Chapter 214: What Attracts Everything

Tinghui County was a small place with only one inn, so naturally, it was called Tinghui Inn.

In the main hall of Tinghui Inn, the martial artists, now relaxed, reverted to the questions they had persistently asked Du Heng earlier.

Li Tongzhou raised his wine cup, toasted Du Heng, and then subtly posed a question.

"Brother Du," he began, "who exactly is this Mr. Ji? We’ve faced life and death together countless times, barely surviving one crisis after another. We’re truly comrades now. Please, tell us more about him!"

"Yes, Hero Du!" chimed in another.

"Indeed, indeed! Hero Du, please tell us. Mr. Ji, just like that, with a 'whoosh'..."

A loud-voiced man mimicked Ji Yuan blowing a breath, an awkward imitation, yet everyone understood his meaning.

"He just blew a breath, and those terrifying ghost dolls turned to dust! That power is simply unbelievable! Is Mr. Ji a deity?"

"Exactly, exactly! My father used to tell me that as martial artists, we should trust the blade in our hands more than any talk of ghosts, gods, or corrupt officials. I always thought those supernatural occurrences were mere legends, but now I’ve truly witnessed that there’s more to this world than we know!"

"Right, right, Old Cui, quick, go to the kitchen and prepare some more dishes for these heroes to enjoy with their wine."

The innkeeper also joined the lively banter.

Du Heng was in high spirits; he found it impossible, and indeed had no desire, to refuse. This group of companions was vastly different from the friends he’d once impulsively gone tiger hunting with. Though they hadn't known each other for long, in the past few years, they had traveled far and wide, eradicated mountain bandits, apprehended local bullies, and even, while masked, ousted corrupt officials. This time, they had stood together against malevolent spirits, unwavering in their resolve. They were truly comrades forged in life-and-death situations.

While he wouldn’t disclose too many private details about Mr. Ji, Du Heng felt it was appropriate to clarify certain aspects that everyone already knew but hadn't quite pieced together. Furthermore, based on Mr. Ji’s previous conduct, he hadn't seemed overly secretive.

"Alright, I'll tell you," he agreed. "But first, a disclaimer: there are some things Mr. Ji might not appreciate being revealed, so I won't overstep. What I can tell you, I'll make perfectly clear!"

"Of course!" "Absolutely!" came the replies.

"Excellent!" "Oh, Hero Du, please begin! I'll pour you some wine!"

"Cough, cough."

Du Heng cleared his throat, then leaned forward and spoke in a hushed tone.

"You all know I sent Mr. Ji a letter before winter, informing him of the strange occurrences here, right?"

Everyone nodded, and even the inn staff, who were unaware of this particular detail, instinctively followed suit.

"So, tell me, how long would a letter take to travel from Jinzhou to Jizhou, specifically to Desheng Prefecture in Jizhou?"

"Jizhou?"

"Goodness, that would take several months!"

The innkeeper interjected with an exaggerated comment.

"Once, I wrote to a merchant in the capital's prefecture, and it took half a year to arrive!"

Du Heng smiled.

"So, I suspect my letter only reached Jizhou and was seen by Mr. Ji a few days ago."

The loud-voiced man looked left and right before interjecting impulsively.

"Mr. Ji covered such a vast distance and arrived here instantly? Doesn't that mean he flew?"

"Cough, cough… That's what *you* said, not what *I* said!"

Du Heng replied mysteriously with a cough, and those nearby had an epiphany, their suspicions confirmed by the events of the past few days.

Unfortunately, despite sharing much that evening, Du Heng remained tight-lipped about Mr. Ji's residence, and the others found it inappropriate to press him further.

As for Ji Yuan, the subject of their discussion, he had no such thoughts. He was preparing to deal with the evil cultivator and his disciple, intending then to fully immerse himself in the insights gained from his recent magical combat.

The fishing rod on Ji Yuan’s shoulder was not inherently extraordinary; it was simply that, given his nature, he preferred using familiar old items.

So, after previously crafting another fishing rod, he finally inscribed a few characters on it and employed certain methods to allow the rod and line to undergo some basic transformations. For instance, the fishing rod could coil up like a ball of yarn and be tucked into his sleeve.

His excuse about the rod being inconvenient to carry and asking the old turtle to watch it by Chunmu River was purely a pretext to keep the turtle waiting there.

As Ji Yuan carried these two individuals, who followed the path of evil cultivation, returning to Ning'an County was out of the question; he feared defiling his own home ground. Dealing with these two required the expertise of professionals, or rather, professional ghost deities.

Jinzhou was vast and sparsely populated; many counties lacked proper City God Temples, and even the City Gods of some prefectural cities certainly did not possess the profound cultivation of those in Dazhen's heartland. Furthermore, Ji Yuan was not familiar with them. Bringing these individuals there would inevitably create the impression of an accusation, requiring an awkward process to smooth things over, which was simply too much trouble.

Ji Yuan's first thought was the Underworld Tribunal of Chunhui Prefecture. After all, the information conveyed by the divine ebony wood had previously included the interrogation of a snake demon, and Ji Yuan held their professional capabilities in high regard.

So, upon leaving Tinghui County, Ji Yuan leaped directly into the sky. Riding the clouds, he manipulated the wind to clear away the surrounding air currents and snow, creating a temporarily calm, windless environment around himself.

Ji Yuan glanced at the roasted chicken and wine flask in his hand, realizing he hadn't eaten or drunk anything for several days.

On the plate he held in his right hand, the completely cooled roasted chicken began to glow with a roasted color. Within a few breaths, it was steaming hot again, and its enticing aroma filled the air.

"Not bad, not bad. My heating technique is decent; it didn't burn."

As Ji Yuan journeyed on his cloud, eating roasted chicken and sipping liquor, news of the magical battle in Tingqiu Mountain began to spread from those who had witnessed it. This, to some extent, corroborated the previous rumor propagated by the true demon—that Dazhen's interior was, in fact, teeming with hidden masters.

The following day, after sunset, a profound silence had fallen outside the City God Temple of Chunhui Prefecture. In the depths of the night, when only watchmen and patrols were stirring, a white-robed gentleman, carrying two individuals suspended from an extravagantly curved bamboo pole, approached the temple. It was Ji Yuan, having just returned from Jinzhou.

Upon reaching a certain distance from the City God Temple, Ji Yuan channeled his magical power to transmute yin and yang, crossing a boundary between the mortal and underworld realms. Before his eyes, the Gates of Hell appeared.

Seeing the white-robed figure approach, carrying two individuals, several underworld officers guarding the Gates of Hell immediately stepped forward and sternly questioned him.

"Who goes there, and what is your purpose in intruding upon the domain of Chunhui Prefecture's Underworld Tribunal?"

The arriving figure was certainly not a ghost—the underworld officers could discern this from the heavy steps and the vital energy radiating from him—but he was clearly no ordinary mortal either.

To avoid unnecessary complications, Ji Yuan directly produced the dark ebony token he had retrieved from Hu Yun after returning to Ning'an and extended it to the underworld officer.

"This is Lord City God of Chunhui Prefecture's token. Please announce that Ji Yuan has come to visit!"

The moment the underworld officer took the token, he felt the lingering majestic aura of his City God. Not daring to delay, he bowed to Ji Yuan and said, "Please wait here, Sir," before hurrying into the Underworld Tribunal.

After the City God of Chunhui Prefecture saw the dark ebony, the process was seamless. Following greetings and an explanation of the situation, the two evil cultivators—a male and a female, an old man and a young woman—had their souls immediately extracted and were confined deep within the penal prison of the Department of Punishing Evil.

During this process, the woman was still under the immobilization spell, while the old man remained unconscious.

Approximately a day later, nourished by the underworld's Yin energy, the old man's soul finally awakened. The instant he regained consciousness, he felt the chilling cold surrounding him and heard distant, agonizing screams.

His vision and memories were blurred. He strained to recollect, finally recalling the previous events: a powerful master had pursued them, the mountain god was defeated, and then his memory ceased.

"Am I dead?" he wondered.

"Hmph, you're not entirely wrong. You're as good as dead now!"

A voice sounded before him, causing the old man to jerk his head up. His vision cleared, revealing a tall, hideously ugly figure in official robes standing directly in front of him. Looking around, he saw torture instruments everywhere, with grotesque, disfigured creatures chained to them, accompanied by constant whipping and agonizing screams.

"Where? Heh heh, he's asking where he is!"

"Hahahahahah!." "Yeh heh heh heh…"

"Ho ho ho ho!." "Woo ha ha ha ha…"

The air was filled with high-pitched, terrifying, grotesque laughter. Some came from the monstrous figures resembling officials, others from the tortured creatures bound to the instruments. Even as a cultivator, the old man quickly felt waves of malevolent chill wash over him.

"Hahahahah! Ahhh… hahah… ahhh…"

One grotesque creature, laughing a moment before, was suddenly plunged into a cauldron of oil. Amidst the sizzling, it let out a bloodcurdling scream, yet even in its agony, it continued to cackle towards the old man.

All the malevolent spirits and monsters surrounding him laughed. They knew well the old man's profound sinfulness, evident by his chaining to the Copper Pillar of Karma and the dense, malevolent black cloud hovering above his head. The fiends in this purgatory most yearned for someone to suffer just as horribly, or ideally, even worse than themselves.

The man in official robes gazed at the old man with a stern expression.

"You ask where you are?"

The old man's scalp tingled; this was likely the legendary Underworld Purgatory, a place no cultivator would ever willingly enter.

The gruesome laughter from around him was a profound shock. Many of the seemingly deformed monsters had, in fact, once been human, tortured by various punishments in purgatory until they lost all semblance of their former selves. The old man had heard these legends, and immediately understood.

"They… why are they laughing at me?" the old man stammered, trembling.

"Heh heh heh heh," replied the official. "That's naturally because they get to see someone more wretched than themselves. You, a practitioner of the evil path, have no idea how many sins you've accumulated. After the immortal master removed the talismans from your body, your malevolent aura became absolutely monstrous..."

The most fearsome executioner in Chunhui Prefecture's Department of Punishing Evil cast a glance at him and continued.

"The Department of Punishing Evil has no intention of interrogating you," the executioner continued. "Our lord decreed that a fiend like you would yield no confessions. Thousands of extreme tortures will be applied directly. Furthermore, a cultivator’s spirit is solidified, so there’s no need for any restraint. We in the Department of Punishing Evil have a saying: 'To merely wish for a swift death is already profound bliss.' Heh heh heh heh… you will soon understand!"

As he spoke, the Copper Pillar of Karma seemed to shift. A dark red expanse appeared ahead, and the wails of countless long-tongued vengeful spirits and skeletal wandering souls grew closer…

Just half a day later, deep within the penal prison of the Department of Punishing Evil, the old man's hysterical screams were punctuated by only one recurring phrase.

"Ahhh… I confess! Who said I wouldn't confess? I confess!"