Zombie Life Begins in Hongxi Village

Just as he was about to go back, a deep and compassionate voice suddenly rang in his ears.

The voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to come from the depths of the earth, piercing through layers of void and rock, each word carrying a calming power.

"Mr. Lin, I am Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. May I come to the underworld for a chat?"

"Ksitigarbha?"

Lin Yi paused for a moment, then a smile appeared on her lips.

That's true. As the newly appointed manager, he should at least meet with the general manager, Ksitigarbha, and pay his respects.

He mentally reviewed the information about Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva—Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is the agent of the Book of Man and the supreme administrator of the entire Underworld God system.

His strength should be similar to that of the Human King Fuxi and the Holy Mother, but he probably couldn't defeat Jiang Chen in the later stages.

But in this era, he was absolutely top-tier, and having only recently advanced, he was no match for Ksitigarbha.

Lin Yi used his Hades authority to make a sweeping gesture in the air, and an elevator door appeared out of thin air in mid-air.

The elevator doors gleamed silver, and the material looked like some kind of unknown metal. There was also a digital display screen directly above the doors.

Lin Yi was startled by the sudden appearance of the elevator: "Wow, is the underworld already this modern by now?"

He knew that elevators and mobile phones would be common in the underworld sixty years later, but he never expected that elevators existed in the underworld during the Republic of China era.

"Is this art style appropriate?"

At that moment, a young man in a white suit stepped out of the elevator.

He looked to be in his early thirties, with fair skin, neatly combed hair, and a silver badge pinned to his chest.

He bowed respectfully to Lin Yi: "Lord Hades, please follow me. Ksitigarbha is already waiting down below."

Lin Yi also felt a sense of novelty. He stepped into the elevator, where the space was much larger than it appeared from the outside, enough to accommodate more than a dozen people.

The elevator walls were inlaid with dark gold runes, and the floor beneath was a transparent glass floor, through which one could see the void below.

The ghost messenger pressed the button for the second-to-last floor, "-17," and the elevator gave a slight jolt before beginning its descent.

Lin Yi noticed that the numbers on the elevator didn't jump from floor to floor, but rather changed in a complex sequence—

Sometimes it jumps directly from -3 to -7, and sometimes it jumps back from -10 to -5, as if it were passing through a long spacetime tunnel, where the distance and order between each layer are not linear.

Seeing him staring at the floor numbers, the ghost messenger explained, "There are eighteen spaces in the Netherworld, but they are not progressively arranged; rather, they form a complex, multi-dimensional structure."

In addition to the seventeenth level of Ksitigarbha, the eighteenth level of hell, and the sixteenth to thirteenth levels of the four great agents of Ksitigarbha.

Each of the other levels has a Hades presiding over it, responsible for the cycle of life and death of all living beings in the world.

Moreover, this elevator isn't for just anyone; only judges and kings of the underworld are qualified to ride it.

"So many Hades?" Lin Yi was stunned. "Does that mean there are twelve Hades?"

"Yes, including you, there are thirteen," the ghost messenger replied.

"What?!" Lin Yi raised his voice, "Then, aside from the eighteenth level of hell, I don't even have a place to work!"

"Uh..." The ghost messenger lowered his head awkwardly, unsure how to answer for a moment.

This newly appointed Hades is incredibly blunt; he doesn't follow the usual bureaucratic procedures at all.

When a new person takes office, they are usually very polite at first; no one comes in and immediately starts fixating on the office.

However, since the other party is Hades and he is merely an elevator operator, he naturally dared not show the slightest abnormality.

"Never mind, I'll go talk to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva later." Lin Yi waved his hand, signaling him not to be nervous.

Then silence fell over the elevator. Lin Yi leaned against the elevator wall, looking at the kaleidoscope of time and space flowing below through the transparent floor beneath her feet, silently making calculations in her mind.

There are twelve Hades, each in charge of one level. Now that he has arrived, there are exactly thirteen.

The quota has been filled, and the fiefdoms in the underworld are gone.

This matter isn't a huge deal, but it's not insignificant either. Although he's not bound by formalities, he's still a red-eyed level fighter, so he can't be treated worse than those unknown extras.

He suddenly thought of the hanging coffin cave in his palm and wondered if the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva or the Book of Man could be expanded to create a small, mobile underworld.

About three minutes later, the elevator finally stopped at the seventeenth basement level.

As soon as Lin Yi stepped out of the elevator, she saw a woman in a red dress and wearing a mask walking towards her.

She was tall and slender, with long, jet-black hair cascading over her shoulders. She wore an exquisite silver mask, revealing only a pair of cold, icy eyes.

She gave Lin Yi a cold look, her gaze like two icicles that chilled the skin.

She didn't speak and went straight into the elevator. The ghost messenger, however, greeted her respectfully: "Greetings, Lord Hades."

The masked woman nodded coldly, and the elevator doors slowly closed, separating her expressionless masked face behind the metal door.

"What a cold woman." Lin Yi shook her head and smiled, but she was a little surprised.

This woman is very powerful; she's at least at the pseudo-first generation level.

If she were in the underworld, she would be just as good as any ordinary red-eyed zombie.

It seems that even the underworld, which usually plays a minor role in the game, is full of hidden talents. These Hades kings usually keep a low profile, but when they really get into a fight, none of them are easy to deal with.

"That lord is extraordinary; he ranks among the top figures among all the Hades."

"Speaking of which, the southeastern region where you are located falls under her jurisdiction." Seeing Lin Yi's interest, the ghost messenger couldn't help but add a comment.

Lin Yi suddenly realized why he was being treated coldly; it turned out that he was the one who had caused trouble for him.

He had just collected the souls of more than 80,000 Japanese soldiers. These souls should have entered the cycle of reincarnation normally, and this King of the Underworld was responsible for their distribution and reincarnation.

He's now absorbed everything into the Ten Thousand Ghosts Banner, essentially disrupting a quarter's worth of work and leaving behind a huge hole—

More than 80,000 souls that should have been recorded have simply vanished. How can this be accounted for in the ledger?

Without a great sage like Sun Wukong who could level the tent, she definitely wouldn't be able to level it in less than a hundred or two hundred years.

No one would give them a friendly look.

The ghost led Lin Yi through a long passage.

The passageway is lined with many dark blue lights, somewhat resembling that flamboyant tunnel in Shanghai.

At the end of the passage was a modern villa with white exterior walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a row of spider lilies planted in front of the door, completely different from the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's residence that Lin Yi had imagined.

Ksitigarbha was already waiting outside. He wasn't wearing monk's robes or had his head shaved; instead, he was dressed like a modern person.

Wearing a dark blue Zhongshan suit and with his hair neatly combed, he looked like a foreign student.

His appearance was exactly the same as Ma Xiaohu in the later version of the original drama, except that his eyes could not hide the vicissitudes of time.

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva".

"Lin Yi".

The two smiled at each other, and Ksitigarbha extended his hand, which Lin Yi shook.

With this grasp, two completely different forces collided slightly in the void of the Netherworld—

On one side is Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's steadfastness, as immovable as the earth; on the other side is Lin Yi's violent, raging fire.

The aftershocks of the collision caused the surrounding spider lilies to sway slightly.

"Haha, from now on we're all on the same side."

Ksitigarbha smiled and pulled Lin Yi into the villa.

The interior of the villa is simply and elegantly furnished, with a tea table, two rattan chairs, and a traditional Chinese ink painting on the wall depicting Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva reciting sutras in front of the gates of hell.

The two sat down at the tea table, and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva personally poured Lin Yi a cup of tea. The tea was emerald green and clear, with a faint sandalwood fragrance.

"What's wrong? Feeling strange?" Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva spoke with a smile, seemingly guessing what Lin Yi was thinking—

The legendary Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva doesn't resemble a monk at all; he lives in a villa and wears a Zhongshan suit, which seems quite unbelievable.

"Hehe, I've read the script, how could I possibly find it strange?"

Lin Yi shook his head and said, "It's not surprising, but Ksitigarbha, you're not being fair."

If even the Underworld's office is gone, where will I, the King, work?

"I can't very well go to the eighteenth level of hell! Or should I go to the mortal realm, find a secluded cave, and hang up a sign that says 'The Underworld's Office on Earth'?"

"Uh." Ksitigarbha's smile froze; he hadn't expected Lin Yi to be so blunt.

The first thing he did upon taking office was to ask him for better treatment.

This caught Ksitigarbha, who was used to being revered, off guard for a moment.

"The Underworld is full now," Ksitigarbha said, putting down his teacup with a hint of helplessness in his voice. "Why don't you work with me for a while? My place is quite big, I'll share half with you."

Lin Yi shook his head: "Forget it, I have a wife and children."

What kind of situation is it to live with an old bachelor like you? It won't sound good if word gets out.

However, I have a small grotto-heaven. If you, Lord Ksitigarbha, could use your Ksitigarbha Decree to help me reinforce and expand it, then I, the King of the Underworld, wouldn't be homeless.

After he finished speaking, he stretched out his right hand, and the ghost painting of the hanging coffin cave instantly transformed from a tattoo into a three-foot-long feng shui painting of the hanging coffin town.

Ksitigarbha took the ghost painting, unfurled the scroll, and peered through the painting to examine the structure inside the cave.

After a moment, he gave Lin Yi a deep look, his eyes filled with a hint of inscrutable inquiry.

"You're lucky. If I'm not mistaken, this painting was originally just a small mirror space that formed by chance."

However, someone later used their immense power to forcibly create a hidden space inside.

There aren't many people in this world who can do that...

This Lin Yi seems more mysterious than I imagined.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva investigated his background and found that there was no record of him in the Book of Life and Death.

The causes and effects of the past are like a deliberately erased fog, impossible to see clearly no matter how hard you try to trace them.

It looked like it popped out of a stone!

He suspected that Lin Yi was also an ancient god who had survived from the previous era.

The question remains: whose scheme was orchestrated—the Book of Destiny from Heaven? Or the Book of Earth?

They actually created such a monstrosity that is not controlled by the three books of Heaven, Earth, and Man.

However, it is fate that is in a hurry now, because the more variables there are, the more unfavorable it is to Him.

On the contrary, it is precisely those who represent opportunity and a glimmer of hope that need such talent!

Since this person wants to join the underworld, he's happy to go along with it, after all, the enemy of my enemy may be my friend.

Lin Yi interrupted Ksitigarbha's thoughts, pointed to the ghost painting, and asked bluntly, "How is it? Can you do it?"

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva thought for a moment and said:

"Yes. I can help you expand the cave inside tenfold."

It can also use the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's Decree to draw in a portion of the Netherworld's essence, and then open a passage between it and the Netherworld.

At that time, it will be able to connect with the underworld.

Although it cannot yet compare to the underworlds of other underworld kings, given time, with the support of the netherworld, it may very well become the nineteenth level of the underworld.