bullyxtreme Chapter 126 He's the author, he calls the shots.
Chapter 126 He's the author, he calls the shots.
Quechang (a type of market).
As dusk settles, the streetlights still shine.
The streets and alleys should have been bustling and lively, no less so than the human world, but at this moment, there wasn't a single person to be seen... no, not even a ghost.
A chilling wind suddenly arose from nowhere, its sound sometimes rapid and sometimes slow, perhaps blowing from the depths of hell, as if mixed with the twisted shrieks of vengeful ghosts.
A cold wind stirred the strings of red lanterns, as well as the rows of watchtowers and wine flags, making them creak and rustle.
It really does resemble a ghost town.
Mei Shiyu, dressed in plain white shoes, stepped onto the lonely and desolate long street. A flash of white light appeared, and the Qing Shuang Sword was already in her hand.
The surroundings were so quiet that only the sound of the sword tip scraping the ground could be heard.
As he moved forward, a trail of frost trailed behind him, and the sharp blade carved a shallow indentation into the ground.
It's easy to see that he was in a state of high alert.
In a place without sunlight or moonlight, and without the distinction between day and night, the passage of time is not easily perceived, and Mei Shiyu would find it difficult to determine what time it was.
Is it because midnight has passed and ghosts are forbidden to roam the market, which is why the streets are so deserted?
But Mei Shiyu quickly dismissed the idea.
Because he couldn't sense any ghosts, spirits, or even monsters.
The border town has become a dead city.
A desolate city where even ghosts don't exist.
Mei Shiyu was unsure whether only his market town had experienced such a strange change, or whether all the markets, large and small, within the territory had been completely emptied.
But he knew there was a strange custom in the area.
Every 59 years, or 45 years, the Ghost King would send out Yin soldiers to take away and deal with a group of souls that had been lingering in the market for a long time and had not been able to reincarnate for various reasons, as well as those low-level demonic cultivators with weak magic power who were not of any use.
This group is extremely large.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the border market was completely emptied.
For all living beings in the border market, forty-five years was a great calamity; those who could escape it were few and far between.
Only at this time do people remember the original name of the border town—the City of the Wrongfully Dead.
This place was never meant to be a blessed land for "peace and prosperity".
It is the Ghost Realm of Fengdu.
Mei Shiyu looked at the deserted street scene before her.
He thought to himself that perhaps his arrival was too coincidental, as it coincided with the forty-fifth year, and the people in the market were undergoing another major reshuffle.
The rule of clearing the land of the dead at fixed times, like a year-end cleaning, is not an ancient practice. It was only implemented after the Ghost Emperor's recent seclusion.
The reason the Ghost Emperor went into seclusion was because of the battle with Ren Pingsheng hundreds of years ago. He was injured in the battle and had no choice but to close his mountain and go into seclusion.
Rumor has it that the unfortunate souls that are periodically disposed of in the underworld are actually sacrifices to the Ghost Emperor. The Ghost Emperor devours a huge number of the dead to speed up healing and improve the quality of his cultivation.
"Devouring" is one of the realms within the demonic cultivation system, and it is also the essence of many demonic techniques and mental cultivation methods.
This cultivation method of "devouring other things and turning them into one's own" is also known as the "Gluttonous Great Technique," a leveling-up routine that has been overused by those who cultivate demonic arts.
The reason a routine becomes a routine is because it's the most convenient and effective way to do things. After all, you can grab things faster than you can hoard them. If your neighbor hoards food, I hoard guns; my neighbor is my granary.
This is probably why demonic cultivators generally have a good appetite; they can eat anything, want to try everything, and believe that eating something replenishes what you need, and the more they eat, the more they replenish.
Although the Ghost Emperor is the ruler of the entire realm, he is shameless and will stop at nothing when it comes to cultivation.
In order to become stronger, he was capable of devouring all living beings under the rule of Fengdu.
As for the souls he devoured, they vanished like smoke, never to have another chance to be reincarnated.
Mei Shiyu held his sword behind his back.
He became increasingly certain of his conjecture because the current timeframe was too unusual; the forty-five-year term had expired, and the market was completely empty.
Without realizing it, his vigilance had relaxed.
I thought I should leave the market as soon as possible, find the Road to the Underworld, cross the River of Oblivion, and enter the depths of the underworld...
Deep within the earth lies the eighteen levels of hell.
The term "Eighteen Levels of Hell" does not actually refer to the fact that the entire spatial structure of hell consists of eighteen levels from top to bottom. Eighteen is just a general term, similar to the terms "Three Thousand Worlds" or "Thirty-Three Heavens." "Eighteen Levels of Hell" can be seen as a popular name.
In fact, the term "hell" is a collective term for the large and small hells distributed in the respective territories of the Ten Kings of Hell.
From the first court to the ninth court, each court basically has one major hell and sixteen minor hells, with each hell having different punishments.
Each of the hells has its own duties; after receiving the souls transferred from the Temple of Judges, they inflict extreme punishments upon them.
The Tenth Court does not have a hell, but only a well of reincarnation.
Geographically speaking, it is unclear how these ten Yama Palaces are distributed, or rather, the distribution pattern of Yama Palaces and Hell cannot be described using the common concept of "geographical location".
Once you venture deep into the territory and enter the domain of the Ten Kings of Hell, anyone will find that the cardinal directions (east, west, south, and north) are no longer working.
The first hall could be to the east of the second hall, or to the west, or even to the south... or perhaps even above it.
There is no concept of direction or location there, only the distinction between the gate of life and the gate of death.
In other words, each Yama's Palace has only one exit; if you can't find the exit, you'll be trapped there forever.
However, there are also connections between the ten Yama King Palaces.
For example, if you want to get to the Ten Kings' Palace, you must pass the tests of the previous nine Yama Kings' Palaces.
Enter from the first hall, then find the exit. The exit of the first hall is the entrance to the second hall. Continue forward in this way, and you will have to go through almost all the major and minor hells of the previous nine Yama Kings' Halls before you can enter the Ten Kings' Hall.
The journey is fraught with peril, a veritable hell on earth. Whether one can find the exit and reach the next hell is secondary; the real concern is whether one survives to traverse the hundreds of large and small hells.
The environment of hell is harsh, with not only crimson flames, hundred-foot-high ice floes, thorny forests, and venomous snakes and scorpions... but also all sorts of inhuman tortures, such as skinning and stuffing with grass, disemboweling and boiling the entrails, breaking open the skull and severing limbs...
There are so many things to say, it would take ten days to tell them all. Anyway, even if you were made of steel and iron, with a head of bronze and arms of iron, you could be turned into a pool of molten iron if you threw it into hell.
Ordinary people simply couldn't withstand it.
The ten Yama King Palaces are not in map mode, but in level mode. To pass them, you can only force your way through.
Mei Shiyu had to force her way through in her previous life.
After passing the final challenge and finding the exit of the Tenth Palace, you will reach the Ghost Emperor's sleeping quarters.
The palace of the Fengdu Emperor was built with its back to the Demon Abyss.
Ren Pingsheng's Fenjing Sword was stuck in a rift deep within the Demon Abyss.
Mei Shiyu truly did not know that there was a convenient passage between the Judge Temple and the Ten Kings Hall.
He suffered a lot of pain for nothing.
Not to mention that he didn't know, this secret was known to no fourth party except for the Ten Kings of Hell, the Emperor of Fengdu, and Judge Cui Jue.
Even if Ren Pingsheng himself, who caused this mess, revisited the place, he couldn't pinpoint exactly where he had stabbed Ren Pingsheng back then.
Li Tingyun knew this secret because he had read the original text of "The First Sword of Immortal Path" from a God's-eye view as a reader.
In the original story, the protagonist Yuan Che's beloved junior sister was innocently killed by Li Tingyun. Yuan Che bravely ventured into the underworld and resurrected his lover before the seventh day after her death.
In this process, the author Wang Laoliu gave Yuan Che a huge advantage, allowing him to jump directly from the Judge Temple to the Ten Kings Hall, successfully skipping a series of hardships in between.
Before his junior sister was pushed into the Reincarnation Realm, Yuan Che successfully rescued her and, thanks to his lucky physique and extraordinary luck, returned safely to the mortal world.
Readers in the comments section were very dissatisfied. Although Wang Laoliu wrote a "feel-good" novel, it was too much of a "feel-good" novel. It was so good that it caused brainstem loss, making the characters mentally challenged and idiotic.
Wang Laoliu appeared in the comments section to explain: Didn't we mention earlier that Ren Pingsheng pierced through hell with his sword? Oh, right, the protagonist fell into the hole he pierced!
Reasonable and well-founded.
It's even more absurd.
But there's nothing we can do; he's the author, and he calls the shots.