From the end of the world

Chapter 634 Ancient Civilization 1
With the diviner's explicit guidance, I finally realized the contradiction.

This eastern coastal city was destroyed in the aftermath of the battle between the Great Impermanence and the Great Demon. Millions of people died almost at the same time. So where did their souls go?
Faced with that terrifying shockwave that swept everything away, the souls of ordinary people could hardly withstand it; it wouldn't be surprising if they were all completely annihilated. But even if millions of souls were to be completely destroyed, their essence should still be observable and perceptible in the world of the living. It's like how even if a city were bombed with a thousand strategic nuclear weapons, at least the charred remains could be recovered from the rubble afterward. The same principle applies to souls.

No, that's not all...

This phenomenon of "unobservable soul sedimentation" has occurred not only in this ruined city, but all over the world. Because it happens so frequently, it has become a commonplace sight, making it difficult for people to react quickly.

More than a hundred years have passed since the afterlife closed off. In this long period, countless humans, animals, and plants have been born and died in the living world. Two world wars have even occurred during this time, and our country has experienced unimaginable turmoil.

Where do those departed souls end up? If the souls of the dead can only wander and settle in the world of the living, then why hasn't the world of the living become a ghost town after more than a hundred years?

I recalled the key words that the fortune teller had initially mentioned.

“Gravity…” I murmured.

“Yes, gravity,” the fortune teller said. “The soul is different from matter in the conventional sense; it is the manifestation of consciousness and thought. Just as a normal person cannot move an object with their own will, the soul generally cannot interact with matter. This is why some rural ghost stories sometimes describe ghosts and people with out-of-body experiences as being able to pass through walls.”

"Of course, if one has cultivation or magical power, or has special conditions such as still being connected to a living body, or has special abilities like that girl named Xiaowan, then one can still walk on the ground as if one were alive... But the soul of a normal dead person cannot have normal collisions and interactions with matter."

"That being said, they are still affected by gravity... so what will happen next?"

"...Will it fall to the ground?" I asked tentatively.

Since there is no way to interact with matter, the ground can no longer serve as a foundation to support it. Under the influence of gravity, the soul of the deceased will continue to fall, fall, and fall until it reaches the deepest part of the celestial sphere—the Earth's core.

The exact state of Earth's core remains a mystery to humankind. Scientists believe the Earth's core environment possesses incredibly high pressure and temperature, composed of extremely dense, molten iron, nickel, and silicon, with temperatures reaching 4,000 to 6,000 degrees Celsius—comparable to the surface of the sun.

In Buddhist lore, the deepest level of hell, Avici Hell, is located in an unimaginably deep underground, filled with boundless flames and lava. Souls trapped there have no hope of liberation and are destined to remain in this hell for eternity, desperately enduring endless, relentless, and excruciating burning pain.

—Could it be that the Avici Hell actually exists, located at the very core of this planet's subsurface?
The divination master nodded.

"This is the final destination of all souls before the afterlife is established," he said. "From the moment the first life appeared on Earth, the inner Earth has existed as a hell that physically borders the world of the living, and it is also the origin of the planet's natural will."

"When you were explaining the Naraku Gospel to Fazheng, you raised this question, right? Why does the Naraku Gospel simultaneously possess the dual identities of 'the natural will of the planet' and 'the general will of Naraku'? The latter is merely the general will of the afterlife in the natural ecosystem, and it shouldn't be on the same level as the will of the planet or celestial body itself... That's the reason."

"The natural will of a planet does not arise naturally with the creation of the planet, but rather is a super soul that is so vast as to surpass everything, which is generated by the Earth constantly absorbing the souls that are born and die on its surface and accumulating and compressing them at its core."

"If you think this soul is not large enough to be the soul of a planet, then you are underestimating it. Indeed, the ecosystem of any period in history is extremely small compared to the planet itself, merely a thin layer of 'microorganisms' clinging to the surface of a celestial body. But as the saying goes, 'many drops of sand make a tower, and water dripping wears away stone,' no matter how small the force, once accumulated over an incredibly long period of time, it will evolve to an immeasurable level."

"The history of life on Earth spans billions of years, and the amount of souls accumulated and deposited in the Earth's core is beyond even the imagination of the Great Impermanence. The various explosions of life, including the Cambrian period, and the five mass extinctions, occurred long before humans even appeared on the historical stage... Even before the primitive mammals that were the ancestors of humans had appeared on the historical stage, the natural will of the planet had already gradually taken shape."

The divination master's description revealed a timeframe I had never imagined. If that's the case, then the power of Naraku's Gospel is probably many times greater than I initially estimated.

"However, the emergence of a planet's natural will may not be a good thing for the planet itself, or for the life that lives on its surface," the divination master continued. "First of all, there is a limit to using the interior of a planet as a place to contain the souls of the dead. No matter how huge the Earth is, if the souls of the dead are allowed to continue to settle inside, they will eventually overflow to the surface and turn the world on earth into a ghost town."

"If that were the case, it would be fine. It would simply mean that the living must live in an ocean of souls, and life would naturally evolve to adapt to that environment. The problem is that the natural will of the planet that would arise in this way might not be benevolent to life."

"In a narrow sense, the Naraku Will is the collective unconscious of humanity, its foundation being the accumulated souls of countless deceased humans of the past. As the embodiment of human history, it instinctively protects its own race. However, the Naraku Will in a broader sense—the planetary will of nature—is not like this. As the embodiment of the history of life's evolution, the vast majority of the soul components accumulated within the planetary will of nature are species that went extinct in the ancient and prehistoric eras. The 'ecosystem of this era' accounts for an overwhelmingly small proportion of the planetary will of nature."

"Can you understand? As something accumulated from the Earth's ecosystem, it is not the embodiment of life, but the embodiment of death."

"Most of the manifestations of the dead are troublesome ghosts and vengeful spirits. This is because all life, when it dies, is always accompanied by a painful and desperate consciousness, so it tends to manifest in terrifying ways, and the natural will of the planet is also very likely to have the same tendency."

"There is even evidence to support this claim—due to the excessive accumulation of ancient dead souls within the planet, these elements have spread to parts of the mantle, thus forming some undead individuals that are not part of the planet's natural will. Although these individuals are far smaller than the planet's natural will and are also subject to gravity, usually wandering obediently in the mantle region, there have been several instances in ancient times where these individuals accidentally wandered to the surface."

“Each of them possesses incomprehensible and terrifying power, and more importantly, they all harbor unconditional malice towards life on Earth.”

Upon hearing this, I recalled the unusual clues that had occurred during my past battles with Mingzhuo.

After I dragged Mingzhuo into the mantle, he seemed very flustered. This was not only because he was at a disadvantage in his battle with me, but also because of his strong aversion to the mantle environment itself.

He seemed to know that there were unspeakable monsters in the deepest depths of the earth, and therefore tried his best to stay away from there.

As I reminisced, I summarized from my own perspective: "So... 'Planetary Natural Will' might be a misleading term. It's more like an alien object hidden within the planet, a monster that endlessly devours souls."

After nodding, the divination master said, "Perhaps all life-bearing planets in this universe will encounter the same problem. For this kind of monster, the planet is like a convenient incubation device. When it develops to a size that exceeds the size of the planet itself as life evolves, it may shatter the planet itself like a bird or beast struggling to break its eggshell and fly into outer space."

He paused, then continued, "—and the afterlife was created precisely to prevent this hopeless situation."

A monster that hatches from the planet itself and destroys the world? While I don't disbelieve what the fortune teller said, the scale of this description is so enormous that I don't even know how to react.

Compared to such a monster, even the Great Impermanence seemed insignificant.

“As long as souls don’t gather at the Earth’s core, but are transferred to another dimension, the destruction of the world can be prevented…” I understood the logic behind this approach. “Then… who created the afterlife, and how was it created?”

"The creators of the afterlife were declared completely extinct 66 million years ago. It was an ancient civilization where both the forms of life and the reasons for its extinction were shrouded in darkness, and even the exact time when it first appeared and the ultimate level of its development were completely unknown." The divination master revealed some startling information. "As for the method they used to create the afterlife... although this is just my personal speculation, what they used at the time was very likely the divine seal."

(End of this chapter)