Having suffered heavy damage in the Second Hall,
And having burned his origin to flee nearly half of Hell,
At this moment,
King Chujiang’s soul body was already like a flickering candle in the wind,
Seeming as if a slightly stronger gust could extinguish it.
Not to mention now,
A hand had already pierced into his body,
Equating to him already standing on the edge of a cliff,
Then being pushed hard from behind.
A generation of Yama,
Was about to fall upon the city wall, symbolizing the supreme power center of the underworld,
Which undeniably,
Was a great irony.
This was an irreversible ending; his demise was already destined.
Below, many of the listless and muddle-headed clerks within the city were still unaware that another Yama was about to vanish from this world.
A thousand years, even for the beings of the underworld, was quite long, long enough that several generations of underworld clerks had long grown accustomed to the high and mighty status of Mount Tai’s small temple, accustomed to the ten Yama Kings guarding their respective territories.
In this world, there is no absolutely perfect system; any system, as long as one is accustomed to it, is a good system.
Lawyer An had, on more than one occasion, acted like a soothsayer in front of Zhou Ze, shouting, "The wind is rising, the wind is rising!"
Perhaps,
Even Lawyer An himself hadn't anticipated that,
This great wind that was about to sweep across Hell,
Would actually be initiated by his own boss,
Personally.
When King Pingdeng Lu died, it was already a time of gathering storm clouds.
But because of Zhou Ze and Ying Gou's rampage in Hell that time, it was forcibly put on hold.
And this time,
What he had put on hold a year and a half ago,
Was about to restart in his own hands.
The affairs of the world are unpredictable, yet there are always traces to follow; the more you draw, the more it resembles a circle.
…………
First Hall,
King Qinguang Jiang stood on the side of the small abyss hell,
Reaching out to push the peach tree beside him,
Petals scattered,
The roots were pulled up,
This only peach tree in Hell, which had been painstakingly transplanted from the yang world,
Fell into the abyss,
It was over,
Keeping it,
Was meaningless.
No matter how beloved, how cherished something is,
It will no longer have any meaning.
Second Hall,
The surviving purple-belt judges lay scattered on the side of the Second Hall's palace walls, which resembled ruins,
Their faces wearing expressions of numbness and confusion,
As if,
The sky had fallen,
Yes,
For them,
The sky,
Had indeed fallen.
Fallen inexplicably,
Fallen unexpectedly,
Fallen like a joke,
Fallen so hard that everyone was still in a daze.
The day before, the King had entered secluded cultivation to revive his yang,
Today, the King had fallen in Hell.
They couldn't see any grand trends,
They only knew that without the King,
This Second Hall would rapidly fall to the same state as the Ninth Hall, which had been bloodily washed.
Even worse, the Ninth Hall had been basically bloodily washed, it was already empty, but they, those who had survived under the Moon Lava, would be labeled and continue to face a future of苟活 (gǒu huó, ignoble survival);
Perhaps,
This would be an even greater torment.
Third Hall,
King Songdi Yu was sitting in a pavilion,
Listening to Mr. Su sing opera,
Mr. Su was clearly singing a sad tune,
But the more King Songdi Yu listened, the more he laughed happily,
Happily to the point that his body began to tremble,
The tea in his teacup began to spill out continuously, yet he was completely unaware.
He wanted to laugh,
He wanted to be happy,
The more one deliberately does something, the more one is actually escaping something.
He didn't admit it,
Didn't admit it,
Absolutely wouldn't admit it!
Fourth Hall,
King Wuguan Lu stood by the Blood River,
Watching the continuously churning bones in the river,
His expression indifferent,
Scrolls of documents floated out from behind him, falling into the Blood River and beginning to dissolve.
These records, these documents, these things, they were all meaningless.
The newcomers would redo everything, they wouldn't cherish these things, so it was better to just throw them all away at once!
Fifth Hall,
King Yanluo Bao sat in the main hall,
Gazing at the Dog-Head Guillotine in front of him,
His eyes filled with contemplation.
The Dog-Head Guillotine still gleamed with a cold light,
But the light of determination that had once been in King Yanluo Bao's eyes was gone.
What was lost was fortitude,
What remained,
Was only the passing of time.
Sixth Hall,
King Biancheng Bi sat on the desolate, high slope of the Exile Hell; in front of him, there was a huge pit, and officials were escorting souls carrying sins to carry out the cruel punishment of being buried alive.
King Biancheng Bi reached out and grabbed a handful of frozen soil,
Placing it on his forehead,
Slowly letting go,
As if he wanted to be buried alive with them,
If being buried alive could end everything,
That would truly be the best,
Better than continuing to live, continuing to stand outside,
Watching the newcomers laugh,
Should he,
Or should he not cry?
Seventh Hall,
King Taishan Dong stood before a painting,
The person in the painting was dressed in white, elegant and unrestrained, with a simple and honest ape standing beside him.
King Taishan Dong slowly reached out and took off the crown on his head, placing it in front of the painting,
Sighing,
"Lost, all lost, can't hold it anymore, can't really hold it anymore."
From the era of the Prefecture Lord, to one of the Yama Kings.
The Mount Tai orthodoxy had never truly been in his hands, but he had lived like a symbol.
Now,
Even this last remaining symbolic meaning would be stripped away.
Gone,
It's all gone.
Eighth Hall,
King Dushi Huang coldly watched the myriad souls being cooked in the cauldron below,
Reaching out,
He picked up his favorite inkstone,
And threw it into the firewood,
From now on,
Imperial endorsements in red ink,
Would no longer need it,
Might as well burn it, burn it, burn...it.
Ninth Hall,
A red-belt judge sat in the empty hall, his eyes hollow.
Tenth Hall,
King Zhuanlun Xue overturned all the documents on the table,
Letting out an angry roar!
…………
Back then,
The ten Yama Kings lacking one King Pingdeng Lu,
Represented the shattering of the round mirror,
Now,
Lacking another King Chujiang Li,
Meant that this disintegration could no longer be stopped.
Everyone was sighing,
Everyone was also saddened,
Everyone was also helpless,
But everyone,
Was not innocent.
The only different one, King Pingdeng Lu, had already completely dissipated a year and a half ago.
The troublemaker had been pulled out early,
What remained,
Was a pot of frogs,
The warm water had already been boiled into boiling water,
There was no escape.
King Chujiang slowly raised his head,
Continuing to look at Zhou Ze,
Dense fireflies began to dissipate around him; this was King Chujiang's last remaining origin.
Zhou Ze wouldn't eat it unless he offered it willingly.
Because that would mean great trouble; eating it would easily cause indigestion and poisoning.
Moreover,
These origins were already very little,
Much less than what the old monkey had given him before he died,
Most of it,
Had already been consumed in the process of pursuit.
"Why... why?"
King Chujiang still didn't understand,
He was now like an ordinary person before being killed in the yang world; what he sought was simply death, and he wanted to die understanding why.
"I... have done it."
"Then... then what?"
"It's difficult."
"Then... then what?"
"So, I know you definitely can't do it."
"..." King Chujiang.
Today,
King Chujiang thought of that dish name for the third time.
This thing, I have done it.
So I know how difficult it is;
Even I find it so difficult to do,
Then,
With your level,
You simply can't do it.
So,
Since keeping your life won't allow you to do it,
Then go die.
Very cruel,
Very realistic,
With a cold, hard texture.
At this moment,
King Chujiang understood,
His ending was already destined,
No matter what he said, no matter what he promised,
For the man before him,
He didn't care.
In his eyes,
He saw indifference,
True indifference.
He didn't care about the empire he had once built, didn't care about him once sitting on the bone throne overlooking the vast territory beneath his feet;
Didn't care about the changes of the sun, moon, and stars, and didn't care about the changes of yin and yang.
"I... I'm curious... back then... why did you go to stop it..."
Zhou Ze slowly raised his arm,
A generation of Yama,
Was lifted up by him.
He hadn't planned to say so much nonsense to him,
But since it involved the events of that year,
It wouldn't hurt to say a few more words.
"Because... I was sitting in that position back then."
His tone,
Carried dissatisfaction,
Carried disgust,
Like he had encountered a troublesome matter that he had to deal with, in short, very unwilling.
Because he was the Lord of Hell back then,
When the changes of yin and yang were about to occur,
He could only step forward to stop it.
After all, in Ying Gou's dictionary,
There was no word "escape."
Even if the price for it was his success, he would fall because of it.
But he didn't regret it; what he had was still that kind of annoyance and... disdain for trouble.
"Last... last... one question..."
King Chujiang's voice was already very, very small,
As most of his remaining origin dissipated,
His consciousness was also becoming increasingly blurred,
"Last... one question... why... why did the ten of us... come to this... this point today..."
Why,
Why,
Why on earth?
Perhaps before reviving his yang, perhaps before Ying Gou came to the door of his palace, he didn't realize what his death meant.
But now,
He understood,
He understood when he passed Mount Tai and was not allowed to enter.
His death,
Was the key push to the collapse of the ten Yama Kings system,
His death,
Would announce the complete collapse of the ten Yama Kings system.
The old will go down;
The new will come up.
The Bodhisattva had deceived him,
No,
The Bodhisattva hadn't deceived him,
Back then, before he revived his yang, he went to ask the Bodhisattva, and the Bodhisattva had told him about a stage, an era, a stage.
He thought the Bodhisattva was talking about Ying Gou,
Actually,
The Bodhisattva was talking about him.
The Yama Kings all thought they had sixty more years of glory,
But actually,
Less than two years!
The Bodhisattva,
Couldn't wait any longer.
Yes, he really couldn't wait any longer, just waiting for me... to die.
King Chujiang was waiting,
Waiting for Ying Gou to give him an answer.
Ying Gou looked at him,
And gave the answer,
After hearing this answer,
King Chujiang's body,
Completely collapsed,
Dissipating into this vast Hell underworld,
In the moment of dissipation,
He seemed to still be savoring that answer:
"Virtue... not... matching... the position..."