Chen Xu looked at the Nephalem in front of him, noting the red light gleaming in their eyes, their surging auras, and their impending demonic bloodline awakenings. His head instantly began to throb.
He could accept the Nephalem awakening their demonic bloodlines. After all, through so much training and battle, they had grown significantly, enough to support a bloodline awakening.
What Chen Xu could not accept, however, was that all ten Nephalem had begun to gradually awaken their demonic bloodlines almost simultaneously, within less than a day of each other.
One or two would be fine, but ten at once was definitely highly suspicious.
Recalling the Mother of Hell's recent silence, Chen Xu couldn't help but mutter a complaint.
“So this is what she was waiting for.”
But Chen Xu couldn't understand why the Mother of Hell was doing this.
The Nephalem were only at the Mythic Rank. Influencing them only affected ten Mythic-tier combatants, not ten Eternal Rank combatants. It would have zero impact on the overall war.
Not knowing the Mother of Hell's objective was what truly gave Chen Xu a headache.
Chen Xu frowned and paced back and forth in the room, seemingly lost in thought.
The Nephalem didn't seem to care. They continued to play and roughhouse with each other, chatting through soul transmissions to share what they had been up to recently.
Only Sindragosa, the bone dragon nanny, was incredibly anxious. She was the one who had discovered the Nephalem's anomalous state.
When these ten Nephalem joined the battlefields of Hell, they spent most of their time by her side.
On the rare occasions when she had just finished a battle and had not been assigned to a new one yet, Sindragosa would only allow the Nephalem to go to the battlefield where Kunpeng was stationed.
Sindragosa and Kunpeng did not get along, and could even be considered rivals.
But Kunpeng's strength was beyond doubt, and nothing could possibly go wrong if the Nephalem went there.
But recently, Sindragosa had noticed something off about the Nephalem. A demonic aura had actually begun to manifest on them.
At first, Sindragosa thought it was because they had slain too many demons and gotten covered in their stench.
After all, the children were still young and did not know how to purge the lingering scent of their enemies.
But she soon realized something was wrong. They had not killed any demons recently; instead, they had gone back to their old trade, hunting down space pirates.
Logically, they should not have any demonic scent on them.
Sindragosa gathered the Nephalem and sniffed them carefully, only to find that the scent was radiating from inside their bodies, and every single Nephalem had it.
Sindragosa knew that the Nephalem possessed demonic bloodlines, but she also knew that a bloodline awakening could not be such a coincidence that all ten Nephalem would awaken the exact same bloodline at the exact same time.
Thus, Sindragosa immediately halted their battles to question the Nephalem.
Upon learning that the Nephalem had all sensed demonic power surging within them at almost the exact same time and had heard a mysterious female voice, Sindragosa realized the severity of the situation.
She immediately brought the Nephalem back to the Undead Dao Court to find Chen Xu.
Watching Chen Xu pace back and forth, Sindragosa felt extremely anxious and could not help but ask, “My Lord, Xing'er, Yinian, and the others... they won't be in any danger, will they?”
Hearing this, Chen Xu stopped pacing and said, “Nothing will happen to them. Yes, they have demonic and angelic bloodlines in their bodies, but more importantly, what constitutes them are the Dao principles of the undead, and what nurtured them is this Undead Dao Court. The Mother of Hell cannot control them the way she controls other Hell demons.”
“But Xing'er and the others all said they heard a mysterious female voice. I'm afraid...”
Sindragosa did not continue. Because her cultivation realm was not high enough, she feared that mentioning the Mother of Hell's name casually would draw her gaze.
If the Mother of Hell noticed that there were ten unique Nephalem carrying demonic bloodlines here, her offense would be immense.
Chen Xu, however, dismissed her concerns, “Speak freely. If we were in the outside world, the Mother of Hell might be able to sense it. But this is the Undead Dao Court, which is a part of me. The Mother of Hell cannot reach her hand in here.”
Saying that, Chen Xu placed his hand on the head of Chen Xing, the eldest of the Nephalem, and rubbed it affectionately.
Through physical contact, Chen Xu confirmed that his perception was correct; the demonic bloodlines within the Nephalem would not affect them negatively.
As for the voice they heard, which suspectedly belonged to the Mother of Hell, Chen Xu hypothesized that it was likely a special broadcast.
Using the bloodline connection, the Mother of Hell had sent out a call to all creatures across the myriad worlds who carried demonic bloodlines.
This call was merely a one-way transmission initiated by the Mother of Hell; it had not established a proper connection yet.
However, once the recipient of the call responded to the Mother of Hell, the connection would be established.
At that point, the whispers of Hell would exert their terrifying effects.
Control, corruption, falling, or remaining hidden until they could be used to devastating effect during battle.
Chen Xu looked down at the Nephalem and made a decision, “For now, you will stay inside the Undead Dao Court. Xing'er, Yinian, as the eldest brother and sister, you must keep your younger siblings in line.”
Although the Mother of Hell could not influence the Nephalem, there was no need for Chen Xu to take any risks. While ten current Mythic Rank combatants could not sway the war, ten future Eternal Rank or even Unique-tier combatants could make the undead great again.
But the Nephalem did not think that far ahead. When Chen Xu grounded them, they immediately began to wail.
“Ah... Father, please don't! It's so boring staying here. Uncle Kunpeng and Aunt Sindragosa are both out fighting, so there's no one to play with us.”
Chen Xu shook his head helplessly but remained firm, “Behave yourselves.”
“Fine.”
The Nephalem knew Chen Xu's personality well. Acting spoiled only worked on Sindragosa; Chen Xu would have none of it.
At this moment, Chen Yan stepped forward to ease Chen Xu's burden, “Why don't you come to Undead Heavenly Crafts? I've completed my apprenticeship, so I can custom-make a set of gear for each of you.”
Hearing this, the Nephalem's eyes instantly lit up.
“Awesome! Third Brother, I want a spear forged from lightning, and a cool, dashing cape!”
“I want...”
“Me too...”
The Nephalem's attention was instantly diverted, and Sindragosa took the opportunity to lead them away to Undead Heavenly Crafts.
Meanwhile, Chen Xu sat in his chair, tapping his fingers lightly on the wooden table.
After a while, he was still completely clueless, unable to figure out what the Mother of Hell's plan was.
Thus, with a shift of his mind, Chen Xu entered the Dao layer and found Miracle.
“Miracle, have there been any new discoveries recently related to Hell?”
Miracle's eyes whirred as it quickly searched the database, then replied, “My Lord, Hell has been quiet for a long time. The latest data is from quite a while ago. If I had to point to something, the price of demon-related materials in the myriad worlds' market has doubled, and the black market is even more exaggerated.”
Chen Xu nodded. With the demon battlefield gone, the supply had suddenly plummeted to zero, so it was only natural for the market prices to go haywire.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit Chen Xu, and he asked Miracle, “Have there been any newly established churches recently?”
“Newly established churches? Yes, about a hundred or so. As you know, those evil gods are like centipedes that die but never fall down; as long as even a shred of faith remains, they will make a comeback. A new batch of cults pops up every once in a while.”
“Are any of them related to Hell or demons?”
Miracle shook its head and said with certainty, “No. Based on the data uploaded by transcendents, none of them are related to Hell or demons.”
“None? Then is there anything related to 'mother' or 'bloodline'?”
“Mother and bloodline?”
Miracle's eyes whirred at high speed once more as it began to search based on the keywords Chen Xu provided.
In an instant, Miracle retrieved the answer.
“My Lord, there are three that match your criteria: the Church of the Mother of Roses, the Church of the Mother of Worms, and the Church of the Holy Mother.”
Hearing the words “Church of the Holy Mother,” a flash of realization crossed Chen Xu's mind.
“That's it! The Church of the Holy Mother!”
Rate on N.U.
