The Terror of the Heavens Begins with Gu

Chapter 300 The Mystery of the Disappearance of the Underworld's Gods and the "Grim Reaper" Who Manages the Underworld
Li Zhen lowered his hands: "I only came to the underworld to see the administrators of the underworld. Who knew that those ghosts would try to kill me as soon as they saw me? I had no choice but to fight back."

"Perhaps my actions attracted the attention of those evil spirits, and more evil spirits attacked me in droves. I had no choice but to release my two pets to protect me."

The man in the white suit scoffed, "So, you're saying you're entirely right?"

Li Zhen calmly replied, "That's just how it is. If we're going to talk about it, this was just my way of protecting myself."

After a moment of silence, the man in the black suit turned his head and asked, "Is that a reasonable statement?"

The man in the white suit nodded slightly: "At first glance, it does seem a bit unreasonable, but upon closer inspection, it actually makes sense."

"Really?" The man in the black suit hesitated. "He's not lying to us?"

The man in the white suit nodded again: "I could see his sincerity."

The man in the black suit glanced at Li Zhen's face a few times and said coldly, "You've shown some sincerity, so shouldn't you make your pet stop?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the man in the white suit walked up to him and said gently to Li Zhen, "My friend, these two big oafs are there to keep the evil spirits in this area in check. If they are killed, things will get a little troublesome."

"So that's how it is. I thought they were evil spirits too." Taking advantage of the situation, Li Zhen summoned the red-eyed bats and the ghost fetus at the same time.

The blood-covered, red-eyed bat reluctantly returned to Li Zhen's side, hovering behind him and glaring menacingly at the two men in suits.

The ghost fetus, its consciousness somewhat hazy, took a while to return to Li Zhen's feet, letting out a strange cry and emitting a pungent, bloody smell from its flesh-filled mouth.

Li Zhen patted the ghost fetus on the head to reassure it.

The bull-headed demon and the blue-faced demon finally escaped with their lives, and even though they were not in their right minds, they dared not make a sound.

The two men in suits glanced at the red-eyed bat and the ghost fetus, then exchanged a look and shook their heads almost imperceptibly.

Clearly, neither of them knew the origin of the half-human, half-bat demon.

Not only did they not know the demon, but they also had no idea about Li Zhen's background.

If such a terrifying figure had appeared in the human world, capable of cultivating his primordial spirit to such a level, it's impossible that they hadn't heard a word about it.

This person appeared out of nowhere in the underworld as if he had sprung from a stone, giving the underworld a huge fright.

If these two pets are so terrifying, this person, whose background they haven't fully understood, must be even more terrifying. If they were to have a bigger conflict with this person, the underworld would definitely have to pay a greater price.

After weighing the costs, the two decided to settle the matter peacefully.

It is taboo for a living person to enter the underworld without permission. What's more, this person not only entered the underworld without permission, but also killed so many ghosts. If everyone did that, wouldn't the underworld be in chaos?

"Are you two the legendary Black and White Impermanence?" Li Zhen asked, looking at the two men.

The man in the white suit shook his head repeatedly: "We are just minor underworld officials, we dare not compare ourselves to the legendary Black and White Impermanence."

He pointed to himself: "You can call me White Underworld Messenger, and this one... is naturally Black Underworld Messenger."

As he spoke, he patted the underworld official in the black suit.

The underworld official snorted coldly and turned his head to the side.

Li Zhen felt somewhat apprehensive.

These two are not weak; how could they be just ordinary underworld messengers?

Are there Ox-Head and Horse-Face, or Black and White Impermanence, on the altar?

Strangely, unlike the underworld messengers and other things he had encountered before, these two messengers showed him no hostility.

Li Zhen's senses were extremely sharp, and he was absolutely certain that his senses were correct in this regard.

Therefore, Li Zhen, who had originally planned to cause a huge disturbance and capture a living underworld official, changed his strategy.

He can leave this world as soon as he completes his mission. No matter how big the trouble he causes, Li Zhen doesn't really care, so he is not afraid of the underworld.

Even if he encounters trouble temporarily, Li Zhen can return to the human world and let the Corpse Demon shield him from the trouble so he can find a way to complete the unfinished mission as soon as possible.

However, since others treat him politely, he won't directly take action against them.

While reassuring the ghost fetus, Li Zhen tentatively asked, "I would like to see the administrators of the underworld. I wonder if you two could inform them for me?"

The black and white underworld messengers exchanged a glance. The white messenger pointed to his side and said to Li Zhen, "This way, please."

So easy?

After glancing in that direction, Li Zhen hesitated for a moment before walking over there.

The red-eyed bat followed behind him, while the ghost fetus clung to one of his legs, being dragged forward by him.

The two underworld messengers followed behind Li Zhen without saying a word.

The skeletons returned to their original state on their own, and none of the evil spirits dared to make a sound, not even the blue-faced ghost hiding underground.

As Li Zhen walked to the wall, he saw a white doorway in front of him.

Pushing open the door, he found himself in the same long corridor he had seen when he entered that eerie building.

As expected, when the red-eyed bat fought that minotaur, it broke through the barrier between the two doors and went directly from one door to the other.

Having only entered the world behind two doors, and without even having a chance to wreak havoc, the Red-Eyed Bat has already devoured so many ghosts and become so much stronger. If it were to enter a few more doors and devour even more evil spirits, just how strong would the Red-Eyed Bat become?
The red-eyed bat clearly sensed Li Zhen's desire, letting out a few strange cries at the door, its eyes blazing with undisguised longing. It chewed a few times and swallowed the ghostly creature stuffed in its cheek.

The fully unleashed red-eyed bat was as tall as Li Zhen, with huge bat wings behind it, two complete arms made of ghosts on its sides, and a small arm that had just grown out, only half the length of a normal arm. Its face, covered with bits of flesh and blood, resembled both a human and a bat, and was extremely ferocious.

If the bat-faced demon were to descend to earth in physical form, it would probably look like this.

Both underworld officials were extremely wary of this evil spirit.

Seemingly sensing the red-eyed bat's desire, the white underworld official said, "This is the outer perimeter of the underworld, a place where evil spirits with great wickedness are imprisoned. Those imprisoned here are all evil spirits who deserve their punishment."

"Their fate is already sealed, but they must first suffer here for a certain number of years. Killing them will greatly affect the operation of the underworld, and once the underworld has problems, it will also have irreversible effects on the human world."

"Some evil spirits have died here, and the impact is still within a controllable range. If we continue killing, the impact will become uncontrollable."

Li Zhen nodded: "I see. If you two hadn't arrived in time, I would have made a big mistake."

He looked at the other doors: "Is this a place where evil spirits are imprisoned? Sounds like the eighteen levels of hell?"

The Black Underworld Messenger coldly replied, "The underworld doesn't have eighteen levels of hell, it only has eighteen gates."

The white Yin Chariot added, "There are eighteen small worlds inside. Their function is somewhat similar to the eighteen levels of hell, but not entirely the same. Although it's despairing inside, it can't compare to the cruelty of the legendary eighteen levels of hell. We just came out of there, so you should know what I mean. Come this way." He and the black Yin Chariot walked deeper into the corridor.

Following behind the two, Li Zhen asked again, "The scenes inside are somewhat similar to some scenes in the human world. Are they constructed based on scenes in the human world?"

Bai Yincha replied, "That's right. Here, we can obtain the memories of those evil spirits to a certain extent and construct the scenes they fear most based on their memories."

"Can one obtain the memories of other people's souls here?" Li Zhen's eyes narrowed.

Bai Yincha explained, "This only applies to those evil spirits. Their souls are incomplete, their wills are mostly muddled, and their reason is incomplete, so it's not difficult to obtain some of their memories. But for powerful primordial spirits, this place cannot perceive what they are thinking; it can only create illusions, allowing them to see some of their obsessions."

"Obsession?" Li Zhen frowned.

“Indeed, obsessions.” Bai Yinchai continued, “You may not feel certain repressed obsessions, but they do exist. When you reach a certain level of cultivation, you need to overcome those obsessions. Therefore, it is said that this place is beneficial to some cultivators. I don’t know if this is the case for you.”

Li Zhen, lost in thought, remained silent.

The messengers of the underworld led Li Zhen to the end of the corridor. With a push, a door appeared where there had been none before.

After the door was pushed open, a sound of metal colliding with glass came from inside, making Li Zhen wonder if the two underworld messengers had brought him to the wrong place.

"It's best to leave these two pets outside." Bai Yinchai stretched out his hand, gesturing for Li Zhen to go inside.

Li Zhen left the ghost fetus and the red-eyed bat outside the door, and hesitantly entered the door.

Inside is a high-end restaurant decorated in a Western classical style, and it was quite busy with customers.

Half of the seats in the spacious restaurant were already occupied, with roughly twenty or thirty people dining together.

Everyone was dressed in neat suits and eating quietly, only occasionally exchanging a few words in hushed tones.

No one noticed Li Zhen and the two ghost messengers who had just walked in.

The sound of metal colliding with glass that Li Zhen heard was the sound of these diners eating.

This place made Li Zhen wonder if he had returned to the human world.

He glanced back and saw the white-robed messenger gesturing for him to continue.

Suppressing the eerie feeling in his heart, Li Zhen continued walking forward.

A man with an upright posture sat by the window, and a hat almost exactly the same as the one worn by the Black Shadow Charioteer was placed on one side of the table.

When Li Zhen walked to the man's side, the man seemed to know that Li Zhen had arrived, and gestured for Li Zhen to sit down in front of him.

Silently pulling out a chair, Li Zhen had just sat down when he discovered something strange.

The man in front of him looked to be in his forties, with a somewhat weathered appearance. He resembled Fly Brother, who he had seen before, by about seven or eight points, but his eyes were empty.

His eyes didn't look like they had been gouged out; rather, they were completely empty, covered by a layer of yellow skin, making them look particularly eerie.

The man put down his knife and fork, turned his head, and said a few words to the black and white underworld officials.

The two underworld messengers respectfully responded and slowly retreated towards the door they had entered through.

Then, the man looked at Li Zhen with his two empty eye sockets and gave him a meaningful smile: "What did you see?"

Li Zhen didn't expect that the first question the other party asked would be so abstract.

After thinking for a moment, he honestly replied, "I saw the underworld, I saw evil spirits."

The man stared at Li Zhen for a long while before nodding: "This is the underworld. What you'll see most here are ghosts, and of course, me."

"Didn't you say you came to the underworld to see me?"

He poured a cup of coffee and pushed it in front of Li Zhen.

Li Zhen was speechless at the "person" in front of him.

He tapped his fingers twice on the cup and tentatively asked, "Are you the lord of the underworld?"

“That’s not quite right,” the man shook his head. “To be precise, I’m the manager here, not the owner.”

"What's the difference?" Li Zhen asked. "Do you have other superiors?"

The man said, "To outsiders, I've always called myself the Grim Reaper. Do you know why?"

"But I heard the details."

"Because the Grim Reaper exists in the West, I can avoid offending the names of those beings by calling myself the Grim Reaper."

"Do those beings refer to mythical figures like Yama, who manages the underworld?"

“Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, the Ten Kings of Hell… I dare not offend any of them, so I can only call myself the God of Death. But there should be something awe-inspiring in the underworld, so I made them each wear different suits, so that when people see them they will think of those two. You must be like that.”

The information revealed in the other party's words made Li Zhen fall into deep thought.

After a dozen or so breaths, he asked, "None of those legendary figures are here? Is this not the underworld?"

The man calmly replied, "This is the underworld, the final resting place of all evil spirits. Whenever someone dies in the human world, they eventually enter this place. But if you ask me about those legendary beings, I can only tell you that I don't know either."

Why wouldn't you know?

"How would I know? I have been the manager here since I became sensible, and I know nothing else."

"The underworld left no clues?"

"You should have noticed that this underworld is somewhat different from what you imagined, because this is the underworld I built according to my own ideas. The original underworld was a ruin when I woke up."

"The underworld is destroyed?"

"The wilderness you saw before entering here was the original underworld. This is the underworld that I rebuilt from ruins."

After digesting this surprising news for a while, Li Zhen asked again, "When did that happen?"

After thinking for a moment, the man opposite said, "It should have been two or three hundred years ago."

"You should have noticed that there aren't many evil spirits here. If this were the real underworld, how could you have broken in so easily?"

(End of this chapter)