Tower of Heaven

Moving with care was a must. The surroundings were filled with corpses of such unbelievable beings, but how had they died?

The Underworld certainly was a place of death, but it was a place where those who had already died were sent. Nobody was meant to die here.

’Corpses here are technically living beings. True corpses that are truly lifeless…is this really the Underworld?’

Just how powerful were those beings when they lived for their corpses to remain in complete states in the atmosphere of the afterlife?

They didn’t decompose or rot. They were perfectly maintained in their peak states by the egregious amounts of qi present within. Despite the fact that their souls were gone and their bodies were vessels without owners, they were never truly able to die.

That was the source of the infinite vitality Atlas could feel around him.

’Do I approach them…?’

See, Atlas had a vague understanding of the Underworld. He left that city and rushed through the world because he figured that it would guide him to where he was meant to be.

This was where he was guided, sure, but for what reason?

He wondered if he was meant to approach them, but there really wasn’t any other option. If he wanted to traverse this plain and leave it, he had to move through them.

His steps took him there rapidly. As he got close, they stopped appearing as mountains altogether.

Their skin was smooth but had a rocky texture to it. Their faces were nondescript, not leaning towards one gender or the other, but they weren’t uniform. Each of them had their own uniqueness that made them stand out from the rest.

Each mountain range was shaped differently from the rest.

’Were they Divine Entities?’

It almost wasn’t a question. Non-Divine entities couldn’t grow to these sizes. Kallos was a Behemoth, and even he had never reached the scale of an entire mountain range.

What was existence like for beings like these?

How did they go about their lives, and what kind of Legends sustained them?

Did those Legends…fall?

He shook his head and stopped thinking about it. At the end of the day, their story had no relation to him.

He rushed past them, observing their features. At a point, he was forced to scale a mountainous leg to reach the other side.

It almost felt like he was desecrating the corpse, but he also put that feeling aside.

After all, as he rushed through the plain they inhabited, he started to sense a new kind of aura coming from beyond.

’There is blood being shed.’

Well, it wasn’t necessarily blood, but it all smelled the same. A disastrous killing intent filled the air and could be felt from hundreds of kilometers away.

This could only mean that a land of perpetual death was up ahead. Only in a land where slaughter and massacre were common concepts seen on a daily basis could that kind of aura exist.

When Atlas reached the top of that giant’s body, he was able to peer over the horizon and look into that aura.

’Those are

He immediately spotted blurs moving in the distance. As his eyes focused on the scene, he was able to vaguely make out the flow of battle.

There were undead species he’d never seen before clashing against each other in the distance. They weren’t numbered greatly, but there were still several hundred of them fighting against one another.

’If I approach them

Atlas narrowed his eyes.

’Hmm

He needed to eventually ask someone if they had seen or heard rumors about living souls entering this plane. That was the first piece of knowledge he needed.

He didn’t ask in the city because he didn’t need information about his own whereabouts and goals to spread, but if they were rogues who fought and killed for a living, it was a bit different.

In a land of perpetual death, Atlas didn’t need to worry about the problems he would cause by using deadly force. He also didn’t need to worry about trusting anyone, as nobody could be considered trustworthy.

The battle was quite large, but it was also progressing rapidly. By the time Atlas chose to rush down the other side of the mountainous corpse and approach them, several combatants on both sides had already fallen.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Booooooom!

The sounds of battle became louder and louder. What was once a vague image became clearer and filled with colors.

The two sides were dressed in ways that easily delineated them. While one wore a primarily black and purple color scheme, the other chose white and gold as if their goal was to look diametrically opposed.

It was better for Atlas, as he was able to clearly define who was who, but it didn’t necessarily matter to his current purposes.

Neither side was a potential ally, after all.

ROOOOOOAAAAAR–!

A huge roar blanketed the world in suppression.

From the side of white and gold, a skeletal dragon arose and flew into the sky. It circled in the air, roaring powerfully and forcing those below onto their knees.

BOOOOOOOM!

It opened its mouth wide and sent massive bursts of purple qi into the ground. They crashed and exploded like comets, sending enemies flying into the sky with their bodies torn apart.

ROOOAAAAAR–!

As the bone dragon roared again, Atlas paused his steps.

’Originally, I wanted to quietly infiltrate and pick someone off, but

Maybe that wasn’t the greatest idea when these forces were strong enough to be summoning beasts of that caliber.

’A friendly approach…?’

A friendly approach was always nice, but it took much too long and only worked if the people in question were also friendly.

If neither of the obvious options were possible, he could really only think of one other way.

’Mutual goals.’

Atlas stayed far enough away to keep himself hidden but approached just enough to where he could attack without being seen.

He gathered qi for the first time.

Or, well, he tried to.

He had forgotten one important fact in all of his planning.

He was a living soul in the Underworld, wasn’t he?

There was qi present all around him, but it didn’t enter his body easily. He couldn’t gather qi into his dantian because his dantian was unreachable.

The moment Atlas tried to attack, he found the energy in his body locking up. He was unable to produce even the weakest qi blast even if it meant saving his own life. Read new chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

’Tch!’

Without hesitation, he retreated to an advantageous position.

’I am not helpless.’

He immediately assessed the situation. The black hole in his knowledge sea was unique. It had the ability to crush any kind of qi and turn it into pure qi for him to absorb.

Even the qi present in the Underworld which was only meant for the dead was accessible.

’The problem here is that I am currently without a functioning dantian.’

He couldn’t contain qi, and when he tried to use it, it didn’t easily answer his commands.

He closed his eyes, trying to connect to the Underworld. He tried to understand the world he was in so that its qi would start to accept him.

However, connecting to the world…

Atlas had taken a step that he wasn’t meant to take yet.

Absorbing Underworld Qi was not a task that any living soul could be allowed to complete, as if it happened, the balance of things would be upset entirely.

Atlas was correct in that the black hole in his mind could crush Underworld Qi and turn it into pure qi for him to use, but what he failed to recognize were the implications of his actions.

The moment he tried to make that connection, eyes that he had no business attracting were pulled to his movements.

And forces far beyond his understanding started to move towards him.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!