110, Pauper, Hall of Yama

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“This really does resemble the Old Abbey.”

Chen Huangpi passed through the Ghost Gate and entered the world where the Nine Nether Divine Lamp existed.

Everything before him seemed veiled in mist, dim and indistinct.

Though the world outside was likewise gray and gloomy, at least it was still daytime.

Here, however, it was almost impossible to see. Only the wavering flame of the Nine Nether Divine Lamp ahead provided the faintest glimmer of light.

By that feeble glow, Chen Huangpi saw Yama Hall.

It was immense, built entirely of stone. With the main hall and its side halls combined, it stretched beyond the range of sight.

It was called Yama Hall, but in truth, it was many times larger than Xuzhou City as remembered by those cultivators.

Looking only at the hall, one could hardly find any connection to the Old Abbey.

Yet when Chen Huangpi looked down and saw the hideous, terrifying faces beneath his feet, every hair on his body stood on end.

They were all evil entities.

The strongest among them was no more powerful than a calamity in the mortal world.

But with so many evil entities forming a road beneath him, how could anyone not feel their heart tremble?

Then he looked toward those regions that seemed shrouded in mist. Though he could not see clearly, the deep, indistinct roars drifting from within, together with the clanking of iron chains, made it obvious that even more terrifying evil entities were concealed there.

There were countless such regions.

“When Master had not yet gone mad, he often patrolled the mountains. He would throw powerful aberrations into the Old Abbey,” Chen Huangpi murmured. “This place resembles the Old Abbey too closely. It must have been made by Master.”

“Yellow Two, what do you think?”

“Are you speaking to me?”

The Brass Oil Lamp sounded bewildered. “But am I Yellow Two? Who am I? Where did I come from, and where am I going?”

“…”

Chen Huangpi was rendered speechless.

It seemed there was no point relying on Yellow Two. It appeared to have developed a thick barrier between itself and him, to the point that it could not even understand such simple questions.

“Ah Ghost?”

“Pact Master.”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost said solemnly, “If this place truly resembles the Old Abbey, and both were created by the Abbey Master, then something may well be suppressed here too.”

“We should do our best not to touch anything. Once we find a way out, we must leave immediately.”

“Otherwise, if something goes wrong, I fear no one will be able to protect you again.”

The Nine Nether Divine Lamp had ignored Chen Huangpi from beginning to end, and it had ignored the Brass Oil Lamp as well.

If Chen Huangpi encountered danger, there was a very good chance it would not come to his aid.

Otherwise, it would not have treated him with such indifference.

Chen Huangpi knew this perfectly well.

As he followed the Nine Nether Divine Lamp toward Yama Hall, he discussed the matter with the Soul-Seizing Ghost.

“If the Old Abbey has not been left by dawn, no one can ever get out. This place may be the same.”

“The Netherworld is different from the mortal realm. Perhaps the truth here is the exact opposite.”

“That makes sense.” Chen Huangpi pondered. “The Nine Nether Divine Lamp is going to Yama Hall. The road we need must be inside Yama Hall as well. But Yama has already been beheaded and died, so the interior ought to be completely empty.”

“There is something else. Ah Ghost, you said that Yama’s domain consists of ten halls.”

“But there is only the Seventh Hall here.”

The Ten Halls of Yama were located in different cities across the vast Netherworld.

The Seventh Hall stood within Wasted Death City.

Now, the Seventh Hall existed in the world beyond the Ghost Gate, while no one knew what changes had befallen the remaining nine halls.

The Soul-Seizing Ghost thought for a long time before offering a conjecture in a complicated tone.

“Perhaps there are ten Ghost Gates like this, with the Ten Halls of Yama located within different Ghost Gates.”

Chen Huangpi understood at once. “If that is true, then there must also be ten Nine Nether Divine Lamps.”

The Nine Nether Divine Lamps had transformed nearly eight million yin deities.

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Although there were many yin deities in Wasted Death City, packed so densely that the eye could not see their end, there were not actually that many.

There were probably only a few hundred thousand.

The most likely explanation was that the remaining yin deities had been created in different cities.

“Ah Ghost, we’re here.”

Chen Huangpi had now reached the entrance to Yama Hall.

A pillar stood outside the hall.

It was not especially tall, but it had a protruding hook-like place near the top. The Nine Nether Divine Lamp hung itself upon it, then became completely still.

“I thought it was going inside too.”

Chen Huangpi shook his head and entered Yama Hall.

Behind him, the flame of the Nine Nether Divine Lamp gave off a chilling aura.

The world beyond the Ghost Gate was pitch-black and gloomy.

Against such darkness, even the cold light of the lamp seemed incomparably warm.

Inside Yama Hall, however, yellowed lamplight illuminated every direction.

Carrying the Brass Oil Lamp, Chen Huangpi proceeded cautiously.

“Chen Huangpi, they all say that a lamp’s life begins the moment it leaves the furnace. But judging from the present circumstances, this lamp’s entire life has been spent inside the furnace.”

The Brass Oil Lamp sounded lost. “Perhaps I have never left that furnace at all. You, the old Abbey Master, Ah Ghost, and those two beasts, Golden Horn and Silver Horn—all of you may merely be fantasies imagined by this lamp before the furnace fire melts it away.”

“Ah Ghost, ignore Yellow Two.”

Chen Huangpi curled his lip. “It has lost its mind. Keep guiding me.”

The passages within Yama Hall were intricate and tangled.

Nor did they lead directly toward the depths of the main hall.

If Ah Ghost had not possessed a father who was Yama himself, and if he had not once served as a minor clerk guarding the Soul-Reaping Register, then even after entering Yama Hall, Chen Huangpi could only have stared helplessly at the maze before him.

“Pact Master, do you see that wall on the left?”

“I do. There’s even a Diagram of a Hundred Ghosts on it.”

Chen Huangpi walked up to the wall.

A terrifying scroll had been painted upon it, depicting ghosts and monsters of every size and shape: Heart-Eating Ghosts, Long-Tongued Ghosts, Starving Ghosts, Mother-and-Child Ghosts, and countless others. There were exactly nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine of them. Though they were merely lifeless images, they appeared extraordinarily vivid.

The Soul-Seizing Ghost said, “Pact Master, once you find the Poor Ghost, we can take the shortcut.”

The shortcut was the path used by the minor clerks employed in Yama Hall.

If one did not take that route, the roads became rugged and extremely difficult to traverse. Sometimes the path simply vanished halfway through, forcing travelers to turn back and retrace their steps.

And being able to retrace one’s steps was already fortunate. Most of the time, when they turned around, the road they had come by had transformed into a mountain of blades, a sea of fire, or a prison of purgatory. Taking even one step backward meant certain death.

Mortal legends claimed that the Netherworld contained eighteen levels of hell.

That was not wrong. It was simply that no one knew those eighteen levels of hell all lay along the branching roads leading to the deepest part of Yama Hall.

The shortcut, by contrast, was smooth and straight, making it effortless to travel.

Merely walking along it and watching the souls on the branching roads suffer and howl could itself be considered an entertaining spectacle.

“What does the Poor Ghost look like?”

Chen Huangpi searched the Diagram of a Hundred Ghosts for a long while, but could not find the Poor Ghost anywhere.

All the ghosts and monsters looked hideous and terrifying.

Not one of them looked poor.

The Soul-Seizing Ghost said helplessly, “It is the one who looks the most ordinary, the most honest, and the one working the hardest. That is the Poor Ghost.”

Hearing this, Chen Huangpi swept his gaze across the diagram.

At last, in a remote corner at the very bottom, he found the Poor Ghost.

“This is the Poor Ghost?”

Chen Huangpi said in astonishment, “It is wearing human clothes. It hardly looks like a ghost at all. And it works so hard turning the mill, while the other ghosts do nothing. It ought to be the richest of them all. How could it be the Poor Ghost?”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost replied, “Pact Master, you saw it working hard to turn the mill, but you did not see the stick tied behind it. A string of coins hangs from that stick.”

“So this is what they mean by ‘money makes the ghost turn the mill’?”

“Yes. The key is that it will never obtain those coins, even if it works itself to death.”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost sneered. “Once it dies of exhaustion, another ghost will take the string of coins away.”

“What if someone takes them before it dies?”

“Then the shortcut appears.”

Chen Huangpi suddenly understood. He stretched out his hand toward the string of coins hanging in front of the Poor Ghost.

Then he truly felt as though his fingers had closed around them.

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He pulled hard.

The string of coins was actually torn free.

At once, the Poor Ghost in the diagram stood frozen in place, as though it had lost its purpose. It stopped turning the mill, then turned its head toward Chen Huangpi, bowed deeply, and vanished.

The next moment, Chen Huangpi saw a ripple spread across the wall before him.

A perfectly straight road appeared beneath his feet.

This was the shortcut.

Once he stepped onto it, he felt wind rising beneath his feet, as if an invisible force were pushing him forward.

The Soul-Seizing Ghost burst into laughter. “Pact Master, how does it feel to take the shortcut?”

Chen Huangpi looked at the string of coins in his hand and said unhappily, “Although the way is completely unobstructed, I feel uneasy. The Poor Ghost has lost its purpose. Has it not also lost the meaning of living?”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost hesitated. “No. Its eyes contained only those coins, which was why it kept turning the mill without ever noticing the scenery around it. Now that the coins no longer hang before it, it may have gained another destiny.”

“Oh. Then it ought to thank me.”

Chen Huangpi thought for a moment. “But it was only an imitation inside the Diagram of a Hundred Ghosts. How could it repay me? Never mind. I will consider these coins payment for my help.”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost felt a faint pang of jealousy.

A Diagram of a Hundred Ghosts existed in every Yama Hall.

Whenever it had once attended the roll call, it would casually take the Poor Ghost’s string of coins. It had never felt there was anything wrong with that; on the contrary, it had considered it perfectly natural.

After all, the Poor Ghost was lifeless.

Even if it had been alive, taking the coins would still have been taking them.

But Chen Huangpi was different. He was still a child and had experienced very little. Naturally, his thoughts remained utterly sincere.

“Perhaps I am a Poor Ghost too.”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost thought of its origins. It thought of how it had worked hard at cultivation and passed the examination to become a minor clerk in Yama Hall, all to prove that even without that insignificant blood connection, it could still make others look at it with new respect.

But the years had passed.

Only now did it suddenly realize that the string of coins which had once hung before its head had long since disappeared.

“My father… a string of coins hung before Yama’s head as well.”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost sighed. “Those coins were the Yin Emperor. Yama was loyal to the Yin Emperor. When the Yin Emperor died, he died too. His eyes held only those coins. He had never had a mother, and he had never had me…”

“Yama had a string of coins too? Why didn’t I see it?”

Chen Huangpi glanced into the main hall at Yama’s headless corpse, seated upright upon the dragon throne, but no matter how he looked, he could not find the string of coins.

“Pact Master…”

The Soul-Seizing Ghost spoke in terror. “You only just entered the shortcut. How did you reach Yama’s main hall already?”

Chen Huangpi replied, “It is called a shortcut. If it took a long time, would it still be a shortcut?”

From the moment he stepped onto the shortcut, every step had been aided by an inexhaustible force.

After taking only a dozen or so steps, he had arrived directly inside the main hall.

On either side of the hall stood statues of all kinds of ghost officials.

There were Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, judges and minor clerks, the Day Wanderer and Night Wanderer, and countless others.

It looked as though they were gathered for a court audience.

Yet every one of those ghost officials had been beheaded.

Otherwise, Chen Huangpi would truly have felt as though he were being watched from every direction.

At that moment, Golden Horn suddenly said, “Father Yellow Skin, the road back to the mortal realm is inside this hall. Let me out, and I will smash it open with my horn at once!”

“Good!”

Chen Huangpi stirred his thoughts, and the Soul-Reaping Register flashed with a ghostly light.

Golden Horn’s hideous soul immediately appeared inside the main hall.

It was not yet dark, and there were no evil entities inside the hall, so there was no need for caution.

Chen Huangpi was overcome with excitement.

At the thought that he would soon return to the mortal realm, he could not help laughing.

But when Golden Horn turned his head in a circle, aimed the heaven-defying horn atop his head at Yama’s corpse seated upon the dragon throne, and dug one foreleg into the floor as he prepared to charge, Chen Huangpi’s smile froze.

That is all for today.

The author is feeling a little unwell and will post three more chapters tomorrow.

End of Chapter