Chapter 131: Fengdu Guest (Seventeen)
While Bian Cheng was killing everyone in the human world, Lu Ren had successfully walked out of the City of the Dead and entered the territory of Fengdu.
Fengdu is located on Mount Luofeng. Although it is called Fengdu, it is not actually a city, but a mountain range made of black rocks. Ten Senluo Palaces stand in sequence in various parts of the mountain range. These Senluo Palaces are all built of black iron and blend into the black rock mountain range, making it look natural. The dark night, cold mountains and black palaces form a picture of lifelessness, which makes the whole Fengdu look solemn and solemn, but also makes people in it feel extremely depressed and lonely.
The exit of the City of the Dead is at the top of the City of the Dead, and is a round iron gate.
Old Li and Mr. Zhang only sent Lu Ren and Chongtong to the exit of the Wrongly Dead City. As the Wrongly Dead ghosts, they could not leave the Wrongly Dead City, so it was impossible for them to continue to accompany them. However, Old Li kindly gave Lu Ren the lantern he had been carrying.
"The wind in Huangquan is strong. I hope Little Lord Ming will not mind it."
Of course Lu Ren would not despise it. The underworld was plunged into eternal night. Holding a thin paper lantern, although it could not illuminate the boundless future, it could at least illuminate the area under his feet.
He sincerely expressed his gratitude to the two: "Thank you."
So, Lu Ren walked into Fengdu with a lantern and double pupils.
The strange thing is that there is clearly sky above the City of the Dead, but when Lu Ren and Chongtong crawled out of the gate, they surprisingly discovered that they actually came out from underground, and they were actually on top of a huge rock.
The two looked back and saw the gate of the City of the Dead quietly open behind them, like a manhole cover that had not been closed in time.
Fengdu is different from the City of the Dead.
Lu Ren and Chongtong could still meet underworld residents like Lao Li or Yang Qingyu in the City of the Dead, but it was different in Fengdu. There were only endless black rocks and whirring underworld winds in Fengdu, and they couldn't even meet a ghost.
In Chongtong's words, "This is the outskirts of Luofeng Mountain. Normally, ghosts and ghost messengers will not pass through here. There are corridors between the ten Senluo Palaces that are specially provided for souls and ghost messengers to pass through, so we will not encounter them."
Lu Ren thought it made sense. If all the souls could roam freely, the underworld would have been in chaos.
But since the rules of the underworld are strict, there is another thing that doesn't make sense. Lu Ren turned his head to look at Chongtong and asked in confusion: "Since you are the Lord of Mount Tai, why don't you go to your palace to judge the prisoners, but follow me around everywhere."
Chongtong explained expressionlessly, "Now the trials of sinners in the underworld are all connected to the Internet. When a soul arrives here, it only needs to use a fingerprint machine to clock in. The underworld's system will automatically retrieve the life story, automatically match it to the major events in life, and then conduct a fully automatic trial. There is no need for the King of Hell to judge the case any longer."
Lu Ren was stunned. He didn't expect that the underworld has developed to such an extent. It should be a slogan hung at the gate of hell - Technology changes life after death.
He couldn't help but ask Chongtong: "Is the underworld so developed?"
Chongtong nodded and said, "Yes, in the early years, it took some effort to operate the formation. In the past two years, many scientists have solved it. In order to accumulate merits and be reborn in a better way, they have invented many good things."
Death is very equal. No matter how great a scientist was during his lifetime, he will eventually die. Generally, they will contribute one or two scientific inventions in exchange for a better afterlife.
On the one hand, Lu Ren was impressed by the excellent virtue of the Hades, but on the other hand, he couldn't help but start to think: "After I die, do I have any special skills that can be used to exchange for a better afterlife?"
Lu Ren climbed Luofeng Mountain absent-mindedly.
The ten Senluo Palaces were evenly distributed along the mountain road. From a geographical point of view, the fifth palace was at the top of Luofeng Mountain. Lu Ren and his companions came out from the territory of the sixth palace, so they were actually at the back of Luofeng Mountain, near the top of the mountain.
At this moment, Lu Ren saw a man coming down the mountain from afar. He was dragging a long pole, carrying a large fishing box on one side of his body, and wearing a fisherman's hat. He was rushing towards this direction. He looked hurried, obviously in a hurry.
Lu Ren, who had just heard that there would be no ghosts or ghost messengers passing by this place, was stunned for a moment, and then asked Chongtong: "Is this... a lost ghost?"
Chongtong didn't know either, because he rarely left the Blood Basin Realm of Suffering. His knowledge of the underworld often came from the unlucky ghosts who accidentally strayed into the Blood Basin Realm of Suffering. These unlucky ghosts would make hysterical exclamations before being eaten, revealing some information from the outside world - "I just punched in from the Sixth Hall! How come I took a detour and fell into the sea of blood and was about to be eaten! Help! Ahhhhh!"
In short, Chongtong couldn't explain why there was the ghost of a fisherman here.
The fisherman obviously had no intention of talking to the two of them, and just kept walking. However, out of kindness, Lu Ren took the initiative to ask the fisherman when they passed by: "Um...did you go the wrong way? This is not the way to the afterlife."
The fisherman didn't seem to expect Lu Ren to talk to him, and said in surprise: "You are not Bian Cheng?!"
The main reason why the fisherman ignored the two was that he didn't want to get involved with Bian Cheng. Everyone in the underworld knew that he was a huge troublemaker. So after the fisherman smelled the scent of the Ghost King Seals of the Sixth and Seventh Halls from afar, he pretended to walk with his head down, trying to reduce his presence as much as possible.
Who knew that as soon as the "Bian Cheng" on the opposite side opened his mouth, he fully demonstrated that he was not Bian Cheng: Bian Cheng was not so kind-hearted, and the most important thing was that Bian Cheng could not have failed to recognize him.
Thinking of this, the fisherman frowned and looked at Lu Ren. After looking him up and down for a while, he murmured, "Could it be that the Lord of Mount Tai caught them as a snack?"
Occasionally, souls that committed serious crimes in the human world do not want to be judged and flee the underworld. In such cases, the corresponding underworld king will be responsible for catching them, and in principle, they can be eaten directly. After all, souls that refuse to change after repeated admonitions do not deserve a chance to start over.
But that's not right either.
The fisherman took two steps closer to Lu Ren and sniffed him carefully: "It is indeed the smell of the Ghost King Seal of the Sixth Palace."
Lu Ren could tell that this person must be someone Bian Cheng knew, so he explained, "I'm not Bian Cheng, but he did give me half of the Ghost King Seal. Do you know him? I'm about to go back to the human world, and I'll return half of the Ghost King Seal to him. Do you know where he is?"
The fisherman shook his head: "He appears and disappears mysteriously, how can I know? But--" The fisherman seemed to have discovered something, and suddenly paused, then moved closer to Lu Ren, took two deep breaths, and then said hesitantly: "Besides the smell of the Ghost King Seal, there seems to be something else on you..."
Lu Ren couldn't help but take two steps back and couldn't help complaining in his heart: "Why do people from the underworld like to smell others as soon as they meet? It's weird." Chongtong was like this, and this newly appeared fisherman was the same.
After the fisherman smelled Lu Ren's scent, he frowned and thought for a while, then exclaimed: "You are a stranger! There is still the smell of a blood contract on your body! Did you sign a blood contract with Hanba?!"
Although Lu Ren didn't know why the fisherman mentioned the blood pact at this place, he felt that there was no need to hide this matter. After all, it was not a secret in the first place.
So he nodded hesitantly.
The fisherman said, "The blood contract has been lost for many years. How did you manage to sign it? Never mind, I'll send you out first. We still have to catch Bian Cheng back quickly, otherwise he will cause trouble sooner or later." At the same time, he seemed very dissatisfied with his fishing schedule being disrupted. "Originally, I was not allowed to fish because the Styx was restricted. Today I finally got away and planned to go to the Naihe Bridge to cast a few rods. Damn Bian Cheng, he just makes trouble for me!"
After saying this, the fisherman immediately snapped his fingers. With a crisp sound, the box he was carrying opened out of thin air, and a carp that looked as big as a carp jumped out of it.
How did you put all this down?
But the fisherman didn't have time to explain so much, he asked Lu Ren to sit on the carp.
The fisherman put his fishing gear on the carp and urged Lu Ren, "Come up quickly, I'll send you to hell, but you have to catch that guy quickly, otherwise something bad will happen."
Lu Ren was not sure whether the fisherman was a friend or an enemy: "But..."
However, before Lu Ren finished speaking, he found that Chongtong, who was just beside him, had already sat on the back of the carp. Although Chongtong's face was still expressionless, seeing his eyes shining as he touched the carp's scales, Lu Ren could guess that Chongtong must be very happy, just like a child driving a toy car for the first time.
With Chongtong following him, nothing serious would happen. So Lu Ren also climbed onto the carp's back with difficulty. Because the carp's back was a bit high and its scales were slippery, Lu Ren almost fell down halfway up. Fortunately, Chongtong was quick-witted and grabbed his hand and pulled him up.
After sitting down safely, Lu Ren's thoughts finally returned to the topic the fisherman had just mentioned: "You said something big will happen in Biancheng? What big thing will happen?"
The fisherman sitting on the carp turned around and asked him, "Have you ever heard of the drought demon turning into a lion?"
Of course Lu Ren had never heard of it.
In fact, the story of the Hanba transforming into a Hou can only be regarded as a legend. After all, over the past thousands of years, even Hanba has been very rare, let alone successfully transforming into a Hou. Hou are extremely ferocious and can easily defeat even dragons. They even like to eat borneol the most. There is a saying among the people that "one Hou can fight three dragons and two Jiao". Hou can almost be said to be the most powerful beast in the world.
No one knew what the opportunity was for Hanba to transform into a 犼. But now, there was an opportunity in front of several people.
"I remember that fifty years ago, Bian Cheng colluded with a human, stole half of Taishan Mansion's soul, and created a Hanba in Xiangxi in the human world. This time , if we use the other half of Taishan Mansion's soul, we will definitely be able to create a Hou easily."
The fisherman's words sounded familiar to Lu Ren: "Hanba from western Hunan?"
The fisherman sat on the fish's head and controlled the direction. He nodded and said, "You definitely haven't seen it. I heard that thing was later locked up in Kunlun Realm. It has been peaceful for so many years. However, Kunlun Realm is a place where you can only enter but not leave. You, a mere human, should not be able to see it." The fisherman seemed to remember something and turned to Lu Ren and asked, "By the way, where did you catch your Hanba? Is it very dry in the world recently? Another Hanba appeared in just fifty years."
Lu Ren said: "The one who signed the blood contract with me was the Hanba from the Immigrant Household Registration Bureau."
The fisherman obviously didn't believe Lu Ren's statement. He said categorically: "Impossible!"
"Why?"
The fisherman thought that Lu Ren was lying to him because he didn't want to reveal the origin of the Hanba with whom he signed a blood contract, so he didn't hide it. He said to Lu Ren: "I remember that Hanba only had half a soul, so it lost all its rationality. In the end, it suddenly became violent and devoured its master in anger. His master is still staying in the City of the Dead. If you really signed a blood contract with that Hanba, how could you be alive and well now?"
After listening to the fisherman's words, Lu Ren felt a buzzing in his head. He stared blankly at the fisherman in front of him opening and closing his mouth, but he couldn't hear a word he said.
Lu Ren's mind was in a state of confusion: "Angry and... Devouring the master? Who? Jun Fang? Is what he said true? But he didn't seem to have any reason to lie to me. So was Old Yang killed by Jun Fang?"
In the end, there was only one thought echoing in Lu Ren's mind: "How sad Junfang would be if he knew about this."
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"Xu Zi Bu Yu" also said: "The corpse first changed into a drought demon, and then changed into a 犼."
