From the end of the world

Chapter 625 The Gate of Life and Death 2
"In a state of cheating..." Yuchi's words were quite apt.

The saying goes, "Those who follow the Way receive much help, while those who stray from the Way receive little help." This was originally used to describe the difference between those who "win the hearts of the people" and those who "lose the hearts of the people." However, the Gospel House did not win the hearts of the people, but rather the hearts of Heaven; it did not occupy the Way of humanity, but rather the Way of Heaven. They embodied the meaning of "acting in accordance with Heaven" to the fullest extent.

However, Naraku Gospel may not necessarily be entirely biased towards Gospelin. No matter how many humans Gospelin slaughters, the fact that they are still human remains unchanged, making it difficult to consider Naraku Gospel and Gospelin to be completely bound together. This ambiguous relationship may also be reflected in the teleportation array of Mount Dosaku.

The Fukuin Temple's use of the teleportation array on Mount Dosaku is currently limited to transporting one human or god from the Underworld to the real world; however, when teleporting a Great Demon, it can transport three heads at once. This may indicate that Naraku Fukuin Temple still holds back a great deal of support for the Fukuin Temple, but not for its own incarnations.

Speaking of "following the will of Heaven," I thought of the little bowl beside me and said, "With the help of the Son of God, could you overcome the obstacles you encountered in realizing the teleportation array of Mount Dushuo?"

"...You mean Number Two? It seems I wasn't mistaken, she really is the Child of Divinity..."

Yu Chi glanced at the small bowl, then shook his head regretfully, "No, it won't work. A child of divinity can only follow the will of Heaven, not make Heaven follow its will. Even if it were possible, she would have to personally inscribe the teleportation array on Mount Dushuo so that the array could receive a sufficiently powerful boost."

"By the way, it's useless for me to stand by and guide her in inscribing the formation. That would be my will, not hers."

It seems this route won't work. Xiao Wan may possess a lot of mysterious knowledge thanks to Zhu Jiu and Zhu Shi's memories, but she clearly can't compare to Yu Chi in the art of formations.

"To be honest, aside from its inherent flaws, there are quite a few parts of that teleportation array's technical data that puzzle me," Yu Chi pondered. "Huang Quan is also a master of array formations. When I was studying a long time ago, I also studied a lot of the array knowledge he had preserved in Luoshan, so I have a fairly good understanding of his core style..."

"However, that document clearly contains heterogeneous elements that don't fit Huang Quan's academic style. Even though Huang Quan has been away from Luoshan for over a century, it's not enough to explain this anomaly. Those elements are fundamentally different from Huang Quan's, and definitely came from someone else... Who could it be..."

It seems that the teleportation array at Dushuo Mountain in the Yellow Springs was originally collectively participated in by the Yellow Springs Gospel Academy. Judging from Yuchi's words, there seems to be an unknown person with great abilities in the Gospel Academy.

Xiaowan and I couldn't discuss the issue of formations. At this moment, Xiaowan seemed to remember something and said, "Mr. Number Five, if there were an existing entrance and exit that could travel between the world of the living and the world of the dead, could it help you with your project to develop a teleportation formation?"

"What!? There really is such a thing?" Yu Chi exclaimed in surprise. "Could it be the path you used when returning to the world of the living? It's not a one-time use path, but can be reused? Then why do you need me to develop the Dushuo Mountain teleportation array?"

What Xiaowan was talking about was undoubtedly the basement on the fifteenth floor. I explained, "That entrance and exit is not open to those who are not destined to enter or exit. Although Xiaowan can slightly increase the number of people entering and exiting, she can only add one more person at most, and it cannot be any other Great Impermanence besides me."

Yu Chi calmed down. "I see... So, can you take me there to see it now? I need to see it before I can give a conclusion."

“Okay.” I summoned flames.

The orange-red flames engulfed the other two. I traversed space and arrived directly in the living room of the fifteenth floor in Saltwater City. The flames also brought Xiaowan and Yuchi here.

The ritual array I had previously inscribed and reproduced was still on the floor, but the entrance to the basement had not yet appeared. Yu Chi first looked around, then looked at the array on the floor, a look of astonishment on his face.

"...The entrance and exit you're talking about, you're not referring to this formation, are you?" He pointed incredulously, "You rely on this thing?"

“That’s right,” I said.

Yu Chi confirmed again: "This dilapidated formation can summon an entrance to the afterlife? You used this to return to the world of the living from the afterlife?"

"Yes," Xiao Wan nodded.

Yu Chi glanced at our faces, then looked again at the ritual formation on the floor, seemingly still hesitant about whether to trust us.

I deftly moved the rolled-up black plush rug beside me, unrolled it, and covered the ritual array. The pattern on the rug represented the missing components of the ritual array. The small bowl then released its blessing power towards me, strengthening my connection with the fifteenth-floor basement. More specifically, I had previously placed a piece of "slag" in the fifteenth-floor basement, and now I was strengthening my connection with that thing.

Next, I lifted the rug with the brown English letter pattern, and unsurprisingly, the wooden cover appeared in the center of the ritual formation.

Yu Chi stared in disbelief, and when I opened the wooden lid to reveal the gray concrete steps underneath, his jaw seemed to dislocate.

"It really...it really happened?" he said, unable to believe it.

"Shall we go down and take a look?" I asked.

After several changes in expression, Yu Chi gritted his teeth and said, "Alright, let's go down and take a look!" We went down to the fifteenth-floor basement together.

The interior space has no doors or windows, the walls are bare concrete, and the gray shelves are covered in dust... It's still the same as always, and my "slag" is placed in the middle of the floor almost unchanged.

And naturally, Number Seven is no longer here.

I looked at the hole in the wall not far away, which resembled a doorway. It was the hole I made when I broke through the wall to enter the fifteenth-floor basement from the afterlife. Through this hole, I could glimpse the scenery outside: a town area shrouded in darkness at night, filled with ruins and rubble.

Strangely enough, while it was still dusk in the real world, the afterlife remained a constant darkness. The two worlds, each with its own sky, were connected by an entrance that was roughly one meter long and wide.

While feeling a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, mixed feelings), I also breathed a sigh of relief. I had been worried that what I saw through that doorway wouldn't be a view of the afterlife, but rather a dark void. That was exactly what I saw when I first entered the fifteenth-floor basement.

The reason it didn't turn out that way this time wasn't entirely due to luck; my prior preparations also played a part.

The "slag" I placed in the basement on the fifteenth floor releases heat extremely slowly. This heat travels through the air into the afterlife outside the room, permeating the air and soil of the afterlife according to my preset instructions, and stubbornly remaining in that area. In essence, this "slag" creates a "force field" of heat, connecting the basement on the fifteenth floor with the space of the afterlife.

I believe this method can maintain the connection between the 15th-floor basement and the afterlife when I am not present. Of course, this is just an optimistic estimate, but even if it does not achieve the desired effect, when I re-enter the scene, the heat remaining around the connection coordinates and the blessing power of the small bowl can restore the 15th-floor basement to its state of connection with the afterlife—just like it is now.

The fifteenth-floor basement has become a transit station between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

We passed through the doorway and arrived under the sky of the afterlife. To be honest, although Xiaowan and I could travel between the two worlds this way as easily as eating a meal, I had never once considered using this convenience after returning to the world of the living. Only now did I truly feel the reality that I could freely travel between the two worlds.

“It really is the afterlife…” Yu Chi stared blankly at the night sky.

"Have you ever had any contact with the afterlife before?" I asked.

“Of course. More than a hundred years ago, when the Luoshan headquarters was still based in the afterlife, I was there studying and cultivating day and night... although the afterlife doesn’t really have a distinction between day and night,” Yuchi said.

I almost forgot that this guy is a Great Completion stage cultivator, with a lifespan far exceeding that of ordinary people. In terms of age, he could probably be my ancestor.

Xiaowan, however, discovered a new clue: she found a letter pasted on the wall outside the doorway.

“Brother Zhuang Cheng, here is the information left by Ms. Seven,” she said.

"Number Seven?" Yu Chi asked in surprise.

"What does it say?" I asked.

Xiao Wan handed over the letter and said, "Ms. Seven said she has already begun to gather up the remnants of the Tai Sui Army scattered around the world after death. If we want to find her, we can go there to make contact according to the map drawn on this letter."

I glanced down at the letter. The front contained the text, just as Xiaowan had said, while the back was a messy, graffiti-like apocalyptic map. The handwriting was incredibly wild and illegible; using this kind of calligraphy in an exam would likely result in losing all points for neatness.

Putting aside the quality of her handwriting, it's truly remarkable that Number Seven was able to complete such a task in just two or three days... No, perhaps from her perspective, a long time has already passed.

Seeing Yuchi's curiosity, I briefly explained to him Seven's current identity in the afterlife. As for whether or not to meet Seven again, there's no need for that right now.

"So, does the existence of this entrance/exit help you develop the teleportation array for Mount Dushuo?" I asked.

"Very helpful!" Yu Chi asserted. "Although your ritual formation is inexplicable and basically worthless, the existence of this entrance and exit is enough for me to obtain a lot of crucial information..."

"I am confident that I can create a gate within half a month that allows all the demon hunters of Luoshan, including all the Great Impermanence, to pass through freely, simply by using this entrance and exit itself as the base material for the teleportation array!"

After his grand pronouncements, he paused, observing my expression. "So... please forgive my intrusion, but could you please transfer ownership of this entrance/exit?"

(End of this chapter)