Chapter 726: The Growth of the River of Darkness

After Yasas and Tanobos entered the Tower of Ten Thousand Gates and left through a dimensional portal, Donald, who was in the Ninth Layer of Hell, temporarily lost track of them.
Losing the chance to uncover the secrets of this conspiracy, Donald felt somewhat disappointed but didn’t take it too seriously. After all, since its emergence, the River of Darkness had only eroded one-third of the Bottomless Abyss, with many layers still outside Donald’s surveillance. There was no need to rush—after all, the Abyss was different from the Netherworld, resisting with its own will, which slowed initial progress. It took about two years to reach the First Pazunia.
However, the invasion by the Light Alliance created an excellent opportunity for Donald. Without the full resistance of the Abyssal Will, the River of Darkness’s invasion speed increased by a hundred times. Additionally, the invasion by the Gods of Justice wiped out most of the demons in Pazunia, leaving most of them in flight. As a result, the teleportation routes from the Plain of Endless Abyss to various layers of the Abyss were unguarded by demons, allowing the River of Darkness to connect directly to those layers through portals. Its waters quickly spread like trees throughout the Bottomless Abyss world.
The Light Alliance’s main goal was to defeat the demons, so they did not stop the River of Darkness from taking advantage of their presence to invade the Abyss. In fact, even the celestial beings alone could not halt the spread of the River of Darkness. Even if a true god accidentally came into contact with its waters, they would be purified by the forces of time and fate. In mild cases, they would lose some memories; in severe cases, their entire soul would be purified, erasing all their past memories and powers—equivalent to their downfall as true gods.
Beings at the level of higher gods might be able to resist the erosion of the River of Darkness’s power, but this time, neither of the higher gods wanted to add another major threat on top of dealing with the demons. So they turned a blind eye to the River of Darkness’s actions, ordering their celestial forces not to interfere to avoid unnecessary losses.
In just three days, the waters of the River of Darkness had spread to almost half of the Endless Abyss. Although it hadn’t fully covered all these realms, with many Abyssal layers still untouched, it had at least established a preliminary network of water pathways. Most importantly, through the dimensional portals within the Great Abyss, Donald discovered several hidden realms—regions of the universe he had only heard of, even as a true god, with little knowledge of them.

One peculiar plane gave him a surprise. It was a dark and desolate realm filled with vicious resentment and kingdoms shattered by betrayal. Within this seemingly small plane, which actually seemed infinitely vast on the inside, there prevailed a hatred for everything, as intense as a deep, slowly flowing river. Here, the tide of betrayal wielded immense power, bringing destruction with it. Although the silent and twisted will of the plane conveyed to every prisoner trapped here that they could leave by becoming stronger than anyone else, it was a daunting task for those who were inherently prone to despair, betrayal, and self-hatred. Since this was a plane independent of the Abyss and the Underworld, floating in the void of the lower realms, along with its unique structure, Donald quickly recalled rumors he had heard from other true gods—this was undoubtedly the prison plane of the universe’s exiles, Cassery. In the multiverse, many portals in various planes led to Cassery, but almost none allowed for a return journey. Yet now, perhaps an exception had arisen: when the waters of the River of the Dead flowed here through portals in one of the layers of the Abyss, those who could navigate its currents without being corrupted by its power or obtain permission from Donald, the master of the River, could use it to travel upstream and escape this terrifying plane. Compared to the resistance of the Abyssal will, the spread of the River of the Dead in the Cassery plane was much easier. It could easily diminish and purify the intense forces of resentment present there, seemingly pleasing the will of the plane, allowing its tributaries to flow quickly from the outermost layer, the Swamp of Torment, to the next layer, the Layer of Stench. During this process, Donald also traced the whereabouts of Yasas and Tanobos, who had been missing, through the River of the Dead. Unlike the River of the Dead’s journey into Cassery, the journey of the fallen prince and the lord of the undead demons was not so smooth. As the first layer of Cassery, the Swamp of Torment was a land of vast swamps and quicksand. Apart from the newly formed channels of the River of the Dead, there were no other rivers—only swamps and quicksand.

Although this layer also has small patches of dry terrain, they are quite rare, and one often has to quickly climb over the rugged mountains inhabited by the angry Titans to reach them. As descendants of the Titan giants, one of the most powerful beings in ancient times, those Titans possess legendary strength individually; their tribal leaders are surely above the level of demigods, while the Titan monarch who rules this clan, Cronus, is even a lower-tier god. Their hatred, fueled by resentment from being exiled to Kasseli, makes them despise all other creatures. After inevitably encountering the angry Titans, Asas and Tanobos were severely beaten by these furious giants and driven hundreds of miles away before they could escape trouble. When the River of the Underworld flowed through the Layer of Filthy Swamps and reached the Layer of Stinking Fumes, these two had just managed to find a way to enter the next layer. Donald’s attention was clearly drawn more to their actions, so he devoted most of his focus from the battles on the other side of the abyss to monitoring their movements. Either the Light Alliance or the Abyssal Forces could not achieve victory and end this war in a short time. Moreover, out of curiosity about Kasseli, this prison dimension, Donald controlled the River of the Underworld to flow through the Layer of Filthy Swamps, along with numerous marshes and channels, back through the void to the gray wastelands on the outskirts of the Underworld, ultimately forming a cycle. At the same time, he also extended through the Layer of Filthy Swamps toward the other layers of Kasseli. The environment in the Layer of Stinking Fumes, the second layer of Kasseli, was covered by stinking jungles and scarlet plains. The air was filled with the foul smell of decay, exacerbated by acidic secretions from jungle plants. The air in these jungles caused severe acid damage to outsiders every minute, with some plant secretions producing even stronger acids. Creatures unable to resist strong acids would have their equipment and flesh quickly eroded if they stayed too long among the swaying trees. For divine warriors like Asas and Tanobos, this layer was actually the easiest to pass through, as shielding themselves from strong acids was one of their basic abilities, whether they were undead demons or half-god, half-demon human dark paladins. The creatures in this layer were not very powerful either, at least not compared to a half-god or a lower-tier god. After the Layer of Stinking Fumes came the Layer of Sandstorms, the third layer of Kasseli, a place filled with sand.

The bone-chilling storms whip up sand and stones, capable of stripping a golden dragon of its flesh and leaving only its skeleton within hours—this is the threat posed by the terrifying storms in this region.
Any area has a 10% chance of experiencing sandstorms every 24 hours. All beings living on the surface, whether mortal or demon, cover their bodies with thick cloth to protect themselves from the harsh winds and sand. In the Sandstorm Abyss, tornadoes are also quite common. To avoid such disasters, the residents trapped here must live in deep pits dug by hand and then filled with sand and stones. Their natural tunnels must be continuously excavated to provide basic shelter.
Due to the sandstorms, most creatures here live underground and rarely appear on the surface. As long as one can withstand these natural disasters, it is relatively easy to pass through this layer.
Of course, one must also be wary of the deceitful Fallen Prayers, as it is unlikely to extract information from them about the path to the next layer.
Almost no one chooses to live in Kasseli. Exiles, outcasts, the defeated, as well as the souls of rebels, backstabbers, and those with hidden ambitions, are all sent here.
Because the souls who fall here come from various backgrounds, Kasseli’s inhabitants are a mix of different races and cultures. Most are plotting to leave Kasseli and find a way back to their former homes. Besides prisoners and Prayers, the main inhabitants of Kasseli are those unfortunate abyssal demons who were accidentally transported here.
Most of the Prayers in the Kasseli plane are souls who once abused others’ trust and betrayed friends and families. Like Prayers in all true god realms, they are life forms that can only survive in specific environments. Now, driven by hatred toward the true gods they once worshipped, they have little memory of their past lives but retain a rebellious nature.
This leads them to lie constantly and deceive any other creature with irresistible cunning.
However, Yasas clearly understands this phenomenon well. Using his wisdom, he successfully extracted the true paths from those cunning Prayers and reached the fourth layer of Kasseli—the Peaks Abyss.