Chapter 191

Translator: adomman

Editor: Snorri

“The only reason I didn’t kill you was for Geshtinanna, and your life means nothing to me! Dumuzid, you should know where I came from. I came from a very lowly miner’s family in Duc, and life was hard since I was a child, where even the leftovers have to be saved for the next meal, and things were never wasted. Right now, I’m keeping you alive for the same reason, it’s just putting the trash to good use.” This was what Amon said on the way while flying to the Underworld.

Dumuzid was furious, but he could not break free of the Entangling Ivy, so he could only reply in anger: “You can kill me, but you can’t insult me like this!”

Amon said plainly: “I am not insulting you, just speaking the truth, if this is a humiliation to you, then it would only prove how pathetic you are. Suffering in the Underworld may be an opportunity for you, otherwise, you will always remain in your current realm. No matter how many centuries pass and no matter how strong you become, you will not be able to comprehend more.

You have survived the test of endless arising and ceasing cycle, which is fortunate and remarkable. Have you witnessed countless living souls in the world during that test? I think all you could do was to watch them coldly from the sidelines and remain unmoved, but you did not think or even verify the possibility that those beings could be you, your past lives, your future lives! You managed to guard your own soul, but you still did not understand the meaning of the test. You are too lucky, but because of that, your luck is going to end here.”

Dumuzid was a little confused by his words, and only after a while did he shout in response: “What do you mean, are you trying to teach me? The one who guided me was Ea, the god of wisdom!”

Amon coldly replied: “Unfortunately, his wisdom is not your wisdom, and we have reached the place you should go to.” With a shake of his hand, Amon kept away the Entangling Ivy that bound Dumuzid and threw him down from above the clouds.

They were now located on a desolate plateau, where there was no sign of any green color and the ground was strewn with rough rocks, low and sparse shrubs, and occasionally, traces of snow. Just below, there was a narrow and deep valley, like a rift cleaved by an invisible giant axe, and on both sides of the rift were steep cliffs which extended to the depths of the earth, filled inexplicably with an eerie aura.

Amon threw Dumuzid into this valley, where the end of the abyss was the portal of Kur, the Underworld of Anunnaki. Back then, Amon had visited that place. He did not want to be too close to the Underworld, so he found a sheltered depression nearby and sat down to quietly wait. While waiting for Geshtinanna to come out, he gazed at the gloomy entrance to the Underworld, seemingly in thought.

This incident seemed a bit unbelievable, and people may find it hard to understand. Amon was also aware that Mourrin was not willing to go to Kella at first, but had reluctantly agreed to do so at Amon’s request. This was because she had to fulfill Amon’s wish before Amon would give her a promise. The reason why Kella became angry and detained Amon was that after Amon entered the Underworld, he did not just see his father, but also awakened the souls of the Duc miners, releasing them all in the process.

Kella asked Mourrin to exchange another man for Amon and deliberately emphasized that it had to be a man she once loved. On one hand, this was done to humiliate Mourrin because of her famous curse, but on the other hand, it was for a specific purpose. Amon originally did not understand, but now he knew. All the men Mourrin had loved in the past had achieved the ninth level, in other words, Kella needed a demigod to serve in the Underworld.

The Underworld was a very special place, with the characteristics of both a divine palace and a divine realm, but not quite the same as any other divine palace or realm. Amon already possessed a divine realm and was able to gather power from people’s prayers and sacrifices to repair the soul, but the Underworld was even more special, able to confine the souls of the dead within a space similar to a divine palace. The desires of these souls were the prayers to the god of the Underworld.

Amon had seen the “Book of the Dead” in Bastet’s spiritual imprint, from which Osiris had taught Bastet spiritual magic. From this spiritual magic, one could glimpse the structure of the Underworld. Although Osiris’s Underworld, Duat, and Kella’s Underworld, Kur, was not exactly the same, the crux of it was largely the same. An underworld was a magical spatial formation, constructed with the help of a very unique elemental energy, but just as a house needed someone to maintain, an underworld also required maintenance, which could only be done by someone who had achieved the ninth level or beyond.

Neti, the Gatekeeper of Kur, should have achieved the ninth level, and Kella herself was a god who had transcended eternal life, but why not have someone else do this hard labor? Dumuzid was sent by Mourrin, and he was just what Kella needed. Geshtinanna was willing to replace Dumuzid, and Kella would also agree. The Underworld was filled with infinite darkness and gloom, living inside was worse than death, and working here was more miserable than any hard labor on earth.

As Amon thought so, he suddenly sensed something and looked up to the opposite side. Across the valley, on the opposite mountain peak, in the coldest bitter wind, there was someone sitting silently, his clothes unmoving. It was Ksitigarbha, whom he had once met in the desert. As soon as Amon looked up, he heard Ksitigarbha’s voice: “We meet again, and just now, I saw you throwing someone down there.”

Amon replied: “Ksitigarbha, why are you here?”

Ksitigarbha: “May the Infinite Light shine upon all misery. I followed the Revered One and watched Kur here after I visited Duat. I have formulated my grand wish. I will turn my Realm of Soul into an afterworld and guide the dead to the in-between. I will be their light and complete the Cycle. The Revered One has thus given me the new name. Please call me Ksitigarbha the Vow.”

Amon: “The vow has been made, so why are you still sitting here?”

The Ksitigarbha smiled: “I wanted to speak with you before I undertake it.”

Amon frowned and pointed to the deep valley in front of him and said: “You also want to build such an underworld? I am not a god, but I roughly understand the rationale behind it. This is a way to continue training after transcending eternal life, but I do not like it. You can do something else, why bother to become a god of the underworld?”

Ksitigarbha replied with his palms placed together: “I don’t like it either. I need to see it to raise my compassion. If I had not done so, I would not have had the opportunity to formulate the vow.”

Amon narrowed his eyes and pursued with interest: “So did you get in?”

Ksitigarbha replied: “The hostess of this place, Kella, is an arrogant woman. She told me to come back after my death. However, I have already transcended life and death and built my body of truth, so I am not allowed to enter.”

Amon shook his head and said: “If you can’t go in then don’t go in. I’ve been there, and it’s not a good place.”

Ksitigarbha nodded and said: “I would like to hear more about it, please enlighten me.”

Amon was slightly taken aback and for a moment sat without answering, as if he was quietly experiencing something. Compared to the gods he had seen, this Ksitigarbha should already have eternal life, except he expressed it in a different way. He might have done the same path as Amon did, but certainly held a very different belief. He was seeking enlightenment from Amon at this moment, and while he spoke, he imparted a special message to Amon.

The two of them obviously weren’t shouting at the top of their voices across the valley but were directly communicating on a spiritual level. According to Amon’s experience, this was the combination of supreme message magic and detection magic. Ksitigarbha used a different technique, but the effect was the same. It was not some kind of magic, but transforming various information into a kind of thought to imprint directly onto the mind, as if freezing time and unfolding a non-existent space to display an event.

Amon could not use it as skilfully as Ksitigarbha, but for him, such a technique was not hard to learn. Ksitigarbha was asking a favor from Amon, so he taught him this technique in return. Once Amon understood the gist of it, it was not complicated to use it to carry simple messages.

Amon nodded towards Ksitigarbha and said: “This place is the Underworld of the Anunnaki. It can’t be observed, but its existence is real. Isolated from the world by the use of formations, it comprises seven layers of space. The first layer is an endless void that blocks the five senses; the second layer reflects man’s thoughts, it stores the prayers to the Underworld; the third layer is about man’s desire, what gives people the will to live; the fourth layer is about man’s remorse, regret, and resentment; the fifth layer is about the past, what happened that cannot be changed; the sixth layer is about loneliness, despair, and boredom, what kills the will to live; the seventh layer is the residence of the goddess of the underworld, where Kella’s throne is located.”

He answered the question asked by the Ksitigarbha and then used the thought-evolving technique he just learned to directly transform his experience in the Underworld into a continuum of thought to be unfolded before imprinting it into Ksitigarbha’s mind. It contains all the information that cannot be reproduced with words or message magic.

Amon finally said: “This Underworld imprisoned the souls of the deceased. The souls are trapped in timeless emptiness, not knowing that they have died. They are locked in their past lives, past desires, and past remorse. They have no relief. They are used to fuel the formation that supports this divine realm. This is what it is, the underworld of Kella. I hate this place because my people’s souls were imprisoned in it after they were killed. You see the man I tossed a while ago? It doesn’t need to happen. But the rules of this place make it what it is. I used to plan to tear this place down. You don’t seem to be an evil god, so why do you wish to build an abominable thing like this?”

Amon also told Ksitigarbha about his release of the souls of the Ducians and the subsequent series of disputes. The communications between them are purely for confirmation. Honest, wholehearted expression of one’s mind, without any materialistic calculation.

“Lead what? I was the one who voluntarily exchanged Dumuzid out of Kur, so why do you have to do more than that! Do not think that this is saving me, by going against my will, I will not be grateful!” Suddenly a woman’s voice was heard, a clear and pleasant voice but with a clear sense of rebuke, Geshtinanna floated up from the valley of the Underworld and flew into mid-air.

She was her usual self, barefoot in a pale white dress, wearing a wreath of twigs on her head, but the five-petaled roses on the wreath looked haggard and wilted, apparently, she did not have a good time in the Underworld.

Amon stood up and replied: “I don’t need your gratitude, I just sent Dumuzid to where he should go.” At the same time as he spoke, he evolved the cause and effect of the matter into a mental thought with the magic he had just comprehended, which was directly imprinted into Geshtinanna’s mind, explaining everything clearly in an instant.

The look of reproach and resentment in Geshtinanna’s eyes disappeared and she sighed helplessly. “So that’s how it is, thank you for not killing him. But you do not relieve me by doing so, I have my responsibilities, and I will still go to the Underworld to exchange him out. Kella is waiting for me to return, but this time I will make a request to Dumuzid, and tell him that not to do that again.”

Amon also sighed. “I didn’t kill him because of you, I understand why you did it, but understanding is not the same as agreeing. It is natural that you are responsible for Dumuzid becoming what he is today. You made it too easy for him to get everything, and you made him so proud that he became resentful when he couldn’t get what he wanted, but the luck you could give him has now come to an end.

He is your brother and you love and care for him, but the gods and the world are not obligated to give him anything. It would be pointless for you to exchange him out like this again! Have you ever thought of letting him suffer what he deserves? Serving hard labor in the Underworld is exactly the experience he needs, not the price you should have to pay.”

Geshtinanna bowed her head and said: “I know very well what you said, but if I really do that, he will never have a chance to be freed. I can’t stand by and watch him trapped in the Underworld suffering endlessly, not to mention that you have pointed out my mistake.”

As Amon looked at Geshtinanna, his expression became very gentle, and he gradually revealed a smile. “I know very well that if you leave Dumuzid in the Underworld and just leave on your own, you will never find peace in your heart. Can I give you a suggestion? It may lead to the path of liberation. You should know that I come from Ejypt, and this advice is a legend passed down in Ejypt.”

Geshtinanna floated down before Amon, raised her eyes, and asked: “When you did not Before you became a god you sounded like one, and today you speak as if you were the god of gods. What advice can you give to me, Dumuzid, and Kella?”

Amon replied unhurriedly: “The father of the gods of Ennead in Ejypt is called Ra, and coincidentally, Ra is also one of the names given to me by my father. It means “day and night” in our language, like a cycle. Legend has it that Ra experiences the suffering of the mortals in the night and brings light and hope to people in the day.

If you must exchange Dumuzid with yourself, no one can stop you, but you should understand what I mean. Let him experience suffering before feeling the light and hope. Suffering in the Underworld is not without end, and joy in the light is not eternal. If one day he or you can become a god who transcends eternal life, the Underworld will no longer be able to bind the both of you. If not, what will be the meaning of everything you have given him when the judgment of fate finally arrives?”