Devouring the Stars: Soul Master

Chapter 374 The Netherworld Appears

hum-

The soul-summoning banner in Qin Ming's hand flew out and then fell into the black hole.

It's like an illusion.

The summoning banner merged into the black hole and entered its core.

Black holes, as the most powerful celestial bodies in the original universe, would cause even immortal beings to perish if they ventured deep into them.

The most powerful black hole emits a devouring and twisting force that can easily crush the divine body of a cosmic sage and tear apart the membrane of the primordial universe.

The moment the soul-summoning banner successfully merged with the black hole, along with the black hole's own devouring and distorting power, invisible soul fluctuations spread to the far distance.

call!call!call!
One light-year in the dark universe corresponds to the life souls that perished within 10081000 times the size of the original universe, flowing into it continuously like swallows returning to their nests.

10081000 light-years corresponds to approximately 100 galaxies centered around the Milky Way in the primordial universe.

Each galaxy contains at least hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of life-bearing planets.

In such a vast area, countless lives are born and die every moment.

Under normal circumstances, these spirits will gradually disappear over time after death, and only a very few areas will experience abnormal situations.

For example, the ancient god ruins of the Blood Continent are a typical abnormal area.

The death of too many powerful individuals in a short period of time has filled the entire area with malevolent energy, which is essentially the result of the fragments of powerful beings' souls scattering and altering the environment.

"The scope of collection is still too small; we need to find a way to expand it further."

After sensing it briefly, Qin Ming was still somewhat dissatisfied.

The primordial universe was too vast.

A range of 10081000 light-years only includes 100 galaxies.

The Black Dragon Mountain Empire, a mid-level civilization in the universe, directly controls more than 6,000 star systems and over 500 vassal states of early-level civilizations.

And the Black Dragon Mountain Empire was merely a lower-middle-class vassal state of the Qianwu Universe Kingdom.

The territory ruled by the Qianwu Universe Kingdom is even more vast, with more than 13,000 star fields and over 100 million star systems. It would be extremely difficult to bring such a vast area completely under the control of the Netherworld.

Humanity's territory includes 1008 cosmic nations.

Humanity occupies only a very small part of the core territory of the original universe.

What Qin Ming wanted was to bring all life completely under the jurisdiction of the Netherworld!
This idea is a long and arduous journey.

It is by no means something that can be easily accomplished in a short period of time.

But if he were to actually complete it, his control over the primordial universe would be astonishingly powerful, even more terrifying than the virtual universe.

“One step at a time!”

Qin Ming's gaze remained calm; this was something he had expected.

You can't become fat by eating in one go.

The Soul-Summoning Banner was crafted by him personally, and in essence, it carries a portion of the authority of the Netherworld God Kingdom.

However, relying solely on the power of the Netherworld God Kingdom, its absorption range would not be that large.

Therefore, Qin Ming then imitated the secret patterns inside the Ten Thousand Soul Banner by observing them.

If the Myriad Souls Banner itself were to cast the spell, its range would be much larger, easily covering hundreds of light-years.

But that doesn't mean much.

The Myriad Soul Banner is Qin Ming's most important treasure; it's impossible for him to use it for such a thing.

This is why Qin Ming wanted to learn weapon crafting.

The Soul-Summoning Banner is essentially a special type of treasure in the realm of souls, but its core function is to collect souls.

The crafting of soul-type and domain-type treasures is much more difficult than that of ordinary treasures!
Even though this domain-type treasure has a very limited function, and Qin Ming can still imitate the Myriad Soul Banner itself.

Even so, making a soul-summoning banner is not easy.

"Let's think of another way to expand the absorption range of the soul-summoning banner tenfold, or even a hundredfold. There's still hope."

Qin Ming looked into the distance.

The universe is three-dimensional.

Its radius increases tenfold, and its ability to devour souls increases a thousandfold, covering an area of ​​approximately 10 galaxies in the universe.

This improvement is quite dramatic.

A low-tier treasure is very valuable, but not as valuable as one might imagine.

For example, Master Chaos's domain treasure, 'Thousand Treasures River', is composed of thousands of treasures, and Thousand Treasures River is just a top-tier treasure.

The "palm universe" is even more exaggerated.

It is composed of 36200 parts, and the amount of materials it consumes is staggering.

He had also discussed his idea of ​​spreading the Myriad Souls Banner across the entire primordial universe with the Primordial Ancestor.

The original suggested using a mobile universe model and a mechanical flow approach for refining.

In some key areas, it is strengthened and driven by the Myriad Soul Banner itself. It becomes a super treasure that covers the entire primordial universe, and its power is exaggerated.

However, to achieve this, one would either need to obtain the weapon-refining inheritance from the Mountain-Sitting Guest, or wait for the Duan Donghe inheritance to be born, or for the corpse of the future Jin God King to appear.

There's only a tiny chance.

For now, we'll cover a portion of the area and begin initial operations.

"The task is arduous and the road ahead is long. My weapon-refining skills are still lacking. The Heavenly Crafting Hall also needs to improve its skills. At most, they can only refine heavy treasures now."

The refined secondary Ten Thousand Souls Banner has a smaller coverage area.

We still need a true top-tier weapon refiner to oversee the Heavenly Palace and raise its level.

"I couldn't do it all by myself, even if I worked myself to death."

Qin Ming sighed.

Improving one's weapon-refining skills requires time and experience. It's difficult for him to improve on his own, let alone to cultivate a top-notch weapon refiner.

This is also why Qin Ming plans to take a trip to Craftsman God Star sometime.

The goal is to see if we can take advantage of the information gap with the Mountain Guest to lure the Lord of the Craftsmen over and get the Heavenly Crafts Palace and the Craftsmen Star to cooperate.

Of course, this is only one of the options.

The Lord of the Craftsmen is a soulless rock life form, so it is impossible to invite him into the banner; at least, the Eighth-Order Myriad Souls Banner cannot do that.

Then we'll have to ask other top-notch weapon refiners.

For example, in the Northern Frontier Alliance, there is also a top-notch weapon refiner. Although he cannot refine top-tier palace treasures, he can still refine ordinary top-tier treasures without any problem.

The most intriguing thing is that this top-tier weapon refiner, 'Lord of the Mysterious Fire,' is a special life form with flesh and blood.

If we could 'invite' it in, the level of the Heavenly Crafts Hall would skyrocket.

But the Northern Frontier Alliance is not to be trifled with either.

Its number of universe lords is over a hundred, and the number of universe venerables is also over a hundred times that of the Hongmeng.

Moreover, ever since they invited the strongest being in the universe, a lone wolf, to oversee them, they have never bowed their heads, preferring to die in battle rather than easily surrender.

Once a treasure appears, the Northern Frontier Alliance will swarm around it like madmen.

There are also top-tier fifth-order universe lords such as the Lord of the Galaxy, the Lord of the Black Lotus, and the Lord of the Cloudy Star. Among them, the Lord of the Galaxy is slightly stronger than the Lord of Chaos City before his upgrade.

Given the current situation of humanity and the three major ethnic groups, the pressure would be too great if they were to become enemies with the Northern Frontier Alliance.

In addition, several other top weapon refiners are in a similar situation, having all joined top forces.

One of them joined the Ancestral God Cult and became completely immobile.

Many people have designs on top-tier weapon refiners; no one is a fool.

Therefore, Qin Ming had prepared for both possibilities from the very beginning.

In the core area, placing soul-summoning banners allows for the large-scale absorption of souls; this mode is particularly suitable for places like the Secret Realm Continent.

A large secret realm continent is about 1 light-year in diameter, which can be easily covered by a top-tier soul-summoning banner. The population of such a secret realm continent is no less than that of a cosmic nation!

As for sparsely populated areas, the souls can be collected one by one by the soul-collecting messengers of the Netherworld God Kingdom.

First, solve the problem of creating something from nothing.

Then let's talk about other things. The Soul-Hooking Messengers in the Netherworld Kingdom are a rather large system.

……

After personally placing a soul-summoning banner, Qin Ming naturally didn't need to do anything else.

The Soul Clan experts had already conducted on-site investigations into how to place the device to cover a wider area.

The Netherworld God Kingdom.

Qin Ming looked down at a palace below.

On the palace seat sat a dignified man dressed in a black court robe, with a jade belt around his waist and cloud-patterned boots. He looked down at the throne.

“Bring up the 'Blood Demon King'.”

clang!clang!clang!
Amidst a flurry of chained figures, the Blood Demon King, possessing only a soul form, followed behind the two Soul Reapers, his face filled with confusion and bewilderment.

What is this place?
he died!
This was not his first death; he had also perished once in a very distant era.

After being resurrected by the Lord of the Universe, he spent a long time paying off his race's debts, but from then on he dared not easily step into the battlefield again, and instead chose to hide in the rear and enjoy himself.

He enjoyed the thrill of having billions of lives in his hands, and relished the mountains of corpses and seas of blood that formed under his will.

But suddenly.

Within the Qianwu Universe, reforms were implemented.

Before he could even react, he was forcibly taken to his bed, subjected to a trial, and then beheaded on the spot.

I thought it was all over.

Having been judged and killed by a powerful human, it is impossible for anyone to resurrect him.

But when I came to my senses again, I found myself in another space.

Soul Clan!

He recognized the aura emanating from these powerful individuals.

Completely bewildered, he was forcibly chained and led to a huge bronze mirror.

Throughout the entire process, he was completely powerless to resist.

Just like an ordinary person.

The chains possessed extremely strong sealing power; even a powerful king could not move after being sealed.

"what is this?"

As the Blood Demon King looked at the bronze mirror, he felt as if his soul had been frozen, and countless memories of his soul were extracted and flowed across the bronze mirror.

From the moment he was born, to the moment he embarked on the path of cultivation, broke through to immortality, and became a king, everything was revealed in minute detail.

Many memories he had forgotten resurfaced one by one.

Looking at the grim faces in the scene, and the frozen image of his own death, the Blood Demon King was somewhat at a loss.

On the bronze mirror, a blood-dripping mark was clearly visible.

"Extremely evil."

Suddenly, the surrounding environment changed abruptly.

The bronze mirror disappeared, and he appeared in a giant palace, surrounded by a group of creatures of various shapes and sizes watching him silently, with a majestic man above him.

"Blood Demon King, you have rendered meritorious service to the human race and guarded the borders."

But later you blocked technology, causing the Dutuo star system to remain almost in a primitive era.

Begin the Blood Demon Trial, where you can slaughter and enslave humanity at will.

Because the number of humans who died directly from your actions exceeds 372 trillion, and the number of indirect deaths is ten times that…

The imposing man began to recount his past achievements as well as his various crimes.

"According to Article 108 of the 'Black Laws of Fengdu,' your crimes far exceed the standard of 'offsetting merits and demerits,' and you should be cast into the eighteen hells to atone for your sins."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stamped the seal with vermilion ink and sent it to the second hall.

As the first chief judge of the first court, the first Yama.

His task was to read all of Qin Ming's memories using the 'Mirror of Karma,' which Qin Ming had created with the authority of the Netherworld God Kingdom, and then conduct a preliminary judgment based on those memories.

The specific punishments were then handled by the Second Court and the Ninth Court.

"No! By what right do you judge me?"

The Blood Demon King knew something was wrong and immediately roared in anger.

"I am a King-level expert! I only killed some lowly people who were not even Immortals. So what if I killed them? What crime have I committed?"
The Dutuo Starfield is my territory!

I can do whatever I want, and nobody can stop me!

However, the First Yama didn't even glance at him. He was initially judged as extremely wicked by the Mirror of Retribution, and his sins would at least warrant him suffering torment for countless epochs in the Eighteen Hells.

Even worse, they might never be reincarnated!
What happened to someone in life is not the concern of the underworld.

But after death, everything must be done according to the rules of the underworld.

This is a rule set by the great Emperor Fengdu!

Soon, the Second King of Hell made his judgment and threw him into the icy hell.

Their souls are frozen in ice, and they are subjected to further tortures, including being sent to the Iron Armor Hell, Blood Hell, and Black Rope Hell.

The 18 hells are no longer simply eighteen kinds of punishments.

Each hell is further divided into different smaller hells, each containing various forms of torture.

Then came the Third Yama, the Fourth Yama, and so on, judging each one.

He committed too many sins.

As the punishments accumulate, they become increasingly terrifying.

Once the Ninth Yama has completed his review and confirmed everything is correct, he will be sent to the Eighteen Hells to begin repaying his sins. Even if he is granted the title of King and immortality, he will still go mad after round of torture.

Qin Ming quietly hovered in the sky, watching all of this without intervening.

In fact, the judgment in the underworld is quite lenient, with laws that allow merits and demerits to offset each other. Ordinary people simply go through a process and are able to reincarnate quickly.

This applies to ordinary martial artists as well.

In martial arts, regular fighting will not result in being sent to the Eighteen Hells.

According to the "Black Laws of Fengdu," the laws applicable to ordinary people and martial artists are different.

How can a martial artist grow if they don't fight and kill?

Qin Ming understood this principle very well.

Unless it's a deliberate, large-scale, malicious killing, most martial artists, based on the principle of offsetting merits and demerits, will generally only receive a minor punishment.

Those who die in battles outside the region can gain great merit and enjoy various privileges.

Qin Ming's main purpose was to collect souls while also deterring similar situations among the human race and further developing human potential.

He created the Netherworld, and naturally, he set its rules.

At the same time, countless humans were being judged within the Ten Courts of Hell. In each court, in addition to the Yama King, there were a vast number of judges of all ranks.

Ordinary people can be judged by these minor judges.

Only those with great power and extreme evil, like the Blood Demon King, will be judged by Yama himself.

"The situation is not bad so far, and there has been no major trouble."

The memories of those on trial can also be preserved. Observing the lives of others is also a kind of spiritual practice for me.

Next comes reincarnation!

Qin Ming watched as the batch of souls, having completed their trials and found no major crimes, walked towards the River of Souls under the guidance of the Soul Clan soldiers.

This is part of his process of collecting souls!
All that's needed for reincarnation is a wisp of 'true spirit'!
As for the power of the soul itself, it will dissipate during the reincarnation process.

Otherwise, if a powerful reincarnation like the Mountain Guest could retain his soul power, wouldn't he also possess the cultivation of a God-King?
Reincarnation is meaningless!

However, beings like the Mountain Dweller can retain their memories from their previous life after reincarnation and cultivate again with the foundation of a God-King, so they can naturally rise again in a very short time.

"The process of reincarnation is a bit troublesome."

(End of this chapter)