"Sizzle, sizzle..."
The nine-heavens mystic fire spewed out again, scorching Zhao Xiangdu.
"Ah..."
"Stop, stop, stop..."
"It hurts..."
Zhao Xiangdu howled as the flames burned him.
He Pingsheng stopped the flames and said, "Who knows whether you're telling the truth? I'll give you a taste of pain first so you remember your lesson. Otherwise, you'll try to fool me again!"
"I didn't!" Zhao Xiangdu looked utterly wronged.
He Pingsheng said, "Tell me... how does the Underworld operate?"
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you could fight a hundred battles without defeat.
He had to get at least a rough understanding of the Underworld, didn't he?
"Yes, yes, yes!" Zhao Xiangdu trembled as he said, "I'm just a lowly ghost constable. I don't know much. I can only tell you what I know!"
"First, after a living being dies, its soul follows the Yellow Springs, drawn into the Underworld by the Six Paths!"
"Once it reaches the Underworld, the first step is for ghost constables like us to lead it to a place called the [Netherworld Bureau]!"
"The soul is confined in the [Netherworld Bureau] first. How long it stays varies. Some stay a long time-hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of years!"
"Others stay only a short time and can leave in a day or two!"
"After leaving the Netherworld Bureau, they're taken to the lord judge's hall. The judge goes through them one by one, deciding whether they need to enter Hell based on the gravity of their sins. If they do, he decides which hell they go to, how many years they stay there, and so on!"
"Once they reach the [Hell Bureau], they begin undergoing all the tortures of Hell!"
"When their sentences are complete, they leave the Hell Bureau. Afterward, they're sent to the [Reincarnation