by <unknown>
Zhong Yue thought in admiration, How strong must they be to be able to do this?
Suddenly, a terrifying aura flooded out, causing Zhong Yue’s heart to sink. When he looked around, the eighteen judges descended from the top and surrounded them in the middle.
Far away, banners waved along with the wind, countless demonic gods in the hell gathered their remaining forces, formed up new ranks, creating array formations one after another that fixated the fire and water in the city and trapped Zhong Yue and the others in the middle.
Qiu Jin’er was slightly shaken, but Zhong Yue only smirked, “Heh, so it seems like we have been found out.”
Upon hearing Zhong Yue’s calm voice and looking at his confident demeanour, Qiu Jin’er’s panic greatly diminished. Meanwhile, Lan Si God was extremely terrified and looked like he would kneel before the many judges.
“Interesting, there are actually people taking advantage of this chaotic situation to profit.”
The three eyed judges opened his third eye, looked at the three of them and quickly ignored Lan Si God. He proceeded to examine both Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er and said, “Good plan, but aren’t you a little bit too bold and too presumptuous?”
On the other side, a judges with thousand arms raised his hand as the Thousand Plane Divine Mirror appeared in his hand before he faced the mirror at both Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er. This mirror was forged by the godly eye in his palm, allowing him to reflect the previous and current life of his target; as long as the name of this target is in the Book of Life and Death, whatever the target did in his previous and current life will be shown clearly.
“Strange, nothing is shown in the mirror…. Are they not from this Six Path World?”
The thousand arm judges said curiously, “Really strange, if they are not beings of this world, why would they want to sneak into our hell?”
“Nothing matters anymore! We ask neither their identity nor origin, whoever trespasses into hell is considered guilty. and they must be punished for this! There are plenty of rooms in the prison of hell!”
Another lion judge laughed coldly and said, “Extraordinary individuals of the Six Path World have always been trying to sneak into hell to remove their name from the Book of Life and Death, trying to cause disruption in the order of this world. But none have succeeded, not to mention two puny pawns like you!”
“Don't even think of running! You can’t possibly think that your masks could help you?”
The judges with huge head followed up, “The dimension around here is now locked, preventing you from running away even after you took down your masks.”
Zhong Yue’s heart thumphed and when he looked around, he realized that the dimension around this place has been locked by countless huge arrays and even the weakest among these judges were judges with power as strong as the Deity Overlords, making it difficult to run away from them.
These judges then looked at Lan Si God, and in an instant, the atmosphere froze as they all shouted, “Traitor! You will end with your soul completely be disintegrated!”
“My kind and powerful judges, these two are messengers sent from above.”
Lan Si God trembled in fear, prompting him to kneel down and say shiveringly, “They are inspectors sent from the high levels. I had no choice. Please! Your humble servant is innocent!”
“Inspector? From the upper levels?” The judges looked at each other and they all smirked.
Zhong Yue took out his token and he said, “Dear colleagues, we never thought our disguise would be discovered, you are really strong.”
Qiu Jin’er too, took out her token and she said, “Who dares to create a fake token?”
A judges got up, examined the tokens over and over again before handing them to another judges and another judge. These judges examined the tokens and they handed them back to Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er.
“What a shame, the tokens are indeed real tokens, but the fact remains that both of you are fake.”
Another judge with tentacles all over his back cackled and said, “Your acting is good, you almost fooled us and you even got your hands on these two original inspector tokens. If this were normal times, we wouldn't be suspicious of you at all. But unfortunately for you, the real inspectors are now in hell and they are somewhere around right now!”
His words startled Qiu Jin’er, caused her to panic slightly as she thought, The real ones are here and they are nearby?”
Without a doubt, fakes like Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er will not be able to escape from having their cover blown before the real ones!
Zhong Yue’s heart also sank before suddenly, he recalled of incident when he encountered that white Wu Chang in the Six Paths Paragon. He then thought, Could he be the inspector these judges are talking about? Impossible, he was obviously sneaking into the tower just like me to alter the book.
“The real inspector is often someone with great talents but they are usually not well-known, the likes of you will never be able to disguise as one of them!”
“Now, let us welcome the real inspector!” One of the judge said.
After a moment, a voice could be heard far away laughing, “My dear friends, you have all greatly amazed me in the battle just now. Now what are we up to again this time?”
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er looked towards the direction and all they saw was white Wu Chang that greeted the many judges politely.
The eighteen judges greeted back and they replied, “We captured these two fake inspectors with real tokens so we wanted to request you to identify them.”
“Fake ones with real tokens?”
White Wu Chang was dumbfounded and when he looked at the duo, he suddenly laughed and said, “How are they fake? These two are my colleagues.”
The judges were all shocked and confused and that goes the same for Qiu Jin’er for she did not expect that he will help them.
One of the judges quickly replied, “Are they really? Why would the higher-ups send them if they have already dispatched you?”
That judges then said coldly again, “Could it be that they do not trust you, hence, the extra two more inspectors?”
White Wu Chang laughed and replied, “I am the one inspecting things on the surface in the light while these two are carrying out their duties in the dark. I am responsible to attract everyone’s attention to ease their job but seems like there is no point for this anymore. My friends, are you all going to kill us, resist the heavens or treat us like your guests now? It all depends on you.”
All of the judges hesitated; they were not completely clean themselves, they had always been accepting bribes and abusing their power for profit. If these three inspectors found out about their sins, they would probably be killed. In an instant, they had the thought of killing the three of them then pushed the responsibilities to the monster ape to avoid being exposed!
But by doing so, they also risk unveiling their wrong doings as this place is filled with demonic gods that are very observant due to their immense power.
However, if the three inspectors failed to find out anything, they would be able to maintain a good relationship with the three of them and attempt to exploit this relationship in the future.
Suddenly, a judges coughed and shouted at Lan Si God, “Little cow! How dare you never notify us about the arrival of these two inspectors? When did you meet up with the two inspectors?”
Lan Si God quickly bowed at them and explained, “Only recently! We also entered the city a few moments ago. You could ask He Zhe God about this if you don’t believe me!”
The judges summoned He Zhe God who guarded the city, asked him questions and he communicated with the other judges immediately, “They just got into the city moments ago, it is impossible that they could find out anything about our plans in just a short time.”
The other judges calmed themselves down right away and as they all laughed happily, they said, “Welcome, honoured guests! It is our fault for causing such troubles to you! Now, shall we get back to th
e courtyard? This place is not a very good place to prepare a welcome ceremony for you!”
In a blink of an eye, the cold and cruel atmosphere disappeared as everyone laughed, feigning civility and amiability toward each other.
Chapter 636: Bribery |
Serene Darkness Mansion.
Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin’er, and the white Wu Chang was sitting in the hall with the judges and the officers accompanying them. The dancers were waltzing like butterflies in the hall center. Delicacies of Hell and the best wine were served on the table.
Some of the delicacies were even made from god spirits.
These godly spirits were pure and devoid of any resident souls. They were condensed into only three-inches and sprinkled with spices to be served as Hell’s speciality.
One of the judges forked up a godly spirit and gladly devoured it.
“Nice, truly scrumptious!” He exclaimed.
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er felt too uncomfortable to eat the godly spirits. Although Zhong Yue had heard from Xin Huo once saying monster god inner cores had been handpicked and served as delicacies long ago, consuming living godly spirits was a concept far too disgusting for him to accept.
Even the gluttonous Qiu Jin’er, who enjoyed delicacies more than anything, also couldn’t stomach the concept.
“Come! Emissary Tianji, Emissary Buyu, Emissary Tianzheng, do eat some of Hell’s best dish!” The judges laughed and said.
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er exchanged a look, he then whispered to him through his psyche, “Jin’er, we have no choice but to eat. If we don’t, we will be seen as declining their offer to take the same stand and they will see us as enemies.”
Qiu Jin’er nodded in understanding. None of these judges are clean, they were all corrupt leaders of Hell but gaining their trust was the only way to survive.
Thus, Zhong Yue and company could only begrudgingly eat the godly spirits so that they could gain the trust of the other judges as fellow sinners.
Surely enough, such a political measure was a form of unspoken deal to everyone.
Now, the choice is solely theirs. Should they eat the godly spirits, the judges would treat them with more familiarity, but if they refused, the judges would have no choice but to kill them to cover up the rampant corruption in Hell.
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er would’ve accepted any other method of proving themselves to the judges, but eating living godly spirits was approaching their bottom-line, especially when they were raw and uncooked.
Zhong Yue looked at the white Wu Chang who the judges referred to as Tianzheng, a name that was clearly made up as well. But even the white Wu Chang was hesitant to comply with eating the godly spirits.
Is he really a Hell Overseer, or a fake one just like us? Zhong Yue couldn’t help but question his identity.
The 18 judges were staring closely at them, their eyes were as cold as ice and their bodies were poised to spring into action.
“Friends, as much as I would like to enjoy the feast with you, I actually prefer cooked food.” Tianzheng said.
The judge with a lion body, Judge Bi Luo knocked on the table and shouted, “Guards! Fork up the godly spirits and grill them on the Hellfire for Brother Tianzheng!”
Immediately, a few guards walked up with a huge pitchfork and pierced three godly spirits at the tips. The godly spirits groaned and whimpered when grilled alive with the Hellfire.
Judge Bi Luo pointed the pitchfork right at the tip of Chang Tianzheng’s nose, while he gave a bright smile, “The godly spirits are best served when they are cooked medium-rare.”
Chang Tianzheng frowned and forced a godly spirit down his throat. Then, he turned to Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er with a smile, “I am not a good eater, I shall leave the rest to my dear two colleagues.
Zhong Yue instantly sterned up his face, “I am a vegetarian.”
Zheng, zheng, zheng—
A series of sounds of blades unsheating themselves could be heard as the Hell guardians raised their weapons with killing intent.
Zhong Yue lamented in his heart while Chang Tianzheng gloated furtively, At least someone was accompanying me with the same suffering.
“Why must you be so troublesome?” Zhong Yue laughed aloud as he said, “I don’t like godly spirits. However, I am somewhat fond of the gods’ inner cores. I wonder if you have any of them at hand?”
The judge of Serene Darkness Mansion nodded softly, and the Hell guards immediately laughed happily, “Emissary, we are just playing around with our weapons!”
Zhong Yue heaved a breath of relief as he and Qiu Jin’er ate one godly inner core each. Then, he said to Chang Tianzheng, “Brother Tianzheng, thank you for the kind offer, but I guess you will have to keep the delicacies for yourself now.”
After the feast, the dancers ebbed from the hall, and the judge of Serene Darkness Mansion clapped his hand while raising his voice, “After the feast, come the treasures! Bring them up!”
The Hell guards marched in lines into the hall and piled the treasures on the floor.
“30 godly grosgrains weaved by the Heaven Girls of the Shen Sang Celestial Race!”
“30 pieces of ape skin from the godly apes of the Ape Life Island!”
“One tributary to the Hell River!”
“9 Hell King Celestial Pearls and 9 Hell King DemonPearls!”
“10 bowls of Heaven Court’s Heavenly Morning Dew and 10 bowls of Demon Underworld’s Demonic Night Dew!”
“300 godly inner cores!”
One of the officers announced the treasures as they were sent in. The treasures were divided into 3 parts, one for each Hell Overseers, and it took almost half an hour for the treasures to be presented.
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er were dumbfounded as they were bombarded by the enormous treasures that even ordinary Deity Overlords didn’t have the qualifications to possess!
Surely enough, Hell’s corruption was rooted in greed and bribery; every single Hell official was a beneficiary, especially the judges that held high posts in Hell.
Zhong Yue glanced around, the judges were smiling warmly at them, but the other officers and guards continued staring coldly with masked killing intent.
We are not Hell Overseers, and it’d be a waste to not take these free treasures! Hell’s corruption is none of my business.
Zhong Yue gestured toward Qiu Jin’er, and they stepped forward to keep their treasures away while Chang Tianzheng did the same.
Immediately, the pressure in the hall dissipated, and jubilant laughter proceeded to fill the halls.
“Emissaries, when will you return to report to the higher-ups?” The Serene Soul Judge asked.
Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin’er, and Chang Tianzheng exchanged a look before answering, “If we return now, the higher-ups will know we were ‘persuaded’ to cover for the judges. Thus, we need to stay a little longer before we hand in our report. Also, we can’t return empty-handed, a few political sacrifices are necessary, for the optics. If you have any enemies that you’d like to take out, then this is your chance to do so.”
“Brother Tianji, you are thoughtful!” The judges praised.
For the next few days, the judges accommodated them in the Serene Soul Mansion, and they were followed closely by a few Hell officers everywhere they went.
But even so, that didn’t ease the judges’ hearts. They had invited the Hell Overseers to a feast every 3 to 5 days, one mansion after another. Zhong Yue, Qiu Jin’er and Chang Tianzheng were treated like royalty from the first mansion to the 18th mansion.
Every dish served was divine and greatly boosted Qiu Jin’er’s prowess. She was now even closer to awakening her Innate Wood Spirit.
Even Zhong Yue’s prowess was strengthened, pushing him a little further on his path of awakening his Sun Moon Twin Spirit and Innate True Soul.
The 18th and last Hell mansion was the A’Bi Mansion. After they finished the feast, Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er, accompanied by a few Hell officers, toured around the city. They strolled o
n the city walls and enjoyed the picturesque scenery.
Outside of the city, the floor was paved with a sea of stars, countless planets flowed and shrouded the nebula.
From afar, the nebula looked like a star observatory tower, but it was so unfathomably large that it even dwarfed the already huge A’Bi City..
The Bridge of Helplessness drew a beautiful arc across the starry sky, hovering across the 18 Hell mansions as it transported countless souls into the star observatory tower.
The star observatory tower was grand, and every star around it orbited it. Zhong Yue looked around, and his heart thumped all of a sudden as he mumbled in his heart,
“These stars… they are orbiting in a patterned sequence, just like the totem patterns of a teleportation portal? No, it looked similar, but something is different in it…”
“It’s a teleportation portal, but only for the souls!” Xin Huo answered, “What a magnificent piece of work! A portal formed by the stars and planets!”
Zhong Yue’s heart shuddered, he looked to the side and asked, “What is this?”
“The Reincarnation Station.” The Hell officer beside him replied, “All of the souls will be reincarnated through this station. Whether you are reincarnated into the Heaven Realm, Earth Realm, Celestial Realm, Myriad Realm, Elemental Realm or Prison Realm, reincarnation can only be completed through this station. Emissary, if you direct your attention in that direction, you will see the Sea of Oblivion. Every soul will have to go through the sea and wash away all of their past memories before they are ready to be reincarnated.”
Zhong Yue looked over and saw the Sea of Oblivion. It was bigger than a galaxy and floated in the starry space.
The sea water was produced by a strong existence through divine alchemy, a single drop was strong enough to wash away the memories of ordinary cultivators. However, the stronger gods had a certain degree of resistance toward it. There existed a possibility of awakening their past life memories after reincarnating.
That Hell Emperor, is he in the Sea of Oblivion? Zhong Yue thought.
