Chapter 344
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 344
Chapter Title: Chapter 344 Born as a human and after death as a ghost
Chen Shi hesitated for a moment, then agreed.
He was now a ghost soul, facing all sorts of inconveniences in the underworld. He could be influenced by some mysterious force from the underworld at any moment, compelled to follow those other ghosts without his control, heading off to who knew where. The underworld was full of dangers too, so he really did need some help. As for running errands for the Eastern Palace, he sure as hell wasn't going to do that.
Peng Ju took the lead, and the two of them followed the mountain mists along the path. Between the shadowy peaks, ribbons of white fog hugged the ground and flowed onward, with crowds of people shuffling along each road in step with the mist.
These were ghosts, dazed and aimless, controlled by some mysterious power as they trudged tirelessly in the same direction. Peng Ju's wings were injured, so he couldn't flap them to fly. The pair walked along the edge of the road instead.
These ghosts were typically those who had died standing upright—they wouldn't appear in the Yuan Chen Palace but instead became wandering wild ghosts, drawn along by the underworld.
Chen Shi suddenly recalled his early years, when he'd followed his grandfather Chen Yindu out to drive away the moon during the festival. He'd seen wild ghosts from one village that weren't drawn by the underworld. Back then, he hadn't understood why, but now it all made sense.
The Thirteen Great Families had seized power in the underworld, fighting the Ten Palace Yama Kings to the death, which caused the underworld bureaucracy to fall into disarray. That was why so many wild ghosts weren't being ferried over.
"What is the Eastern Palace?" Chen Shi asked.
Peng Ju replied, "The Eastern Palace is where the Crown Prince resides."
Chen Shi came to a realization. "So you're serving in the palace of the Yama Crown Prince. Which Yama King's son is he?"
Peng Ju looked puzzled. "The Eastern Palace Crown Prince is, of course, the Crown Prince of Tianchi Kingdom. What's this Yama Crown Prince you're talking about?"
Chen Shi asked in confusion, "You don't know about the Ten Palace Yama Kings? Or the Eighteen Levels of Hell?"
Peng Ju shook his head. "What's Hell? And who's Luo?"
Chen Shi explained the Ten Palace Yama Kings and the Eighteen Levels of Hell. "Among the Ten Palace Yama Kings, there are ten Yama Kings, each guarding a different hell. Within the Eighteen Levels of Hell are their own infernal courts, judges, dark officials, and ghost runners, who ferry the souls of the dead to hell and judge them according to their crimes, meting out punishment."
Peng Ju was utterly astonished. "The underworld has places like the Eighteen Levels of Hell? I've never heard of them. Are these Ten Palace Yama Kings higher in status than our Great Pool Kingdom's lord? Impossible. Our Great Pool Kingdom is vast beyond measure—the greatest nation in the Shadow Mountains!"
Chen Shi was even more shocked than he was.
In Chen Shi's mind, the underworld should all fall under the bureaucracy's control, but clearly Tianchi Kingdom was outside its jurisdiction. The ghosts and monsters here had never even heard of the bureaucracy!
Suddenly, Chen Shi snapped into a daze. Peng Ju hurriedly grabbed him. Chen Shi came back to his senses and found himself walking amid a procession of ghosts. He broke out in a cold sweat. "What kind of power is this? Why does it keep pulling at me, making me walk that way against my will?"
He'd experienced this strange power once before, right at his moment of death. Only in a state of death did it summon you. If you tried to go against it, it felt like walking over mountains of knives or wading through seas of fire—agonizingly difficult.
Living cultivators, on the other hand, weren't pulled by this force at all. They couldn't even sense its existence in the underworld.
Peng Ju stopped and groped around in the fog. Suddenly, he touched a skullcap and lit up with joy. He grabbed it and lifted upward.
A complete skeleton rose along with the skull. "Chen Shi, possess this one."
Chen Shi stepped forward at his words. His primal spirit attached itself to the bleached bones. In mere moments, he completed the possession and could move freely.
He lifted his hands and watched his finger bones flex at his command. He burst into delighted laughter, his jaws clacking with a hollow rattle.
Peng Ju asked with concern, "Can you still feel that pulling force now?"
Chen Shi checked carefully and indeed sensed nothing.
"How did you know that possessing a ghost lets you shake off that power?"
Peng Ju said, "Demons often possess dead things like this. Some cultivators like to latch onto bones and roam around too. They're usually merchants, doing business with us."
Chen Shi found it fascinating. He thought to himself, "Human cultivators actually do business with ghosts and monsters. Wonder who they are... Right, I could have Shao Jing open a branch of the Immortal Gathering Tower here. Might be good business. Though it'd need dead folks to run it."
He broke into a run, then leaped into the air for a flurry of flying kicks, testing the body's agility.
He had to admit, a skeletal body was incredibly flexible. The thigh bone could rotate freely around the joint without any worry of breaking. The skull could spin at will. He could even yank out two ribs to stab someone without fear of injury!
Chen Shi could even detach his other arm to whip at foes!
Or turn his five fingers—twenty-eight phalanges total—into bone darts to shoot at enemies for assassination! "This thing is perfect!"
Overjoyed, Chen Shi dropped from the air. With a sharp *crack*, his left leg bone snapped. "But this body's too fragile," Chen Shi shook his head.
The bones had been in the underworld too long and had rotted through, full of holes. They couldn't withstand his roughhousing.
Peng Ju rushed over in a panic, removed his left leg, and tossed it into the fog. He groped around some more, pulled out another withered bone, and compared it to Chen Shi's right leg. Too short.
He fished out a few more left leg bones until he found one about the same length as Chen Shi's right, then fitted it onto Chen Shi's left leg.
Chen Shi thanked him profusely and laughed. "Peng Ju, you're a real natural at caretaking for ghosts."
Peng Ju mumbled awkwardly, "I've been a house ghost in the Eastern Palace for ages, and back home I have to look after my little sister. I told her I'd be back in three days when I left, but we've already delayed two. Let's hurry back!"
Chen Shi kept pace with him and tried circulating the Blood Lake True Scripture. Suddenly, strands of bloody qi surged toward him from all directions, pouring into his body, seeping into his primal spirit, nourishing his three souls and seven po, strengthening his primal spirit, and even bulking up this "body" of his!
Peng Ju stared in shock. He hadn't even figured out the Blood Lake True Scripture yet, and Chen Shi was already making it work. As the scripture circulated, Chen Shi silently recited the divine incantation.
"Contemplate the郁, the Great Bright Purple Spirit. Nine gods ferry the soul, opening the Jade Truth. Ayi wewei, flying heaven's flowing tones... Six transformations shift the measure, transcending all evil. Crown restored in the mysterious void, myriad crossings to immortality!"
Once the incantation ended, bloody light swirled gradually behind Chen Shi's skull, forming a somewhat irregular ring upright at the back of his head.
At the center of the ring was a pool of blood.
Strange power flowed from the blood pool into his body, refining without cease.
In a short time, Chen Shi's bones gleamed pristine and healthy. He even felt his primal spirit's lost vitality replenished! Chen Shi let out a light breath. The Blood Lake True Scripture seemed ordinary, but its boost to the primal spirit was in no way inferior to the Xiaolang Emperor Scripture:
The Xiaolang Emperor Scripture mainly strengthened the primal spirit, while the Blood Lake True Scripture primarily bolstered the souls. The two arts had very different focuses!
The primal spirit evolved from the infant core. Once the infant core reached a foot in size, it could merge with the souls to form the primal spirit. Thus, the living world's cultivation path emphasized the infant core side, with less focus on the souls. Underworld arts seemed the opposite, mainly cultivating the souls. So Chen Shi reflected inwardly.
He circulated the Blood Lake True Scripture while explaining it to Peng Ju.
Half a day later, Peng Ju finally grasped the art and tried cultivating it himself.
He'd never cultivated before, relying only on his bloodline power. This was his first real attempt at practice. Chen Shi showed no impatience, teaching him step by step: how to focus the mind, how to awaken the Great Bright Purple Spirit, how to let the nine gods ferry the soul.
It took several hours before Peng Ju could barely run through the full cycle.
Chen Shi guided him through a few more runs until he mastered it, then smiled. "Your family's heirloom art is absolutely top-notch."
"Really?" Peng Ju's eyes sparkled.
Chen Shi laughed. "Of course. I wouldn't claim to have the highest insight in the entire underworld, but in the living world? Top two, easy!"
The two cultivated the Blood Lake True Scripture as they traveled. Chen Shi felt his souls and skeletal frame growing ever sturdier, marveling inwardly at the art's wonders. Peng Ju progressed astonishingly fast too. The Blood Lake True Scripture not only bolstered his divine soul but even awakened the bloodline power in his flesh, making his inner strength surge.
As his bloodline power rose, the wound on his wings gradually healed.
In this time, they'd crossed a dozen major peaks. The fog-formed roads branched everywhere, with countless ghosts trudging along them. Now that Chen Shi had his skeletal body, even going against the flow was no trouble—no more torment of knife mountains and fire seas.
Without possession, taking even one step backward would be a Herculean effort!
Chen Shi gazed at dozens of white fog roads converging into a grand avenue, where tens of thousands of souls marched toward the distance. Curiosity stirred in him—he wanted to follow these ghosts and see what power pulled them along. "I'm not strong enough yet. Once my primal spirit's tougher, I'll investigate!"
Chen Shi withdrew his gaze and hurried after Peng Ju.
He saw that the trees in these shadowy mountains were locust trees, towering enormously, with bird's-nest-like houses hanging from them—dozens per tree, forming whole villages.
Countless underworld beings like Peng Ju flapped in and out of these dwellings.
As Chen Shi passed these villages, bird-beaked folk would emerge from the nests, fold their wings, cock their heads, and peer at them with evident curiosity.
Chen Shi asked Peng Ju about them and learned they were the Peng Bird Clan, one of the major races in the underworld alongside the Ox-Headed, Horse-Faced, Yakshas, and others. But they bred so prolifically that their status wasn't high.
Throughout the Shadow Mountains, massive locust trees stood sentinel on slopes or summits, Peng Bird villages one after another.
Countless ghosts streamed through the mountains, ignored by the birds.
Suddenly, one Peng Bird village stirred to life. Birds crowded to the edges of their homes, craning their necks in the same direction.
Chen Shi looked up, wondering what was happening. Peng Ju's face changed slightly as he yanked him aside to stand on the mountain ground off the road.
Waves of fog rolled in from afar, carrying giggles through the mist. Soon the fog engulfed them.
Chen Shi's eyes widened. A massive claw burst from the fog, seized a ghost, and dragged it back in.
Then countless monstrous hands reached out, snatching at the ghosts on the road. Crimson tongues lashed forth, coiling around more.
It was as if huge, gaping maws lurked in the fog, devouring the ghosts at will. Chen Shi watched, his mind reeling.
This wasn't the Shadow Mountains—this was Qianyang Mountain!
Realization dawned. He'd seen something like this before—when the cyan ghost hand crushed him to death, he'd witnessed the same! He'd nearly been eaten by these fog-lurking monsters back then!
"So I'm still in Qianyang Mountain! Maybe not far from Huangpo Village at all!" But was Qianyang Mountain this vast in the underworld?
According to Granny Sha's map of the underworld's nine regions, Qianyang Mountain's underworld counterpart shouldn't be anywhere near as big as the Shadow Mountains! "Qianyang, Shadow Mountains, yin and yang..."
A thought flashed in Chen Shi's mind. The relation between Qianyang Mountain and the Shadow Mountains might not mirror the geography of the yin and yang realms exactly—but he had no time to dwell. Rage filled him. Without thinking, he charged onto the white fog road, palm extended as he unleashed his fourth new seal. The Heaven-Extinguishing Realm whistled and spun from his arm, expanding to several mu in size as it hurtled toward a phosphorescent claw.
*Whoosh!*
The Heaven-Extinguishing Realm whirled, charring the claw to cinders, burning along the thick forelimb, illuminating the fog-bound monster. With a roar, it reduced the four-limbed, ghost-headed beast's foreleg to ash.
The monster showed a terrified expression as it eyed this tiny skeleton.
Thunder-light flashed under Chen Shi's feet. In the next instant, he was at the monster's brow, smashing down with a fist. The beast's massive skull caved in.
It collapsed with a boom, brains splattering the ground.
"What are you doing?" Peng Ju shouted.
"It's eating people!" Chen Shi's anger hadn't faded.
"That's livestock raised by a ghost god!"
Peng Ju panicked. "You've brought disaster!"
Chen Shi snapped, "Its livestock feeds on our human ghosts!"
"That's how the underworld is!"
Peng Ju rushed to his side, grabbed him, and tried to fly upward. He spoke rapidly. "You ghosts who fall into the underworld are like fodder—always getting eaten. It's been that way since ancient times."
"Has it always been that way?"
Carried aloft by Peng Ju, Chen Shi felt a pang of sorrow. His arm tensed. Peng Ju couldn't lift off and grew angry. "Always has been. Once you humans become ghosts, you're no longer human! You're fodder! Come with me now! The ghost god herder's coming!"
Chen Shi's body didn't budge. He withdrew his hand.
"I'm not going. I never feared anything when I lived as a man."
Peng Ju paused slightly. The tiny skeleton's voice came light yet firm. "Why should I fear now that I'm dead and a ghost?"
"I want to see who dares treat my human kin as fodder!"