Chapter Twelve: The Underworld
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In this eerie, terrifying world, the high-rises and streets were stained with rust, which continued to gnaw away at everything little by little. Even more horrifyingly, Zheng Chao could feel his own body beginning to undergo a similar transformation!
“This place…”
Zheng Chao was utterly astonished. “Could this be the legendary Netherworld?”
The clothes on his shoulder, which had come into contact with the gray-white ashes, had begun to rust away. He needed to find a place where no ashes were falling—and this choice was made entirely on instinct!
He ran forward step by step, but a layer of ashes had settled over the ground as well. Each footstep left a mark, and the soles of Zheng Chao’s shoes began to corrode too. After only five or six steps, the tops of his feet had already touched the ashes on the ground, and his tattered shoes were flung away!
The soles of his feet began to rust as well, and bone soon became visible!
Yet what he felt even more strongly was a yearning—a desperate yearning for even the slightest chance of survival!
Just before the flesh on the tops of his feet vanished completely, Zheng Chao burst into a small shop by the roadside. The seven- or eight-square-meter space was, at last, free of ashes.
“Hiss…”
Only after temporarily escaping danger did Zheng Chao feel the pain in his feet, as though they had been corroded by sulfuric acid!
The smartphone in his hand suddenly spoke again. “Firearm! Don’t panic. I’ll guide you out!”
“Master…”
Only then did Zheng Chao remember that his master’s call was still connected. Strangely, however, the vehicles, phones, televisions, and other electronic devices had not been affected at all. They did not rust.
But just as he was thinking about this, he froze.
The screen of the small television beside him displayed an image: a blurry figure seen from behind, walking step by step through the ashes in this world. The same image was even being shown on the enormous screen mounted on the building outside.
Since this was the Netherworld, it was only natural for strange images to appear. But the problem was that Zheng Chao recognized the identity of that silhouette!
“Li Fengyin!”
The three words escaped Zheng Chao’s lips.
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………
“As long as one attempts to tell certain special people about the Three Laws of the Spirit King, one will fall into the Netherworld.”
Shen Liangxin gazed toward the northwest. “I’m afraid Zheng Chao has already entered.”
This time, Li Fengyin’s understanding of the world was truly shattered. “The Netherworld really exists?”
“Yes!”
With a smile, Shen Liangxin tilted his head slightly. “And I’ve been there too…”
At that very moment, Li Fengyin was horrified to discover that Shen Liangxin’s figure had begun to rust away. His clothes, flesh, and eyes gradually vanished, until he rapidly transformed into a withered skeleton. Even the bones began to corrode little by little, while everyone else nearby had already disappeared without a trace.
An utterly silent, frigid sensation pierced straight into Li Fengyin’s soul. He opened his eyes wide as countless ashes drifted slowly down from the sky.
“Ring-a-ling…”
“Ring-a-ling…”
Li Fengyin’s phone began to ring. Before him, the skeletal figure of “Shen Liangxin” raised one hand in the familiar posture of taking out a phone and making a call.
………
“Do you see that figure?” the old man’s voice came through to Zheng Chao.
Zheng Chao asked, “The one on the screen, or the one outside the screen?”
“Find the place where that figure is, and follow him!”
The old man spoke, but the phone signal soon became unstable. His voice twisted, eventually dissolving into nothing but crackling static.
Zheng Chao had visited Shangbei City many times. Staring intently at the surroundings near the silhouette on the television screen, he began searching for its exact location.
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………
All that remained before him was the gradually rusting skeleton of “Shen Liangxin.” One hand held a phone beside his skull, while the other bony claw seized Li Fengyin by the forearm and dragged him into the building beside the snack street.
“Hiss…”
Fine traces of rust appeared on the spot where Li Fengyin had been grabbed.
Not far away was the very figure that had been walking through the ashes. It began approaching the place where Li Fengyin had taken refuge, murmuring as it came:
“How many times has it been…? You’ve come again!”
………
“So the so-called Spirit Realm is actually the Netherworld!”
Three days earlier, when Li Fengyin had first read Records of a Journey through the Spirit Realm, he had asked this very question. Shen Liangxin’s answer had been simple:
“More precisely, it used to be Heaven. But now, it is the Netherworld.”
This had left Li Fengyin finding it difficult to understand. Heaven was Heaven, while the Netherworld was Hell!
How could they possibly be one and the same?
………
At that moment, Li Fengyin was hiding inside a shop. He reached out instinctively, wanting to catch the ashes falling from the gray-white sky, but felt only a sharp, corrosive pain. He quickly pulled his arm back.
Author’s avatar
Author’s Note
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