Leng Yueyan looked at Long Chen and shook her head. âIt is impossible.â
Long Chen felt like he had been struck by lightning. âWhy? Arenât you the god of the Netherworld? Donât you control reincarnation-?â
âLong Chen.â Leng Yueyan pressed a hand on his shoulder and sighed, âYouâre thinking too simply. The Netherworld isnât the Netherworld within the stories of your Martial Heaven Continent. Our Netherworld is just one tiny region of the ten planar worlds. This place is just one of the millions of Netherworlds. Even all the Netherworlds added up together would only count as one of the planar worlds. It has its own laws, especially as it corresponds to the other worlds. The cycle of life and death connects the ten planar worlds. If you want to go against these laws, youâd have to be the master of the ten planar worlds.â
Leng Yueyan was helpless. The ten planar worlds had stopped being complete a long time ago. Perhaps even becoming the ruler of what remained wouldnât be enough. However, she couldnât bear to tell him that it was impossible, so she gave him some distant hope.
Long Chen sighed deeply. Leng Yueyan wouldnât lie to him about this. It seemed that the stories were just stories. They were far from reality.
âSo even gods have limits.â
âJust as you said, mortals and gods are the same. Itâs just a difference in power. Being born in the sea of bitterness, once you cross it, youâll only be thrown into a bigger one with more dangers,â said Leng Yueyan.
âWhat? Are you and Cangyue in danger?â Long Chen noticed something in what she said.
âAll life struggles. But talking about it now is meaningless. Timeâs about up. I was originally planning on giving you a chance to subdue me, but it doesnât seem like youâre in the mood. Work hard at your cultivation. Once you reach that level, you can handle any problems you face. The key that unlocks all those problems is simply power,â said Leng Yueyan.
Just at this moment, Long Chen felt the world twist. A powerful suction force dragged him away from this world.
Long Chen forcibly resisted that power and embraced Leng Yueyan. A rare warmth appeared on her face, and she kissed him on the cheek. âMy man, work hard. I look forward to the next time when you can subdue me.â
The void rumbled. Powerful spatial energy tore Long Chen away, and he felt the void shatter into countless pieces. Everything vanished.
Leng Yueyan was gone, and Long Chen suddenly found himself standing outside two giant gates. They were the Gates of Hell.
The Dragonblood warriors were standing outside as well. Seeing Long Chen arrive, Guo Ran immediately asked, âBoss, how was it? Did you get anything good?â
Long Chen irritably said, âDo you think your boss has as little integrity as you? Would I go around begging for other peopleâs things?â
âAs long as you can get something good, whatâs wrong with begging? Even if I have to make a terrible scene and kowtow, itâs not a loss,â said Guo Ran righteously.
Meng Qi and the others had all obtained perfect gifts for themselves and were excitedly chatting about them. Even the icy Ye Zhiqiu was delighted.
Guo Ran was incredibly jealous. However, he wasnât Long Chenâs lover, so he had no share. He could only place all his hopes on Long Chen.
If Long Chen got something good, he would definitely share. Long Chen had always shown special care for Guo Ran. Hearing that Long Chen had wasted so much time with Leng Yueyan without getting anything, he felt it was regretful.
He grumbled that Long Chen refused to lower his head and beg for a treasure, making Long Chen have an urge to slap him. This fellow really was shameless.
âCurious, why are the Gates of Hell now devoid of anyone else?â Only now did Long Chen take note that there were no other lifeforms here other than the Dragonblood Legion.
âIt really is odd. Thereâs also no nine-colored waterfall, only a bridge leading to a transportation portal,â said Gu Yang.
While waiting for Long Chen, they had already scouted the terrain. This place was completely different from when they had entered.
Long Chen looked at the majestic gates. At the top, they still said Gates of Hell. There couldnât be a mistake. However, when he carefully appraised them, he suddenly let out a cry, âThese gates arenât the ones we entered from!â
The nail that he had taken from the Gates of Hell had still been missing when they had come in, but now there wasnât a single nail missing.
Long Chen guessed that there were two sets of gates, one leading in and one leading out. They were at the exit, so the nails were all intact.
Looking at the perfectly intact gates, a strange light began to shine in Long Chenâs eyes, prompting Evilmoon to ask, âAre you getting ideas toward the gates again?â
Evilmoon truly understood Long Chen. His spiritual fluctuations in particular could not escape it. Long Chen was getting greedy again.
âAre you joking?â Long Chen shook his head. Turning to everyone, he said, âLetâs go home. We donât know how many days have passed on the Martial Heaven Continent. We should hurry.â
Everyone walked past toward the spatial portal. The Dragonblood warriors stepped through one by one. Runes enveloped them, and they became lethargic. It was like they were in water, and their bodies rapidly floated up into the sky, vanishing within the darkness.
Once everyone else had walked in, the only ones left were Guo Ran and Long Chen. He hadnât let him go.
âBoss, what is it?â asked Guo Ran.
âWe didnât get a gift this time, so donât you think itâd be embarrassing if we left empty-handed?â Long Chen chortled.
âBoss, you meanâŚâ
âBandits donât leave empty-handed. No matter what, we have to bring a little bit back. Come with me.â Long Chen led Guo Ran back to the gates.
âBoss, are you thinking of tearing down the gates?â exclaimed Guo Ran. These gates were so big that he couldnât even imagine doing such a thing.
âYouâre overestimating your boss. I donât have that ability. Last time, I only got a nail and almost died in the process,â said Long Chen.
âDamn, so it really was you!â Guo Ranâs jaw dropped. Before he had joked that no one other than his boss would have dared to take the nail, and now he found that it was true.
âOf course it was me. Otherwise, Di Longâs clone would have killed me back then. This time, I donât want a nail. Last time, the nail lost most of its power after being brought into the Martial Heaven Continent. It also felt like it withered after leaving the gates, like a tree being pulled from soil. A nail isnât useful enough to us. It probably wouldnât even be able to do anything to a fourth step Netherpassage expert,â said Long Chen.
âThen what are we stealing? A door bolt?â Guo Ran looked at the gates.
There were four door bolts on the gates. If they were taken, one smash of them could annihilate an area of life.
Long Chen shook his head. âThose bolts are definitely good, but we canât get them. There are locks stopping us. Moreover, the runes of the bolts are connected to the gates, and theyâll also lose most of their power after leaving the gates.â
âThen thereâs nothing else.â
âDo you see those two door knockers? Theyâre the faces of two ghosts. Those are definitely treasures, and their runes are their own bodies. Even once they leave the gates, they wonât grow much weaker. They can be used as a shield or a weapon to smash people. There are two, and it just so happens that there are two of us. How does one each sound?â Long Chen smiled wickedly.
âBut can we really get them? It feels impossible,â said Guo Ran.
âIt wonât be a problem. There are four rivets holding each knocker, but the runes of the rivets arenât very powerful. Most likely, they were only added to intimidate others and arenât actually used to protect the gates. It shouldnât be too hard to take them.â Long Chen had already decided.
âBoss, what do you need me to do?â Guo Ran made his resolution. If he really could get a knocker from the Gates of hell, that would be enough for him to brag about for a lifetime. It was too tempting for him to resist.
âIâll give you all the Purgatory chains I have. You just wrap them around the two knockers and leave the rest to me. I have quite a few chains, and youâll need to bring them up one by one since you canât use the power of your Yuan Spirit without the gates sensing you.â Long Chen passed the chains over to Guo Ran.
Long Chen had obtained many chains from Purgatory, but they werenât long enough, so he had linked many of them together.
With the first chain, Guo Ran carefully crept up the Gates of Hell. He really was like an ant climbing them. The gates didnât react at all, as if they couldnât sense his existence. That made Long Chen relax.
After binding the knockers with the chains, Guo Ran tied them all together with a giant rope to make sure the chains were bound as tightly as possible.
âAlright, you can go, Guo Ran. Otherwise, when a certain fellow comes out to kill me, I wonât be able to protect you,â said Long Chen.