Chapter 117
There is a saying in Yewangchuan that the dead cannot turn back.
For the deceased who enter the Night Forget River, their memories remain at the moment of death. The moment they step onto the rough sand, their muddled consciousness briefly becomes lucid.
The ferryman who has been waiting on the shore to guide the deceased will say at this time: "I am your ferryman, follow me."
The deceased will have many questions, and most of them do not believe that they are dead. They are very emotional and want to turn back the way they came. They will go crazy and do whatever they want. But no matter what, they still have to take a boat across the sea and reincarnate.
There are many ferries on the sea, and one of them is moving slowly forward. Its direction is different from that of the reincarnated dead. The bow turns slightly and heads towards the realm of the dead.
Ye Baidu stood at the stern of the boat, and the oar, which was more than one person tall, was immersed in the calm and peaceful Wangchuan Sea.
Ji Tang was sitting in the middle of the boat. She had her arms folded on the edge of the boat, her chin resting on them, her eyes following the movement of the oars.
"My fellow Daoist, why is this sea water as thick as mud?" Ji Tang tilted her head slightly. The man behind her had a cold expression and didn't even glance at her. He exuded coldness all over his body.
Jitang stretched out his hand to test the sea water.
Ye Baidu suddenly said, "You are a deceased person. You cannot use nightmare energy. The death energy in the sea will tear you apart."
Ji Tang retracted her fingers and said, "That was a close call! My hand almost went in." She then stood up and said, "Fellow Daoist, can you speak?"
Ye Baidu lowered his eyes to look at her.
Ji Tang pointed at the sea and said, "I was at the Tribulation Crossing Stage in my lifetime, but I can't stand this deathly aura?"
Ye Baidu, as the ferryman who guided her, naturally knew her situation.
His eyes fell on Jitang.
He had seen too many dead people with all kinds of reactions, but she was the first one who seemed to have come to travel in Yewangchuan.
He lowered his eyes and said, "It will be torn into pieces more slowly."
Jitang curled the corners of his mouth.
"How long will I stay in the realm of the dead?"
Ye Baidu looked at the dark outline of the realm of the dead in the distance: "That depends on when you can get rid of your obsession."
Jitang changed his position, lying his entire back on the middle seat. When he looked up, the strands of hair on his forehead swayed in the air. "That's it, I'm going to stay here for a long time."
Ye Baidu stared at her coldly, "No matter how long it takes, there will be a day when you will leave."
Ji Tang turned over and asked, "Return to the cultivation world?"
Ye Baidu: "Reincarnation."
"That won't do." Jitang stretched out a finger and shook it, "I haven't lived enough in this life."
"You have no say in this."
Ji Tang sighed and said resignedly, "Well, since I can't go back, I'll just stay here."
Ye Baidu's calm heart rarely showed any ripples, which could barely be called curiosity, but he didn't ask anything.
The ferry docks at a beach near the Land of the Dead.
Ye Baidu held the Netherworld Lamp and got off the boat first.
He leaned slightly to the side, and the Nether Lamp swayed with his movement.
Jitang then got off the boat.
She followed Ye Baidu and saw the magnificent city gate of the Realm of the Dead in front of her.
"I don't like it here. It's so gloomy."
This sentence sounds more like a soliloquy.
Ye Baidu heard it and kept walking.
Few people can be as talkative as she is.
When the deceased first enters the River of Oblivion at night, the ferryman will temporarily restore their consciousness and inform them of their death. Whether the deceased was a cunning king or a wandering beggar, or even someone who has lost hope in life, when they learn of their death, they will burst into tears.
Therefore, after informing the deceased, the ferryman will most likely seal the deceased's mind again to make the subsequent guidance smoother.
She was the only one who was curious about Ye Wangchuan instead of crying and shouting. Ye Baidu did not seal her mind and let her stay awake all the way through.
Ye Baidu said to the person behind him: "You are also gloomy now."
After he finished speaking, he was stunned. He didn't even expect that he would speak. His mouth spoke before his thoughts.
Ji Tang looked down at herself—a faint aura of death enveloped her. She rolled up her long sleeves, revealing her already slender arms to be completely bloodless, her skin as pale as paper, the only color being a few indistinct blue veins.
She was stunned when she saw the swaying skirt. This light-colored long skirt used to be like the breeze and the bright moon, but now it has become a ghost.
Ji Tang frowned, "Do I look ugly now?"
Ye Baidu: "Would the dead care about this?"
As he said this, he turned his head slightly and glanced at her.
To be honest, it looks very nice.
Just saying that a dead person who came to Yewangchuan is good-looking is a bit too unbelievable.
Jitang dragged her feet into the city and walked up the winding stone steps. When Yebaidu stopped, she stopped too.
"Come in."
Ye Baidu placed the Netherworld Lamp on the table and said, "When the Netherworld Lamp goes out, your obsession will be over."
Ji Tang sat at the table and asked Ye Baidu, who was about to leave the room, "Are you on duty every day?"
Ye Baidu didn't understand what was going on and paused.
Ji Tang smiled at him, "I'm really bored, so I'll probably have to go play with you more often. I hope I don't disturb you."
"Don't come." Ye Baidu turned and left.
*
Ji Tang is a person who keeps her promises. She said she wanted to play with Ye Baidu, and she really appeared in front of Ye Baidu every day. Gradually, she even followed Ye Baidu to guide the dead, sitting and standing behind the boat with Ye Baidu, and became a ferryman in the true sense of the word.
Ye Baidu's heart, which had been dead for many years, began to beat again because of her - because he was annoyed.
"Why are you coming out instead of staying in the house and watching the Nether Lamp?"
"What's so good about the Nether Lantern? Or do I have to be like my neighbor next door, crying all day in my house?"
Ye Baidu was used to being quiet, so when someone suddenly started chattering next to him, he felt very uncomfortable. He wanted to throw the person into the Forgetful Sea several times, but when he really wanted to throw him in, he felt that it was not a bad idea to have some noise in his ears.
He looked at Ji Tang who was sitting next to him. Looking down from above, he could only see the top of her head and her light, fluttering dress.
She was curled up in a ball, looking small and pitiful.
So what if he was a powerful being in the Tribulation Crossing Stage? He would still come to Yewangchuan after death.
Ye Baidu saw her huddled up in a ball with her head down, and a thought suddenly occurred to him: Is my disdain too obvious?
Yes, girls all love beauty.
Ye Baidu was just hesitating whether to make amends when he saw Jitang suddenly raise his head. There was no sadness on his face, but an awkward smile instead.
She pointed down and said, "This..."
Ye Baidu looked down and saw that there was a hole in the ferry boat between Jitang's feet, which she had somehow managed to do.
Thick sea water seeped in, and the smell of death quickly spread everywhere. The dead sitting in the middle of the boat trembled.
The deceased had been crying like crazy before getting on the boat, so Ye Baidu sealed his mind. Although his mind was sealed, his body's instinctive reactions were still there.
Ye Baidu looked at Jitang's somewhat guilty eyes.
“…”
Who felt sorry for her just now?
This is really Ye Wangchuan’s biggest joke.
*
There is no distinction of time in Yewangchuan. The dead have no idea whether they have been here for a day, a year, or even longer.
Ji Tang believed that she had a good relationship with Ye Baidu, and she would ask Ye Baidu about his years in the human world every once in a while.
Ye Baidu asked: "Are you staying here waiting for someone?"
Jitang smiled and said, "Maybe some old friends."
The person she most wants to wait for will never come to Yewangchuan. He will go to a higher and farther place, walk across the Yingxian Bridge, and become an immortal.
She always owed him an apology. She thought that as time passed, she would be able to get over it one day and stop hiding in the Nine Nether Abyss and go find him.
But death came first, and she would never have the chance to say this apology again.
The dim light in the little house where Jitang lived was always on, and the neighbors came and went, so many that it was impossible to count them all.
Ye Baidu initially wanted to throw Jitang into the Forgotten Sea, then he would occasionally visit Jitang's hut, and now he habitually comes in to chat for a few minutes after extraditing the dead.
The blue light emitted by the Nether Lamp in the room was the same as when she first came to Wangchuan, without any weakening.
He knocked on the table. "Do you know why you were surrounded and attacked by monks from famous and righteous sects?"
Ji Tang lay on the table, looking gloomy, "Because I am the devil of Jiu Mingyuan."
Ye Baidu, "Let's talk serious."
Ji Tang looked into the distance, his eyes seeming to see an old scene from long ago. "This is serious, don't you know what happened when I was alive? Maybe it's because I interfered with the karma of others, so I have to suffer some backlash?"
Ye Baidu: "You are not destined to die."
Ji Tang suddenly stood up and said, "I feel the same way, so I have to go back!"
Ye Baidu said nothing, picked up her Netherworld Lamp and walked out.
Ji Tang followed the Nether Lamp with his eyes and asked blankly, "Where are you going?"
Ye Baidu walked to the door, turned around and said to her: "I'll take you to a place where you will be in danger of death."
Jitang couldn't help but laugh, and stood up and said frankly: "I'm already dead, and the only thing left is to live."
*
Ye Baidu had only one purpose in coming to the Furnace Land in the past, which was to dilute the excessive death energy to prevent it from accumulating and forming a gathering of undead spirits, causing unrest in the entire Yewangchuan.
This time he brought people with him and wanted to send them into the furnace.
Ji Tang looked at the huge furnace in front of him. If he stopped and listened carefully, he could hear the blazing Netherworld Fire and the screams that made his whole body numb and tremble.
"What are they doing?" Ji Tang stared intently inside. "The ones being torn and deformed are the deceased, right?"
Ye Baidu gave an affirmative answer, "It is the deceased." He side-glanced at Ji Tang's face, "Don't you want to go back? As long as you enter the furnace and endure the great suffering of soul refining, you can return to the human world."
What Ye Baidu saw on Jitang's face was mostly carelessness and laziness. Occasionally, he seemed to see her lost in thought because she was thinking about something, with a look of despair and sadness in her eyes, but as soon as Jitang noticed him, that look would disappear without a trace, making Ye Baidu think it was his own illusion.
He wanted to see what expression Jitang would have when he faced the furnace.
"You are deceased. You can no longer use the abilities you acquired during your lifetime. Apart from a hint of death energy, you have no trace of nightmare energy. This state is like a newborn baby. You cannot withstand any harm from the outside world. All you can do when you enter is endure."
Ji Tang touched his chin, "It's a bit scary. Does it hurt inside?"
Ye Baidu: "It's worse than human lingchi, and more painful than a cultivator being pierced by thousands of thunderbolts. Many people have gone through this before you."
Ji Tangxin, she could still hear the wailing inside, "Did anyone succeed?"
Ye Baidu: “Never.”
Ye Baidu thought that he might see timidity and hesitation on Jitang's face.
No.
Not only that, she was laughing.
"Thank you. When I get back and my cultivation level improves, I'll come play with you."
Ye Baidu stepped forward subconsciously, wanting to call out to her, "You may not be able to endure this great suffering of soul refining. As long as the Netherworld Lamp is not extinguished, you can stay in Yewangchuan forever. There is always hope that you will wait for the person you want to see."
Ji Tang looked at him gratefully, then smiled, "He is the one who rides the wind. Coincidentally, so am I."
Ye Baidu felt that during his long years as a ferryman, this smile would be engraved deep in his memory and would be difficult to forget.
"Have you made up your mind?"
"We'll meet again if we're lucky."
"It's better not to see each other forever."
Ye Baidu did not tell her that after her soul was successfully refined and she returned to the human world, she would not remember Ye Wangchuan. Even if she came to Ye Wangchuan again, she would not remember him anymore.
Better never see each other, he thought.
May your path be smooth and everything go as you wish.
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