Chapter 358: First Arrival in the Abyss

After passing through the misty spatial rift, Donald and the others found themselves in an underground space. As soon as they stepped into this cave-like environment, Amps couldn’t help but take a deep breath, stretch his body, and say in apparent comfort, “Not bad! We’ve arrived at the abyss. What a wonderful abyssal atmosphere!”
However, his exclamation was quickly interrupted by Donald.
“You need to be careful. Follow me—we’ll gradually move further away from the abyss. Don’t let its will corrupt your mind, or else you’ll end up as a creature controlled by slaughter and madness!”
Amps felt a chill in his heart. His earlier exclamation was merely a reflection of his nature as a demonic being. Even powerful demons knew that being influenced by the abyssal will could easily lead to losing one’s self. But since they were born in the abyss, its mark was deeply ingrained in their souls. Even the mighty abyssal kings, who were comparable to higher gods, couldn’t avoid its influence and might do things that seemed foolish or wildly strange to humans!
Carlisle observed the surroundings and said with experience, “It seems the exit to this abyssal passage is in an underground cave in this realm. The task of finding it falls to you, Donald!”
Having lived in the dark lands for a hundred years, this legendary sword sage was very familiar with such environments, so he immediately recognized their situation at first glance.
Of course, Donald wouldn’t shirk the responsibility. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a group of owls and ordered them to fly around the caves in search of a passage to the surface of this abyssal realm.
Since the summoning was based on the Book of Truth, it wasn’t affected by realm transitions like those of summoning mages in the main world. Donald didn’t need to re-understand the realm’s rules to determine coordinates and open a portal to another world.
Soon, the owls found the correct passage. Although it was underground, it was quite close to the surface—far from the thousands of feet deep in the dark lands.
After passing through another not-too-long but dark underground passage, the three of them saw light again and found themselves in a completely different world.
The sky was dim, appearing dark red under the light of a blood-red sun, with a vision filled with dim, blood-red hues.
Coming out of a rocky canyon, Donald and the others looked into the distance and saw a desolate land shrouded in smoke. Blood-brown weeds half-submerged withered yellow bones.

“Ugh, those annoying undead creatures, that creepy cold aura… I can sense the demonic volcanic sulfur scent being eroded by them!” Amps, who was highly sensitive to various auras in the abyss, said with disgust. Scattered black dots moved slowly in the distance. Donald exchanged for a goblin telescope, and the black dots in his field of view immediately enlarged—turning out to be undead creatures. These undead were quite low-level, mostly skeletons, with occasional zombies, many of them severely damaged. Even an ordinary adult could defeat one of them with bare hands. “Isn’t the eighth layer the Realm of Barbaric Demons? How come there are so many undead here?” Amps was also puzzled. However, it hadn’t been back here in hundreds of years, so it didn’t know much either. It could only explain to Donald, “I can sense that this is indeed the eighth layer of the abyss, but there are other auras mixed in. Maybe something has gone wrong! This is common in the abyss—demons constantly fight, and it’s normal for the rulers below demi-gods to change hands several times a year!” Most of the creatures wandering at the edge of the abyssal passage were low-level undead. Sensing the life auras of Donald and his two companions, these negative-energy creatures, reborn from death, gathered here like flies drawn to blood. Although their mobility wasn’t as good as that of ordinary humans, they were merely clumsy, not as slow as slugs like slimes. Soon, thousands of low-level undead had gathered in an area around the cave exit! The main purpose of diving into the abyss was to harvest soul energy, and Donald naturally couldn’t miss such an opportunity. Though killing undead yielded less soul energy than those from demonic cores, it was still far more than what races like orcs could provide, as the soul flames of undead were easier to absorb and purify into pure soul energy. It was estimated that killing a hundred ordinary skeletons could be equivalent to killing a thousand orcs. For this reason, Donald specifically exchanged for three fragments of Soul Balls and gave one to each of the other two, so that any excess soul energy from the undead beyond their absorption capacity wouldn’t be wasted. Donald didn’t want to get too close to these undead. Solving them with spells all at once would create too much noise and might attract the attention of some powerful beings. After all, they were new here, so it was better to act discreetly!

So he released several alchemical puppets that had been staying within the spatial imprint, as well as the shield guardian he had obtained from the archmage’s ruins. Compared to the alchemical puppets he had summoned, this shield guardian, a product of archmage wisdom, though only at the silver rank, possessed a defensive strength that even those at the gold or legendary levels lacked. After all, human flesh and blood could never compare to alchemical puppets made entirely of wood and stone. Alchemical puppets were merely devices assembled through alchemy; aside from magical resistance and physical strength, they had no additional magic. But the shield guardian, a powerful arcane creation that combined the advantages of golems and constructs, was different. Besides its alchemical components, it contained numerous powerful spells, making it even stronger and more resilient. Moreover, after obtaining blueprints for such arcane creations like shield guardians, along with spells, Donald replaced its components. The original ordinary stones were replaced with durable and expensive magical materials like onyx, while the wooden parts were made from black iron wood comparable to metal. Even some branches from the Tree of Life were used in its core, altering its appearance and further enhancing its defensive capabilities. It was estimated that even the scales of legendary dragons could not match the durability of its body. At this point, the shield guardian, which resembled Donald’s mecha from his past life named Gundam, stood at fifteen feet tall—high enough to make ordinary low-level demons look up at it. It appeared extremely majestic; just its smooth, slender black stone body gave off a sense of immense power and speed! With the cooperation of the shield guardian and the alchemical puppets, all the low-level undead creatures attracted by their living energy were quickly eliminated. These strongest of them, skeletal zombies no stronger than black iron, could be shattered with a single punch from a third-level combat puppet, and their soul flames were absorbed by the legendary magical artifact, the Soul Sphere.