attempts had exhausted half his power, and now he used up everything left.

Evilmoon’s runes lit up as well, and it joined forces with Long Chen to strike the invisible barrier.

Once the barrier shattered, Long Chen passed through, laughing maniacally. His laughter was cut off though when another wave of power sent him flying straight back into the heart of the whirlpool.

“What?!” Long Chen was shocked and enraged. He hadn’t managed to get out? He also saw the broken barrier was now restored. “What is going on?”

“I told you, it’s only possible to enter, but not leave. There are nine barriers. Unless you have the power to pass through all nine barriers at once, you won’t be able to leave.” Evilmoon sighed helplessly.

“Nine barriers?” Even Long Chen couldn’t help feeling a bit of despair. Just one barrier had used up all his power. There was no way he could break through all nine in one go.

“Even a Sovereign would have to have reached the Samsara realm in order to have a chance at breaking through. But this place only has death energy. You could train here for tens of thousands of years without reaching the Samsara realm,” said Evilmoon dispiritedly. Although Long Chen wouldn’t die now, there was no hope of leaving.

He had run out of energy, and this news gave him a serious blow. “There must be a way.”

Long Chen clenched his teeth, restoring his energy as he tried to think of something. But he was unable to come up with anything effective.

“Am I really going to be trapped here until I die?” Long Chen clenched his teeth.

Suddenly, he heard a strange sound. At first, he thought it was just a misperception due to his nerves, but he quickly realized that the void around him was quivering.

He suddenly noticed a giant black object moving against the whirlpool from behind him.

“Get out of the way, it’s a Ghost Ship!” shouted Evilmoon.

Only then did Long Chen realize that it was a giant black ship, which had a sail riddled in holes. An aura of immense decay came from it.

The entire boat was pitch black. As soon as he saw it, goosebumps raised upon Long Chen’s entire body. For some reason, he had a feeling of absolute terror. Although Long Chen had always thought that his guts weren’t small, for some reason, he felt an icy chill.

The Ghost Ship was about the size of a medium flying boat. He had no idea why it would appear here, but it was coming straight toward him.

Ripples appeared in the air in front of it wherever it passed. Those ripples shattered any laws of space.

“Don’t just stand there, run! If you’re hit by it, your entire body will disintegrate!” shouted Evilmoon.

Only then did Long Chen recover and dodge to the side. The Ghost Ship flew by his body, and a wave of power struck him, making him cough up blood. He was shocked. Despite clearly dodging it, he was still affected.

The Ghost Ship was too fast for him to get a clear look at. It was already shooting past him. However, at the last moment, Long Chen saw a long chain hanging off of its rear. Without even thinking about it, Long Chen grabbed that chain.

The instant he grabbed the chain, his soul shook. It felt like it was about to be torn apart.

However, Long Chen bitterly endured, hanging onto it for his life. He felt like he could hear the sound of spatial walls exploding, but he no longer had the power to sense his surroundings.

Countless scenes appeared in his mind. It felt like he was passing through spacetime. There were scenes of people within an immortal world, scenes of hell, scenes of bloody battlefields, scenes of people being intimate. They transformed in an instant as if he was undergoing some kind of reincarnation.

He saw many lifeforms that he didn’t recognize. He also saw fierce fiends staring at him. Some pounced on him, while some fled, but without doing anything, they were blasted apart. It felt like a dream, but it was incredibly lifelike.

“Long Chen, let go!”

A panicked voice rang out within Long Chen’s dream. He had already submerged within his dream, and his reactions were sluggish. That voice was indistinct and sounded as if it came from a great distance.

Suddenly, a sensation of absolute terror woke him up. He realized that this voice came from Evilmoon. Without a second thought, he let go.

After that, he felt like he was dropping into a bottomless abyss. He was sinking… sinking and sinking.

“Long Chen, can you hear me?”

Within that darkness, a familiar voice rang out in Long Chen’s mind. It was a voice he had heard several times before. Every time, it only spouted riddles at him.

“I suppose so.” Long Chen bitterly smiled. He had heard this voice several times, but it was always talking to him without him being able to reply.

“Your position has been locked onto. The Heavenly Devil race’s hunters will find you soon. If you still don’t get stronger, everything you have will be stripped away.” The ancient voice contained a sigh as well as a tone of urgency. But mostly, it just sounded helpless.

“Who are you? And who am I? Can you not talk in riddles?” demanded Long Chen.

“I am your guide, but we are too far apart. I can only sense you when you are at death’s door and the ripples of your heart are at peace. As for who you are, do you not know? You are the heir of the nine stars. Your shoulders carry the mission of saving the ten planar worlds.”

“Give up on me. I can’t even save myself, so how am I supposed to save others?”

“You are currently weak because you have not found the key to unlocking your potential. You have to-”

Suddenly, Long Chen’s soul shook. The voice vanished as if cut off by some power.

After that, Long Chen slowly opened his eyes, finding himself lying on a bed. There was a woman sitting beside him.

“It’s you?” Long Chen was startled upon seeing the woman.