Chapter 7 of 100

Chapter 7

18 min read4,399 words

"Really, you don't know?" Song Jing and Luo Sen looked at Su Xing with doubt, their faces a mix of surprise and bewilderment, making it hard to tell that one was a fourth-rank literary official known for his widespread influence, and the other a mighty and imposing third-rank ghost general.

"I have no reason to lie. Is a yellow soul really that terrifying?" Su Xing looked at Song Jing, then at Luo Sen, feeling utterly confused.

A yellow soul is a merit soul, even more powerful than a golden soul of virtue!?

"Anything related to merit is not simple. The treasures of merit, the golden body of merit, including your merit soul. These are only possible for those who have made great contributions to heaven and earth, transcending the realm of ordinary good people who spread virtue. They are sages!" Song Jing's expression turned serious, and Luo Sen nodded in agreement.

Sages?! Su Xing, who was already confused, was now thoroughly shocked. He could never be a sage; the title was too grand for him to bear.

In Su Xing's memory, Confucius, revered as a model for all generations, was a sage, and Mencius only reached the level of a secondary sage.

"I can't bear the title of sage." Su Xing shook his head quickly, guessing, "Maybe it's from my past life?"

"It's not!" Luo Sen directly rejected, "The Book of Life and Death records that your three lives and three deaths have no connection to sages."

"This is strange. Are you sure it's a merit soul?" Song Jing frowned, even with his vast knowledge and numerous students, he found this truly incomprehensible.

"Song Jing, you don't believe me!" Luo Sen punched Song Jing angrily.

"I'm just guessing. It's really too unbelievable. Otherwise, how could he be a merit soul?" Song Jing coughed twice and continued, "To have merit, one must have made a great contribution to heaven and earth. Otherwise, even with great abilities, it's hard to achieve."

"That's true." Luo Sen's thick brows furrowed, "What's strange is that when I asked Lord Cui, he refused to speak."

Song Jing raised an eyebrow and said, "It's not that Lord Cui refused to speak. It might be that the Book of Life and Death doesn't record it!"

Song Jing's words were always shocking. The Book of Life and Death records the life and death of all beings in heaven and earth, except for those who have transcended the cycle of rebirth and no longer exist in the realm of life and death.

"You're full of mysteries." Luo Sen stretched out his large hand and lifted Su Xing like a chick, his tiger-like eyes revealing the ghostly eyes of the underworld, thoroughly examining the ghost.

The action was too sudden, and by the time Song Jing noticed, it was too late to stop Luo Sen from grabbing Su Xing with his thick arm.

"Luo Sen!" Song Jing shouted angrily.

"Song Jing, aren't you curious about him?" Luo Sen said, still holding Su Xing, "After so many years of friendship, I'm just warning you, it's best not to get involved with him."

"Luo Sen! Put him down first!" Song Jing said anxiously.

Su Xing, searched by the ghostly eyes, turned pale, his solid ghostly body becoming transparent, barely able to withstand Luo Sen's ghostly energy.

Am I going to die? Truly die?

Images flashed through Su Xing's mind like a slideshow, reliving his entire life from birth to his mysterious death. He had few friends and no lover, a life almost entirely solitary.

He was still too weak; the essence of this world was survival of the fittest.

Suddenly, Su Xing felt a release, his entire ghostly body collapsing onto the dark clouds, gasping for breath.

Luo Sen's large hand opened, releasing Su Xing, "Don't hate me. I'm neither a good ghost nor a bad ghost. I'm just doing this for a brother. Take this ghost qi pill."

Luo Sen stretched out his palm, grabbed the air, and a wisp of ghostly energy rose from his palm, coalescing into a small, black, shiny pill about the size of a soybean.

A ghost qi pill floated up and landed in front of Su Xing.

Su Xing glanced at Luo Sen, grabbed the ghost qi pill, and swallowed it, crunching it in his mouth. Instantly, black energy surged on his face, and his ghostly body, which had become translucent, solidified again.

Su Xing knew that if not for Song Jing, Luo Sen wouldn't even have explained. He could even feel that Luo Sen's ghostly eyes could "kill" a small ghost with a single glance.

"You're too stingy, for a third-rank ghost general. Many of my students have been scared away by you." Song Jing glared at Luo Sen, helping Su Xing up, "Don't worry, you're a merit soul, he won't dare to do anything to you."

Su Xing stood up, rolling his eyes, realizing that Luo Sen had done this more than once.

True to his character, Song Jing's lifelong friend, to ensure his friend's safety, was willing to play the bad guy and eliminate students with "hidden dangers."

"Phew~"

Su Xing took a deep breath and asked, "Lord Cui didn't tell you how I died? I just want to know that."

They had been so focused on the issue of the merit soul that the original question had been overlooked.

"Lord Cui didn't say." Luo Sen replied simply.

"Is that so?" Su Xing was prepared for this, and Luo Sen's answer didn't surprise him, though he was a bit disappointed.

A hint of sympathy flashed across Song Jing's face as he said to Luo Sen, "Let's take him to King Qin Guang. As a merit soul, he should have the right to meet the Ten Kings of Hell."

A glimmer of hope flickered in Su Xing's heart, and he looked at Luo Sen sincerely.

"Don't even think about it. Lord Cui specifically told me that King Qin Guang anticipated his arrival and specifically instructed not to meet him!" Luo Sen said.

Hearing Luo Sen's answer, Su Xing felt a thunderclap in his ears, his mind going blank, and he almost fell off the dark clouds.

"Sorry." Song Jing said apologetically, "I'll take you to the Bridge of Sighs. Drink the soup of forgetfulness and be reborn. The Bureau of Rewards will arrange a good family for you."

"Okay." Su Xing nodded, his heart dead. He never expected so many twists and turns, a yellow merit soul, a mysterious death, not recorded in the Book of Life and Death, and even the King of Hell refusing to meet him!

After all this, Su Xing knew he could no longer serve as a ghost official under Song Jing.

"Go!"

With a command, Song Jing held a jade tablet and pointed east, the dark clouds turning into a black beam that cut through the gloomy sky, carrying Su Xing away.

The Ten Kings of Hell, the Ten Halls, are distributed in ten directions of the underworld.

To the east, the fifth hall, the Ghost City of Fengdu, the center of the underworld, is where the King of Heaven, King Qin Guang, resides!

The Bridge of Sighs, the River of Forgetfulness, the Platform of Longing, the Three Lives Stone, and the Goddess Meng Po are all located here.

The dark clouds moved so fast that Su Xing couldn't open his eyes. If not for Song Jing's protection, he would have been torn apart by the strong winds.

In the underworld, there is no sun or moon, and time is unknown.

The dark clouds slowly descended, reaching the shore of the River of Forgetfulness.

Su Xing stepped off the dark clouds, feeling light and dizzy, as if he were drunk.

"Ha ha, it's always like this the first time." Song Jing laughed heartily at Su Xing's awkward appearance, pointing to the other side of the river, "That's where Lady Meng Po is. According to the rules, you must cross the River of Forgetfulness."

"Is this the River of Forgetfulness?"

Su Xing looked over and saw the blood-red river, the stench of decay, and the wailing of lost souls who had fallen into the river, a terrifying sight.

"Can you only cross the River of Forgetfulness by walking the Bridge of Sighs?" Su Xing noticed the stone bridge over the river.

The Bridge of Sighs, with a green stone surface and five steps, has the west side for women and the east side for men, the left side for yin and the right side for yang. The bridge has three levels: good souls can safely cross the upper level, those with mixed good and evil cross the middle level, and evil souls cross the lower level, often being pushed into the polluted waves by ghosts, bitten by copper snakes and iron dogs.

Long lines of souls waited to cross. Golden souls walked the upper level of the Bridge of Sighs, ordinary souls the middle level, and evil and fierce ghosts the lower level, their feet submerged in the blood-red water, which hissed as it eroded their skin, and they were bitten by copper snakes and iron dogs, each bite tearing off a piece of flesh.

The screams and wails of the evil and fierce ghosts crossing the Bridge of Sighs were bone-chilling, and Su Xing frowned.

"Accumulate virtue and the Bridge of Sighs is easy. Greed and sin make the Mountain of Sharp Knives inescapable. Three steps across the Bridge of Sighs reveal your good and evil. One breath through the golden path grants you wealth and prosperity."

"On the Bridge of Sighs, no right or wrong on the Three Lives Stone, meet Lady Meng Po at the Platform of Longing."

Su Xing recited several poems, gazing at the bridge with a sigh, "Good souls climb the bridge, tired but unable to reach the top; ordinary souls walk the middle bridge, crowded and at risk of falling into the River of Forgetfulness; evil and fierce ghosts walk the lower bridge, suffering in hell."

Song Jing listened to Su Xing's words, his eyes brightening slightly, then sighed, "Here are six copper coins. Take them to pay for the boat."

"Boat?" Su Xing took the copper coins, which were round with a square hole, greenish-blue, and inscribed with the four seal characters "Underworld."

Following Song Jing's finger, Su Xing saw a small boat drifting on the River of Forgetfulness, with a boatman wearing a straw raincoat and a bamboo hat standing on it.

"Go, go. Cross the River of Forgetfulness, and you can find your answers on the Three Lives Stone and the Platform of Longing." Song Jing spoke, then rode the dark clouds away.

"Thank you, Brother Song!" Su Xing waved to the departing dark clouds, his eyes dimming, and walked toward the River of Forgetfulness.

"Boatman, I want to cross the river!" Su Xing shouted at the edge of the River of Forgetfulness.

"Coming." The boatman responded calmly, slowly rowing over with a bamboo pole.

"Roar, it's a boat!" A fierce ghost roared, taking advantage of the distraction of the lesser ghosts and demons, and rushed over as a gust of ghostly wind.

"Bad!" Su Xing thought, immediately jumping onto the boat.

"Six copper coins." The boatman said calmly.

"Here!" Su Xing quickly threw the six copper coins and hid behind the boatman.

"Roar!"

The fierce ghost pounced, its face twisted, its nails blood-red, roaring as it rushed onto the boat.

"Six copper coins." The boatman held the bamboo pole against the ghost, saying calmly.

"Who dares to ask me for money?" the ghost roared.

"No money, get off the boat." The boatman wrapped the bamboo pole around the ghost, lifting it like a banner, swirling it in the wind, and thrusting it into the River of Forgetfulness.

"Ah!" The ghost screamed, its body smoking, and was swept away by the waves.

"Gone." The boatman, without a glance at the ghost, rowed the small boat toward the other side of the River of Forgetfulness.

No matter how the River of Forgetfulness roared and the water ghosts screamed, the small boat remained as steady as a pine tree, moving slowly.

Su Xing looked at the ordinary-looking boatman, feeling a strange intuition.

His intuition told him that the boatman on the River of Forgetfulness was even stronger than the fourth-rank ghost official Song Jing!

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