Underworld

After this battle, Chen Shi was exhausted and drowsy. He dozed off in the cart, and when he woke up, the wooden cart had already arrived at Huangpo Village.

Grandpa was busy boiling medicine. By late at night, the medicine was finally ready.

Chen Shi drank a basin of the medicine and then soaked in the medicinal tub, gradually falling asleep.

Fortunately, the night passed peacefully, and his old illness did not relapse.

"Could my illness be cured?"

Chen Shi woke up in the morning feeling very happy. He even felt that the breakfast Grandpa made wasn't so unpalatable anymore.

Moreover, Grandpa had kept his promise and indeed brought him delicious food from the county town this time: candied hawthorns, ciba, stinky tofu, and sugar figurines, which made him grin from ear to ear.

"Grandpa's medicine is effective, and my daily cultivation of Three Lights Righteous Qi is also useful. Perhaps I can cure my illness!"

Chen Shi looked forward to his future life and thus worked even harder. After paying respects to his Godmother, he cultivated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art, borrowing the power of the Big Dipper to temper his body.

The day passed very fulfilling. In the evening, Chen Shi drank his medicine, took a medicinal bath, and cultivated the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art for a while longer before lying down to sleep.

He slept for an unknown amount of time. Just as he was in a deep sleep, a sharp, intense pain suddenly shot through his chest, and his heart convulsed violently!

Chen Shi woke up, knowing his old heart condition had flared up again. He struggled on the bed, trying to get up and activate the Three Lights Righteous Qi Art to resist.

However, the pain was too severe. It drained all his strength, as if his heart had been squeezed flat, forming a lump that stopped blood circulation!

He tried to gasp for air, but he couldn't.

It felt as if the air in his lungs had been expelled by a green ghostly hand!

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

Chen Shi was engulfed by immense terror. He opened his mouth to call for Grandpa, but no sound came out of his throat.

It was still nighttime, and Grandpa was likely not home, so he wouldn't be able to sense his danger.

"Black Pot! Black Pot!"

Chen Shi wanted to call out to Black Pot, but he couldn't make a sound. The large black dog in the yard seemed to hear something, lifted its head, listened intently, then shook its head and went back to sleep.

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

His eyelids grew heavier, his mind became more sluggish, and his body began to twitch uncontrollably, like a dying fish pulled ashore.

His body thrashed violently on the bed twice before finally calming down. His limbs twitched occasionally, but the frequency and amplitude of the twitches slowed down.

Finally, Chen Shi lay still.

In the darkness, a faint light appeared, illuminating the darkness before Chen Shi's eyes.

He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by thick, white mist. Distant, mournful howls occasionally echoed, sounding like humans, yet also like wounded beasts.

Chen Shi's eyes widened as he tried to look around, but he could see nothing.

"Grandpa!" he shouted loudly.

"Grandpa!" "Grandpa!"

Numerous voices echoed from within the mist, from all directions and corners. Everywhere, there were voices calling for Grandpa, but he couldn't tell if they were echoes or something else strange.

Chen Shi was enveloped by fear. He knew he should stay put and wait for Grandpa to find him, but his feet began to move involuntarily.

He felt his body become incredibly light, so light it was as if it didn't exist. The mist felt like countless grains of snow-white, fine, weightless sand passing through his body, chilling him to the bone.

"I'm probably dead," Chen Shi thought sadly.

Footsteps sounded in the mist. He followed the sound and saw another figure, a young woman with a pale face, walking in a daze.

Her neck was bloody, and as she walked, blood poured from a gash on her neck, staining her clothes.

She opened her mouth as if to speak, but Chen Shi couldn't hear anything.

The woman lowered her head sadly, and then her head fell off, landing on the ground.

The woman squatted on the ground, fumbling around with her hands, unable to find her head.

The woman's helpless sobs echoed through the mist.

After a moment, she found her head, picked it up, and placed it on her neck. She then silently walked behind Chen Shi, keeping pace with him.

Another person walked out of the mist, a portly man. He looked like someone of power and influence, adorned with gold and silver, exuding an air of arrogance and command. However, he now appeared quite disheveled, stabbed countless times, with wounds still bleeding profusely.

Especially his abdomen, his intestines had spilled out, dragging on the ground.

He struggled to hold up his intestines with his hands and kept up with Chen Shi.

Chen Shi walked forward in a daze, encountering more people in the mist. Each had died in their own way: some were missing limbs, some had large holes in their heads, some had their hearts and livers burst, some were covered in pus, some were blown into halves, and some were burned to charcoal...

Chen Shi, however, was no longer afraid. Having seen many ghosts and spirits, he was no longer intimidated.

"I must be dead."

He felt a pang of sadness. "I died in pain on my bed. Grandpa didn't notice, and Black Pot didn't notice either. They will probably be very sad when they find out I'm dead the next day."

He wondered what his face would look like. If it was too gruesome, Grandpa would cry.

He didn't want Grandpa to cry.

Ahead, there was a long line stretching as far as the eye could see. Countless people walked mechanically through the white mist, heading towards an unknown destination.

Chen Shi walked forward with the strange people behind him, merging into the group.

They continued to advance, and more people joined the large contingent.

Many people appeared in front of and behind Chen Shi; these were two other teams. The people walked like zombies, their numbers stretching as far as the eye could see.

Ahead, more teams emerged, a vast expanse of them. Strangely, despite so many people, not a sound was made.

Only the occasional mournful howl could be heard from within the mist.

Suddenly, a giant claw emerged from the mist. It was bony and covered in scales, unlike a human hand. It grabbed one person and retracted into the mist, followed by chewing sounds.

"Hee hee hee!"

Something laughed in the mist.

Chen Shi felt a surge of fear, yet the people around him acted as if they saw nothing, continuing to walk forward numbly.

At this moment, more claws emerged from the mist, grabbing individuals and pulling them back in. Chewing sounds and giggling laughter came from all directions.

It was as if they had walked into a feast hosted by a Taotie in the mist, except they were the delicacies, and the monsters hidden within the mist were gourmands, savoring a rare treat!

Chen Shi dared not move forward, but his legs seemed to have a mind of their own, mechanically continuing to advance.

In the surrounding mist, more and more "gourmands" came to taste the delicacies. The giggling laughter grew louder, and more claws reached out, grabbing unsuspecting people who didn't resist and pulling them back into the mist.

Chen Shi's scalp tingled. Seeing a bony hand reaching for him, he wanted to dodge, but his body still moved forward mechanically, unable to escape.

Just as he was about to be grabbed by the large hand, a sudden dong dong drum sound echoed. It sounded like a drum, yet also like a broken gong, muffled and rustling, but it startled the claw, causing it to retract.

"Chen Shi—"

A call came from behind him, accompanied by the faint sound of the drums.

A faint scent of incense also drifted into Chen Shi's nostrils, barely perceptible.

"Little Ten—"

This call was clearer, it was Grandpa's voice, and the gong and drum sounds also became distinct.

"Grandpa!" Tears streamed down his face.

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

Chen Shi did his best, trying hard to stop his steps, turning around with great difficulty, and walking towards the sound. Every step was incredibly arduous, as if treading on a mountain of knives or wading through a sea of fire. His legs felt a searing, flesh-scraping pain.

He listened to the sound and struggled forward, but the voice was intermittent. Only when accompanied by the drum sound and the scent of incense could he hear it. If the incense or drum sound ceased, he would lose his direction.

People surged around him, but Chen Shi was the only one walking against the current, bumping into others and stumbling.

He walked for an unknown amount of time, yet he hadn't escaped this Taotie feast. Bony hands were everywhere, and he could be grabbed at any moment.

Just as he felt he could no longer endure, the white mist suddenly parted. Within the mist, a colossal creature snorted smoke and fire, its feet stomping the ground, shaking it. It charged forward, plowing through everything in its path.

When the colossal creature reached him, Chen Shi realized it was a black dog, shaped like a Black Pot but countless times larger, like a small mountain.

"Black Pot, is that you?"

The black dog, like a demon god from the underworld, was ferocious and menacing, its eyes blazing with fire, burning away the bony hands that reached out. With a crunch, its sharp teeth bit off a large hand. Then, its nose twitched, sniffing the scent of incense. Its two burning eyes rolled, and its gaze fell upon Chen Shi.

"Woof woof!"

The mountain-sized Black Pot wagged its tail excitedly, stirring up gusts of wind. It lowered itself, allowing Chen Shi to climb onto its back, then turned and bolted.

"Dong dong!"

The gong and drum sounds grew louder, and Grandpa's calls became clearer. Chen Shi, lying on Black Pot's back and gripping its fur tightly, suddenly felt the light before him growing brighter and brighter, blindingly so.

He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the dazzling light, and then a joyous voice rang out, "He's awake! Little Ten is finally awake!"

Chen Shi opened his eyes, gradually adjusting to the light. He looked around in a daze, finding himself in a dim, unfamiliar room. The air was thick with the scent of incense, and the walls were blackened from smoke.

An old woman with white hair wrapped in a turban sat in a corner, holding something like a gong. A gentle tap produced a sound similar to drums and gongs, along with a rustling noise.

On the floor was a large brazier, with paper talismans burning inside, the flames reaching as high as a person.

Behind the flames squatted a large black dog, its eyes reflecting the firelight. Smoke and fire puffed from its nostrils – it was Black Pot.

Grandpa sat on the other side of the brazier, with a swirling mass of water and fire floating above his head.

Where is this place? Chen Shi wondered.