“I always forget how vast this world really is…”

Zhang Dong had to take a moment to look at the map. He was surrounded by snowy mountains and blizzards. It was hard to fathom that people could live in a place like this. After traveling from his last location he entered an area with a very chilly climate.

Each and every middle sized sect's land was like another planet. A lot of times the weather conditions would switch between the locations. What decided it wasn’t really the geographical location but the distribution of elemental Qi.

For instance, his old Zhang Clan had been built in an area where mostly water Qi prevailed. Luckily it didn’t overpower the other spiritual energy types too much, if it did then instead of a city there would be a giant ocean size lake there. Only when there was a balance between these elements would an area that was habitable sprout out.

It was hard to find a place that was truly devoid of one of the main elements. Yet ones that one prevailed over the others were quite common. In this one, it was ice and wind, a truly uncomfortable combination. The strong winds only exacerbated the cold air and made it hard for humans to survive.

“This must be one of the entrances to the underground.”

Yet, the people had managed to find a way. Before him was a large hole in the ground that was radiating heat. While ice Qi prevailed over the upper world, fire had made the underground world its domain. It was as if it escaped to where the cold could not reach it anymore.

‘Supposedly there are many small volcanoes like these spread through this area.’

It was a strange sight to behold. This volcano was truly active and gave out a tremendous amount of heat. Even when he was getting closer he could see a large amount of steam that was being created. The sight was spectacular, not something that he had ever expected to see before coming to this world.

The fire from the volcano melted the snow around it and then quickly made it turn to steam. Yet after a few moments, the steam was cooled down by the chilly air. The place was in a perpetual storm of snow and ice as the steam was being transformed and blown around everywhere. If Zhang Dong could not surround his body with a layer of his own warm energy he would probably turn into a frozen sculpture within a day’s time.

“Down we go I guess?”

After taking a peek at his system map he dived into the active volcano right from the top. On the inside, his spiritual energy kept him safe from the increased heat. While the whole place seemed to be a death trap filled with molten lava there was a side tunnel. When arriving at it he noticed man-made columns and some writing.

“Welcome to the Underforge?”

He spoke out the written words while looking around. Instantly he noticed that there was something off here. On the walls, there were some strange incisions that looked like they were made with bladed weapons and other ones that looked like claws. There were no bodies here but a fight had clearly taken place here.

“These markings match the claw size of those red vampires… doesn’t seem that there were any survivors… did they just eat the bodies or something?”

After spreading his spiritual sense to examine the area he discovered some faint traces of human blood. The sect that operated in this area had sentries placed at most of the entrances in their lands. These volcanoes that led into the underforge were their border region which they would of course want to protect.

The entrance that he was looking at wasn’t very large nor did it seem that it had been that well-protected. Probably the soldiers were mostly placed as lookouts to signal any unwanted guests arriving and not as a force to repel them.

These people that lived in the underground were known forgemasters. They probably needed to have entrances that were large enough to let flying ships in and this was certainly not one of them. It was just a side entrance that was close to the border region with the other sects.

“The city should be that way…”

Zhang Dong knocked on the rocky walls and realized that it was quite sturdy. The system map could not detect any nearby cities. He could either try to go through these tunnels or try going through the walls. The only problem was that if he tried that he would most likely burn through his spirit energy reserves.

It was fine to drill a hole through the soft ground but when it was filled with metal the difficulty would increase. Even though the enemies that he met before were somewhat easy to defeat he did not know how many there would be down there.

With his current strength, it might have seemed that he should be able to bulldoze his way through all of these adversaries. This he knew but that way of thinking would only bring him ruin, getting too prideful would be his downfall like it was for many other strong masters before him.

Thus while spreading his senses in all directions he descended into the underforge. Bob was alerted to signal him if he discovered any pockets of minerals that could be useful to his rise in cultivation.

The opening took him through a long winding corridor that he quickly sped through. Then he found himself at a fork in a road that gave him three options. Luckily for him, there were many clues of where he should go. Thanks to the fighting that took place in this place it was clear where everyone ran through.

His journey continued and the deeper he descended the more signs of life he discovered. Yet there were no remains of the people living there, some broken weapons and destroyed furniture that was previously used by someone. Either these vampires that he had met were taking these people away or they were somehow disposing of the bodies on the spot.

It wasn’t hard to trace the bloodshed but there was a certain thing missing. After gaining his soul core he had been more attuned to the astral aspect. Even though people had died here there were no leftover souls. But after his previous run in with these soul vampires he knew that they were responsible for it.

‘I might be too late to save anyone…’

This left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth as he would not be here if it wasn’t for the natural resources. Without there being any survivors it also made it easier for him to just grab what he needed and leave. But debating his motives would not get him anywhere so he continued to venture deeper and deeper into the underforge. Soon he arrived at a wide-open area with quite a high concentration of earth and fire Qi.

“This must be the underground river of fire that I read about.”

Before leaving his sect he had gone through the areas of interest. After a quick read, he was informed about the main points of interest. All of the large and small volcanos led into the underforge. Then after passing through a wide range of tight corridors a person would come to a huge river made from lava.

This area was tremendously huge, even flying ships could go past. The main volcano that connected to the capital city was connected to this river made of molten rock. His plan was to fly through this place and then arrive at where the vampires arrived. On the way there he would help out if there were any survivors but after some time had passed something became clear.

“There is no one here…”

Zhang Dong continued to fly while looking around. Through the walls, he could somewhat sense the residential areas that people once lived in. Sometimes he would see buildings on the walls but there were no signs of life, only destruction, and emptiness.

The longer his flight continued the more his mood soured. Even when he picked up the pace there was no sign of the monsters nor the people that should be there. At first, he thought that all of them might have retreated to the capital that he was going towards but when he arrived there the sight was shocking.

Giant gates that were made from some kind of hard metal stood there. They had been bent out of shape by something. From what he had heard the city inside was supposed to be a marvel of ingenuity and the citizens inside tended to use inventions to help them with their day-to-day life. Yet when he crossed through the gates he discovered a ghost city.

“Are they all…”

There was widespread destruction through what looked to be a steampunk version of a huge city of cultivators. Small streams of lava flowed from the walls and into some strange vats. It seemed that they were somehow melting the snow outside and turning it to steam to run a lot of the mechanisms here.

At least that’s what he could tell from the ones that were still intact. From what he was seeing there wasn’t much left, everything was shredded or crushed under something large. There were strange markings on the ground that were somewhat familiar. It was as if some kind of giant worm or snake busted through this gate.

‘Probably the same creature that I saw at that bridge…’

There was another large hole in one of the walls that was now filling up with lava. The giant worm beast probably borrowed its way out through it. With its help, the red vampires had made their escape as it didn’t seem that any of them remained here.

In the distance, there was something like a tower, a remnant of some larger structure. It had collapsed on the side. Zhang Dong floated over towards it to discover a strange blood splatter on the ground. It looked like it belonged to a female body type and it was also next to something that soured his mood even more.

A crib made from metal was tipped over without anything remaining in there. The room he arrived in was clearly painted in gentle colors. Various toys and figurines were spilled out through the ground. One that was intact caught his eye, it was somewhat similar to an old doll that his own daughter still had.

He moved closer to it to pick it up. The moment he did the doll's head tipped to the side and quickly fell to the ground. The faint reminder of some spiritual energy remained on this toy which probably belonged to the child that used to sleep in the crib.

“What kind of person creates this kind of world…”

His mind raced as he felt rage rise up in his chest. So many people had perished here that he would never see the faces of. Yet this was only a scenario that was playing out by the design of some kind of otherworldly being.

Yet he was unable to go against it. The part that he was playing in this game had only started and the carnage would only continue. Millions more would suffer and he could not do anything about it. The only thing that he could do was to save the few that he could and take vengeance for the ones that had fallen.