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Chapter 1370: The Origin of the Nether Swamp
In the very center of the swamp stood a stone stele. Lin Moyu could see it because the swamp was so vast that even with his eyesight, he couldn't see the stele from the shore.
The stone stele was hidden in the black and gray swamp center, only visible when the skeletal god warrior approached the swamp's center.
Lin Moyu recalled the information given to him by Zhu Qiwu, which mentioned that Xu Qingyang's soul was anchored in a stone stele within the swamp.
However, Lin Moyu didn't think it was this particular stele. In such a massive swamp, there should be more than one stone stele.
Thus, he inferred that the center of each giant swamp might have a stone stele.
It was hard to say which swamp's stone stele contained Xu Qingyang.
The Nether Swamp was evidently not safe. The rotting hands, claws, and soul fires encountered earlier were all at the ninth rank of God King.
These creatures were hidden in the swamp and were not easy to deal with.
Flying was impossible here, making it the home ground for these rotting monsters.
Lin Moyu pondered for a moment, feeling somewhat helpless.
Having come this far, giving up was not an option. He could only take it one step at a time.
As for what was inside the stone stele, he would have to see it with his own eyes to know.
With a thought, Lin Moyu transformed into a stream of light, rushing towards the swamp's center.
His speed, like that of the skeletal god warrior, reached 150,000 kilometers per second, surpassing the limit of a ninth-rank God King and even exceeding that of a minor deity.
Two seconds later, Lin Moyu finally saw the stele's shadow in his vision.
Although still far from the stele, the swamp below began to exert a pulling force, causing Lin Moyu to start sinking.
With a thought, a skeletal god warrior appeared beneath him.
Using the skeletal god warrior as a stepping stone, Lin Moyu propelled himself forward again, transforming into light.
The skeletal god warrior was recalled just before it fell into the swamp, the coordination flawless.
No matter how good the coordination, it couldn't compare to the synergy between himself and the undead legion.
The undead legion was like his own hand, moving as he willed.
The closer he got to the stele, the stronger the pulling force from the swamp below.
Lin Moyu repeatedly used the skeletal god warrior to gain leverage, breaking free from the swamp's pull each time.
After five such maneuvers, he finally landed on the stele.
Standing on the stele, Lin Moyu examined it closely.
The material of the stele was identical to that of the mysterious manor's castle, incredibly sturdy. Even if Lin Moyu used all his strength, he couldn't leave a mark on it.
However, the stele before him bore battle scars and inscriptions.
"Nether Legion, First Army, Third Squad's Tomb."
Seeing the inscription, a chill ran down Lin Moyu's spine.
His initial guess was correct; a great battle had indeed taken place here.
The Nether Swamp was not just a swamp but a blood and flesh graveyard.
The Third Squad of the First Army of the Nether Legion was buried here.
The thought of a squad's tomb requiring an area of a million kilometers was chilling.
How large was this squad?
Lin Moyu felt that even if he gathered his entire undead legion, numbering in the millions, it wouldn't need such a vast area.
This squad must have numbered in the billions.
And this was just one squad of the First Army.
How many such squads were there in an army?
And how many armies were there in the Nether Legion?
If there was a Nether Legion, were there other legions as well?
How large were the other legions? They probably weren't much smaller.
Lin Moyu was deeply shocked. He had thought his undead legion was numerous enough.
Once he advanced in rank, his undead legion would be enough to sweep across the stars.
But now, it seemed his legion was insignificant, not even a small fry.
The ancient wars must have been unimaginably intense, with battles on an enormous scale.
Lin Moyu was profoundly moved, and any small sense of pride he had vanished.
Forcing himself to calm down, he carefully examined the stele.
The stele was incredibly sturdy, impervious to the ravages of time.
Using undead vision, he found no hidden souls within the stele.
A visual inspection revealed nothing unusual either.
Finally, Lin Moyu used his soul power to probe the stele.
This time, the stele responded with a slight tremor.
The slight tremor of the thousand-meter stele caused a significant reaction in the swamp.
Rotting mud flew everywhere, and black and red liquid with a strong rotting smell gushed from the base of the stele.
Lin Moyu looked at the sudden emergence of the black and red liquid, pondered for a few seconds, and then thought of a possibility.
He leaped down to the base of the stele, using his palm to absorb a large amount of the black and red liquid.
With his fingers forming a sword shape, he guided the black and red liquid, evenly smearing it over the inscriptions on the stele.
As soon as Lin Moyu's first stroke fell, the stele began to tremble slightly, with more black and red liquid gushing from its base.
The base acted like a small fountain, continuously spewing black and red liquid.
Lin Moyu finished smearing one character and absorbed more black and red liquid to start on the second character.
He meticulously and carefully smeared each stroke.
Lin Moyu did this because he saw some images.
This was a tomb, and the stele was actually a tombstone.
The inscriptions were engraved, and there seemed to be a faint trace of blood inside the characters, indicating that they were once colored.
Over countless years, the color had faded.
He thought of the tombstones in the human clan's small world, where characters were filled with blood.
The black and red liquid gushing from the base of the stele made Lin Moyu realize what he needed to do.
Using his fingers as a pen, he filled the inscriptions with blood.
When all fifteen characters were filled with black and red liquid, a red light shot from the stele, straight into the sky.
The stele roared, and red light enveloped an area of ten thousand meters.
A scene lost to history played out before Lin Moyu's eyes.
A peerless warrior clad in heavy armor stood in the starry sky.
The starry sky was filled with countless corpses, too many to count.
Facing a powerful army alone, the warrior showed no fear.
His voice echoed through the starry sky, "The army is defeated, and I am ashamed before my master. I will exchange my life to bring my brothers back."
As his words fell, the warrior's body collapsed, unleashing a terrifying power.
The corpses floating in the starry sky gathered into masses, transforming into flesh and blood, breaking through spatial constraints, and being transmitted away.
The scene then shifted to a gray world.
In the gray world, undying flames burned brightly, illuminating the land.
"Nether Swamp!"
Lin Moyu whispered, recognizing the scene as the Nether Swamp.
However, it wasn't called the Nether Swamp at that time. The land was flat, with no swamps.
The sky broke open, and massive chunks of flesh and blood fell.
The flesh and blood splattered like water, forming giant swamps with diameters of millions of kilometers.
The splattered flesh formed swamps of varying sizes.
The warrior's shadow appeared in the sky.
Though dead, his heroic spirit remained.
He summoned numerous steles and inscribed them.
His voice thundered like rolling thunder!
"This is the burial ground, where the undying flames will shine forever, waiting for the master's return to fight the stars again!"
As if responding to his words, the flesh and blood boiled, and streams of flesh and blood mixed with countless severed limbs shot into the sky, reaching ten thousand meters high, and remained turbulent for a long time.