Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

The deeper you go, the more and more 'stone statues' you'll see along the way.

This makes it very easy to reconstruct what happened here:

When the River of Eternal Darkness returned, Calderon, dormant for thousands of years, underwent an expansion. This sudden expansion, without warning, caught the spirit creatures living nearby off guard, their bodies permeated by the grayish-white substance. Ultimately, deathly silence became the dominant force, covering every corner of the region.

Although everything seems normal, it is consistent with the authority associated with the "River of Eternal Darkness" and deathly silence.

Before this, Calderon, though a city of the dead, only had the rule of turning the living into the dead.

In other words, any living being that enters Calderon will naturally transform into the dead, similar to the underworld, but with a fundamental difference. Here, living beings do not suddenly die and slowly become undead without the ability to think, but directly become the dead.

For some high-ranking beings, transforming into the dead has little negative impact on them, nor does it affect their strength. As for extraordinary beings who have entered the 'Bound' pathway, they can already switch between physical form and vengeful spirit, so this rule has even less of an adverse effect.

Similarly, for some spirit beings, such rules are not actually disadvantageous.

Because many spirit beings are not native to the spirit world, but are transformed from the dead—for example, Klein's messenger, Renette Tinicol, is both a spirit being and a dead person herself.

Of course, being dead does not mean they can freely enter and leave Calderon.

On the contrary, these beings who become spirits in the form of the dead are "imprisoned" once they enter Calderon, becoming its native inhabitants, forever unable to leave.

Therefore, while the dead can move about Calderon unaffected, it doesn't mean they would willingly enter the area.

But things are different now. The current rules are not just about turning the living into the "dead," but about the "dead" in the true sense of the word—unlike vengeful spirits, zombies, or water ghosts, but corpses that do not move, have no consciousness, and have no trace of "life."

Calderon has now become a desolate place where even the dead are drained of their 'life force' if they step into it.

Ember did not attempt to break the rules here, but instead walked alone through the grayness.

Under the invisible, deathly erosion, the entire world here is a gray and white expanse.

The sky was gray, the ground was gray, and all around were stone statues stained gray, devoid of any color.

Only the embers still possess "color".

This color profoundly stimulated the "grayish-white," causing them to gather around the embers like fish churned by bait in the deep sea, driven by greed, attempting to assimilate the embers into a grayish-white stone statue and steal his "color." This also caused the surrounding "grayish-white" to become increasingly dense, dense enough to instantly take the life of an angel!

However, these 'grayish-white' particles are instantly evaporated whenever they try to get close to him, without exception.

The escorts, shrouded in gray and white, made the journey extremely smooth. All the spirit creatures they encountered had turned into stone statues; there wasn't a single living being among them. As the embers ventured deeper, the types of stone statues changed.

The outermost perimeter was filled with bizarre creatures, some with bull heads and octopus bodies, others with slender snakes, but none of them had a unified appearance. However, the numerous stone statues scattered here clearly belonged to the same race: they were sets of translucent white robes floating in the air, headless, without hands or feet, seemingly supported by an invisible being.

From a distance, it looks like a family portrait with everyone all together.

In reality, these stone statues all belong to the Spirit Realm Raiders, yet each possesses strength approaching Sequence 4. And now, there are hundreds upon hundreds of these Spirit Realm Raider statues densely packed together here!

The Spirit Raiders are a rare species, and they are also essential materials for the Diviner's Path to Advancement to Sequence 4. Both the real souls of Spirit Raiders and their dust are extremely valuable.

Perhaps it was to escape hunting that the Spirit Raiders flocked to the depths of Calderon, seeking to avoid the risk of being hunted. But now, all these creatures have been turned to stone due to the anomaly deep within Calderon.

Having suffered such a devastating calamity, the Spirit Realm Raiders are nearly wiped out!

The remaining scattered spirit world raiders are also scattered throughout the spirit world, few in number and extremely difficult to capture.

This is nothing short of a bolt from the blue for those at lower ranks in the Diviner path. It means that the path to advancement to Rank 4 in the Diviner path is now completely blocked, making it extremely difficult for new "Tricksters" to be born in the future!

of course.

For demigods or angels who have already advanced to Sequence 4, the family portrait of the Spirit Raiders doesn't have much of an impact.

For extraordinary individuals who don't follow the diviner's path, the impact is even smaller. So, in a sense, this is a result of mutual selection.

Finally, as time passed, the outline of a city gradually emerged before the embers.

The first thing that caught his eye was a huge, bottomless pit. All sorts of strange buildings circled around this pit, extending downwards in concentric rings, forming a magnificent city beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

This city is unlike any other; instead of rising upwards, it extends in concentric circles towards the end of a deep pit, giving it the overall feel of an inverted mausoleum. The buildings within are of various styles, but all share a common strangeness. Some are towering, pale stone pillars, their tops polished into massive single-unit houses; others are long and rectangular, with doors on the roof and no windows, resembling giant coffins; still others are built underground, with a tombstone at the entrance; some are constructed from bones, chaotic and fragmented.

From the moment I entered this city, everything around me was shrouded in a deep, inky darkness, as if no light had penetrated for thousands of years. The ashen white that had gathered was kept outside the city; it had once been the city's inhabitants.

But now it is excluded, and can only watch with longing as 'color' enters the city and is surrounded by darkness.

Here, even angels would have difficulty seeing what lay five meters away in the darkness; something seemed to be blocking their detection.

That is a secret authority.

The closer you get to the bottom of the pit, the better the buildings are preserved; the closer you get to the top, the more they collapse, filled with decay and ruin eroded by time.

The deeper you go underground, the quieter it becomes. The strange and wonderful buildings, though perfectly preserved, seem to have been dead for many years, and even their atmosphere has become cold, gloomy, and decaying.

The entire world was pitch black, with only the embers retaining their 'color'.

In the deep, inky darkness, this color was so dazzling that countless 'darknesses' swarmed in. Just like the previous 'grayish-white,' they greedily gathered here, attempting to swallow this color and assimilate it into the darkness.

The black and white world of the dead has no room for any color!

however.

The convergence of darkness did not serve a real-time purpose.

The more they gather, the more will be 'evaporated'.

When the embers entered the depths of the city, most of the darkness had been evaporated, and even the buildings that were originally shrouded in darkness revealed their original shapes, because the darkness, which had been evaporated and become extremely thin, was no longer able to cover the entire city.

Despite paying a huge price, all efforts were in vain, and they couldn't even make contact.

As they ventured deeper and deeper, the embers traveled for a long time before finally reaching the bottom of the pit—a series of enormous, dark palaces blocked their path downwards.

The palace was supported by massive pillars, inlaid with all sorts of bones and different parts of corpses, and in some places even covered with bloody skin belonging to different races.

Ember stopped in front of the palace. So far, what he had encountered was completely different from Klein's description—Klein had come last time to hunt down spirit raiders.

Perhaps because of the death of the Spirit Realm Raiders, or perhaps because of the aura of the 'Source Castle', or perhaps because of the appearance of the 'Angel of Fate' Urolius, the River of Eternal Darkness deep within Calderon suddenly changed, and a large amount of 'grey-white flood' surged out like a rising tide.

That incident prevented Klein from exploring further, so he had to return to the gray fog and make other plans.

But this time.

The embers had reached the bottom of Calderon, yet encountered no resistance. The River of Eternal Darkness remained completely inanimate, offering no response to his arrival.

Yu Jin didn't think too much about it; no matter what happened, it wouldn't affect his purpose for this trip.

He slowly walked to the palace gate and placed his hands on the two bronze doors that had been closed at some point.

Crunch!

In the silent darkness, the dull, grinding sound, which wasn't particularly loud, now sounded incredibly jarring, almost echoing throughout the entire city.

Even with such a commotion, Calderon remained unresponsive, allowing Ember to push the door open a narrow crack.

The gap wasn't large; in fact, it was extremely narrow, so narrow that two people couldn't fit side by side.

But for Ember, such a gap is enough.

He calmly walked into the darkness and entered the palace.

In the darkness, the first thing that catches the eye is a spacious hall.

On both sides of the hall were coffins of different shapes and colors, placed there quietly, as if even their existence had been weathered away by death.

Ignoring these things, Ember went straight to the depths of the hall, where there was a downward gray stone staircase and a huge stone tablet at the entrance.

At the top of the stone tablet stands a slender bird statue, seemingly made of bronze, with various pale symbols on its wings.

Beneath the bird-shaped bronze statue, on the surface of the stone tablet, characters originating from the "Words of the Dead" resemble simplified birds of different shapes or snakes coiled in various forms, forming two ambiguous phrases:

Even the gods cannot escape it;

"Even in death, they will be imprisoned."

This is like the cursed inscription of Tutankhamun:

"Whoever disturbs the Pharaoh's slumber, death will spread its wings and descend upon him."

"Anyone who enters this grave with impure intentions, I will strangle like a bird."

Such a curse, if it appeared in an ordinary mausoleum, would only elicit laughter.

But beneath this city lies the River of Eternal Darkness—a statement less a curse and more a warning—a genuine warning.

Even gods, once they enter the earth, will perish and drown in the river!

Yu Jin withdrew his gaze, ignoring the warning.

Bypass the stone tablet topped with a bronze statue, and descend step by step along the gray-white steps.

The underground was dark and silent, but occasionally a faint, ethereal rustling sound could be heard.

Somewhere underground, the River of Eternal Darkness flows silently.

Ember walked step by step toward the sound of water, his feet sinking into a deep, intangible tide. Like a normal tide, it rose and fell. As Ember ventured deeper, the tide nearly submerged him, but he continued to walk through it, completely unaffected.

As the tide recedes, the gray-white steps are revealed once again, pointing straight down.

at last.

He reached the top of the stairs.

Beyond the end lies nothingness, within which flows a straight, wide, colorless, dark river.

That is the River of Eternal Darkness, the final resting place of all the dead!

Yu Jin stopped and did not continue.

On both sides of the river stood enormous, pale stone pillars, as if supporting something to prevent it from collapsing. At this moment, between these stone pillars, along the edge of the river, countless slightly blurry, translucent figures moved back and forth, lingering slowly but tirelessly.

Among those bewildered figures, a tall figure stood on the edge of the river, silently watching the embers standing at the end of the steps.

He was so enormous, almost as big as the surrounding stone pillars, and he was draped in a deep black robe, his profile showing signs of age.

His face had distinct features of the Southern Continent, but it was riddled with rotten marks and sprouted white feathers stained with pale yellow oil.

Embers had seen Him, in the murals, in the hall of conspiracy, when He was still known as the God of the Dead.

In the Fourth and Fifth Ages, His most well-known title was Death, the "Emperor of the Underworld," Salinger.

A moment of confusion flashed across His face, but it quickly hardened, and His voice deepened:

"He told me that if I killed you, he would set me free."

His voice was hoarse and stiff, as if he hadn't had a normal conversation with anyone in a long time.

I guessed it.

Yu Jin smiled and nodded. He finally understood why he hadn't encountered any obstacles along the way.