The Underworld Heart, realistically speaking, would be the weakest of the seven treasures. It solely possessed the power to condense and manipulate the flow essence that was present in the surroundings within a certain distance from itself. Realistically speaking, the Underworld Heart didn’t have many uses. Forming objects, required a lot of essence and was not very practical. For instance, the wall of essence Zhang formed to block the Northern Diyu’s attack took a massive amount of essence to form.
Suddenly, mesmerizing light shot out from the Pool of Regrets and projected itself into the sky. Simultaneously, streams of water also shot out after the ray of light.
The Heilong Kingdom fell into utter chaos after the Siwang Empire attacked and conquered the ten cities. Armies were being recruited and trained day and night. Emissaries were sent to many neighboring kingdoms to try to form an alliance against the Siwang Empire.
For those who were currently admitted to various schools throughout the kingdom were exempted from the inspection. This was because anyone who was admitted into a school for cultivation was going to grow stronger than they would if they were put directly into a military camp.
Precisely, because of this, those in the Royal Academy paid little attention to the happenings of the outside world. They focused all their attention on cultivation.
In one of the thousand boarding rooms at the Academy, there sat a beautiful young girl who was gazing at the stars. There was a sense of longing and lost present in her eyes as she peered into the endless night.
Before the Siwang Empire attacked the Blue Tear city, her life could be said as a perfect one, at least for her that is. She had parents that loved her, nice clothes, tasty food, all the things that one could wish and hope for was there for the taking. Life was simple and was void of worries or sorrow.
She would never be able to walk down the same street that she did when he was growing up. Never will she be able to see and be greeted by the kind old woman who sold food at the street in front of her home. It was all these little losses that would gradually build to the bigger ones.
No matter what others said, for her he was still alive. Be it in her heart or by some slim chance that he avoided the disaster.
This girl was the same girl who had climbed up that tree with a certain boy on a certain day. This girl was Ling.
After Ling had arrived at the Royal Academy, she was like a fish in the water. She proved that she was a genius among geniuses. Ling was recognized as a student who would one day achieve great feats and would play a large role within the kingdom once she graduated.
Everyone advanced differently. Some used money, while others used influence and many more tried to use power to impress her.But did Ling lack money? Did she lack influence? And lastly did she lack power? That would be a no.
Shortly after they escaped Blue Tear City, the Wu clan and Zhou clan relocated into the capital of the Heilong Kingdom.
Filled with grief and lost, they strived for power. Why? Some might ask, the answer is simple. They wished for power so that they could revenge.
Sadly, Zhen Ji had fallen into a coma and hadn’t woken up after the shock of her son dying hit her.
A storm was brewing in the Wulin continent. The Siwang Empire had initiated an era of war and conquest.
On a smaller scale, many influential families had begun plotting. They too wished to become royalty. They too wanted their clan to be worshiped as founders of a kingdom or better yet, an empire.
Preparations were taking place everywhere except those places deprived of humans. Demonic beasts paid no mind to the affairs of man nor did they know what was happening.
These islands were not inhabited by humans, for the animals and demonic beasts living there, they were all on the weaker side in terms of strength.
Beside that largest island, there was another particular island. This island was avoided by everyone who came remotely close to the 100 islands. This island was also known as the Cursed Island where strange lights would occasionally.
There were also rumors that deep within the center of the island was a cave that leads to a network of caves. These caves formed a natural maze and who knows what lurks in them. But one thing was for sure, within the caves, there were countless pool of waters and it was said that these pools lead to the underworld.
However, today, strange lights shot out from the island continuously. Seeing that the lights came from the Curse Island, the few inhabitants of the 100 islands were frightened out of their wits.
The ray of light beamed through the area of the 100 islands and it was even visible on the southern shore of the Heilong Kingdom.
Deep within the Cursed Island, through a thick and dense forest, was the entrance to the cave system. Inside of the cave system buried a very deep underground, through many twists and turns there was a huge and perfectly round pool of water. The water in the pool however was bloody red and at the bottom of it laid countless bones.
When the final light shot out from the pool, the Underworld Heart could be seen flying out of the water and floating in midair above the ground. From it shot out three rays of green light. Then it began to hover for a moment then, as if it had run out of power, it dropped to the ground with a clank.
Zhang awoken in a somewhat dazed state. His vision was blurry and everything around him was dim. Had it not been for some oddly glowing stones embedded into the ceiling, he would not be able to see anything at all. The next thing he realized was his necklace that had been around on his neck since he was a baby was gone.
As he turned to his right, he saw Yuying was laying unconscious on his arm. She was completely naked, two hills and a valley were completely visible. His face began to glow bright red at the mesmerizing sight but after a quick look he turned to his left as to avoid looking at her.
Zhang was currently living every man’s dream. He was sandwiched between two completely naked and extremely beautiful women. If he wasn’t so confused, he would probably be basking in this moment.
But he was about to find out as he heard someone yawning to his right. The yawn soon followed with a scream.
“What is this! And who is that!”, She yelled.
Zhang and Yuying both looked toward the source of yawn. The girl who they both did not know had also woken up.
She looked around the room and then looked at Zhang and Yuying.
“We we don’t know where we are!! As for who you are?? How are we supposed to know!”, Yuying yelled back at her.
As Zhang tried to avoid looking at the two beauties when something else caught his eye. It was the Underworld Heart laying on the ground.
He had used the power of the Underworld Heart to condense essence into clothes. These clothes would only be of use temporarily though. If someone drew essence from the air, there was a small chance the clothes would disappear. This was because he didn’t exactly know how to properly use the Underworld Heart yet.
The Underworld Heart possessed little to no practical combat capabilities, but it possessed the unique ability to condense and mold essence to the users will at least in a limited area.
Zhang tossed a robe to Yuying and another to the unknown girl. After dressing themselves, the three tried to figure out their situation.
Zhang and Yuying had jumped into the Pool of Regrets in the Underworld after tossing in the Underworld Heart. They most likely were in the world of the living on the other side of the Pool of Regrets. These two things they were almost sure of.
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?” Zhang asked the mysterious girl.
They decided one thing though, they needed a name to call her. Thus, began the difficult task of naming someone.
“Xiaqing? Su Ling’er? Lu Lingqi?” Zhang murmured to himself after being shot down by Yuying.
The girl seemed to like the name Ai also. Ai and Yuying quickly became friends. Yuying had always wanted another girl as a friend. Being a princess had prevented her from making any true friends. So Ai was a friend she had always wanted.
Zhang was able to chip off some of the glowing rocks from the walls to use as a light source.
Walking around aimlessly was going to get them nowhere, so Yuying began marking the walls as they walked. She would drew on the walls as they passed them, this would allow them to know where they had been and where they hadn’t been.
There was nothing to do but to continue onward though.
Not wanting to stick around to see what those eyes belonged to, the three of them ran at full speed ahead.
The three of them continued running with the two girls in front and Zhang in the back. This was so that if the whatever was chasing them had caught up, Zhang would be able to buy time for the girls to escape.
Their pursuers come into sight.
The Hellhounds charged and jumped at Zhang and the girls. This was when Zhang’s arm suddenly extended. And a wall of essence formed in front of the trio. Unlike the wall that had blocked the attack from the Diyu, this wall was many times thinner.
“This wall won’t last for much longer. I don’t have enough essence to make a stronger one.”, Zhang said.