I am Jinshan Youxia

Since it's in the underworld anyway, and the corpse poison grass can't capture ghosts, it has to rely on living things to produce corpse poison to grow. It's perfect to weave it into a net to catch monsters at the bottom of the river.

As for the corpse poison and pain...

Just bear with it, you're not going to die.

The corpse poison grass on his arm grew rapidly, constantly absorbing the corpse poison. In the blink of an eye, it fell to the ground, spread out, and greedily grew towards the direction of the bull demon.

This thing has no ability to communicate; it is purely driven by the instinct to reproduce to chase after living creatures, making it perfect for retrieving them.

Zhang Chengyi released his grip, letting the Corpse Poison Grass fall to the ground, and then said, "Keep it under control. Xiaoqian, organize some ghosts who can weave to make nets to retrieve the Naihe River. Bring me all the living creatures you catch."

First, he needs to verify whether all the monsters in the Naihe River are from Japan. If there are monsters from other regions, or even humans, he can trace back to where they fell in, hoping to return to the mortal realm.

"Yes, sir."

Nie Xiaoqian was quite familiar with the Corpse Poison Grass, and when she looked at the monster Bull Demon cowering at the old ghost's feet, her eyes showed a hint of sympathy.

The bull demon lay there with a bewildered expression. It was actually quite large, and among the demons in the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons, it was one of the more powerful and ferocious types. However, it had inexplicably fallen into the River of Three Crossings and had been starving for countless days. None of the demons it encountered at the bottom of the river were easy to deal with, so it thought of having a feast when it saw seemingly harmless yakshas and ghosts.

As a result, it was slapped, and its soul still aches faintly. Its soul has been examined repeatedly using various methods, and it is in a complete panic.

"Let's go!" Old Ghost tugged at the newly installed nose ring.

The bull demon, in pain, had no choice but to get up and leave the palace with his spider-like body.

-----------------

A few days later, by the Naihe River.

"Splash!"

Zhang Chengyi held the grass fishing rod reinforced with corpse energy. The corpse poison grass, which had no roots, was still active and swaying in the water. Suddenly, it moved and splashed water. He pulled it with a little force.

Long black hair surfaced first, and he instantly perked up. Had he caught a live person?

Immediately afterwards, the woman's face was pulled out from under the black hair.

"Aaaaaah!" A scream of extreme pain came from dozens of cherry-like mouths, filled with sharp teeth.

Below? There's nothing below, just a woman's head, and below the hair are all women's faces, making it look incredibly irritating, a truly ugly monster.

Zhang Chengyi's big butt effect is kicking in.

With a casual flick of his wrist, the monster, known in Japan as the Hair Demon, fell into the fishing cage beside him, its mouth gagged with corpse poison grass.

The beautiful women's faces were filled with extreme pain, and tears, snot, and saliva flowed from their eyes, which only excited the corpse poison plant that was blocking their mouths.

Monsters have much stronger vitality than living people. After being infected with corpse poison, they can extract even more corpse poison. After capturing a hair demon, the soil by the underworld river, which was just gray, was quickly covered with a layer of dark green.

As the vitality within Zhang Chengyi's corpse poison grew stronger, the corpse poison grass began to resemble normal grass more and more.

"Keep going." He cast his line again and patiently waited for his prey to take the bait.

This is probably the most interesting activity that has recently emerged in this boring underworld.

Chapter 269 The Fall

"Another Japanese yokai."

Zhang Chengyi sat by the river until the next day, and caught another strange-looking monster. Based on the information he had obtained from the Ox Demon, he confirmed that it was a Japanese monster.

In just a few days, more and more foreign objects have been discovered.

Besides Japanese monsters, the Naihe River also contains the corpses of some ugly-looking ordinary fish and a large amount of garbage from the mortal world.

Fishing is fine, but when you use a net to scoop up trash, you can see a whole bunch of garbage in one go.

It's clear they didn't appear suddenly; they had been appearing sporadically for a while, and it wasn't until now, when even living things have been sent to the underworld, that the ghosts have noticed it.

The principle is not difficult to understand. Problems occurred in the underworld, resulting in the creation of fissures similar to the Valley of Extreme Yin between the underworld and the mortal world. These fissures intermittently connect the mortal world with the underworld in Japan, ultimately causing many things to fall into the underworld through these fissures.

Zhang Chengyi stood up, carrying the two Japanese monsters, put down his fishing rod, let the Corpse Poison Grass catch its prey on its own, and then flew back to the prison near the Ghost City.

It was called a prison, but it was actually a dug-out hole. After all, apart from the earth, there was nothing in the underworld that could be crushed by a physical body without rotting. And it couldn't be built entirely with corpse poison grass, so these little things would definitely steal from the guards.

"Master." The female ghost guarding the place bowed.

Zhang Chengyi released his grip and asked, "How did things go with the monsters inside? Did you get any useful information?"

The female ghost controlled the two Japanese monsters, who had been damaged by the corpse poison grass, and sent them into the dungeon. She said, "Reporting to the master, the monsters that have been sent here so far all fell in through the temporarily opened rift. Sister Xiaoqian has already sent people to find the approximate location, but no rift that can be opened in reverse has been found."

There's really no way to do it in the short term, let's take it slowly.

"Thanks for your hard work."

After preparing himself for a long ordeal, Zhang Chengyi casually uttered a polite remark, at which point the female ghost opposite him bowed respectfully and said:

"You flatter me, sir. It is my honor to serve you with my life."

"..."

Zhang Chengyi was getting a little numb to the overly respectful ghosts. These old ghosts from the underworld were all incredibly respectful and subservient, a custom from some unknown era. It was as if they were slaves treating their slave owners. If he said even a slightly polite word, they would practically crawl on the ground to talk to him.

"Row."

He managed to utter a single word, then turned and left, heading straight for the ghost town.

Some of the old ghosts there knew magic and such when they were alive, and they lived for hundreds or thousands of years after they died. These past two days, they have all gathered together to study what exactly is wrong with the underworld. He hasn't been here for several days, so he's going to ask about the progress.

-----------------

Ghost town, side hall.

A dozen or so monks and laypeople of different ages and clothing sat around the table.

"That's right. Heavenly lightning is extremely yang and strong. The underworld is essentially an illusory world. The heavenly lightning that dissipated after the explosion added too much weight to the entire underworld, causing it to fall towards the yang world, which is why so many cracks were created."

A middle-aged man in a Taoist robe with a slender face shook his head and said, "In my opinion, if this continues, the underworld will cease to exist."

Actually, if the number is small, it doesn't matter. Even if it's heavenly lightning, it can't affect the underworld, since it's the place that carries the cycle of reincarnation.

The problem is that there are too many. Starting from the City of the Wrongfully Dead decades ago, Zhang Chengyi has been recklessly abusing heavenly lightning. Explosions are not erasures, and the underworld is not the mortal world. Excess lightning cannot be released or dissipated. Now, even the once empty sky above the underworld is occasionally streaked with lightning.

Since the underworld has no spirits to control or guide it, it cannot expel the excess stuff from the underworld. Naturally, it can only stick to the mortal world. In the process, it only brushed against the relatively nearby Yellow Springs of the East, which is already considered lucky.

If you were to crash headlong into it, you'd probably be starting a war with the ghosts of the underworld in Japan.

The old man in brown robes beside him stroked his beard and nodded, saying, "Indeed, why don't you go and offer your advice, sir?"

The middle-aged man flicked the wide sleeves of his Taoist robe and said solemnly, "In my opinion, this matter is still unclear and needs to be discussed."

The monk sitting at the end yawned and said, "In the end, what does the collapse of the underworld have to do with us?" He paused, then added, "At the current rate, it will take at least a thousand years before we fall into the mortal world. We will have already entered the cycle of reincarnation."

"We'll talk about the next life then."

Ghosts don't awaken their past life memories just by going to the underworld. They can only see and remember some things by standing in front of the Three Lives Stone. They completely lose their memories and start over. They don't know which realm of reincarnation they will enter. They are not sure whether they will be human or animal in the next life. For many ghosts, reincarnation is the end of everything. Who knows if it will be them?

Whether one is truly oneself while living without memories is a philosophical question.

If being a ghost weren't so tiring and painful, most ghosts wouldn't want to be reincarnated.

The main reason is that the Zombie King stormed in and killed the Black Mountain Demon and the previous King Yama, which everyone saw clearly, naturally leading them to believe he was an absolute tyrant.

Now who would be willing to risk their life to advise the Zombie King? Chen Ming is brilliant; he persuaded the other party to stop, then devised a way to clean up the mess, lift up the underworld, and prevent it from falling.

The first thing he said was that he was blaming the Zombie King for ruining the underworld. I wonder what will happen next. They are all old ghosts who have lived for hundreds or thousands of years. The unscrupulous ghosts are long dead.

"A bunch of cowards."

The girl in red sitting at the end scoffed.

Most of the ghosts looked over, without any anger at being looked down upon or insulted; their eyes and expressions conveyed the same message:

If you're so good, then you do it.

When the girl in red realized that her provocation hadn't worked, she spread her hands and said, "What are you looking at me for? I'm thinking of being reincarnated as a man so I can experience what it's like to have sex with a woman."

"whispering sound!"

The male ghost sitting in the middle of the left side, dressed in scholar's robes, was constantly calculating something in his hands. Suddenly, he spoke up: "What that king wants is to break through the underworld and forcibly take over reincarnation. Perhaps, I have a way."

"Tell me about it?" The monk ghost was wide awake and became interested.

The scholar-ghost said, "In two months, the celestial dog will eat the sun. Since the gods and Buddhas have already departed and the underworld has fallen, why don't we simply trick the underworld gods in the mortal realm into using formations and rituals to accelerate the fall? We will guide them in the underworld, and when the yin and yang clash, the underworld will surely shatter."

"At that time, we'll all go our separate ways and go our separate ways."

There's another hidden meaning in this statement: Yin and Yang clash. Ghosts don't matter; they're just falling from the illusory underworld to the mortal realm. The impact won't affect them. But zombies have physical bodies, and they'll definitely be caught in the middle and smashed to pieces.

That's why there's the saying "everyone goes their separate ways".

"What about reincarnation?" the girl in red objected. "The underworld has been shattered; how can we reincarnate?"

The scholar-ghost said nonchalantly, "Even gods and Buddhas have to flee from the external demons, how could we possibly escape? We might as well have some fun and wait to die."

Chapter 270 Each with their own ulterior motives

"That's a good idea."

The monk ghost suddenly spoke, silencing the red-clad girl who was about to continue expressing her dissatisfaction, and continued:

“We can modify the plan. For example, we can set up a formation, find a pressure point, and let those Japanese monsters with physical bodies act as a buffer. As long as we control it properly, destroying the power left behind by the gods and Buddhas will not be a problem. When we master reincarnation, we can expel the excess heavenly lightning.”

“If the underworld is rebuilt, the balance between Yin and Yang can be achieved again.”

What if the Japanese yokai with physical bodies can't withstand the attack? Everyone present tacitly refrained from mentioning this.

If the sky falls, the tallest person will have to hold it up. There are only so many people with physical bodies in the underworld, and the power of the gods and Buddhas in the underworld will definitely be crushed first. As long as you make a little tampering with the formation, the tallest person will have to hold it up even if they don't want to.

As for who controls reincarnation and who rebuilds the underworld, that is not something to be discussed with outsiders.

Even the girl in red, who had some reservations, shut her mouth in satisfaction.

Old ghosts who can linger in the underworld for hundreds or thousands of years are bound to be cunning and scheming. If a certain zombie breaks through the City of the Wrongfully Dead and immediately breaches the Underworld, displaying true power at the level of gods and Buddhas, they will all become the most loyal subjects.

However, judging from the stalemate, the Zombie King's strength is probably similar to that of many other wandering immortals in the past.

Moreover, relying entirely on brute force without any skill, they are completely unable to enter the cycle of reincarnation and can only stand outside, staring blankly and raging in vain.

This inevitably leads them to have other ideas.

The old ghosts in the side hall exchanged glances, each harboring their own secrets. They were in the same boat now, but what about the future?

The master of reincarnation is not necessarily one person. In the past, there were ten Yama Kings. However, there are more than a dozen ghosts with sufficient cultivation and vision in the side halls alone. There are not enough to go around.