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But the price is having to personally face the wrath of Hades, the god of the underworld.
But Bai Zhi couldn't help but think carefully whether doing so would only cost him his weak and pitiful life.
“Athena, you are making things difficult for me. Last time, I was lucky enough to survive Poseidon’s trial, but this time, you want me to face death. I’m sorry, I can’t do it.”
The difficulties of this mission are described from both a rational and emotional perspective.
Head to the underworld and confront Hades, the god of the underworld, in his home turf.
If you want him dead, there's no need for all this trouble. In terms of raw power, any one of the twelve main gods could easily defeat him.
“No, you can do it, and you must do it.” Forcibly breaking free from Hera’s restraints, Athena quickly straightened her disheveled clothes and said, “Remember my promise to you that I would help you gather the divine blessings of the twelve Olympian gods as quickly as possible.”
The goddess began to explain the importance of the plan.
"Uncle Poseidon values strength and status. Now that you have completed the trial, you are qualified to challenge him. All that is left is to accumulate the strength to defeat Uncle Poseidon."
Athena's opening remarks were a bombshell.
Bai Zhi looked completely bewildered: "Isn't your trust in me a bit too much?"
The unwavering trust in the other person's eyes, in particular, made him even more suspicious.
Bai Zhi was quite skeptical about where Athena's confidence came from.
If he hadn't known that Bai Zhi's shared space could shield him from the gods' detection and perception, he would have suspected that he was living in a 'Bai Zhi world' similar to Truman's.
The Chronicles of the Greek Gods and Their Sons: Chapter 136 The Entrance to the Underworld
Hades is a patient god.
In the battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans, Zeus replaced Cronus, the sky god, and obtained the crown of Cronus, the symbol of dominion.
Hades took the initiative to accept the underworld, which his brothers and sisters rejected.
He willingly assumed the role of Hades, the King of the Underworld, and voluntarily went to suppress the Titans in the hell of Teltarus. As a result, he gained immense power in the Underworld, becoming virtually omnipotent, at the cost of almost never setting foot in the mortal world.
"Uncle Hades was very patient with loneliness. He once sat on the throne of Hades for hundreds of years without moving, witnessing the birth and death of mankind."
Athena introduced Hades to Bai Zhi as she remembered him.
"There were three gods who could have won the position of King of the Gods: Zeus, Uncle Hades, and Uncle Poseidon. Compared to the ambitious Zeus and Uncle Poseidon, Uncle Hades chose to step down, even though his strength was no less than that of the other two."
Therefore, all the Greek gods gave the king of the underworld a break.
Including Zeus, he dared to rebuke any god except Hades.
"Therefore, before Jason can completely eliminate you, Hades' approval is necessary. Hades' divine blessing is mostly related to death. Immortality does not mean immortality. Only by gaining Uncle Hades' approval can you truly step into the Greek mythological lineage war, instead of being in this half-hearted state as you are now."
They possess an immortal body, eternal blood, and divinity, but they have absolute shortcomings in vitality and lifespan.
Can you believe it?
Those powerful enough to contend with the twelve main gods simply aged and died meaninglessly during the gods' resting time.
Now, Bai Zhi has two paths before her.
Firstly, he could follow Hera's guidance to find Chiron, the centaur mentor, to learn the skills to become a hero, and ultimately complete Jason's epic in Argo, living a life under the watchful eyes of the gods, yet able to live the rest of his life as he pleased.
Secondly, following Athena's guidance, he used his living body to confront the embodiment of death and snatch his beloved Queen of the Underworld from Hades's clutches.
Any normal person knows which option is safer to choose, right?
Unfortunately, Bai Zhi never had the power to choose; he wanted it all. The difference was that he could distinguish between what was important and what was not.
“Lady Hera, I have promised Lady Athena and Lady Hermes a task. Please forgive me for a while. Once I have achieved my goal, I will seek out the centaur sage Chiron and become his student.” Bai Zhi politely declined Hera’s offer, even though he knew that Athena had ill intentions.
After all, Bai Zhi represents more than just him. The other Bai Zhi in the shared space, even Paimon, whose freedom is most severely restricted, will not give up any opportunity to find a way to enhance the power of the 'Bai Zhi' as long as they have the chance.
Greek Angelica dahurica, without any other choice.
“Sigh…” Hera sighed, patted Bai Zhi’s hair with pity, and said, “My child, you have chosen a difficult path. Remember, no matter what difficulties and hardships you encounter, I will always be waiting for your return.”
A mother is a child's last refuge, and so is a goddess.
Bai Zhi nodded, turned around and followed Athena away. The goddess's use of divine power and authority was far beyond what a novice demigod like him could compare to.
Following behind Athena, Bai Zhi only realized after the surrounding green trees and vegetation disappeared that in just a few minutes, he had been led by the goddess to a desolate and remote mountain range without his noticing.
There was no turning back, Bai Zhi told herself, following closely behind the goddess.
In ancient Greece, the connection between the underworld and the mortal world was not completely separated. Beneath the earth, within the rocky terrain, lay the path of death and the soul's final destination: the underworld.
Through specific means or special paths, even living people have the opportunity to personally enter the underworld.
Standing before a cave beneath a cliff shrouded in thick fog, one gazes into the distance at the scene inside. A winding path leads downwards, its depths dark and seemingly bottomless. In the distance, one can almost hear the sound of a flowing stream.
But the sound of the water brought not clarity, but the wailing and howling of countless ghosts.
"This is the nearest entrance to the underworld."
Athena said in a relaxed tone, seemingly unaffected by the strange surroundings. Come to think of it, she is, after all, a goddess.
After a brief introduction, the goddess began to explain the precautions for Bai Zhi in the underworld.
"You must cross the winding path between reality and the underworld. This path has no actual distance; it is enough as soon as you realize that you have stepped into the underworld, even if it is only for a moment."
When you enter the underworld, you will encounter the gatekeeper of the underworld, Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell, a son of Typhon with three heads and three kinds of consciousness. He is your first challenge.
After crossing Cerberus, you will be met by Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, who is responsible for carrying the souls of the dead to the other side. Legend has it that as long as the living pay Charon, he will ferry them across, but his boat becomes extremely unsafe due to the weight of the living.
Most importantly, you are absolutely forbidden from eating any food from the underworld.
Athena's final admonition was very serious: the living must not eat the food of the dead. This was an ironclad rule, which even Zeus had to abide by, except for Hades, who could veto it.
"After you overcome these three major challenges, you will enter the Underworld completely, where you will face Uncle Hades's test."
Athena didn't say anything more after that.
Even when Bai Zhi asked about the map of the underworld and how to find Hades, Athena just smiled and didn't answer.
Seeing that she couldn't get any more information out of her, Bai Zhi bid farewell to Athena and followed her into the cave.
Upon entering the cave, he immediately sensed something was amiss. (The text then abruptly shifts to unrelated topics: Liu Siliu's vulture, the difference between a shrimp and a cave, and a mention of a mountain cave.)
"Wow, the temperature is so low, it must be below zero."
The sudden drop in temperature made even Angelica dahurica, which is almost immune to temperature differences, feel uncomfortable.
Rubbing his arms, Bai Zhi stepped onto the winding path. The further he went, the more uncomfortable he felt from the biting cold.
The breath exhaled from the nasal cavity condensed into ice crystals in mid-air and fell to the ground.
As she took each step, Bai Zhi gradually realized something.
This low temperature does not affect the body, but rather the soul.
The biting frost can only be felt in the underworld.
But if you think about it the other way around...
The moment Bai Zhi felt the warmth, it meant that he had already stepped into the underworld.
In a moment...
"Oooooooo-"
"Hoohoho-"
"Wang Wang Wang-"
The roar of the raging beast, accompanied by its foul-smelling maw, suddenly obscured Bai Zhi's entire field of vision.
Records of the Sons of the Greek Gods: Chapter 137 Ultimate Move—Dark Underworld Fall
Cerberus.
Cerberus three-headed dog.
Bathed in the River Styx, |:Yiqi Lu Er Er Er devours all things, an absolutely immortal monster.
Cerberus's power is beyond doubt.
Without choosing to resist, Bai Zhi followed her body's instincts, engraving many of her life-saving skills into her body, and then used them with a backflip.
It vanished from its spot like a phantom, Cerberus's middle head slamming into the ground, tearing the hard rock apart as easily as fragile tofu.
Not far away, Bai Zhi's eyes were very solemn, her hands clenched into fists as she mobilized the abilities within her body, trying to see how many abilities she still had that she could utilize.
He miscalculated.
The oppression of the living in the underworld far exceeded his imagination.
The core ability of Greek Angelica is the divine blessing of the gods.
At this moment, however, I feel so powerless.
The divine blessings of the sun and moon are completely cut off, for the underworld is devoid of light, consisting only of a rootless, pitch-black abyss.
In the underworld, where the soul is the core, the immortal physical body plays a negligible role.
This is going to be a tough battle.
Bai Zhi thought to herself.
Cerberus slowly raised its head, its ruthless vertical pupils staring intently at the living person who had mistakenly entered the underworld.
Saliva dripped from the gaping maw of a blood-red creature, corroding the ground and creating huge, pitted holes.
Both heads on the left and right were staring at Bai Zhi.
But from a few fleeting glints in her eyes, Bai Zhi realized that the demonic beast before her was not a mindless wild animal.
On the contrary, Cerberus, who survived the hunts of the gods in ancient times and even became part of the official ranks of the magical beasts, was more intelligent than ordinary mortals. However, his immense power taught him that wisdom was worthless in the face of force.
With a frenzied roar, Cerberus charged toward Baizhi, its powerful limbs moving with the force and speed of a rampaging mountain.
Having taken her stance, Bai Zhi wanted to test her opponent's strength first. With a heavy stomp, the rocky ground instantly cracked. She bent down and dug her palm into the crack in the ground, forcefully digging out a boulder more than three meters high, which she then slammed down on the oncoming three-headed dog cart.
As a result, the boulder was smashed to pieces, but Cerberus's speed did not decrease in the slightest.
Very well, without divine blessing to activate the inherent barrier, a head-on confrontation is the lowest level of tactic.
We must outsmart them and take some of their resources as quickly as possible.
Trying to outlast a Warcraft player in a physical contest is the most foolish thing to do, especially on their territory.
Bai Zhi ignored him, stood still with her hands clasped together, then slowly separated them. A ray of nascent light flickered between her fingers and shone in her palms, illuminating a large area of the underworld around her, its light as scorching as the rising sun.
Ark Andrecher's Originium Arts: Light Manipulation.
The rapid shifts between darkness and light were the cruelest torment for Cerberus, who had spent centuries in the pitch-black underworld.
“Ho ho ho—!!!”
Amidst the wailing, Cerberus's three heads closed their eyes simultaneously, and bloody tears slid down from the gaps in their eyelids.
Without visual guidance, Bai Zhi used the skills she inherited from Cabensis's No Man's Land ability, and the rhythm of the survival-of-the-fittest Digimon, Bai Zhi concealed her whereabouts while quickly approaching Cerberus's weakest point, its abdominal cavity.
Meditation, Bodybuilding, Gratitude, Pranks, Energy Gathering... many of the buffing skills inherited from Eevee were instantly enhanced under the influence of Kirigaya Kazuto's shared extreme operation, boosting his physical attributes and increasing his attack power in a short period of time.
He lowered his center of gravity, using his spine as the axis, while Bai Zhi raised her right hand and pressed it against Cerberus's abdomen.
"The Demon King's Ultimate Technique: Dark Netherworld Fall".
As she muttered the name of a move she had just made up, Bai Zhi held a tightly compressed sphere in her palm, which was constantly colliding with the gravity-based move.
The dark magic and gravity magic of Solomon, the younger brother of the Demon King.
The fragile balance was instantly shattered the moment the gravitational sphere touched Cerberus.
The extreme conflict of repulsion and attraction draws in and twists flesh and blood into a single mass. At the same time, under the force of repulsion, the condensed flesh and blood is like an exploding flesh bomb. The two operations are carried out simultaneously, resulting in absolute and severe injury.
It churned Cerberus's internal organs and flesh, spraying out large amounts of foul-smelling, highly toxic blood.
Cerberus's wails grew weaker and weaker, but Bai Zhi dared not relax her vigilance in the slightest.
The battle may have lasted only a few seconds, but the twists and turns, as well as the combat awareness and tactics involved, consumed most of Bai Zhi's energy. The result was gratifying; Cerberus was down, but it was only a temporary advantage.
The move I just made did hurt it.
But that doesn't mean it's been killed.
Bai Zhi could clearly sense the life force of Cerberus. Although it was declining, the remaining amount was still enormous.