Chapter 135: Three Thousand Years of Fengdu

Indescribable.
Unutterable.
Grand, majestic, magnificent, with an aura of the netherworld as vast as the ocean... No matter what adjectives one used, they would not suffice to describe this colossal city.
Truly colossal. Its enormity could no longer be described merely as a city. Qin Ye was currently viewing it from a divine perspective, looking down from above. The first thing he saw was a miniature map resembling the divine land of China. And Fengdu City... was probably as vast as an entire province!
Even when looking straight down from above, its traces could be clearly seen, with billions of ghost fires fluttering. Countless nether spirits swarmed toward it from all directions like mosquitoes. It was the imperial seal of the Underworld.
Fengdu City.
The sole core of the entire Underworld!
As his gaze swept across, every single place automatically magnified as his sight reached it. He saw... in every city, every county, and even every village, there were various different Underworld structures.
The buildings in urban areas were massive, those in counties were smaller, those in towns even fewer, and upon reaching the villages, it was likely just a single temple paired with dozens of stone stelae and an offering table.
Did that sound like few?
No! Aside from a few peripheral areas that had yet to expand, the Underworld architecture across thousands of counties, hundreds of cities, and tens of thousands of villages was sufficient to be called... a nether-administration architectural complex as brilliant as a sea, as dazzling as the stars!
"How many... years would it take to build something like this?" With a sigh of awe, he moved his gaze to the Pearl River Delta region, where countless palaces stretched continuously, and an incalculable number of ancient tombs and monumental stelae stood. At the location of Yangcheng, the core city of the Pearl River Delta, an archaic, ultra-large-scale city radiating chilling ghostly winds spanned across a hundred miles!
Unlike modern high-rise buildings, this large city-state, nestled amidst nether qi and ghost fires, displayed an ultimate form of prosperity through a different path. Solemn and dignified, extending as far as the eye could see, pavilions and towers stretched endlessly, echoing the legendary Epang Palace of antiquity.
And there were fifteen city-states of the exact same scale as Yangcheng throughout the entire Underworld!
The mortal realm currently had ten core metropolitan circles in Huaxia that he knew of, yet the Underworld actually had even more!
"Perhaps this is the ultimate prosperity brought by a regime that has remained unchanged for thousands of years..." Sighing softly, he immediately locked his gaze onto the location of Yanjing City. Fengdu City was right there.
As his thought of "wanting to see" was executed, the entire projection of the Underworld suddenly expanded, as if... falling from the heavens and plunging into the city's blueprint. Yet at that very moment, his ethereal body felt as though it had been "repelled" by something, and he was suddenly unable to zoom in any further.
Still several thousand meters away from the majestic Fengdu City below, he could already see city streets resembling puzzle pieces, ghost resident neighborhoods scattered like stars on the outer periphery, and ghost fire lanterns like countless twinkling stars in the interior. Yet, he could not advance even a single inch further.
"Insufficient clearance; unable to view."
When this voice echoed in midair, Qin Ye was so angry he felt like vomiting blood!
Was such a thing even possible?
Fengdu City was right there, making his heart itch with longing, and you're telling me I have insufficient clearance right after I've taken off my pants?
"When you are able to see this, it proves that you have already taken over the work of the Underworld..." An aged voice appeared in midair, and wisps of nether qi gathered from all directions, actually forming an illusory figure.
Meng Po!
Qin Ye was stunned for a moment, then chuckled dryly: "Why are you everywhere? Could you please tone down the sense of your presence?"
Meng Po, however, paid him no mind and continued speaking: "The primary capital of Fengdu is the essence of the entire Underworld. The placement and design of every single building within it have undergone rigorous calculations. It is not merely the capital of the Underworld, but... a super-large-scale supreme treasure possessing formidable power capable of suppressing the entire Underworld, forged over the course of a millennium."
Qin Ye blinked, walked in front of Meng Po, waved his hand, and gave her the middle finger. Yet the other party acted as if she sensed nothing.
"Shouldn't this be similar to some kind of divine spiritual sense found in web novels?" He passed one hand through Meng Po's body; the other party was entirely illusory, merely a talking shadow.
"Look." Meng Po slowly raised her hand and pressed it downward toward the main city of Fengdu. In an instant, a deep blue radiance bloomed from a ridiculously massive palace at the very center, and then... the buildings of the entire Fengdu lit up from the inside out, seemingly chaotic yet orderly! Within mere minutes, the entire Fengdu City... actually formed an unfathomably profound giant rune composed of tens of thousands of ghost fires!
It resembled text, yet was something else entirely. It was carved upon the divine land's Underworld, magnificent and dazzling.
"So magnificent..." Qin Ye murmured.
Meng Po gently raised her hand, and in an instant, the entire Fengdu seemed to be pried up, soaring upward before Qin Ye like clouds hanging from the sky. When he came to his senses, what lay before him was a cross-sectional diagram of the gigantic city of Fengdu. Within it, he was merely the size of an ant.
Right beneath the city of Fengdu lay a heavily guarded living hell surrounded by blazing flames, freezing ice, cauldrons of boiling oil, and mountains of blades and seas of fire!
He saw Infernal Guards the size of mere ants, holding soul-detaining staves and wearing tall hats, with dozens of nether attendants following behind them, flying back and forth through hell. He saw countless captured souls transformed into the shapes of nether servants, drifting around like mosquitoes... and he also saw, erupting at every moment from this endless hell, a surging tide of nether qi, within which the faces of men and women, young and old, poor and wealthy mortals appeared, screaming and roaring, only to be swallowed by the pitch-black nether qi, as if repenting and atoning for the sins of their mortal lives.
"This is the Celestial Prison of the Nether Administration, responsible for detaining prisoners about to be sent to the Six Paths or the Eighteen Hells. No matter how they try to escape or how hard they struggle, it is impossible for them to break through to the surface. Can you, right now, manage to build an equivalent prison?"
Before the voice faded, like a scene from Inception, the cross-sectional diagram of Fengdu before Qin Ye vanished into smoke. He saw a place further away, where thirty-four distinct regions had nether qi soaring straight into the sky. There was the hell of poisonous fire, the hell of black ropes, the hell that made one's hair stand on end with wave after wave of miserable shrieks, and... countless nether spirits, pulled along by a single rope from all directions, marching mechanically toward those places.
Like the corpses of migratory birds.
"The Great Hells of the Ten Palaces, the Eighteen Hells, the Six Paths of Reincarnation... This is the scale of the Underworld, weighing the sins of human lives. Can you... build any of this right now?"
Swish... All the images collectively turned into nether qi and vanished. Meng Po tucked her hands into her sleeves and said hoarsely, "Seeing too much will only dazzle the eyes and bewilder the mind. Thinking too much will lead to reckless attempts at existences you have no business yearning for. I have told you all this simply to let you know that now is not the time for you to consider structures beyond your scope."
"This millennium-old city must be built step by step. Try to approach this grand overview map starting from a single village, the most basic unit. Begin your work slowly and deepen it bit by bit, until you form your first capital, your first metropolitan circle, and then gradually expand outward until you feel the necessity to relocate the capital. Only then should you speak of constructing Fengdu."
Qin Ye snapped out of his daze and nodded deeply.
No matter how magnificent a piece of brocade might be, it was still embroidered stitch by stitch.
He currently lacked the qualifications to weave the most core pattern; getting the needle and thread connected first was the proper task.
Amidst a thoughtful silence, Meng Po suddenly spoke up once more: "Little fellow, this should be our final meeting..."
Her voice softened, carrying a hint of lingering melancholy: "I admit that this old woman deceived you at the start. However, I do not believe that is a reason for you to bargain."
Her gaze seemed to pierce through the void, hollow and distant: "Do not think that the reconstruction of the Underworld was a trap designed for you by anyone. Every cause and effect has its predestined number; every flower and fruit has its karma. You were unwilling to die, so you accepted the Nether Attendant Token, and so you actively sought out the Yama Seal. In the end, you gained the right to continue living forever without dying, retaining your youth—surpassing billions of living humans."
Chilling winds suddenly rose all around, fluttering her mass of white hair: "To be born a human and to live is the greatest bestowal."
"You have accepted the greatest gift in life, and you are bound to face a karmic retribution equivalent to that gift. This is... the Heavenly Dao."
"There is never such a thing as a free lunch in this world. This, too, is... fairness."
Whoosh... The nether winds raged furiously, and Meng Po's lingering shadow vanished like the flame of a candle in the wind, drifting away into nothingness.
The entire world fell silent, leaving only Qin Ye and the vast, ocean-like panoramic map of the Underworld below. The early moon was rising, and the stars were brilliant.
Qin Ye did not speak. After several seconds, he called out, "Old hag?"
No one answered.
"If you don't come out again, I'm resigning, you know?"
Still no response.
After waiting a full five minutes, Qin Ye let out a wry smile: "I was originally a commoner, farming land in the rivers and lakes, striving to preserve my life in a prosperous age, without seeking fame among feudal lords... Why must every single one of you treat me like a savior?"
He looked down at the glittering golden pattern below, and after a few minutes, he smiled again: "However... it's fine too."
It was quite good.
He wanted to be lazy, because this was a prosperous era. A century of brilliance or a century of obscurity made little difference to him. The greater probability was that he would live his life amidst endless disguises after achieving fame.
What a hassle.
He also wished to avoid participating in the affairs between the mortal realm and the nether realm, but there was a precondition to this: leave his life undisturbed.
Yet now, holding two fragments of the Yama Seal, the Dao Lord of Xichuan had already been eyeing him covetously for a long time. Furthermore, as a nether attendant, having witnessed certain things—such as that tale of romance and tragedy, or the vengeful spirits of the Li family—it was difficult for him to simply turn a blind eye.
From the moment he rescued himself from the fate of dying within three days, the revolving wheel of this karma had already begun to spin.
"Actually, thinking about it, rebuilding the new Underworld is also a very meaningful job." Letting the nether wind flutter his sleeves, he smiled: "As for me... my life is far too long; I always need to find some meaningful things to do. Having lived for these decades, I've seen more than enough of what there is to see."
"Why not..."
Swish! His gaze suddenly darted toward a village, and instantly, countless data points, names, and runes began to reflect within his pupils.
"Since I've agreed, I might as well go all out?"
Sets of data flowed into his eyes and entered his mind. He began to gradually understand what an Underworld based on a village unit actually required.
"Sacrificial altar... Soul-guiding platform... Ghost Gate Pass... Ferryman..."
"The dimensions of the soul-guiding platform are... the runes are..."
"The ferryman... since there is no Yellow Springs River, that can be omitted, but a Spirit-Suppressing Hall is practically indispensable... It seems I won't just need building materials; I'll have to buy some cinnabar when I have time..."