Hell??
Hearing these words, the crowd looked around in terror.
Under the gloomy sky, souls were hung everywhere.
Yin Chai held instruments of torture, and the sound of wailing echoed incessantly.
The air was thick with the stench of decay, making people want to retch.
Some had already vomited, while others screamed and retreated.
They had, of course, heard of hell.
The Greek Pantheon had the underworld Tartarus, the Norse had Helheim ruled by Hela, and Egypt had the Duat judged by Anubis…
But did China also have a hell on such a scale?
More Test Takers were still falling from the sky, pitter-pattering like rain.
The crowd finally reacted—Su Fu had done this on purpose.
She intentionally let that dog swallow the Solar Barque, forcing them to jump down and walk right into her trap, heading straight into the Eighteen Levels of Hell!
The sky had fallen.
Su Fu was far too sinister, wasn’t she?
This place looked like it was not to be trifled with.
“She led us here!”
“Have any of you heard of something called the Eighteen Levels of Hell?”
“Damn it! This can’t be real!”
“Hell is terrifying enough, why does the Chinese one have eighteen levels?!”
“This must be an illusion! She must still be creating phantasms for us!”
Just then, a sharp scream rang out: “Help! Someone help me!”
The crowd then saw that, at some unknown moment, several dark shadows had already surrounded those five or six Test Takers.
Those candidates screamed, struggling desperately.
The dark shadows were the Yin Chai of the Underworld.
Holding soul-locking chains, they easily shackled the Test Takers and dragged them toward a high platform.
“I don’t want to die here! Su Fu! Please let us go! We surrender!”
“Su Fu! You lunatic! Let us out!”
But no matter how they shouted, Su Fu was nowhere to be seen.
***
The people nearby saw this scene and froze for a moment before reacting, quickly shouting in fear: “Save them!”
Following that, countless Heavenly Techniques were released.
Under the combined attack of the crowd, they actually managed to force those Yin Chai back.
But before they could catch their breath, more Yin Chai surged up from all directions.
Expressionless and holding chains, they stared gloomily at certain people in the crowd.
The Yin Chai at the very front spoke coldly: “This is the first level of the Eighteen Levels of Hell, the Tongue-Pulling Hell.”
“All those who speak ill, use malicious words to hurt others, or spread rumors and slander are guilty of unpardonable crimes and must suffer the punishment of tongue-pulling.”
As soon as the words fell, iron chains flew out instantly, accurately pouncing on dozens of Test Takers in the crowd.
“Watch out!”
Everyone immediately slashed at the incoming chains.
However, those chains seemed to have a mind of their own.
They turned a deaf ear to some people but tightly entangled others.
No matter how much they struggled, they could not break free and were dragged toward the copper pillars in the distance for execution.
“Help!”
“Save me! What is going on?”
“I haven’t committed any crimes!”
“There are too many of them!” someone shouted in despair, “Is there any way to fight the rules here? Even if we can change them just a little bit! Otherwise, we’ll all be executed if this continues!”
“I’ll try!” A Test Taker from the Egyptian Pantheon stepped forward.
He summoned a massive golden scale, and the phantom of Anubis appeared behind him: “[Underworld Judgment!] Great judge of the dead, please help me reverse this injustice!”
“In the name of the Underworld Judge, I declare the rules of this place void!”
The golden scale began to shake violently, as if competing with the rules of this hell.
However, it didn’t last long.
The scale seemed unable to hold on and instantly shattered, vanishing before everyone’s eyes.
“It won’t work!” That Test Taker suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and said, “The rules here are too strong, I can’t reverse them at all…”
At the same time, the Divine Summoner of Hela, the goddess of the underworld from the Norse Pantheon, also tried to summon her Divine Manifestation: “In the name of the goddess of the underworld, I demand—”
But before she could even finish her sentence, the Divine Manifestation behind her collapsed.
“It’s no use. Even the authority of the underworld goddess can’t compete!”
The girl said with difficulty, “The Underworld system of China seems extremely complete, and the concepts are quite self-consistent!”
“To the point where it’s impossible to find any loopholes or weaknesses to break!”
Even the gods refused to appear; upon hearing the summons, they simply ran away!
How ridiculous.
“Gods above…” The Test Takers were in despair, their vision going dark.
“How are we supposed to fight this?”
Those Yin Chai swung their chains with great vigor, and they also possessed the rule advantages of the map, which seemed to naturally suppress them, especially those Test Takers who had committed sins.
“How can the Chinese Underworld system be so strong?!”
Just then, someone suddenly noticed a problem: “Wait, why are those chains only grabbing us? How come those people from the Paradise Pantheon are all fine?!”
Only then did the crowd realize that the Test Takers from the Paradise Pantheon were all safe and sound.
Their bodies emitted a faint Holy Light, and they were even helping other candidates break free from their restraints.
Meanwhile, the Yin Chai seemed to be turning a blind eye to them, not even giving them a glance.
The chains also automatically avoided them, taking a detour!
Hearing this, Fang Ze sneered, “The reason is simple: because we haven’t committed any crimes.”
“The Divine Summoners of Paradise have always followed the commandments and disciplined themselves strictly.”
“No stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no drinking… Under the rules of the Chinese Underworld, we haven’t committed the crimes that warrant punishment.”
“As for you lot… your retribution has simply come now!”
The crowd was speechless; it really did seem to be the case.
But it was so absurd—could the Chinese Underworld even distinguish this?
Do good deeds really receive good rewards, and evil ones receive evil rewards?
“Stop talking nonsense!” Someone couldn’t take it anymore and shouted, “Do you really want to pass this map according to its rules?”
“It’s impossible!”
“Now we only have one way out, and that is to kill all the Anomalies and break through the Dungeon map!”
“Regardless of what’s a crime and what isn’t, let’s work together to kill our way out!”
Hearing this, the crowd finally regained their sanity.
Yes, as long as they killed all the Anomalies, they would be done.
This was the well-known way to clear a stage.
What were they waiting for?
Just do it!
The crowd began to frantically attack the Yin Chai.
For a moment, Divine Power erupted.
Fire, frost… various Heavenly Techniques intertwined, forcibly tearing a bloody path through the Tongue-Pulling Hell.
They never thought that, as self-proclaimed chosen ones, they would one day have to rely on brute force to clear a stage, completely outcalculated by Su Fu.
And that woman was beautifully hiding among them.
Perhaps she was watching their pathetic state and feeling quite leisurely.
Just thinking about this made the crowd’s teeth itch with rage.
But as things stood, they could only grit their teeth and push forward.
Fortunately, they had strength in numbers.
Although they were panicking at first, they were, after all, the elites of various Divine Pantheons and quickly began to coordinate with each other.
When an Egyptian candidate had their tongue gripped by iron pliers, crying in pain, a Norse warrior would immediately follow up with an axe to split the torture device.
The Paradise Pantheon was putting out fires everywhere.
Wherever the Holy Light shone, the Yin Chai retreated, acting just like fire extinguishers.
Erupting Heavenly Techniques were everywhere, repelling wave after wave of Yin Chai.
Until the last Yin Chai died, the entire hell suddenly shook violently.
“We succeeded?!” someone shouted in pleasant surprise.
The next second—
“Boom!”
The map collapsed with a roar.
Everyone was caught off guard and fell downward.
By the time they reacted, everything had changed.
The torture pillars were gone.
In front of them was an even more sinister and terrifying scene.
There were scissors everywhere, and countless ghosts were being cut, wailing incessantly.
“Is this… the second level of hell?” someone murmured.
The crowd felt like they had been struck by lightning, and their vision went dark.
“My god… does this mean we really have to go through all eighteen levels of hell?”
“One by one?”
Olaf’s voice trembled, and he nearly fainted, “Eighteen… we’ve only cleared the First?! Are we going to have to fight battles like the one just now seventeen more times?”
The crowd’s mental state shattered instantly.
“Su Fu, you lunatic!”
“I curse you to never be reincarnated!”
Before the angry curses could end, a new batch of Yin Chai had already arrived from afar.
Each held scissors and was even more hideous and terrifying than the Yin Chai of the first level.
The crowd went mad with rage.
“She won’t even give us time to breathe? She’s treating us like stage-clearing machines, isn’t she?”
“Machines? She’s clearly using us like workhorses!”
“We’re here to participate in the Joint Exam, not to be abused!”
“When I catch you, I will definitely make you pay a hundredfold!”
Countless angry curses and resentful roars echoed in hell.
Su Fu heard them and nodded with satisfaction, “Not bad, they’ve got quite the drive.”
“Keep it up, this is only the second level!” Her leisurely voice echoed in hell, making the crowd burst into another round of colorful language.
Just then, George’s voice came through the communication channel: “Boss, sounds like things are going pretty well on your end?”
“It’s alright,” Su Fu said with a smile, Those guys are busy pulling 007 shifts in hell, working around the clock.”
“How are things on your end?”
“Hehe, everything is normal here!” George said excitedly.
“The Immortal Ship has now reached the Indian Pantheon’s Churning of the Milk Sea map. It’s estimated that we can head to Atlantis in half an hour.”
“Don’t worry, Boss. We guarantee we’ll scavenge every useful thing on the map. We won’t even leave behind an ant for them!”
Su Fu’s mood immediately became pleasant.
The plan was being executed perfectly.
She had this idea from the beginning.
After all, these maps were all S-rank maps.
Although dangerous, their resources were equally abundant, so she certainly couldn’t let them go to waste.
Therefore, she had already calculated everything.
She and the Immortal Ship would split into two paths.
She would be responsible for luring away and stalling the main force of the Alliance, while the Immortal Ship would go to the headquarters of the various Divine Pantheons to “raid their homes” and take them out in one nest.
Anyway, those Test Takers’ target was her.
It would be too big a loss not to utilize such a great opportunity.
Now that the Test Takers were about to break through the second level of hell, Su Fu nodded in satisfaction.
“They’re moving quite fast. As expected of elites who can survive until now, they do have some skills.”
Of course, the key point was that they all seemed to be pumped up, as if they wanted to clear the map quickly so they could deal with her.
Just then, George suddenly shouted in surprise: “Boss! This place is great, we’ve found the ‘Nectar of Immortality’!”
“According to the description, one sip of this stuff can bring someone back to life, though it might cause a random mutation.”
“Like growing an extra limb or something, but that’s not a big problem. This is resurrection! A high-level healing Divine Artifact!”
“Hehe, we’ve hit the jackpot this time!!” George was feeling great.
‘As expected, hanging out with the Boss was the way to go!’
Not only could they win steadily every time, but they could also reap a huge harvest.
He had never found clearing maps to be this much fun before.
Looking at those fools who insisted on opposing the Boss, thinking their seven-Pantheon Alliance siege was a big deal—now they were working 007 jobs in the Eighteen Levels of Hell, weren’t they?
Clearing maps day and night, it was simply too miserable.
Yi Congling suddenly chimed in, “Boss, why didn’t we just use the Kunpeng Giant Ship fleet to steamroll everything at the start?”
“If we had used them, it probably would have been over long ago, right?”
“You’re being too wasteful,” George couldn’t help but argue, “The Kunpeng Giant Ship is fast at clearing maps, but all the resources get destroyed too.”
“It’s like going to a restaurant and just beating up the chef without eating the food.”
“Look at how much good stuff we’ve scavenged this time. Hehe, this is the joy of clearing a map!”
Yi Congling: “…”
“Oh, I forgot. I’m not really short on money.”
Since she wasn’t short on money, her thinking was naturally “the faster, the better.”
George: “…”
‘Alright, you can shut up now.’
“Saying anything more would be impolite.”
Yi Congling made a zipping motion over her mouth, but she really wanted to drive the Kunpeng Giant Ship fleet and crush everything in her path.
How cool would that be!
In deep space, the Kunpeng cruises, and then, crushes everything!
Su Fu was resting her chin on her hand, thinking about something else.
The more she thought about it, the more she felt that the Immortal Ship map was a great thing.
“In that case, there’s no need to destroy the Immortal Ship.”
Aside from the Xu Immortal, there wasn’t really any truly threatening existence on it; most people were ordinary folk.