Hou Niao drifted out and flew toward the complex of Yama halls.
Sister Wu had been right about one thing: finding his friends among billions of living souls was almost impossible. Moreover, though he had felt a strong urge to do so while outside, only after entering the Netherworld did he suddenly realize that disturbing the orderly rhythm of these souls' lives might not be a good thing.
How should he talk to them? About the outside world changing with each passing day? The rise and fall of their families? How their enemies were doing? What had become of their friends? And then leave them forever restless, fretting over gains and losses?
Feelings were always changing. Once you were there in person, things often felt different.
The living souls here all moved according to the Book of Life and Death. The throngs that seemed utterly disorganized to him actually followed rules in all their movements, guided unseen by the Book of Life and Death. As an outsider, he could not sense this.
...The Ten Yama Kings each had their own domain, but almost every Hall of Yama was magnificent beyond measure. Space was no constraint here, so the architectural splendor surpassed anything he had seen in his life; endless years and endless manpower had produced the Halls of Yama's vast, exquisite, ostentatious yet impractical architectural style.
He was not quite sure how a mortal-world cultivator visiting like him should deal with the Underworld Bailiffs, either. How did these officials of the underworld handle things, and what did they think of cultivators from the world of the living?
He would have to find all that out through personal contact.
Choosing the nearest, he approached a vast palace. Three large characters glittered gold on its plaque: Chujiang Hall.
This was the second