The Three Pure Ones' Secret: Expressing Spirit

He told me he was going to take me to a familiar place, but I looked around. I'd never been to this area before. What familiar place did I have? Besides, I didn't even know where I was. What was there to be familiar with?

Seeing me curiously looking through the pages, and perhaps sensing my confusion, he said to me as we walked, "You saw it just now, you can see these pores now, so you should be able to recognize these words, right?"

I nodded, and he continued, "We're currently in Banbuduo City, a very famous city. However, there's a village around the city's entrance, and we're in that village now. Do you see that big stone tablet in the village outside the city?"

I was puzzled and confused. What was this huge stone tablet? The village was so big. But he explained to me, "Although we're currently inside Banbuduo City, there was already a large village here before the city was built. Why do you see so many people with animal faces? Because they weren't originally human, but demons. This place used to be called Xingyao Village. Later, Banbuduo City was built, and half of Xingyao Village was outside the city, and half was inside. The original inhabitants divided it into an outer village and an inner village, but both were under the jurisdiction of Xiong Muyang, the village chief of Xingyao Village. He was an earth immortal appointed by the underworld, what people call the 'hairy god'!"

I didn't understand what he meant by "Mao Shen," so I asked him, "What is Mao Shen?"

Fan Biao patiently explained to me, "They don't have divine authority, but they have a lot of abilities. They are self-proclaimed gods in the pantheon, what people call local immortals, and they don't belong to the true gods."

Although he explained it in great detail, I have no idea about any pantheon or deity system. Whatever, it has nothing to do with me anyway.

He then continued to tell me about Xingyao Village. He said that as long as they were native residents of Xingyao Village, they could freely enter and leave Banbuduo City, but outsiders had to have a pass.

Fan Biao said that Banbuduo is a very famous place. Although people have not heard of it much, it is always associated with some folk tales. Moreover, in the eyes of monsters and gods, this place is like a very famous tourist destination. It is on par with Yibu Shaocheng, Fengdu City and Santu Village.

Fengdu City's fame stems from mythology and historical records, and it even has a passage to the mortal realm. As for Santu Village, very few people have heard of it. This is because, while all these places have their reasons for existing, Santu Village is the most mysterious. Banbuduo is known as the three-way intersection leading to the underworld, a crossroads of the three realms. Entering Banbuduo and going deeper leads to Yibu Shao City, which belongs to the true underworld, while Banbuduo is merely a meeting point between gods, humans, and ghosts. Fengdu City is considered the exit to the mortal realm, corresponding to Fengdu City in the human world.

Sanzu Village is a village located on the edge of the divine realm. The only way for humans to reach the divine realm is to first travel to Banbudo, and then cross the mountain fork to reach Sanzu Village. This village is not only inhabited by true immortals, but also by some local animals that have attained enlightenment. However, the story of Sanzu Village is not closely related to this novel, so it will be omitted here.

After Fan Biao explained these things to me in detail, I felt that my worldview was not just impacted, but directly shaken, as if my world had collapsed.

My current state, the faces I see, and Fan Biao who appears before me—I've never met him before, yet he seems like someone I know very well, but I don't know him at all, yet he knows me inside and out, and even told me stories about the Three Realms and such.

I can no longer tell whether it's a dream or reality, because I have no concept of time, I can't feel any changes in the surrounding environment or the sky, I don't feel hungry or thirsty, and apart from feeling annoyed and confused, I don't even feel sleepy or tired.

Fan Biao led me around while explaining things, and the further we walked, the denser the scenery became, and the more figures appeared around me. To my astonishment, there was a steam train in this half-step city, belching thick smoke, but there were no tracks on the ground. Although it looked old and dilapidated, it surpassed all modern technology. It was even more advanced than maglev, floating in the air out of thin air.

Looking at this scene I had never seen before, I asked Lao Fan in surprise, "Why are there trains here?"

He looked at me, nonchalantly: "Oh, you mean trains? They've been around for a long time."

He didn't pay much attention, but noticed a large... no! a large group of demons gathered not far away. Seeing him so engrossed, I asked him what was going on. He said he wanted to go take a look, but hesitated, not expecting these demons to enjoy joining in the fun.

I followed behind him, squeezing through the crowd for ages. I watched as animal heads bobbed back and forth, but they didn't seem to notice me at all, as if it were nothing unusual. Perhaps this place was a melting pot, with many faces like mine, so not many people paid any attention.

I avoided the faces of the beasts with human bodies around me with some fear. Fan Biao and I looked at a portrait on the bulletin board on the wall, and next to the portrait were two men holding long guns. Their faces were gloomy and they looked like they had no life at all.

But they addressed the crowd, saying, "Anyone who sees the portrait, please report it immediately!"

I don't quite understand, because what really baffles me is whether these people are artists or abstract artists? What are they even painting? Forget whether the portraits resemble the real people, even if they are, those people are just too damn ugly!

Fan Biao looked at it carefully, and I thought he understood, but then he said, "What the hell is this drawing?"

I thought to myself, "Yeah, it looks like an emoji!"

Since they couldn't make out what the person in the portrait looked like, the two of them lost interest. I didn't know when we could go back, so I looked at Lao Fan beside me.

It was actually quite strange, because although this guy didn't tell me who he was, he gave me a very familiar and safe feeling, even though I didn't know him at all. I didn't know where he was going next, so I asked him, "Hey, Brother Fan, where are we going next? When can we go back?"

Fan Biao gestured for me not to worry or rush: "I know you must be very confused right now, but don't worry, brother. You have to trust me. You must really want to know where you are right now. I'll tell you step by step."

He then gestured for me to follow him forward, and we left the notice board and headed deeper into the city center. Fan Biao then slowly began to tell me about where we were!

Actually, Fan Biao was originally a human being, but now I am neither a real human being nor a ghost, but a wandering soul.

In the Three Realms, ghosts are specifically categorized. After a person dies, they are called ghosts, and the conditions for a ghost to be a ghost are complete physical death and the complete departure of the three souls and seven spirits from the body. The second type is the wandering soul. A wandering soul is a state where the person is not dead, but their soul and spirit have left the body. Whether it's two souls and five spirits scattered within the body, or seven spirits and three souls, all fall under the category of wandering souls!

The third type is called the "wandering spirit," a state with many names, such as "dead ghost." However, this "dead ghost" is not the same as the one women use to insult men; rather, it refers to a being that opposes humans. The term "wandering spirit" is a classification of all beings in their post-death or incomplete-death state, including vengeful spirits, resentful spirits, evil spirits, and malevolent spirits. They retain consciousness from their living state, some unwilling to accept their death, and remain in the human realm due to not having reached the time for reincarnation or dying accidentally. Many wandering spirits commit acts that disrupt the order of the human and ghost realms. However, as the cultural level of people in their past lives has increased, many wandering spirits will voluntarily travel to the vicinity of Banbuduo City, settling there first rather than lingering in the human realm.

The souls of the dead who linger in the mortal realm will erase their consciousness over time, while those that retain consciousness, or those that do not, will absorb the resentment of the world and transform into vengeful ghosts to harm humanity. Old Fan, in this context, refers to a rather obscure profession: a Taoist priest!

Ghosts heading to Banbuduo City, having completely died from their physical bodies, possess intact three souls and seven spirits, allowing them to directly enter and reside there. Wandering souls, however, cannot, as they are not considered ghosts. Humans and ghosts are separate entities; the underworld does not recognize someone who has not died completely, for it is an age-old principle that a person cannot live two lives. Even if a wandering soul is sent to Banbuduo to be reincarnated in the underworld, their second life will be marked by incomplete souls, resulting in intellectual disability or idiocy. Furthermore, their earlier, less-than-completely-dead life will also be characterized by idiocy or a vegetative state.

There are many wandering souls outside Banbuduo City. Because they cannot go to the underworld to be reincarnated for many years, their self-awareness is eliminated after wandering and they can no longer find their physical bodies, becoming completely ownerless wandering souls.

When Fan Biao said that after a while, one would lose their own consciousness, I was immediately terrified: "What? Won't I become like what you're describing?"

He crossed his arms and shook his head: "No, you've only been out of your body for a short while. It would take many years of wandering outside for that to happen. Besides, you're currently in the Half-Step More, which is within the realm of the underworld. A day in the human world would take many days in that realm."

Then, as we walked, he comforted me, saying, "This world isn't what you imagine. Once you go back, it'll all feel like a dream. Don't worry!"

I could only hope that this burly black guy wasn't lying to me. Seeing that we had been walking for a long time, I asked him where we were going next.

He told me that we were going to leave Banbuduo City to retrieve a few things from Fengdu City in the Underworld, and then we could go back. Hearing that we were only retrieving a few things, I didn't want to linger, but I didn't dare to rush him, so I gestured for him to lead the way.

Although there were those old trains in the city, Fan Biao didn't take me on one. He said he wanted to show me around. I was extremely reluctant and didn't want to waste any time. I just wanted to get back to normal from this dreamlike state as soon as possible. But how could I urge Fan Biao? Even though he said he would take me back, what if I talked too much and he got annoyed and left me aside? I had no choice but to patiently follow him.

This journey took a very long time, and perhaps I gradually accepted what he meant by the "soul state." I felt no drowsiness or fatigue. Actually, I think this state is pretty amazing. If living people could have this state, wouldn't they exhaust those evil capitalists to death? But then I thought, that's not necessarily true. Capital is called capital because they usually have a way of finding solutions to every policy. So in the end, it's the working class who suffers!

Because I have no sense of time, I don't know exactly how long we walked. Anyway, a very long time passed before Fan Biao and I arrived at a very large bridge. I looked at the huge bridge and saw that it had three lanes, each a different color: one black, one white, and one gray in the middle.

Any one of these three lanes can accommodate three 100-ton trucks traveling side-by-side, and the bridge is so wide that I can't see the other side at all.

I didn't know why there was such a magnificent and huge bridge in a place like this, or how it was built. I asked Fan Biao, who was standing next to me, "Hey, Brother Fan, there are big rivers below here, so why build such a big bridge?"

When he saw me asking him a question, he explained it to me. The bridge in front of us is called the "Bridge of Life." It is one of the four great bridges in the underworld, and the three different colored paths in the middle are said to correspond to the three paths of reincarnation: human, ghost, and god. The stories passed down by people all assume that humans have a lifespan, but this is not entirely true.

Humans generally live to be around eighty years old, while ghosts live to be around sixty. Considering the time difference between the two realms, the difference isn't actually that significant. The human world is where humans live, while the underworld is where ghosts live. It's not that people immediately reincarnate after death, as some believe; they simply live in another world in a different way.

Besides humans and ghosts, there exists a special kind of being: gods. However, these gods are not the celestial beings, the Jade Emperor, or the Buddha as commonly believed in movies and TV shows. They are also called gods and immortals, but they are animals. Although they were different from humans and could not communicate with them in their previous lives, they can live and communicate with each other after entering the three realms of the underworld, until their lifespan in the underworld ends and they are reincarnated.

The reason for the three continuously rotating paths is to maintain balance, just like a rotating wheel. When it is stationary, it does not appear to be round, but when it rotates, it forms a complete circle.

The old man's explanation was quite fitting, though he stumbled over it, but his analogy was spot on. Seeing that I understood, he continued, "The ghosts in the underworld are different from those in the human world. Human lifespans are not fixed, but ghosts are. Ghosts in the underworld can live for sixty years. If they can't stay there any longer, they can inform the underworld officials in advance and be reincarnated as humans ahead of time."

In fact, his methods are no different from his way of life. One is uncertainty, not knowing one's own life or death, while the other is knowing and selective.