Chapter Thirty-Four: Black Soil

"Uh, reporting to Your Majesty, I truly don't know," Li Ren felt as though he could die from anxiety. Ever since he realized this fellow was far from normal, he always felt a chill creeping down his spine.

"State your business, boy," the Skeleton King's tone remained calm, yet it was laced with a biting chill.

Li Ren thought for a moment before replying, "I want to go to that place, Black Soil, but the system says I need to get the Skeleton Token from you first, so..."

"The Skeleton Token, is it..." Li Ren kept his head lowered; he had no idea what expression the Skeleton King might be wearing, but if he dared to look up, he would have seen a surprisingly human-like confusion flicker across that bony visage.

"Very well, I can give it to you. But, should you venture into Black Soil, you must find a certain object. Once you are there, you'll know what it is." With a sweep of his large hand, the Skeleton King sent a small bone fragment tumbling to the ground before Li Ren.

Li Ren hurriedly picked up the bone fragment and took his leave. It wasn’t until he had left the bounds of Skeleton Mountain that he finally felt he could breathe again, and inwardly he cursed Shadow with a grinding resentment.

He truly feared the Skeleton King might, on some sudden whim, turn him into a blood spirit—then he’d be finished.

As for the Skeleton King, he now sat with one hand propping up his chin, the other tapping arrhythmically on the throne. The sudden mention of Black Soil had clearly startled him, and he could not puzzle out the reason.

Just what kind of place was Black Soil? What could it possibly contain?

Li Ren followed Shadow deeper into the Maze Mountains. The journey was remarkably smooth; Shadow seemed to have traversed these paths countless times before, and not a single monster appeared along their way. Twisting and turning through the labyrinth, Li Ren himself soon lost all sense of direction.

At last, they stopped within a dense forest.

The place made Li Ren distinctly uneasy, for the trees here seemed unnaturally lush. The canopy overhead nearly blocked out all sunlight, the dark green leaves and the myriad plants below lending a shadowy, sinister air to the gloom.

A massive stone stele barred their path.

On its surface, three ominous characters had been carved in bold, forceful strokes: "Black Soil Domain." A surge of despair, hatred, and endless resentment seemed to emanate from the stone, sweeping toward them.

Affected by this aura, Li Ren felt his mood grow irritable, everything around him suddenly grating and unpleasant.

"Mind your emotions. The Black Soil Domain is a place of ill omen," Shadow warned, his tone unusually harsh.

Whatever Shadow did next, Li Ren only felt a sudden coolness wash over his heart, quelling the nameless fire within him.

Impressed, he silently marveled at Shadow's skill, then forced himself to keep his emotions in check as he followed Shadow past the stone stele, pressing onward.

"Our goal is a ruin deep within the Black Soil Domain. There lies the Gate of Darkness we need, and whatever the Skeleton King sent you to find should be there as well, and likely in abundance," Shadow explained as he led the way, until a pitch-black barrier blocked their advance.

Li Ren took out the Skeleton Token. The small bone shard, seemingly no different from any other, flew from his hand straight toward the black veil, hovering before it. A misty, grayish power spread from the token, creating a passage just wide enough for Li Ren to pass through.

He glanced at Shadow, who nodded, and together they stepped through the barrier.

Once they had crossed, the gap created by the token slowly vanished, and the bone fragment floating outside disintegrated into ash with a soft puff.

The Black Soil Domain—Black Soil for short—was a world composed entirely of darkness. Pitch-black earth and sky melded seamlessly at the horizon; if not for the crescent of blood-red moon hanging in the heavens, this place might be nothing more than a wasteland of death.

"Stay close to me and be careful. The monsters here are extremely dangerous. If you hadn't told me about this place before, we wouldn't stand a chance of making it through with our current strength," Shadow said, his face more grave than ever.

He led the way, the ground beneath painted crimson by the red moon above. Even the air carried a faint metallic tang.

Li Ren followed, stopping and starting along a route that twisted and turned in baffling ways—sometimes advancing, sometimes doubling back. Without Shadow to guide him, he would have been completely lost by now.

Checking his map, Li Ren calculated that they should have traveled a great distance, but the map still showed him stuck in a single spot within the Maze Mountains.

Suddenly, Shadow halted. Li Ren, trailing close behind, nearly collided with him. Before them lay a sunken depression; they stood at its very edge.

Shadow crouched and crept forward, motioning for Li Ren to join him. Mimicking him, Li Ren inched forward until they were concealed behind a mound of earth. When he poked his head out, the sight before him made him gasp.

Packs of three-headed hounds prowled the hollow below. Each beast’s three massive heads drooled, their six cold, bloodthirsty eyes sweeping the surroundings. A single one of these monsters was already an elite boss at level 80—and here, they moved in packs.

Further off, the hounds clustered even more densely, their forms blurring together in the gloom.

Li Ren slowly shrank back.

Shadow waved for him to follow. "I wonder how the old you ever made it through to the innermost part, even discovering a path like this. I really have to give you credit."

Li Ren offered a sheepish laugh and hurried after him.

The sights along the way truly opened his eyes: level 140 Void Hunters, level 160 Predators, level 200 Lava Knights, and at last even a colossal level 300 boss, the Abyssal Lord!

Even though the two of them avoided these threats as much as possible, the oppressive aura of these monsters washed over them in relentless waves, leaving them shaken.

According to Shadow, Black Soil consisted of two layers, divided by strength: the outer circle and the inner circle. The most powerful being in the outer circle was the level 300 Abyssal Lord; as for the inner circle, even Shadow had no idea what terrifying presence reigned there.

Their destination lay within the inner circle, fortunately in a remote corner—otherwise, Shadow would never have brought Li Ren here.

At the very start of Black Soil, there were indeed some elite monsters around level 60 that Li Ren could handle alone, especially with the mysterious Shadow at his side. They could easily complete the task given by the Skeleton King there. But their ambitions lay elsewhere, so the two followed a secret path deep into the heart of Black Soil.