Endless vengeful spirits crowded the pure black chaos. Their resentment filled the realm, the black flames a combustion of their inexhaustible bitterness.

Resentment rose from all living beings at the moment of their death.

To live was a basic instinct. Before one died, a desire to live and regret for everything they’d failed to accomplish rose from the bottom of their heart. This survival instinct was shrouded by wisdom in intelligent life forms, by layers of responsibility, obligation, and duties that caused them to forget such impulses.

When the final end arrived and life ceased, intelligence faded away. The survival instinct and desire flared anew, thus giving rise to this kind of resentment. It only differed in intensity, and an unwarranted death created the greatest.

The bitterness coming off all of these spirits was that of undeserved, unjustified deaths. The chaos tribulation that the nine Hongmeng creations had ignited ahead of schedule caused the deaths of untold innocents. Their ensuing malice and rage sought out the nine sacred lands and attached to any cultivator they found.

Meanwhile, the sacred land cultivators also burned with hatred for Lu Yun and the sacred palaces. This turned into an outlet for the vengeful spirits and the noxious mix of malevolence refocused on Lu Yun and the six palaces.

……

Horror prickled at Lu Yun’s scalp to see all of the laughing and crying faces in front of him. The resentment they harbored indeed came from unwarranted deaths, but their origins were by no means that simple.

“Can it be… the chaos sea??” Lu Yun’s brows snapped together as a sudden terrifying thought occurred to him.

Lu Qing’s strength was on par with a Hongmeng king, but he remained holding down the fort in the chaos sea, guarding the sun and moon and never setting a foot away from them.

Lu Yun didn’t think those two items were worth protecting; his son wouldn’t be able to protect them if someone really wanted to claim them. The only other possible reason for his existence was that Lu Qing was guarding some sort of seal.

The seal must’ve broken and let loose whatever was inside. They’d combined with the vengeful spirits of the chaos and turned into these creatures.

The advent of chaos tribulations was likely whenever the seal loosened. Not even Lu Qing, however, had fathomed that the nine Hongmeng creatures would be so crazy as to ignite one ahead of time!

Power from the abyss radiated outward, enveloping Lu Yun and the six palaces behind him in its shadow, isolating everything inside from the chaos. This provided enough breathing space for the crumbling order of space to slowly recover.

Layers, tides, and hordes of vengeful spirits fully surrounded the barrier, screeching and caterwauling as they circled around the six palaces. They were trying to find an opening into the abyss’ boundary.

Whoosh!

A colorless flame rose in the depths of the chaos, turning all of the spirits it touched into dust. A faint figure walked out of the deep.

“Qiu Luoyu?” Lu Yun greeted the newcomer with surprise.

Qiu Luoyu’s dark fire was gone, replaced by a colorless flame that raged mercilessly in the void. It was the same as Lu Yun’s hellfire, possessing the same level of terrifying power.

Qiu Luoyu also paused when he saw Lu Yun, then somewhat self-consciously knelt in front of the young man and circumspectly kowtowed three times.

“Greet, greetings to the martial grandmaster,” he stammered.

“You may rise.” Lu Yun furrowed his brows slightly. “He’s taken you for a disciple?”

Qiu Luoyu chuckled ruefully and stood up with a gentle nod.

“Master says that we have a shared destiny since I possess the dark fire. He took me as a disciple and gave me the nether fire as well.”

The Netherdark Flame!

The colorless flame that Qiu Luoyu possessed was Violetgrave’s Netherdark Flame!

When the purple nether fire and blue dark fire blended together, they formed a colorless fire that was the flame of the Netherdark Hell. Gaining that fire meant control over the Netherdark Hell!

Qiu Luoyu flipped his hand over and materialized a one-meter-long immortal sword that looked like it was carved from violet jade. He offered it respectfully to Lu Yun—the Violetgrave sword, also the physical manifestation of the Netherdark Hell.

“Ai.” Lu Yun sighed gently. With a wave of his hand, the sword returned to his grasp.

When it’d first appeared in Thundergale Major of the world of immortals, Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi hadn’t hesitated to seize it and give it to Qing Yu. They’d hoped that she would discover its secrets and make a deal with Violetgrave, thus using her power to avoid death.

Who would’ve thought that Qing Yu would give it to Lu Yun instead? It was the young man who awakened Violetgrave and retained possession of it.

He’d turned her down before rushing back to the chaos to relieve the six palaces. It’d somehow found its way to Qiu Luoyu’s hands, and now back to Lu Yun’s.

“Forget it, this is the first gift that Little Yu gave to me and a token of our affections. I’ll keep it.” Lu Yun gave it a light wave.

Hummm.

A violet light blossomed from the sword, blooming gracefully in the black chaos with a vibrant sword qi that was the equivalent of a purple Hell Flower. It instantly rendered the darkened chaos into a hazy purple.

Countless vengeful spirits went up in smoke from Lu Yun’s gesture. This wasn’t his own strength, but that of the sword’s—the Netherdark Hell’s!

Wielding Violetgrave meant controlling the Netherdark Hell and being able to deploy its strength as he would. However, with great power came great responsibility—one that Lu Yun hadn’t wanted to shoulder since it didn’t belong to him.

But now that his son was involved and had sent the sword with Qiu Luoyu… there was nothing else that Lu Yun could do but accept his role.

“The underworld is a world formed by the emanations of the Violetgrave sword. The Netherdark Hell was once part of a world and helped that world grow and develop. Its energy spread out as the underworld and became that world’s hell.

“However, that world also failed in the end and the Netherdark Hell turned into the sword we know as Violetgrave. The underworld took up the mantle of the hell’s duties and began devouring the various civilizations of the worlds within the chaos.”

When Lu Yun grasped the sword as its full owner, he understood a few more things about the five hells. The Netherdark Hell had been the first to appear and the Hadal Hell the last.

But who’d created these five hells?

No one knew.

The Netherdark Hell had supported the growth of nine worlds, but all of them had fallen after they’d grown—then become the Hadal Hell!