Within the boundless river of long history, the present world once witnessed an era where the divine path flourished mightily.
In those times, all thoughts took tangible form, cultivators forged myths, and these myths often illuminated reality.
Hairy gods were ubiquitous, and a hundred ghosts ran rampant.
Day and night inverted, heaven and earth were in disarray.
It was an era of five colors and ten lights, yet also an age of chaotic bewilderment.
Many rules were shattered, and people adhered to a logic of life utterly different from the present world.
Fast forward to today, though that era has passed, many myths have nonetheless been passed down by word of mouth.
Of course, why are myths myths? Why are they transmitted by word of mouth, not recorded in writing, not permitted in classics and transmissions? It is precisely because they cannot be equated with reality.
For instance, from the outset, there was no such thing as a hell, and reincarnation was never as simple as the myths depicted.
Naturally, a netherworld does indeed exist, but the netherworld is merely a passage for reincarnation.
What ‘six paths of rebirth,’ what ‘in the next life, be a cow or a horse,’ what ‘this life is too hard, in the next, become a tree’—these were all mere delusions of the divine path era and ultimately failed to evolve into truth.
The more profound one’s cultivation level, the more one can understand—
Death is simply death; death is the most complete thing in this world.
After the soul enters the netherworld, its ultimate outcome is also to dissolve into nothingness. There fundamentally exists no such thing as Yama, judges, or those who reward good and punish evil. All these were merely contrivances of divine path cultivators, no different from how present-day cultivators control puppets.
All means of revival in the present world are built upon the foundation of retrieving the soul, reviving the physical body, and making up for lost lifespan.
Jiang Wang did not know this before, but after the divine descent, he has already acquired relevant knowledge. Especially within the Jixia Academy, he gained a considerable supplement of knowledge.
In this boundless and vast time-space, the true place of reincarnation is a realm named the “Source Sea.”
It is located in the deepest abyss of the abyss, the absolute bottom of the bottom.
It is a place more profound than the so-called Naihe and Wangchuan.
All souls that fall into the netherworld are unable to resist the attraction of the Source Sea.
This is not only true for human souls but for all things in the world. All will be shattered here into the most minute particles and then remolded. This most minute thing, impossible to name, is called “One.”
The Daoist saying, “The One gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the ten thousand things,” originates from this.
The soul falls into the Source Sea, is ground into One, obtains remolding, and a new soul descends into the present world to obtain growth – this is reincarnation.
It is like the process of water in a river becoming rain in the sky. But that one drop of water is not that one drop of rain.
The past is, for the most part, already past.
Of course, there are some special circumstances.
For instance, the Ancestral Temples of the various states, by sacrificing national power to them, can retain, and even retrieve, remnant souls within the Source Sea… but that requires an extremely terrifying price.
For instance, that elder named Lu Yan of the White Bone Path, after his wife’s death, her soul did not enter the Source Sea, thereby retaining the possibility of revival. But he also did not know where his deceased wife’s soul went, nor did he know for what reason it was able to be retained. This was a long-standing driving force for the White Bone Honored God. Another example is when Jiang Mengxiong initially suppressed the passages between the two realms, preventing souls from entering the netherworld, thus retaining the possibility of on-site revival.
Yet another example is Elder Gu Huaixin of Diao Hailou’s Jinghai, who set up an altar on the Heavenly Cliffs Platform, also to retain Ji Shaoqing’s soul, isolate the netherworld’s attraction, and nurture the physical body… only that Jiang Wang’s torment over several days and nights, coupled with the Buzhou Wind, prematurely completed a process akin to the shattering within the Source Sea.
Only under extremely harsh conditions will the situation of reincarnation occasionally appear.
For example, the Cloud Wandering Old Man of yore, solely due to the special karmic relations of the Cloud Top Immortal Palace, never entered the Source Sea. But he also only obtained a true new birth from the beginning. And the present Cloud White Boy is another meaning of remolding. He is already not the same body as that Cloud Wandering Old Man.
Cultivation was originally a process of fighting against heaven and fate. Since time immemorial, how many generations of stunning talents have all sought ways to resist death. The attempts to “deceive,” “evade,” and “oppose” the Source Sea have occurred time and time again.
Even the former divine path can be said to have been born precisely because of this—in the process of opposing ultimate death, people excavated new powers, thereafter claiming themselves as ghosts and gods.
But the ultimate dissipation of the divine path was also not without the reason of the heavenly cycle.
Among those fragmented myths and legends, King Bian Cheng is the sixth Yama, presiding over the hell of wronged deaths. Those in the world who suffer wronged deaths will enter this hell.
At this moment, Jiang Wang, wearing such a Yama mask and a black martial suit, stands on the cliff top where the biting wind is like a knife.
One wonders if this King Bian Cheng can, after so many years, avenge the wronged deaths of Youguo’s geniuses who perished in the giant turtle’s belly?
Not far beside him stands Yin Guan.
Then, some distance away, beneath a cypress pine, sat the coroner Wang—judging from his aura, it is indeed still the same one as before.
One also wonders if he will be recognized. Jiang Wang has deliberately altered his voice and also converged his aura with the Disaster Fight Seal.
The team assigned to Mu Guo is naturally continuing forward, while the Marquis Wu An assigned to Mu Guo is cultivating behind closed doors within his carriage. Whether he is present or not, outsiders cannot discern, only needing Qiao Lin to cooperate well.
Jiang Wang exchanged a few words with Qiao Lin, then hurried alone to meet with Yin Guan, and then also saw the coroner Wang. Yin Guan seems to bring this one with him wherever he goes, probably because he is more capable than the other Yamas…
But it is also of no consequence.
Jiang Wang is neither curious nor particularly concerned about these Yamas.
Instead, the coroner Wang intentionally or unintentionally sized him up for a while, examining the new external aid invited by King Qin Guang quite a bit, but ultimately, there was no unnecessary chatter.
Speaking of the King Bian Cheng mask, Jiang Wang has another layer of understanding based on its former owner, the jailer Bi Yuanjie of Prisoner Sea Jail—
Perhaps the former former owner?
In that dim and heavy prison of Diao Hailou, the jailer is also a prisoner, day after day, repeating a life devoid of hope.
Precisely because Zhu Biqiong suffered hardship in that environment, Jiang Wang has always carried a share of guilt towards her in his heart.
Bi Yuanjie escaped from the almost impossible Prisoner Sea Jail, joined Hell’s Gate, and finally died on the road to escaping overseas. In his fate, he truly embodied the words “wronged death.”
“This name… is not auspicious,” Jiang Wang sighed.
At this moment, his voice is very cold and cruel, the voice of a middle-aged man of around forty.
Manifesting a voice based on the Sound Hearing Immortal Canon, there are naturally no flaws to be found.
“How is it not auspicious?” Yin Guan, also waiting, said: “The character ‘Bian’ has an extra point above the character for ‘city.’ Does this not precisely explain that you want to break through the heaven above the city? It is too auspicious; it is simply a mandate from heaven to me.”
Jiang Wang turned his head to look at him.
One also wonders if King Qin Guang, who entered the path through curse techniques, speaking auspicious words will truly be auspicious.
Yin Guan shrugged his shoulders: “Don’t misunderstand, it wasn’t left specifically for you. Originally, giving you a judge or similar mask was also fine. But the new King Bian Cheng just died off. Don’t you think that’s a coincidence?”
It sounds even less auspicious…
“Temporary,” Jiang Wang emphasized: “I’m just wearing it temporarily.”
“Relax,” Yin Guan smiled: “Hell’s Gate, money and goods are clear, children and elders are not deceived, absolutely no coercion.”
The entire Hell’s Gate, all people hide their identities and conceal their tracks. Only he swaggered openly, conspicuously in front of people, being the flag of Hell’s Gate and almost becoming a concrete symbol of the killer world.
“Everyone has arrived.”
The voice of the coroner Wang under the tree was hoarse, but his ten fingers moved fluently again. After quickly pinching a formula, he brought his palms together in front of his body, then slowly pulled them apart.
A silver-white light curtain was pulled open between his palms, like a huge square mirror, neatly divided into ten grids. Within each grid, a figure wearing a mask appeared.
Even Yin Guan wore a Yama mask tied at his waist.
King Qin Guang, King Chu Jiang, King Song Emperor, Coroner Wang, King Yan Luo, King Bian Cheng, King Tai Shan, King City, King Equality, King Turning Wheel – the ten halls of Yama gathered!
Jiang Wang silently sized up his “teammates” for this action, his posture cold and cruel, standing with his hands behind his back, making no sound.
The coroner Wang’s light curtain, one doesn’t know what secret technique it is, besides sound and image, also displayed everyone’s aura.
Among these people, the one who left the most profound impression on Jiang Wang was King Chu Jiang. Initially, when being pursued and killed by Hai Zongming, he once spent a heavy amount of gold to invite a killer from Hell’s Gate, and the one who appeared at that time was precisely this one.
Although he did not reveal his face, that yin-cold, piercing feeling left a profound impression on people.
Upon contact today, the person faintly already exhibits external manifestations of a golden body and jade marrow, having stepped into the divine descent realm. He is indeed worthy of ranking second among the ten halls of Yama and being an existence that has not died until now.
Following that are King Turning Wheel and King Tai Shan, whom he met once during the pursuit of Yang Xuan Ce. At that time, Jiang Wang was already psychologically prepared for a challenge with a single sword. Seeing them again today, he wonders if they are the same people.
After all, the renewal and replacement of these Yamas of Hell’s Gate are quite frequent.
“Everyone is clear about the task, what everyone’s target is, and to what extent they should go. It was all clearly written in the letter,” Yin Guan stood on the edge of the cliff and said in a light voice: “Old rules, we set out separately and meet in Youguo five days later… If you have questions, you can raise them now.”
No one spoke.
His gaze swept around: “Then let the action begin.”
The silver-white light curtain dimmed grid by grid until it disappeared.
Yin Guan possesses a kind of innate clear and handsome temperament. At first glance, he is more like a hidden cultivator who has transcended the world.
Only at the moment he issued the command did people suddenly remember that he is currently the head of the most notorious killer organization in the entire East Domain.
To command and govern a group of lawless and fierce thugs to be obedient, this cannot be achieved solely by force.
Under the cypress pine, the coroner Wang brought his palms together, put away the silver-white light curtain, but did not stand up immediately.
Instead, with that hoarse tone, he opened his mouth and said: “Leader, regarding the rewards, besides the things in the Youguo imperial palace that should be divided, I still want Zheng Chaoyang’s corpse.”
Yin Guan turned his eyes to look at him: “Zheng Chaoyang’s physique is naturally strong, a good material for cultivating martial arts. For the country, he cultivated the soldier’s path. Last year, he just advanced to divine descent… you indeed have good eyesight.”
“Hehe hehe,” the coroner Wang said: “Leader, you know. Corpses… are easily spoiled. After a battle, they just need replenishment.”
“No problem,” Yin Guan calmly said: “But this time, you must bring out your divine descent corpse. Hell’s Gate is very fair; with excess contribution, there will be excess harvest.”
The coroner Wang’s pupils suddenly contracted.
He, who from the beginning knew no fear, felt a chill at the bottom of his heart.
His divine ability is strange and gloomy, named Borrow Corpse. He can borrow the power of a corpse before its death, including but not limited to using others’ corpses to complete his own limbs, and even… he can complete a leap in realm by borrowing a strong person’s corpse.
Don’t look at the power he displays now being only at the peak of the Outer Tower; when truly fighting with all his might, in a life-or-death struggle, he does not fear King Chu Jiang. Throughout Hell’s Gate, the only one who can truly make him dread is Yin Guan alone.
And the fact that he possesses the complete physical body of a divine descent cultivator is his absolute secret! How did Yin Guan know? When did Yin Guan know?
What else does Yin Guan know?
“Hehe, hehe,” the coroner Wang laughed like this several times, then said: “Good.”
Yin Guan also had no intention of calculating anything.
He only said one thing: “Time is very tight, let’s quickly hurry on our way.”
With a flick of his robe sleeve, he was the first to leap down the high cliff.
Jiang Wang followed closely behind.
Then came the coroner Wang. He, sitting on the ground, like a puppet with dislocated limbs, stood up very uncoordinatedly, swaying. Then he suddenly tensed, like an arrow leaving the string!
Youguo has only two kinds of cities: upper city and lower city.
There is only one upper city, built on the back of the giant turtle.
There are a total of thirty-nine lower cities. Their names are simply City One to City Thirty-Nine.
As Yin Guan said initially, people wouldn’t bother giving names to chicken coops and pigpens; numbering them makes management convenient.
The entire Youguo, all high officials and nobles, wealthy merchants, and cultivator lords, live in the upper city.
The rule of the lower cities is then completed through various assisting families.
For example. The Su family, now settled in the upper city, was once the assisting family of Youguo’s twenty-seventh city.
In a world that possesses superhuman great power, there fundamentally exists no possibility for the lower city to resist the upper city.
“Youguo’s Prime Minister has exhausted his heart and energy, dedicating himself to the country. Youguo’s court cares for the people, actively cultivating talents and boldly appointing young people to serve as city lords of various cities. The annual official assessment is public and fair. The one who governs the worst, the one who is least sympathetic to the people, will be expelled and personally disposed of by the great sacred beast protector of the country. The other city lords, selecting the best among them, will obtain the qualification to enter the upper city. They will diligently cultivate, impact the superhuman realm, in order to resist foreign insults and protect our common people. The entire country is prosperous, getting better every day, and the common people are full of hope.”
In the public school next door, the teacher sighed contentedly: “What a beautiful country we live in!”
The crisp voices of children chorused: “Also very happy!”
Returning to an old place.
Jiang Wang, now sitting in a tavern in Youguo’s twenty-seventh lower city, hearing the various voices of the people around him, found his mood very hard to describe.
Today’s twenty-seventh city has neat streets and tall buildings. Pedestrians on the road are talking and laughing. It is not difficult to see that their lives have greatly improved in these years.
Jiang Wang still remembers the white-haired youth who once wandered through this place, remembers the confusion, loss, and pain he witnessed in this city.
And now, after only a few short years, they are already “also very happy.”
Then why have they come now? For what reason have they come?
Jiang Wang understood in his heart, this is perhaps Zhao Cang’s defense.
To deal with that stunning talent who was a fish that slipped through the net initially, he chose to use the hearts of the people to build a high wall.
He wants to erase the justice of Yin Guan’s revenge, to render meaningless the efforts Yin Guan has made walking on the edge of life and death these years.
You say you are taking revenge, but you are actually destroying.
You say you want to save this country; this country is prosperous, the people are all very satisfied, they don’t need your salvation!
Please: