69novels Chapter 2 The Underworld
Chapter 2 The Underworld
In fact, so-called "miracles" are often just another name for "effort".
Half an hour ago—of course, this is the time in the underworld, where the ratio of Yin to Yang time is 1:12. If calculated according to the time in the mortal world, it should be six hours ago.
This is Guixu, Dushuo Mountain, and the Road to the Underworld.
The place where the souls of all living beings in this world return after death.
Souls in the mortal world pass through the Gap in Return—a tiny spatial rift that arises and disappears randomly—and enter the Ruins of Return, drifting down to the Yellow Springs.
Then, the millions of souls are divided into the Well of the Nine Springs, which determines which level of the underworld they will go to, whether to stay in the underworld or to be reincarnated immediately.
The path to the underworld is vast and desolate; sorting souls is the loneliest and most tedious task.
Chi, Mei, Wang, Liang, Gui Yuan, Ming Hou... countless lowly creatures of the underworld withdrew because they could not bear the loneliness, and in the end only the Youming Rat remained.
They have simple minds and agile movements, making them naturally suited to this endlessly repetitive work.
"They are the cornerstones of the underworld, the most professional workers, and extraordinary cogs in ordinary machines," King Qin Guang once praised them.
Soul Examiner No. 86759 from the Underworld is one of the screws mentioned by King Qin Guang. Every day, it guards the Well of Nine Springs, facing the desolate and vast void of the Road to the Underworld.
Faced with countless souls drifting like dandelions, day after day, month after month, it looks around, starts, runs, catches, observes, and throws...
Whenever it's the turn of number 86759 to be on duty, it just repeats the same few monotonous and boring actions.
The only pleasure might be those suddenly appearing wisps of yang spirit.
"Yang Hun You Si" refers to a soul that is half-dead but not quite dead. When someone is struck hard and suddenly dies, their three souls leave their body and slip into the gap between their body and spirit, but their seven spirits do not leave their body yet. If they are treated in time, their souls and spirits may be pulled back to the mortal world.
A powerful being noticed this and secretly placed a curse on the souls of all the Netherworld Rats.
Thus, over twenty generations of Netherworld Rats, totaling trillions, worked for nearly 500 years toward a goal they were unaware of—more than 5000 years if calculated in the mortal world.
At 4:45 PM on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Taiyi calendar year 5818—the same instant Cai Fei's father threw him onto the giant rock.
At Soul Inspection Station No. 82, Soul Inspection No. 86759 found a very, very special soul.
Through the simple soul-sifting mirror perched on the bridge of the nose, 86759 could only see a chaotic scene, and within that chaos, there was a dazzling array of colors.
According to the classification of the underworld, souls are classified into nine colors: red, orange, purple, yellow, green, cyan, blue, white, and gray.
A state of chaos—meaning that this soul is not among the nine categories. Such a soul belongs to one in a billion. Of course, given the large number of souls descending to the Yellow Springs Path every day, even if it is only one in a billion, there are still a few every day. In its long soul inspection career of 86759, it has encountered several such souls.
But it had never seen a chaotic yet colorful soul before—in fact, in the nearly 500 years since the establishment of the underworld, such a colorful soul had only appeared a dozen times.
Based on the lifespan of the Netherworld Rat being around twenty years, each generation of Netherworld Rats, numbering in the billions, only has one chance to encounter each other in their lifetime.
This opportunity for the current generation fell to the Nether Rat, numbered 86759.
Of course, with an IQ of 86759, it cannot understand its own good fortune, but the rules are engraved in its mind.
Number 86759 looked at Well No. 9—Mingquan Well.
The rules told it that such a soul should be immediately thrown into the Netherworld Well, the passage for top-tier souls.
But it was a little distracted, and subconsciously grasped the soul, carrying it as it rushed toward another descending soul.
This was a gray soul, representing the nascent intelligence of primate life. Without hesitation, No. 86759 threw it into the No. 1 Well of the Underworld.
Thirty meters to the left, another soul descended. With a leap, it rushed to this soul, still tightly clutching the colorful soul from the outside world.
Having held the soul in its hand for so long, 86759's hand was slightly burned, but it wanted to hold it a little longer.
It didn't know why; it just felt it should hold onto the soul a little longer.
Just as 86759 was rushing toward the next soul, a rift suddenly appeared in front of it, and a crystal-clear, purplish-yellow soul slowly floated out from it, its speed so slow that it seemed as if something in the mortal world was holding it back.
A wisp of Yang soul!
A chaotic soul containing five colors and a wisp of Yang soul—two rare events converged in that instant!
The moment it saw the wisp of Yang Soul, 86759's eyes suddenly turned fanatical, and as if possessed, 86759 made a move that it itself did not understand.
It hurled the soul from beyond the ruins that it was holding at this soul!
The purplish-yellow soul was met with a head-on blow. Different souls instinctively repel each other, so when two souls collide, they usually bounce off each other immediately. But this collision was an exception.
With this impact, a wisp of cursed shadow drifted out from the body of Nether Rat No. 86759. Almost simultaneously, within the entire Netherworld, the wisp of cursed shadow carried by hundreds of millions of Nether Rat's bodies drifted out together, converging at the speed of light in an instant, gathering into a wisp of divine consciousness, tightly binding the two souls, and crashing headlong into the Gap.
With a pull from the wisp of Yang Soul, which was still in the mortal world, the two souls instantly returned to the mortal world together!
The moment the soul returned to the mortal world, the alarm on the road to the underworld suddenly sounded, its sharp whistle shattering the long silence of the road.
86759 was stunned for a moment, then felt something move in its heart. A surge of joy welled up in its heart, and its blood was burning with happiness. It let out a blank "Ha!" and suddenly took off its identity tag. Then it twisted its whole body and danced the traditional moon-worshiping dance of the Netherworld Rat.
At the same time, from the Road to the Underworld to the Underworld's Abode, countless Netherworld Rats paused for a moment, and then they made the same sound as it.
"ha!"
"ha!"
"ha!"
"ha!"
"ha!"
……
The curse that had lasted for hundreds of years was finally broken. A mental lock that bound the entire race was suddenly released, and then it rippled with its last shimmer.
In that instant, all the Netherworld Rats in the Underworld suddenly removed their identity tags and began a wild, unrestrained celebration.
On the Bridge of Helplessness, the Netherworld Rat, which was standing guard in an orderly manner, suddenly jumped onto the railing and began to writhe wildly around the Yazi statue on it.
In the ghost market, the usually honest and unassuming Netherworld Rat cleaner suddenly started twisting his broom, completely ignoring the astonished looks from the ghosts around him.
Inside Hades' Abode, a dozen or so Netherworld Rats were rolling around on the ground, trampling the large patch of spider lilies they had just carefully tended into a muddy mess.
The most spectacular sight is undoubtedly the Yellow Springs Road, where countless Netherworld Rats on duty scurry about, wildly twisting their hips...
What's both funny and sad is that the Netherworld Rats were working while dancing. They leaped around, scooping up souls, and then flicked them with their fingers or kicked them upside down into the Nine Springs Wells.
Wuchang, who was in charge of the 82nd Soul Collection Station, arrived first with Ox-Head and Horse-Face. The first thing he saw was the alarm trigger point—the identity plaque engraved with the number 86759. However, although the plaque was there, the Netherworld Rat with the code 86759 had disappeared.
From the perspective of the impermanent, all the Netherworld Rats were scurrying about and dancing wildly. They were screaming and dancing, throwing and kicking the flying souls as toys. The entire Yellow Springs Road seemed to be in a state of revelry.
Shocked, Wuchang could only pick up his waist tag and report the situation to his superiors.
Within a short quarter of an hour, hundreds of Impermanence, who were in charge of the Yellow Springs Path, arrived with their subordinates.
Fifteen minutes later, a dozen judges related to the Yellow Springs Path also rushed over. However, they could do nothing but keep reporting the situation to the higher-level controllers on their waist tokens.
Finally, hundreds of ghost soldiers cleared the way, and the oppressive aura of a Great Luo Golden Immortal-level magical artifact covered the entire area. King Qin Guang, one of the three Yama Kings of Dushuo City, arrived holding the Soul-Granting Token.
Normally, under the oppressive power of the Soul-Giving Decree, the Netherworld Rats would have already prostrated themselves, their souls trembling and unable to move. However, today the Netherworld Rats seemed oblivious, continuing their revelry and dancing wildly in the sky.
Many of the spirits couldn't resist taking out their spirit ropes and bringing these disrespectful and lawless rats to justice.
King Qin Guang raised his hand, stopping his subordinates from taking any further action and signaling everyone to remain silent.
Thus, hundreds of ghost soldiers stood with their spears, hundreds of the Impermanent Ones and their subordinates, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, stood silently, dozens of judges stood with their arms crossed and looked around, plus a king from the underworld, all quietly watching the countless Netherworld Rats revel.
Another fifteen minutes have passed.
Then, very suddenly, as if by magic, all the Netherworld Rats suddenly stopped moving. They seemed to have just realized the arrival of their leaders, so they lay prostrate, trembling and unable to move.
"You shall all return to your positions immediately and continue your work."
King Qin Guang's voice resounded from each of the Nine Springs Wells, echoing throughout the entire space. The Netherworld Rats stood up blankly, looking around, wanting to return to their original positions.
However, they cannot remember complex numbers. The nameplates are engraved with talismanic numbers that can lead them to the corresponding wells of the underworld. Without the nameplates, these ghost rats are at a loss.
King Qin Guang was also taken aback, but he quickly realized what was going on and ordered, "All the ox-headed and horse-faced figures, take your positions and direct them to work nearby."
"Yes."
The ox-headed and horse-faced demons bowed and accepted the order, taking their positions and placing the Netherworld Rats at the nearest Yellow Spring Well.
King Qin Guang then asked, "Do you know who was the first to trigger the alarm?"
"Reporting to King Yama, this is the Netherworld Rat numbered 86759 under my jurisdiction," a grim reaper responded. "However, there's only a tag; we don't know the rat's exact location at the moment."
"If you line them up and let me see them one by one, can you recognize them?" King Qin Guang asked, glancing at the impermanent figure.
"This... to identify one out of billions of Netherworld Rats... is almost impossible." The Impermanent One thought for a moment and could only smile bitterly.
In the eyes of the impermanent, all the Netherworld Rats look pretty much the same. A few or a few dozen are easy to deal with, but when tens of thousands are mixed together, it is harder than climbing to heaven to recognize them, let alone hundreds of billions!
"Draw an image from your memory, and with the help of all the impermanent beings, pick out all that resembles the image and send them to the hellhound for final identification."
"Yes." The impermanent man bowed and immediately went to draw the diagram.
Nearly 500 years have passed. Since the Primordial Celestial Venerable severed the connection between Heaven and Earth, theoretically, it has been impossible for the souls of the underworld to return to the mortal world.
But there are always exceptions. In the past 500 years, including this time, there have been 7 instances of spirits returning to life.
Without exception, all six escaped spirits were captured, but before they were brought back, several of them had already caused enormous disasters.
Therefore, it's easy to imagine how nervous King Qin Guang is right now.
However, the task of identifying No. 86759 was not going smoothly because the Netherworld Rats looked so similar. They ate and lived together, did the same work, and wore the same clothes, just like they were made from the same mold.
The Impermanent Ones, leading dozens of hellhounds, toiled for over three months, yet remained completely clueless.
Three months in the underworld is equivalent to three years in the human world.
While the Impermanent Ones were busy with a Netherworld Rat, in the Heavenly Realm, a child named Cai Fei had quietly grown up.