Chapter 8: Netherworld

Ouyang Xuan only felt the wind blowing in his ears and his eyes could not see things. He seemed to be walking through a different dimension like a cloud and a fog.

I don’t know how many times have passed, but suddenly, Shen Tu smiled in his ear and said, “Young man, we’re here!”

Ouyang Xuan couldn't wait to open his eyes, and was immediately shocked by the spectacular and strangeness of the underworld, with an incredible expression in his eyes:

The sky in front of me was boundless, but it was dazzling blood, which made people look extremely shocking.

Under the sky is an extremely huge mountain with steep mountains and countless strange peaks, all of which are straight into the clouds.

To the west of the mountain, a huge peach tree rose from the ground, as thick as a mountain, and countless dense branches stretched into the distance like a sky and earth.

Ouyang Xuan looked into the distance and felt that the peach branches and leaves were stretching to the distance, and it was boundless and endless, with no end to see.

Looking at his feet again, Ouyang Xuan was surprised to find that he was standing on a branch of this huge peach tree.

However, this branch is terrifyingly thick, as wide and flat as an eight-lane expressway on earth. Not to mention leaving, there is no problem even if you fight a human-ghost battle on it.

At this time, Shen Tu interrupted Ouyang Xuan's observation and smiled and said, "How is it? Is it very different from the underworld you imagined?"

"Hahaha," Ouyang Xuan smiled embarrassedly and said, "I thought the underworld was full of corpses and blood, and Avici Hell. I didn't expect that there was such a majestic and unique place!"

"Hahaha..." Shen Tu and Yu Lei burst into laughter.

"There is no way. In order to intimidate the evildoers in the world, the underworld must remain mysterious. The more terrifying the mortals think, the better. In fact, the scenery in some places in the underworld is also very magnificent, just like the "Ghost Gate". "Shen Tu introduced carefully: "Look, this magnificent mountain is called Dushuo Mountain, which stretches for thousands of miles. This is the foundation of the underworld. The big peach tree we are standing on is even more amazing: it is said that when the world first blooms, it has grown to this point. It has a deep foundation and has more than 3,000 miles of branches, like a huge tree city. Every year when peach blossoms bloom, there are clusters of beautiful flowers everywhere, with infinite fragrance, which makes people feel refreshed."

Ouyang Xuan couldn't help but be fascinated by the sound of his life and praised: "What a good place. Unfortunately, I have no luck. It's winter now, and I can't see such a magnificent scenery."

Shentu and Yu Lei smiled slightly, pointed to the front and said, "Let's go, our home is there, which is the place where the Ghost Gate is as legendary as the world's gate of hell. This is the only passage between the underworld and the human world."

The three of them walked past a peach tree branch and saw a cliff appearing in front of them. On the cliff, a thicker peach tree branch was climbed. At the end of the branches, there was a huge naturally formed peach wood arch hole.

At this moment, the arch cave was filled with black smoke, constantly blowing away by the whistling mountain wind, looking extremely deep and so strange that it was terrifying.

Next to the arch cave, two huge statues of the gate god stood:

A statue on the left has a blue indigo face, his eyes are like a rainbow, he holds a leopard tail halberd, and a huge black-spotted tiger on the bottom, which is the Shentu.

On the right, a statue of the god looks like a green pine and a bloody mouth. He holds a giant wheel axe in his hand, but there is a big white rooster standing on his shoulder. It’s not Yulei who is it.

Could this be the "Ghost Gate" that makes the world famous and terrified? Ouyang Xuan turned around and looked at Shentu and Yulei.

"Yes, this is the gate of hell, and we are the guard here." Shen Tu looked proud.

"But it's strange, why didn't you see a ghost next to the Ghost Gate? It's so cold and deserted." Ouyang Xuan was a little strange and touched his nose blankly.

"Hahaha, young man, you probably forgot: the Gate of Hell is open during the day every day, but closed at midnight. It's just the time for retreat, so we brothers have time to meet you." Yu Lei explained with a smile.

"Oh——" Ouyang Xuan suddenly realized and smiled, "So that's the case. It's not the time to turn on and off. But, two great gods, there seems to be no place to drink here?"

"What's the difficulty of drinking?" Shentu and Yulei shouted: "Shenhu, Yunchi, come to pick up the peach blossom fairy wine and fruits, we want to drink with this mortal friend."

With a sudden roar, the tiger statue suddenly resurrected, raised its head and let out a long roar, flew onto a huge peach branch, and disappeared into the distance after three or two jumps.

Immediately afterwards, the big rooster on the shoulder of the God Yulei statue was also resurrected, flapped his wings twice, and flew towards the place where the tiger pounced.

Ouyang Xuan was stunned: It turns out that these tigers and roosters are alive!

While he was stunned, two rays of black and white flashed in front of him, and the black-spotted tiger bit a huge wine jar in his mouth and knelt at Shentu's feet.

The snow-white rooster also bit a huge fruit basket full of fresh fruits. She looked at her owner Yu Lei obediently and nodded frequently.

The big rooster is nothing, but Ouyang Xuan is a little afraid of this huge black-spotted tiger. He quickly took a step back and was alert.

"It doesn't matter. As long as it's not an evil ghost, I, the divine tiger, are very kind and never bite people." Shen Tu patted the black-spotted tiger's forehead. The black-spotted tiger immediately threw away the wine can comfortably and hummed.

Looking at the divine tiger that was well-behaved like a big cat, Ouyang Xuan also laughed, plucked up his courage to come forward and scratch the divine tiger's forehead.

The Shenhu not only did not bite Ouyang Xuan, but instead stuck out his tongue intimately and licked Ouyang Xuan's big hand hard.

Shen Tu laughed loudly and clapped his hands. In an instant, a wide peach wood table and three peach wood stools appeared in front of the Gate of Ghost.

"Come on, Ouyang Xiaoyou, let's drink 300 cups." Yu Lei laughed.

"Okay." Ouyang Xuan was not polite, and sat down with Shentu and Yulei.

Shentu brushed the table with his hand, and a green light flashed, and three huge sea bowls appeared. Then, Shentu pointed to a huge wine can, and suddenly three Jiuquans were sprayed out of the wine can, and they flew into the three large sea bowls. As soon as they were filled, the three Jiuquans suddenly retracted into the wine can.

"Come on, Ouyang Xiaoyou, let's have a bowl." Yu Lei picked up the big bowl and laughed heroically.

Looking at Yu Lei's broken armor, Ouyang Xuan said a little embarrassedly: "This, Master Yu Lei, I'm really sorry for breaking your armor."

"Haha, it doesn't matter. It won't take a few days. When my divine power is restored, the armor will be automatically repaired. Ouyang Xiaoyou, don't call him a great god. Shentu is bigger. You should call him a eldest brother. I'm smaller. You can call me the second brother." Yu Lei laughed.

"Okay, big brother, second brother, do it!" Ouyang Xuan also became energetic, picked up a big bowl, and poured the whole bowl of strangely fragrant wine into his throat in one breath.

When it poured into the throat, a strange fragrance rushed straight into the lungs. Ouyang Xuan's eyes turned red, and he felt his whole body relaxed, as if he felt like he was floating in the air.

"Uh--" Ouyang Xuan burped, put down the wine bowl, and praised: "Good wine, good wine, naturally mellow, fragrant, it's true that good wine."

"Hahaha, good alcohol content! Ouyang Xiaoyou, this is the peach blossom fairy brew that my brothers have worked hard for many years, and I am reluctant to drink it. However, today, friends come from afar and may not be able to bleed!" Shen Tu smiled and pointed to the wine jar, and the wine jar spewed out three streams of wine springs as usual, filling the bowl with it.

"Ao--" At this time, the Shenhu suddenly put his head to the table, looked at Shencha, Yulei, and then looked at Ouyang Xuan.

Ouyang Xuan was stunned, smiled and patted Shenhu's soft forehead, and said with a smile: "Why, do you want to have two drinks?"

Shen Tu smiled and patted Shenhu's forehead, and cursed without any anger: "This guy is so greedy and likes to drink. Come on, I'll give you a bowl, and if there is too much, there will be nothing."

As he said that, the magic tea turned into another bowl, filled it with wine, and placed it at his feet.

"Aowu-Aowu-" Shenhu was so happy that he immediately lay on the ground, carefully sticking out his tongue and licking and drinking wine.

Looking at the intoxicated look of the Shenhu, Ouyang Xuan laughed: "Brother, does this Shenhu have such a spiritual connection, but what is the origin?"

Shen Tu smiled and said, "It is the tiger god among the legendary zodiac gods. It is my mount for many years. Others call it "Hei Lan Shen Tiger", but I always call it "Xiao Hei"!"

"Is that true!?" Ouyang Xuan was surprised and delighted. He didn't expect to see such a magical object and hurriedly said: "My zodiac sign is also a tiger. I didn't expect to meet my ancestor today. Hello, Brother Tiger!"

Ouyang Xuan happily touched the back of the Shenhu. The Shenhu hummed comfortably, but he only focused on licking the peach blossom fairy wine in front of him, and had no time to pay attention to Ouyang Xuan, a late junior.

"Geehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"Haha, 'Xiaobai' is angry," Yu Lei hurriedly introduced: "My chicken is called 'Colorful Cloud Chicken'. It is the chicken god among the twelve zodiac gods. I have been with me for many years. Because I am one black and one white with the god tiger, I call it 'Xiaobai'!"

"Geegi" "Xiaobai" suddenly became happy, proudly raised his chest, raised his head, and walked around the peach wood table like a proud general, as if he was inspecting thousands of troops.

"Hahahaha..." Looking at this very unique 'Colorful Cloud Chicken' and looking at the drunkard-like earth-die tiger, Ouyang Xuan couldn't help but laugh with a stomachache: "These two divine beasts are really interesting."

Shen Tu and Yu Lei felt a little embarrassed and laughed: "They have been with us loyally for thousands of years, and they have been spoiled by us."

"Go down, go down, don't disturb us drinking." Yu Lei patted "Xiaobai" lovingly, drove it off the table, and threw it into the fruit basket with a strange fruit.

When Xiaobai got something to eat, he became happy and pecked at the food with great enthusiasm, ignoring everyone.

"Come on, Ouyang Xiaoyou, the mountain residence is simple, we can only treat you with these wild fruits." Shentu greeted him enthusiastically.

Ouyang Xuan looked at the fruit basket and seemed to have never seen many of the fruits before, but they all had the tempting color and fragrant smell. He couldn't help but say wonderingly: "Two brothers, it's winter now, are there any fruits to eat?"

"Haha, it's not usually the case. However, there is a place in Dushuo Mountain, but it's still as warm as spring in winter, with a lot of sweet wild fruits growing." Yulei smiled and pointed to the sky at the west.

There, the huge trunk of the ancient peach tree stretched straight into the vast sky in the clouds, looming and thrusting straight into the sky.

"The second brother is referring to the top of this big peach tree!?" Ouyang Xuan suddenly realized.

"Yes, the highest point of this big peach tree is 9999 feet, and the crown is dozens of miles in size. Moreover, the four seasons are like spring and the flowers are blooming. It is a very spiritual place. The wild fruits growing on the crown have also accumulated the spirituality there, which is extremely precious and very helpful for cultivation." Yu Lei introduced: "But, except for the great gods with divine power, ordinary 'yin soldiers' and lonely ghosts cannot go to such a high place, and of course, they cannot eat these good things."

Ouyang Xuan was shocked. Unexpectedly, the seemingly ordinary wild fruits in front of him seemed so precious. He couldn't help but say gratefully: "It seems that I have asked my two brothers for their blessings. Otherwise, how could there be such a blessing of the good fortune? "

"Hahaha," Shen Tu smiled and said, "Don't be polite, eat it quickly! It's also your blessing. This is what I just picked up last night. I didn't expect it to be cheaper. After you eat it, it should be of little help to control the inner alchemy of the Vulcan God."

Ouyang Xuan also laughed, took a strange red wild fruit, and took a bite. In an instant, the sweet fruit sweat and flesh surged between his mouth. Ouyang Xuan suddenly felt that the mortal fruits he had eaten before were simply garbage, and the deliciousness was not as good as possible.

"No, not bad, it's really a fairy fruit, it's really delicious." Ouyang Xuan raised his thumb and praised it very much. He wiped it out in two mouthfuls.

"Hahaha, just don't dislike it. Come on, let's drink another bowl." Yu Lei opened his bloody mouth, laughed and raised the wine bowl again.

"Okay, cheers!" Everyone laughed and raised their glasses to drink.

"This, Ouyang Xiaoyou, how Emperor Nan of the Fire God escaped from Taihua Mountain, can you tell us?" Shen Tu suddenly sighed: "My brothers and my brothers have been guarding this place for a long time."

Ouyang Xuan said in surprise: "I was a little puzzled just now. The heaven and your underworld were originally a family. It has been half a year since the Fire God had to escape from the imprisonment. Why don't you know yet?"

Yu Lei smiled bitterly and said, "You don't understand this. After the battle of proclaiming Gods, the heavenly realm opened up a different dimension space, leaving only a passage with the human world. But this passage was almost forever closed, and without the strength of the Heavenly Emperor level of Huangdi, Yandi, and Nuwa, this passage could not be opened. Therefore, it took almost a long time since the gods appeared in the human world.

Because our underworld is in charge of the six realms of reincarnation, it is impossible for us to break off contact with the human world, otherwise the three realms will lose their foundation and will inevitably collapse. Therefore, the underworld blocked other channels, leaving only the "Ghost Gate" which can freely communicate with the human world. Oh, the "Reincarnation Ring" that controls the reincarnation cycle cannot be regarded as a complete channel, because it can only go out and cannot enter.

In addition, there is also a connection channel between the underworld and the heavenly realm, but this channel is also closed all year round. Moreover, without the powerful strength of the Ten Palaces of Yama, the ghosts and gods of the Underworld cannot open this channel to the heavenly realm. Well, generally speaking, almost every hundred years or when there is a major event, the Ten Palaces of Yama will report to the heavenly realm, and there is basically no connection in normal times.

Ouyang Xiaoyou, now do you understand why we don’t know the news that the Fire God Nandi has escaped from trouble!?”

Ouyang Xuan then understood, so he nodded and slowly told the story of the Fire God getting out of trouble.

After listening to the story, Yu Lei was amazed: "I'm sorry, Emperor Nan was imprisoned for thousands of years because of Gonggong's disaster. Today, I can finally get out of trouble. Come on, for the freedom of my old friend, we should make a comeback!"

The three of them laughed and drank another bowl.

After drinking the three bowls of fairy wine, Ouyang Xuan couldn't help feeling a little blushed and said to himself: The peach blossom fairy wine has indeed fierce enough! He secretly activated the inner pill of the Red Leopard, and a trace of cool air invaded the whole body, and the wine immediately went away most of the time.

Ouyang Xuan picked up a fruit from the fruit basket, ate it in a big mouthful, and suddenly asked, "By the way, two brothers, I heard that it is easy to get in and difficult to get out, isn't that true?"

"Yes!" Shen Tu nodded with a smile, pointed to the dark hole, and said in a profound and profound "Ghost Gate": "My brothers guard the "Ghost Gate". According to the rules of the underworld, all ghosts and monsters that enter will be allowed to go, unless they are clearly here to fight. However, if you want to come out of the "Ghost Gate", you will be killed without the orders of the Ten Palaces of Yan Jun. Because countless evil spirits and ghosts are detained in the underworld, and there are also many wild monsters that have grown in billions of years. If you let them escape to others, it would be a huge disaster."

Ouyang Xuan was startled and said in horror: "There are so many terrible things in the underworld?"
To be continued...