Volume 1 : Path through Purgatory

Chapter 5 : Eccentric Monk

“It’s you!!”

With a wide open mouth, Zhang Gui could be seen pointing his finger straight at the other visitor. He could not forget that wide smile so easily.

The other visitor turned out to be the same old man with a goatee Zhang Gui had interacted with on the Bridge of Karma. Defying all expectations, this old man whom that bastard Wei had apprehended on the Bridge of Karma had returned.

“Oh! You are here as well ? By now you should have reincarnated already. How unfortunate.” Despite his words, his face retained its ever present smile.

“Ehh ?! Senior already knows Brother Zhang ? Then I won’t have to make introductions.”

“Nevermind that Brother Nanjiang, tell me, did you inquire about my matters ? Can the sentence be reduced ?”, Zhang Gui asked anxiously. Although he also had a lot of questions about the old man, he could only keep those questions to himself for there were more pressing matters at hand.

“Since it looks like the both of you have something to talk about, you shouldn’t mind my presence. I will be moving to that prison cell for the moment.” Perhaps not wanting to bother the two, the old man walked up to the empty prison cell exactly across from the one Zhang Gui was in. He opened the gate with a push of his hand and made himself comfortable on the ground.

Meanwhile, Ox-Head was hesitantly looking at Zhang Gui. With a look of pity, he clasped his hands together. “Brother Zhang, I have truly failed you. I called you my friend but could not help you one bit. With the Yama King having personally presided over your case, there is little left for a small character like me to say. “

Zhang Gui could not help but release a disappointed sigh. With a downcast look on his face, he weakly smiled at Ox-head and said, “ Brother Nanjiang, you have nothing to apologize for. It will happen as it is meant to be. But the fact that you agreed to vouch for a nobody like me has won you my admiration.”

“Since I’m fated to stay in this prison cell, could you atleast tell me how long the sentence will last? The Yama King did mention some 9 years or something but I didn’t understand much of what he said.”

The look of pity on Ox-Head’s face only deepened upon hearing Zhang Gui’s words. “ It looks like Brother Zhang is ignorant about the matters of Diyu. You won’t have to stay in this prison for long, only a few more days but that is only because you will be sent to the 18 Naraka Hells for your real punishment to begin. There you are going to be tortured for nine reincarnation cycles and not nine years. Since you consider me your friend, let me tell you this - No one expects you to survive past a week.” Even for someone as burly as Ox-head with his shiny steel armour and gallant spirit, the mention of the Naraka Hells brought a flash of terror on his face and a hint of dread in his voice.

But that hint of dread was nothing compared to the storm brewing within Zhang Gui. The grating words out of Ox-head’s mouth felt like hammers smashing his head open. He remained rooted in his place with a slightly ajar mouth. Not even noticing the departure of Ox-Head. Zhang Gui just kept on standing there, with the words ‘torture’, ‘won’t survive past a week’ swerling in his mind.

A loud raucous laughter shattered the silence surrounding the prison cell. “ What ? What do you want, Old Man ? Are my circumstances funny to you?”, shaking his fists in anger, Zhang Gui decided to take all his frustrations out on that old man. Momentarily forgetting about how Ox-Head had behaved so respectfully and polite in his presence.

“Hahahaha, funny? Not at all. Your situation is not at all funny. Hahahahaha.” The Old Man was clearly an eccentric personality. Perhaps only a mad man would laugh so much at a situation they described as ‘not funny’. Had it not been for the restriction of the prison cell, Zhang Gui might have leapt at the Old Man by now.

“Hahahahahaha, it is truly not funny. Just hilarious. Also I’m not an old man, at best I’m middle aged. And you may refer to me as Monk Di.”

“Not funny, just hilarious?”, Zhang Gui’s lips twitched at the absurdity of Monk Di’s words but in the end he could only chalk it up to his eccentric personality.

”Not an old man? If this man is not old then my grandfather on Earth is a teenager. Does he think none of us can see those wrinkles?”

“A monk?” Looking at the everpresent wide smile on his face, his salt and pepper hair running up to shoulder and his unkempt goatee, this man looked more of a philanderer than a monk. Perhaps the only part of his attire that resembled a monk were his yellow-orange robes.

“Youngster Zhang, for a mortal soul, your circumstances are truly unusual. Makes me curious, just how did you land yourself in this mess ?”

Having been asked how he landed himself in this mess, Zhang Gui felt like crying. With nothing better to do, perhaps a way to distract himself from what Ox-Head’s departing words, Zhang Gui started retelling his story to Monk Di.

This time there were no alterations nor any distortions. He described the entire sequence of events as it had happened. When he mentioned the matter of Vitality Thunder, Monk Di’s interest was greatly piqued. The two even bonded over their mutual hatred for Bastard Wei. As a man who had manhandled both of them, no small amount of curses were unleashed upon him by the two. When Zhang Gui mentioned uncertainty regarding the contents of the judgement against him, the old monk was not discouraged at all. He simply waved his hand in the air forming a circle with his hands. Under Zhang Gui’s quizzical looks, a small white circle erupted, trailing behind the finger. Brilliant light emerged from the circle partially blinding Zhang Gui for a moment. By the time he managed to recover his sight, a book had mysteriously appeared in the monks hands. It was the same thick leather covered book he had seen in the Xue Palace!

With a smug smile on his face, the monk seemed to be enjoying the puzzled look on Zhang Gui’s face. He flipped open the book and perused through its contents at a remarkable speed. It was a very animated reading often filled with gasps, chuckles and even the occasional aha! The monk was clearly not a quiet reader.

“What is that book?”, Zhang Gui asked with great curiosity.Taking great pleasure in enlightening an ignorant soul, the monk cleared his throat and pointed towards the book, “ This youngster, is your Book of Life and Death. It contains the details of your entire life, all the details. It chronicles the journey of your soul through the mortal realm.”

Reading Zhang Gui’s face, which could only be interpreted as ‘I don’t believe you’, the old monk lightly snorted and threw the book towards his prison cell. Catching the book, Zhang Gui could not help but have a look at the book. On its cover, he could see a few cryptic characters. Presumably, it was the title of the book but he could not understand the language. Randomly opening one of the pages, characters similar to those on the cover entered his sight. He could only helplessly smile at the old man. “How you do expect me to read this.”

In response, Monk Di flicked his wrist causing a blue light to slowly float towards Zhang Gui. It disappeared into his body and immediately after a blue glow shrouded his eyes. A second look at the pages rendered the previously unreadable language readable. And what he saw left him astounded. It was exactly as the old man had said. Every single day of his life had been described with an absurd degree of detail. He even read many events in his life that he had no recollection of. When he turned to the last page, the characters seemed to come to life describing how he was reading his own book of life and death. The page was being written as he was reading it!

Thinking about those three God-like figures from Xue Palace and this old man reading through his Book of Life and Death made Zhang Gui feel particularly vulnerable, even a little embarrassed remembering the shameful acts he had indulged in as a teen.

“They know everything about me? This truly feels like a great breach of privacy.”

Monk Di continued on, “Having read through your story, I must say, you are deserving of pity. It is also no wonder you did not understand your punishment. How could you comprehend Diyu terminology that easily? Listen here, you have been sentenced to suffer the torture of the first eight levels of the Naraka Hells. And the duration is nine reincarnation cycles. Haha, how laughable, as if you can survive even the 1st level for more than 2 days. They probably gave you nine reincarnation cycles because it was the most they could.”

Now that he had met someone with insider information. He could not stop himself from seeking explanation to all the doubts that clouded his mind. In a flurry, a dozen or so questions rained down on the old monk.

“ How long is a reincarnation cycle?”

“ Why did they give me the maximum possible incarceration period ?”

“What are the Naraka Hells like ?”

“ Calm down, calm down, let's look at one question at a time.” Several hours seemed to pass by in a moment and even then Zhang Gui felt like he had only understood a tiny bit. But even the understanding he gained of that tiny bit drained all colour off his face.

As he understood it, the Naraka Hells were one of Diyu’s most fearsome and frightening locations. Only notoriously evil souls ever had the misfortune of witnessing its might. The first eight levels were reserved for mortal souls such as himself but the latter ten were meant to restrain the souls of higher beings. Beings that the monk referred to as ‘cultivators’.

Monk Di had deemed it unnecessary to explain to him what a reincarnation cycle meant, only clarifying that it was an incredibly long period of time.

And as it turned out, the reason he was sentenced to hell had to do with the incident at the Pond Of Incarnation.

The old monk has explained to him that souls were generally an eternal existence. Formation of a new soul was a matter entirely up to luck and not under Diyu’s control. And there are not many things in the world in the world that could exterminate a soul. The Pond of Reincarnation happened to be one of the few things capable of extinguishing souls. Annihilation of a soul was a unique process. A soul once annihilated would never reincarnate, it would cease to exist entirely. By inciting the Pond, he was directly held responsible for the annihilation of 843 souls.

The Tenth Court would never overlook such a serious offence, hence the severe punishment. Had they not wished to raise the number to 844, perhaps he would have already perished.

The monk seemed to be in a generous mood. He even expounded on what he called ‘Principles of Soul’. According to him, a soul is composed of 10 parts. Three parts Hun and Seven parts Po. The Hun forms the spiritual part of the soul. It governs the intangible parts of a person. It is their spirit, consciousness, and intelligence. The Seven Po on the other hand represent the physical aspect of the soul.

The annihilation of a soul that he was being held guilty for involved the destruction of all ten parts of a soul. Instead what awaited him in the Naraka Hells was the obliteration of the three Hun - the so-called ‘primal essence’ of a soul. His consciousness would be wiped out leaving an empty shell of a soul that they could cultivate a new being in. Simply put, they planned on recycling his soul. Since souls could neither be easily created nor be easily destroyed, recycling evil sinful souls was the most appropriate method the Yama Kings could devise. Stripping away the primal essence of a soul was the most feared ability of the Naraka Hells, the pain and agony only came second.

“Venerable Senior, Is there truly no way to survive through this hardship for me? Sure, with your mighty abilities, you must have a way out right ?” After many conversations, Zhang Gui had found that this old man had quite an inflated ego. A few flattering words would make him smile from cheek to cheek. If fawning over this old man could help him escape this hellhole, he was willing to lick his ass clean.

“ Hahaha, Naturally, there are many methods to escape your predicament but you neither have the aptitude nor the ability to pull any of them off. I am also disinclined to help you elude justice.”

Hearing that it was indeed possible to escape stroked Zhang Gui’s hopes. Every hour or so he would continue to pester the old man. Only after he had exhausted all his saliva spitting out praises and compliments, did the old monk cave in.

“Fine, Fine. I won’t help you evade it but... I can help you endure it.”