Stranger Danger

“Meh. It doesn’t really taste good.”

Ye Qing shook his head. However, he could clearly sense the light gray steam rising from his body diminishing slightly after he drank the molten copper.

I see. This light gray steam is my karmic hindrance! Ye Qing thought to himself.

It was at this moment the ghost pawn scooped another spoonful of molten copper. Ye Qing drank it again and confirmed that it lessened the gray steam even more.

Looks like I’ll need to drink three hundred spoonfuls of molten copper before I can cleanse my karmic hindrance completely, but…

Ye Qing drank another spoonful of molten copper before resuming his thoughts.

… it’s going to take way too long. I’ll do this myself.

Ye Qing inhaled and exhaled, causing his vigor to erupt, and his muscles to ripple like mini dragons. The chains trapping him instantly broke into many pieces.

“Brazen criminal!”

Enraged, the ghost pawn behind him immediately burst into ghastly flames. The other ghost pawns were wearing unfriendly expressions as well.

“Relax, I don’t mean to escape. I just think that the procedure can be sped up a little, if you get what I mean.”

Ye Qing did not wait to see if the ghost pawns got what he meant or not. He opened his mouth and inhaled the entire river of molten copper into his mouth in one gulp.

The light gray steam rising from his body immediately started diminishing at a visible rate. The next moment, it was gone.

“See? This is way faster, and I don’t need to waste your time.” Ye Qing wiped his mouth and gave the ghost pawn behind him a smile.

The ghost pawn didn’t reply. To be more accurate, he seemed to be stupefied by what he just saw. He had been toiling away in this hell for many years, but he had never seen such a brazen criminal in his life, much less one who cleansed his sin like this.

The next moment, a crack appeared underneath Ye Qing’s feet, and he plummeted into darkness.

When Ye Qing came to again, he found himself in a completely new place.

Everything was dark cyan in color. A cold, biting wind was blowing in the air, countless ghosts were fighting against each other, but not quite. To be exact, they were ripping into each other or themselves with an iron gleam in their eyes and iron claws growing out of their hands.

Despite spilling gore all over the place, the ghosts refused to stop. They kept fighting or ripping themselves apart until their bodies gave out, and they died.

However, when a yin wind blew past their bodies, they would immediately revive and look as new as before. Then, they began fighting each other or tearing themselves apart once more.

Again and again, a neverending hell.

“This must be the Saṃjñā, the Reviving Hell!” Ye Qing remarked.

The second hell of the eight hells was called the Saṃjñā, the Reviving Hell. It was the hell where those who speak flowery words, aggressive people and sinners who committed assault against another person entered. Iron claws would grow out of their hands, and they would be forced to fight against each other or harm themselves until their body gave out. However, one gust of cold wind was all it took to return them to life, and they would have to fight once more. This would continue until their sins were cleansed.

It was at this moment he heard a grandiose voice, “Your sin of wounding others is grave. You must strike yourself for thirty years to atone for it.”

A cold wind blew against him, cold and biting, and he saw red lights shining out of his body like flames.

“Thirty years? Damn, that’s pretty serious!” Ye Qing checked himself with a raised eyebrow and wondered if he was going to burst into flames.

He wasn’t really surprised though. Who in the jianghu hadn’t fought or injured another person? This was doubly true for him, a jianghu warrior whose path was paved by fire and brimstone. Forget the number of people he injured, he couldn’t even remember how many people he had killed until now. It was natural for his sin in this regard to be so steep.

There was one thing that confounded him, however. Normally, a ghost was thrown into the eight major hells based on the severity and accumulation of their sin. After all, it was impossible for someone to commit only one sin their whole life. Besides that, some sins were greater, and some were insignificant. In any case, based on the person’s severity and accumulation of sin, they would be thrown into one of the eight major hells and punished. And of course, each hell had their own main theme so to speak.

He had committed far graver sins than just “the sin of mouth” and the “the sin of injuring others” such as killing, stealing and more. Logically speaking, he should’ve been thrown into a deeper level of hell right away and punished there. Instead, he was starting from the very first level, the hell that boasted the lightest suffering, the Hell of Molten Copper. Clearly, something wasn’t right here.

“Maybe that’s it. I’m supposed to start from the very first hell and cleanse my sins on each level.”

The more Ye Qing thought about it, the more he believed he was right. Otherwise, considering the sins he had committed, he should have been sentenced to the fifth or sixth level of hell from the get go. Also, according to the Buddhism’s interpretation of hell, those who fell into Saṃjñā were sinners who spoke flowery words and aggressive people. However, the voice declared that his sin was one of injury. Nowhere did it mention his sin of flowery words. This was only possible if said sin was already cleansed in the previous hell.

“In other words, once I’ve cleansed myself of all of my sins, I would obtain Kṣitigarbha Buddha’s inheritance and the Ten Directions Stupa, right? Right. That has to be it.”

It was at this moment Ye Qing felt a mysterious, indescribable energy slipping into his body from the wind. His fingers slowly turned blue, and iron claws grew out of his hands. Then, before he could control himself, his hands took a swipe at his own face.

Screeeeech!

There was a horrible noise that sounded like nails against a chalkboard, and… nothing happened. Forget leaving a wound, the claws had failed to so much as depress his skin.

What could he do? He was just that thick-skinned.

This was an awkward situation to be in thought. Ye Qing could tell that his karmic hindrance hadn’t decreased one bit, meaning that the strike needed to draw blood as well.

“Screw it, I’m just gonna cheat.”

Ye Qing shrugged. He did not have any masochistic tendencies, nor did he feel like torturing himself for thirty years. So, he summoned his Profound Yellow Mother Qi.

As soon as the dark yellow qi appeared, his hands immediately returned to normal, and the red light that represented his sin gradually grew fainter.

The Profound Yellow Mother Qi was a karmic qi of the world, and karmic qi and karmic hindrance were like fire and water. The bane of each other’s existence, of course the Profound Yellow Mother Qi could be used to wash away his sins and karmic hindrance.

In fact, he already noticed this possibility when he was at the Hell of Molten Copper. It was just that the molten copper couldn’t hurt him one bit, and three hundred spoonfuls really wasn’t that much molten copper. So, he decided to save the Profound Yellow Mother Qi for another occasion.

The Profound Yellow Mother Qi was very precious, okay? It didn’t fall from trees, okay?

But now, he had to use it. Striking himself hard enough to draw blood for thirty years? Seriously? By the time he was done, everything would be over already.

That wasn’t the only thing he did, however. Using his hand like a saber, he cut himself while red lotuses fell all around him. It did not work nearly as well as the Profound Yellow Mother Qi, but it was definitely effective.

It was the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art”, a saber technique he hadn’t needed to use for a very long time. It could sever an enemy’s karmic hindrance, so it made sense that it would work on himself as well. And it did, to a certain extent.

Thanks to the Profound Yellow Mother Qi and the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art”, the bloody light surrounding his person began diminishing at a visible rate. A teatime later, it was completely gone, and Ye Qing much lighter because of it.

Once again a cold wind blew against him, but this time, he felt warm and comfortable instead of cold. He found himself growing increasingly transparent until he was completely gone.

The next moment, Ye Qing found himself at another dark red place, though it was definitely not the Hell of Molten Copper. He saw countless red hot copper pillars and even more ghosts being bound to the copper pillars by black ropes. Their flesh and blood sizzled against the hot metal, and hot steam rose from everywhere. Their screams seemed like it would never end.

“Kālasūtra… the Hell of Black Rope…”

Ye Qing raised his eyebrows again. Kālasūtra or the Hell of Black Rope was the third hell in the eight major hells. It punished those who spoke flowery words, aggressive people, and thieves. Those who fell into this hell would be bound to the piping hot copper pillars by iron ropes and burned until their sins were cleansed.

“Your sin of thievery and banditry is grave. You will be bound by black rope and burned for sixty years.”

Before the voice even finished, a burning black rope shot out of the copper pillar, wrapped him tight, and pulled him toward the copper pillar.

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