Chapter 118: Fengdu Guest (VIII)
Lu Renzheng was following Chongtong on the road to the City of the Dead.
After meeting Chongtong, Lu Ren unexpectedly discovered that under his ferocious appearance, he actually had a kind heart. Although Chongtong seemed to lack basic common sense, he knew a lot about the underworld and would answer every question Lu Ren asked.
Along the way, Lu Ren also got to know Chongtong a little. According to Chongtong himself, he was originally an evil ghost born in the Blood Basin Realm of Suffering. However, because he had been tortured in the Blood Basin Realm of Suffering for too many years, he had long forgotten his past and could not remember who he was in the human world. He only remembered that he had been floating in the boundless sea of blood for many years and had just come ashore in the past thousand years.
However, the blood sea is boundless and is designed to trap souls, so it is impossible to get ashore easily. Therefore, he is the only one who has been able to get ashore from the blood sea for so many years.
But deep down in Chongtong's heart, he always felt that the Blood Basin Realm of Bitterness could be regarded as half of his home, so when he occasionally had time, he would come back to see his brothers and sisters who were still suffering in the Blood Basin Realm of Bitterness.
After listening to Chongtong's words, although Lu Ren was surprised at his hardcore way of visiting relatives, his experiences in the Foreign Household Registration Investigation Bureau over the years still made him accept it well.
What Lu Ren was more concerned about was: "Can you communicate normally?"
After all, from Lu Ren's observation just now, it seems that the main way for brothers and sisters with double pupils to communicate is to spit out blood and water, as if they don't communicate with words at all.
Chongtong nodded: "They usually only have a few words."
The evil spirits in the sea of blood have no reason or emotions, and can only let out endless howls, which are desperate cries from the deepest part of their souls. But because they were once the same kind, Chongtong can more or less interpret the meaning of his brothers and sisters from such screams:
"Let me out! Let me out!"
"Why should you be able to go out? This isn't fair! You should rot in the sea of blood like the rest of us."
"I'm going to kill you!"
They were usually some not-so-positive curses, and occasionally accompanied by a few threatening words. However, Chongtong had gotten used to hearing them over the years, and generally he would just tell whether his brothers and sisters' cries were shrill or not - if they sounded very harsh and chilling at first, it meant that his brothers and sisters were all very healthy.
The evil spirits in the blood sea are generally very healthy. After all, they have fallen to such a level that there is really no room for them to deteriorate further. But there are exceptions occasionally. About five hundred years ago, Chongtong accurately identified a relatively weak howling sound in a corner of the northernmost part of the blood lake. So Chongtong immediately went to check and found that one of his brothers had served his sentence of exile in the blood sea - his brother was going to be sent to reincarnate.
After realizing this, all the ghosts in the bloody world cried loudly that day. All the ghosts were wailing, all of them were sad that their poor brother was going to the human world.
Life is full of suffering, everything is suffering, it is better to float in the boundless sea of blood.
Of course, Lu Ren had no way of knowing these old stories. Similarly, he didn't know that the human world had long been at the bottom of the contempt chain of the ten realms. Gods, Buddhas, demons and ghosts were unwilling to go to the human world and become human beings. They didn't want to escape and become that despicable and weak race, at the mercy of the seven emotions and six desires, and bound by moral ethics.
But even if Lu Ren knew, he wouldn't care. After all, he was only thinking about how to return to the human world. After he told Chongtong about his wish, Chongtong told him: "After you leave the gates of hell, find a way to cross the Styx, and then keep going forward, never look back, and you can return to the human world safely."
Since ancient times, there have been only two ways from the underworld to the human world. One is to go through the reincarnation path and cross the Naihe Bridge, but that means being reborn again. This path is not feasible for Lu Ren. His situation is more like a dead soul returning to the world, so going through the gates of hell is the safest way.
So, Lu Ren hurriedly thanked Chongtong. After learning the method of returning to life, Lu Ren at least had a direction to work towards, and no longer had to be at a loss like a headless fly as before. He then asked how to get to the gates of hell from here.
"You are currently near the Sixth Palace, Wrongful Death City. If you want to go to Ghost Gate, you need to pass through Wrongful Death City and go to Fengdu. Then walk along the road to the First Palace. After passing the First Palace, walk along the Yellow Spring Road all the way. The end is Ghost Gate."
Chongtong said that he was also going to Fengdu and could take Lu Ren with him.
Lu Ren, who was completely in the dark in the underworld, was very happy for Chongtong's initiative to help him. Although he doubted Chongtong's motives the moment he heard this, he soon put down his guard. After all, Chongtong could have killed him directly next to the blood lake, and there was no need to make things so complicated.
So, under the guidance of the kind-hearted Chongtong, Lu Ren embarked on the road back to the gates of hell.
There was a moon hanging in the sky, constantly changing. The moon in the underworld was different from that in the human world. In just one night, Lu Ren watched the moon go through the entire process from a crescent to a full moon. The moon was waning and waxing, and the moonlight was as bright as a silver thread.
After leaving the Bloody World and walking through a road covered with jagged black rocks, Lu Ren and Chongtong arrived in a desert. Their first destination, the City of the Dead, was located not far ahead.
Unfortunately, the horse dies when it is too high.
The sand in this desert is rare white, echoing the silvery moonlight. The undulating sand dunes seem to have turned into continuous snow-capped mountains, adding a bit of holiness to the desolation. But looking around, you can only see huge sand dunes and the dark city of the dead not far away. In such an environment, people will seem very small.
Along the way, neither of them spoke. At this time, the only sound was the dark wind scraping past their bones, the sound of the wind whimpering like a ghost singing.
The atmosphere seemed a bit depressing, and people's minds would inevitably be shrouded in gloom. Fortunately, they were traveling together, so they were not lonely. So Lu Ren decided to find something to talk about, and the two of them chatted while they were on the road, which could more or less dispel some of the gloom.
So Lu Renchao smiled awkwardly and said, "Fortunately, the sand is white and can reflect the moonlight very well. Otherwise, it would be very difficult to walk on the road in the dark night and desert."
Chongtong didn't understand Lu Ren's intention, and he explained expressionlessly: "This is not sand, this is the remains of the dead."
Lu Ren: “…” His mental condition felt even worse.
Originally, it was just a pile of bones, which were later weathered by the dark wind and gradually formed this huge desert. Lu Ren didn't even dare to think about how many human bones were needed.
Lu Ren thought about the scenes he had seen along the way and couldn't help but sigh. The flesh and skin of these dead people dissolved at the gate of hell and turned into mud on the ground; their blood was poured into the blood basin and turned into a surging sea of blood; and their bones were eroded by the moon and wind outside the city of the dead and turned into an endless desert.
So Lu Ren asked, "Why are there so many people dead in the underworld? Were they brought here from the human world?"
Chongtong shook his head and said, "These bones belong to one person."
Lu Ren was stunned: "One person?" Can one person have so many bones?
Chongtong paused, as if recalling the rumors he had heard from others, and then replied: "Yes, it was a giant named Shebi."
Shebi was once a great wizard in the human world, a giant. He was so powerful that he was dead, but he suddenly came back to life, but it was too late. When his soul returned to his body, his body had already rotted, so Shebi unfortunately became a monster that was neither human nor ghost. In order not to scare his people, Shebi decided to leave the human world and go where he should go. He entered the underworld alone, but he was still a living person, so he could not be reincarnated and could only wander endlessly in the underworld.
But this happened many, many years ago. Millions of years have passed, and Shebi has long since disappeared, turning into part of the underworld.
Speaking of Shebi, Chongtong seemed to remember something and reminded Lu Ren, "But be careful."
Chongtong's sudden reminder made Lu Ren's heart instantly hang in the air: "What should I be careful about?" he asked nervously.
Before Chongtong could continue explaining, the two of them felt the sand under their feet begin to vibrate violently.
Speak of the devil; he will appear.
Before Lu Ren could understand what was happening, Chong Tong, who had already reacted, quickly grabbed his collar and took him up into the air. Lu Ren was startled when his feet suddenly left the ground. He looked down and saw a huge sand pit where they were standing, and the sand was still flowing down.
It was obvious that something was moving beneath the sand.
Almost at the moment when Lu Ren realized it, a huge green python broke out of the sand and rushed towards the two people. The python's body was thick and strong, and Lu Ren was probably only the size of its eyeball. It chased the two people and stood vertically, standing like a pillar in the desolate desert.
Lu Ren, who was being held by the collar and flying in the air, was almost scared out of his wits. The snake head was right under his feet. If Chongtong had slowed down a little, his leg would have been eaten into its stomach.
At this time, Lu Ren heard the voice of Chongtong coming from above him. He only heard him say slowly: "Sure enough, although I haven't seen them for a thousand years, Shebi snakes are not so easy to die. They hate it most when someone steps on their master's corpse."
There were always two green snakes hanging on Shebi 's ears. Before he went to the underworld, he wanted to leave them in the human world, but the green snakes refused and insisted on living and dying with their master. Shebi couldn't persuade them and had to take them to the underworld. After so many years, Shebi turned into this desert, and the green snakes have been lingering here, guarding their master who will never come back.
But Lu Ren was not in the mood to pay attention to the touching story behind it. He was more concerned about the other two words in Chongtong's words: "They?"
As expected, as soon as he finished speaking, a huge sound of breaking sand was heard behind Chongtong, and another green snake leaped out and attacked Chongtong's back.
Fortunately, Chongtong was prepared. He turned quickly and kicked the second green snake in the chin. The green snake felt pain and swung its head in a big circle in the air, hitting the first green snake directly from the side. Due to the impact, the first green snake was knocked to one side.
Seeing that Chongtong had escaped danger on his own, Lu Ren secretly breathed a sigh of relief. However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief for long, he heard a "ripping" sound - it was the fake down jacket that Lu Ren had bought online.
Because it was a three-no product and had no quality inspection, after supporting the weight of an adult for such a long time, it was torn apart under the heavy load. Lu Ren was shocked, and before he could do anything, the down jacket declared its end of life and tore apart completely.
The feeling of weightlessness suddenly descended upon Lu Ren, who fell towards the sand dunes and the giant snake. The moment he fell, Lu Ren saw countless cotton wool flying in the night sky, like heavy snowflakes drifting between heaven and earth.
At that moment, the only thought in Lu Ren's mind, who was about to die, was: "I said that the seller cheated me. This is indeed not a down jacket."
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"Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas Eastern Classic" says that Shebi Corpse is to the north, with a beast's body, a human face, big ears, and two green snakes on its ears. Another is Ganyu Corpse, which is to the north of adults.
"Classic of Mountains and Seas: Great Wilderness East Classic" records: "There is a god with a human face, dog ears, and a beast body, with two green snakes on his ears, and his name is Shebisi" (It is a god with a human head and a beast body, with two green snakes on his big ears, and his name is Shebisi).
The words in the records are called Shebishi, which is a private name in the text.
