Chapter 728: The Origin of the Prison Dimension
Asasus spoke with a serious expression, clearly not joking. After hearing his description, Tanobos also felt a chill in his heart and took it seriously.
Originally, he had paid no attention to these strange entities like stone coffins and sailing ships. To a being as powerful as a true god, these mysterious things to ordinary people were nothing but tricks to deceive others.
But if a threat could even make Asasus, a fallen prince, so wary, then even though it possessed the strength of a lower god and had even more powerful cards up its sleeve, it couldn’t afford to be careless, lest it suffer a setback.
In fact, Asasus and Tanobos’ caution was highly wise. Even demon lords like fallen monarchs couldn’t figure out the origin of the Ship of a Hundred Coffins. All they knew was that when travelers boarded the ship and tried to open the stone coffins, they would be “purified” for disturbing it.
This purification was invisible and silent, leaving no trace, and not even immortal true gods could resist it.
Some beings that regarded this place as their temporary home gladly used this mysterious sailing ship to move from one place in the Ice Sea Abyss to another, without caring about the mysterious force that steered the ship.
Among these beings were many strong ones capable of threatening true gods. They would adopt a highly hostile attitude toward those foolish visitors who tried to open the stone coffins.
Once the coffins were opened, aside from whether they could resist the mysterious force, those beings who saw the Ship of a Hundred Coffins as their temporary home could already cause great trouble to Asasus and the others. In such a situation, finding a way to proceed to the next layer was practically impossible.
Although Kasseli was a dimension for exiles, similar in nature to the Abyss and the Underworld, most of its rules were similar to those of the main world. It had normal gravity and a normal pace of time, without the characteristics of elemental or energy dimensions, with factions slightly leaning toward evil.
Apart from the deity occupying the lowest layer, other deities needed to be at least as powerful as upper gods to change the nature of Kasseli’s rules.
As for ordinary creatures who came here, they would find that Kasseli appeared similar to the main world on the surface—magic and physical forces still had normal effects on it. There were also sunrises and sunsets. But once inside, there was no way out.
By avoiding hasty actions, Yasasu and Tanobos spent several days and nights smoothly on the ship. Along the way, they encountered many passengers who boarded mid-journey, but regardless of their identity, they never interacted with each other—quietly boarding and leaving just as silently once they reached their destinations. This situation also relieved Yasasu and Tanobos. However, during the voyage, they failed to notice that a colorless, transparent river had already passed by them, flowing along its own path even within the endless ice sea, never mixing with any seawater as it extended deep into the depths of the Ice Sea Abyss. When the white sailboat reached a massive whirlpool waterfall that seemed like the end of the world, it arrived at the destination of their journey. “This is the end of the Ice Sea Abyss. By passing through this whirlpool, we can reach the Dead Abyss of Nairo!” Yasasu said, pointing at the whirlpool ahead. Tanobos asked in confusion, “Is it that simple?” Yasasu shook his head. “Of course not. Without this Ship of a Hundred Coffins, even if we reached here, we wouldn’t be able to pass through this dangerous whirlpool. Those with good luck might be repelled to other layers of Kasseli, while those with bad luck would likely get lost in the spatial chaos and never find a way out!” Even a powerful lord of undead demons like Tanobos felt relieved upon hearing this. After all, only the supreme god could guarantee a safe exit from such a desperate situation of spatial chaos. Though it possessed its own secrets, it could not cope with this most dangerous environment in the universe, known as the realm where even gods could perish. By the time they spoke, the white sailboat had already entered the whirlpool waterfall that resembled an endless abyss. A faint gray light enveloped the ship, breaking through layers of spatial barriers as it passed through the whirlpool waterfall. The moment it crossed a certain layer, Yasasu and Tanobos disappeared from the ship, leaving only an empty white sailboat carrying a hundred empty stone coffins, continuing to sail endlessly over the endless ice sea. After the Fallen Prince and the undead demon vanished, the white single-masted sailboat, with its pointed front and rear, was soon caught by a current and unable to move forward. The colorless, clear water began to spread over the ship. Although the faint gray mist on the sailboat tried hard to resist the water’s erosion, it seemed powerless against the current and was quickly completely enveloped.
Light flickered within the white sailboat, as if unwilling to be taken over by the current, but those lights had little resistance against it and soon faded away. At the same time, Donald, who was in the palace deep within the Ninth Circle of Hell, wore a knowing smile. “So that’s how it is!” After harnessing the power of the River of Souls and taking control of the Ship of a Hundred Coffins, Donald unexpectedly learned about the origin of this sailboat, as well as the entire situation of Kasseli. It turned out that Kasseli had once been a prison dimension built by the ancient Soul Gods. Like the prison dimension of the Glory Gods, it was created to imprison dangerous entities that were not allowed to appear in other layers of the multiverse. To maintain the strength of this prison and ensure its permanence, it was transformed into an environment similar to the Underworld and the Abyss, thus creating a new realm for souls to return to. The souls of those fallen worshippers and creatures would suffer endless torment here until they could find redemption and leave Kasseli, gaining additional benefits in return. Similarly, these worshippers and souls also provided powerful energy to sustain Kasseli, just like believers. This prison dimension absorbed their negative emotions such as hatred and greed and transformed them into energy needed by the dimension. The Ice Sea Prison Layer, or the abyss beneath the Whirling Waterfall, was the hub of the entire Kasseli dimension. The Ship of a Hundred Coffins was the sacred artifact that governed the operation of this prison dimension. “In other words, the Ice Sea Prison Layer is actually the only layer in Kasseli that can communicate with the outside world. No wonder this prison dimension has only an entrance but no exit. In the past, people searched for a way out on the first and lowest layers, but they never realized that the real exit was on the fifth layer!” Donald quickly understood why the gods of the ancient Soul Gods did this. Since Kasseli served as a prison dimension, the most secure lowest layer must have been used to imprison extremely dangerous beings, so an exit could not be placed there. To prevent the prisoners from escaping easily, the outermost first layer, the Swamp Prison Layer, was also made impregnable. Creatures who boarded the Ship of a Hundred Coffins actually had the chance to leave Kasseli directly, but as a price for escaping this prison dimension, they had to place a divine artifact or a complete soul inside any one of the hundred stone coffins to meet the conditions for departure.
Those who boarded the ship left without understanding the situation. By recklessly opening the stone coffins, and in the absence of artifact-grade items, the coffins would consider them to be offering their souls, thereby absorbing them. This is the origin of the legend that the Ship of a Hundred Coffins brings destruction and disaster—after all, it was the recklessness and ignorance of those who boarded that led to their tragic fate.
“With the ancient soul pantheon’s control over the soul realm, even the most powerful peak mid-tier gods would find it hard to escape if suddenly attacked. Let alone ordinary mortals who are not true gods?”
After learning about these ancient secrets, Donald developed a deeper understanding of Kasseli’s existence. To him, the existence of this prison dimension was far more valuable than obtaining a high-tier artifact. Just the Ship of a Hundred Coffins alone was worth as much as a high-tier artifact, not to mention the treasures collected over the years within those hundred stone coffins.
Now that he had a basic grasp of this artifact ship, he could truly access the storage spaces inside the coffins, rather than seeing them as empty as others did. Donald counted: although the hundreds of stone coffins were not fully filled, this indicated that in the years since Kasseli’s creation, fewer than a hundred people had managed to escape this prison dimension using this interdimensional ship.
Excluding those unfortunate souls who were absorbed, there were still dozens of artifact-grade items among them, including several materials he did not possess, as well as precious dimensional wonders. The soul gems formed from those unfortunate souls lay scattered at the bottom of the coffins like funerary objects. These were not comparable to the soul fragments Donald had collected from battlefields—they were actual, intact souls with a purity worth millions. If used with the Book of Truth to summon them, they could be enough to create a large dragon clan.
And these were not even the most valuable things. Although this ship was not a true high-tier artifact, its material alone was worth as much as one, and it could be broken down into at least a hundred mid-tier artifacts. It was truly extravagant of the ancient god pantheon to use such materials to build such a large ship.
Moreover, this ship utilized the power of the Authority of Fate, which allowed it to navigate through the immense spatial forces of the Endless Ice Sea and the Vortex Abyss without any hindrance. This was also why the pale gray light surrounding the ship could resist the erosion of the forces of the River of Darkness—after all, the River of Darkness itself originated from the two supreme laws of time and fate, and thus was unaffected by similar realms.
The applications related to the realm of fate mentioned above also served as a good reference for him. On one hand, Donald tried to transform this unique divine sailboat into his own possession, while on the other hand, he continued to observe the actions of the two Asasians through the forces of the River Styx that had infiltrated into the sixth layer of Kasseli’s Netherworld.