A white light flashed as a group of people appeared in a mountain valley. The valley was very hidden. Moreover, its area was big. And now there were a lot of people in the valley.

This group of people wore black clothing and had a matching blade on their side. Although every person in the group had a blade, each blade differed from each other.

The leader of this group was a person who looked 40 years old. This person’s stature was tall and big. He was about two meters tall. He had a red face and even redder hair. There were no sparkles in his eyes, but instead his vision was sharp like a blade. Anybody who looked him in the eye would find themselves looking away. On his back was a huge executioner’s blade. The blade was also red, the same color as blood. The blade looked ominous and gave out a bone-chilling aura.

Seeing this group, everyone in the valley knew that they were from the Tyrant Blade Sect. Although the sect only sent around 50 people, their strength couldn’t be taken lightly.

At this time, a person walked towards the group. When he was about five steps in front of the Tyrant Blade Sect group, he stopped and cupped their fist, “I have seen Elder Deng Wen. I’m Zhao Hai, I’ll be listening to Elder’s instructions.”

Deng Wen looked at Zhao Hai and chuckled, “I didn’t think you would really participate. Good, go stand with the others.” Zhao Hai complied and went behind Elder Deng Wen. He cupped his fist towards the others from the Tyrant Blade Sect and then stood with them.

Deng Wen scanned the people in the valley. There were people from all 81 Great Sects. The Long Clan also sent its own people. Naturally, the person sent by the Long Clan wouldn’t be Long Tian. With his status, it would be impossible for Long Tian to attend such an operation.

The Long Clan sent an Elder in the Diamond Body Stage. In the True Spirit Realm, experts in the Diamond Body Stage were considered a region expert.

After a while, several more groups arrived in the valley through the transmission formation. Seeing that everyone was present, the Long Clan Elder said, “Everyone, some of you are old friends, we’ve been doing this operation together multiple times. Of course, there are still people who don’t know me, so I’ll introduce myself. My name is Long Xiang. Please remember my name because I will be your commander in this operation. If you aren’t convinced, you can express your thoughts right now.”

Some people in the valley stared. They didn’t expect Long Xiang to introduce himself like this. Only those who had experience with Long Xiang didn’t have a reaction. Although Long Xiang’s attitude was crass, one had to admit that his ability to issue commands was very strong. His personal strength was also high.

After a short while of silence, Long Xiang said, “I gave you the opportunity to speak out yet nobody said anything. This means that you recognize my position. Then I’ll expect everyone to listen to my orders. If someone doesn’t listen, don’t blame me for being ruthless. Moreover, I can guarantee that if you were killed for ignoring my orders, your sects wouldn’t look for revenge.”

Like before, nobody said anything. They were forced to silence by Long Xiang’s imposing aura. To be honest, Long Xiang’s words caused the newcomers to be shocked.

Deng Wen also kept silent while listening to Long Xiang. However, his eyes had a happy expression. He had cooperated with Long Xiang multiple times in the past. Deng Wen knew what Long Xiang was capable of. It wasn’t rare for someone to be killed for insubordination. And like Long Xiang said, the sects these people belonged to never sought revenge. Deng Wen and Long Xiang’s interactions have always been good. Their previous cooperation ended pleasantly. Because of this, Deng Wen didn’t take Long Xiang’s threats to heart.

Seeing that nobody made any noise, Long Xiang said, “Each group has team leaders, so I won’t say anything more. All team leaders will be in charge of their people. If something happens, the team leaders will take responsibility. Team leaders, if your members make a mistake, you will be punished.” These statements were overbearing enough for some team leaders to change expressions. Zhao Hai didn’t show any reaction since he knew very well that Long Xiang’s methods were correct.

Although there were only a bit more than 1000 people in the hidden valley, these people came from multiple powers. There were many groups of 50 like the Tyrant Bade Sect.

These powers weren’t peaceful with each other. Some groups even held grudges against each other. An example for this was the grudge between the Tyrant Blade Sect and the Imperial Blade Sect and the Sword Hegemon Sect. The Matchless Sword School might even be included in this mix.

Expecting everyone to obey orders perfectly was a wish. If Long Xiang’s methods weren’t overbearing enough, then the group’s cohesiveness might not reach far once they enter the enemy territory. There might even be danger for the entire group to be annihilated.

Because of this, Long Xiang had to use strong methods to suppress any grudges. Only then could this thousand-man team be able to work together in the underground world.

And since it’s impossible for Long Xiang to convey his commands to every cultivator, he could only pass his orders through the team leaders. The reason he said that the team leaders would be responsible for any failures was to make the team leaders do their jobs properly.

Seeing that nobody was speaking out, Long Xiang said, “Team leaders, take care of your people. Let’s depart.” Long Xiang proceeded to fly towards a mountain wall. The wall looked like any ordinary wall. It was covered with moss and didn’t have any extraordinary features.

However, after Long Xiang stopped, he placed a jade card on the wall. Then his hand flashed before taking steps back. As Long Xiang retreated, the mountain wall was pulled out like a cork. Before long, a boulder was pulled out. The boulder was around five meters high, three meters wide and ten meters thick. It was impossible for ordinary people to pull it out.

What surprised Zhao Hai was the fact that although the boulder was pulled out from the mountain wall, there were no debris that came out. The mountain wall wasn’t damaged either. In other words, as long as the boulder was pushed back, the mountain wall would return to its original form.

Long Xiang put the boulder down then he turned his head to everyone, “Everyone, with me!” Then he entered the opening with everyone following behind.

The cave inside the opening was very dark. There was no source of light. Moreover, the inside was very moist. The ground was covered with moss. It wasn’t a place for humans to live in. But to cultivators, these conditions could be ignored. The group’s travel wasn’t hindered in any manner.

Zhao Hai followed behind everyone. As he moved forward, he made sure to make himself as scarce as possible. He wasn’t first in the group nor was he last. He just followed the team from the Tyrant Blade Sect.

The cave felt like a helical staircase going downward. As the group went deeper and deeper underground, the surrounding temperature began to drop. However, Zhao Hai and the others were immune to heat and cold. This change in temperature wouldn’t affect them.

Zhao Hai observed the cavern as he moved forward. He discovered that there were traces of artificial excavation while there were places that were formed naturally. This was the location that the Long Clan chose to open the passage to the underground world.

Long Tian said that the Long Clan and the Ghost Cultivators had been fighting for a long time. It seems like this statement was true. However, if they said that the Long Clan was competing with the Ghost Cultivators for the talents in the True Spirit Realm, then Zhao Hai wouldn’t believe it. The Long Clan fought against the Ghost Cultivators not because they had a grudge against them, it was because the Ghost Cultivators wanted to get rid of the Long Clan. The Long Clan knew that if the Ghost Cultivators weren’t eliminated, then the Long Clan would never have peace. They would always be on guard against the Ghost Cultivators.

The fight between Ghost Cultivators and the Great Sects was born from the fact that the Ghost Cultivators’ methods were vile. When the Long Clan’s empire collapsed, the Ghost Cultivators flourished. This cast a huge shadow over the entire True Spirit Realm. At that time, the True Spirit Realm became the den of evil and the realm of ghosts.

At that time, all the Great Sects were suppressed by the Ghost Cultivators. It can be said that the Ghost Cultivators did what they liked in the True Spirit Realm. In this state, it was natural for the Great Sects to rebel.

However, since the Great Sects were still quite weak at that time, the Long Clan, who had been recuperating, recovered some of its energy and made contact with the Great Sects. The two parties acted together to defeat the Ghost Cultivators and drive them towards the underground world.

All of this information were gained by Zhao Hai from the Yin Yang Elders during his stay in the Tyrant Blade Sect. The Tyrant Blade Sect was also a sect with a long heritage. There were records from a long time ago. Although the records were incomplete, it still provided with Zhao Hai with some knowledge about the realm’s history.

The underground world was said to be discovered by the founder of the Ghost Cultivators, the genius from the Long Clan. As for how he discovered the underground world, the Tyrant Blade Sect has no information.

However, regarding the underground world, the Tyrant Blade Sect has some records. The underground world was ten thousand meters underground. There were extremely few access points to the underground world. It was said that each entrance was guarded by huge Ghost Cultivator armies. Naturally, there was no sunlight in the underground world. Fortunately, there were alternate light sources. There was a thing called the Earthfire Column in the underground world. The column released light that illuminated the underground world.

What’s most unusual about the Earthfire Column was the fact that it turned off once in a while. Whenever the Earthfire Column turns off, the underground world would turn dark. This simulated a night and day cycle.

Even if the Earthfire Column didn’t emit light, the underground world wasn’t completely dark. There were insects called the Earthfire Bugs that emit bursts of red light whenever it turned dark. This gave the underground world the same image as a star lit night.

Because of the Earthfire Column, the underground world wasn’t frigidly cold. There were even regions that were hotter than the surface world. This allowed Ghost Cultivators to plant grain and raise beasts underground. People in the underground world who died would have their souls used by the Ghost Cultivators, while their corpses would be cremated using the Earthfire Column. It seemed like the people in the underground world worshiped the God of Fire.

Because of the unique environment in the underground world, a special kind of humanoid was born. These humanoids were very short. According to the records of the Tyrant Blade Sect, these humanoids were similar to the goblin race that Zhao Hai was familiar with. These humanoids were the original inhabitants of the underground world.

Not only were these humanoids short, they were also very cowardly. Nobody taught them how to cultivate, which caused these humanoids to be enslaved by the Ghost Cultivators. Their fate became the same as the humans on the surface during the heyday of the Ghost Cultivators. Sometimes, in order to cultivate, Ghost Cultivators kill batches of these natives and extract their souls. The treatment they received from the Ghost Cultivators were much worse than the humans back then. And because they didn’t know how to cultivate, these natives couldn’t resist. If it weren’t for their strong reproduction, they would have been driven by the Ghost Cultivators to extinction.

When he read their information, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but feel pity for these humanoids. Although the Tyrant Blade Sect described these natives as human-like, Zhao Hai could see that the sect held no sympathy towards these underground world natives. Perhaps the Tyrant Blade Sect didn’t treat these people as humans. To the eyes of the surface humans, these natives were the same as beasts, like monkeys. People might feel uncomfortable killing fellow humans, but if they killed a monkey, they might not have any burden in their heart.

Cultivators had hearts like stone. It was inevitable for them to kill other people. So for these humanoids living in the underground world, they had little sympathy to spare. If it weren’t for the Ghost Cultivators wanting to kill everyone, the Great Sects might not be hostile towards them.

Cultivators practice to go against heaven’s will. They fought, they robbed, they killed to get what they want. Cultivators were greedy for anything that could push their cultivation forward. Naturally, followers of the righteous path would have limitations on what they could use. But for Evil and Demonic cultivators, these limits simply didn’t exist.

If it was acceptable for cultivators to become materials to enhance one’s strength, then there was little to say about the humanoids. There was nothing special about using these humanoids as cultivation resources.

Zhao Hai wanted to change the fate of these humanoids. He had plenty of human-like species in the Space, and Zhao Hai treated them all as equals. He didn’t want to treat them as slaves or as materials that were being farmed.

But Zhao Hai also knew that with his current strength, it was impossible for him to save these humanoids. Even if he could send them to the Space, he could only do so for a small fraction of their population. Doing anything more would risk the exposure of the Space. Because of this, Zhao Hai could only endure for now.