New Times, New Hell Chapter 134 - End

Chapter 134 - End

“I see them. They’re still here.” The Great Emperor of Fengdu gazed into the void at Luofeng Mountain and the Ghost City of Fengdu, then slowly revealed a smile. His smile was filled with relief, gratitude, nostalgia, and an indescribable feeling of sorrow.
The power of Luofeng Mountain had been released. Shang Que’s pale face gradually became filled with color once again. However, for the Great Emperor of Fengdu – who had been in the middle of the magical formation – it was already too late.
Shang Que didn’t say anything. His right hand, which was holding onto the sword handle, lifted up. The long sword transformed into a magical seal; the power rippled toward the Great Emperor of Fengdu.
“You don’t need to waste any energy saving me. I originally should’ve disappeared fifty years ago with the Heavens and Hell.” The Great Emperor of Fengdu raised a hand and pushed Shang Que’s remaining power back. “This is what I owe you.”
He slowly closed his eyes and disappeared little by little.
Before disappearing, he heard Shang Que solemnly say——
“They will live as they did when you were still here: living and working in peace, never needing to worry.”
The Ghost King of Luofeng Mountain stood up. He gazed into the distance at Luofeng Mountain, which was reaching straight up into the sky. Then, he looked at the Hungry Ghost Path, which was still overlapped with the mortal realm. Right now, the leaked power of the Chaos Realm and the power of Luofeng Mountain were surging through all the realms.
Shang Que lifted his hand. His magical seal rose into the air and, while absorbing the unlimited power, started recreating the barriers between the different worlds.
The Ghost Mother of Xi Mountain, innumerous hungry ghosts, ghost fires, the dense forest, the black river, and the Great Netherworld Sea slowly vanished from the mortal realm.
The hungry ghosts didn’t forget to bid farewell to the ghosts in the mortal realm they had just gotten to know: “Let’s keep in touch in the future.”
“Of course, of course. Let’s frequently communicate on the forums.”
Ghost Mother of Xi Mountain still maintained her strange form. She held up the pitiful fleshed great year and asked Yu Zhengdu, “Boss Yu, then I’ll bring this back to the Hungry Ghost Path?”
Yu Zhengdu sweatdropped. “Okay, okay.”
After thinking about it, he also reminded, “Don’t fry it!”
Needlepoint-Throated Hungry Ghost blinked his large eyes and felt very regretful. “I didn’t even have enough time to head down the mountain to steal a cup of milk tea……”
The Hungry Ghost Path disappeared.
Yu Zhengdu gazed at Luofeng Mountain, which was off in the distance. Head tilted back, he asked Shang Que, “What should we do about your dad?”
Shang Que: “……”
Upon noticing his speechless expression, Yu Zhengdu hesitantly guessed, “Could it be……it’s your mom?”
“I’m working!” Shang Que acted like he hadn’t heard anything and explained, “The gap in the Chaos Realm has provided enough power. Enough……to create a new Underworld.”
This time, the Chaos Realm had cracked open and Luofeng Mountain had either knowingly or unknowingly just so happened to fill up this crack. This meant that in the future, Luofeng Mountain could limitlessly draw upon the power of the Chaos Realm.
This was naturally enough to sustain a brand new Underworld.
After hearing this, Yu Zhengdu summarized: “A perpetual motion machine!”
Shang Que: “……”
He nonchalantly lifted a hand and tapped faintly. A new barrier started forming, gradually erasing the distant Luofeng Mountain from view.
The new Underworld had been born.
The blanket of dark clouds dissipated. The mortal realm became sunny once more. Shang Que returned to his usual form too.
Yu Zhengdu gazed at Shang Que, who had turned into the same size as him again and was dressed in casual wear. He bargained, “Can you keep the horns?”
Shang Que replied, pleased, “I can when I’m telling stories.”
This time, it was Yu Zhengdu’s turn to feel speechless.
At the peak of Impasse Mountain, the religious masters who had been deep asleep all started waking up. They each looked around at their surroundings in confusion. “What just happened?”
“How come I fell asleep?”
“Did the ceremony succeed?”
Ming Peiran rushed over with his team from halfway up the mountain. He agitatedly asked, “Religious masters, what’s the situation like?”
He and the rest of the members of the special department had originally been blocking off the mountain at the halfway point in order to ensure an undisturbed environment for the ceremony. For some unknown reason, they had all fallen asleep. Upon waking up, they discovered that Fu City was covered with both facial garments and red rain. Right now, the officials were in the midst of anxiously trying to come up with an explanation for the city’s residents.
Ming Peiran couldn’t offer much of an explanation either. For fear that something bad would happen to the religious masters, he had hurriedly rushed up to the peak of the mountain. Unexpectedly, he saw that the religious masters had just woken up too……
Additionally, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que were also here?
Confusion rose in Ming Peiran’s heart. Just as he was about to call out to them, he heard a commotion from up front. “Oh no, how come Young Mr. Luo has passed out?”
“What’s wrong with his back? How come he got burned so seriously?”
Ming Peiran’s eyes twitched. Luo Wanxiang was an enlightened religious master; not only that, but he was also the young master of the Luo Corporation. Both of his identities were very important. If anything had happened to him during the religious ceremony, they wouldn’t be able to take responsibility.
Ming Peiran temporarily didn’t have the time to pay attention to Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que. In two quick steps, he charged over and helped Luo Wanxiang up. Upon closer inspection, he jumped in fright.
Luo Wanxiang’s back could basically be described as “too tragic to look at.”
Ming Peiran’s vision went black. Fortunately, at this time, Luo Wanxiang finally started waking up. His face was extremely pale and colorless. He was also barely breathing. He slowly scanned his surroundings before weakly saying, “There’s no need to worry, everyone. I’m fine now.”
A religious master nearby was the abbot of the temple that Luo Wanxiang was studying at. Upon seeing this, he pressed his hands together and bowed, then lowly asked, “Wanxiang, has this ceremony……succeeded?”
The religious masters had received a notification this time and knew that Luo Wanxiang had seen an extremely disastrous future. They had all expended their life’s energy during this ceremony, but only Luo Wanxiang could see the final results.
Luo Wanxiang revealed a relieved expression. He softly said, “It succeeded. Please rest at ease.”
Yu Zhengdu was asking Shang Que too: “This is technically considered a successful ceremony, right?”
“Un,” Shang Que nodded.
Without the efforts of the religious sects of the mortal realm, the Great Emperor of Fengdu would’ve been unable to activate the magical formation by himself to summon the power of the Chaos Realm. Even if the Great Emperor of Fengdu had ultimately sacrificed himself and Shang Que, and even if Yu Zhengdu could borrow the power of Luofeng Mountain, that would’ve still been useless.
This was the result of everyone’s combined hard work.
From this perspective, this blessing ceremony had been extremely critical.
Luo Wanxiang’s words caused everyone present to heave out long sighs of relief. The abbot observed the burns on Luo Wanxiang’s body again. With furrowed brows, he asked, “Why have you ended up like this?”
“This is the price,” Luo Wanxiang answered. “However, the end result is good.”
He slowly lifted his head to gaze at Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que who were separated from the crowd.
Coincidentally, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que were looking at him too.
Yu Zhengdu asked Shang Que in slight confusion, “He’s……?”
“The real Luo Wanxiang,” Shang Que answered.
Since young, Luo Wanxiang’s physical body had been possessed by the Great Emperor of Fengdu. However, his soul hadn’t actually been destroyed. Instead, it had been trapped inside his heart and had grown up along with his physical body. Because of this, though he hadn’t been in control of his body and though he hadn’t had any freedom, he had experienced these past twenty-something years along with his physical body. He knew exactly what had happened during this time.
As of now, the Great Emperor of Fengdu had disappeared. His soul could finally regain control of his physical body once more.
“Thank you, you two.” Luo Wanxiang revealed a meaningful smile at Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que, then bowed deeply at them.
As expected from Luo Wanxiang, the one who had been born with the Buddha Eye and who had been a vegetarian since in the womb. It seemed that he naturally possessed the clarity and love of peace that Buddhists had. He made no mention of how he had been treated the past twenty-something years: all things are impermanent, all phenomena are empty and devoid of self, all emotions are painful, Nirvana is true peace.
Or, it could be said that he had become the chosen one exactly because he had the capability for such insight.
Luo Wanxiang’s sudden gratitude towards Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que caused everyone around him to feel a bit confused. In actuality, everyone had already noticed that these two people from Luofeng had appeared. They had also already felt curious. Only, Luo Wanxiang’s tragic state had garnered everyone’s attention first.
Now that he had brought up this topic, everyone all voiced their confusions.
“It was all thanks to these two that the ceremony succeeded this time,” Luo Wanxiang pointedly said.
But nobody had any clue as to when Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que had actually climbed up the mountain, or what they had actually done.
However, Luo Wanxiang wouldn’t lie. Since he had already said this, that meant that it was definitely the truth.
Ming Peiran had taken care of lots of special situations, so he also knew that many things couldn’t be clearly explained. A lot of the time, it was also inconvenient to explain them properly. Because of this, he wasn’t very conflicted. After ordering his team members to immediately safely escort Luo Wanxiang down the mountain to get treatment, he finally personally thanked Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que: “We’ve troubled you two again this time.”
“Just doing what we ought to,” Yu Zhengdu righteously said. “This is the responsibility that all socialist successors have.”
Ming Peiran instantly felt respectful. “Boss Yu has reached such great enlightenment. You truly are our generation’s role model.”
“All because our nation’s mandatory education has done well!” Yu Zhengdu expressed his gratitude towards his country once more before finally asking, “However, we’re going to get prize money this time too, right?”
Ming Peiran: “……Yes.”
After this incident, Luofeng’s image in the religious community and special department’s hearts skyrocketed once more.
Yu Zhengdu familiarly exchanged business cards with the religious masters he had just gotten to know. Then, following Ming Peiran’s arrangements, he and Shang Que walked down the mountain.
The entire way, Yu Zhengdu was still in great disbelief about everything that had happened today.
“I’m thinking……” Yu Zhengdu asked, “Could your dad have already planned everything out a thousand years ago?”
Shang Que: “Un?”
Yu Zhengdu posed like a detective and started analyzing: “For example, your dad actually knew the truth about the collapse of the Heavens and Hell long ago. Thus, he very sensibly sent you to the Chaos Realm and sank into the ground himself to save energy. When the time was right, you would leave the Chaos Realm, breaking the barrier to the Chaos Realm while at it……”
Shang Que: “Emmm.”
Yu Zhengdu: “What? You don’t agree?”
“That’s not it,” Shang Que said, expression cold. “Can you call Luofeng Mountain something else?”
Yu Zhengdu: “……So it really is your mom?”
Shang Que: “……”
Shang Que completely gave up and said, “You can just call it father-in-law or mother-in-law. Whatever you like.”
Yu Zhengdu clapped. “Then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I’ll call it father-in-law. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I’ll call it mother-in-law. And I’ll take a break on Sundays.”
Shang Que: “……”
He smiled in exasperation. There was also a look of relief in his eyes as he gazed at Yu Zhengdu. “In the future, we won’t need to worry about being separated anymore?”
Yu Zhengdu didn’t understand.
Shang Que seriously said, “Luofeng Mountain has acknowledged you. From now on, you and I will share a lifespan.”
At this exact moment, the Luofeng employee group chat started furiously buzzing with notifications once more:
Kang Jin: 【Ao——things are finally fine!!! The system is back to normal too!】
Kang Jin: 【Scared me to death!】
Zheng Yan: 【Careful with your word choice. You’re already dead】
Kang Jin: 【I’m repeatedly dying, okay?】
Zhao Ruola: 【Wait a moment…… Our server?】
Zhao Ruola: 【@Yu Zhengdu @Shang Que, what happened? Our server is in the middle of being taken over?】
Shang Que: 【Don’t worry. It’s being taken over by Luofeng Mountain】
Everyone in the chat was shocked: 【Luofeng Mountain?!!】
Shang Que: 【Un.】
In actuality, the Six Paths of Reincarnation had originally belonged to the Underworld. However, because the Heavens and Hell had collapsed, Shang Que had been forced to open up Hell in the mortal realm. And, it was a hidden danger that couldn’t be disregarded for Shang Que’s magic to sustain the Life and Death Accounts system and servers, because this was the equivalent of having the Six Paths of Reincarnation’s survival depend entirely on Shang Que.
To both the Underworld and Shang Que as an individual, this was actually quite a lot of pressure.
Currently, the Life and Death Accounts’ servers had been taken over by Luofeng Mountain, which meant that the Six Paths were finally truly existing with the Heavens and Hell.
Of course, only the servers had been taken over by Luofeng Mountain. System maintenance and daily work would still be performed by their company. Due to the fact that the development team currently still consisted of all human programmers, in the next few decades or centuries, Luofeng would still need to continue staying open in the mortal realm and become a good, law-abiding, tax paying company under the management of socialism.
Similarly, the subsidiary company’s department that maintained their company’s financial health would continue to stay open too.
Yu Zhengdu: 【Let us become a true well-established enterprise!】
Shang Que held onto his wrist. There was finally a spark in his eyes. “I’ll take you to see……the real Luofeng Mountain.”