When Ash arrived at the lowest hall of Gui Ming Palace, he didn’t see any wonders, Technique Spirits, or resources. He only saw a grand, solemn hall that had been randomly cleared, with chairs and bookshelves piled in the corners, and a massive rift in the void above the empty space.

"What is this?" Ash asked, but received no answer for a long time. He turned his head to find Death Mad leaning against the wall, smoking, as if he couldn’t hear Ash speaking, and didn’t even make eye contact with him.

Ash didn’t ask again. He flicked his fingers and shot out eight beams of Sword Light, forming a cube around the void rift. At the same time, a book appeared in front of him, and as Source Power was consumed rapidly, golden inscriptions gradually appeared on the pages!

The Wonder: Gospel Book!

Before entering Hell this time, everyone—including Vishi—expressed their willingness to temporarily lend their Divine Beings to Ash, but he didn’t take any. It wasn’t that he wanted to make things harder for himself, but using Divine Beings requires extensive experience accumulated over time. Every Divine Being is a professional tool with infinite possibilities. Apart from the ’Shattered Lake Divine Being’ which Ash was somewhat confident in using correctly, he couldn’t handle the ’Fairy Tale’, ’Gospel’, or ’Soul Lock’ Divine Beings even if he had them, so he preferred his own wonder.

However, Ash wasn’t completely unprepared. The most important thing in exploring Hell is intelligence, so he requested the operators to help him construct a reconnaissance and prophecy-type wonder. The Witch, Silver Lamp, and Vishi spent more than half a month creating the Lower Wonder "Gospel Book" for Ash.

The Gospel Book can be summed up in one sentence: A fragment of the Gospel Divine Being. The premise for this wonder was the Witch’s unlimited openness to Ash, allowing him to channel the power of the Gospel Divine Being for reconnaissance and analysis through this wonder.

The Prophetic Faction is one of the most difficult mysterious factions to deal with, and since they don’t have any prophetic Technique Spirits, building a prophetic wonder properly would take at least ’years,’ so it was better to find a way for the Witch to assist remotely, as long as it worked.

It is worth mentioning that by helping Ash construct the wonder, the three witches earned the opportunity to freely exchange any servitude at Ash’s place. They immediately queued up, while the Sword Maiden, unable to assist due to her lack of knowledge in the Prophetic Faction, naturally couldn’t join the party. However, before that, the Sword Maiden had consistently held the first place in magic training for more than half a month, entirely monopolizing Ash, leaving no chance for the witches, who were nearly green with envy. Thus, the trio of witches clearly wanted to provoke the Sword Maiden, which even Ash couldn’t comment on.

After experiencing the ten-second delay from Earth to Hell, the Gospel Book finally displayed intelligence on the void rift. Ash glanced at it, surprised: "A Hell Gate? Wasn’t it said that only with Tribulation can Hell be crossed through?"

"Three seconds."

Death Mad couldn’t help but say: "It requires more than seven Demigods simultaneously consuming Tribulation to reach the third layer of Hell, which temporarily merges the hell pathways, forming a Hell Gate that lasts three seconds."

"So, all the surviving Demigods went to the third layer of Hell..." Ash murmured, "But since they could leave, why did some stay behind?"

Death Mad didn’t answer, and Ash didn’t mind. He looked around to ensure he hadn’t missed anything, then raised his right hand and glanced at the eye mark on the back. During the scavenge, he found four Tribulations in total, leaving one after a trip to the third layer of Hell.

Gui Ming Palace had gathered most of the resources of the Deep Blue Hell, and now that the palace was scavenged, the second layer of Hell no longer held exploration value.

However, just as Ash was about to tear open the space rift, Death Mad suddenly said, "Don’t transmit here."

"Hmm?"

Reluctantly biting the cigarette, Death Mad groaned a few words: "They gathered transmission for another reason: definitely, someone among them mastered the space coordinates of a Mage’s stronghold in the third layer of Hell. Gathering transmission allows everyone to target and transmit to that Mage’s stronghold. That space rift has a targeting effect, transmitting here will tear open the rift again, transmitting to their stronghold."

"Why can’t I transmit to their stronghold?"

Death Mad laughed angrily: "Has your brain been soaked in white muddy fluid? Between The Forgotten and Hell Demigods, don’t you know who is more dangerous to you? Go ahead if you want to die."

Ash understood Death Mad’s point. The Supreme Star’s coronation ceremony was a grand event broadcasted across the All Virtual Realm, with countless people witnessing him sharing the Supreme Holy Grail with the Dazzling Star, who then stepped into the Supreme Rank, while Ash, owning half the Supreme Holy Grail, wasn’t even a Divine Lord, appearing like a joke.

The Hell Demigods had long coveted him, and if he fell into their hands at the stronghold, under immense survival pressure and temptation, the only reason they wouldn’t devour him would be if they had a particular preference for their meals.

Nevertheless, Ash thought for a moment and decisively used his left hand to tear the three-eyed imprint on the back of his right hand. The mark expanded rapidly into a rift and merged directly with the void rift. Before Ash could react, half his body had already been sucked in.

"Can you stop being so childish!?" Death Mad furiously discarded the cigarette butt, rushed up, and grabbed his hand, seemingly trying to pull him back. Ash turned and held her wrist, glanced at her calmly without explanation, and dragged her through the rift, leaving the second layer of Hell.

This time, they didn’t end up in the Deep Sea or lava but in another building’s inner hall, with soft,luxurious Rain Demon carpet, exquisite starry chandeliers, and soothing, melancholic symphonic music flowing in their ears, as if they had arrived at an Upper Nobles’ banquet hall, ready to dance a waltz.

However, the decayed food on the dining table clearly showed that this place had been abandoned for a long time, with no one even cleaning it. Overturned chairs, shattered dishes, and fallen wine glasses—all these details narrated in Ash’s eyes a banquet that was suddenly interrupted and never resumed.

"Probably the Demigods from the Deep Blue Hell transmitted here, and the people here hosted a banquet for them, then something happened—if I’m not mistaken, it was the complete fall of Gui Ming Palace. The second layer of Hell was fully digested by Uroboros, The Forgotten’s legions began attacking the third layer of Hell; this is the warfront."

Death Mad picked up an unopened bottle of wine nearby, unsheathed her sword to chop off the bottle’s neck, took a swig, smoked, and said, "A welcoming banquet turned into the last meal before setting out."

"Didn’t get to have a grand battle with the Hell Demigods, are you disappointed?" She turned to Ash, sneered: "Indeed, plundering Hell peacefully is too boring. What’s better than fighting through Hell? Not killing a few Demigods to stir up the atmosphere—isn’t that a waste of your new toy, the new wonder?"

Ash ignored Death Mad’s mockery, looked around to confirm there were no living people nearby, and felt a bit disappointed as he walked straight out of the banquet hall.

When he pushed open the banquet hall doors, what met his eyes was a castle covered in white frost, statues, ceiling, windows, floor, everything was dyed a ghastly white. The only things not covered by frost were the shimmering knowledge gems on the ground... the ashes of a demigod after death.

Death Mad wasn’t wrong, this was the warfront, a demigod stepped into the grave just after leaving the banquet hall.

Ash scraped some white frost from the wall, finding it had the coarse feel of salt grains and a texture reminiscent of fingernails. He crouched down to clean the frost off the knowledge gems one by one, placing them into a refining bottle.

"Don’t waste time, just stuff them all into the refining bottle," Death Mad frowned slightly. "The war might not be over yet, there’s a dangerous vibe here."

An inexplicable rage burned in his belly, and even if just to spite Death Mad, Ash felt like continuing to waste time here. But he quickly suppressed this untimely defiance, abandoned collecting the knowledge gems and left briskly.

Death Mad watched his back, the annoyance in her eyes growing fiercer.

She wasn’t the patient type, and when Ash suddenly stopped, Death Mad couldn’t contain the fire in her voice, filled with the sulfuric smell of impending volcanic eruption: "What now?!"

She saw Ash staring at a few knowledge gems on the sofa... no, wait.

Because they were covered in frost and beside a passageway, Death Mad first mistook it for a rectangular sofa, but upon closer inspection, she recognized it as a coffin.

What stopped Ash was the coffin.

He ignored Death Mad, reached out and wiped the frost off the coffin, revealing the sandalwood beneath. He gripped the edge of the coffin lid and yanked it open, sending the lid crashing to the ground, covering the knowledge gems.

The inside of the coffin was empty, with nothing in it.

Death Mad vaguely sensed something, glanced at the empty coffin, and asked, "Can we go now?"

Ash shook his head and turned to look at the coffin lid on the ground.

He knelt on one knee, reaching out to hold the corner of the coffin lid. Death Mad watched him as if frozen there, the coffin lid seemingly as heavy as a mountain, making his hand unable to move.

Uncharacteristically, Death Mad didn’t urge him, waiting quietly by his side.

A few seconds later, Ash suddenly lifted his hand, flipping the coffin lid over, shaking off the nearby frost with a thud.

He glanced at it then immediately stood up, his balance shifted, causing him to stagger back, almost tripping on debris, and he slowly slid down against the wall, sitting on the frost-covered ground. He lowered his head, gasping for air as if something was choking him, clutching his heart.

Death Mad walked over to take a look and found a line of words inside the coffin lid:

"Ash and Hanna are lovers, Hanna and Qinna are mother and daughter, Qinna and Ash are lovers, Qinna and Nona are sisters"

Death Mad glanced at Ash, remained silent for a moment, then turned back to the banquet hall. Moments later, she returned with a bottle of alcohol, stood beside Ash, drinking a sip and smoking a cigarette.

Once Ash’s breathing steadied, she passed him the bottle, which he took and gulped down a mouthful, only to spit it out the next second.

"Not used to drinking?" Death Mad chuckled, "Just like a child."

"If you want to mock my immaturity, just say it," Ash said softly, "my mood can’t get much worse anyway."

"In many areas you’re quite immature," Death Mad remarked, "but in this one aspect, you’re rather mature."

Leaning against the wall, her voice turned gentle, "I’ve always watched over you, I know how important they are to you."

A lit cigarette was offered to Ash’s lips, and he lifted his brows, meeting Death Mad’s blood-red eyes. After a moment of silence, Ash didn’t reach out, but instead directly bit onto the cigarette to take a puff, feeling the rich smoke sting his throat.

It was the first time he didn’t cough.