Underworld

After experiencing this battle, Chen Shi was both exhausted and sleepy. He sat in the cart and dozed off, and by the time he woke up, the wooden cart had already reached Huangpo Village.

Grandpa brewed and boiled medicine, bustling about back and forth. It was already late into the night before the medicine was finally ready.

Chen Shi drank a basin of medicine, then soaked in the medicine vat, gradually falling asleep inside it.

Fortunately, this night passed peacefully, and his chronic illness did not flare up.

Could my illness already be cured?

Waking up in the morning, Chen Shi was very happy, feeling even that Grandpa's breakfast was not all that difficult to swallow anymore.

Furthermore, Grandpa had not broken his promise on this trip to the county town, truly bringing back tasty treats for him—there were candied haws, brown sugar rice cakes, stinky tofu, and sugar figurines, making him smile from ear to ear.

"Grandpa's medicine works, and my daily cultivation of the Three Lights Righteous Qi works too. Maybe it can cure my illness!"

Chen Shi looked forward to his future life, and thus grew even more diligent. After paying respects to Godmother, he practiced the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, borrowing the Big Dipper Seven Stars to temper his body.

This day passed very fulfilling. By evening, Chen Shi drank his medicine, took his medicinal bath, and practiced the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art for a little longer before lying down to sleep.

He had been asleep for who knows how long. While in the middle of a sweet slumber, a fierce, peerless, agonizing pain suddenly struck the center of his chest, and his heart violently convulsed!

Chen Shi woke up, knowing that the old trouble with his heart had acted up again. He struggled on the bed, wanting to get up and urge the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art to resist.

Yet that pain came with such utter severity that it drained away all his strength. It felt as if his heart had been squeezed flat, crushed into a lump, causing the blood in his body to stop circulating!

He wanted to gasp for breath, but try as he might, he could not draw any in.

The air in his chest cavity felt as though it had been completely emptied out by an azure ghost hand!

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

Surrounded by immense terror, Chen Shi opened his mouth to call out for Grandpa, yet no sound whatsoever came from his throat.

It was still nighttime now, and Grandpa should not be in the house, completely unable to sense that he was in danger.

"Black Dog! Black Dog!"

Chen Shi wanted to call out for Black Dog, but he was perpetually unable to make a sound. The large black dog in the courtyard seemed to hear something, raising its head to listen intently, then shaking its head and going back to sleep.

Chen Shi's vision gradually grew dark—so dark he could no longer see the moonlight outside, so dark he could gradually no longer see the roof beams.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, his head increasingly groggy, and his body convulsed uncontrollably like a dying fish hauled ashore.

His body gave two violent bounces on the bed before finally growing still, his limbs twitching from time to time, save that the frequency of the spasms grew slower and slower and the amplitude smaller and smaller.

In the end, Chen Shi grew quiet.

In the darkness, it was as though a trace of light illuminated the gloom before Chen Shi's eyes.

He opened his eyes. All around him was deep, bleak, and misty fog, and from the distance came wretched wails from time to time, sounding like a person, yet also like an injured beast.

Chen Shi stared wide-eyed, struggling to look around, yet he could see nothing at all.

"Grandpa!" he shouted aloud.

"Grandpa!" "Grandpa!"

Many voices came from within the fog—from every direction, every corner, everywhere came the sound of calling for Grandpa, though whether they were echoes or some other strange thing was unclear.

Surrounded by fear, Chen Shi knew he ought to stay right where he was and wait for Grandpa to come find him, yet he involuntarily set his feet in motion.

He only felt his body become unprecedentedly light, as light as if it did not exist at all. The fog, like grains of white, delicate sand without the slightest weight, passed right through his body, ice-cold.

I must be dead, Chen Shi thought mournfully.

Footsteps came from the fog. Following the sound, he looked and saw another figure—a young woman, pale-faced, walking over in a daze.

Her neck was bloody, and as she walked, fresh blood welled out from a crack in her neck, staining her clothes red.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but Chen Shi heard nothing.

The woman lowered her head in dejection, yet her head fell right off, landing on the ground.

The woman squatted on the ground, searching blindly all around with both hands, utterly unable to find her head.

The helpless weeping of the woman drifted from the fog.

After a moment, she found her head, picked it up, placed it back on her neck, and silently came up behind Chen Shi, walking at a steady pace.

Another person walked out from the fog—a potbellied man who looked like someone of wealth and status, wearing gold and silver. He possessed a high-and-mighty, bossy aura, yet at present he appeared rather forlorn, having been stabbed in the body an unknown number of times with his wounds still leaking blood.

Especially his abdomen—his entire belly of greasy intestines had spilled out, dragging along the ground.

With strenuous effort, he supported his own intestines with both hands and caught up to Chen Shi.

Chen Shi walked forward in a daze, encountering more and more people in the dense fog. Each had their own method of death: some were missing arms and legs, some had a huge sunken hole in their heads, some had burst hearts and livers, and some were covered in oozing pus. Others had been blown apart until only half a body remained, while some had been burned to cinders...

Chen Shi, on the other hand, felt no fear. Having seen ghosts and spirits aplenty, he had long since ceased to be afraid.

I am definitely dead.

He felt somewhat downcast. I died of pain in bed, and Grandpa didn't notice, nor did Black Dog. When they discover I'm dead tomorrow, they'll probably be very sad.

He did not know what his expression looked like; if it was too ferocious, Grandpa would cry.

He did not want Grandpa to cry.

Ahead lay a long procession, stretching on without end. An untold number of people walked mechanically through the bleak fog, heading to who knows where.

Chen Shi led the strange people behind him forward, merging into this procession.

They continued onward, and even more people joined the main force.

Many more people appeared ahead of and behind Chen Shi. Those were two other columns of people, walking like walking corpses, equally endless.

Ahead, even more processions appeared, a vast and murky mass. The strange thing was that despite so many people, not a single sound was emitted.

Only within the fog did wretched wails ring out from time to time.

Suddenly, a giant claw reached out from the fog—bony and covered in scales, looking nothing like a human hand. It grabbed a person and retracted back into the fog, followed by the sound of chewing.

"Hee hee hee!"

Something laughed within the fog.

Terror rose in Chen Shi's heart, yet the people all around turned a blind eye to this, continuing their numb march forward.

At this moment, more claws reached out from the fog, snatched up people one by one, and pulled them back into the fog. From all directions came the sounds of chewing and giggling laughter.

It was as though they had walked into a grand feast hosted by a gluttonous beast within the fog, except that they themselves were the delicacies upon the feast, while those monsters hidden in the fog were connoisseurs tasting a rare treat!

Chen Shi did not dare to walk forward, yet his two legs seemed to disobey him, still marching mechanically onward.

All around him in the fog, the "connoisseurs" coming to taste the delicacies grew more and more numerous, the giggling laughter multiplied, and more claws stretched out, snatching up people who offered no resistance and pulling them back into the fog.

Chen Shi's scalp tingled. Seeing a bony, large hand grab toward him, he wanted to dodge, but his body still marched forward mechanically and couldn't dodge it at all!

Just as he was about to be seized by that large hand, the sound of drumbeats suddenly traveled over—sounding like a drum, yet also like a broken bronze gong. The sound was somewhat muffled and rustling, yet it startled that claw and made it shrink back.

"Chen Shi—"

A call came from behind him, lingering faintly alongside the drumbeats.

A faint scent of incense also drifted into Chen Shi's nose, likewise faint and elusive.

"Little Ten—"

This call he heard much more clearly; it was Grandpa's voice, and the sound of gongs and drums also grew distinct.

"Grandpa!" Tears streamed down his face.

Grandpa's voice came over: "Little Ten, follow the sound!"

Chen Shi tried his utmost, struggling to halt his footsteps. He turned around with great difficulty and followed the sound as it led him on. Every step was incomparably arduous, as if stepping on a mountain of blades, as if wading through a sea of fire, and a piercing, flesh-scraping agony surged from his legs.

He pressed forward with difficulty, listening to the voice, yet that sound was intermittent, only reaching his ears when accompanied by the drumbeats and the scent of incense. Should the scent of incense or the drumbeats break, he would lose his direction.

All around surged crowds of people, and only Chen Shi traveled against the current, battered and stumbling as he was knocked this way and that.

He walked for who knows how long, still failing to walk out of this gluttonous feast. Bony, grasping hands were everywhere, and he could be snatched away at any moment.

Just as he was about to reach his breaking point, the bleak fog suddenly parted. Within the mist, a behemoth snorted smoke and fire, its feet trampling the earth and shaking the ground as it rampaged all the way toward this side.

Once this behemoth walked close enough, Chen Shi saw that it was a black dog, shaped much like Black Dog, but countless times larger, resembling a small mountain.

"Black Dog, is that you?"

That black dog was like a demonic god from the underworld—ferocious and menacing, its eyes shooting fire that scorched the grasping bony hands one by one, and with a snap, its sharp teeth bit off a large hand. Then its nose twitched, it sniffed the scent of incense, its two burning pupils rolled, and its gaze fell upon Chen Shi.

"Huf! Huf!"

Black Dog, as large as a small mountain, wagged its tail excitedly, stirring up gusty winds. It prostrated itself, allowing Chen Shi to crawl onto its back, and then turned and bolted at a dead run.

"Dong! Dong!"

The sound of gongs and drums grew louder and louder, and Grandpa's calls grew clearer and clearer. Chen Shi lay prone on Black Dog's back, his hands gripping the black dog's fur for dear life, when suddenly he felt the space before his eyes grow brighter and brighter, dazzlingly bright.

He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the blinding light, and at that moment, a joyful voice arrived: "He's awake, Little Ten has finally woken up!"

Chen Shi opened his eyes and gradually grew accustomed to the light, looking around in a daze. He saw that he was in a somewhat dim, unfamiliar room. The air was suffused with a rich scent of incense, and the walls were blackened with soot.

An old woman with bound white hair sat in the corner, holding something that resembled a gong. With a gentle tap, it produced a sound similar to gongs and drums, along with a rustling noise.

On the ground there was also a very large brazier, in which paper talismans were burning, the flames rising fully a person's height.

Squatting behind the flames was a large black dog whose eyes were lit by the fire like glowing embers, and a snort from its nostrils expelled smoke and fire—it was none other than Black Dog.

Grandpa sat on the other side of the brazier, a ball of intermingling water and fire floating above his head.

What is this place? Chen Shi wondered inwardly.