The Divine Lady descended through the air, lotus flowers blooming with every step she took.
The moment her toes touched the ground, the world changed abruptly.
The setting sun overhead was swallowed by ink-like storm clouds. For a hundred miles around Cang Mountain, day and night reversed, plunging the region into eternal night.
The mountain wind died down instantly, and even the insects and birds fell completely silent. Within the massive Black Wind Stronghold, only the sound of heavy, ragged breathing and the chattering of teeth remained, echoing one after another.
Zhang Xun crouched at the very back of the crowd, using Wang Meng's stout body to hide himself, cold sweat drenching his back.
He did not want to die.
But in the face of a true deity with boundless divine power, who would have the courage to stand up and run?
Suddenly, he heard a strange sound.
It came from deep underground.
It... sounded like some colossal beast turning over.
“Rumble—”
The scorched earth beneath the bandits' feet suddenly cracked. Web-like fissures spread in all directions from beneath the Divine Lady's feet, with dark red light leaking from the crevices. Scorching earth gas, thick with the stench of blood and rotting flesh, spewed forth.
Before anyone could react, the fissures suddenly expanded, and the ground across the entire mountaintop ruptured and collapsed like torn silk.
“Ah... Ahhh!” Screams of agony rose one after another.
The bandits scrambled on all fours, desperately trying to escape.
However, the ground beneath their feet seemed alive, the gaping chasms swallowing everything like the maws of giant beasts.
Just as a bandit was about to escape the stronghold, a withered, pale hand suddenly reached out from a crack.
Its fingernails were long, sharp, and pitch-black, and its joints were twisted and deformed as it tightly gripped the ankle of the nearest bandit.
“What is this?! Let go of me! Let go!”
The bandit swung his blade to hack at it, but the weapon snapped cleanly in two.
The evil spirits crawling out of the fissures had hollow eye sockets flickering with eerie green phosphorus fire.
They grinned, baring sharp teeth, and dragged the living down into the crevices.
Zhang Xun watched with his own eyes as seven or eight evil spirits grabbed Wei Laosan by his limbs. With a bloodcurdling scream, Wei Laosan was dragged into the darkness.
Once Wei Laosan vanished, the crack sealed itself. The ground returned to its smooth state, as if nothing had ever happened.
“Divine Lady, please have mercy on me! I am willing to turn over a new leaf and be a good person from now on! I will repent and atone for my sins!”
Zhang Xun wept bitterly as he kowtowed to the Divine Lady.
“All living things have a spirit,” the Divine Lady said. “To slaughter for selfish desires is an abominable sin. Neither heaven nor earth shall tolerate it, and neither gods nor Buddhas shall grant you salvation.”
The soil in the flower fields began to churn. The Soul-Enthralling Flowers withered and bloomed anew, but this time, they blossomed into blood-red spider lilies.
At first glance, they were breathtakingly beautiful. But upon closer inspection, one could see skeletons buried beneath those spider lilies.
As everyone watched in horror, hideous evil spirits crawled out from the flower bushes without warning.
“Those of you with grievances may seek vengeance; those with grudges may take revenge.”
“I shall close my eyes.”
The Divine Lady looked at the evil spirits and slowly closed her eyes. Her figure dissolved before everyone's eyes like smoke and mist.
Seeing this, the evil spirits' hollow eye sockets simultaneously shed two lines of bloody tears, appearing both terrifying and pitiful.
Immediately after, they opened their bloody maws and lunged at Zhang Xun and the other bandits, pinning them down and tearing into them savagely.
The entire Cang Mountain had become a living purgatory!
The citizens of Yanping City who had been tricked into coming up the mountain, along with the soldiers of the Zhenbei Army, were initially terrified. But gradually, they realized that the evil spirits only attacked the bandits.
And so, they watched the scene unfold with racing hearts.
“Do you think... these evil spirits crawling out of the flower fields might be our family members? That's why they aren't hurting us, but are only seeking revenge on the bandits who killed them...”
The speaker's voice trailed off as tears began to stream down his face.
“These bandits deserve to die...”
A heavy silence fell over the crowd. Among them were young, able-bodied men who had been lured up the mountain by sweet talk, believing there was a way to survive here, only to find it was a dead end. There were also the elderly and weak, who had traveled dozens of miles with dry rations just to find their family members.
They had all been trapped on the mountain, reduced to slaves.
“Suisui, you're my Suisui, aren't you?” A white-haired woman stumbled out of the crowd.
Her back was hunched, her hands were covered in cracked calluses, and her clouded eyes stared fixedly at a dark shadow.
It was a small, scrawny evil spirit crawling slowly on all fours. Its flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only a grayish-white skeleton.
Everyone instinctively took a step back.
Yet, the woman rushed forward like she had lost her mind. She threw her withered arms wide and hugged the small evil spirit tightly.
“My sweet girl, Mother finally found you!” Tears poured uncontrollably from the woman's eyes, large droplets splashing onto the white bones and leaving dark, wet patches.
She gently caressed the spirit's head. In the past, her daughter would always look up and smile sweetly at her. Now, she could only stare back with hollow, empty eye sockets.
“It's Mother's fault...”
“Mother shouldn't have let you go to the back mountain to gather firewood alone. If I hadn't sent you there, you wouldn't have been captured by those heartless bandits and boiled alive for food...”
The small spirit remained motionless in the woman's arms, but by some coincidence, its skeletal hand hooked onto the hem of her tattered clothes.
It seemed like a gesture of comfort.
These evil spirits were merely NPCs automatically generated by the Crime and Punishment skill, so they naturally lacked any free will.
The skeletal hand hooking onto her clothes was only because the invisible little fox had pitied the woman and thought that a small response from the spirit might bring her some comfort.
“Suisui, Mother is coming to join you...” The woman picked up a blade from the ground and plunged it into her own abdomen without hesitation.
The little fox had no time to stop her.
“Host, save her!” it cried out in sheer panic.
Yun Shu shook her head. “The skill of the Orchid of the Blue Void is still on cooldown. Even if it weren't, I couldn't save her. Her heart is already dead; she cannot survive.”
She could save lives, but she could not save someone whose spirit was already dead.
The little fox stared at the woman, who had died on the spot. She was still hugging the small spirit tightly, just as she had on countless nights, cradling her daughter, patting her back, and lulling her to sleep.
Its eyes grew red. “Host, we can't let Zhang Xun and those bastards off too easily! They're absolutely detestable!”
“Of course. This is just the appetizer,” Yun Shu said, bending down to pick up the little fox, who was squatting on the ground wiping away its tears.
“Their 'blessings' are yet to come.”
The blood-red spider lilies withered into ash, and the evil spirits dissipated.
Not a single bandit remained on the scorched earth.
The crowd stood frozen in place.
In front of them, Black Wind Stronghold had completely transformed.
A majestic palace rose from the ground.
It had a foundation of black jade and pillars of dark gold.
The towering, multi-layered halls were roofed with glazed tiles, and the sharp eaves curled high into the sky.
Each tier was hung with lanterns glowing with eerie blue ghost-fires, casting a deep, solemn, and ominous glow over the entire palace.
Shen Yu was just pondering whether he should enter the palace.
A large crowd suddenly materialized before him.
He narrowed his eyes and observed them closely, realizing that most of these people were powerful nobles from the capital.
Some he recognized, while others were strangers to him.
The newcomers looked around at each other, whispering in confusion.
“Where is this?”
“Who are you people?”
Someone looked up, pointing a trembling finger toward the space above the palace gates, their voice suddenly turning into a shriek.
“Oh my god! Look over there—”
Everyone raised their heads in unison.
Upon a black jade plaque, four dark-gold characters met their eyes, the brushstrokes sharp as blades, exuding a bone-chilling cold.
Avici Hell.
Rate on N.U.
