Chapter 3: The Inside World of the Ocean

After preparing everything needed for the journey to the netherworld, Li Mingxing handed all the resource rewards he had just obtained over to Mitaling. He knew that this trip would not immediately yield a suitable location for building a city, so rather than carrying these resources around, it was far better to leverage Mitaling's commercial acumen to use them as capital and turn a handsome profit.

Once everything was settled, Raymond offered Li Mingxing a few parting words. Hesitating for a moment, Li Mingxing brought his hands together, activating his Dark Banner Technique. Four dark banners materialized in his hands.

This was the limit of Li Mingxing's Dark Banner Technique. Originally, upon reaching level 1, he could summon five dark banners simultaneously. However, previously in the mythological layer of the netherworld, in order to borrow Di Jun's power, Li Mingxing had summoned one dark banner, which was subsequently blasted into powder by Di Jun's radiant power. Consequently, no matter how he tried now, he could only summon four dark banners of identical size.

Having summoned the four dark banners, Li Mingxing dispatched three of them to one of his cities and two city projections, while keeping the remaining one in his own hand.

This was Raymond's final suggestion: to summon everything he might need in advance, because the netherworld they were heading to held unknown dangers. He might find himself in desperate need of the power provided by the dark banner the very moment he entered. Amidst this solemn atmosphere, Li Mingxing led his subordinates through the passage opened by the Gatekeeper. Before even stepping through, Li Mingxing caught a whiff of salty air—the power of the ocean, he thought to himself, lifting his head and striding forward.

The next instant, Li Mingxing found himself standing upon the open sea. His vessel treasure had activated automatically, transforming into a massive ship that bobbed up and down on the waves right beside him.

The dark banner Li Mingxing had brought along was planted at the very apex of this vessel, its dark aura completely staining the colossal iron ship black.

Li Mingxing glanced at the ship. Although it required neither wind nor human labor for propulsion, its exterior resembled a Western three-masted sailing ship, save for the fact that there were no sails hanging from its yards. Blue and white harpies perched atop the masts.

The entire ship was three hundred and seventy-six meters long, and ninety-three meters wide at its broadest point. On the massive deck stood twenty-two black-headed griffins, while cannon-fodder troops composed of centaurs and jungle lizardmen patrolled the area.

At the bow, several third-tier zombies known as flesh golems hung like figureheads. Normally, they hung there motionless, but should they encounter an attack, they would become Li Mingxing's finest forces for a surprise assault.

In addition to these, all of Li Mingxing's remaining dwarves were present, including four graystone warriors and the formidable blackstone champion. Li Mingxing now had only seven dwarves left under his command.

Yet these little ones who had followed Li Mingxing from the beginning were now all pale-faced, which reminded Li Mingxing of the bizarre legend that dwarves feared water.

Alongside the large ship, Li Mingxing also spotted ten undulating big-headed fish. Most of these creatures were ten meters long, with mouths opening up to four meters wide that could presumably swallow smaller targets whole. With the protection of these sea monsters, Li Mingxing had no need to fear underwater attacks on his ship.

Having inspected his subordinates, Li Mingxing noticed that his spectral body seemed to have undergone some changes. After slaughtering a massive number of sixth-tier and higher enemies in the mythological layer, his spectral form had grown. His body length had increased from the original three meters to about four and a half meters.

The scales on his body had turned a blood-red color, and two dragon wings had sprouted from his back, though they were not yet large enough to allow him to fly. His tail emitted a silvery glow; besides housing a tail stinger capable of storing various toxins, he had also concealed a silver sword pill within it.

As for the other two sword pills Li Mingxing possessed, he had transformed them into teeth and hidden them in his mouth. If any enemy were bitten by Li Mingxing, these two flying swords would slip into the enemy's body through his teeth, wreak havoc, and then fly back. This had become one of Li Mingxing's most crucial tactics.

Like Li Mingxing, Zheng and Aisha, who had also engaged in a frenzied slaughter in the mythological layer of the netherworld, had undergone certain changes as well.

Zheng, who had become Li Mingxing's subordinate not long ago, was in a slightly better state. Her spectral form—specifically the flying dragon she rode—had grown a size larger, increasing from three meters to over four meters, with no other changes.

Aisha's changes, however, were substantial. The clothing made of green and purple leaves that she had previously worn had completely transformed into a cloak made of black feathers. Beneath the cloak was a leafy attire woven from ice and snow, which clearly indicated that her strength had further improved.

Leaping onto his large ship, Zheng and Aisha joined Li Mingxing, and Zheng handed him a map provided by Raymond.

Judging by the map, Raymond was entirely correct: this netherworld was composed entirely of islands. The largest island was only around seven thousand square kilometers, and there were only three of such size, with the rest forming archipelagos of small islands.

Among these small islands, seven or eight factions carved up the vast majority of the territory in this netherworld. The map was quite detailed regarding the three factions belonging to the Darkness Alliance side. Aside from the locations of their city projections, it also marked their mine locations and troop strengths with extreme precision, suggesting a certain level of communication among these three Darkness Alliance cadet heroes.

However, the intelligence regarding the four factions on the Light Alliance side was rather vague. The map in Li Mingxing's possession merely outlined which regions belonged to which Light Alliance cadet hero, along with their general magical affiliation and approximate troop composition, with nothing more.

Li Mingxing did not place too much importance on this, though. His attention remained fixed on the existence of the two deities, which was his ultimate purpose for coming here.

After carefully reviewing the map, Li Mingxing lightly tapped it with his claw. "Let's first check out the only neutral island among the three large ones. Zheng, you scout ahead in the sky. Aisha, take your subordinates inside the ship and check whether any of their Druid skills can be used underwater."

"Are we really going there?" Zheng asked, unable to help herself upon hearing Li Mingxing's words. "Shouldn't we go to the Darkness Alliance side first to see if we can get some assistance?"

"No need. Going to them will only alert them to our presence, and they might actually treat us as bait. I'd rather accomplish things on my own."

"But aren't you worried the Darkness Alliance will cause trouble for you?"

"What's there to worry about? Right now, across the entire Darkness Alliance force here, there is only one normal-tier hero. The other cadet heroes are simply no match for me when it comes to cities. As long as I don't disrupt the big picture of this netherworld and don't give those three cadet heroes any handle against me, I'll be fine here," Li Mingxing stated with certainty.

Zheng implicitly believed Li Mingxing's words, yet she remained somewhat concerned for his safety. Hesitatingly, she said, "I think we should send those griffins out to scout while I stay here to guard you."

"That won't do. While those griffins have decent strength, their adaptability still falls short of yours and doesn't give me peace of mind. So, I need your power," Li Mingxing told Zheng.

Hearing this, though Zheng said nothing outwardly, the smile blooming on her face betrayed her inner thoughts. She cast a deep, affectionate glance at Li Mingxing, leaped onto her flying dragon, and headed south accompanied by eleven griffins.

After Zheng flew off, Li Mingxing took inventory of the troops on the large ship and arranged their tasks for this period. Only then did the massive vessel slowly begin to move, setting a course southward.

After Li Mingxing's ship had sailed for about four hours, Zheng, who had gone ahead to scout, returned with the griffins. Although Zheng lacked Yin Haitao's skill in map-making, she was able to point out a thing or two using the relatively detailed map she carried.

Flying south this time, Zheng had not found the large neutral island, but she had located several small islands and marked them on the map one by one.

Additionally, she brought Li Mingxing good news: while in the air, she had heard a mesmerizing song, a melody so enchanting that it almost made Zheng infatuated, mistaking it for Li Mingxing's call.

Based on Zheng's conjecture, this sound likely originated from mermaids. In other words, somewhere near these waters, there should be a mermaid unit or a mermaid lair.

This was welcome news to Li Mingxing. Ever since he had acquired the ten sea monsters, he had learned another fact: each sea monster could be accompanied by three to five mermaids. If luck favored him, Li Mingxing could directly incorporate this batch of mermaids, thereby enhancing the strength of his naval forces. Consequently, he did not linger, immediately steering the ship toward the location Zheng had indicated.