Chapter 504: Hell Is Not Empty

"This leg?" Tang Luo pointed at the Ksitigarbha's true thigh on the ground.

"Not long after Master left, I touched it with my severed hand, and the thigh shrank on its own, becoming its current size," Zhu Bajie said.

"Looks like we need to find the Ksitigarbha parts scattered throughout Hell and piece them back together whole," Tang Luo nodded.

"..."

"..."

Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie didn't speak, feeling overwhelmed.

Would the thing pieced back together be the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's true body?

Or would it be... some indescribable dangerous monster?

Tang Luo tossed a rib into the ghost palanquin, and the three people and one dog walked some distance away; the ghost palanquin likewise didn't budge an inch.

These evil ghosts indeed reacted to a part of Ksitigarbha; at the very least, they wouldn't actively attack Ksitigarbha's parts.

In this way, it also counted as temporarily safeguarding the people on the ghost palanquin, no need to expend merit power to confer the Opening of Light on them.

"Only one road, let's keep going," Tang Luo said.

He held a Ksitigarbha rib in his hand.

Zhu Bajie held the human-head banner and severed hand; Ao Yulie "embraced" a thigh, and another rib was clamped in Xiaotian Dog's mouth.

The whole scene looked extremely bizarre, very much like some dark Journey to the West illustration.

Not to mention, the scenery to the side was also pitch black, evil ghosts teeming everywhere.

"Come to think of it, holding this thing, those ghosts don't appear anymore," Tang Luo said.

The hundred-odd evil ghosts entangling him, with Tang Luo holding a part of Ksitigarbha, died down and didn't appear again.

But Tang Luo could feel they were stirring restlessly, waiting for another chance to "attack."

Thinking it over, Tang Luo decided to give them a chance.

"Doggy, go," Tang Luo threw the rib in his hand.

Xiaotian Dog made no sound, moved its four short legs, speed not slow at all, leapt up, opened its mouth, and clamped onto that rib as well.

The moment Tang Luo threw away the rib, the scene of a hundred ghosts entangling him appeared once again.

Only this time, there were additionally incomparably shrill ghost howls.

Like the scene of waves crashing against reefs appearing once more.

"Huh..."

The hundred ghosts dispersed, a trace of surprise appearing on Tang Luo's face; Xiaotian Dog wagged its tail and ran to Tang Luo's side, mouth opening and closing, having already spat out one of the ribs.

The other was still cleverly clamped in its mouth.

"What's wrong? Master," Ao Yulie asked.

"Those ghosts aren't tangling with me," Tang Luo said. "They actually ran off."

All the evil ghosts, after this attack proved ineffective, each and every one truly left Tang Luo in the real sense, no longer continuing to entangle him.

The free blacksmiths actually ran off; Tang Luo expressed displeasure.

Barring any accident, this is Hell after all, you evil ghosts' lair; since coming here, shouldn't you be even more motivated?

They actually all fled... or did they go call more brothers?

"Forget it, let's go," Tang Luo picked up the rib on the ground, and the group continued forward.

There's only one small path, completely no need to worry about direction; before this small path reaches its end, they don't plan on "a road forms when many people walk it."

If they finish walking with no gains, they can return to the temporarily "suppressed" ghost palanquin and have the ghost palanquin serve as a free taxi.

See where the ghost palanquin would take them.

Used properly, evil ghosts can also exert no small effect.

"Are those graves?" Zhu Bajie, walking at the very front, narrowed his eyes; the dead trees diagonally ahead vanished, replaced by black earth mounds.

That shape looked very much like graves.

【41】 The group walked over there; the darkness "receded" as they approached, revealing a graveyard sitting by the roadside.

A few people walked over there, and as they approached, the darkness "receded," revealing a cemetery situated by the roadside.

In front of every grave stood a tombstone, precisely indicating the earth mound's "true identity."

As far as the eye could see, at the end stood a small wooden cabin.

Might be the gravekeeper's residence.

Although generally speaking, gravekeepers wouldn't live deep in the graveyard, but rather at the entrance or such places.

"Let's go take a look," Tang Luo was the first to leave the small path; a few steps and he stepped into the graveyard's bounds.

Should be because of the Ksitigarbha rib; no strange changes occurred.

Tang Luo walked to the tombstone, bent down to look at it, wanting to see the deceased's information.

The characters on it were indeed arranged following many public cemeteries' format.

However, every single character was "death," red death characters, crooked and slanted, all kinds of fonts.

As if written in fresh blood, containing enormous resentment.

"Mine says 'death'; what's written on yours?" Tang Luo spoke.

"'Sin,' all sin characters," Zhu Bajie's voice came from in front of another grave's tombstone.

"Master, mine are all the two characters 'repentance,'" Ao Yulie said.

The three exchanged information, unable to judge what profound meaning these characters held; clueless, they simply gave up thinking and walked toward the cabin in the depths.

Ao Yulie looked back, heart startled: "Master, the road's gone!"

After entering Hell, in most situations, everyone's visibility was around thirty meters; thirty meters out, the place was swallowed by darkness.

Like each person carried a lamp that could only illuminate thirty meters.

And the "light" couldn't stack; it wouldn't happen that Tang Luo was thirty meters to Ao Yulie's left, Zhu Bajie thirty meters to Ao Yulie's right, and Tang Luo could see Zhu Bajie.

But now, Tang Luo and the others had only just stepped a few paces into the graveyard.

There was still a stretch of distance to that small wooden hut; standing on the little path one could see the hut, and turning back now one should be able to see the path.

What Ao Yulie saw, however, was a stretch of pitch-black darkness.

"Oh?"

Tang Luo walked over, the darkness dispersing with his movement, his inexplicably suppressed field of vision expanding once more.

But the little path had already vanished, replaced by another part of the graveyard.

Looking out, the end of his sight was still graves.

Scanning across, the only "scenery" visible to the eye was graves.

"Let's go check the wooden hut first," Zhu Bajie suggested.

Inexplicably having lost their bearings, rather than wandering blindly, better to continue according to the original plan.

The three people and one dog paid no further heed to the graves beside them, heading straight for the small wooden hut.

The terrain where the small wooden hut sat was slightly higher than the surrounding graves, quite possessing a "viewing all lesser mountains at a glance" feel.

The wooden door was ajar, open a gap the width of a palm.

Only one story, no windows.

Not entering immediately, Tang Luo first went up and kicked it; the wooden hut didn't budge an inch, quite sturdy.

Zhu Bajie pushed open the wooden door with his severed hand, feeling no more resistance than pushing an ordinary wooden door.

Only, as the door was pushed open, the scene inside remained a stretch of darkness, not revealing itself to Tang Luo and the others' sight.

Tang Luo stuck his head inside the door, seeing likewise a stretch of darkness, and simply strode inside.

When both feet simultaneously entered the doorway, the scene before his eyes finally changed.

A sweep of his gaze: the small wooden hut was empty inside, nothing at all, clean like a freshly built shell house.

Zhu Bajie, Ao Yulie, and Xiaotian Quan also walked in.

"Nothing here."

"Still—" Ao Yulie had just opened his mouth when he suddenly felt a slight wetness on his face.

"Woof!" Xiaotian Quan let out a threatening low growl, body crouching low.

Ao Yulie reacted fast, hugging his thigh and dodging to the side, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tang Luo.

The three people and one dog simultaneously looked up at the ceiling.

There, a severed hand was hoisted by a rope, hanging in midair.

This small wooden hut had a triangular roof, a crossbeam; the severed hand was precisely hung by the rope beneath the crossbeam.

Unlike the severed hand on the head-pile which was like jade, this severed hand was even more mutilated, the forearm only half remaining.

The hand was covered in bloodstains, but that dark red blood was not flowing from the severed end.

Rather, it flowed down from the fingertips.

Tang Luo grabbed through the air, pulling the severed hand down; the process was extremely easy, that rope snapping with abnormal cleanness.

The severed hand formed the Sweet Dew Mudra, the dark red blood continuing to flow slowly, yet not staining Tang Luo's palm in the slightest.

As if the two existed in different spaces.

Tang Luo shook it hard twice; a few drops of blood were indeed flung out, landing on the wooden walls of the hut.

"Sweet Dew Mudra," Ao Yulie said, "Looks like this is another one."

The blood that had landed on his face just now merely slid across it, likewise not staining a bit.

"Shh..." Zhu Bajie suddenly made a quiet gesture, "Did you hear something?"

"What?" Ao Yulie asked.

"Listen closely, sounds like someone chanting sutras," Zhu Bajie said.

Everyone quieted down, all sound vanishing completely, no heartbeat, no breath sounds either.

"If in my past lives, from beginningless birth and death onward, the myriad sins I have committed."

"If done by myself, if taught others to do, if seen done and rejoiced. If pagoda if monk, if four-direction monk property. If taken by myself, if taught others to take, seen taken and rejoiced."

The voice was there yet not there, almost imperceptible.

"Coming from outside?"

Tang Luo said, beckoning with his hand.

Everyone filed out of the small wooden hut.

The scene outside the small wooden hut had undergone a tremendous change.

No longer the original graveyard; underfoot was soft grassland — green grassland.

Since entering Hell, the colors seen were nothing but black, white, gray, red; now green had suddenly appeared.

"The Five Uninterrupted Sins, if done by myself, if taught others to do, seen done and rejoiced."

"The Ten Unwholesome Paths, if done by myself, if taught others to do, seen done and rejoiced..."

The chanting by the ear began to grow loud, but also grew further blurred, becoming indistinct.

Yet within this indistinctness, there was no need to strain to hear clearly what was being chanted; one naturally "heard clearly" its content.

"Master, that residence..." Ao Yulie raised a hand pointing to the right.

There stood a manor, its appearance identical to the manor Tang Luo had visited, where he found the Ksitigarbha severed hand.

Even the two old men before the manor were exactly the same.

"I've been there."

"What about this tree?" Zhu Bajie asked.

On the other side was a human-head-sized tree.

"It's the one by the roadside," Tang Luo said.

There was also a square pond, no need to say more—everyone had seen it, including that ghostly palanquin and the wedding procession, right by the pond's edge.

These places bearing the "Earth Store Puzzle," or having once had the "Earth Store Puzzle," reappeared before Tang Luo and his companions.

And the addition was a ruined temple.

Its roof no longer existed, unable to shield from wind or rain.

When Tang Luo and his group's gaze fell upon the ruined temple.

"The sins committed, whether concealed or not concealed."

"They shall fall into hell, evil spirits, beasts, all remaining evil realms, borderlands of the lowly, and the realm of the deceitful and violent—such places."

The chanting suddenly rang out loud, yet also grew more indistinct.

"The sins committed, now all repented..."

"Guilty..."

"Repent..."

"They shall fall into hell..."

"Hell not empty, I vow not to become Buddha."