Chapter 697: Extra One

This chapter is an extra of this work; it does not involve the main plot development. Those not interested, please skip directly.

I am seriously writing this extra; I first listed the emperors that will appear in this extra. Wild imagination, for your amusement.

The main text is still very long…… I had said earlier I would write an extra, and I'll insert it when I think of it, for fear of forgetting the inspiration later. The extra will be marked in the title; those not in a hurry can wait to see it later, okk.

Chronological Table of the Emperors of the Great Jin Dynasty

Jin Taizu – founding monarch, reigned 26 years.

Jin Xuanzong – reigned 28 years.

Jin Jingzong – reigned 41 years.

Jin Chengzong – reigned 10 years.

Jin Lingzong – reigned 19 years.

Jin Xianzong – reigned 35 years.

Jin Yuanzong – reigned 3 years.

Jin Huanzong – reigned 29 years.

Jin Shunzong – reigned 12 years.

Jin Anzong – reigned 46 years. (Great-great-grandfather of the King)

Jin Hezong – reigned ten months. (Great-grandfather of the King)

Jin Zhangzong – reigned 38 years. (Grandfather of the King)

Jin Huizong – reigned 15 years. (Emperor Ningde)

Jin Youzong – reigned 4 years. (Baili Jin)

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Extra One

The Yellow Springs Realm, a city of the netherworld inverted outside of time.

Here there is no life nor death, no impurity nor purity; it is the destination of myriad souls, yet it is not the endpoint of all stories.

The entrance to the six paths of reincarnation may lead to heaven, humanity, the Asura realm, the animal realm, or becoming an evil ghost serving in hell—all depending on this life's karma. There is one exception: the emperors of the mortal realm.

It is unclear since when, but the emperors of the mortal realm began to linger in the Yellow Springs Realm.

The place they stay is called the Final Hall.

On the road to the Yellow Springs there are ten halls of the Yama Kings; this is the eleventh hall, not recorded anywhere, and only appears after the death of a mortal realm emperor. There is no plaque, the doorframe is bare; upon entering here one knows that everything ends here.

In life they held authority over all under heaven; after death they became permanent residents of the Yellow Springs Realm's Final Hall, undying and imperishable, time frozen, awaiting an unknown, possibly nonexistent next reincarnation.

From the Great Jin to Baili Jin, there have already been fourteen emperors; the short-reigning Emperor Guanglie who briefly sat on the throne, for unknown reasons—whether the Heavenly Dao does not acknowledge him or something else—has not yet appeared in the eleventh hall.

With the passage of time in the mortal realm, now the Bai Li clan is lively; when Jin Taizu, that is the founding emperor of the Great Jin, arrived here, the people he met were either enemies of the previous dynasty or legendary figures; a year, two years, ten years is fine, but they are many and strong, while he alone, having been here a long time, inevitably finds it hard to endure.

Loneliness is also a kind of alternative punishment. In life he was busy and splendid; after death, in the eleventh hall he spent a few leisurely years and then grew bored, yet he did not want his beloved son, the heir to the throne, to come too soon. In this contradictory endless wearing-down, he waited for his son, grandson, great-grandson, and ever more descendants bearing the 'Jin' character.

Three hundred years have passed, and Gaozong feels his consciousness may be worn away in the endless ages; his relatives, big and small, around him now number twelve.

Just as he thought he might never be reincarnated again, but instead would completely vanish in the eleventh hall, the eleventh hall's sky, red for three hundred years, suddenly split open a crack, then the crack widened, forming a huge black projection in the sky.

Everyone discussed it wildly; most speculated that something major would happen in the eleventh hall, and Jin Taizu even heard a defeated general from the old Zhou family of the previous court say that the eleventh hall would fall into hell through that crack.

Some looked forward to the change, some feared it, but evidently none of this would alter according to their will.

Three days later, that pitch-black curtain suddenly brightened, and then one could actually see an image of another realm on it!!?

To be continued……