Chen Shi froze. Wuwang City was a fragment of the Tongue-Ripping Hell from the underworld?
His mind raced with more thoughts.
The guileless do not tread the path of evil, nor dare they deceive or falsify.
According to ancient tales, those who sowed discord, slandered others to harm them, spoke with oily tongues, argued with clever words, or lied to deceive would all be sent to the Tongue-Ripping Hell, where their tongues would be torn out!
This overlapped partially with the ghost god domain of Wuwang City, where lying would result in one's tongue being pulled.
A flood of questions surged in his heart, and he blurted them out. "Mansion Lord, why did a fragment of the Tongue-Ripping Hell fall into the mortal world? Why did the Tongue-Ripping Hell shatter? Who broke it? And how did you obtain the fragment of the Tongue-Ripping Hell to establish Wuwang City?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord smiled faintly. After he finished asking, he chuckled. "I was originally a cultivator from the mortal world. In the fifty-first year of the Jiajing era, I was cultivating on Qianyang Mountain."
"Jiajing fifty-first year?"
Chen Shi was stunned. "It's now the sixty-fourth year of Jiajing. So you're at least fourteen hundred years old?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord laughed. "To be precise, one thousand four hundred and ninety-six years old."
Chen Shi's eyes widened. Aside from himself, he hadn't imagined anyone could live so long!
However, Chen Shi had reached the peak of the Golden Core Realm through cultivation, granting him a lifespan of six hundred years. Wuwang Mansion Lord's longevity was likely tied to obtaining Wuwang City, not pure cultivation.
Wuwang Mansion Lord led him to the mansion's tea room, a pavilion. Opening the window revealed the hellish landscape on the other side—mountains and rivers shrouded in haze.
The vast expanse stretched endlessly, dotted with ghostly fires like fireflies swarming the underworld.
A阴 wind blew, chilling to the bone.
It felt as if the coolness seeped into his marrow, freezing his blood.
Chen Shi circulated his vital energy, finding that at its extremest chill, it turned refreshing. Warm currents flowed through his body, bolstering his essence.
"Worthily the flesh of a corpse-delivered immortal."
Wuwang Mansion Lord praised, saying, "Your body fears not the erosion of the underworld's yin energy and can even absorb its power. This is the frame of a ghost immortal."
Chen Shi's heart stirred. His body did seem different from others—like a fish in water in the underworld, unlike most who were harmed by its yin qi.
It was probably the effect of the Water-Fire Tempering Art.
Wuwang Mansion Lord invited Chen Shi to sit, with a little ghost brewing tea nearby.
The little ghost was a green-skinned imp, about four or five feet tall, with a large head, pointed ears, fangs in its mouth, and nimble hands and feet, quite clever.
As a creature of the underworld, it had a physical form, wearing only tattered white麻 cloth shorts.
"Take Tutu downstairs to play. You're not needed here."
Wuwang Mansion Lord instructed.
The little ghost assented and led Tutu downstairs to play.
Chen Shi worried the ghost might harm Tutu and signaled Blackie Pot with his eyes. Blackie Pot understood and followed.
Chen Shi didn't know Wuwang Mansion Lord well. Though invited by the great serpent Xuan Shan, one must always be cautious with strangers.
Wuwang Mansion Lord paid it no mind and pointed toward the distant underworld. "Those clusters of ghostfire you see are actually individual grave mounds, with their owners sitting atop them."
The ghostfire were the flames flickering above these ghosts' heads.
Chen Shi looked in the direction he pointed and saw ghostfires twinkling endlessly into the horizon.
"These ghostfires belong to ghosts who still have blood descendants in the mortal world remembering them."
"Because their descendants in the yang world burn incense and paper money for them during festivals, they have an incense inheritance. Even after death, their flames endure, granting them long lives."
Wuwang Mansion Lord brewed the tea, adding leaves, and said, "As long as people in the yang world remember them, they can live that long in the underworld."
Chen Shi asked, "What if the incense line breaks? Or if their descendants forget them?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord steeped the tea and smiled. "If the incense breaks or descendants forget them, the flames above their heads will gradually dim and eventually extinguish, leading to their slow death."
"Ghosts can die too?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord said, "The Records of the Shades states: Man dies to become ghost, ghost dies to become er, er to xi, xi to yi, yi to wei."
"In truth, it's not so complicated. Once the world forgets you, you die."
"Scattering to ash and smoke, ceasing to exist."
He poured tea for Chen Shi and smiled. "The ancestors of great clans in the mortal world are great clans here too, generation after generation enshrined with unending incense. As for common folk, surviving themselves is hard—who remembers their ancestors?"
Chen Shi gazed farther and saw colossal coffins standing between heaven and earth, immense as mountains. His heart stirred. "Whose coffins are those?"
"There?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord smiled. "That's Mirror Lake Manor's coffins."
"Can you find your own coffin, little friend?"
Chen Shi's eyes bulged. That was Mirror Lake Manor's scene in the underworld?!
Mirror Lake Manor occupied a supreme yin nexus in the underworld called the Yin Spring Sea, reaching straight to the depths of the underworld.
Wuwang Mansion Lord said, "The underworld's geography mirrors the mortal world's, but magnified countless times."
"That Yin Spring Sea corresponds to Mirror Lake Manor's Mirror Lake, riddled with massive spring vents swirling and spewing yin qi, forming vast whirlpools."
"Your Mirror Lake Manor's coffins stand above the Yin Spring Sea, absorbing supreme yin qi. From yin extremum comes yang birth, using it to replenish essence and extend life."
Chen Shi's mind reeled.
Mirror Lake Manor was founded by Grandpa gathering companions back then. They must have explored the underworld's mysteries to find such a place, turning it into a sanctuary for recuperation.
Yet, using the underworld's supreme yin land as a health retreat—this devilish method could only come from loose cultivators like Grandpa.
Wuwang Mansion Lord sipped tea. "Five people dwell in Mirror Lake Manor's coffins, but they're too ancient. Clinging to life via the Yin Spring Sea, they've absorbed excessive supreme yin qi. They should be dead but aren't, easily prone to demonic transformation."
Before Chen Shi could speak, one coffin suddenly opened. A massive figure like a demon god shot straight out of the Yin Spring Sea, vanishing into the underworld's twilight.
Wuwang Mansion Lord said, "This one's the first to undergo demonic change."
"He's nearly become an underworld creature. This flight means he's off to hunt underworld ghosts."
Chen Shi's heart jolted. He hurriedly sipped tea to moisten his throat and steady his shock.
The coffin's occupant was someone even Grandpa somewhat feared. To think he was kept in Mirror Lake Manor, nurtured until on the verge of mutation.
If all five mutated, what terror would that unleash?
Wuwang Mansion Lord set down his cup and smiled. "No need to worry. They're sleeping now, retaining some reason."
"If they wake, they'll die immediately—that's when mutation happens."
"As long as they don't wake, they won't die, and without death, no mutation."
Chen Shi relaxed slightly and smiled. "Mirror Lake Manor sees few visitors. No one will wake them."
Wuwang Mansion Lord resumed his tale. "I discovered this place over fourteen hundred years ago, having just reached the Soul Transformation Realm."
"With my aptitude and comprehension, Soul Transformation was my limit. No hope for the next realm in this life."
"But I wouldn't give up. Hearing the Tomb of the True King hid in Qianyang Mountain, I went to try my luck."
"Little did I know, that trip brought heavenly fortune, granting me eternal life."
He spoke leisurely, recounting his encounter on Qianyang Mountain to Chen Shi.
Back then, at Soul Transformation Realm, Wuwang Mansion Lord was merely mid-tier in West Ox Continent, in an awkward position.
No fine birth: he wouldn't stoop to minor clerk, nor did he have backing for local office.
One more step to Divine Descent Realm might earn court favor for office.
He arrived at Qianyang Mountain, rife with evils—some so powerful even he dared not provoke.
Searching by day amid rugged, shifting terrain, finding the Tomb of the True King was a thousand difficulties.
That night, resting in a ruined temple, his funds exhausted, he resigned to becoming a clerk if no tomb.
Suddenly, earth quaked, mountains shook, cliffs split, rocks flew—Qianyang Mountain suffered an unimaginable great quake!
Dozens of li around, man, beast, and evil alike mostly perished.
His high cultivation let him survive. Under moonlight, he saw new land at the epicenter.
This flown-in land exuded eerie ghost qi, covered in blood, littered with colossal ghost god corpses.
Embedded unstably in Qianyang Mountain, it flickered in and out.
Boldly entering to explore, near a ghost god corpse, he found a supremely powerful treasure: a broken judge's brush, only half—neither tip nor shaft end present.
Grasping the broken brush, he became master of this flown-in ghost god domain.
With it, he cultivated using the land's energies, uncovering ghost god immortality secrets.
More discoveries: the land appeared in underworld by day, mortal world by night.
"By fortunate chance, I claimed this flown-in land, dwelling here. Merging with heaven and earth via the half judge's brush, I built Wuwang City, revered as its lord."
"It became a passage between yin and yang. Gradually, I found my lifespan barely waning."
Wuwang Mansion Lord sighed deeply. "Many peers, even heavenly prodigies, couldn't resist time, aging and dying. Yet I was forgotten by it, living eternally in Wuwang City."
His mediocre talent, but with tenfold time, shattered his limits one by one.
Others, no matter talent or technique, rarely exceeded a century.
Yet he lived fourteen centuries!
Even basic techniques amassed unfathomable power; simple spells became wondrous.
Over a millennium, he forged mundane iron into mighty treasures, his body like god or demon.
He reached the pinnacle, cultivation profound beyond measure.
"But I also found my lifespan's end."
Wuwang Mansion Lord sighed. "Dwelling long in Wuwang City, I thought I'd live with heaven and earth. Yet later, I sensed my limit—only two hundred years left."
Chen Shi refilled the teapot and poured for him. "Two hundred years is impressive."
"Zen Master Kuzhu, Great Vehicle Realm, struggled barely past a hundred."
Wuwang Mansion Lord said, "Though bound to Wuwang City, I want to live longer."
"I thought the issue was my judge's brush."
Chen Shi puzzled, "What issue?"
"The judge's brush is just the shaft; its essence slowly leaks. Though slow, at this rate, it'll exhaust in two hundred years."
"Matching my remaining lifespan."
"So I think when I found the judge's brush, our lifespans linked."
"It dies, I die."
He paused. "Wuwang City returns to the underworld at night."
"What cultivators see is the underworld's surface; hell lies deeper—living forbidden."
"Especially Tongue-Ripping Hell, overrun with ghosts—hard to survive entry."
"These years, I've sought the other half. Recently, a lead."
Chen Shi sipped tea.
Wuwang Mansion Lord said, "But that place is beyond Qianyang Mountain's bounds."
"My life ties to this city—straying far means swift death."
"So... I have a presumptuous request."
Staring into Chen Shi's eyes, "Please, little friend, help me retrieve the brush tip!"
Chen Shi frowned slightly, hesitant. "If simple, I'd help, Mansion Lord, but the underworld's too dangerous..."
He glanced afar, the recent Mirror Lake companion's flight vivid.
Encountering that thing spelled doom.
Wuwang Mansion Lord earnestly said, "Your corpse-delivered immortal body fears not yin erosion, so I make this request."
"I know it endangers you."
"Over years as Wuwang Mansion Lord, I've some influence in the underworld. Tutu won't stay in yang forever; she'll awaken memories, return as the upright judge."
"Then, I'll serve loyally!"
Chen Shi pondered, then leaned close. "Mansion Lord heard of the Heavenly Court? Grandpa founded a loose cultivator group called Heavenly Court."
He outlined Heavenly Court's aims and members. "Heavenly Court lacks hands now..."
Wuwang Mansion Lord calmly said, "I'll follow the True King unquestioningly!"
Chen Shi smiled. "Mansion Lord, where's the tip?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord went downstairs, fetching a spear. "This is the shaft transformed; I added a spearhead for use as lance."
"The tip's in the underworld, forged from dragon whiskers."
"Over years, countless little ghosts searched. Finally found it."
"But they can't approach."
"True King, follow the map to claim it."
"Just... the path's perilous."
Chen Shi studied the map closely. Moments later, he looked up. "Any corresponding mortal world map?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord paused. "Mortal world map?"
Chen Shi pointed to the dragon whisker judge's brush on the underworld map and smiled. "If underworld's so dangerous, why not go via mortal world, like coming here? Why fight through hell?"
Wuwang Mansion Lord's mind shook. He exclaimed, "Such a method exists?"
End of chapter.
