Chapter 130 - 129: Hell

Chapter 130 - 129: Hell

"Hell?!" Ming Shufeng jumped. Her eyes widened and her breathing accelerated. When her eyes met those calm, endlessly mysterious silver eyes of Wei Wuyin, she felt a sudden sense of danger and uncertainty.

She gulped loudly, echoing even in this spacious chamber. It took several seconds for her breathing to calm down before she asked hesitantly, "How do you know about Hell?"

What was Hell? It was a grand construct that was not for the living. If she wasn’t a seer who could see the trend and will of the Heavenly Daos, how could she even know of it? Like others, it would merely be mentioned in passing or in some religious texts about a world after death. There were many names for it, the yellow springs, the underworld, the netherworld; but regardless of what it was called, just like the world’s force, it had one name: Hell.

Wei Wuyin felt a storm of relief flow endlessly through his heart as he seemed to have made the correct assumption. The Scripture of Sin detailed many things about the Heavenly Daos, the Rites of a Sinner, and the Calamities of Hell.

However, it selectively excluded any concrete detail on their origins or purpose. In fact, besides the Heavenly Daos three thousand commandments, and a few functions of Karmic Luck Value, such as how it can benefit others in one’s sphere of influence and karmic ties, there was barely any explanation.

Even today, he was still trying to grasp an understanding on how Karmic Luck worked and how the Heavenly Daos mysteries. For example, he didn’t know how he gained 0.1 Karmic Luck to this very day.

That being said, he did know one thing and this was from inference of the details described in the Rites of a Sinner. In it, it describes that Heavenly Daos will judge you and send a calamity to end your connection with all life, allowing you to descend to Hell. Supposedly, every sinner’s soul experiences this upon death.

However, he got to experience it in the real world, and due to it, he got access to Hell. It was this access that allowed his physical body and soul to venture into Hell and experience the Calamity of Hell. For what purpose? He still didn’t really know. All he knew was that successfully overcoming any Hell was accompanied by boundless karmic luck that entered the soul.

It was then brought back to the mortal world and could be actively used. It was a trick. A sleight of hand, in its truest sense. But the Heavenly Daos were the fool.

So knowing that Ming Shufeng knew of Hell, he felt that her connection with the Heavenly Daos could expose more detail about the Calamities of Hell. If he was given this information, no matter how small, he could prepare as best he could against it. He hadn’t sealed her cultivation base in hopes of her glimpsing into the secrets of hell, if needed, with her powers as a Seer.

This was his only way to increase his chances of survival.

"Not enough," he replied to Ming Shufeng. "That’s why I need you. I want you to tell me everything you know about Hell."

Ming Shufeng’s eyes stayed fixated in Wei Wuyin for the longest time. She didn’t understand why anyone would want to understand a world beyond life, created for sinners.

"...If I tell you, will you not make me do anything else?" Ming Shufeng asked. While she was shocked by his desire for this knowledge, she also understood the implications of the Spirit Oath. It seemed to cover a lot of basis, but it in fact had numerous holes within. If Wei Wuyin instructed her to get naked, crawl on her hands and toes, and proceed to use her mouth to pleasure him, she would have to do it.

If he wanted to do other sexual acts that wouldn’t take her primal yin, she would have to do it.

Just as another question entered his thoughts, Ming Shufeng broke her silence and continued, answering it. "However, the Heavenly Daos are fair and just. There are those unaffected by certain aspects of Hell’s cleansing ritual. If one can withstand the trial, the karmic luck would be integrated into the soul and stored for later use. If one’s soul doesn’t perish during the process of cleansing, then they’ll reincarnate as a Blessed."

When she said that last word, her eyes roamed to Wei Wuyin. Blessed shouldn’t know they were Blessed or the existence of Blessed. It was something the Heavenly Daos specifically wiped from their memories and made sure they never had contact with. This was to prevent complacency due to knowing one’s fortune and then dying due to wrong or lazy choices.

If she tried to tell a Blessed they were Blessed, she’d receive an immense backlash. But telling them of its existence wasn’t an issue, and was often used to verify their existence by seers, oracles, and fortune tellers.

Wei Wuyin frowned, "Blessed?" He asked her with a deep look of contemplation. Then, he seemed to grow dull for a split second, then he acted completely normal.

Her heart trembled. So he was a Blessed.

As for Wei Wuyin, he sneered inwardly. One of the details in the Scripture of Sin was a warning to not tell those Blessed that they were Blessed or about Blessed individuals. You can speak about the abstract karmic luck and karmic sin, but this was taboo. Not only would this alert the Heavenly Daos of your existence as an Inheritor of Sin, but you might suffer a backlash.

After all, with the identity of Blessed, you should never know about their existence, so how can you tell others?

Ming Shufeng felt more confident in her heart.

Wei Wuyin blinked, "You said there were trial’s of Hell, what are they?" This was his main purpose!

Ming Shufeng didn’t find anything irregular about this and calmly answered, "Hell is said to be divided into eighteen layers. When a sinner dies, they get sent to the layer that matches their accumulated karmic sin. The greater the karmic sin, the further down they go, the harsher the trial to overturn their fate of being born as an ant, dog, or eternal slave due to their actions. It is truly a calamity for sinners."

"And these eighteen layers are?" He could feel his heart race as if it was participating in a sprinting marathon.

"...the first trial devised and the weakest calamity of all sinners is called the Calamity of True Loss. It revolves around cleansing the soul by plaguing them with alternative pasts, presents, and futures, reliving harsh memories, experiencing death or the constant loss of life, and then the deteoritation of one’s greatest, most cherished memories. It is cruel..." Ming Shufeng shivered slightly at the thought.

To be shown the dreadful past, present, and future, altered as if one lived in it. While it is merely the first layer, it is a truly impossible trial to overcome for anyone with emotions and attachments.

"It continues to make you experience intense, burning agony of living these events over and over until your soul disperses. After the outer shell of your soul had vanished, the sin that infects the soul would vanish, and it can enter the River of Souls to go through the process of reincarnation."

Wei Wuyin’s sea of consciousness shook. He still recalled the things his other ’self’ experienced. That other ’self’ was completely unaffected because it had no recollection of his past, present, or future. It was like watching a play. How could someone be tormented outside of feeling pity for the characters?

It was this experience why he felt his death was all but ensured.

"What about the second layer?!" His voice was agitated a little. He needed to know! If the first layer could be avoided without memories, then the second must have something to avoid it!

Ming Shufeng bit her lips and said, "The second layer is..."