This assassin is upright

Chapter 383 Above Ground and Underground

After quickly determining their primary objective, Yu Zhun and the others cautiously surveyed their surroundings.

They were currently in a desolate area, but not far from where they were, a dark wind was blowing, carrying the sound of waves.

That was the sound of the sea.

Unlike any other level they had encountered before, the main body of the ninth level of the Netherworld was an ocean, with only scattered islands appearing on the surface, forming the dwelling place of the demons.

Yu Zhun and the others were currently on one of the isolated islands, which was about the size of a football field. There were no other demons around besides them.

After looking around, everyone's attention finally fell on the edge of the island where it borders the ocean.

The ocean in the Netherworld is different from ordinary oceans. It is a dark and gloomy ocean current that seems to be able to swallow everything. Even if Yu Zhun and others use their senses to delve into it, they cannot find anything at all.

"Would you like to go underwater and take a look?" Helmod asked slowly.

"I'll go down and take a look first." Yu Zhun nodded slightly, then paused, "Doesn't this scene look familiar?"

Upon hearing this, the others exchanged knowing smiles.

The scene before them did look somewhat familiar. They had entered a secret realm composed of oceans and floating islands in the [Heavenly Ruins Sacred Realm] before, but the scale of this sea was far greater than that secret realm.

Without hesitation, Yu Zhun walked slowly into the seawater.

When his body was completely submerged in seawater, the bizarre and wonderful sights that suddenly appeared beneath the surface made his pupils shrink sharply.

That is…

Without the slightest hesitation, Yu Zhun quickly retreated until he returned to the original shore, and spoke rapidly under the curious gazes of the others.

"Beneath the sea lies a new land."

"There I saw towering demon cities and countless walking demons."

"So, this seawater is fake?" Helmod frowned, looking at the endless sea before him. "Is it the boundary between the surface world and the underworld?"

“That’s one way to put it.” Yu Zhun nodded slightly. “I plan to explore the other islands on the surface world first.”

"After all, we haven't found anything related to that formation yet. It would be extremely dangerous to rashly enter the underground world where there are more and more demons."

“No problem.” Helmod nodded slightly.

Give me two minutes.

As he spoke, he casually grabbed a handful of sand from the barren land and, using the skills of a blacksmith, crafted a boat that could accommodate five people.

"Come on aboard." Stepping onto the boat, Helmod waved to Yu Zhun and the other three who remained on the shore. "Let's go to the next island."

The other four quickly followed, and the boat rocked slightly before speeding away across the dark sea like an arrow.

In just a few breaths, the group arrived at the only island they could see. It was a much larger island than their original one. There were no traces of other demons on the island, but a palace that had been abandoned for who knows how long stood quietly there.

After exploring the rest of the island, Yu Zhun and his group of five reunited in front of the palace gates. Looking at the palace with its doors wide open but its interior dark and imperceptible, their eyes gleamed with eager anticipation.

“The demons who enter the ninth level through the portal on the eighth level should all start from the same location,” Helmod said in a deep voice. “In other words, the vast majority of demons will come here.”

“This place is so special, there must be something special here,” Udyr said softly. “For example, an array.”

"Let's go in and take a look." Yu Zhun nodded and took the lead into the hall.

The moment the five people stepped into the hall, the wide-open doors behind them slammed shut. Candles lit up in the dimly lit palace, but the dim light did not bring comfort; instead, it added to the eeriness.

"Playing tricks!" Lu Wen sneered, raising his twin swords. "Come out and take a sword strike from your grandpa Lu Wen!"

“Stop shouting, there’s no one here.” Yu Zhun shook his head. “This must be some kind of mechanism pre-set in this palace.”

As he spoke, he casually picked up a candlestick and slowly walked towards the edge of the palace, letting the candlestick's light illuminate the patterns on the palace walls.

"These patterns?" Helmod followed closely behind, his eyes showing surprise and uncertainty as he saw the complex and chaotic patterns that seemed to conceal some information.

"Write it down first, and we'll take a look later," Yu Zhun said in a low voice. Then he slowly moved along the palace wall, letting the dim candlelight illuminate more of it, eventually outlining the patterns on the entire palace wall.

After circling around and returning to the starting point, Yu Zhun slowly closed his eyes. All the patterns on the walls pieced together in his mind, and after being shuffled and rearranged countless times in an instant, they were re-woven into a new picture.

"Shh!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, a look of surprise and delight in them. "This is a complete topographical map of the palace."

"So, there really is something good here?" Lu Wen's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but ask, "Where?"

"Follow me." Yu Zhun took a deep breath and turned to walk towards an inconspicuous path inside the palace.

The others followed without hesitation, and under Yu Zhun's guidance, they made several turns until they finally arrived at a small side hall that could only accommodate a few people.

In the center of that side hall, there was a stone platform with small dots engraved on it and connected by arrows. Some of the dots were encircled by larger circles, which seemed to have some special meaning.

“This is…” Helmod’s gaze followed the small dot at the beginning of the arrow to the second small dot. After a moment of thought, a look of surprise and uncertainty appeared in his eyes. “A map of the islands on the ground?”

“That’s right.” Yu Zhun nodded. “It’s a map of the islands. We just need to follow the map to find these islands and keep going until we reach the end of our journey to get something.”

"If I'm not mistaken, that's the formation we've been seeing."

"What do those circled dots represent?" Udyr couldn't help but ask.

“That might mean there’s a similar palace up there,” Yu Zhu quickly said. “Look, we’re on the second island now.”

"The corresponding dots on this island are also circled."

"I see." Udyr looked enlightened.

"There's no time to lose." After quickly making a copy of the route map, Yu Zhun turned around and retraced his steps along the same path.

"Let's set off according to the route map!"
-
"We'll be at the sixth island soon."

On the boat, Yu Zhun looked at the island that was rapidly enlarging ahead and slowly spoke.

Before this, they had already followed the route map they had copied, passing through several islands one after another. The directions and distances were exactly the same, which was enough to verify the accuracy of the route map.

However, those islands were all deserted and isolated, with no demons, palaces, or ruins on them.

But the island that Yu Zhun and his group were about to reach was different.

This island is the second one circled on the route map.

Even without a palace, it must have something special about it.

A few breaths later, the boat stopped at the shore and was casually taken away by Helmod. Yu Zhun and his group of five quickly searched the not-so-large island and then successfully discovered an unusual area.

It was the entrance to a cave in the center of the island, about two or three meters wide, leading into a dark, unknown place. "Shall we go in and take a look?" Helmod raised an eyebrow.

"I'll go first!" Lu Wen raised his longsword and volunteered to take on the responsibility of being the vanguard.

As the winding road continued downhill, the space suddenly opened up before us, revealing an empty underground cavern. In the very center of the cavern, embedded in the ground, was an object pulsating with energy.

"What is that thing?" Lu Wen muttered to himself as he quickly stepped forward. Just as he was about to grab the object, the entire cave suddenly trembled violently.

"Watch out!" Yu Zhun and the others' expressions changed, and they quickly came to Lu Wen's side, looking around warily.

Before their eyes, countless black pebbles flew up rapidly, gathering in mid-air and eventually transforming into a colossal rock giant that roared angrily at Yu Zhun and the others.

"That's it?" Lu Wen grinned, and his longsword suddenly burst forth with a terrifying sword light, slashing heavily towards the rock giant.

"Eat my sword!"

"boom!!!"

As the sword's edge swept across, the rock giant's movements came to an abrupt halt, its body shattering and scattering throughout the cavern.

"It's a bit weaker than I expected," Yu Zhun said in a low voice, while picking up something embedded in the ground.

It was a fan-shaped crystal with intricate patterns engraved on it. Its aura was vaguely familiar, similar to the array they had seen on the eighth floor. Its cut surface was smooth as a mirror, and it was a quarter of a circle.

Upon seeing its appearance clearly, Yu Zhun's eyes flickered slightly. "If I remember correctly, there should be three more enclosed islands behind it?"

The others realized something upon hearing Yu Zhun's words.

"You mean, each of the islands behind has a similar crystal, and piecing them together makes a complete formation?" A look of realization flashed in Helmod's eyes.

"That should be it." Yu Zhun nodded slightly, then paused, "Besides that, there are many other special things here."

Helmod pondered for a moment, then looked at Yu Zhun with a puzzled expression, "What do you mean?"

“This,” Yu Zhun said, shaking the crystal in his hand, “we weren’t the first group to come in, but we were still able to obtain crystals.”

"This means... these crystals can be continuously produced."

"It can even be like a copy, refreshing every time someone enters."

"And this uniqueness is something that didn't exist before."

Upon hearing this, the others immediately showed thoughtful expressions.

This ninth level of the Netherworld doesn't look simple either.

Indeed, the deeper you go into the world, the more complex and unpredictable it becomes.

While pondering, the group returned the way they came and soon arrived at the other three enclosed islands by following the route map.

On these islands, they discovered extraordinary ruins, palaces, and caves, and after some exploration, they finally obtained the remaining three crystals.

After receiving the four crystals, Yu Zhun took them out and arranged them neatly.

At first glance, they are almost indistinguishable, the only difference being the symbols faintly engraved on them.

"Should we put them together?" Yu Zhu said, casually piecing them together into a complete circle.

But the four crystals remained completely still.

“Perhaps we need to do it in order.” Helmod carefully observed the orientation and order of the symbols on the four crystals, reached out and adjusted two of them. The next moment, all four crystals burst into light.

"They're here!" Udir's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in surprise.

Under the excited gaze of the crowd, the symbols that had been faintly appearing on the four crystals instantly became clear and bright. As the light shone brighter, the four crystals pieced together into a complete crystal, and the symbols flew out from the crystal, intertwining into a ball of light in the void.

Before Yu Zhun and the others could make a move, the ball of light split into five and landed between the eyebrows of the five of them.

The next instant, a massive influx of information arrived.

Yu Zhun and the other four stood frozen in place for a long time before slowly coming back to their senses. They looked at each other, and then Yu Zhun spoke first.

"This special formation is called the [Demon's Descent Battle Formation]..."

"It seems to be more powerful than we imagined."

The other four nodded in agreement.

【Demon's Descent】has no limit on the number of people. As long as there are enough people, two or more people can use it. The more people there are, the stronger the power.

The capabilities of this battle formation far exceeded what Yu Zhun and his group of five had witnessed when they fought the five guardian demons.

First and foremost is the ability to replace the core of the formation. The demons forming the battle formation can instantly switch positions with each other, thereby leveraging their respective strengths to face the most effective opponent.

Secondly, there is the effect of power entanglement. The [Demon Descent Battle Formation] can fuse the power of each unit that is combined into the formation, and then return it to each person, bringing a certain degree of amplification in the process.

The percentage increase is determined by the number of people. The highest five-person formation that Yu Zhun and his five partners can form can bring a 20% increase to the entire team.

The two points mentioned above are the abilities that the demons had previously displayed when Yu Zhun and his companions faced them.

In addition to these, [Demon's Descent] has three other abilities.

First, it involves temporarily concentrating everyone's power on one person, enabling that person to unleash power far exceeding the ordinary.

This ability can be switched at any time, providing great flexibility during combat.

Secondly, it involves combining everyone's strength for defense, using formation changes to achieve extremely high defense, and having all units in the formation share the damage.

Third, by concentrating everyone's power together, a [True Demon] can be summoned, and the [True Demon] can be controlled to fight.

However, this final ability requires a team of at least 10 people, and the remaining five cannot use this ability for the time being.

Even so, the other four abilities are already quite powerful.

What surprised Yu Zhun and the others even more was that this formation could be used not only in the Netherworld, but also anywhere else, even outside of the Netherworld.

This can be considered their first real gain in the Netherworld.

After practicing on the spot without being impatient, Yu Zhun and his group of five left the island with satisfaction and sailed away in their boat.

Only one island remains on the map, which is the end of the map and also the beginning of the underworld.

Yu Zhun didn't have to wait long before he saw its outline.

(End of this chapter)