Chapter 502 — The Shenwang Hall of the Netherworld

They came to a river in the city, its surface broad, a flying bridge spanning the two banks. Standing on the bridge and looking down, he saw mist churning in the riverbed, but no water; now and then sleek, greasy bodies swam through the fog.

"Is this joined to the sea of mist?" he asked.

The bird-headed deity Chixiu said, "No. The other end of the mist is Youdu; those creatures are things of Youdu."

"Things of Youdu?"

Shen Mu's head swam. He murmured, "Fengdu is joined to Youdu? Would Youdu not then attack this place?"

The deity Chixiu did not explain, but led them across the Bridge of Helplessness to a shrine in the city. This shrine was called the Hall of King Shen, and when Shen Mu saw the three characters Shen Wang Dian upon the plaque, he could not help but start.

"Why is this shrine called the Hall of King Shen? Could its master be surnamed Shen as well?"

His heart full of doubt, he was marched by the bird-headed Chixiu into the hall. The hall was brightly lit, yet the light gave a hollow, insubstantial feeling, as though it were not true flame at all, and the glow was dim and hazy.

Along both sides of the great hall stood grim, austere statues of ghosts and gods — tall, with strange faces and limbs unlike those of ordinary men; ribbons swirled behind them, and their hands grasped all manner of weapons, swords and spears, halberds and pikes, shields and tablets, and some gripped great serpents.

Shen Mu stood before one statue, studying it closely, hoping to make out the runes and marks upon them, when suddenly the statue's eyeballs rolled, and it looked at him with curiosity.

Shen Mu jumped in fright and hastily stepped back. The statue's eyes had turned to face front again, so that for a moment he thought his own eyes had deceived him.

"These are no statues, but true ghosts and gods!"

Shen Mu instantly became well-behaved and followed in the deity Chixiu's footsteps.

At the head of the hall sat a deity robed in black, upright and proper, reviewing memorials, busy with affairs.

Chixiu bowed and said, "Reporting to King Yan: the criminals Shen Mu, Xing An, and Kui Wushen have been taken and brought to justice, awaiting your judgment!"

The black-robed deity set down the vermilion brush and raised his head. Beneath the black robe his face could not be seen; only two dim points of gaze.

"Xing An still has years of life allotted him; he does not fall under Fengdu's jurisdiction. Release him."

Chixiu was slightly taken aback, but released Xing An as bidden.

"Xing An, though your crimes are many, Fengdu holds no authority over the living."

King Yan said, "You may go."

Xing An was startled and delighted. He sneered, "So Fengdu is, after all, a place that reasons. Very well — farewell!"

He was about to shift his feet, but the other twenty or thirty bodies upon him were unwilling, and he could not stir an inch!

Xing An was shocked and furious; those bodies struggled and screamed, cursing him, demanding their lives back!

"Is the Hall of King Shen a place for such clamor?"

King Yan said in displeasure, "Fork him out."

Suddenly two of the ghost-god "statues" moved. Those two ghost kings took up steel forks, and together they forked Xing An up and flung him out of the hall.

Xing An raged, "Did you not say you would let me go? Why then do you keep me in Fengdu?"

Chixiu sneered, "You would not leave yourself — can you blame another? Ignorant fool."

King Yan looked at Kui Wushen, who showed no fear at all, but sneered, "I too have years of life remaining. Old Shen, should you not release me as well?"

"Old Shen?"

Shen Mu's heart lurched. "King Yan is surnamed Shen too? Who on earth is he?"

King Yan said calmly, "It is no hard thing for Fengdu to take a life. You have done too much evil; many in Fengdu died by your hand, worshiped by you until their souls scattered. Your death would be no loss."

Kui Wushen, secure in his confidence, chuckled, "And what can you do to me? Your Fengdu is nothing but territory seized from Youdu — a gathering place of leftovers, built in imitation of Youdu, scheming to overturn heaven! The Youdu arts and powers you command are crude, vulgar things, unfit for my eyes. Beside the Youdu arts of the Heavenly Court, you lag a hundred and eight thousand li behind. I was enfeoffed by Heaven; I do not fall under Youdu's jurisdiction. I may die at anyone's hand, but Youdu's arts alone can never harm me! You cannot kill me!"

King Yan was unmoved, his tone quiet: "So this time you were taken not to be killed, but so that through you we might understand our foe. Bring the Mirror of Three Lives; examine his arts and powers and the whole of his life. Know the enemy and know yourself!"

A ghost king in the Hall of King Shen stepped down from the altar and came straight to Kui Wushen. That ghost king had skin of blue, two pitifully small wings at his back, horns upon his head, a blue face with protruding fangs, and an extraordinarily large mouth.

He suddenly opened his mouth wide, and in an instant his mouth was vaster than his whole body, so huge it made the blood run cold!

His great mouth was like a gateway, and within the gateway light gathered and became a giant mirror, reflecting Kui Wushen.

Kui Wushen covered his face and screamed; in a heartbeat his body became a wisp of blue smoke and was drawn into the mirror.

Sucked into the mirror, Kui Wushen appeared in shifting scenes, and the mirror recounted his life in reverse, beginning from his capture by the deity Chixiu, time flowing backward as though reversed, ever back and further back.

Scene after scene passed through the mirror like a pageant: Xing An subduing Kui Wushen; Kui Wushen ambushed by the Great Venerable; Kui Wushen holding the Book of Life and Death, worshiping to death billions of living beings, slaying enemy generals; then the war with the Kaihuang Heavenly Court. The mirror's time flowed back into high antiquity, and ever more of his experiences were reflected forth, nothing held back!

Shen Mu's scalp went numb. Under the light of this Mirror of Three Lives, who could have any secrets left?