Sinking into the darkness, the quartet slowly walked down a winding tunnel.

"We should be nearing the river Styx soon" Ai voice echoed through the tunnel.

Wangji and Yingyue clutched at each other in the darkness, Ai leading them down further away from the fresh air, with Xue Yang trailing behind them.

Xue Yang felt familiar with this place, he was not scared of the dark closing in on them, the stench of dirt soothing him.

The sound of rushing water reached their ears. "Ah we're nearly there!" Ai reassured them.

Wangji's eyes quickly zeroed in a small light a few metered away.

Ai led them closer to light, revealing that it was a lantern on a small boat, dirty, murky water lapping at its sides.

"Hey Charon" she greeted. A hooded figure looked up at her, its skeletal face partially hidden by its hood.

"My lady," he bowed to her and turned to Xue Yang and did the same.

"My prince" he greeted.

His gaze turned to Wangji and Yingyue, who were trying to hide how much he scared them.

"Why have you brought the living down to the place of the dead my lady?" Charon asked in a disappointed tone.

"These people are important and are under my protection Charon, and I'll pay you extra if you bring all of us across the river." Ai bargained.

"Accepted," Charon replied, a skeletal hand reaching for the gold coins in Ai's hand.

Climbing into the small boat, they watched as Charon silently escorted them across the river, watching the contaminated water rush by.

Reaching the other side, they quickly clambered out of the boat, Wangji feeling slightly seasick.

Ai led the way to the ominous black gate staring at them bleakly a few metres away.

But that wasn't the scariest thing, an enormous, black, three headed dog growled at them, sensing they were still alive.

As they inched closer, the dog suddenly pounced on Xue Yang.

Yingyue quickly went forward to help him, but-

The dog was licking him?!

All three heads licked at him excitedly, Xue Yang hastily petting the dog back.

"He still recognises you!!" Ai cried with laughter.

"I- I used to play with him when I was younger" Xue Yang breathed, gazing in wonder at the friendly beast.

"That scared me" Wangji said, grabbing onto Yingyue's arm.

"Let's go Xue Yang," Ai said, pushing forward.

Xue Yang gave the dog, Cerberus he remembered, one last pat, and ran after the others.

"This way to the judgement pavilion," Ai said, as they zoomed by dead souls slowly moving towards a large building.

The dead looked at them curiously, not knowing who they were.

"Ignore them!" Ai yelled over her shoulder, "they have no sense of privacy!"

Reaching the building, they pushed their way to the front.

"Judges of the dead!" Ai announced.

"I would be very grateful if you let us through!"

The three judges though didn't answer, their attention on Xue Yang.

"The prince has come back?" One of them gasped.

"Of course my lady, my lord, go through quickly!" Another one said, quickly opening a door to their right with a wave of his hand. The third judge just had his mouth open the whole time, gaping at Xue Yang.

They quickly left the pavilion, passing by the souls who were going where they were condemned to stay.

They passed by multiple fields, one with souls lazing around with vacant eyes, another where souls were tortured by three ugly winged ladies.

The prettiest one they passed though, was the one where bright buildings stood, with souls lazing around together, playing different games.

"That is the Isle of the blest, where all the souls who did good deeds in their life go," Ai commented as they went by.

Wangji looked wistfully at the place, 'hopefully when I die, I will go there, along with my loved ones' he wished.

Turning to look in front of him, a dark coloured palace loomed over him.

Yingyue let out a shocked gasp as she saw it too.

Tall dark columns, dark turrets reaching high, it was a creation that Wangji hadn't ever seen before.

So different from the buildings in Gusu Lan, with its multiple different rooms, this palace seemed to have every place into one.

Ai led them through a little side gate, with different kinds of plants and flowers adorning the hedges along the way.

They walked down a polished path through what was clearly a garden, with the gentle scent of the flowers wafting through the air.

The path winded into a little garden,where two figures were playing some sort of game.

"THAT'S NOT HOW YOU PLAY IT ZHAN-GE!!" A voice cried.

"NOT MY FAULT YOU'RE NOT GOOD AT EXPLAINING" another voice argued.

"Shut up oldie!!" The first voice snapped back.

Ai just snickered and called out to them.

"Yeah oldie give Yibo a break"

"AI" a figure yelled, throwing themselves on her.

"Hi Yibo" Ai laughed gently.

Yingyue however felt very unhappy at the fact that this person was throwing themselves on top of her Ai!!

"Babe give Ai some reprieve," A voice said.

They all turned to see a man dressed in a short robe, with different shades of blue, a black necklace with a skull resting on his neck. Relatively short black hair, tied up in a ponytail.

The one who threw themself on Ai, stood beside him.

Dressed in a dark robe, he hung onto the other man's arm.

"A-niang? A-die?" Xue Yang said tentatively, stepping forward.

No words were said, as he threw himself into their open arms, all of them shedding tears.

"You literally disappeared on us!!" The shorter man cried, tightening his grip on Xue Yang.

The taller one said nothing but just held him tighter as well.

"I'm home now," Xue Yang said, looking up at his parent's , Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo in adoration.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

So trivia time!!

This is a map of the underworld I took from the internet.

I have some facts for you that I added.

1. The river Styx: you had to cross the river getting a lift from the ferryman, Charon, but you had to pay him with a coin that your family should have left in your dead body's mouth. Disgusting I know.

2.Cerberus: the notorious guard dog of the underworld. Three headed, he could sense if a soul was dead or not.

3.Judgment pavilion: there was three judges there, don't remember the names sorry, but they decided where a dead soul would go based on their deed when they were alive.

4.Fields: the fields of asphodel was where ordinary people with not significant deeds went, they drunk from the river of forgetfulness, hence why I said vacant eyes. The fields of punishment: where the bad people went, they were tortured by three ladies called the furies. And I told you about the isle of the blest.

And done!!!