The Charm of Soul Pets (WN)
chapter-933

Until now, Chu Mu had been extremely curious where White Nightmares had come from.

In Tianxia City’s Soul Palace, the seven great Holy Regions had been the foundations of Soul Palace. Inside dwelled the seven great Holy Pets consecrated by Soul Palace.These special Holy Region spaces were controlled by Soul Palace and were equivalent to spatial territories. This allowed Soul Palace to have an unending source of saint pet child pets.

Chu Mu had no idea if Nightmare Palace was the same. However, he had learned from Shen Mo today that Nightmare Palace also had its own Holy Region - Nightmare Holy Region.

Nightmare Holy Region also had another name - Nightmare Danger Ground!

Nightmare Danger Ground was much more terrifying that the other Holy Regions because the majority of what lived inside it were evil, devilish and disgusting creatures. If they encountered an invader, they would launch savage attacks and chase the invader until death!

Often, Nightmare Palace people considered the creatures inside the Nightmare Danger Ground , as a group of Nightmares waiting inside the darkness and chaos for prey to please them!

Soul Palace’s and Nightmare Palace’s Holy Region were all exceptionally special spaces. Even now, Chu Mu still didn’t know whether they were like Immortal City, a sealed off space, or just a microcosm of another enormous soul pet world!

The Nightmare Danger Ground was not in Tianxia City. Instead, it was hidden in Nightmare Palace. Chu Mu was curious as to how this was. Why were Soul Palace’s seven Holy Regions in Tianxia City, but Nightmare Palace’s Nightmare Holy Region in Wanxiang City?

……

Underneath Nightmare Devil Palace, pale white flames were flickering in the icy cold underground palace. Light shone on the realistic yet terrifying wall paintings and sculptures. It was as if this group of eternally sealed dead creatures were staring at you. Those who were cowardly probably wouldn’t even have the courage to walk past them.

Five long shadows walked along the cold stairs into the darkness. Occasionally, cyan, blue, and white colored devil flames could be seen on the walls. They resembled ever-changing ugly Nightmare faces. Even Chu Mu, who was very brave, felt ineffable strangeness.

“This place is our Devil Palace’s dark walkway. The walls are constructed using shrunken soul cores and soul crystals. On top of them is an extremely sturdy barrier. Even a dominator rank creature would have to spend a large amount of time to break through.” Shen Mo softly explained to Chu Mu.

"How extravagant.” said Chu Mu. Using extremely expensive shrunken soul cores and soul crystals to create an underground palace was only something the rich and overbearing Nightmare Palace could do.

Chu Mu and Shen Mo were walking towards the back. In front of them were three other people, which included the ruler of Nightmare Palace and the strongest expert, Nightmare Emperor Jiang!

Nightmare Emperor Jiang’s body was tall and sturdy. He was serious and didn’t laugh. His entire being gave others a very baleful feeling.

When Chu Mu saw Nightmare Emperor Jiang, he had silently muttered: This Nightmare Emperor Jiang was probably also a murderer in the past!!

Baleful aura and killing auras did not completely stem from a person’s personality. A large part of it was actually dead souls haunting the person.

In this world existed departed spirit creatures. After a creature was killed, their souls would leave their bodies and transform into ghost souls. Most of these ghost souls would hate their killers, and thus would linger around their killer’s body. It would take a while before they dispersed.

Ghost souls were very illusory creatures. If one or two were lingering around a creature, that creature wouldn’t feel any effect. However, once there were many of them, as time wore on, the effects of being haunted would manifest in the form of killing aura and baleful aura!

This was how Chu Mu had determined Nightmare Emperor Jiang was probably a very cruel murderer in his past. At least, Chu Mu had never seen someone with a heavier baleful aura than Nightmare Emperor Jian.

Yet, in terms of baleful auras, Chu Mu’s was actually more terrifying. In the year he had transformed into a devil, Chu Mu had taken countless lives in the Southern Forbidden Region. Thus, there were innumerable ghost souls lingering around Chu Mu!

To the left of Nightmare Emperor Jiang was Great Senior Elder Shen Qiu who Chu Mu was a bit familiar with. Shen Qiu’s strength was ranked second in Nightmare Palace, but Chu Mu had never actually seen him take action. However, in Soul City, merely the single Shen Qiu was capable of suppressing Soul Alliance’s Zhu Chao and Zhu Yi, as well as Yang Que. Clearly, Shen Qiu’s strength was above Desolation members!

The person to the right of Nightmare Emperor Jiang was someone Chu Mu had never seen before. From Shen Mo’s introduction, he was apparently a retired expert from Nightmare Palace. However, he had never assumed a post in Nightmare Palace, and the other factions didn’t know of his existence. However, even Nightmare Emperor Jiang was courteous to this old man. He was probably very strong and a very senior hidden expert!

This old hermit wore a grey robe, the hood of which covered his eyes. The only thing revealed were his nose which was filled with wrinkles and his chapped lips. This pointy chin was hidden in the tall collars of the robe. At first glance, Chu Mu felt that this person didn’t want others to see what he looked like.

It didn’t matter how much this old hermit hid himself, however, because he was definitely a ninth remembrance spirit emperor!

Nightmare Emperor Jiang and Senior Elder Shen were only eighth remembrance spirit emperors. According to what Chu Mu knew, all of the senior elders, Desolation members and Absolute members were eighth remembrance spirit emperors. There were exceptionally few people that had broken through into the ninth remembrance spirit emperor rank!

“It seems that practically everyone who has reached the ninth remembrance has a dominator rank soul pet.” muttered Chu Mu to himself.

Mu Qingyi was at the ninth remembrance, Xia Zhixian was at the ninth remembrance, the Hero Chief who he had brushed shoulders with was at the ninth remembrance, and the old blind man was at the ninth remembrance. Until now, Chu Mu hadn’t seen an eighth remembrance person with a dominator rank soul pet. Perhaps the limit was a paragon emperor.

Shen Mo had previously told Chu Mu that there were only four people who knew of the Nightmare Ancestor’s imminent peril. This included Shen Mo, who was bringing Chu Mu with the three others to the Nightmare Holy Region.

As for why these four big wigs that controlled Nightmare Palace would tell this secret to him, Chu Mu wasn’t sure for now. He could only follow them into the Nightmare Danger Ground and slowly ask for an explanation.

Nightmare Holy Region’s entrance was similar to the Seven Great Holy Regions. It was also a pair of ancient and dignified enormous stone doors. However, the difference was that the stairs under this pair of stone doors were burning with burning devil flames. Even the doors themselves were burning, and releasing a soul trembling aura!

“Nightmare Guard Senior Elder, please open the gate to the Holy Region.” Nightmare Emperor Jiang stood under the stone door and spoke to the old man guarding it.

Nightmare Palace only had four senior elders in name. However, there were actually five of them. The fifth senior elder was the Nightmare Guard Senior Elder who, year in and year out, guarded the Nightmare Holy Region!!

The Nightmare Guard Senior Elder nodded his head, and chanted an incantation!

A series of incomprehensible tones floated through the sealed dark palace. The devil flames on the enormous stone door seemed to have a life of their own. As they heard the orders, they began to rapidly dance along the arch!!

The devil flames were very fast, and quickly formed an enormous flaming silhouette along the stone door. Inside the silhouette was a pattern and marking which were gradually filled and connected!

Finally, the devil flame totem grew more distinct and imprinted itself on the enormous stone doors. It radiated a mysterious evil characteristic!

“Long long long long~~~~~~~”

As the Nightmare Guard Senior Elder chanted the last syllable, the ancient doors slowly opened!

A ray of darkness met the group. As the door opened, the darkness continued to expand, filling one’s line of sight with a pitch black scene!

Outside the entrance, Chu Mu felt the dense darkness onslaught him. He couldn’t help but faintly tremble, and nearly took a few steps back!

At this point, Nightmare Emperor Jiang and the two others looked back at Chu Mu.

When they discovered that Chu Mu was standing there, unmoving, they showed a bit of shock in their eyes.

A moment later, Great Senior Elder Shen Qiu said: “When it was our first time to face the opening of the entrance, we all took several steps back. It’s said that there have even been a few elders who have been so scared that they tumbled down the stairs.”

Hearing Shen Qiu’s explanation, Chu Mu bitterly laughed. It seemed like these three respectful old men wanted to see if he would make a fool of himself.

Chu Mu himself had the darkness type as a secondary attribute. It was obvious that the Nightmare Danger Ground’s darkness aura carried an offensive property, and without any preparations, one’s scalp would go numb over the sudden onslaught on one’s eyes.

Nightmare Emperor Jiang was at the front, and he took the first step into the dense darkness.

After that, the other four followed.

Nightmare Danger Ground was a patch of darkness. There was nothing else. Even the ground was darkness. As one stood there and looked down, it was like looking into a bottomless abyss. The misconception of potentially falling in at any moment was actually a great test for one’s psychological undertaking ability.

However, this place wasn’t absolute darkness either because absolute darkness meant that one’s own five fingers couldn't be seen.

As they walked, Chu Mu could not only see himself, but also the four people next to him. This strange phenomenon was very hard to describe. It resembled the various strange spatial restrictions in the Seven Great Holy Regions.

There were no living creatures in the endless darkness. Eyes open or eyes closed, the only thing visible was darkness. This kind of environment was similar to when he and Mu Qingyi had entered the icy mirror world.

Fortunately, Shen Mo told Chu Mu that this was merely the actual darkness corridor, and wouldn’t continue for too long.

Indeed, after riding on their soul pets for half an hour, light appeared in front of them!

“There’s still quite a distance from the Nightmare Ancestor’s dwelling grounds. You must be careful on the way. There are many powerful communities, tribes, and even empires inhabiting this place. If you accidentally provoke them, it will be difficult for us to break free.” Shen Mo warned Chu Mu, who had never entered the Nightmare Danger Ground before.

Chu Mu nodded his head and thought to himself: when will I get to return to Tianxia City and explore those Holy Regions to their depths? Indeed, there seem to be enormous empires living in the Holy Regions. This means that the Holy Regions are likely to be an extremely vast nation’s territory.