Chapter 51: The Prison of the Dead appears! (2/2)

“Are you guys alright?” To think that these two were still alive and even landed up on top of the Prison of the Dead. Was it just sheer luck?

“We’re fine…”

“What about Mo Ci? Did she manage to give birth to the baby?”

“Mo Ci…is dead…”

“What?!”

I immediately ordered my subordinates to help them down from the skull but just as I did so, I suddenly noticed that one of them was hugging a devil egg.

I had originally intended for them to simply jump down while we tried to catch them, after all the skull was only 5 meters tall and this wasn’t enough to kill a large imp. However, after seeing their traumatized expressions and the devil egg, I changed my mind.

Due to the lack of ladders, I ordered them my imps to form a devil stairway. The plan was to get the egg to safety first before helping the two attendants down from the skull. However, I was slightly worried about handing this over to my brutish subordinates and so I decided to call over No.5; the clever scamp was the perfect candidate for this delicate task.

Soon, the football-sized egg was delivered gingerly onto No.5 hands who quickly passed it to my waiting arms.

As I wrapped my arms around it in an embrace, my gaze was immediately drawn to the reddish-black tattoos running across the entirety of the egg in a flowery pattern. I had never seen these patterns before but one thing was certain: this was an egg unlike any other I’ve seen before.

In fact, it was probably of a much higher level than the ones I saw in the Blood Sea. After all, those eggs were a lot smaller than the football-sized egg currently resting in my arms.

Despite its size, the egg didn’t feel heavy in my arms at all. It even had a warm feeling to it that reminded more of a baby than an egg. As for why it was so, I had no idea.

Since there’s no way for me to find out either, I decided to leave the matter of this miraculous egg for another day and instead shifted my attention back to Mo Ci’s situation.

“So tell me, exactly how did she die? And how did the two of you end up atop this giant skull?”

By now, the two attendants had already been rescued and along with them, a shrivelled up corpse was brought before me. This ancient corpse…don’t tell me it’s…

In the face of my cold questioning face, the two attendants began to tremble uncontrollably as they stood there not daring to even move a finger, their eyes reflecting their barely hidden fear.

It was said that some devils were sensitive towards emotional changes and these two were probably a part of these devils. When I had questioned them, they must have sensed that I was ready to punish them. Of course, this was only if they had done something wrong.

“When…when she laid that egg…her body began to lose all signs of life…” The attendant who had handed over the egg replied, her fingers waving about as she drew out the scenario then.

However, her ability to express herself was limited and despite her best attempts at depicting the situation, I garnered nothing useful from it. On the other hand, her words had given me enough clues for me to guess what happened to her.

In the midst of laying that egg, she suddenly ran out of energy. Thankfully, there were still some left over soul flames in the cellar and so they immediately fed them to her. Unfortunately, this still wasn’t enough to ensure the successful delivery of the egg. It had stopped right at the precipice of a successful delivery.

Truth be told, Mo Ci could’ve changed her mind at this point. Unlike humans, devils were able to abort the entire process just by getting someone else to destroy the egg before it left their womb. The nutrients from the broken egg will then flow back into the mother.

While this wouldn’t strengthen her by much, it would at least save her life. However, Mo Ci chose not to do so. Instead of saving her own life, she chose to walk down the suicidal path of laying that egg. The price of her doing so was her life force.

Gradually, as the egg was finally forced out of her womb, she began to shrivel up and turn into the corpse that I saw before me…

As for why those two ended up atop the Prison of the Dead…they had no idea as well. Judging from their recounting, the skull had basically appeared right below them and protected them with a mysterious force as the skull tunnelled upwards.

“No food? Couldn’t you let her eat you?”

By now, One-eye had already finished counting the losses but instead of reporting them to me right away, he confronted them about their failure. His natural-born thuggish nature reared its ugly head once more as just one question from him sent the two cowering in fear on the ground, like sheep to the slaughter.

“That’s enough One-eye. There’s no need to blame them any further. After all, they have no obligation to serve as cattle for her.”

To him, these ordinary devils were nothing more than food but I knew that given the selfish nature of devils, it was impossible to expect them to sacrifice themselves without a good reason.

Even those subordinates who died protecting me, No.1 , No.2 , No.4 and Big 1, had a reason to die for me. As for what that reason is…it’s obvious without me saying.

“This matter is closed for now. By the way, how are our losses?”

“Our losses are heavy this time…the total large imp count has fallen to 347…”

So we’ve finally fallen below the 400 threshold…looks like there’s no more time to waste. Inspecting my new skills can wait for another day, the most pressing issue now is to leave this place.

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“I’m not sure if those strange ghosts will return but since the Prison of the Dead has emerged, we might as well make use of this opportunity to leave the Land of the Dead.”

No matter what laid ahead, I must push forward.

“Send the word, gather up immediately.”

“Yes Master.”

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The criteria for summoning the Prison of the Dead: (Author’s note)

One: The birth of a new life

( The Land of the Dead was a world filled with death and as such, the birth of a new life was a momentous event for this world. This is why that egg being laid was considered the highest level of offering one could offer to this world.

In Chapter 48, Chipped Horn had specifically said “I want to leave this place so this female devil must survive. As such, it’s time for you to die.” Based on this sentence alone, you can infer that he roughly knew about the method to leave this place. To him, Mo Ci was merely a tool to be sacrificed. )

Two: A devil evolving into four-star. ( The Prison of the Dead will automatically appear before the devil.)

Three: Sacrifice. ( Offer up over a thousand lives in a short amount of time. This doesn’t include the undead.)

The reason for Mo Ci’s difficult delivery:

The reason why she had difficulty delivering the egg was because its level was simply too high for Mo Ci. She was merely a large imp and definitely couldn’t bear the burden of a high level devil being born.

As for why that egg was so high level, it was because Mo Ke had given her too much souls. This caused the egg to naturally evolve while it was still in her womb. This was also why she needed that much food during her pregnancy.