"Since you two fear going to the Underworld Office after death and suffering its boiling oil and mountains of blades, you could... come to my temple on the night of the fourteenth of every month from now on. Then I will use my divine abilities to send you into this Hell Refining Ghosts Picture for a visit, letting you undergo its mountains of blades, seas of fire, and boiling-oil purgatory in advance, regularly atoning for your sins and reducing your punishment in the Underworld Office."
These words left the elderly couple choking as though a basin of icy water had been thrown over them. The hope that had just kindled on their faces instantly went out.
Well, then. They would not have to go to hell after dying, but while they were alive, they would have to experience the Hell Refining Ghosts Picture every month?
How... how was that any different from going straight to hell? It merely replaced a death sentence with living torment-and long-term torment at that!
They hurriedly kowtowed again, their foreheads striking the floor even more loudly. "Immortal lady! Immortal lady! How... how could we possibly do that? Please have mercy and think of another way! Is there any way to atone for our sins and accumulate merit without suffering like that?"
He Xiangu seemed to have grown somewhat impatient with their pestering, and her tone turned stern. "What other way could there be? Your sins run deep. You already belong on Yellow Springs Road! If not for the little affinity you still have with the incense offerings here, why would I waste so many words on you?"
Inside the shrine hall, despair filled the elderly couple's pleas. "Immortal lady! Please, you must find some way to save us! How could our old bodies withstand the