91. The Underworld

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Zhu Eldan soon received two thousand taels of gold from Lord Chu.

“Ah Dan, what is this?”

Zhu Eldan’s father came over and, seeing the three large chests, asked the question.

Zhu Eldan said nothing. He opened the lids of all three chests, revealing them to be filled to the brim with gold.

“This is the case of Lord Chu. I won it, and this is my reward. Well? In your whole life, have you ever seen so much gold?”

He lifted up a lump of gold and spoke as he weighed it in his hand.

“Lord Chu was indeed utterly devoid of conscience, murdering his father to seize his inheritance. Xiao Rong said this would bring retribution. This is all ill-gotten wealth,” Zhu Eldan’s father said, slapping the table in anger.

“What did you say? Ill-gotten wealth? Let me tell you, I earned this with my own sweat and blood. I ran myself ragged, turned every thought over in my head, and only then did I win Lord Chu’s case. And you? You sit here enjoying the fruits of it, yet dare call it ill-gotten wealth!”

Zhu Eldan roared at his father.

“You really are gifted at twisting words,” his father could only reply.

Just then, Zhu Eldan seemed about to say something when he sniffed the air.

“Didn’t I order that there must be no stinking tofu in this house?”

Furious, Zhu Eldan hurled the gold in his hand back into the chest, turned on his heel, and stormed toward the source of the smell.

“It smells so good!”

Ke Shaorong was frying stinky tofu. She picked up a piece, brought it to her nose, sniffed it, then set it back into the pan to continue frying.

“What did I tell you? No more stinky tofu, and you still do it!”

Zhu Eldan said angrily.

“I like stinky tofu. It’s my specialty. I’m taking up my old trade again,” Ke Shaorong said without even looking up.

“Taking up your old trade again? You must be dreaming. Come here.”

Zhu Eldan pulled Ke Shaorong away from the pan.

“What are you doing?”

Ke Shaorong slapped his hand away.

“I don’t like that smell. Look in the front hall. We have three chests of gold; we could never spend it all in this lifetime. Why must you make yourself reek like this?”

Zhu Eldan said angrily.

“All of that is ill-gotten wealth. I won’t even touch it. I want to earn my own money.”

As soon as she said this, Ke Shaorong was about to go back to frying stinky tofu.

“How ridiculous. You are a member of the Zhu family; of course you use the Zhu family’s money. Besides, with that pretty face of yours now, do you think you can go outside and make a public spectacle of yourself?”

Zhu Eldan said, grabbing Ke Shaorong with one hand and lifting her chin with the other.

“I don’t care!”

Ke Shaorong knocked his hand away.

“I do. You are carrying my child now, and I want you to stay home and take good care of yourself.”

“I am not a pig!”

“You are no different from a pig!”

“You...”

“Right now, all I want is for you to bear me an heir!”

“Fine, fine, fine. I won’t give birth to your bastard child!”

After saying that, Ke Shaorong struck her own belly hard.

Smack!

Zhu Eldan slapped Ke Shaorong across the face.

“Ah Dan!”

Seeing him hit Ke Shaorong, Zhu Eldan’s father hurried over to stop him, but Zhu Eldan still wanted to rush forward and strike her again.

“How dare you hit me? How dare you hit me!”

Ke Shaorong pointed at Zhu Eldan in fury.

“Why would I not dare? You think because you know martial arts I wouldn’t dare hit you?”

Zhu Eldan said with a savage expression.

“Ah Dan, stop arguing. For the sake of the child in Shaorong’s womb, speak kindly and calmly.”

Zhu Eldan’s father grabbed him.

“Kindly? Fine.”

“Wife, listen carefully. You are not to seek death, not to cry, and do not even think about hanging yourself. You must give birth to this child properly. Do you hear me?”

Zhu Eldan stepped forward and embraced Ke Shaorong.

“You are not my husband. My husband has long since died!”

Ke Shaorong broke free from his arms.

“Hah, you’re right, absolutely right. That useless husband of yours died ages ago. As for your husband now, he is a god.”

Zhu Eldan laughed madly and left the place that reeked of stinky tofu.

“Father, Zhu Eldan has truly become a devil now,” Ke Shaorong sighed.

That night.

“Brother Bai, if you go a day without eating, that won’t do. Do you want to kill yourself and go fight that Underworld Judge Lu to the death? Even so, shouldn’t you wait until my cousin returns?”

“I know my cousin hasn’t come back for several days, but at least there is still hope.”

“Fine, I’ll take it as though you can’t hear me. But if you want to go fight Judge Lu to the death, then at least be full first. Judge Lu’s incense offerings are the most abundant of all. You need enough strength to contend with him. Like this, how can you possibly fight anyone? Why do so many people, before dying, want to eat their fill? Is it not because they hope to walk a little farther on the road to the underworld?”

Chen Yuanwen looked at Bai Yang, who was lying on the bed.

“Thank you, Brother Chen, for reminding me. I have an idea.”

Saying this, Bai Yang left the Chen residence, leaving Chen Yuanwen utterly baffled.

Temple of the Ten Courts.

Holding a white silk sash in his hand, Bai Yang pushed open the temple gates. Outside, thunder cracked and rain began to pour.

“I know you are a ghostly deity. You have your power, your authority; both men and ghosts fear you. But I do not. You bend the law for your own gain and cannot tell good from evil. You are not fit to be a deity, not even fit to be a beast. You are simply worse than pig or dog, hah...”

Standing before the statue of Judge Lu, Bai Yang spoke, word by word, with deliberate contempt. When he reached the phrase worse than pig or dog, he enunciated each word separately, then burst into wild laughter.

“You evil prince, I’ll fight you to the end!”

Bai Yang stopped laughing, threw the silk sash over the beam above, and as the thunder outside grew louder and the rain heavier, he kicked away the incense burner before the statue, stood upon the altar, tied a firm noose, and, staring into the eyes of Judge Lu’s image, kicked the altar out from under himself and began to hang himself before the deity.

As the altar toppled away, a suffocating pressure closed in from every direction. His legs flailed desperately, his eyes wide and fixed on the statue.

Thunder rolled more and more frequently, and lightning flashed ever more often.

Suddenly, a bolt from the sky struck the sash, bursting into flame. Bai Yang crashed heavily to the ground.

Lying there, he clutched his neck and broke into violent coughing.

“You wicked prince! If you dare stop me, I refuse to believe I cannot die!”

Once he had caught his breath, Bai Yang pointed at the statue and shouted, then rose and left the Temple of the Ten Courts.

In the torrential rain, under flashing lightning and roaring thunder, Bai Yang climbed the cliff. He even lost one of his shoes along the way, but did not stop to pick it up, only kept climbing.

“May heaven bless me so that Bai Yang may enter the underworld in peace, meet the Great Emperor of Mount Tai, and seek justice for my wife, Zhang Xiaoman. Heaven, I beg your mercy.”

He pressed his palms together and, after speaking, closed his eyes and leapt from the cliff amid thunder, lightning, and the storm.

“How can I still hurt all over if I am already dead? But at last... I am finally dead!”

Bai Yang woke after lying unconscious for a time.

“Dead, dead, dead!”

A voice suddenly called out.

“I’m finally dead. What does it matter if my whole body still aches?”

Bai Yang smiled.

“That’s not you being dead. If you do not get up, then it will be me who dies!”

Another voice followed.

Bai Yang looked to the side and was startled to see a human-shaped dent in the ground; he had just sat down upon someone’s stomach.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

He hurriedly helped the man up.

“Ouch... that hurts to death,” said the Great Emperor of Mount Tai.

“I did not mean to,” Bai Yang said quickly.

“You sat right on my vital point.”

“I am truly sorry. I really did not mean it.”

“Then you must have meant it. You are such a strange fellow. If you were going to die, could you not die farther away? Did you not see that I was in a fine sleep?”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai said with displeasure.

“I’m sorry. Then please continue sleeping. This junior will seek death somewhere else.”

Bai Yang cupped his hands and bowed.

“Wait. All mortals are born afraid of death, yet you insist on seeking it. You are truly an odd one.”

“I recognize you now. Aren’t you the one who once applied medicine to my leg injury?”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai rose as though nothing had happened and recognized Bai Yang.

“You are that Daoist with the leg injury, are you not? Please forgive my rudeness just now,” Bai Yang said with clasped hands.

“It is nothing. And do not call me Daoist; just call me the Wretched Priest.”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai waved a hand.

“Tonight I must go seek death somewhere else. Wretched... Priest, farewell.”

Bai Yang cupped his hands, then turned to leave.

“Wait. Tell me, why are you so determined to die?”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai called after him.

“Because I must go to the underworld.”

Bai Yang answered without hesitation.

“To the underworld? Then tell me what happened,” the Great Emperor of Mount Tai said with a laugh.

“I had thought that the gods and spirits punished evil and upheld the good. Who would have imagined that Judge Lu of the underworld would use sorcery to run amok among the living, aiding a treacherous villain in seizing my wife’s head? No matter whether I must ascend to heaven or plunge into the earth, I, Bai Yang, will certainly reclaim justice!”

Bai Yang told the Great Emperor of Mount Tai the whole story.

“Very well. You must go?”

“I’m going to seek death right now!”

Bai Yang turned to leave.

“Wait. I can help you find Judge Lu,” the Great Emperor of Mount Tai said, stopping him.

“Truly?”

Bai Yang looked at him in disbelief.

“Nothing in the world is difficult, so long as one has the will.”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai took a sip of wine.

“Please grant me your aid, Priest!”

Bai Yang dropped to his knees and bowed.

“Remember this: death cannot solve problems. Get up, get up.”

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai helped Bai Yang to his feet.

“Now sit cross-legged. I will send you into the underworld.”

Bai Yang could only trust him and sat down cross-legged.

The Great Emperor of Mount Tai gathered his yin energy in his palm, then struck out with a single blow, sending Bai Yang’s soul instantly into the underworld.

The underworld.

“Let go. Let me go.”

Two ghost officers escorted Bai Yang past the Gate of Ghosts, where they met Judge Lu.

“Tell me who helped you. Otherwise, I will turn you into a real ghost right now and ensure you are never reborn!”

Judge Lu gathered yin energy in his palm and drew Bai Yang into his hand, gripping him by the collar.

“So long as I can seek justice for Xiaoman, what is eternal damnation to me? Even if I had to die a hundred more times, I would not hesitate!”

Bai Yang sneered and roared at Judge Lu.

“How can there be such a person who does not care whether he lives or dies? You truly infuriate me.”

“Tell you what—both of you, both of you, both of you, step outside first. I will handle him.”

After saying this, Judge Lu glanced at the two ghost officers, and they turned and departed.

“Young man, let me tell you. In this day and age, whether one is a person or a god, it is never easy. I know this all too well.”

After the two ghost officers had left, Judge Lu changed to a smiling face and laid a hand on Bai Yang’s shoulder.