Vines entangled the palace like tentacles, preventing it from touching the sea mud, and seawater surrounded the palace like walls, keeping it from touching a single drop. This "Deep Blue Pearl" of the Hell Fortress, a culmination of the water magic essence of demigods over millennia, ended up like a salted fish, dying of thirst in the deep sea.

It seemed as if the design flaw of Gui Ming Palace was specifically targeted and breached, but the fact that it could be breached at all was incredible—wouldn’t the demigods inside resist? It’s predicted that Gui Ming Palace must have gathered most of the demigods of the deep blue hell. One demigod can alter the landscape; a group of demigods can overturn the hell.

Yet, they could only watch as Gui Ming Palace fell... The fall of Gui Ming Palace wasn’t the start of the war, but the end.

As Ash and Death Mad approached Gui Ming Palace, the first thing to catch their eyes were the monster silhouettes on the walls. Most were common Void Realm creatures like Shadow Evil Dragons, Fox Lamp Dragons, or Fish-Slicing Dragons, but some seemed like resentful creatures like the Bronze Dragons or other Guardian Spirit creatures. The silhouettes were more like traces left from being sun-dried to death.

"It seems they no longer want to escape; they wish to die defending Gui Ming Palace." Death Mad glanced around and said, "The Heavenly Position Wonder ’Wing Insertion’ of the Palace Master of Eagle-headed Cat Palace allows mages to directly draw the essence of Void Realm creatures and temporarily strengthen themselves with Void Wings. Gui Ming Palace was originally the largest Sanctuary for Void Realm creatures, and surely many Void Realm creatures followed everyone as they retreated to Gui Ming Palace. They must have all been sucked dry, leaving only these traces of grievances."

"They..." Ash’s lips moved slightly but stopped after uttering one word.

"When these clans accepted the mages’ protection, they were bound to sacrifice at the brink of life and death. They mostly signed master-slave contracts, unable to resist," Death Mad said. "Otherwise, why would they willingly become Guardian Spirits for mortal mages? Isn’t it just hoping the mages will treat them better once in hell?"

Ash was silent for a moment before asking, "Will Sword Maiden’s Guardian Spirit be in trouble?"

Death Mad shook her head: "Their Guardian Spirits have undergone transformation and evolution. Other demigods can see these Guardian Spirits are someone’s pets, so they generally avoid them. Considering the abundance of Void Realm creatures, there’s no need to bother others’ pets; demigods don’t want to offend anyone."

The two entered the courtyard and saw the remains of knowledge crystals left behind by demigods after death everywhere. Ash roughly estimated that at least twenty demigods had died here, and several large temporary storage pools, filled with a large number of Source Crystals, were built in the center. These were strategic resources that demigods usually need to carefully calculate, yet now they were placed here for anyone to use freely. Ash went over to take a look—though much had been consumed, hundreds of Source Crystals remained.

The Deep Blue Demigods truly fought desperately, depleting their family resources to defend the final fortress. Sadly, even in death, they hadn’t exhausted these resources. Was it because they couldn’t escape, or they couldn’t bear to leave home?

"What did they encounter?"

"The Forgotten," Death Mad paused and added, "Thousands of The Forgotten."

"Why?" Ash placed the gemstone into a refining bottle, collecting the Source Crystals into the Heavenly Kingdom of Souls, like a Funeral Attendant collecting the bones of the deceased. "Why were they attacked by The Forgotten?"

"Uroboros needed to clear hell to complete the devour."

"I thought the moment the World Snake devoured hell was the end."

Death Mad was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Do you think the Void Realm has consciousness?"

Ash glanced at her, "Does the Source Angel count as the consciousness of the Void Realm? If not, then no."

"The standard answer is no," Death Mad said, "The Void Realm is just a huge chaotic system; even if there’s occasional favor or dislike, it’s merely a short wave crest of the chaotic system. Therefore, the Void Realm cannot resist Uroboros’ devour, just like grass cannot resist being eaten."

"But the reality is, it has consciousness. In the area where its consciousness patrols, the world resembles a struggling octopus; Uroboros can’t devour it, having to purify its consciousness first."

Ash immediately reacted, "Mages are the consciousness of the Void Realm?"

"I quite like this saying, but Observers prefer ’mages are the parasites of the Void Realm,’" Death Mad said. "During the process of pilfering the Void Realm, mages naturally establish an unimaginably close bond with the Void Realm. The greatest evidence is that the development of magic directly impacts environmental changes in the Void Realm—mages are like an external brain to the Void Realm, extracting nutrition with one hand and delivering knowledge with the other."

"The Void Realm may overlook small parasites, but major parasites above demigod levels severely impact the Void Realm’s health. Thus, the chaotic system evolved calamities as a mechanism to purge demigods. But precisely because of the existence of major parasites, Uroboros cannot completely devour the Level Six of Hell; the Void Realm still holds control of this world."

Ash felt an enormous sense of absurdity—the ailment the Void Realm wishes to eradicate most, "mages," has instead become the vanguard resisting Uroboros. Uroboros is like a doctor who eats humans, curing the Void Realm’s illness while feasting on the cured areas.

He said, "I thought Uroboros had the ability to eliminate all demigods in hell directly..."

"The herring is the best fish I’ve ever eaten, unfortunately, too bony," Death Mad calmly stated, "Are you picking out the bones to eat fish meat, or crushing the fish to remove bones?"