Volume Six, Chapter 318: The Evil Hell
As the Yama King of the Southeast Palace of the Underworld, the only organization of the Underworld that Xu Zhengyang had never come into contact with was Hell, hidden beneath the Pool of Reincarnation.
In legend, there are eighteen levels of hell, each with its own unique and increasingly cruel tortures: being fried in oil, roasted over fire, having ears cut off, heart and lungs gouged out, tongue severed, limbs broken... just hearing about it sends chills down one's spine. However, Xu Zhengyang has never believed that the tortures described in these legendary hells are factual.
The reason is simple: those are all legends and shouldn't be taken seriously.
The legend of the Ten Kings of Hell has been clearly proven here to be false, so whether there are eighteen levels of hell is uncertain.
On the vast and boundless "Grassland" of the Reincarnation Pool, countless deep pools, like jade stones, are scattered like stars, connected and interwoven by a series of passages. Looking down from high above, one can't help but think of the constellation patterns in books on earth.
This time, I've come here to experience this hellish place.
With a thought, Xu Zhengyang, the Yama of the Southeast, vanished from mid-air in an instant. The next moment, he was in the center of a pool of reincarnation, his feet lightly stepping above a swirling, blood-yellow vortex. He watched as the ghosts were sucked in with fear and trepidation, some screaming, some roaring, and some falling silent...
Xu Zhengyang's body slowly descended, sinking into the Pool of Reincarnation from the center of the vortex.
A dim, blood-yellow light filled the air, and the viscous liquid that had appeared to be there had vanished, leaving only a chaotic void all around.
Oppressive, dull, gloomy, and chilling.
Looking into the distance, one can see stone steps spiraling down, and one can't tell when one has stepped onto stone steps. With each step, there is a feeling of sinking, rather than the solid feeling of stepping on solid ground.
Where did those ghosts go?
Xu Zhengyang frowned and stepped down, feeling the eerie sensation with each step while looking around at the gloomy and terrifying place.
As the question arose in my mind, the enormous plaque in the Yama's Palace appeared in my mind, shimmering with light and clearly displaying lines of text. When a ghost arrives here, it will be summoned by hell, and based on the verification it underwent on the Mingnie Platform, its various evil deeds in its past life will be judged and their severity determined. It will then be transferred to different prisons and places of punishment, and after receiving its punishment, it will directly embark on the cycle of reincarnation.
After reading this passage, the oppressive and gloomy feeling around me suddenly vanished, as if the previously dark and cold light had become much brighter. More precisely, the murky, viscous space had become much clearer and thinner. Neat rows of dark stone houses stood all around, connected by smooth, black stone paths. Yet, within this deep blackness, there was a faint tinge of dried blood, a pungent, bloody odor that hung silently in this completely stagnant space.
Suppressing the oppressive feeling and even the urge to vomit, Xu Zhengyang strode towards the building that stood one floor taller than the other stone houses in the cluster of stone houses.
Apart from being one story higher, it is no different in shape from other stone houses.
All of them were square, angular houses without any decorative features whatsoever.
Each room has only one door and no windows.
Above the door were numbers marked in a rather rigid manner: 553, 554... 585...
Xu Zhengyang thought to himself, "This hell is really huge. I wonder how many rooms it has?"
Xu Zhengyang randomly picked a room, pushed open the stone door that was half a foot deep, and looked inside. He couldn't help but shudder.
In stark contrast to the deathly black exterior, the interior was dazzlingly white. However, the white walls were adorned with blood-red lines depicting grotesque demons wielding various instruments of torture, carrying out punishments. Although the lines were simple and the colors monotonous, they created an incredibly realistic and vivid impression, as if the demons were inflicting extremely cruel punishments, and one could almost faintly hear the agonizing screams of the victims.
On the pristine white ground lay instruments of torture: chains, daggers, hooks, awls, saws… These instruments looked simple and crude, lacking any semblance of refinement or even basic standards. Instead, they appeared to be shoddy, crudely made items, yet they were all exceptionally terrifying and horrifying.
If the god Yama had a belly, a stomach, and food like a human, Xu Zhengyang would definitely be vomiting terribly by now.
He felt dizzy and sweaty.
Xu Zhengyang quickly stepped back, no longer going in to take a closer look, and the stone door closed silently on its own.
The plaque in my mind once again displayed a line of clear text: This is the torture chamber, where hellish messengers inflict punishments on the many sins committed during one's human life.
"Everyone?" Xu Zhengyang asked.
As Yama, the King of Hell, his divine sense swept through the underworld and he immediately knew that there were far too many torture chambers. Where were there so many wicked people in the human world? Was it necessary to have so many torture chambers to punish them? Unless every ghost who came here had to be punished.
"Everyone is a sinner in this world, and the world is inherently a place of sin..."
Xu Zhengyang roared in fury: "Bullshit! People can be good or evil, but no one is perfect. Minor evils can offset good deeds. Doesn't such a cruel punishment take into account the good deeds a person did while alive? Where's the reward? Damn it..."
"Hell was originally meant to teach people to suffer greatly before reincarnation, so that they could be reborn as humans and thus endure the suffering of the world..."
As the plaque was still being explained, the Record of the Nine Provinces suddenly appeared in Xu Zhengyang's hand, its light flashing as it displayed a message: According to the Heavenly Laws, all living beings, including humans, animals, and deities of all ranks, who commit heinous crimes will be sent to hell to suffer torture and torment; however, during the turmoil in the Heavenly Court, the deities of the Underworld punished those who committed evil deeds, gaining endless resentment, which increased their divine power, allowing them to raise evil spirits and create countless demons to attack the Heavenly Court...
No wonder! Xu Zhengyang shook his head helplessly and walked to the two-story building with some annoyance.
But then, a blood-stained vertical character was seen on one side of the building's main entrance:
Weeping and wailing, so pitiful and miserable. All because of disloyalty and filial impiety that violates the principles of Heaven; with a mouth of Buddha but a heart of a serpent, one has fallen into this realm.
Hmm, it's starting to resemble a couplet, but unfortunately there's no second line. Damn it, this hell is indeed different from heaven and earth.
Even without the plaque, Xu Zhengyang could guess that this must be the office of the officials of this hell.
Xu Zhengyang felt so disgusted and repressed that he didn't want to walk around in this hellish place anymore, so he stepped into the completely open stone room.
Unlike the pristine white of the torture chamber, the interior was black, just like the outside, with a dim, greenish light flickering within.
There was a rectangular stone table to the side, with two black stone stools beside it.
I stepped up the stone steps in the middle to the second floor.
The second floor is divided into two rooms, one large and one small. The outer room has three stone tables and five stone benches. On the tables are several blood-red, palm-sized square stone slabs, like books, with a vermilion pen and knife next to them. In the inner room, separated by a wall, there is a larger stone table and a black stone chair that is somewhat like a grand master's chair. On the table, there is also a dark stone slab and a vermilion pen and knife.
Xu Zhengyang walked inside, sat on the stone chair, picked up the stone slab, looked at it, and put it down. He then picked up the pen and knife and casually played with them in his hand.
The enormous plaque in my consciousness continued its explanation. This is the second of the six districts of Hell, where all those who were disloyal and unfilial in their mortal lives, and who were hypocritical and deceitful, are punished.
Xu Zhengyang didn't want to go to the other five districts, so he just asked the plaques to introduce each one.
After reading everything the plaque described, Xu Zhengyang waved his hand and summoned Li Haidong from the Record of the Nine Provinces. He said rather calmly, "This is where Hell is located. Take a look at the punishments that Hell inflicts here, and you will understand a lot..." After saying that, Xu Zhengyang summoned the plaque to the wall here and instructed the plaque to slowly tell Li Haidong the story.
With a thought, Xu Zhengyang went directly to the most terrifying and cruel District Six.
Peeling skin and exposing bones. Broken arms and severed tendons, a thousand years of depravity hard to explain, forever trapped in a cycle of damnation with no chance of redemption.
District Six has very few stone houses, and it is hundreds or thousands of times smaller than any of the other five districts. This is the legendary Eighteen Levels of Hell. Human records say that those who are thrown into the Eighteen Levels of Hell will never be reincarnated, which is not entirely fictional.
It's too cruel. After enduring the torment of the venomous flow of the River of Three Crossings, they now face the permanent torture of endless cruelty... Even Xu Zhengyang felt a pang of pity. But only here could he find the Stone of Ten Thousand Evils, forged from the endless resentment and malicious intent born from enduring the most brutal punishments over a long period.
Xu Zhengyang casually destroyed a stone house, but he didn't even look at the scene inside. He really couldn't bear to look.
After storing the broken stones in the Nine Provinces Record, Xu Zhengyang teleported away from this wicked place.
Damn it, the ghosts, ghost messengers, and hell officials being punished here are also extremely evil.
Xu Zhengyang didn't possess the mindset of a truly supreme deity who would disregard the lives of any living being; he simply felt that this was going too far. Back then, the gods of the Three Realms created such a cruel and endless hell in order to punish evil and promote good, and to gain a false reputation. In reality, however, there were many contradictions between these things and the Heavenly Laws.
It is not wrong for people to be guilty of sins and to be punished after death.
But if you severely punish a person's ghost after death, subjecting them to cruel tortures before their reincarnation as a warning... what good is it if they forget everything after reincarnation, including the years or even centuries that have passed in the underworld and the cruel punishments in hell?
Isn't it all to intimidate mortals and demonstrate the majesty and transcendence of God?
What was the result?
A great war broke out among the gods of the three realms, resulting in the destruction of the Heavenly Court.
If, back then, the vast underworld had been simplified in its various organizational structures, and the Heavenly Court had directly intervened in its management, just as it did in the human world, without so many underworld institutions and deities, relying solely on powerful artifacts and a small number of ghost messengers and underworld gods for governance, wouldn't that have been better?
Beneath the veneer of grandeur, benevolence, and justice, everything is nothing more than a means to gain personal profit and to extract more reverence and faith from ordinary people.
The laws governing the underworld and hell need to be changed.
Of course, hell must exist, and these cruel punishments must be preserved and continue.
However, we must absolutely not allow the uncontrolled growth of powerful underworld deities to continue.
Because this place is truly an ominous place!
Volume Six, Chapter 319: Conferring Gods and Bestowing Treasures
Although Xu Zhengyang cannot be described as wise and erudite, he has evolved from being somewhat shrewd at the beginning to now being able to think deeply and consider the long term when doing things.
Therefore, when they arrived in the underworld and entered hell, Xu Zhengyang did not immediately release Li Haidong to accompany him. Instead, he went to the office of the ghost official in hell and then unfolded the plaque of the Yama Palace, a divine artifact that knew everything about the underworld, to show him the cruel systems and punishments in hell.
The reason is simple: Xu Zhengyang doesn't want Li Haidong to know yet that the underworld is actually an empty place without any gods. As for why Xu Zhengyang can freely enter and leave this place, there's no need to explain that to Li Haidong.
He probably has a wildly imaginative answer in his mind.
Even Xu Zhengyang, the current God of the Land of Man and the King of Hell in the Southeast, shudders at the thought of the various cruel tortures of hell.
Moreover, Li Haidong is someone who doesn't even have a divine status and, strictly speaking, is just a ghost messenger.
Inside that stone chamber, Li Haidong was truly stunned by what the plaque on the divine artifact described. The fear within him caused him to tremble uncontrollably. Compared to the humane punishments and laws prohibiting torture that the world strives for today, if this place were ever to become known to all, would Western countries immediately invest huge sums of money to develop the science and technology to enter the underworld, thereby blasting this cruel and unrestrained underworld to smithereens?
Back in the stone chamber, Xu Zhengyang suppressed his nausea and calmly asked Li Haidong, "So? Compared to how I ask you to behave in the human world and punish evildoers... what's more reasonable? More humane?"
"Does this mean that after being punished by the City God in the mortal realm, the ghosts who enter the underworld will no longer be subjected to the various tortures of hell?" Li Haidong asked, trembling.
"The same!" Xu Zhengyang snorted and said, "So if we really want people to suffer less torture after death, then we have to make them do as few evil deeds as possible. This is something we need to be aware of. 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' This old saying has been passed down from generation to generation and there is some truth to it."
Li Haidong remained silent, pondering Xu Zhengyang's words.
"Don't you like to focus on the big picture and think long-term? Fine! Think about it carefully, what's the best thing to do..." Xu Zhengyang looked at Li Haidong with a stern face and said, "Since I've been given the power to act as a deity among mortals, from a selfish point of view, of course I want to protect humanity, to have less punishment and suffering after death, to die early and be reincarnated early, so that we can all live a good life in the next life. But is such a thing possible?"
Li Haidong nodded somewhat blankly.
“The three realms each have their own rules. I can’t overstep my authority to make decisions. What do you think I should do?” Xu Zhengyang stopped wasting words with Li Haidong, waved his hand to put Li Haidong into the Nine Provinces Record, and then with a thought, left the hellish stone chamber, stepped onto the spiral staircase, and flew out of the vortex of the Samsara Pool.
Flying to the Mingnie Platform, Xu Zhengyang inspected the ghost messengers and the various operations of the platform. He then summoned a group of evil spirits and threw them into the slow-flowing Sanzu River.
However, he did show some mercy this time. Using the old woman's life to establish his authority was indeed a bit too harsh a punishment. So, he decided to make amends a little. Xu Zhengyang pulled the old woman out of the slow current, where she was screaming pitifully alongside several evil spirits, but he didn't touch her. Instead, he used his divine power to remotely control her and throw her into the middle of the stream.
Then, Xu Zhengyang vanished into thin air on the Mingnie Platform.
...
The courtyard house between Xiaowang Mountain and Qinghe River in the western suburbs of Fuhe City has been uninhabited for some time.
That morning, Xu Zhengyang didn't bring Zhu Jun with him; instead, he drove here himself.
Chen Chaojiang had already arrived. He had cleaned the living room in the main house, boiled water, and brewed hot tea. He sat quietly on the sofa, waiting for Xu Zhengyang to arrive. Hearing movement outside, Chen Chaojiang quickly got up and went to the courtyard. Xu Zhengyang had already gotten out of the car and greeted him with a smile, "You've arrived quite early."
"Hmm." Chen Chaojiang nodded. In fact, when he received Xu Zhengyang's call asking him to come here, he had already begun to feel a sense of panic that he could not suppress.
Chen Chaojiang guessed that Xu Zhengyang had sent him here most likely to make him a god.
Don't assume that just because Chen Chaojiang is inherently cold and ruthless, he can accept this with the same detached indifference as his eyes. This is about to become a god! It's no exaggeration to say that he's managed to live peacefully and comfortably to this day—what's the secret? Isn't it his brother Xu Zhengyang's divine status and abilities?
How powerful is God?
Chen Chaojiang knew all too well: in broad daylight, he would fly into a rage and commit violence, confront the police, and intimidate and berate the director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau; he would face high-ranking municipal government officials without fear; he would travel thousands of miles to the capital, walk calmly and leave gracefully in front of hundreds of armed soldiers…
He ventured alone to a foreign land, causing chaos and upheaval; upon arriving in Ming Port, he remained undeterred and invincible in this unique place.
Putting aside the fact that the Li family has gone from the revered Elder Li, who, even after retirement, could still manipulate events with ease and secretly control the fate of a nation and even the world, to the current Li Ruiyu and Li Ruiqing, who doesn't treat Xu Zhengyang with polite respect mixed with fear?
Why should Chen Chaojiang be accepted as a son-in-law by the Ye family?
Ultimately, isn't it because Xu Zhengyang is a deity?
This overwhelming power, prestige, and influence! Chen Chaojiang couldn't even imagine that one day he would become such a transcendent being. It was something he wouldn't even dare to dream of!