Chapter 336

All three of Alegu's divine demons shook their heads.

"Without immense fortune, Meng Po is not powerful—or rather, no one knows what her true strength is, whether weak or strong; she appears in ancient texts solely because she obtained the Other Shore Flower."

According to that ancient record of strange tales, ten thousand years ago, a mighty divine demon at the Third Step of Divinity fought a mortal duel with his opponent and lost, his divine soul severely wounded.

His opponent seized all remedies capable of healing the divine soul, leaving him unable to mend it.

His faction was also destroyed by his foe—he was surely doomed at that moment.

To evade his enemy's pursuit, he hid his identity and concealed himself in a secular town of ten thousand people.

His original plan was to lie low, searching for a remedy to heal his divine soul, or else wait there for death.

Thus, fearing discovery by his enemies, he chose not to live in luxury but in a dilapidated, lowly part of town.

Once, as usual, he left town to inquire about remedies for his divine soul, when he happened to hear coughing and a thud from next door.

Remembering that their neighbor, Meng Po, had always been kind to him—since he moved in, she had frequently brought him food, a true secular good soul—he entered her house and found her fallen on the ground.

He went in, helped her up, and transmitted some divine demon energy to aid her in recuperating.

Meng Po was deeply grateful and wished to give him a gift, but he refused—he had no use for anything now, unless it was a remedy to heal his divine soul.

Since he had long failed to find a remedy and was nearing death, he resigned himself and replied to Meng Po's insistence on repayment: "If you must give something, give me a remedy to heal my divine soul."

At the time, he spoke purely in jest—he had no idea Meng Po took his joke seriously.

The next day, Meng Po went out searching for a remedy to heal the divine soul—and she never returned. He blamed himself for a long while.

One year after Meng Po's disappearance, just as his own end was near, she returned.

She brought back a single Other Shore Flower.

According to the ancient record, Meng Po's return with the Other Shore Flower saved that divine demon; she learned from him that she had been gone for a year, yet according to Meng Po herself, she had only spent one day in the realm between life and death.

That divine demon, having trained in the secular world for over a year, witnessed the illusions of mortal desires and refined his Dao; after consuming the Other Shore Flower to heal his divine soul, he not only restored his strength but also gained unexpected power, surging far beyond his former level.

He ultimately killed his enemy and avenged himself.

To repay Meng Po, he even wished to change his title to Meng Po Wang.

Meng Po replied at the time: "Meng Po Wang sounds awful—don't change it. If you must change it, call yourself San Sheng Wang—I think 'San Sheng' sounds better."

This is the content recorded in that ancient text about the Other Shore Flower.

It is almost certain that Meng Po was a mortal."

Hunde Lun and the other divine demons exchanged regretful glances—they had thought there was some immense fortune, but Meng Po was merely an ordinary person.

Too bad Kamikawa Mitsu was not here—if he knew their thoughts, he would surely reply.

That Meng Po may not be an ordinary person at all—she might have received fortune like Zhuanlun Sheng Wang.

They conversed a while longer.

Alegu and the others did not linger; each plucked one Other Shore Flower and continued forward.

To be honest, they very much wanted to pluck more Other Shore Flowers.

But for reasons unknown, an inexplicable intuition arose—anyone who plucked more than one, even just one person taking two, would inevitably summon great terror; each person could take only one Other Shore Flower.

This strange notion surfaced without cause, like an instinct, etched into their minds, compelling them not to pluck more.

They flew across the sea of Other Shore Flowers.

After advancing a distance,

an ancient stone bridge appeared before Alegu and the others.

The stone bridge emitted a faint, ghostly glow, resting upon a river of blood-yellow hue, spanning both banks, standing firm as if erected since eternity—its span was not merely a river, but the divide between life and death, yin and yang, the weight of time's decay.

They approached the stone bridge.

The bridge was vast, majestic and imposing, its surface paved with blue stone, featuring five steps.

The blood-yellow river surged violently, yet when it reached the stone bridge, its waves calmed—as if some supreme power prevented the current from striking the bridge.

Beneath the bridge, the river flowed ceaselessly, rising in wisps of mist, rendering the bridge mysterious, ethereal, and majestically ancient.

"Naiheqiao."

Alegu and the others arrived before the stone bridge and directly read the ancient characters inscribed on the upright stone tablet beside it.

As they read, they froze.

What's going on? Why do I understand these characters?

They had never seen these ancient characters before, yet they felt like marks of the Dao—merely seeing them, they naturally understood their meaning; truly miraculous.

This could not have been carved by anyone of their level—it was far beyond them, so much so that the meaning of the ancient characters had been imprinted upon them like the Dao itself, allowing even those who did not know the script to comprehend their sense upon reading.

Tokyo, Japan.

At the moment Kamikawa Mitsu saw the ancient characters on the tablet, he finally confirmed it.

Indeed, he was right.

The mysterious mist-shrouded realm was the Netherworld—the Netherworld recorded in Chinese mythology—and this river was the Chuanhe!

"Perhaps, like Zhuanlun Sheng Wang and Meng Po, someone from Earth—perhaps an ancient Chinese—accidentally entered this realm, giving rise to the legends of the Netherworld, Diyu, and the Chuanhe."

As Kamikawa Mitsu speculated, Alegu and the others had already stepped onto the Naiheqiao.

"Soul drifting, passing through the Ghost Gate; path endless, journeying to the Yellow Springs; river clear, crossing the Chuanhe; bridge solitary, how can one bear it? Soup tasteless, brewed by Meng Po; stone heartless, carved with Three Lifetimes; how can one forget mortal dust and long for home?"

The moment they stepped onto the stone bridge,

a distant voice sounded—genderless, ageless.

It echoed from all directions of heaven and earth, as if rising from within their hearts, reverberating in their minds, ringing in their ears.

Even Kamikawa Mitsu, far away in Tokyo, heard it.

Alegu and the others felt their hair stand on end—in that instant, their divine souls nearly detached; had Kamikawa Mitsu not acted in time to activate the seal he had left on them, their souls would already be floating upon the bridge.

They gathered their divine souls, calmed their spirits, and realized they had broken into a cold sweat.

"Who is speaking!"

"What the hell kind of place is this?"

Aleigu and the others watched the surroundings warily, the power of gods and demons surging and wreathing their entire bodies, vigilance pushed to the extreme.

No one answered them.

All around was silent, only the rushing waters of the blood-yellow long river, no other sound.

After waiting another good while and carefully probing to confirm there were no others, Aleigu and the others continued forward.

Stepping over five tiers and walking onto the Bridge of Helplessness, they found that the sound of the blood-yellow long river's waters had vanished, as if no sound from the outside world could approach the Bridge of Helplessness.