The Path Toward Heaven

If one had lost everything, then they had nothing else to lose.

If one had nothing to lose, then they would be fearless.

The Underworld Emperor looked at Jing Jiu quietly, his abyss-like black pupils wavering slightly, indicating a slight change in emotions.

Was it empathy or respect?

“You have said that you wanted to help me re-establish the inheritance of the Underworld,” the Underworld Emperor said. “Let’s forget about how hard it would be to achieve such a feat for the moment. Even if you had succeeded, the situation might have changed many years later, and the humans wouldn’t be able to suppress my race anymore. Don’t you worry that my successor might become a woe to the humans?”

Jing Jiu said, “The Underworld had never been nor should ever be a woe to humans, just as humans had never been the woes for the fairy world.”

“Taiping told me the same thing back then,” said the Underworld Emperor.

Jing Jiu said, “The concept started with him, because I seldom thought of these matters. But I think what he said was sensible, at least regarding this.”

What the inhabitants in the Underworld, especially those powerful devil swordsmen, wanted the most for their entire lives was to come to the human world, either through the Abyss, or by climbing out from the Heavenly Well.

It was because the human world had sunlight and the environment more suitable for life; it had a real sky.

It was the same as the way the human Cultivation practitioners wanted to ascend. All lives aspired for a world that was broader and higher.

There was nothing wrong with this desire.

It was the same as the deviant Cultivation sects wanting to have a spiritual source; there was nothing wrong with that either.

It was just that the humans had already been here.

And that spiritual source had already been owned by the Green Mountain.

As far as the human race and the Green Mountain Sect were concerned, it was wrong for the inhabitants of the Underworld to want to take over the human world or the Green Mountain.

Their views on this were different; it depended on which side one took to determine justice and injustice.

Jing Jiu considered these matters from the viewpoint of the human world.

Back in Zhaoge City, he had discussed with Zhao Layue about this topic.

Cultivation practitioners were not regular human beings, but their relationship with the regular human beings was not like that between humans and sheep either.

Those who had the same origin and background belonged to the same race.

…

…

The Underworld Emperor said, “I don’t have any more questions for you; but if you can help me with this one matter, I’ll teach you.”

After he ascertained that it would be difficult to kill Jing Jiu, and that he would be unable to find the Royal Seal of the Underworld even if he killed Jing Jiu, his hope became mere expectation, and both of them had to go back to the initial negotiation.

The Underworld Emperor’s statement meant that he had already agreed to Jing Jiu’s request, but the Underworld Emperor needed an excuse to accept the condition of the negotiation; and his request should be easy to fulfill.

In fact, it was an easy task…but it was really absurd.

Even Jing Jiu, who wouldn’t even blink when all the things were destroyed in front of his eyes, was taken aback for a long time after hearing the request.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

The Underworld Emperor said seriously, “If you had lived here, like me, for six hundred years, you would know how annoying it was to have those mosquitoes bugging you all day long.”

Jing Jiu said seriously as well, “The mosquitoes should be killed; and there will be no more mosquitoes if they are all killed.”

This was a useless statement.

Someone had said a long time ago that a useless statement was often a true one.

The reason the Underworld Emperor couldn’t fix this trouble was because this subject was outside the boundary of the truth.

It was because the mosquitoes in the Fiend Prison were impossible to kill.

Jing Jiu didn’t quite understand the concept.

The Underworld Emperor told Jing Jiu the conjecture he had come up with after having pondered it for six hundred years.

The Taichang Prison was isolated from heaven and earth, devoid of time and space; so it would not change…ever. And the mosquitoes were part of the Taichang Prison, so they would not change either.

In short, because there was no change, there was no death for them.

Hearing this conjecture, Jing Jiu fell silent for a long time.

But, he still felt this matter was ridiculous and unreal.

Even if those mosquitoes were a part of the Taichang Prison, they would normally change back to regular mosquitoes when they came to the small world of the Underworld Emperor.

According to the principle of the Fruit Formation Temple, this was the consequence of cause and effect.

“Those mosquitoes fly by my ears all the time with their buzzing. It’s really annoying. Yet, I can’t kill them. It makes this emperor exceedingly frustrated.”

The Underworld Emperor had a pale look; it seemed that he was truly scared of those mosquitoes.

Jing Jiu suddenly remembered one thing.

He was to bring Ada to the Fiend Prison with him, but Ada refused it.

The last reason Ada gave was that there were too many mosquitoes in the Fiend Prison.

Jing Jiu didn’t pay any attention to it at the time, but it was indeed a problem, he thought.

The environment was so brutal in the Fiend Prison; why were there so many mosquitoes here?

Even if there were many mosquitoes, why would a divine animal like Ada fear them?

It looked like these mosquitoes in the Fiend Prison were indeed troublesome.

However, there was one thing Jing Jiu couldn’t understand; based on the Underworld Emperor’s Cultivation state, even if he couldn’t kill those mosquitoes, all he needed to do was shut off his perception, and the trouble would be shut off from his mind.

Seeing Jing Jiu’s expression, the Underworld Emperor guessed what was on his mind, saying, “Even if you don’t perceive them, those mosquitoes are still there.”

Jing Jiu had discussed the Dao with the Young Zen Master for one hundred days, so he easily understood what the Underworld Emperor had just said. “I can teach you the true View of Cleanness.”

“No,” the Underworld Emperor said without hesitation. “Your Master had brought me to visit the Fruit Formation Temple once. I can accept the View of White Bone a little, but if I had really accepted the View of Cleanness, my life would be meaningless.”

Jing Jiu thought that being alive had its own meaning, but it was different from the Underworld Emperor’s.

Yet, it was not the proper time for him to discuss the Dao with the Underworld Emperor. “Where are the mosquitoes?” Jing Jiu asked.

Jing Jiu had already been in the Fiend Prison for more than ten days. He spent most of his time in this green valley, except the time when he spent drifting in the dark space.

How come Jing Jiu hadn’t encountered the mosquitoes that scared the Underworld Emperor so much?

“During our conversation, I already used the Soul-Fire to drive them away many times. Didn’t those mosquitoes go to your side? Yeah, that’s right…”

The Underworld Emperor was puzzled. “Why didn’t those mosquitoes bother you? Is it because your blood is stinky?” he asked scornfully.

Jing Jiu didn’t respond to his scornful question, asking, “Since you can drive the mosquitoes away, why are you still upset?”

The Underworld Emperor snapped, “Do you think I should do the same thing over and over again every day for the rest of my life?”

Jing Jiu thought it would be indeed terrible, so he suggested, “You can make a mosquito net, or build a house.”

“No use. They can’t keep them away,” said the Underworld Emperor.

Jing Jiu failed to understand why. “Let me have a look,” he said.

The Underworld Emperor walked to the front of Jing Jiu.

Jing Jiu heard the buzzing sound, but he didn’t see anything. And he strained his eyes to look around, and finally saw those mosquitoes.

Those mosquitoes were very tiny. Even if Jing Jiu employed his Sword Vision, he could merely see little black specks.

He raised his hand to swing at those mosquitoes, but he didn’t hit any of them.

These mosquitoes were truly outstanding; they had evaded Jing Jiu’s swat.

The size of these mosquitoes was not natural, and it had even surpassed the upper limit of human imagination.

No matter how formidable his sword will was, or how strong, the mosquito was like something that was even lighter and smaller that a grain of sand; how could Jing Jiu hit it and cut it to pieces?

It was why the Underworld Emperor couldn’t kill these mosquitoes.

The Underworld Emperor glanced at his right hand.

“Since you are so lazy and unwilling to use the soul-fires as a shield, I suggest that you use the hardest and densest wood to make a shield.”

Jing Jiu continued, “Or, Your Majesty could try to melt the rocks and then bury yourself in it.”

When the rocks on the mountain were melted by the soul-fires, the pure crystals would remain afterwards. These crystals would absolutely have no rift once they were solidified.

No matter how small those mosquitoes were, they would have no way to pass through the solidified crystal.

“If this method is workable, I can simply apply the solidified crystal to my body to wrap it up. We played this as a game when we were younger,” the Underworld Emperor retorted.

Jing Jiu felt the Underworld Emperor had suddenly turned into his “nephew” at a young age, hard to communicate with. He felt somewhat troubled, wondering what it had to do with him anyway.

Those were the mosquitoes of the Fiend Prison, not the monkeys of the Green Mountain.

Jing Jiu suggested, “You should ask those who locked you here to solve the problem.”

“Like I said, nobody can come here except you.”

The Underworld Emperor said to Jing Jiu in a mocking tone, “You should know that even the dragon can’t find a way to come here.”

Besides Jing Jiu, nobody could come here, and neither could the wind and rain.

There was only one Royal Seal of the Underworld.

The ocean couldn’t bring even one drop of water.

But, Jing Jiu didn’t accept this assumption. If the ocean had the awareness, it could let its awareness enter each and every drop of water, and communicate with each tiny being inside every drop of water.

However, could that awareness be viewed as the entity of the ocean?

Jing Jiu didn’t want to ponder this issue any longer. “You have lived with them for six hundred years. Have you found out what they fear the most?” he asked.

“No, I haven’t found what they fear,” the Underworld Emperor said. “But your Master had told me that they feared thunder.”

The green valley had suddenly become quiet.

Jing Jiu looked at him silently for a long time. “Did he tell you about the Thunder-Soul Wood on the Green Mountain?” he asked.

“Let me think,” the Underworld Emperor said, his expression unchanged.