Only I Walk Alone

The Underworld has emptied.

Standing before this dilapidated palace, Wu Ge could feel the passage of time from these crumbling walls. He said, “I should have realized sooner. Humanity has vanished for two hundred years. The Underworld stopped receiving new souls not just two hundred years ago, but seventy-two thousand years ago. Since then, the number of souls in the Underworld should not have increased.”

A day in the Heavens, a year on the Earth; a day on the Earth, a year in the Underworld.

Two hundred years had passed in the real world, while seventy-two thousand years had elapsed in the Underworld.

Wu Ge continued his journey. After passing through this lava hell, he arrived at an extremely cold winter hell, where icebergs were everywhere. At the center of the icebergs stood a majestic ice palace, which had also long been in decline.

Wu could only see the remnants of these buildings, but not a single hellish demon. He kept moving forward. After passing through this icy hell, he saw a dried-up lake, and on the lakeshore stood a stele, the top half of which was missing.

On the lower half of the stele was an indistinct character, made illegible by the passage of time and exposure to the elements.

Descending to the lake, Wu Ge walked on the cracked and dry lakebed. Not far along, he encountered several gigantic skeletons, seemingly the bones of some type of fish. Tapping on them, Wu Ge found the skeletons were incredibly hard.

“The skeletons of some mythological creature? To have survived so many years, they must belong to some powerful mythological entity.”

Wu Ge sighed, realizing that even the Underworld, feared by all in mythology, had eventually fallen into such decay.

Wu Ge kept moving forward, and after an unknown distance, he came upon a very dilapidated stone platform, behind which was a broken bridge over a dried-up river.

Approaching the stone platform, Wu Ge then found several lines of text in one corner, somewhat blurred traditional characters:

The flowers on the Other Shore have wilted

The Stone of Three Lives has shattered

The River of Forgetfulness has dried

The Bridge of Helplessness has collapsed

This hell is empty

Wu Ge was startled. He looked up at the broken bridge, at the dried river, murmuring to himself, “Is this bridge the Bridge of Helplessness? Is this river the River of Forgetfulness?”

Wu Ge had thought that upon entering the Underworld, he would encounter Ox-headed and Horse-faced Guardians, the Heibai Wuchang, and countless souls and demons. However, he had not expected the Underworld to be empty.

Wu Ge walked across the dry bed of the River of Forgetfulness, a river said to be filled with countless lost souls and dense with insects and snakes, where crossing was possible only via the Bridge of Helplessness.

However, the Bridge of Helplessness had collapsed, and the legendary and perilous River of Forgetfulness contained nothing. It was desolate, with only Wu Ge walking on the dry riverbed.

Having crossed the dry River of Forgetfulness, he then saw a giant stone disc split in two. Touching the stone disc, Wu Ge felt the breath of endless ages.

Wu Ge had reached the end. The journey of souls through reincarnation traditionally involved walking the Yellow Springs path and crossing the River of Forgetfulness. This was supposed to be the end of the reincarnation journey, but there was nothing here, empty and void.

Wu Ge passed the stone disc, and all he saw was desolation, a land where no grass grew. Occasionally, fierce winds would arise, whipping up dust, the wind laden with dust sweeping across the land, attacking the distance.

Wu Ge did not look back; he kept moving forward. This place was the endpoint for the souls undergoing reincarnation, but it was not his endpoint.

The wind howled, blowing against Wu Ge’s clothes. He continued forward, trying to find the boundary of the Underworld, trying to find a living soul in this empty Underworld.

Because he did not know hunger and the sky always held a red sun, he had forgotten the passage of time.

At this moment, located in the real world, Wu Ge had been in a state of spiritual projection for an entire day. Xiao Chao had constructed a special place outside the elevator to house his physical body and had numerous robots guard it.

The Fox Immortal arrived and, looking at Wu Ge sitting cross-legged, said, “He is currently just in the state of spiritual projection. If he remains in this state for too long, he might never be able to return!”

Xiao Chao said, “Please, Fox iImmortal, break through the barrier of the Underworld. I will send robots to find Wu Ge.”

The fox immortal gave a wry smile and said, “The barrier of the Underworld is not like my fox cave. With my current strength, I am unable to break this barrier.”

Xiao Chao remained silent for a long time before finally asking, “Does the Underworld only allow human souls to enter?”

The Fox Immortal closed her eyes and her soul left her body to touch the gate, but her soul was bounced back. She said, “Some powerful entity has sealed this Underworld gate. Ordinary human souls probably can’t enter either. Wu Ge must have entered with the aid of the True Dragon Qi. If he wants to come back, he can, but it’s unknown why he hasn’t returned yet.”

Xiao Chao asked, “How long can Wu Ge’s body last?”

After a careful examination of Wu Ge’s physical body, the fox immortal said, “Normally, a cultivator at his level must return within seven days of spiritual projection, but with the augmentation of the True Dragon Qi, he should be able to last forty-nine days.”

Xiao Chao, not understanding the True Dragon Qi despite having read about it in legends, with its photon computer unable to comprehend such things, asked, “Where can one obtain the True Dragon Qi?”

The Fox Immortal laughed bitterly and said, “You’ve misunderstood. It’s not that the more True Dragon Qi one has, the longer they can remain in spiritual projection. Moreover, since he is the only human on the entire planet, the destiny that would cover all of humanity is concentrated on him alone. Where can you find additional True Dragon Qi?”

Xiao Chao said, “The ancestor of ten thousand dragon veins, Kunlun Mountain.”

The Fox Immortal’s expression changed as she said, “Kunlun Mountain? That’s not a place one can easily tread into. Without the Ascending Dragon Order, others can’t even find the entrance to the barrier of Kunlun Mountain.”

Xiao Chao said, “In my storage, I possess the relics left by all of humanity. Please help me find the Ascending Dragon Order. If you can find it, I’ll allow you to pick one artifact left by the human race.”

The Fox Immortal was shocked and exclaimed, “Human artifacts? You actually have such things?”

Xiao Chao said, “To me, these are merely collectibles. Wu Ge has researched them but chose not to use them.”

Wu Ge had studied some treasures made during the ancient times of humanity. Most were mundane, but some were holy relics that had been touched by the aura of the ages, though their power had faded over time.

Besides these items, materials like lightning-struck wood, thunderstones, star marrow, cold iron, dark iron, and spiritual jade were countless in Xiao Chao’s storage, having obtained full authority and inheriting all of humanity’s possessions.

After hearing this, the Fox Immortal hesitated for a long time before finally saying, “Let’s wait for seven days and see. If he doesn’t come back by then, we’ll think of something else.”

The Fox Immortal curbed her greed, knowing that external items could enhance strength, but true strength comes from within.

And so, the Fox Immortal and Xiao Chao waited.