Chapter 298: At the End of the Passage, Hell Gate

Inside the hall.

The door on the left, just like the two doors Su Hao had seen before, was a heavy stone door built from supernatural materials with special craftsmanship, and it required a unique technique to open.

Coincidentally, Su Hao knew how to open this kind of stone door.

Without even a thought, the three-tailed molten weng dragon clone entered the hall from the doorway that had turned into magma, arriving before this stone door on the left.

He swung the lava hammer on his tail, heavily striking the stone door, and the scorching heat quickly turned the stone door itself into magma.

Under his control, it split to the left and right, forming a passageway wide enough for normal passage, successfully opening this heavy stone door.

Never mind whether the method is correct—just tell me if it's open or not! Afterwards, Su Hao brought the three-tailed molten weng dragon clone through the magma-formed opening and arrived behind this stone door.

The reason he didn't bring the six-armed one-eyed giant along was that behind this door lay another long passage.

The six-armed one-eyed giant was too tall to enter the passage unless he crawled.

So Su Hao left him in the hall, planning to bring him out to the surface after the exploration ended.

But Su Hao hadn't expected that this passage was not a route to a treasury but an exit; by the time he reached its end, he had already arrived at the surface.

In other words, this was another passage leading from the surface to the hall, which gave him an ominous premonition.

If both stone doors in the hall were passages from the surface into the hall, then the remaining two stone doors…

After opening the remaining two stone doors, the situation turned out exactly as he had thought: behind these two stone doors were also passages leading to the surface.

In other words, this hall was the endpoint of this place, and there was simply no treasure to speak of.

"No, no, if there really were no treasury, there would be no need to set up so many traps, each of which requires a considerable cost."

"Moreover, there are three living one-eyed giants in this hall; if this place weren't hiding something important, who would bother setting up so many traps for no reason?"

Su Hao shook his head, believing that he must have missed something here.

Afterwards, he summoned all the hundreds of pale skeleton warriors from the passage to conduct a comprehensive, blind-spot-free search of the hall.

He pried open every floor tile and wall brick; saying he dug three feet into the hall would be no exaggeration.

Finally, after the pale skeleton warriors dug up several meters of soil, a stone door appeared before Su Hao's eyes—darker in color, looking even thicker and sturdier, and over a hundred meters tall.

"As expected, there is still a secret passage."

Su Hao raised his eyebrows, a hint of joy appearing on his face, and then he sent the three-tailed molten weng dragon clone into action, using the same method to open the door.

However, this door's thickness and sturdiness were far greater than the previous ones; the materials used had already reached Supernatural Fourth Rank, possessing extremely high hardness.

Even a Supernatural Fourth Rank cultivator would find it no easy task to break this stone door; even the original molten weng dragon would struggle to do so.

Fortunately, Su Hao now possesses the Ultimate Yang Fire Talent, giving him a higher affinity for fire elements, so his fire-elemental skills can unleash greater power.

As Su Hao's clone, the three-tailed molten weng dragon can likewise benefit from this talent, able to release magma of even higher temperature.

Although it took longer, the stone door was eventually completely melted into scalding magma, which automatically split to the sides, forming a wide passage.

Following his usual practice, Su Hao had the pale skeleton warriors scout ahead while he followed behind with his two clones, entering the passage.

This passage, too, was fitted with a large number of traps.

Moreover, the traps here are more powerful and ingeniously designed; relying solely on human lives to scout the route makes it impossible to safely discover all the traps.

The traps here are no longer one-time triggers; for example, a trap one meter ahead, after being triggered once, will trigger again when you reach two meters away.

When you are ten meters out, it may trigger yet again, making the traps here more varied and intelligent.

Furthermore, these traps are even more powerful; some can threaten a Supernatural Fourth Rank cultivator, and they do not expend their energy all at once—instead, they cease attacking after killing an enemy.

With such intelligent and powerful traps, it is not very likely that the pale skeleton warriors could step on every single one.

After trying them out, Su Hao grew unwilling to waste time; he sent the remaining pale skeleton warriors to guard outside the hall, while he himself continued forward with his two clones.

After all, the best way to step on every trap is simply to walk through them oneself, which is faster.

After all, Su Hao's main body possesses Supernatural Fifth Rank combat power, his two clones each have Supernatural Fourth Rank combat power, and they all can benefit from the Aberrant Blood Demon's sequence effect.

Even if the traps here are capable of threatening the lives of Supernatural Fourth Rank cultivators, they cannot pose any threat to them.

Originally, Su Hao had wanted to conserve some effort by letting the pale skeleton warriors help scout, but now it seems he can no longer afford to be lazy.

Although the process is somewhat unpleasant, the progress has clearly sped up considerably.

Soon, Su Hao had walked over a hundred meters of the passage, yet he had not reached the end, and even the location of the passage's end was now invisible.

Moreover, this passage is extremely steep, as if it led straight to the earth's core, continuously descending without end in sight.

The more this was the case, the calmer Su Hao became.

I simply don't believe that such a long passage, laden with so many traps, could be devoid of treasure down there.

Although he had braced himself mentally, the depth of this passage still far exceeded his imagination.

He ignored the many traps in the passage and walked for over three hours before finally reaching its end.

If it were any other Supernatural Fourth Rank cultivator, they would likely have died in these traps long ago; only Su Hao, this indestructible supernatural being, could make it to the passage's end so smoothly.

At the end of this passage stood another tall door, but unlike the previous stone doors, this one was extremely familiar to Su Hao.

The door's surface was covered in layers of white bones; these bones looked ancient and hard, each emitting a faint cold light, together forming a monster's bas-relief.

Strands of black gas coiled around the door, appearing dangerous and eerie.

"Hell Gate?!" Su Hao's face showed surprise; he hadn't expected this to actually be the Hell Gate.

After he completed his advancement and became an Aberrant Blood Demon, he gained an exclusive skill: the ability to summon a Hell Gate, and to solidify one using a necromantic medium.

But logically, this skill is exclusive, so only he himself should be able to solidify it.

Could there be another Aberrant Blood Demon in this world? That shouldn't be, since the Aberrant Blood Demon is a new sequence Su Hao synthesized by repeatedly using the Synthesis Heart.

Unless others could also possess the Synthesis Heart and use the same formula as Su Hao, making it possible to synthesize an Aberrant Blood Demon—but how likely is that? Su Hao considers this possibility negligible.

After all, there are countless supernatural elixirs in the world; how could someone happen to use exactly the same three elixirs as him and then synthesize them in the same way? That is obviously impossible.

If the Hell Gate before him was not constructed via that skill, then there is only one possibility.

Perhaps this Hell Gate was not man-made but naturally occurring.

This means that this Hell Gate is very likely the interface between Hell and this world.

Without a doubt, placing the treasury behind the Hell Gate will be the safest place in this world.

The reason is simple: only Hell Creatures or builders can pass through the Hell Gate; others have no chance to enter.

Since others cannot enter, the treasures inside the treasury will naturally not be stolen; moreover, there are many powerful traps along the way to the Hell Gate, adding further security to the treasury behind the Hell Gate.

"If that's the case, then the mastermind is not a person of this world, but a being from Hell?"

Su Hao stroked his chin, showing a thoughtful expression.

After his Supernatural Sequence advanced to Third Tier and he obtained the Hell Gate exclusive skill, he solidified the Hell Gate within his territory and sent out Hell Creatures to explore.

Over these days, Su Hao also gained a basic understanding of the world behind the Hell Gate, and he built a camp near the Hell Gate.

In many people's eyes, Hell is a barren world filled with lava everywhere, devoid of any vitality.

However, the Hell behind the Hell Gate still differs from the traditional concept.

First, the similarity lies in that the lava in Hell is indeed everywhere, with scorching lava gushing out from underground everywhere.

But the harsh environment is not limited to that; besides surface lava, there are also cracks in the sky from which scorching lava flows out.

Dark element energy fills the entire world, making it full of aggression; anyone who enters will be attacked by lava, dark element, and other related energies.

Such a world can be considered an apocalyptic scene for humans and most other races, with no possibility of survival.

But for Hell Creatures, this is exactly the most suitable place for them to survive.

From the Hell Creatures refined by Su Hao, it can be seen that Hell Creatures have a trait: they cannot die.

Or rather, they are hard to kill; as long as their core is not severely damaged, placing the core into the Hell Creature Manufacturing Device for re-refining can revive that Hell Creature.

Besides that, there is another way to let Hell Creatures revive from their core.

That is to throw their core into the Hell Gate, letting them return to Hell.

The dark element and other related energies inside Hell are important components of their life; after absorbing these energies, they can regrow their missing bodies.

This is also why throwing the core into Hell allows Hell Creatures to recover quickly.

However, Hell is not like this everywhere; there are also many places unfavorable for Local Demons to survive.

For example, behind the Hell Gate built by Su Hao there is a vast oasis covering several million square kilometers, where not a single Hell Creature exists, nor even any nearby.

This means that an environment suitable for human survival is instead a death zone for Hell Creatures, just as humans entering a lava-filled Hell cannot survive at all.

So the question arises: since this world is an uninhabitable decision for Hell Creatures,

Why would the mastermind come out of the Hell Gate, using an unknown method to make Suolu die from misuse of divine power, what is his purpose?

First, it can be ruled out that the mastermind intends to make this world like Hell, filled with lava and dark element, turning it into a world suitable for Hell Creature survival.

The reason is simple: if he truly wanted more land suitable for Local Demon survival, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble to come to this world; he could simply destroy those oases inside Hell, which would be much easier.

As for why Su Hao can be certain that the mastermind came out from behind the Hell Gate, the reason is still that one.

Besides the builder, only beings with the traits of Local Demons can pass through the Hell Gate.

Since the Hell Gate exists naturally, only Hell Creatures can freely enter and exit through it; thus the mastermind's identity must naturally be a Hell Creature.

"Just go in and see."

Having come this far, there's no saying we'd just turn back.

However, Hell is a very large world; Su Hao's understanding of it is still too little, and even if he has an almost indestructible body, recklessly entering it is not a wise move, but that doesn't mean he has no way to deal with this Hell Gate.

Himself recklessly entering Hell is indeed not wise, but sending people in would be different.

Coincidentally, the Hell Gate has a remote pulling function.

Afterwards, Su Hao's mind stirred slightly, his mental power surged into the soul within his brain, lighting the skill rune of the Hell Gate.

The next moment.

Opposite this Hell Gate at the end, another new Hell Gate appeared.

Under Su Hao's command, large numbers of Ferocious Demon Oxen and Demon Flame Pumpkin Heads walked out from the Hell Gate he summoned, pushed open the Hell Gate in front of them, entered, and began their exploration work.

After five hundred Ferocious Demon Oxen and two thousand Demon Flame Pumpkin Heads entered Hell, the Spell Empress then closed the Hell Gate.

At that very moment, Su Hao suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

Since clones can possess the abilities of Aberrant Blood Demons, could they also possess the traits of Hell Creatures and have the qualification to enter the Hell Gate? (End of chapter)