Courtyard House: Time Traveler Not Yet a Ghost

Chen Xueru fell silent. She recalled that on Earth, after He Damin established the Underworld, all the wandering ghosts had found their home and would no longer roam the mortal realm. But here, the souls could only drift like this after death, until their soul power was exhausted and they completely dissipated, or they became mindless wandering ghosts.

"Brother Damin, do you want to..." She was about to say something, but was interrupted by He Damin.

"Let's think about it some more." He Damin shook his head. "We've just arrived and don't know much about this world yet. Let's not rush into decisions."

They strolled around the village and found that the people lived very simple lives. The men either farmed or hunted, while the women stayed home weaving and cooking. Occasionally, they would see a few people carrying medicine baskets returning from the mountains, carrying a faint aura of spiritual energy; they were probably the lowest level of cultivators.

As evening fell, they found a family to stay at at the east end of the village. The family's surname was Li, and the husband was a hunter with a scar on his face, making him look fierce, but he was actually very hospitable. Upon hearing that they were lost travelers from afar, he immediately had his wife prepare an empty room for them.

"Please don't mind, gentlemen, this is all we have." Old Li brought over a pot of hot tea, the rough porcelain bowl still chipped. "Our Qingniu Village is very remote; outsiders rarely come here. How did you get lost and end up here?"

He Damin took the teacup and took a sip. The tea was a little astringent, but had a refreshing fragrance. "It's a long story. We came from a very far place and accidentally fell into a formation. When we woke up, we were in this area." He didn't tell the truth, afraid of scaring the other person.

Old Li simply said "oh" and didn't ask any further questions. Mountain people are simple and honest; they don't like to pry.

He Damin put down his teacup and tentatively asked, "Uncle, may I ask you something? Do you... have any talk of ghosts around here?"

Old Li's smile vanished instantly. He lowered his voice and said, "Ghosts? Of course they exist. When people die here, their souls float in the air above the village for seven days, and then they disappear on their own. Some say they go to some paradise, others say they transform into the mountain's spiritual energy. Who knows?"

"Then...is there no one to collect the soul? Like underworld officials or judges?" He Damin pressed.

Old Li shook his head, looking bewildered: "Underworld officials? Judges? What are those? Never heard of them. Only the immortal sects are in charge here. The immortal masters of the immortal sects only care about the cultivation of the living, not the dead."

He Damin understood the situation and didn't ask any further questions.

That night, He Damin and Chen Xueru lay on the creaking wooden bed, neither of them able to sleep. The moonlight outside the window was exceptionally bright, appearing larger than the moon on Earth. Its silvery light shone through the paper windowpane, casting dappled shadows on the floor.

"Brother Damin, there is no underworld in this world. Those souls are so pitiful," Chen Xueru said softly, her tone filled with pity.

He Damin stared at the ceiling, his mind a jumbled mess. He thought of his Yin-Yang Space, which contained the eighteen levels of hell he had personally built, the six realms of reincarnation, and the entire underworld staff. If he wanted, he could "move" all these things out of the Yin-Yang Space and place them in this world at any time.

But should he do that?

This isn't Earth; he knows nothing about this world. What if it has its own rules? What if he establishes a hellish underworld and causes some bad consequences?

"Xue Ru, tell me, why did we come here?" he suddenly asked.

Chen Xueru thought for a moment: "Maybe it's that formation on the moon. It might be a teleportation array that brought us here."

"Why us of all people? Why here?" He Damin asked again.

Chen Xueru was silent for a moment, then rested her head on his shoulder: "I don't know. But I think maybe it's because you're needed here."

He Damin's heart skipped a beat.

Do we need him?

He recalled that on Earth, human technology had reached a bottleneck, spiritual energy was scarce, cultivation was difficult, the underworld was chaotic, and ghosts roamed freely. He gradually built banks, promoted cultivation methods, established networks, launched satellites, and finally established the underworld, as if it were all preordained.

Here, the spiritual energy is abundant, making it suitable for cultivation, but there is no underworld, no reincarnation, and the soul has nowhere to go after death.

Could this be the reason he came here?

"Brother Damin," Chen Xueru gently held his hand, "Do whatever you want to do. Whatever you do, I'll be with you."

He Damin turned his head and looked at Chen Xueru's face by the moonlight. Her eyes were bright, without the slightest hesitation.

He laughed suddenly.

Yeah, why think so much? When did He Damin become so hesitant and indecisive?

"good."

The next morning, they said goodbye to Old Li and left Qingniu Village. He Damin didn't rush to Qingyun Sect, but instead found a secluded valley. There was a stream and a flat meadow in the valley, just right for settling down.

Chen Xueru worked quickly and efficiently, gathering branches and vines to build a simple wooden hut. She also cultivated a small vegetable garden in front of the hut, scattering seeds she had gotten from Old Li. She then went to the mountains to catch a few brightly feathered pheasants and fenced them off with a fence. In just a few days, the place began to resemble a rural paradise.

He Damin meditated and cultivated himself every day, while simultaneously releasing his divine sense to carefully observe the world. The range of his divine sense expanded more and more, from the initial thousand miles to gradually tens of thousands of miles. He "saw" more villages, more towns, and also "saw" more wandering souls.

Some souls linger before their ancestral graves, reluctant to leave; some souls follow their relatives, yet cannot communicate with them; and some souls, due to their deep obsessions, have begun to become ferocious, showing signs of transforming into vengeful ghosts.

They are all waiting, waiting for a home.

A month later, He Damin opened his eyes. His gaze had become incredibly resolute.

"Xueru, I've made up my mind."

Chen Xueru, who was feeding the chickens, turned around and asked with a smile, "What have you decided?"

"I will establish the underworld here." He Damin stood up and walked to the center of the valley. "This world cannot exist without reincarnation."

Chen Xueru put down the chicken feed she was holding, walked to his side, and took his hand: "Okay, I'll help you."

He Damin took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His consciousness sank into his dantian and entered the Yin-Yang space.

Within the negative space, the eighteen levels of hell floated silently, each emanating a different aura. The first level was the Hell of Tongue-Pulling, the second the Hell of Scissors, and so on until the eighteenth level, Avici Hell, complete with mountains of knives, seas of fire, cauldrons of boiling oil, and pools of blood. Above hell, the Six Paths of Reincarnation slowly rotated: the Path of Heaven, the Path of Humanity, the Path of Asuras, the Path of Animals, the Path of Hungry Ghosts, and the Path of Hell. Six enormous orifices of light emitted a soft yet majestic glow.

"With my thoughts, I create your form; with your power, I transform your realm." He Damin formed hand seals and slowly chanted the incantation, "Eighteen hells, six realms of reincarnation—appear!"

hum-

The entire cathode space trembled violently. Projections of the eighteen levels of hell emerged from the void, carrying a majestic heavenly aura, and slowly rose. They pierced through the barriers of the cathode space and appeared above the valley in the real world.

He Damin's divine sense, like an invisible hand, guided these enormous creatures to slowly sink.

The ground began to tremble, the soil churned, and the eighteen levels of hell were embedded deep within the earth, each level precisely corresponding to a different karmic punishment. The cold light of the Mountain of Knives Hell gleamed, the flames of the Sea of ​​Fire Hell soared to the sky, and the sizzling sound of the Boiling Oil Hell could be faintly heard. The Six Paths of Reincarnation floated above hell, six light portals emanating powerful suction. The wandering souls around the valley sensed the call and drifted over, drawn in by the light of reincarnation, and cast into different paths according to their karma. He Damin watched all this, a hint of relief flashing in his eyes. Chen Xueru nestled beside him and whispered, "From now on, the souls here finally have a home."

On the third day after the underworld was built, the mist in the valley had not yet dissipated, carrying a damp smell of earth and vegetation. He Damin, wearing a coarse cloth jacket, stood on the largest bluestone slab at the bottom of the valley, looking up at the hazy, indistinct sky above. It was more like an inverted bowl, covering the entire valley, with the gradually clearing scene of the underworld at the bottom.

The ground beneath his feet trembled slightly, as if something enormous was moving beneath him. The eighteen levels of hell lay buried deep within this valley, each exuding a chilling, eerie aura. Occasionally, the clanging of chains dragging on the ground could be heard, along with faint cries. He Damin knew that these were the newly captured demons being tortured. Above him, the Six Paths of Reincarnation, like a giant, colorful spinning top, hovered in mid-air, rotating slowly. Six beams of light—red, green, yellow, black, white, and purple—each ending in a bottomless abyss.

Those wandering, aimless ghosts that had been drifting through the valley like headless flies were now lined up in a long, crooked queue, like a market day, being sucked into the six caves in turn. Some, as soon as they approached the green light of the Animal Realm, let out a howl, their bodies billowing black smoke, transforming into little piglets or grasshoppers, squealing and disappearing without a trace. Others, illuminated by the red light of the Hungry Ghost Realm, immediately became skin and bones, their eyes glowing green as they plunged in, probably for the steamed buns they could never have. The black light of the Hell Realm was the most terrifying; every ghost that entered howled like a banshee, their cries so agonizing that Chen Xueru, standing at a distance, trembled.

The two beams of light, the Heavenly Way and the Human Way, were now as silent as if they were blocked with cotton. He Damin knew perfectly well that these two paths couldn't be opened for the time being—how many people in this world have accumulated enough merit to go to heaven or be reincarnated as humans? Most souls are just wandering around in the lower realms.

Looking at the bustling scene, he felt a mix of emotions. It wasn't exactly happiness, nor sadness; it was more like the feeling he had as a child, helping the village repair irrigation ditches and watching the water gush into the fields. He just felt it was something that should be done, just like back on Earth, when seeing those wandering ghosts with nowhere to go made him feel uneasy, so he built a sanctuary. Little did he expect that this whole affair would cause such a stir here, far more than it had on Earth.

Just as I was pondering this, the hazy gray sky above suddenly seemed a bit off.

At first, it was just a tiny sliver of golden light, as thin as a sewing thread, peeking out from a gap in the clouds and swaying as it drifted down. He Damin squinted at it; wasn't the sun on the other side? This light looked eerie. He thought he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes. But the sliver of light grew brighter and thicker, like noodles, changing from a thin thread to chopsticks, then to a pillar as thick as a bowl, and finally, with a "whoosh," like a flood bursting its banks, a golden expanse poured down.

"Brother Da Min! Look at the sky!" Chen Xueru's voice trembled as she pointed to the sky, her face pale.