Chapter 36 Chapter 10: The Undead used to go to the Netherworld

"If you enter the 'Netherworld', you may not be able to pass through the Heavenly Court of the Ghost Domain. But if you don't enter the 'Netherworld', you will definitely not be able to get out of the Heavenly Court of the Ghost Domain." It is such a simple truth, so the Dongguan Brigade hardened their scalps, and helped Princess Longsan into the dark and strange world: Netherworld. "Some people say that this ghost is the place where people die. If they leave this world, this is the final destination of the dead." In the dark and gloomy space, Princess Long San said quietly while supporting her staggering steps.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, several major religions of ancient Chinese civilization had not yet fully developed, and Buddhism, which had the most believers in later generations, had not yet been introduced to China, and the fundamental concept of Taoism, "Tao", was just an empty philosophical theory, and was revered as the ancestor of Taoism. Li Er, the teacher's "Lao Zi", will not be born until several hundred years later. In the beliefs of Chinese people in later generations, the world after death is nothing more than 18 levels of hell, bull head and horse face, judge Yan Luo and other religious fantasies. Of course, the world has a certain degree of imagination, but it has not yet reached the point of a complete system.

Therefore, at this moment, the Dongguan Brigade is supporting Princess Longsan to walk in the "ghost" time and space of the Ghost Domain Heavenly Court. Although they are looking around curiously, they don't have any strong feelings. I saw that the "Netherworld" is a huge space with extremely dark luminosity. Although I know from the previous experience that the "Netherworld" in front of me may be much smaller than the real Netherworld in the mythical space thousands of years ago, it is still The space is huge, making people feel extremely mysterious and profound.

However, this nether world has obviously been destroyed by years of time, and many places have shown signs of collapse. On the plains in the distance, there are many huge black eggshell shapes, but when you look closely, these shapes are Most of them have been broken. If those "things" were really eggshells, no matter what was hidden in the shells, they would have been empty by now. Generally speaking, although this "gloom" is dark and gloomy, the entire space seems to be dilapidated for a long time. Even if there was anything, it has already disappeared. The Dongguan Brigade and the Third Princess Long walked slowly on the dark land, passing through a huge city that looked like a city. The strange thing is that there was a huge black plaque in front of the city, with crooked There are many characters written in the strange characters, among which there are barely a few characters that can be recognized clearly, but there are several large characters of "Ghost City".

But walking into the city, one can see a lot of open space, but there are not many buildings, and even a few lonely buildings are uniformly dilapidated and destroyed. In the middle of the quiet city, it is strange that there is a big river with calm ripples. The river is as black as ink, and the river surface is extremely wide. Occasionally, a few splashes of water hit the river bank. Although the sound of the water is slight, it is still there. This strange and silent space spread far away. Supporting Princess Longsan, the Dongguan Brigade temporarily took a breather on the bank of the river and took a rest.After setting up Princess Long San, he curiously stood by the bank of the nether water and looked towards the opposite bank. Because the river is extremely wide, he saw that the opposite bank was quite far away, and the light was not clear. There seemed to be many huge black bodies sitting quietly on the opposite bank.

The Dongguan Brigade patiently stared at those huge human bodies, wanting to see if "they" were living things, but he stood there staring for a long time until his eyes ached, but he still couldn't see them. Those huge figures moved. He walked along the river bank for a while, seeing that there was really nothing to observe, then touched his nose and walked back. Under the dark sky, Princess Long San's hair was messy, she had closed her eyes and fell asleep with her head up. And on her originally slender waist, her belly is already huge at this moment, and for some reason, under the dark sky of the Nether World, there is still a faint blue light.

When they got here, the Dongguan Brigade didn't know how to move forward for a while, and wanted to ask Princess Longsan, but saw that she was sleeping very soundly. Of course, it was not easy to wake her up immediately, so they sat quietly on the river bank Above, looking at the bleak sky in the distance. I don't know how long I sat on the bank of the river, but suddenly there was an unusual ripple on the surface of the Nether River, and the sound of the water began to be a little strange. Originally, the Dongguan Brigade couldn't hear the difference in the sound of the water, but because the entire gloomy space was too quiet, he listened for a while, but he began to find that something was not quite right.

Following the sound of the water, the Dongguan Brigade looked around curiously, but saw a ferry boat slowly crossing the Nether River. Dark water, dark sky. Even the ship was jet black. The East Gate Brigade stared dumbfounded at this strange pitch-black ship slowly swaying towards it, and looked back at Princess Longsan, only to find that her eyes were still closed, as if she was sleeping very soundly. When the black ship got closer, I saw a dark and thin figure on the ship, with faint blue eyes in the dark space. "I'm Houtu, the gatekeeper of this netherworld." The "person" said softly, "Do you want to come up?"

The Dongguan Brigade was a little hesitant, but looking at the strange scene around him, he couldn't help feeling extremely curious. In his nature, he has a curious tendency to pursue unknowable things, so when he is with Hu Er, Xiong Lu and others, he is always most interested in some mysterious things, and he was once teased by Hu Er. At this moment, amidst all the mysterious "gloom", being suddenly invited by such a strange person is rather a worrying thing. After all, I know nothing about this dark world, and I will meet you in front of me. There is no concept of anything.

It's just that he changed his mind and remembered to think about it from another angle. Even if something dangerous happens in this space, even if this weird Houtu is against him, he probably has no ability to parry him. At this time, the princess seemed to be extremely weak again. Even if something happened, the two of them could only be slaughtered. Thinking of this, the Dongguan brigade felt proud, gritted his teeth, and nodded. "Okay, I'll go." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he thought of Princess Longsan who was sleeping next to him. He turned his head to see her sleeping expression, and said with a little dejection.

"But I can't leave my friend alone." The "Houtu" smiled lightly, and the long pole in his hand made a pleasant sound of water waves on the water. "She'll be fine here, and I don't know how many years I've been in the 'Netherworld', as long as I stay on the shore obediently, it will be safer than any place in the entire Ghost Domain Heavenly Court." Hearing what Houtu said, the Dongguan Brigade felt relieved, so they walked forward quickly, regardless of whether the water in the Nether River was dangerous, they waded into the water and boarded Houtu's ferry. The long pole in Hou Tu's hand swung slowly, and the small boat leisurely rowed into the Nether River, floating forward and gently on the river. I don't know how long we have been going, but the river bank began to have a faint light. The Dongguan Brigade stared at the light curiously, but found that it was like a soft wave of light, which was more faintly visible in the light. To the shaking of figures and many things. "This... what are these things? What is this place?" Dongguan Brigade asked several questions in one breath. , who are you?" Houtu, who claimed to be the gatekeeper of the Nether Realm of the Constellation, was now concentrating on holding a long pole and speaking quietly, but what he said was just a repetition of what he had just said. "This is Nether, and I am the gatekeeper of Nether: Houtu." "I know you are Houtu, you just said that," Dongguan Brigade said with a smile, "I just want to know where this 'Ghost' is, and where are you from?" Hou Tu seemed to be thinking carefully, and after a long time, he spoke softly. "I'll just say that. I'm both a Houtu, but I'm not a Houtu either. This place is both Netherworld and not Netherworld." "Very good, very good," the Dongguan Brigade said angrily, "Thank you for making it so clear." Such an answer already had a taste of ridicule, but Houtu didn't think it was disobedient, and just nodded. "You're welcome. Although you still can't understand what I mean, I think I can tell you in another way. For example, today you saw a picture with a river drawn in it. Let me ask you, did you see a river? " "Of course," Dongguan Brigade nodded. "Or you could say, 'I saw a picture of a river'." "So when you say, 'You saw a river,' you don't necessarily see the river itself, you just see its shadow, right?" Dongguan brigade nodded. "right." "So, that's my answer to you right now. I am Houtu, because I am a person created according to the real Houtu, and I am exactly like him in many ways. For my true identity, there is a name that maybe you can understand, I am actually a 'Human'. " "Human?" Dongguan Lvqi said strangely: "It's like the 'Human' created by real people in Biluomen." "That's right," Hou Tu nodded and smiled gently. "So I can talk to you, and I can also guard this 'Ghost' with the form of 'Hou Tu'. But I am not Houtu, because the real Houtu is not here, but if you want to know something related to Houtu, you can find the answer from me. " Once he explained this, the Dongguan Brigade could understand, so he said with a smile. "I understand, so this 'ghost' is the same, it is made according to the real 'ghost', although it is very similar, but the real 'ghost' is elsewhere." He thought his explanation was quite reasonable, but Houtu let out a deep laugh after listening quietly. "It's actually not right to say that." "No?" The Dongguan Brigade said a little unhappily: "What's wrong again?" "The 'Netherworld' where you and I are at the moment is a part of the Heavenly Court of the Ghost Domain, which also belongs to the time and space of ancient mythology. Later, after years of changes, it gradually shrank like this, but whether it is in the Heavenly Court of the Ghost Domain or the Netherworld, the two Things in this world are still the most primitive structure thousands of years ago. Now the ghost under the control of the real "Houtu" has gone elsewhere, in a very remote and inaccessible place, but the "ghost" he is in is branched from here, maybe the scale of the "ghost" Even bigger, many undead spirits in the world will go there after death, but if you want to mention the real original 'Ghost', it's still here. " The East Gate Brigade thought for a moment, frowned, and then said cautiously. "So, it's a bit like an old store opening a branch. The branch may be hundreds of times bigger than the old store, and there are thousands of people in it, but when it comes to the old store, we still have to mention the humble original old store. ,yes?" Houtu smiled and said, "Although it's a bit of a philistine to say so, it's basically the same." The two were slowly swaying in the Nether River, and the Dongguan brigade couldn't help asking when he saw the strange streams of light. "What are those things?" Houtu was silent for a while, and then spoke softly. "Time." "Time?" The Dongguan Brigade asked curiously, but they didn't know much about the term.He lived in the seventh century B.C., but the "Houtu" in the nether world is a strange machine that transcends the times. It possesses information and memories of many different eras. At this time, when the word "time" was spoken, it made Dong Guan Lu was a little confused. "What is time?" "What is time..." Houtu said with a leisurely smile, "This is a good question. Since I know the world, many people have asked this question, but few people can answer it." "I can't answer it, so I don't need to say it, right?" Dongguan Brigade said with a smile: "It's interesting for you to talk." "To put it simply, time can be said to be some things, the traces that some people have experienced, which are a bit like footprints, but they are much richer than real footprints. No matter what you said, what you did, a look, even a slight movement of the corner of your eye, can be the footprint of time. This 'Netherworld' world was once a place that housed countless undead in the world, and the memories of the undead left here are the most abundant information in the world. Although no undead will come here anymore, what was there in the past still exists, and what they once remembered may appear here at any time. " "Is that the rays of light?" The Dongguan Brigade looked curiously at the light waves flowing in the dark space. "Aren't those the same thing as will-o'-the-wisps?" "Wild-o'-the-wisps are just tangible things, completely different from these 'times'," Houtu said leisurely: "Each light may represent the lifetime memories of thousands of people. When people are about to die, they will be particularly nostalgic for the moments before they were alive. No matter how trivial things are, they are likely to be recorded in the spirit body after death. Those lights are what happened to many people before the end of their lives. If you watch and listen with your heart, you may be able to see the most important things in the lives of many, many people. " The Dongguan Brigade listened to Houtu's fluent description of the various characteristics of "time", but to be honest, after listening for a long time, he still had no idea.We must know that the matter of "time" is a great mystery in civilization. Even with the efforts of wise men throughout the ages, even in the twenty-fourth century after three thousand years, people still have a half-knowledge about time, let alone It was the Dongguan Brigade at this time. However, according to Houtu's guidance, the Dongguan Brigade focused its eyes on a certain ray of light, looked at it, and seemed to be able to see a slight blur of light and shadow in the ray of light. He continued to stare at the light and shadow curiously, but after a while, a scene like a revolving lantern appeared. In the flashing lights and shadows, I saw a baby who fell to the ground and cried very sadly, but the place of birth was a very poor village in a dilapidated thatched hut. The little baby grew up slowly, and his life was still difficult, and the era he lived in was still full of wars. This child grew up in the chaos of war, and worked as a shepherd boy, a beggar, and even a kind of headgear A strange man with a clean shaved body (Dongguan Brigade lived in the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient China, when people still knew nothing about Buddhism, and they didn't know what a monk or monk was). Then, in the midst of the war, the little boy grew up and joined the war. He and a group of friends continued to kill and fight in different battles. After many tragic battles, the little boy became a mighty Chinese Young people, and finally became the emperor supported by thousands of people. But after the little boy became the emperor, he did not become a happier person. After he became the emperor, there was no more war in the world, but he still kept killing people, including heroes, subordinates, and those who had been with him since he was a child. Friends who grew up together. In the end, the little boy was about to die. It was strange to say that Dongguan Brigade was just looking at the light and shadow in "time", but for some reason, he could even feel the thoughts of the person in the light and shadow. When the little boy was dying, he was already an old man, lying on the couch, of course he was extremely satisfied with the hegemony he had built in his life. However, his son died early, and his grandson who was going to succeed him was too young. He wanted to find some capable people to assist his grandson, but found that he had already killed them all. He never believed in people, he didn't believe in friends, he didn't even believe in his closest relatives. Therefore, the last thing he thought of before he died was that he knew that his life had been so lonely and lonely. The "narrative" in light and shadow ends here. The Dongguan Brigade looked at the life of this "emperor" in a daze, but couldn't remember any famous emperor in ancient times who had such a life and experience. When he was thinking about it, he turned his head and saw Houtu staring at him quietly. "It's a very interesting story!" He nodded and said with a smile, "This... is the story of which feudal monarch, why have I never heard of it?" "These people and these things may not have happened in your world," Houtu said meaningfully: "In the 'Netherworld', the present, the future, and the past have no meaning. For example, you The life of the emperor you just saw, although he has grown up and aged before your eyes, in fact, in your world, he may not be born for thousands of years, and his life journey will take thousands of years will start later.” "Will it start after thousands of years?" Dongguan Lvqi said: "He has already experienced birth, old age, sickness and death. Why did he have to wait thousands of years before he was born?" "Those who have been born may not yet exist, and those who have not been born have already had all the past," Hou Tu said word by word, but he couldn't understand every sentence he said. talking about something. "The past equals the present, but the present is the future, and the future can be the past. This is the true essence of 'time'." "If it's such a 'essence', then I probably won't be able to understand it for the rest of my life," the Dongguan Brigade laughed self-mockingly. "Because I can't understand anything you're saying now." Hou Tu smiled lightly, as if he had long been accustomed to such a result. "People always think that they must know something in their whole life, and they often think that there must be an answer to everything." Hou Tu said: "That's why people will always be curious and keep asking." "Isn't that right?" Dongguan Lvqi said: "Everything in the world has a real truth. As long as there are puzzles, there must be answers. Is this so strange?" "Do you really think that things in the world really make sense, and there must be an answer?" "certainly." "It's just that many smart and wise people have realized that there is nothing in the world that can be called an 'answer'. One thing can be an answer at a certain moment, but it may be the beginning of another mystery at another moment. . Just like the life of the emperor you just saw, for you, that happened once, maybe it can be called an answer. But for him, it will take thousands of years for him to be born, and he will practice this kind of life once, so this life is an unknown mystery for him at this moment. " "According to you, what's the use of such a thing as 'time'?" Dongguan Brigade asked suspiciously: "Since you haven't happened before, you may have seen it several times in the eyes of others. What is the purpose of life?" Hou Tu's "eyes" seemed to have a taste of approval, I saw him leisurely looking at the distance of the Nether River, and said quietly. "So, this is the question that the wisest people on earth end up pondering. Yes indeed!What is the meaning of such a life?Why is there such a thing as 'time' if it's just for playing a game? " "That's right," the Dongguan Brigade said with a smile, "I'm just waiting for you to tell me the mystery and truth." Interestingly, Houtu quickly had an answer to this question. "There is a kind of worm that is born in summer and dies before autumn, so this kind of worm never knows that there is such a thing as 'winter'. If it could talk, if you asked it: 'What is winter, what is ice? ', how can it answer?This is called 'summer insects cannot speak ice'. You ask me, what is 'time'?For me, I am the summer bug. If you ask me what ice is in winter and what it looks like, I really don’t know. " The two talked on the Nether River, and the Dongguan Brigade occasionally watched some people's sorrows and joys, life and death together, sometimes they laughed, and sometimes they felt heavy. There was a beam of light, but there was a scene that surprised the Dongguan brigade. Because in the memory of that light beam, the huge statue of Star Arrow Wasteland actually appeared! I saw that those god statues were the same as in ancient times, able to move and leap flexibly. They were in a strange open field, but they only obeyed the orders of a middle-aged man. This middle-aged man has just lost his wife and child due to a disaster, and because of the strange advice, he has the ability to create a "human". After creating several "Humans" similar to his wife and children, this middle-aged man was even more inspired. I don't know whether he built it himself or got help from other places. In the open field, there are huge statues of stars and arrows lined up all over the place. Judging from the actions and behaviors of the giant statues, they should also be a kind of "humanization". It's just a pity that the memory in this period of light only ends here, and there is no way to test how it will develop afterwards. Seeing that the Dongguan Brigade was very interested in this memory, Houtu thought about it for a while, and said quietly. "This memory is very closely related to people like you who are descendants of the Xingjian clan." When it said this, Dongguan Brigade's heart moved, and it turned out that Houtu had already recognized that he was a member of the Xingjian clan. "The matter of the Star Arrow race is an important mystery in the ancient times, and the connection with the Nether is even more profound. As far as I know, many of Star Arrow's giant 'Humans' were even built by real Houtu. The person you met just now is named Gu Shucheng, and he is also a person who has not yet existed in your world, and his involvement with the descendants of Xingjian is a very long story. If you can find him, the mystery of Xingjian may be solved. untied..."