Zoey

Once they crossed the river, they had officially entered the domain of the Netherworld.

The dead of the Netherworld were not merely part of the backdrop. They still warmly welcomed Bai Wei and Faen, their faces filled with sincere smiles.

"Forget those unpleasant things!"

"Death is rebirth!"

They shouted these words loudly.

"Is this some special ritual?" Bai Wei asked the two Soul Guides beside him.

"Yes and no." The Soul Guide shook his head and explained with a smile, "Welcoming newcomers is not some ritual written into the rules. It is simply something we sincerely wish to do. We are a true family."

"Family..." Upon hearing that word, Faen thought of his granddaughter again, and his gaze dimmed once more. "Ai Na... How is she doing now?"

"She will be alright, Faen." The Soul Guide said to Faen, "If you truly cannot stop worrying, you can go out and take a look."

Upon hearing that, Faen's dim pupils immediately brightened again. He asked tremblingly, "I-I can still see Ai Na?"

"Normally, no." The Soul Guide said, "There is a boundary between the living and the dead. Unless you become a Soul Guide like us, there is no way to leave this place. And becoming a Soul Guide requires hundreds of years of training. By then, your granddaughter will certainly be gone as well."

Faen asked anxiously, "Then why did you say..."

"The Blossom Spirit Festival." The Soul Guide said with a smile, "You are very lucky. The Blossom Spirit Festival is almost here."

"The Blossom Spirit Festival?"

"Yes, it is the grandest festival in the Netherworld." The Soul Guide said, "Those fortunate enough may receive the Lord's favor, and the Lord will grant your wish. When that time comes, you can use that wish to see your granddaughter."

Faen opened his mouth and asked urgently, "Then what exactly do I need to do?"

"You do not need to do anything." The Soul Guide shook his head. "Just wait and keep hope in your heart."

Faen wanted to continue asking, but by then, the Soul Guide had already brought them before a simple thatched cottage.

"Alright, this is where you will be staying." The Soul Guide asked with a smile, "What do you think? Are you satisfied?"

Bai Wei raised his head, looked at the cottage before him, and asked, "Will we live here forever from now on?"

"Ah, of course not." The Soul Guide shook his head. "We do not have that many rules. You can live wherever you want. In fact, most people in the Netherworld do not live in houses."

"Then where do they live?"

"Anywhere." The Soul Guide pointed at the flowers before them. "You can live directly inside the Blooming Spirit Flowers."

"Sleep among the flowers?"

"Yes, many people do exactly that." The Soul Guide said, "We are dead. We do not get sick, and the Netherworld has no harsh weather. Living among flowers is no different from living in a house. It only depends on whether you can accept it mentally. The longer someone has been dead, the more carefree they become. Those who have only recently died mostly retain their habits from life and cannot adapt so easily, so the houses here are mostly prepared for newcomers like you."

"I see." Bai Wei asked again, "Then what do we need to do every day?"

"Whatever you want."

"Hm?"

"Whatever you want." The Soul Guide repeated himself, then said with a smile, "Come on, we are already dead. Do we still need to work?"

"But aren't you working?"

"This is not work. It is a hobby." The Soul Guide waved his hand. "I simply wanted to become a Soul Guide, so I became one. If you do not want to do anything, then do nothing. Do not forget, we are dead. The dead do not need to work like the living. The only thing the dead need to do here is enjoy life. That is all."

"Just enjoying life is enough?" Bai Wei said with a smile. "That sounds a little unreal."

"For people who have just died like you, this kind of life really takes time to get used to." The Soul Guide patted Bai Wei on the shoulder. "But you will soon understand that this is our life. We suffered enough while alive. We no longer need to keep suffering. Let me give you some advice."

"Go ahead."

"Go around and take a look." The Soul Guide said, "Compared to words, your eyes will let you understand this world more directly, will they not?"

"That is true." Bai Wei nodded slightly. "Thank you for the advice. I will take a look around."

"Actually, I do not need to specifically advise you. Most people's first reaction upon arriving here is to look around and feel this land beneath their feet." The Soul Guide said with a smile, "Go boldly. Just as I said before, there are no taboos in this world for you or me. You can stop whenever you wish, and you can enter any house you see. The owner will not stop you. They will warmly entertain you instead. If you get tired, simply pick a couple of Blooming Spirit Flowers and eat them."

"Do the dead still need to eat?"

"Of course. Souls still get hungry." The Soul Guide shrugged. "But even if you do not eat, you will not die. You will only feel weak. Some people enjoy that feeling, so they go a thousand years without eating. The choice is yours. Oh, right. There is also a special kind of dead person you should watch out for."

"Special dead?"

"Yes." The Soul Guide nodded slightly. "You must know that not every dead person can keep their soul whole. Those with incomplete souls cannot live normally even after death. Their spirit bodies take on a very strange state, like flames that could go out at any moment."

"There are people like that?" Bai Wei asked with feigned surprise. "Then how do such people behave?"

"That depends on the extent of the damage to their souls." The Soul Guide said, "Most dead like that cannot think clearly or communicate effectively. They are more easily bound by obsessions from their past lives, displaying an almost pathological fixation on certain things. You will understand when you see them."

"I understand." Bai Wei nodded, then asked his final question. "What kind of dead person would have an incomplete soul?"

"Those swept into incomprehensible wars, those affected by unimaginable forces." The Soul Guide answered, "So most such people died a thousand years ago, at the hands of someone named Visas."

After answering that question, the Soul Guide left.

Bai Wei looked at Faen beside him. "How about it? Want to take a walk together?"

"Sorry, Mr. Bai Wei." Just as Bai Wei expected, Faen shook his head. "I truly am not in the mood."

"Still thinking about your granddaughter?"

"Yes." Faen said softly, "Her parents are already gone. I am her only family. I truly do not know how she will go on living. Ah... She has never been apart from me for so long. Never."

Faen kept rambling, clearly still needing time before he could let go of everything as the two Soul Guides had described.

Bai Wei had no intention of advising him. He merely nodded, said, "Take care," and left. After all, he did not have the time to leisurely spend hundreds or thousands of years here. He had only one thing to do: find the Lord of the Netherworld and retrieve his heart. The Lord of the Netherworld was certainly somewhere within this land.

But what Bai Wei found rather curious was that the Lord of the Netherworld would surely have anticipated that he would come looking for him. What preparations would he make?

The other churches had already descended into chaos because of Bai Wei's return, and those deities had begun resorting to any means necessary to oppose him.

Only the Netherworld still looked peaceful and undisturbed. It even continued accepting the dead into the Netherworld as normal, as though it did not care about Bai Wei at all.

Why was that?

Was it because the Lord of the Netherworld had truly become indifferent to life and death, or because he had the confidence to deal with Bai Wei?

Bai Wei could not be sure. In the past, he probably would have played it safe, hidden himself, and waited quietly for the Lord of the Netherworld to reveal a weakness.

But now... he only needed to find the Lord of the Netherworld.

So how should he find him?

Bai Wei pondered for a moment.

Hm, he would find someone to guide him.

His knowledge of this place was not as extensive as his knowledge of the others, so there were not many people he could seek out. He was not even sure whether those people could help him find the Lord of the Netherworld.

But there was still one person he wanted to see.

After making several twists and turns, Bai Wei arrived beneath a massive tree.

The plants of the Netherworld were naturally not real. They had been shaped by the power of the Lord of the Netherworld, so in theory, the plants here could take any form.

As long as the residents of the Netherworld wished to see them that way, there was no problem.

The towering tree before Bai Wei was none other than the one from Peach Blossom Paradise.

The tree in Peach Blossom Paradise had already withered, but this one was still lush with branches and leaves, casting broad shadows over the ground.

Beneath those shadows stood a small girl, her head raised as she stared at the ancient tree before her.

Her body beneath the shade flickered between light and darkness, like a flame that could go out at any moment.

Bai Wei walked behind her and lowered his voice. "Hello."

The little girl's body flickered, but she did not respond.

Yet Bai Wei knew she was not ignoring him on purpose. She simply could not respond, because she was one of the people the Soul Guide had mentioned earlier, someone with an incomplete soul. Even in the land of the dead, she remained incomplete.

Bai Wei knew her name—Zoey.

In the rather sparse Netherworld storyline, she was perhaps the NPC who had left the deepest impression on every player.

The reason was that she was the game's designated victim.

It had been mentioned earlier that those with incomplete souls were bound by obsession, causing them to react only to specific things.

And the thing that could make Zoey react was... Visas.

Yes, in the main game of "Blasphemy," she was the only person players could encounter who had a direct connection to Visas. She could also be called the only confirmed follower of Visas in the game.

But players learned this not because the game showed Zoey's story with Visas from a thousand years ago. In her current state, Zoey could not tell players any stories either. Under normal circumstances, no matter how players spoke to Zoey, she would not react at all.

Unless the player possessed Visas' Corpse Pieces.

Zoey reacted only to Visas' Corpse Pieces. As long as players held Visas' Corpse Pieces, they could have extremely simple exchanges with Zoey, but those exchanges still revealed no information, making her seem like a useless Easter egg. Until one day, a player suddenly thought to say to Zoey, "I am Visas. I am about to revive. V me 50 for the final help."

After hearing those words, Zoey finally stopped remaining silent and gave the player a Soul Shard.

In the game, Soul Shards were the currency of the Netherworld and could be used to purchase special Netherworld items.

But as their name implied, Soul Shards were items formed by consuming souls. For dead souls that were whole, lost fragments could be restored, but incomplete souls like Zoey's could not.

This meant that whenever Zoey gave a player a Soul Shard, she grew weaker. Yet if the player kept demanding them, Zoey would keep giving them until her soul was completely extinguished.

Thus, draining Zoey of every last piece of her soul became the first thing many players did after entering the Netherworld map. Even Bai Wei had been no exception, because Soul Shards were truly difficult to obtain in the game.

Of course, after being inhuman for so long, one would occasionally feel guilty and wonder whether there was a way to save this pitiful little girl.

But unfortunately, no matter how the players tried, she was like Hachiko waiting for her dead master to return in "Hachiko: A Dog's Story," ultimately unable to find salvation.

And that became a regret for many players.

But now, Bai Wei finally had a chance to make up for that regret with his own hands.

He placed his hand on Zoey's shoulder.

"You do not need to wait anymore." He said with a smile, "I am back."

Bai Wei watched as life gradually returned to Zoey's hollow eyes. A vague, sealed memory surged into his mind, leaving him somewhat dazed as well.

"Ah, yes, it is you." Bai Wei seemed to remember something, then smiled and repeated, "I am back."

He remembered who Zoey was, and Zoey recognized him as well.

But that was all. Zoey did not say anything more, nor did she do anything one should do upon reuniting after a thousand years. She merely looked quietly at Bai Wei, just as she had quietly looked at the tree above her for the past thousand years.

"Is this all there is?" Bai Wei felt somewhat regretful, but he still shook his head and said, "Fine. Take me to the Lord of the Netherworld, Zoey."

Zoey nodded.