Chapter 120 Embarrassed
Chapter 120 Embarrassed
I have faced death three times.
The dim world was filled with monotonous colors. Pale flames danced happily in the hollow trunks of ginkgo trees. There was silence all around. The land god in a wide official robe was still sitting in the small land temple, with kind eyes and a sweet smile. He held a jade plate in both hands and held it at his waist.
'Taiwei Xiyi Xiansheng Zhenjun Weiwu Zhenliang Great Emperor', with 14 golden characters arranged vertically on it, is particularly eye-catching in the dim tones of the surroundings.
"Ah..." Feng Yusu's mouth opened slightly. She woke up from the fear of death, but her mind was still a little dazed. She still couldn't quite understand what had just happened.
"Ningzhe, I...where are we?" she couldn't help but ask softly.
But as soon as she said this, Feng Yusu was stunned, because she found that she couldn't hear what she said.
Not only the sound of people talking, but also the rustling of wind blowing through the ginkgo tree canopy, the crackling of wood roasting in the flames, the chirping of insects in the corners, one's own breathing... and the ubiquitous white noise of the environment. Everything, all the sounds, disappeared.
This is a world without 'sound' at all.
The world of 'Xi'.
Ning Zhe did not seem surprised or surprised. He quietly took out his phone, opened WeChat and typed a line in the input box:
"We're on level -2."
-
2th floor?
Feng Yushu frowned, typed a line of words on his phone, and showed the screen to Ning Zhe: "-2 floors, does that mean we died three times?"
"Yes." Ning Zhe responded promptly and typed a question in the input box:
[How many lives do you think a person has? ]
"We only have one life, so it's only one." Feng Yushu made his decision without hesitation and gave his answer directly:
[Of course it’s 1 life. ]
Ning Zhe nodded, typing away as he walked back the way he came. Feng Yushu hurriedly followed.
Neither of them made any sound as they walked.
The ghosts that had just surrounded from all directions had disappeared without a trace. The beheaded Ji Taiyu, the white snake with human bones that crawled out of Ji Taiyu's grandmother's body...all kinds of enchanting and strange things seemed to have disappeared along with the colors and sounds of this world. Now the entire Yanglao Village was empty, empty and dead silent.
Ning Zhe quickly finished typing. Feng Yushu took the phone and saw a long paragraph:
[People have one life, so the human world, the Yang world, or the real world where living people live, is one layer. 】
[After death, life returns to zero, and a yang person turns into a yin spirit, also known as a soul, or a ghost. The place where ghosts are is called the underworld, which is the zeroth layer.]
[After a ghost dies, it turns into a 聻, and its life turns from 0 to -1. 聻 is a deformed half-human, half-beast spirit, extremely ferocious. Ghosts are afraid of 聻, just like people are afraid of ghosts. ]
[The place where the demons live is called the 'Devil's Dark Realm', which is one level deeper than the underworld at level 0, which is level -1]
[And the place we are in is even deeper than the -1 layer of the Netherworld. ]
Feng Yushu nodded secretly, not quite understanding, and wrote down the words on the screen carefully: "Level 1 is the world of the living, Level 0 is the underworld, and Level -1 is the netherworld..."
What is deeper than the underworld?
While Feng Yuxu was reading the text on Ning Zhe's phone, Ning Zhe had already typed the next paragraph on her phone:
【The ancients said that when a person dies, he becomes a ghost. When a ghost dies, he becomes a demon. When a demon dies, he becomes a ghost. 】
[This is a saying that was once widely circulated among the people in the Central Plains. It can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. It was also mentioned in books such as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" in the Qing Dynasty. The "Tao Te Ching" also has relevant annotations on the morphological characteristics of Xi, Yi, Wei, etc. after the death of the dead.]
[We committed suicide three times and fell from the 3st floor of the living world to the -1nd floor. This is the world of Xi.]
[It is written in the Tao Te Ching: "If you hear something but don't hear it, it's called rare."] "Rare means if you hear something but don't hear it..."
Feng Yuxu read the words on the screen and suddenly realized that it was not his ears that had problems, but that this world was a world without sound.
The way people fall from the first level of the living world to this soundless and fading world is death.
Ning Zhe paused for a moment and looked up at the bamboo forest not far away. As the whole world turned gray, the originally simple and clear road in Yanglao Village became a little difficult to recognize.
Stopping, I saw a half-hidden well in the bamboo forest ahead, looming in the distance. The small building of Ji Taixun's family was not far away.
"But this doesn't make sense..." Feng Yushu was a little confused, and quickly typed another line of words on his phone. He gently pulled Ning Zhe's sleeve and handed the screen to him.
[But if it is true as you said, that humans are on the 1st floor, ghosts are on the 0th floor, and demons are on the -1st floor, then what just happened cannot be explained.]
[We committed suicide three times before we successfully got down from the 3st floor to the -1nd floor.]
[But when we subdued Ji Taiyu, we only committed suicide once, and witnessed his grandmother transform into a half-human, half-beast human-bone snake. I think that was the 聻.]
[But we only committed suicide once, so we should have been in the underworld at level 1. Why are there ghosts in the underworld? Shouldn't ghosts be in the ghost realm at level -0? ]
Feng Yusu couldn't figure out the reason.
...And Ji Taixuan's grandmother was originally a living person. She was only killed by Ye Yao once, so her life after death should be 1. Even if something unusual happened after death, she should have become a ghost, not a monster that looked like a human and a beast - a ghost.
Ning Zhe nodded slightly, acknowledging her doubts, and typed a new line of words on the screen:
[You are right, there should be no ghosts in the underworld]
[So there shouldn't be ghosts in the world of the living, right? ]
"Ah..." Feng Yusu's shoulders trembled, as if an electric current passed through her brain, along her spine to her tailbone.
Is it...
[It is not certain yet.]
Ning Zhe patted her left shoulder gently, walked towards the small building hidden in the bamboo forest, and typed another line of words on Feng Yusu's phone:
【The more steps there are in all speculation, reasoning, association, and assumption, the easier it is to make mistakes. Just take it one step at a time and don’t aim too high.】
The first step of reasoning based on factual evidence can have a high accuracy rate, but the second step of reasoning based on the results of the first reasoning may be extremely wrong.
Ning Zhe arrived at the door of the small building. It was closed and the padlock on the bolt was locked.
"Huh..." Ning Zhe let out a light breath, turned to look at Feng Yuxu behind him, and exchanged their cell phones again.
A new line of text is already in the input box:
【Want to know why I brought you here? 】
Feng Yusu's eyes suddenly brightened and she nodded repeatedly.
(End of this chapter)