Chapter 1 Different from Expectations

Contrary to imagination, the River Styx was not covered with countless floating skulls, nor was it filled with the despairing spirits of the river's waters. It was just an ordinary great river.

The river surface was wide, the water was calm, and the water flow was a dim gray-black color. Although it was impossible to see how deep the river was, it always gave people the feeling that "if you fall in, you will never be able to float up."

"This is the River Styx."

Fury strode forward and came to the river bank. He bent down, scooped up a handful of river water, and washed his hands.

"The water of the River Styx is formed by the tears of prisoners serving hard labor in hell, and should be a mysterious substance of extremely high quality,"

The witch raised an eyebrow. "Quick, ask him what he's doing?"

"Uh..."

Mule stood beside him and asked cautiously, "Mr. Fury, I remember that the River Styx is formed by the tears of souls, right?

Can this water be used to wash your hands?"

"Of course."

Fury stood up, shook his hands, and said as a matter of course, "The saying that the River Styx is formed by the accumulation of tears is made up,

Think about how many tears it would take to make a river.

Even if all the human souls from ancient times to the present were piled together to watch tragic dramas, they wouldn't be able to collect enough. Not to mention that there are many hard-hearted people among human souls."

Mule asked, "Then what is this river water..."

"Water leaking from the ceiling,"

Fury said calmly, "The top of Paradise Mountain can communicate with the real world.

The five Dinosaur Lords, sixty million years ago,

Dug a spring in the sky, borrowing seawater from the Pacific Ocean in the real world, and encircling the Underworld to form the River Styx, providing living and production water for the beings of the Underworld.

Because of the subtle differences between planes, the water in the Underworld is indeed much lighter than the water in the Yang world. Some unsuspecting souls rashly ventured into it, and easily sank.

Over time, terrifying wails have been floating in the river."

"Wails?"

Mule listened intently for a while, but didn't hear any wailing. He asked doubtfully, "Why isn't there any..."

"That's because the River Styx has been治理 (zhìlǐ - governed/managed/treated)."

Fury shrugged. "Decades ago, this was still a dirty river. The water was extremely eutrophic, and semi-dead souls that had accumulated over the years were floating everywhere.

Limbs and broken arms caused by war,

And garbage discharged from unscrupulous factories upstream and downstream.

The wailing was endless, the stench was overwhelming, and it was suffocating.

In the end, even the warlords upstream and downstream of the River Styx couldn't stand it anymore, and temporarily ceased fighting.

They introduced dozens of benthic devil fish from the幽暗地域 (You An Di Yu - dark regions) of炼狱 (Lian Yu - purgatory), and released them into the River Styx to devour the garbage - they can digest any substance in the world,

And only then did the water quality of the River Styx slowly improve."

Fury looked at the sparkling river surface and sincerely sighed, "Improve the ecological environment and return the green mountains and clear waters to our homeland."

"...Why does this sentence sound like something out of *Getting Rich*?"

Black Stallion couldn't help but complain.

"The real point is that even the underworld has to face serious environmental management problems."

Li Ang said calmly, "Moreover, *Getting Rich* is already outdated. The real wealth code is to go on Bilibili and say, 'I'm a foreigner, I love the East, the East is really amazing and great', 'Although I'm only nineteen years old, I have twenty years of depression and personality split', 'All the proceeds from this video will be donated'."

"...Why do you know so much..."

Black Stallion said with a pained expression, "And how does nineteen years old with twenty years of depression work? Did you start getting sick in the womb?"

Li Ang said calmly, "It's simple. You can do it by listening to death metal prenatal music every day during prenatal education.

I've been listening to prenatal music for twenty years, so I'm always a little smarter than others now."

Li Ang was talking nonsense with his eyes open, but unfortunately he was in a projection state at the moment, otherwise he would have to find a way to get a few so-called benthic devil fish from the river to take a look.

This is a script world of mythological level, with good things everywhere, but unfortunately none can be taken away.

Mule pretended not to hear his companion's complaint, and asked Fury hesitantly, "Uh, so are we going to cross the river?"

"Yes."

The bald black man nodded and said, "Normally, all biological souls, including humans, will be based on their species and location before death,

Assigned to different city gates - which is the door we just crossed,

They have to go through a long queue, waiting for the ferryman of the River Styx.

However, given that you, Lawyer, are an unprecedentedly distinguished guest, we have specially cleared out a VIP channel to welcome you.

If you go through the ordinary city gate, there should be human souls wailing and screaming everywhere along the way."

Fury paused and added, "Arrogance, envy, rage, laziness, greed, gluttony, lust.

Souls with extremely heavy thoughts before death will transform into strange and bizarre shapes in the world of the underworld.

I don't think you'd want to see those deformed monsters."

"..."

Mule smacked his lips and asked hesitantly, "Then Mr. Fury and I are people without desires before death?"

"Haha, that's not necessarily the case."

Fury smiled brightly. "The deformed characteristics of some souls are not revealed on the outside,

Others who have been in the underworld long enough can also learn to hide their deformed appearance.

As a saint, you certainly have no problems,

As for me...

I probably had some kind of strong wish before I died, but I've been dead for so long that even I've forgotten what that wish was."

Fury shook his head regretfully and looked at the river surface. "Well... judging by the time, Charon should be coming soon."