Everyone rushed through the palace doors, completely disregarding their appearance. The nobles, usually dressed in immaculate attire, ran with their crowns askew and robes in disarray. Some tripped and fell, but they didn't even bother to cry out in pain. They scrambled back up and crawled inside on all fours.
The moment the last person barely threw themselves into the hall, the two heavy doors slammed shut with a deafening thud, tightly locking out the howling evil spirits outside.
Everyone collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, gasping for air.
Grand Tutor Xu Nan patted his chest, cold sweat drenching his wrinkled forehead. It took him a long while to squeeze out a few words. “It... it's closed... It's finally closed...”
Everyone looked at each other, the terror in their eyes receding slightly. Some pushed against their knees, trying to stand up.
However, they had let their guard down too soon. A shrill, bloodcurdling scream suddenly rang out.
“W-what is that?!”
“Who's screaming?!”
In an instant, panic threw them into chaos once again.
Right at that moment, the air on both sides of the hall rippled, and eerie blue light descended from the high ceiling. Horrifying scenes slowly unfurled before them like painted scrolls.
The first image on the left was the first to take shape. Wang Meng's mountainously obese body was suspended upside down by iron chains over a boiling cauldron of oil. Bubbles churned on the crimson surface, and waves of heat distorted the air in the image. Immediately after, he was plunged into the boiling oil, only to be pulled back up by the chains a short while later. The cycle repeated over and over as he suffered the agonizing torture of the boiling cauldron.
“Isn't... isn't that the dealer who sold me Five Minerals Powder? Why is he suffering such tor... torture here...” a young man stammered in horror.
“I remember him. He's the Chief of Black Wind Stronghold. Those people earlier said the stronghold committed endless evils and the bandits were torn to pieces by evil spirits. It was actually true...”
“They even have to suffer torture after death...”
“So there really is karmic retribution in this world...”
“This... this is the Eighteen Levels of Hell!”
With the palace doors shut, the crowd had no choice but to brace themselves and move forward. The images on both sides kept changing. Without exception, the people in those images were all undergoing various forms of gruesome torture.
“That looks like the Third Chief of Black Wind Stronghold...”
In that image, a scar-faced man was locked in a water dungeon, with heavenly lightning repeatedly striking down on him from above.
“Divine Lady... Divine Lady, spare me! I was wrong!”
“I shouldn't have done evil and slaughtered the innocent...”
“I was wrong...”
No matter how piteously he wailed and begged for mercy, the heavenly lightning struck down without a shred of pity. Yet, bizarrely, just like the Chief, Wang Meng, who was boiled in oil, he never died. He could only repeatedly endure the bone-corroding agony.
The onlookers watched with racing hearts and trembling spirits.
As they walked further, they spotted another familiar face in the images: Zhang Xun.
Before them was a vast field of vibrant red Soul-Enthralling Flowers. Kneeling in the middle of the blossoms was a “person” whose face was perfectly intact, but whose body was a mangled mess of blood and flesh. One by one, the Soul-Enthralling Flowers transformed into evil spirits, latching onto him and biting him relentlessly.
“Blech—”
Many in the crowd couldn't help but gag and vomit.
“Save me... I don't want to die...”
“I was wrong...”
“It hurts... It hurts so much...”
“I shouldn't have used Soul-Enthralling Flowers to make Five Minerals Powder to harm people... I really know my mistake... I'm willing to atone...”
“Divine Lady... please let me go...”
Zhang Xun's face contorted in agony, his eyes wide as he stared directly at the people outside the image. He looked like a drowning ghost, desperate to drag them in to take his place.
Too terrified to even speak, the crowd fled deeper into the hall, their faces pale as sheets, as if actual ghosts were chasing them from behind. Stumbling and tripping along the way, they ran for an unknown amount of time.
Suddenly, the space ahead opened up.
Deep within the hall, under a towering ceiling, eerie blue soul-fires floated in the air like a reversed galaxy. On each side stood twelve Coiled-Dragon Dark-Gold Pillars, so thick that it would take several people to encircle them, with every coiled dragon carved to life-like perfection.
Directly ahead, a Nine-Tier Golden Lotus Throne stood majestically atop a high platform. Its layers of petals unfolded and bloomed, radiating a flowing golden light that shone like a solitary sun in the dark, blue-lit palace.
Seated upon the throne was a figure. Her black-gold robes spread out like the night sky, and a twelve-tasseled imperial crown hung low, its bead tassels obscuring most of her face, leaving only the elegant, jade-white curve of her chin visible.
“Living mortals?”
She slightly lowered her gaze, looking down at the shivering crowd in the hall. She gently stroked the snow-white nine-tailed fox in her lap. Her posture was casual and indifferent, yet it exuded an overwhelming, suffocating pressure.
“Divine Lady, spare our lives...”
The knees of those in the front row buckled, and they fell straight to the ground. Those behind them were jostled and fell to their knees in quick succession. No one dared to look up. The figure on the throne was so majestic that it instilled an instinctive urge to grovel from the very depths of their bones. At no other moment had they realized so clearly just how insignificant they were in the face of absolute power.
“Your lifespans are not yet exhausted; you should not linger here,” the Divine Lady spoke softly, the bead tassels on her forehead swaying gently. “Your deeds in life shall be settled one by one by the Underworld after death. Evil-doers cannot escape the Eighteen Levels of Hell. The righteous shall naturally find fulfillment in their next lives. Return.”
She swept her sleeve, and the soul-fires in the hall flared with brilliant light.
The world spun before their eyes, and they lost consciousness.
“Host, why didn't you pull those Five Minerals Powder dealers from the capital into the dream too? They really should see what kind of torture they'd face!” The little fox grumbled indignantly.
If Luo Daoqing, who had been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, weren't already dead, it might not have been able to resist going into the prison to stab him a few times. This world could have been free of Five Minerals Powder if not for him!
He was just lucky to have died early. Back then, Yun Shu hadn't collected the full Heavenly Balance Set yet. Otherwise, Luo Daoqing would have ended up like Zhang Xun, trapped in the Hell of Crime and Punishment, dying and reviving repeatedly until his sins were fully expiated.
“Those people have already lost their humanity. Showing them the scenes of the Hell of Crime and Punishment might backfire, causing them to harm the commoners even more ruthlessly.”
Yun Shu stood up from the throne. Since Shen Yu and the others had been sent back to Yanping City using the teleportation skill of the Mirror of Retrospection Set the moment they stepped into the palace, only she and the little fox remained in this Hell of Crime and Punishment, so she no longer needed to maintain her divine posture.
“Host, what are you going to do?” The little fox followed closely at her heels.
Yun Shu did not speak. She walked out of the palace, retrieved the severed heads that had been hung at the stronghold gates, and buried them beside the flower fields.
Outside the palace, the Soul-Enthralling Flowers, which she had temporarily disguised as spider lilies using the Dream-Entering Bell, reverted to their original form.
Yun Shu stood amidst the blossoms, looking at the fields of Soul-Enthralling Flowers swaying in the wind, and the few fresh graves. She closed her eyes, slowly brought her hands together in prayer, and began to recite the Rebirth Sutra she had learned during her days as an undercover agent in the Golden Triangle.
Although the system claimed that the people of this world were merely soulless paper people, she still wanted to do something for these victims of tragic deaths, so they could find peace.
Halfway through the scripture, a strange phenomenon suddenly occurred. Countless golden specks of light surged from the ground, as if in response to her recitation.
Immediately after, tiny Sanskrit characters emerged from the golden light.
Yun Shu was thoroughly shocked. She hadn't activated any outfit skills just now, so how could such a phenomenon occur?
Rate on N.U.
