Vol. 16: A Journey Through the Nine Hells

Through the magical pool created by Saint Josh Joris, Xue Ming had no idea how long he had been falling.

It was a deep hole shaped like an intestine, with the pool forming a funnel-like shape as it descended. He seized Saint Josh's demonic form, gripping the large horn with one hand and holding the throat with the other. No matter how Saint Josh struggled, no matter how he attacked this strange spirit with his sharp elbows and shoulder thorns, the divine incarnation, tempered by countless trials, remained unmoved and showed no reaction whatsoever.

Xue Ming silently counted, and after approximately thirty-three seconds, he finally fell into a deep and vast alternate dimension—

--Compared to the geological environment of the material plane, Limbo is filled with severed limbs, but no fragments of flesh or blood. It is still a huge funnel-shaped valley extending downwards.

Xue Ming's spirit body caught up with Saint Josh, crashed into the low slope, and tumbled violently into the deep valley.

The man and the demon grappled relentlessly as they rolled around. Saint Josh's large horn on his forehead shattered into pieces, finally injuring his bones and soul. He tumbled between the low canyon slopes, constantly waving his claws and flapping his wings at the strange cat-shaped spirit, trying to escape the control of this divine incarnation.

"Who the hell are you?! The ghost of the gunsmith?! You son of a bitch!"

The environment of Limbo is quite unique. It's the closest place to the human world and a resting place for wandering spirits. Many spirits that reside here occasionally return to the material plane—if you consider it as the neural cortex of Mother Earth's brain. These fragments of spirits remaining in Limbo are the energy remnants of Mother Earth's brain cells before their bioelectrical activity completely disappeared. After a round of selection, they can continue to penetrate deeper into other neural centers and enter the Hell of Lust or the Hell of Devouring.

Jiang Xueming did not reply; he wanted to kill Saint Josh Joris here and extinguish all life in this demon.

This was his first time using the Fragrant Dream's spirit form in battle, and he was slow to adapt to the Steel Cat's illusory body.

In his mind, in this strange Spirit Realm where there was no distinction between up, down, left, or right, the concept of gravity seemed to have disappeared. Everything was falling downwards, and many new spirits were tumbling out of the deep hole below. Countless chaotic dust particles rolled in from the funnel's circular ramp. Upon closer inspection, the dust would gather and disperse, and within the clouds flashing with lightning, dozens or even hundreds of strange human faces would appear.

The rocky soil that formed the slope was filled with remains of flesh and blood, yet these materials were relatively fresh and intact. There were no microorganisms or bacteria, nor any Vita Imprint present. It seemed to be a phenomenon of the wandering spirit disintegrating, its consciousness dissipating, and then reuniting with Mother Earth.

The Land of the Dead in Niflheim may just be a mirror, reflecting one side of Mother Earth. And now, Limbo, which we arrive at through the Devil's Pool passage led by Saint Josh Joris, is yet another side of Mother Earth.

"You stupid idiot! You can't catch me! You actually dared to risk your soul being scattered to follow me to the Netherworld! Hahahaha!" Saint Josh's dorsal membrane completely transformed into a pair of thin dragon wings, stabilizing his body amidst the chaotic vortex of psionic energy. "Truly courting death... Holy crap!"

Before he could finish speaking, a torrent of turbulent currents erupted from the ethereal body of Fragrant Dream — Xue Ming had just adapted to the mobility of this external avatar. He was like a turbojet fighter jet at full power; freed from the constraints of a physical body, he could finally understand what it meant to move at supersonic speeds in an instant.

He felt like a cloud of dust, a raging gas composed of magnetic fields, a free spirit unbound by any matter.

This is too abstract to describe, and it's definitely not a hallucination the author experienced after taking Boletus edulis. A more apt metaphor is needed.

--There is a very famous NC-17 horror film in film history called <Evil Dead>.

In its opening sequence, the viewer's perspective follows a wisp of evil energy as it traverses mountains and roads, flying freely between heaven and earth. Without any material obstruction, the energy's changes in direction, acceleration, and sudden halts are all remarkably agile.

When Jiang Xueming moved in his Fragrant Dream spirit form, he was just as agile and swift. Compared to Saint Josh flapping his wings to maintain a low-altitude gliding posture, he was like a flying machine from two thousand years later encountering a wooden airplane from the World War I era. In just one glance, he once again caught up with the monster.

He stomped hard on Saint Josh's back, using the monster as a skateboard. First, he ripped off a wing, then grabbed the arm and bent it backward, until Saint Josh's shrill screams echoed through the sky. When the monster fell back to the border between Limbo and Slug City, it was a bloody mess, no longer recognizable as a demon.

Saint Josh never expected that a priest would come to Saladin to hunt him down to hell, and that he would even bring the gunsmith's spirit to his aid. According to the Inspiration theory of spiritualism, the soul of the dead should not have such powerful abilities—without the support of a physical body, any soul should be fragile, incomplete, and vulnerable!

"Is this guy a clone of the gunsmith? He's so far removed from the physical body, why is his psionic energy still so strong? This is terrible, terrible, terrible!"

Before Saint Josh could think any further, his head slammed hard against the Nine Hells Boundary Marker, and the two high-speed flying figures finally came to a stop.

As the smoke and dust dissipate, Fragrant Dream of steel and iron emerges from the rugged, rocky slopes and mountains.

On the stone tablet, Saint Josh was almost smashed into a pile of minced meat. His bones were shattered and his flesh was torn apart. Half of his head was missing, but he still retained his mind, his eyes filled with fear and hatred.

Beware of the prophet!

From the mouth of this devil spews forth the proverbs of the Blood Butterfly Bible.

He was going to summon the demon from the Nine Hells to help him vent his anger.

"This man is a sheep in sheep's clothing, but a savage wolf inside!"

"With this fruit, we can recognize the enemy! We can recognize the enemy!"

He fiercely tore open his eyelids and plucked out a scarlet ghost eye as the price for casting the spell. Just as he was about to throw the eye into the deeper Netherworld, the eyeball flew out no more than ten meters before Jiang Xueming, with lightning speed, grabbed it back into his hand.

"Wow!" Saint Josh gasped, completely bewildered by the unpredictable power and speed.

It's important to know that Jiang Xueming didn't intend to spare the devil's life. When the two crashed into the stone tablet at the Netherworld, Xue Ming finally saw the only signpost for this boundless otherworld. He didn't know Hebrew, so he was naturally more wary—he was afraid he wouldn't be able to return to the human world, so he didn't act rashly.

Saint Josh had just recited a long string of strange, incomprehensible words, which Xue Ming couldn't understand either. Only after seeing the action of removing his eyes did he guess it was a pre-casting animation, and thus he interrupted the summoning ritual.

But the offering has already been made, and the summoning ritual seems unstoppable.

Amidst Saint Josh's agonizing howls and heavy breathing, Xue Ming felt a scorching heat emanating from the iron arm holding the eyeball, a venomous intent that could almost pierce the spirit, forcing him to release his grip.

The eyeball fell into the rocky soil of Limbo Hell, and in an instant, it bloomed into an orange-yellow flower of flesh and blood.

Suddenly, a dozen or so hands burst open from the ground, resembling a lotus flower that lifted the eyeball and quickly transformed into a massive pedestal tens of meters high. Within seconds, the flower closed into a bud, and hundreds of arms swayed and swung with the howling winds of Lingbo Hell, eventually merging completely into a perfectly round, flawless egg.

Jiang Xueming remained silent, seemingly on high alert, ready to see the true form of this devil.

In the Royal Court of the Dead Puppet Agency, he had fought against the Peacock King, one of the Demon God Pillars, and had some understanding of the strength of these mythical creatures. At this moment, he was very curious about the true strength of the big boss who had come to protect Saint Josh, this little devil.

"Hahahaha!" Saint Josh, still glued to the boundary marker, roared with ecstatic joy, "You're doomed! You're finished! The gatekeepers of the Nine Hells are here!"

"--The Greedy Wolf, Berisara"

"--Lion of Ambition, Leoborg."

" --Wilconan the Leopard of Laziness!"

"Whoever you are! Whether you're the gunsmith's spirit or a vengeful ghost! Die! Die! May you never be reincarnated! May your soul be scattered and your spirit vanish!"

Saint Josh Joris felt as if he had returned to his master's side. The three names he spoke of were the three-headed monsters that Dante encountered during his journey through Hell in the Divine Comedy, and who were also the gatekeepers of the Nine Hells.

Jiang Xueming looked closely and saw three strange, pinkish-white creatures emerging from the giant chicken egg. Suddenly, he felt relieved—for no other reason than that these familiar lion, leopard, and wolf beasts, with their muscular features and size, were very similar to the apostle units created by the Flash Butterfly.

The three apostles came to Saint Josh's side, first expressing their condolences to their little brother. Their faceless heads then pressed against Saint Josh's body, taking a deep breath of the little devil's scent through their dark cavity, as if tasting the fear in Saint Josh's heart.

When the three elder brothers turned around and faced Fragrant Dream again, the beasts guarding the gate froze in unison. Although they couldn't speak, there was an inexplicable awkwardness in the air.

This awkward feeling mainly stemmed from the mother wolf Berisara —it seemed this wasn't her first encounter with the nameless individual.

It couldn't speak, but it turned its head again and let out a deafening roar at Saint Josh through its round mouth cavity, as if to say...

"--What exactly did you do? Did you invite this King of Hell here?"

The lion and leopard, both over six meters long, were already poised to attack. Just as the wolfhound turned to meet them, a sharp, piercing sonic boom erupted from ahead!

The strange steel kitten punched and kicked the apostle beasts so hard they were crawling all over the ground.

Jiang Xueming caught the lion's tail and tied it into a tight knot around the leopard's neck. The small body contained incredible power. According to the limit of the spirit's load, Fragrant Dream could easily lift the car with her bare hands. Now that she was free from the constraints of the physical body and did not have to worry about the Vita Imprint and spiritual pressure, dealing with these apostle units was simply cutting melons and vegetables.

Saint Josh has entered Sage Mode--

At first, he was just extremely surprised and panicked, but later he couldn't understand it at all. His mentality was out of control. He finally managed to tear his demonic body off the boundary marker and landed on the stone slope road of Limbo. He got up in a mess and felt a gust of wind in his head. He instinctively lowered his body and the flesh of his two older brothers were intertwined, like a bloody mosaic. Under the play of the golden cat-shaped spirit, it turned into a whirlwind top, pulling the two tails to make a spinning motion, and finally smashed hard back onto the boundary marker.

"I have to find a way to escape! No! This won't do! If this continues, I'll be the one whose soul is scattered!"

Saint Josh finally came to the realization that the individuals hunting him were probably not normal Homo sapiens at all. No matter how powerful the psionicists were, or how skilled the righteous were in exorcism, once they left their physical bodies and came to Limbo, they could never achieve such a terrifying feat as tearing apart an apostle with their bare hands.

He's the gunsmith! He is the gunsmith himself!

The nameless man beside Ming De once killed the Flash Butterfly in the material plane. Without relying on the enhancement of psionic catalysts, he could kill all kinds of evil demons with firearms alone.

In ancient times, the gunsmith would have been enshrined in a shrine, regarded by ordinary people as a guardian deity and martial god protecting their homes and children. To put it more simply, if Jiang Xueming had died of old age, based on the good deeds he had performed in his lifetime, he would at least have been enshrined in the Thirty-Six Thunder God Temples and be a righteous god of the collective karma of 400 million beings in the underworld. He could have easily pounced on the shrine of the Gun God Ancestor and frantically stolen incense ash. For the mythical units in Limbo Hell, the gunsmith at this moment was simply someone they could not confront head-on.

"You still dare to harm people?!" Jiang Xueming shouted sternly, busy dealing with the wolfhound apostles, while telling Saint Josh to stop and not run away.

The roar caused blood to spill from Saint Josh's mouth and nose, and his already limited brain matter continued to splatter out. The vitality of this demonic body was extremely tenacious; it had opened several holes in his brain during the chase, and it was a miracle that he was still alive.

He sighed and lost his balance, stumbling and sliding down the slope towards the Ninth Prison. He no longer cared about the safety of his three older brothers and wanted to seek refuge deeper into the Nine Hells.

Gazing at the boundary marker of Limbo, the cunning little devil hatched a plan and began to have other ideas.

As he fled, he looked up—

--The road to the Demon Pool was unobstructed, but his wings had been broken by the gunsmith, his arms were crippled, and his spine was still making strange cracking noises. Without the nourishment of the Demon Pool and the irrigation of human blood, he would certainly not be able to turn over and return to the human world.

But there is more than one path to the human world. In these Nine Hells, besides calling for his elder brother to save him, Saint Josh also has other ways to save himself. If his elder brother can't protect him, he has to find a way to hide in the material plane, preferably in a mortal body.

Thinking this, Saint Josh gritted his teeth and rammed his head into the rocks, breaking off the remaining large horn. He then began to chant incantations and make hand gestures, using his demonic knowledge to seek a way out.

The goat's horns seemed to lose gravity, drifting through this strange Spirit Realm where there was no distinction between up, down, left, or right. Carrying the demon's pus and blood, it transformed into a "fishing line," aiming to return to the material plane to find a suitable medium—once a fish took the bait, this fishing line could carry Saint Josh back to the human world.

Saladin Town, on the Moon River Lake.

A malevolent aura swept across the lake, hurtling towards the holiday cottages of the hunting party. It came from the demonic sorcery of Saint Josh Joris.

Fourteen young people gathered in a lakeside cabin to perform a psychic ritual during the ambiguous winter hunting ban.

They were all children of hunters from the Silver Helm Hunter's Guild, and several young men had followed in their parents' footsteps, joining the advance team to carry out reconnaissance missions.

This whole mess is related to Oscar VIP's psionic catalyst.

There was a psychic shop in Saladin's hometown, Oscar would often go there to buy psychic tools for emergencies.

Remember the male sorcerer's severed arm that Black Cat Girl and Jiang Xueming used? Holding this arm allows the living to see spirits, and even without any Inspiration or psychic abilities, it can pull the living into the world of the dead. Jiang Xueming used this arm, through Black Cat Girl's mediumship, to complete the ritual of astral projection.

The sorcerer's right arm fell into the hands of the chief hunter of the Silver Helm Hunter's Guild. The hunter's eldest Ek, Ike Maddens, along with his fiancée and a group of drinking buddies, came to the scenic Moon River Lake in the dead of winter and retrieved the right arm.

"Shall we play a game?"

Ek called everyone to gather around the table and pulled out this gleaming golden medium.

Unlike his withered left arm, the wizard had a golden glove crafted for his right arm before his death. Legend has it that this is the Alchemist's Hand, possessing the superpowers of the Philosopher's Stone, capable of Midas Touch and curing diseases.

Its glamorous appearance immediately attracted a group of young people.

Ek explained--

"--Just hold it, and you can see ghosts, whether you have Inspiration insight or not. Want to give it a try?"

The hunting ban season was incredibly boring for Saladin's young men; without hunting, life consisted only of television and online games.

The children raised in these Red Stone People families yearn for adventure, especially those who haven't awakened their psychic powers; they crave psychic abilities even more.

"No, please." As Maddens' fiancée, Sophia was somewhat frightened when she saw the medium's prop and tried to dissuade him, saying, "Ek, there was just a murder in town, the victim's ghost hasn't gone far yet, it's best not to do this."

"Hey! What's there to be afraid of!" Ek Maddens said recklessly, "What if we could bring the victim's soul back? Maybe it could even help solve the case! Don't you all agree?"

Everyone was eager to try, and before they even started the psychic session, they had already opened the champagne. Under the influence of alcohol, a muscular and strong young man immediately sat down in front of Ek —his name was Peter Lockon, Ek's good brother. The two grew up together in Mimir Hot Spring Market and came to Saladin's hunting party with their parents to make a living.

Peter: "Come on! I'll go first! What do you mean?"

"Hold this hand," Ek whispered.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, and the room became quiet, as if the golden arm truly possessed some kind of Magic Power.

Thick knuckles and golden arms clasped tightly, and Peter's eyes began to glaze over, just like Miss Black Cat's pupils dilated.

Ek: "Speak Hebrew, repeat after me."

Peter: "Hmm."

Ek chanted in complex syllables. "Come before me, come before me, reveal your true form. Reveal your true form."

Everyone held their breath. Outside the wooden house, a cold wind rose on the lake, creating ripples. The lights inside the house also dimmed for some unknown reason.

"Reveal your true form," Peter repeated.

Not finished reading--

--The door to the wooden cabin was suddenly smashed open with tremendous force!

The commotion startled everyone. Friends who were taking photos with their phones quickly moved aside, screaming in fright.

"Ek! What are you doing!"

The person who arrived was Liliya Maddens, Ek Maddens' mother.

Seeing Liliya's mother arrive, Ek felt a little guilty and glared at his fiancée, clearly indicating that she had called his mother.

The unexpected visit of the parents greatly disappointed the dozen or so young people present, but what they didn't expect was...

Liliya Maddens said to her son, "You stole a medium from your old man? You're doing psychic rituals? Why didn't you call me?!"

The cheerful mother pushed Peter aside, sat down in front of her son, carrying with her a probe for detecting spirits and a psychic board, and then tightly grasped the golden arm.

"Let me go first! Let me go first!"