Entering the Underworld

It was unusually noisy.

Gu Chenling frowned slightly and then blinked his eyes open. At first his sight was still blurry, but his eyes soon adjusted.

His body stilled.

He did not know what he had expected to see, but it surely wasn't this.

He was currently standing in a line of people, all wearing clothes from different time periods. Looking around, he recognized people wearing clothing that was typical for the Tang period. Others wore military uniforms from decades ago that Gu Chenling only knew from history books or TV dramas.

The clothes aside, what really threw him off was the gory sight of so many people bloodied and injured. Chenling even spotted one guy with his decapitated head under his arm standing not far from him.

It felt surreal to see these people calmly stand in line in front of him. If he had not known that he was dead already, Gu Chenling would have suspected that he was standing in line for a horror themed cosplay convention.

Turning around, Gu Chenling met eyes with the person right behind him. Meeting eyes might have been the wrong term to use here as the woman did not even have any eyes. The places where her eyes were supposed to be only contained two bloody holes.

Gu Chenling felt himself lucky that he was already dead or he might have had suffered a heartattack right then and there.

The woman stared at Gu Chenling for a long moment and then smiled. It seemed like it was supposed to be a friendly smile. But as it was paired with bloody gaping holes in place of the eyes the result looked more ghastly and chilling.

While the sight did scare him a bit, Gu Chenling had been raised to be polite to all people unless they did something that warranted him being rude to them so he calmed himself and returned the gesture with a polite smile and a nod. He then turned back around to face the front.

Time passed and the line moved along. Chenling could not tell how much time had gone by as there was no change in lighting in his surroundings. They were all standing on a seemingly never-ending stone bridge surrounded by nothing but darkness. The only light sources were the few paper lanterns that were interspersed throughout the length of the walkway every five meters.

Gu Chenling could faintly hear the sound of flowing water so he could only assume that there was a river or some other sort of water body underneath the bridge walkway they were currently on.

More time passed and Gu Chenling could make out the silhouette of a stone wall and gate much like the city walls during ancient times in the far distance. As the line moved along the stone wall and gate became bigger and bigger until Gu Chenling stood right in front of the gigantic gate, craning his neck, but still unable to encompass the sheer size of the wall.

There were guards standing on both sides of the gate. But they spared no attention to all the people entering the gate and just looked ahead into the darkness.

Walking through the gate, Gu Chenling caught sight of a building that kept in style with the ancient theme. It was not as grand as a palace, but also not as small as a traditional courtyard.

The people in front were all called into the building one by one. And soon it was his turn.

"Gu Chenling," a man in a garb that looked like a civil servant's uniform called his name and guided him into a hall only to leave right after.

As Gu Chenling stood in the middle of the hall he raised his gaze and saw dark wooden desk on an elevated platform. Behind the desk sat a solemn-looking middle-aged man with bushy eyebrows and a full beard. The man wore ancient clothing and the typical hat that judges during ancient times usually wore.

Next to him on the left side stood a tanned man in black robes and the same colored hat. He gave off a stern image unlike the man who stood on the right side.

The man on the right wore the same clothes as the man in black. Only the color of fabric was different and so was the color of his hair which were both white. He smiled slightly and looked at Gu Chenling in a friendly manner which Gu Chenling returned with his own polite smile.

Gu Chenling was not very well-versed in Chinese folklore. But he did recognize all three figures in front of him.

They were namely Yanluo Wang the Supreme Judge of the Underworld in the middle and his subordinates the black guard, general Fan and the white guard, general Xie respectively.

Gu Chenling briefly wondered why the black and white guards were standing beside Yanluo Wang instead of escorting spirits to the underworld like they were said to do according to folklore. But he quickly dismissed that thought when he was called upon.

"Gu Chenling," the middle-aged man in the middle whom Gu Chenling suspected to be Yanluo Wang said, "died at age twenty-seven of heart failure… donated his organs, saving several lives and donated all his accumulated belongings to an orphanage to help raise children…"

The smile on the white guard became a bit more friendly upon hearing those words and the black guard's stern expression eased a bit, even if not by much.

"Hum… You have accumulated quite a bit of karmic luck," Yanluo Wang addressed Gu Chenling directly this time.

"You did good deeds not only during your lifetime but even after your passing. There are also no sins recorded in my books either," he continued after flipping through a book in front of him, "You shall be granted a second order jade."

Yanluo Wang gave a swipe with his hand and a green jade that was attached to a red cord that held an exquisite Chinese knot with a tassel at the end appeared in front of Gu Chenling.

Opening his hands, the jade landed gently in his palms. The cool sensation of the stone soothed Gu Chenling's confused mind and seemed to also affect his body. He felt a clear stream of energy entering his body, flowing through his veins and meridians. Soon his previously emaciated body that had lost quite a bit of weight during his last year alive filled out and returned to its peak condition.

From this transformation and by the sight and feel of the jade Gu Chenling could tell that the item in his hand was a good thing.

After receiving the jade, he was send out and another man in civil servant garb guided him through the building while explaining the essentials to him.

"Here in the underworld there is a strict hierarchy which is based on the judgement of His Eminence Yanluo Wang. Based on your karmic luck you will receive a jade. There are five grades of jade. Jades of the first order are the best and have an imperial green color," the man said and after a brief glance at the jade that hung on Gu Chenling's left wrist he continued, "Yours is a second order jade. Green and clear, but not as high of a quality as the imperial grade ones. Third order jades are usually a lighter green and less translucent and so on. The less green and the more muddled the color the lower the grade."

Gu Chenling listened attentively for fear that he would miss important information.

"The jade grade decides where you live and what kind of work you can or have to do here in the underworld."

Hearing that, Gu Chenling gave a puzzled look.

'Even after dying you still have to work?'

As if having read his thoughts, the civil servant gave a wry smile. "Nothing is free in this world and the same is true in the underworld. The currency we use here is merit points which has been converted from your karmic luck. The points are stored in the jade and you pay for food, housing and necessities with them."

He stopped talking for a moment to nod at another civil servant that was passing by.

"Your housing is chosen based on the grade of your jade. The better the jade, the better your housing. While the quality of housing is better when the jade grade is high the amount of merit points you have to pay for the housing is the same throughout all jade grades. That's just one of the many benefits of a high jade grade. You will eventually find out more of the benefits as you spend more time in the underworld."

"So there is no reincarnation?" Gu Chenling wanted to know.

'What about the folklore stories about having to drink Menpo's soup and then reincarnating? Were those old stories wrong?'

"There is. You have to accumulate enough merit points and send an application to Mengpo's office. The amount of merit points you need to reincarnate differs from person to person. Those who have committed a lot of sins during their lifetime or even after and have bad karmic luck will have to collect more merit points. Most of them have to do hard manual labor which doesn't pay much. So you can imagine that it will take a long time until they can go reincarnate," the civil servant answered dryly.

They arrived at the exit of the building.

"I will only guide you until here. Your jade will guide you to your housing. If you have any other questions later on, you can consult your jade. You just have to sink your consciousness into it and the many functions of the jade will open up to you. Take care." And with these words Gu Chenling was left alone at the doorstep of Yanluo Wang's governmental court building.

While still not quite sure what exactly to do Gu Chenling turned to get an overview of his surroundings only to take a deep breath.

He stood at the top of a wide staircase. But the staircase was not what shocked him. It was the realization that the staircase led down to nowhere and that he was on a floating island that blew his mind.

On top of that, he saw several people jump off the edge as if being dead wasn't enough for them and wanted to be even more dead by committing suicide.

Gu Chenling walked down the stairs slowly until he reached the edge of the island and looked down. The view made even him who was not suffering from acrophobia dizzy.

There were a countless number of smaller and bigger floating islands mingling with each other at different heights. And at the very bottom was what looked like a vast city landscape.

It reminded Gu Chenling of that time he sat on an airplane and he could see the city that spanned several square kilometers from his plane window high up in the air.

Feeling unsure, Gu Chenling remembered the civil servant's last words to him and sank his consciousness into his jade. The answer he was looking for flooded into his head as soon as he thought up the question.

'Ah, so I just have to jump and the gravitational pull of the jade will lead me to my residence?'

He watched as other people next to him stepped off the ledge and floated down. Most had a long descend, but they all eventually landed on an island safely as far as Gu Chenling could tell.

Just as Gu Chenling was about to take the leap himself he saw a gaunt, dirty-looking middle-aged man with an ugly expression stop a few steps behind him. He gave off a bad vibe which made Gu Chenling subconsciously want to avoid him.

"No! I don't want to," he exclaimed, veins bulging in his temple.

But a guard who had been standing nearby quietly watching people jump down the edge before came over.

"Even if you don't want to, you have to," the guard declared, "A sinner like you especially can't pick and choose. You will have to work and suffer at the very bottom of the underworld."

Hearing that, Gu Chenling scanned the middle-aged man. His eyes stopped at a crude-looking jade of which the color was barely discernible as it was muddled with several other colors. The surface of the jade looked raw and uneven. It was obviously of a bad quality. Even the Chinese knot looked unsightly.

'Is that a fifth grade jade?'

Just when he received an affirmative answer from his own jade, a shout resounded next to him as the middle-aged man was kicked down the island by the guard.

The man did not float but fell down, screaming all the way until his scream faded due to the distance.

"Why isn't he floating?" Gu Chenling asked aloud this time.

The guard who had just disposed of the man looked at his jade and then at his face, expression much friendlier than when he had handled the middle-aged man.

"His sins are too grave and they weighed him down so he won't be able to float properly until he has earned more merit."

"Won't he die?" Gu Chenling made a face, imagining the impact when the man would hit the ground. But then he realized that the man was already dead. So how could he possibly die once again?

"He won't die. His soul will just be damaged a bit." The guard shrugged his shoulders dismissively and returned to his post.

Gu Chenling shook his head. It was not the first time he had seen such blatant favoritism and discrimination.

As someone who had spent his early years in an orphanage and had an invisible disability he had faced some forms of discrimination himself before more or less.

Luckily, he was relatively good-looking so people generally tended to go easier on him. But that did not mean that his looks always helped him. Sometimes, his good looks gave him more trouble than benefits.

Possessiveness, jealousy, envy and greed. People's inner world could be painted with these ugly emotions while they wore a friendly smile on the outside. Gu Chenling had seen it all.

While Gu Chenling had pitied the middle-aged man a bit at first he did not think of speaking up for him either. Judging from his aura and jade pendant, the man must have committed a serious felony or more.

So the man was only reaping what he had sown.