Chapter 1465: Purgatory Ground

"What’s with the reaction?" I asked.

The mercenary captain of Jack-O’-Lantern Mercenaries, Palen, gulped visibly before advising, "The Reincarnation Realm is that devil’s domain. Personally, I think we should not venture into it if at all possible. Seriously, young man. Don’t go to the third floor of the Purgatory. This floor may as well be sunshine and flowers compared to it!"

I clenched my fists and declared, "No, I must enter the third floor one way or another. You don’t need to come with me, all I ask of you is to tell me where the entrance is."

Palen thought for a moment before answering, "Very well. I must inform you that the second floor is rife with danger, however. You must be prepared for anything."

"I understand. Why don’t you begin by telling me the situation on the second floor?"

"Mn!"

Palen picked up one of the Swordguard’s swords to be his weapon before starting, "The Samsara Realm is one giant Purgatory ground where countless experts of the Human Realms, Heaven Domain and Ghost Region are imprisoned, and there are over ninety thousand such prisons in total. While some of them are pretty powerful in their own right, none of them possess a weapon that can cut through Purgatory Metal like yours, so they have no choice but to languish in their prisons. The center of the Purgatory is south from here, and it is said that…"

"Said that what?" I asked urgently.

Palen smiled before continuing, "It is said that a terrifying divine expert is imprisoned there!"

"That…"

My heart skipped a beat. A divine expert… Could that be the place where Xinran was imprisoned?!

I grabbed Palen’s arm and said, "Alright, we’re heading to the center of the Purgatory immediately!"

"And why the hell would we do that?" Palen’s eyes widened. "It’s certain death! Any one of the prison guards there can easily kill us! I’m not going no matter what!"

I smiled. "That’s fair. You already showed me the direction anyway. I can head there myself!"

"Wait…" Palen said suddenly, "Screw it. You saved our lives, so I’ll follow you to the center of the Purgatory. However, news of our breakout has spread, and we are sure to be attacked by a lot of Swordguards. My brothers and I are hardly in fighting condition, so you’ll have to deal with them yourselves!"

I nodded. "Very well. Let’s go then!"

"Okay!"

……

And so I led the NPCs through the forest and southward toward the center of the Purgatory ground. Looking at the minimap, the entire area was blood-red in color. I had no doubt that a powerful boss awaited me at that location. After all, it was the only reason the minimap would look like this. Unfortunately, the map screen still didn’t display any actual detail. It was really starting to bother me.

It wasn’t long before a battle cry broke out from outside the forest. As a cacophony of footsteps grew louder and louder, I heard someone shouting—

“They’re over there! Kill them! How dare they destroy a prison of the Samsara Realm!"

"I’m going to bleed them on a cross and have the vultures feed on their entrails!"

"Dammit, today is a shameful day for the Samsara Realm!"

……

Dark Pupils revealed a ton of Swordguards running toward us. I immediately raised my hand and ordered, "There’s no escaping this one. We need to find a place to fight as soon as possible!"

I looked around and spotted a rundown prison in the middle of a forest. It bordered a small hill to form a triangular choke point, which was perfect for dealing with hordes of mobs.

"Over there!"

After I ran over to the building, I told Palen and the other NPCs to climb onto the roof and conceal themselves. Then, I stood at the far end of the choke point and yelled at the Swordguards, "Over here, grandsons!"

Very soon, the Swordguards rushed me like a tidal wave. I smiled. I didn’t mind grinding some experience before the big battle!

The first group of Swordguards hit me with their Fiery Triple Strikes, dealing almost a million damage in total in an instant. However, I easily regained all that lost HP with a single Buring Blade Slash. After I summoned the Phantom Wolf King and apparition to help me, I proceeded to mow down the Swordguards like grass. Myriad Swords Obliteration, Summon the Storm and my other AoE skills were easily the MVP of this fight. The 80% splash effect of my sword helped a lot as well.

To be honest, the Swordguards’ stats were extremely terrifying. Unfortunately for them, I was now a god, an Asura God no less. Divine Deterrence was the bane of their existence, turning what should’ve been a close fight into a one-sided massacre.

……

About an hour later, several thousand Swordguards lay dead beneath my feet. My experience bar had skyrocketed all the way to Level 252, 87% as well. Assuming that there was another horde like this, it would take me half an hour at most to reach Level 253. Not only that, the mobs dropped a lot of great loot including a ring that gave 7% lifesteal and an Immortal-grade shield that reduced damage received by 17%. Both items could easily sell for 100k at Sky City!

I picked up around 40+ top-tier pieces of equipment and ignored the rest. Then, I continued onward with the five NPCs.

The sky grew darker and darker. It was already nighttime inside the game.

A small drizzle began pouring, and Palen let out a sneeze.

"Achoo…"

He then walked up to me and suggested, "Young warrior, it is cold and raining, and our stamina has reached its limit. Why don’t we rest until the rain stops before we continue?"

I looked at the white clouds some distance away from here. The drizzle was probably going to last only for a short while, so I said, "Sure."

Finding a resting spot turned out to be harder than expected. In the end, we decided to rest beneath a huge tree. We used huge banana leaves to build a makeshift shelter. Then, the NPCs lay down on the banana leaves, closed their eyes, and snored away in no time.

I kept the Xuanyuan Sword close to my chest as I leaned against the tree trunk and closed my own eyes. Every time the thought that Xinran might be imprisoned in the Purgatory ground crossed my mind, the itch to leap to my feet and run to her aid grew stronger. However, I needed the NPCs to guide me there because I didn’t know the terrain, so I forcefully pushed down that impulse.

It wasn’t a bad idea to take a short nap anyway. I was pretty tired after several hours of non-stop battle after all. Then, I heard a rustling noise while I was halfway into dreamland.

……

Instead of opening my eyes, I brought up the system’s scouting tools. I discovered that Palen and the other four prisoners had picked up their weapons and were moving toward me stealthily. Palen especially was staring at the Xuanyuan Sword with greed.

It was clear that they were gunning for my Xuanyuan Sword. What a dark world we live in these days!

Swhoosh!

The sound of wind breaking entered my ears. Not only was he aiming at my neck, he had empowered his sword with the element of ice. He was attempting to one-shot me!

I opened my eyes, leaned sideways and turned my wrist. The Xuanyuan Sword exited its sheath about 20 cm and parried Palen’s sword. After I knocked Palen back with a kick to the stomach, I leaped to my feet, spun around like a hurricane and fired Thousand Ice Slash at his four subordinates, freezing them all.

"Die!"

A follow-up Burning Blade Slash and War Crush were all it took to kill the four villains. Their eyes were full of disbelief. They weren’t expecting their ambushed victim to react as quickly as I did.

"Do you really think you can escape, Palen?"

I aimed my palm at the Ancient Immortal Rank boss and immobilized him with the God Binding Art. Then, I began cutting away his HP like a machine gun.

"Don’t blame me for my cruelty, boy! Your weapon is simply too good!" Palen retaliated with his own sword.

Unfortunately, his attacks were all blocked by my Cyan Dragon Shield, and my Xuanyuan Sword was blocked by absolutely nothing. It only took less than 7 minutes to drop him to red health. One of my attacks triggered the septuple damage effect, and he was dead just like that. This fight was always going to end in Palen’s death. I could’ve destroyed him even if he was in full equipment and perfect condition, and he was only clad in his shabby prison clothes.

Palen barely dropped anything despite my Luck. The one piece of equipment he dropped was a pair of Bronze-grade wristguards. Obviously, his valuables had been stolen by his jailer a long time ago.

I used Death Plunder on his body, and to my surprise I got something out of it. A parchment appeared in my palm, and its description stated—

The Map of the Seven Floors of the Purgatory: Item.

……

Holy shit! What a stroke of good luck!

Without hesitation, I used the item and watched it seep into my palm like magic. Finally, my map screen began functioning like normal and showing the nearby terrains, geography and so on. As Palen said, the center of the Purgatory ground was called the "Eye of the Purgatory". It was covered by a thick red light, and I had no doubt that it was guarded by a super boss. Xinran could very well be imprisoned there!

My excitement grew when I thought that Xinran was still alive. It was time to move!

Although I was traveling at night, there were a lot of prisons and prisoners on both sides of the road. Some of them shouted at me saying, "Don’t go, boy! Let me go, and I swear on my grandmother’s character that I will serve you loyally for eternity!"

I curled my lips and didn’t pause my footsteps for even an instant. There was no way I was trusting these villains a second time after the incident with Palen!

More Swordguards appeared on the road; too many to fight without wasting an ungodly amount of time. I didn’t want Xinran to suffer this place even a second longer if I could help it. I needed to rescue her as soon as possible!

Swhoosh!

I activated Earth Escape and slipped underground. Then, I continued toward my destination!

I slowly slipped through the undead legion’s massive defense zone. The wind grew colder and colder, and the prisoners beside the road grew more and more powerful. The weakest prisoners were Ancient Immortal Rank bosses, and the stronger ones were Semi Divine Rank bosses.

……

Finally, I was only 100 meters away from the centermost area of the Purgatory ground!

My heart leaped to my throat. Unfortunately, the Purgatory wind of this area was so strong that I couldn’t maintain Earth Escape any longer, so I burst out of cover and ran straight toward the final prison. If Xinran was on the second floor of the Purgatory, then she had to be in that prison!

"Alert! Alert! An outsider has invaded the place!" a skeletal warrior shouted from above a watch tower.

I turned around and tossed the Xuanyuan Sword at the crier. It passed through his head and knocked him off the watchtower instantly.

Thud!

Still running, I caught the returning blade without looking back.

……

After I charged into the bloody mist shrouding the final prison, I was greeted by a shocking sight.

At the center of the Purgatory ground was a huge magic formation made of countless sharpened stakes, and at the center of the magic formation was a giant sword pillar. A girl whose face I couldn’t see because her head was drooped was bound tightly to the pillar by thick iron chains. Blood slid down the pillar as 20 ancient undead magi were holding a magic stone each and casting some sort of spell.

……

"Is that you… Xinran?!" I shouted.

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