Bai Wuchang lowered his voice, and because he had been holding his tongue in his mouth for a long time, his speech always sounded muffled:
"Five hundred years ago, the Great Sage entered the underworld, and many old ghosts who had lived there for years were fortunate enough to see him. They all said that evil ghosts feared Rakshasa, Rakshasa feared Impermanence, and Impermanence feared Judge Yama. Little did they know that those evil ghosts feared this one the most. Let alone hearing the name of the Great Sage, just hearing the word 'grandson' from Flower Fruit Mountain made us ghost soldiers tremble with fear and our hearts break. Not to mention, let alone the fact that Madam Xu and this young man Chenxiang are disciples of the Great Sage."
As they spoke, fear simultaneously rose on the faces of the two dead men, Black and White Impermanence. The Ox-Headed Demon beside them was also so frightened that he retreated several feet, begging for mercy with a mournful face.
"Grandma, please spare me! I was blind and didn't recognize you as Grandpa Sun's disciple. How dare I ask you for this 'gift money'? That would be too much for me..."
There were still a few old ghosts lingering on the Terrace of Longing for Home, unwilling to leave. But somehow, upon hearing the word "Sun," they scrambled and stumbled towards the Bridge of Forgetfulness. Some of them even dropped their heads and didn't have time to pick them up. They ran while covering their heads and shouting:
"Sun Wukong is here again!! Run!!"
"Run!! The Monkey King, who eats ghosts and spits out bones, is coming!!"
"I still have seventeen days left to live! I can't die at the hands of this devil!!"
"Aaaaaah! The Demon King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, has arrived!"
In an instant, the air was thick with ghostly energy and billowing black smoke. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the old ghosts on the Looking-Homeward Terrace were gone, leaving only some confused new ghosts who didn't know what had happened.
Xu Milu couldn't help but defend Sun Wukong a bit:
"Where did this rumor come from? My master never eats people or souls. Now that he has entered Buddhism and become the Victorious Fighting Buddha, he would never kill any living being—"
"Grandpa Great Sage was incredibly brave and unmatched in his youth. With his Ruyi Jingu Bang, he fought his way from the gates of hell to the palace of Yama, annihilating the ghost messengers of the Nine Netherworlds, injuring ten generations of benevolent kings, and even traversing all eighteen levels of hell—"
With a forced smile, Bai Wuchang explained:
"As the saying goes, 'three men can make a tiger.' These old ghosts have been in the underworld for so long that they have never seen the outside world. Naturally, they do not know that the Great Sage has already joined the Buddhist order. Madam Xu, please do not take it to heart."
He injured ten generations of Yama Kings and wiped out the Nine Netherworld Ghost Messengers?
Isn't this equivalent to single out and beat up the entire head and deputy of the Yama's Palace?!
Master, wasn't your commotion back then a bit too much?!
Xu Milu couldn't help but gasp. When she read Journey to the West, this part was only briefly mentioned. Now that she saw it, she realized that even a dog passing through the underworld would have gotten a slap from her master back then.
People only know that the devil is vicious, but they don't know that even five hundred years later, the name of Sun Wukong can still terrify the evil ghosts of the underworld.
She immediately pulled Chenxiang, who was still confused, and said with a serious expression:
"Junior brother, when we enter the King of Hell's palace later, you absolutely must not utter Master's name, understand? Otherwise, what if they keep us here to pay for our emotional distress?!"
Just kidding. There's a saying that "the son pays for the father's debts, it's only right and proper." She and her two direct disciples, Chen Xiang, offered themselves up. If they were caught, they might be detained.
—Just based on Sun Wukong's fighting power, when he wreaked havoc in the underworld back then, he must have smashed even more things.
Chenxiang nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.
...
...
Beyond the Wangxiang Terrace lies Fengdu City, where the Great Emperor of Fengdu resides in the Great Emperor's Hall at the very center of the city. In addition to the offices of the Ten Kings of Hell, the city also houses ghosts whose lifespans have not yet ended.
Black Impermanence disappeared as soon as he entered the city, while White Impermanence led Xu Milu and the other two into Fengdu City. They saw that the city had high platforms and thick pavilions, roads studded with red gold nails and paved with white jade. Gray ghosts could be seen moving around the city everywhere. In addition to the dark clouds covering the sky, there were also pavilions, wine shops and stalls in the city, and white soul-summoning banners fluttering along the roadside.
The ghosts and monsters in the city mostly looked like they did in their previous lives, including men, women, and children. Their clothes were also clearly from a different era. At first glance, Xu Milu thought she had returned to the mortal world.
—She had read in a book that the great ghosts, such as evil spirits, were imprisoned in the eighteen levels of hell, while those living in Fengdu City were mostly ghosts who did not want to be reincarnated or whose lifespan in the underworld had not yet ended.
What's most eye-catching is that the sky here is always gray, as if covered by a layer of cloth, and there seems to be another upside-down world in the sky:
The towering mountains, shrouded in black mist, stretched out in reverse. Several gates, resembling those of mortal government offices, lined up one after another. Ghost soldiers in black robes hurriedly escorted souls in and out, while judges holding documents floated up and down as if urging people to their deaths. Soul-collecting messengers stirred up swirling yin winds. It was as if the underworld was separated by an invisible membrane, with the people in the two spaces not interfering with each other.
"Up above is the Ten Courts of Hell, where the Ten Kings of Hell reside. New ghosts entering Fengdu City must first be escorted to the Ten Courts for trial, from top to bottom, one court at a time. If the person has committed offenses in their previous life, they will be sent to the corresponding hell to be punished. If the person is a good person, they will drink the Meng Po soup and be reincarnated. Down below is Fengdu City, where many ghosts whose lifespan has not yet ended, or who do not wish to be reincarnated, reside for a long time. Over time, this place has become much more prosperous than before."
Bai Wuchang glanced at Xu Milu's expression, then pointed to the most magnificent hall among them and added with a smile:
"That is the Yama Palace, the place the Great Sage visited back then. Would Madam Xu like to go and explore it?"
"No need. It's getting late. We should hurry to the wedding banquet. I'm worried about Sister Yin. I can't rest easy without seeing her."
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