Chapter 329: The End of the True King Era, Cataclysmic Event 48 |
Chen Shi returned to the underworld and, together with Black Pot, hurried towards the place where the stone tablet stood.
"Black Pot, Grandpa Du said 'the Five Great Villains,' leaving himself out. But when Uncle A Zhuo and Granny Sha talk about it, they always say that among the Five Great Villains, Grandpa Du is the oldest and ranks first."
"Woof!" Black Pot replied.
Chen Shi laughed. "You're right. I think they all just want to leave themselves out, so they only acknowledge the Five Great Villains and never admit there are six. They each have their own reasons, but then again, my grandpa never mentioned anything about Five Great Villains or Six Great Villains. He doesn't consider them villains."
"Woof woof!"
"Nonsense, Grandpa is definitely not a villain!"
Chen Shi corrected him, but then a worried frown appeared on his brow. "But then again, no matter how the lineup of the 'Five Great Villains' Grandpa Du and the others talk about changes, it always includes my grandpa. Grandpa's reputation has been dragged down by them."
They arrived at the place where the stone tablet stood and searched all around, but could not find the three judges: Soul Pursuit, Sin and Karma, and Knife Mountain.
Chen Shi was puzzled. "Have they already left?"
"That tablet was carved with Yan Shizong's birth and death dates, but the time has already passed. Will it still work?" Chen Shi wondered to himself.
He really wanted to take this inactive tablet, find this Return to Emptiness realm master named Yan Shizong, and see whether the tombstone would cause him to kick the bucket or continue living.
Chen Shi left and returned to the Immortal Capital.
He returned to Chen Yindu's Primordial Palace, activated the restriction talisman, and entered the palace. He saw that the boat girl's true form was still sitting there, completely motionless. He thought, "Strange, where has the boat girl gone? Why haven't I seen her at all?"
Just then, there was a knocking sound from outside.
"Could it be Grandpa's neighbor?"
He got up and went to open the door. Standing outside were three little ones: one was a little Ox-Head ghost, one was a little Horse-Face ghost, and the other was a little yaksha.
These three little ghosts were each holding a bucket containing some miscellaneous items and dry rations.
They wore small round hats. Two tender horns poked out from the little Ox-Head ghost's hat, ears poked out from the little yaksha's hat, and the little Horse-Face ghost had long ears pressed under the hat, with the furry tips of its ears peeking out from the sides.
"We're not hiring."
Just as Chen Shi was about to close the door, the little Ox-Head ghost hurriedly said, "Benefactor, it's us! I am Soul Pursuit Judge Wang Fu. The Horse-Face is Sin and Karma Judge Jia Yuan. The little yaksha is Knife Mountain Judge Zhu Shun."
Chen Shi quickly invited the three inside, astonished. "How did you find this place?"
Sin and Karma Judge Jia Yuan smiled. "After you left, we thought staying in that spot might be somewhat inappropriate, so we immediately packed up the stone tablet and left. To be frank, I am the Sin and Karma Judge. I checked your karma in advance, so I was able to find my way here."
Chen Shi understood, but also felt curious. "Since childhood, I have been kind to others, so I imagine my karma isn't much. For Judge Jia to find his way here is truly impressive."
Wang Fu and Zhu Shun's expressions turned strange. They coughed twice and looked around.
Jia Yuan smiled. "Although there are many people in the world, each person's karma is unique. Therefore, as long as one can identify the karma, they can find that person. The three of us came to the Immortal Capital, and your karma was like a torch in the night, guiding our direction."
Chen Shi understood the implication and stopped inquiring further about the karma.
"Why have you taken on this appearance?" Chen Shi asked, puzzled.
"Our identities are special. We cannot use our Golden Bodies, so we usually move around the Immortal Capital in the guise of little yakshas to gather information. The number of little ghosts in the Immortal Capital is enormous, making it easy to hide."
The three of them bowed together. "If not for you and the other benefactor risking your lives to save us, the three of us would likely have been captured and become prisoners."
Chen Shi returned the courtesy with a smile. "I also just happened to be there, purely by chance."
Zhu Shun stepped forward and took out that stone tablet.
This tablet was incredibly massive in the hands of the Stone Tablet Carver Du Yiran, towering like a mountain. But now it had shrunk to a normal size.
Chen Shi examined the text on the tablet. It was indeed Yan Shizong's tombstone. Overjoyed, he stored this tombstone in his small temple.
Seeing the small temple behind his head, the three judges each showed startled expressions and exchanged glances.
Jia Yuan composed himself and said, "Young friend, could we enter and take a look at this small temple behind your head?"
Chen Shi smiled. "Why not?"
Just as the three judges were about to enter, Jia Yuan suddenly said, "I didn't bring any incense offerings! Do you have any?"
Wang Fu and Zhu Shun each shook their heads. "It's always others offering incense to us. Who would carry incense offerings?"
Chen Shi was surprised and laughed. "You don't need to offer incense to enter my small temple."
The three judges shook their heads. Zhu Shun said with a solemn expression, "Although we hold divine positions, we must not show disrespect."
"Three stubborn old-timers," Chen Shi shook his head, took out a bundle of incense, and handed it to them.
Each of the three judges took out three sticks, lit them, held them respectfully with both hands, their demeanor reverent.
The incense smoke curled and wafted, winding through the air, drifting towards the small temple.
The three judges took steps forward. As their feet landed, their figures grew smaller and smaller. They were actually stepping on a path formed by the energy of the incense offerings, walking towards the small temple behind Chen Shi's head as if on a pilgrimage!
In the underworld bureaucracy, judges hold high positions, their status second only to the Registrars and the Ten Kings of Hell. —Of course, there are also some powerful beings in the underworld whose status is above the Yamas, but these beings are not part of the underworld bureaucracy system.
For three judges to be so reverential was quite rare.
Jia Yuan, Wang Fu, and Zhu Shun, holding their incense, walked into the small temple and arrived before the miniature shrines. Seeing Stone Ji Your Ladyship and the white-clad fairy sitting on two of the shrines, their expressions changed slightly.
Wang Fu's cold eyebrows shot up, and he was about to berate the two and tell them to get down from the shrines. Seeing his eyebrows, Jia Yuan knew he was about to lose his temper and quickly kicked him, whispering, "Don't cause trouble."
They came before the central miniature shrine and saw that Chen Shi's Primordial Spirit was actually sitting on the central shrine.
The three judges were each horrified, feeling the incense in their hands grow scalding hot, almost too hot to hold.
Jia Yuan composed himself and said, "This is Your Ladyship's temple. Never mind who is sitting on the shrines. We are paying respects to Your Ladyship!"
The three held their incense, bowed three times to Chen Shi's Primordial Spirit, and then inserted the incense into the Incense Burner in front of the shrine.
These three were judges appointed by the Ten Kings of Hell of the underworld bureaucracy during the True King's Era. Their divine power was immensely strong. After bowing three times, they saw mist swirling within the small temple, and the temple structure began to shake continuously.
Wang Fu's face immediately changed. "Did I just bow our little benefactor to death? Ordinary people cannot withstand a single bow from us!"
Jia Yuan and Zhu Shun also felt uneasy. They hurriedly flew out of the small temple and saw Chen Shi still standing there perfectly fine. However, the small temple behind his head was continuously shaking and... growing!
Behind this small temple, another temple had appeared!
Chen Shi couldn't see behind his own head. Seeing the three judges dumbfounded, he quickly summoned his Primordial Spirit to look behind him and was also struck speechless.
The small temple had actually grown another small temple!
The newly added small temple was hazy, indistinct, as if veiled by a layer of mist.
What on earth was going on?
Chen Shi summoned his Primordial Spirit and flew into the newly added small temple. He saw that this new temple was not stable; it had a severe sandy texture, as if it could collapse at any moment.
Chen Shi's original small temple behind his head had been the same when it first appeared, appearing blurry and indistinct.
This new temple also contained a miniature shrine.
"Four miniature shrines! Doesn't that mean I can have four Divine Embryos?"
Chen Shi thought to himself. "If I save more ghost gods and have them offer incense to the small temple, doesn't that mean the second temple could also grow a second shrine, a third shrine?"
He also felt a bit regretful. Where would he find so many ghost gods to save?
Moreover, he didn't have the ability. This time, being able to save the three judges was largely thanks to the Stone Tablet Carver Du Yiran. Otherwise, even Chen Shi and Black Pot would have had to leave their lives in the underworld.
"Could you three tell me what exactly happened in the underworld bureaucracy?" Chen Shi inquired.
Jia Yuan sighed. "After the True King's Era ended, the underworld was governed by the bureaucracy and was relatively peaceful. Occasionally, underworld demon gods would escape into the mortal realm, but they didn't cause much destruction. That was until over fourteen hundred years ago, when a sudden change occurred. Over these thousands of years of accumulation, the Thirteen Great Clans have amassed a not insignificant force in the underworld."
Wang Fu said, "Although the Thirteen Great Clans' influence in the mortal realm is also considerable, it's far less vast than their power in the underworld! In the mortal realm, at most four or five generations, because lifespan is limited, when the great limit arrives, they die. Even if a family has many experts, they cannot accumulate much power. But in the underworld, they have accumulated the power of hundreds of generations!"
Chen Shi's heart stirred slightly. "Are you saying that the ancestors and forefathers of the Thirteen Great Clans, the successive Sect Leaders of each generation, survive in the underworld in the form of their Primordial Spirits?"
Zhu Shun nodded. "Not just the ancestors and forefathers and successive Sect Leaders, but also countless other experts at the Body Unification, Spirit Refining, and Return to Emptiness realms. In the past, their accumulation time was short, and they weren't enough to challenge the Ten Kings of Hell. But five thousand years after the True King's Era ended, they had amassed enough power to change the very heavens and earth of the underworld."
Wang Fu said, "The Thirteen Great Clans already existed during the True King's Era. They were already large-scale, powerful clans back then. There are many of their ancestors in the underworld, founding patriarchs left over from the True King's Era. Although they are dead, their strength is unfathomable."
Jia Yuan said, "The underworld has the Ten Kings of Hell: King Qin Guang of Xuanming Palace, King Chu Jiang of Puming Palace, King Song Di of Zhoujue Palace, King Wu Guan of Taihe Palace, King Yama of Jiulun Palace, King Bian Cheng of Mingchen Palace, King Tai Shan of Shenhua Palace, King Du Shi of Bizhen Palace, King Ping Deng of Qifei Palace, and King Lun Zhuan of Suying Palace. Over these fourteen hundred plus years, the Ten Kings of Hell have all fallen."
"Besides the Ten Kings of Hell, there are also the Twenty-One Judges."
Zhu Shun said. "Soul Pursuit, Life Monitoring, Torture Interrogation, Sin and Karma, Punishment Judgment, Primary Sin, Life Reception, Document Reception, Knife Mountain, Sword Forest, Death Annotation, Confrontation, Birth Annotation, Fortune Annotation, Illness Annotation, Calculation Annotation, Goodness Annotation, Debt Killing, Prison Raid, Life Release, and Five Paths. Those who likely still remain are probably only the three of us."
Wang Fu's expression turned gloomy. "The underworld bureaucracy painstakingly established during the True King's Era has now completely changed."
The three judges were utterly despondent.
Chen Shi suddenly smiled. "I know where Blue Sky the Righteous Official is."
The three judges' eyes lit up, and they couldn't help but become excited.
"King Yama is still alive?"
Wang Fu was extremely agitated. "Where is he hiding, the venerable one?"
Chen Shi smiled. "Blue Sky the Righteous Official has already reincarnated. When I return home, I'll take you to see her. I think Blue Sky the Righteous Official has probably already arranged various measures. She has already sent out the Book of Life and Death and also told you to leave the underworld bureaucracy as soon as possible and hide your tracks, all to preserve strength for a comeback. You really don't need to worry so much."
Tears welled in the three judges' eyes. Jia Yuan murmured, "If Blue Sky the Righteous Official is still here, there's still a chance to turn things around! I thought the great official had already..."
Chen Shi smiled. "I have important matters these next few days and can't return for a while. You can stay here first. Just pick any room."
The three hurriedly thanked him and each took their buckets to find a room to settle in.
Chen Yindu's Primordial Palace had many pavilions, terraces, and towers, all burned by Chen Shi, Chen Tang, and Chen Wu. Housing three little ghosts was nothing; it could accommodate a thousand people without issue.
Chen Shi's eyes flashed with thought. "Three judges, plus Black Pot. I wonder if we can pull off a prison break? Why not take advantage of tonight..."
Just as this thought crossed his mind, he saw the three judges carrying water buckets, cleaning rooms everywhere, sweeping the courtyard, and trimming flower branches.
Chen Shi quickly said, "Three honored ones, leave such tasks to those girls!"
Wang Fu shook his head. "We've gotten used to it, pretending to be little ghosts all these years. On the contrary, being idle feels stifling."
Chen Shi was speechless and had to let them be.
"Three honored ones, how was the True King's Era destroyed?"
Chen Shi inquired. "I heard the True King's Era was extremely prosperous. In the mortal realm, deities from the Divine Continent stood tall across the fifty provinces of the Western Ox New Continent, suppressing all demonic transformations and silencing the hordes of demons. In the underworld, there were the Ten Kings of Hell and the eighteen layers of hell, restraining the ghost gods. The cultivators of that time were also extremely powerful, able to cultivate to the Tribulation Crossing realm, and even the Ascension realm!"
His voice grew excited. "Such a prosperous True King's Era, why did it collapse? Why were the records of the True King's Era destroyed? Why was the connection with the Divine Continent severed?"
He couldn't help but ask many questions, wishing the three judges could answer all the doubts in his heart.
Jia Yuan put down his rag. "How the True King's Era was destroyed, we didn't experience it firsthand, so we don't know clearly. The True King worried that people in the mortal realm would use their power to interfere in the underworld, control reincarnation, creating a phenomenon where the strong remain strong and the weak become extinct. Therefore, he separated the yin and yang realms, strictly prohibiting interaction. Only some talisman masters who cultivated soul-type spells were allowed to travel between the yin and yang realms. But later, many people died, and we thus learned that a catastrophe of unprecedented scale had occurred in the mortal realm."
"It was an 'E' level catastrophe," Zhu Shun said.
Chen Shi's heart shook violently. At the end of the True King's Era, an 'E' level catastrophe occurred?
A hundred-li demonic transformation, a thousand-li catastrophe, a ten-thousand-li 'E' level calamity!
The scale of this catastrophe was at least ten thousand li, covering a vast territory of the Western Ox New Continent!
Wang Fu said, "I heard it was an 'Immortal Calamity.'"
Chen Shi sought clarification. "What is an 'Immortal Calamity'?"
"It means the immortals underwent an 'E' level calamity."
Jia Yuan stared blankly for a moment, then said, "By that time, many extraordinarily talented individuals had already cultivated to the Ascension realm, only half a step away from ascending to become immortals. Some also unearthed prehistoric relics and discovered prehistoric aberrant immortals sealed within them. It's possible that a genius under the True King's command ascending triggered this Immortal Calamity, or it could be that aberrant immortals emerging caused the catastrophe. The specific reason, we don't know."
Chen Shi was stunned and suddenly exclaimed, "How could a cultivator ascending trigger an 'E' level catastrophe of the Immortal Calamity scale?"
Jia Yuan glanced at him, waiting for him to calm down before saying, "Do you think this world is normal? Can one truly ascend normally by cultivating normally to the Ascension realm?"