This Young Master is not Cannon Fodder - Chapter 630

The second level of the Nine Hells Abyss was subtly different from the first level. For one, the color had changed. A tint of red pervaded the land, and splotches of grass that seemed to be caked in blood sprouted in patches. The underside of the first level also occasionally burst with moments of tainted brilliance, shining upon the dark lands.

The greatest difference was in the density of devilish energy.

Strands of devilish energy immediately attempted to penetrate Tianyi’s disguise and enter his body. Unfortunately, they were blocked by an uncrossable gulf. Although it seemed less than a nanometer, in reality, it was over a hundred thousand kilometers long.

The devilish energy not only strengthened devils but also invaded their consciousness. Devils who did not have enough of a sense of self would return to their mindless state—mere mindless fiends—once more. When they regained spirituality, it would be a completely different existence.

The situation would only be worse if an outsider entered. On the home turf of the devils, foreigners would be suppressed by the natural laws and be forced to accept the devilish energy. The moment the devilish energy entered their body, it would begin to tempt the foreigner, telling them to fall and integrate with the Nine Hells Abyss.

If it succeeded, the foreigner would no longer be a foreigner, but a natural citizen of the abyss—a devil. The only way to withstand the devilish temptation was through strong willpower.

Just because one’s willpower was strong did not mean they would remain unaffected. Spending too long under the devilish influence would corrode one’s mind.

For example, a sword immortal with a pure heart might use the devilish temptation to temper his affinity with the sword. He might have succeeded, but it would also have caused him to love only the sword. For him, as long as his sword path could progress, he could even become more devilish than a devil and commit massacres just to sharpen his sword skill.

The only way to dispel the devilish energy was to wear it down with one’s own energy or let it naturally dissipate on its own. Naturally, neither of these was an ideal option in the Nine Hells Abyss.

Eliminating the devilish energy would use up the energy in one’s body, and it could not be replenished. Not only that, in the clash between the two types of energy, the devilish energy might merge with one’s energy, ingraining it deeper. So, most foreigners often used a portion to suppress the devilish energy and the rest to fight. Once their energy reserves reached a dangerous level, they would retreat and recuperate in their home system.

The second option could only be accomplished outside the Nine Hells Abyss or a devil’s territory. Without a source, the devilish energy would become like rootless duckweed, disappearing on its own with time.

There was also a third option: using precious medicine to dispel the devilish energy. However, the ingredients for such medicine were rare and incredibly valuable, making it unsuitable for mass production. It also carried risks. If the medicine was not good enough, it might cause the devilish energy to merge with the medicine taker’s own energy, invading their body and soul.

Ironically, the core components for such medicine were materials found in the Nine Hells Abyss. To contain the devilish energy from leaking, the Nine Hells Abyss intrinsically contained resources that halted its penetration and escape. The lower the level found, the greater the chance of such a material appearing.

Tianyi was no exception. Although he could create a barrier of expansive distance, he could not stave off inevitability. To combat this, he opened a portal into the Nine Heavens Universe and opened another portal to a desolate area in the True Nothingness. Once the devilish energy reached them, it would dissipate on its own with nothing to cling to.

Of course, if a sufficient concentration of devilish energy gathered, it was possible to form a pseudo-abyss, but the chances of such an event happening were slim. Even if Tianyi expelled a million times more devilish energy at once, the probability of that happening was less than a hundredth of a single percent.

Still, Tianyi did not think such simple actions were enough. Certainly, compared to others, it was an enviable defense they could never replicate, but Tianyi could not guarantee that it was seamless. After all, even the Almighty fell to the devils in the Godsfall War, and he did not think his strength had exceeded that great being.

As an additional layer of insurance, Tianyi separated his devil conduit into a clone-like form. He accomplished this by separating a part of his universe, about the size of a high-rank realm, and merged it with his conduit. Although he could still control this conduit, it was separated from his inner universe by an additional layer.

If anything happened to this realm conduit, Tianyi could remotely destroy the inner realm, destroying the conduit along with it. This was an avatar method he discovered while attempting to recreate his flesh-and-blood body years ago, but it was not without disadvantages.

The split realm was cut off from his inner universe, and he could not restore it—at least within a period of time that was measured in millions of years. He was essentially destroying his foundation to create this conduit, and it was not something he did lightly.

He had not used this before because it was meaningless. In the True Nothingness, all his conduits had the same power and infinite access to his inner universe. And in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System, such conduits were even weaker than his level-zero conduits.

After he did this, Tianyi did not feel much of a difference and continued to survey and explore the second layer of the Nine Hells Abyss. He also reported his discoveries to the Heavenly Immortal Court. It was their decision if they wanted to update the All Pantheon Alliance’s map of the Nine Hells Abyss.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

For beings below the Divine Realm, they could only wander in the first three layers of the Nine Hells Abyss. The lower the level, the greater the concentration. Past the third level, only divinities could roam. Of course, this was before the Godsfall War.

The concentration of devilish energy might have reduced because of the war, allowing demigods to roam the fourth level and deeper. Still, the All Pantheon Alliance erred on the side of caution and designated the first three levels as the Upper Levels that demigods could roam.

The rate at which Tianyi found devils remained the same. However, the devils he met were at least a level higher, but devils with spirituality became rarer.

Tianyi did not stop his actions. Once he found a devil, he would either kill it or, if it had intelligence, capture it and interrogate it. Unfortunately, most of those who awakened their spirituality were like savages with no history.

Even though he couldn’t find many clues, Tianyi did not fret. It was not like he placed all his hopes on the Nine Hells Abyss. Plus, he was confident that his efforts would be rewarded eventually. He did not forget his encounter with the Devil Lord Dantalion.

He continued to roam the second level. After defeating a certain number of devils, Tianyi continued to adjust the appearance of his devil conduit. Its size increased, as did the thickness of its carapace. There were other minute differences, but not much. All in all, it resembled an accumulation of all of Tianyi’s gains.

During this time, he found several entrances to the third level but decided not to tread. Finally, Tianyi decided to step onto the third level.

Unlike the second level, the third level had a stable source of light, which emanated from the underside of the second level. It wasn’t much, but it was much better than the second level.

The biggest difference was the lush vegetation and sprawling landscapes. Well, if vegetation was defined as twisted abominations drawn by a malicious artist who saw a child’s rendition. There were even lakes—if lakes were pure black and formed from condensed devilish energy. Any devils that entered the lake would have their minds rent.

Although Tianyi had confidence in himself, he did not want to test himself. Moreover, he discovered faint whispers in the back of his mind. This was only in the devil conduit and not in his inner universe, of course. The whispers were only louder than chirping gnats, so much so that he would ignore them subconsciously.

It was frightening.

He had only entered the third level, and his devil conduit had an inner world the size of a realm, but it was also influenced by the devilish energy. It might have been for his extra years on the second level, but it was still nothing to scoff at.

It was at a manageable level for now, so Tianyi continued to venture deeper. The number of encounters had decreased, but each devil he encountered here was at least five to ten times stronger than the ones on the second level. If he had to make a comparison, the devils on the first level were those below the Immortal Realm in power. Only abyss lords of the first level barely reached the true immortal threshold.

Those on the second level were solid true immortal-level devils, with the most outstanding ones at the immortal lord level. The strongest devils of the second level were the weakest on the third level, and so far, the strongest devil he encountered was equal to a third-step immortal monarch.

Tianyi speculated that the most powerful devils on the third level would be equal to fifth-step immortal monarchs, but he was strong. Perhaps he overestimated the growth curve of the devils, but the strongest abyss lords were still three-step immortal monarchs.

Coupled with the decreased number of devils, it seemed that the time it would take for devils to become a threat would be a long time in the future. Tianyi would only be happy with this discovery. The fewer risks the devils posed, the greater stability and time he would have.

Upon discovering the third entrance to the fourth level, Tianyi entered. The whispering in the back of his mind had become stronger. It was nothing against Tianyi’s will, but he always had a worry. After a moment of hesitation, Tianyi decided not to recall or replace the devil conduit. He felt that he could still easily resist for now.

On the fourth level, encounters with devils became even rarer. The strongest were only equal to fifth-step immortal monarchs. At this level, the scenery changed again. It became more diverse and colorful, in the twisted and malicious way that devils are.

Searching for the entrance to the next level also became easier. As long as he followed his senses and walked toward the denser concentration of devilish energy, it often meant either a location that could absorb devilish energy or the entrance to the fifth level.

Tianyi found five locations filled with devilish energy before finding his first entrance to the fifth level. Of the five locations, three had abyss lords. Of the three abyss lords, one had actually ventured to the fifth level and escaped from it alive.

According to this abyss lord, there was a powerful abyss lord that did not resemble other devils at all. They looked harmless and weak, but their appearance belied their power. Any devil who attacked the fifth-level abyss lord, thinking they were weak, was killed in return.

Most importantly, the abyss lord had knowledge of the outside world.

Tianyi felt like he had found his chance. Unfortunately, the devil did not know the direction or location of the knowledgeable abyss lord. His usual modus operandi to deal with abyss lords was to kill them if they had a weak sense of self. Even if they revived, they would lose all their memories and become like a different person with time.

However, he decided to deal with the abyss lords that controlled territories on the fourth level differently. The lower the level these abyss lords lived on, the stronger their sense of self and the more likely they would revive with almost their full memory. Tianyi did not want rumors of strange devils to spread and potentially raise the awareness of unsavory devils.

He sucked them into his inner realm before killing them. This way, they could return to their territory and revive. However, it came at a cost. Once they died, the devils decomposed into pure energy. Unless they were a devil that was birthed in the many systems and migrated to the Nine Hells Abyss, they would never leave behind a body—at least, unless they were extraordinarily powerful.

The excess devilish energy was naturally absorbed by the devil conduit without even a chance for him to expel it. The quiet whispers in the back of his mind became as loud as buzzing flies. Tianyi could even faintly hear words of temptation flowing into his mind.

At this time, Tianyi finally decided to recall the devil conduit. He gritted his teeth and divided part of his inner universe to form a second realm conduit. The second realm conduit replaced the first. This way, one conduit could leave and slowly expel the devilish influence, and the second conduit could travel the Nine Hells Abyss.

First, the second realm conduit would enter the inner realm of the first devil conduit before appearing in the Nine Hells Abyss. Then, the first conduit would enter the inner realm of the second conduit before teleporting into the inner universe, where it would immediately exit the portal leading to a desolate area of the True Nothingness.

After completing this set of actions, Tianyi ventured into the fifth level, searching for the knowledgeable abyss lord. He found them all right. They were also very familiar to him.