The boy’s name was Feng Xiaobao, and he was an orphan.
Of course, this was not an orphan before the apocalypse, but rather became an orphan after the apocalypse.
In this world, the parents of many people may not live very long.
Many people may have lost their parents in a battle shortly after their birth.
In every city, there are many such children.
Because they are orphans, because they have no one else, they must rely on themselves.
So what they need is more people.
These children are very united, all for the sake of survival. The older kids are doing their best to take in every orphan they can.
Then, when the children grow up, they will collect even more children.
In this way, their number will become even larger.
The more people there are, the higher the chance of survival.
The name Feng Xiaobao was given to him by a group of kids, because there was another kid named Feng Dabao.
The name Feng Dabao was given by the former leader of the children, a man named Feng Bao.
After Feng Bao’s death, Feng Dabao became the leader.
A group of children found Feng Xiaobao among the ruins; at that time, Feng Xiaobao was less than one year old.
However, people’s vitality was very strong during that time. Feng Xiaobao was tough enough to survive on minimal food and reached the age of ten, and then his star soul awakened.
At that time, Feng Xiaobao was mischievous and clever, with plenty of tricks up his sleeve.
In addition, the child who raised him also died in a battle.
Among more than one hundred orphans, Feng Xiaobao became the leader of the children.
Xiaobao Feng knew that with his limited strength, he couldn’t survive in the post-apocalyptic world.
After he learned that he was one of the Nine Great Star Souls, the Void Star Soul, he went on to find all the children.
He persuaded all his companions, hoping that everyone’s wealth and good things would be used for him.
Because the apocalypse had come, they needed someone to protect the others. But scattered pieces could not forge a strong individual nor provide protection in the end times.
The children agreed.
In five years, rising from level one to king, this was almost an impossible task.
But more than a hundred children did their best.
Whether by theft, robbery, or selling their bodies, everything was done for survival.
When the tide of the apocalypse descended, cities turned into seas of blood, with mountains of corpses piling up.
More than a hundred children were still desperately collecting, determined to make Feng Xiaobao the king before the city fell.
Only then will they have a chance.
In the first month after darkness fell, one hundred and sixty-seven children were reduced to seventy-six.
Feng Xiaobao has become a king.
It was the price paid with the lives of companions.
He kept his promise.
From that day on, he took on the role of protecting his companions, ensuring their survival.
Similarly, he knew what these companions had paid.
Some give their lives, while others give their bodies.
Everything was done to help him become a king and grow stronger.
All those who had bullied them back then are now dead. Those who had defiled their companions’ bodies have all become wrecks, suffering a fate worse than death.
Feng Xiaobao, in order to repay his companions, has been searching for various treasures.
Whether it was from a corpse or obtained from someone else.
He wants anything that can be obtained, anything that can make his companions stronger.
Actually, he was not afraid of death. He had already been rescued from a pile of corpses, so what was there to fear about living until the age of fifteen?
But he could not die.
If he died, he wouldn’t be able to explain to his companions.
He came to the Domain of Demons, and no one knows how many people he killed.
But he did not regret it either.
The boy led Lu Yu to the ruins, not only because Lu Yu was his idol, but also because his other goal was the wealth hidden there.
As long as they helped Lu Yu kill all his enemies, he could share a large portion of the spoils of war.
He can make his companions stronger.
This is the boy’s past, something he doesn’t want anyone to know, not even Lu Yu.
The two of them traveled through the mountains and soon arrived at a ruined site.
This ruin is very large.
Lu Yu’s flight was already high enough. Looking out, he could see for thousands of miles, yet the ruins still stretched beyond the horizon with no end in sight.
The ruins had been abandoned for who knows how many years, with many buildings completely destroyed.
However, just looking at the scale of such a vast ruin built here, one can imagine how enormous and prosperous this ruin must have been in its prime.
Lu Yu and Feng Xiaobao landed at the edge of the ruins.
Lu Yu saw a snake-like pattern carved on a stone among the rubble.
“This place used to be inhabited by the Serpent Clan?” Lu Yu picked up the piece of broken stone, examined it carefully, and then placed it back on the ground.
Feng Xiaobao said, “Mr. Lu, those people should have been inside for quite some time. If we’re going to go in, we’d better hurry.”
“You lead the way; let’s speed up,” Lu Yu nodded.
Feng Xiaobao immediately quickened his pace toward the center of the ruins.
Both of them moved swiftly; as they dashed forward, the surrounding scenery blurred past them.
He traveled this way for a distance of a thousand miles before Lu Yu finally saw, at the distant horizon, a colossal statue.
It was a half-ruined statue.
A snake statue nearly ten thousand feet tall loomed as if reaching up to the heavens.
However, to Lu Yu’s astonishment, the snake statue actually had nine heads.
Five of the nine heads of the stone-carved snake statue have been broken off.
The remaining four were also worn down by the passage of time until they were barely recognizable.
However, these four snake heads are all different; some bow their heads looking down at the earth, while others raise their heads gazing up at the sky.
The center of each snake’s forehead is marked with a distinct pattern: one is a circle, one is a rhombus-shaped crystal, one is a flame, and the last one resembles a silver moon.
“Hydra!”
Lu Yu immediately thought of the biggest enemy he had encountered during his growth.
Without the Star-Calling Technique, he would have been killed by the Hydra countless times already.
There was a nine-headed hydra in the ruins of the serpent people.
Could the nine-headed hydra be the king of the snake people, or does this symbol represent that the snake people worship the nine-headed hydra as a god-like figure?
The closer he got to the snake eagle, the clearer everything became.
The serpent eagle was covered in cracks.
Beneath the snake’s body lay a ruined structure.
Amidst the ruins, a massive stone slab was lifted open, revealing a dark, yawning hole leading downward. A cold, eerie wind blew out from the depths of the opening.
“This is the place,” Feng Xiaobao said, pointing at the cave entrance. “I saw them go in here earlier, and that’s when they started chasing and trying to kill me.”
Lu Yu looked at Feng Xiaobao without walking down.
Feng Xiaobao looked at his own body in confusion and exclaimed in surprise, “Mr. Lu, is there something wrong with me?”
“Now that we’re here, you’d better start talking,” Lu Yu said seriously. “If it were just because you saw them going in, they wouldn’t have sent so many people after you. What else did you discover, or what did you take from them?”
Feng Xiaobao was taken aback, then hurriedly waved his hands, raised one hand and swore to the sky, saying, “I really don’t have anything. I swear, I just saw them dig a hole, and then he started chasing and trying to kill me.”
Lu Yu looked at Feng Xiaobao. The young man’s face was full of sincerity, and he appeared very earnest.
He couldn’t see any problem at all.
Lu Yu turned his body toward the black hole and walked downward, saying at the same time, “As one of the nine mutated star souls, I don’t want you to become my enemy.”
Feng Xiaobao looked at Lu Yu’s back and silently lowered his head, following behind.
Lu Yu walked into the black hole and discovered that it was not as dark as he had imagined, because the walls of the hole were embedded with numerous star spirit stones.
The starlight casts reflections, allowing some glimmers of light to be seen along this descending passage.
As soon as Lu Yu arrived here, he smelled the bloody odor!
There were two human bodies and dozens of snake bodies.
“They’ve all just died,” Feng Xiaobao glanced and said, “When I saw the fight at the cave entrance, no one was carrying snakes either.”
Lu Yu picked up a snake, glanced at it, and said, “These snakes are not ordinary; they belong to a king. An old friend of mine—I never expected to meet them here again.”
“A king, do you mean the King of Ten Thousand Snakes?” Feng Xiaobao blinked his eyes.
Although he had never seen the King of Ten Thousand Snakes, he had heard stories about how it once attacked Fanggang and engaged in a fierce battle with Lu Yu.
In the end, if it hadn’t been for the attack on his own territory, King Wan She might have hesitated during that battle, and no one knows what the outcome would have been.
Moreover, the King of Ten Thousand Snakes later disappeared as well.
This could also be considered one of Lu Yu’s major rivals.
Lu Yu threw away the snake’s corpse and said, “Did you see Crack Heaven King and Star Soul King come in?”
Feng Xiaobao nodded and said, “Yes, I saw with my own eyes that they entered, surrounded by dozens of Kings. They went down together with several Dungeon Lords and divine servants from the God Realm.”
Lu Yu chuckled and said, “Thinking about it now, the King of Ten Thousand Snakes, the Sky-splitting King, and the Star Soul King—looks like I’ve encountered quite a few old friends this time. If luck is on my side, maybe I can take them all down together.”
Lu Yu and Feng Xiaobao walked downward and saw more snake carcasses and bodies.
On the way, Feng Xiaobao kept stopping to take things off the corpses and put them into his own bag.
However, they did not see a single living person.
The passage extended downward for no less than 3,000 meters, and before Lu Yu and Feng Xiaobao lay a vast stone hall.
The stone hall spans a thousand square feet, with a total of nine exits around its perimeter.
And on the four walls were carved various murals.
Without exception, all these murals depict creatures with nine heads and serpent bodies. At first, countless snakes are shown with their bodies lowered close to the ground. Then, the snake people begin to evolve, gradually developing human heads, followed by the growth of upper limbs, until their upper bodies fully transform into human forms.
The Hydra is like a deity of the Nagas, constantly receiving their worship.
Some scenes also depict the Snake People offering food to the nine-headed hydra.
Lu Yu glanced at the murals around the walls before turning his attention to the center of the hall, where lay dozens of human corpses and thousands of snake bodies.
One of them was not yet dead, though his body had been cut in half at the waist.
When this person saw Lu Yu and Feng Xiaobao crawling with difficulty, he pleaded, “Please, please save me.”
Lu Yu noticed that the blood flowing from the person was as black as a snake, indicating a severe poisoning.
However, this poison isn’t as potent as his, so it won’t kill the person immediately.
However, this poison has destroyed the person’s ability to recover. The new granulation tissue tries to repair the body but is prevented from doing so.
Feng Xiaobao squatted down and chuckled, “If you want me to save you, how many good things do you have to give me?”
“I’ll exchange the information here with you,” the man said, recognizing Lu Yu at once. He happily added, “Mr. Lu, you helped me remove the poison; I’ll tell you all the information here.”
Lu Yu said, “You won’t die anytime soon. First, tell me what I want to know, and then I’ll save you. Did the King of Ten Thousand Snakes also come in?”
“Yes, King Wan She, King Lie Tian, and King Xing Hun have all arrived.”
“Was it the King of Ten Thousand Snakes that hurt you?” asked Lu Yu.
“No, it was the guardian beneath the ground that wounded me.”
“Your consciousness is saying that there’s still life alive underground?” Lu Yu was astonished.
“Yes, they were a group of snake people. They’re too powerful, and they never fight you head-on. Instead, they use the terrain here to ambush us. The dead were all poisoned by the snake people.” After saying this, the man coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his face turned even paler.
Lu Yu continued to ask, “Are they very strong?”
The man seemed to recall something and stammered, “They’re not just powerful. They’re like a group of monsters. Each of them possesses an alarming number of skills, and whether it’s the armor they wear or the weapons they carry, they’re all star-forged artifacts. A divine servant from the God Star was actually killed in a single round of attacks by these snake people using their weapons.”
Lu Yu’s heart trembled with shock as he guessed that this place was the serpent people’s armory.
Not all the members of the Serpent Clan were driven out back then.
Some snake people are hiding down here, waiting for the return of their tribe.
I’m afraid that all the wonderful things I saw in the Grand Hall of the Tuimo Sect can’t compare to everything here.
Since these snake people live within the Domain of the Demon Sovereign, they have many opportunities to enter the grand hall and take things.
Somewhere beneath this ground, there might be a vast arsenal!
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