Chapter 218. The New Era Underworld

     The decoration and layout of this small two-courtyard siheyuan were jointly handled by Wang Xue and her mother.  

     After entering and passing behind the shadow-green wall, there is a small peach blossom forest in full bloom. When you are under the tree, cool breeze blows from time to time, and pink petals fall, which is a beautiful sight.

     Wang Xue loved tinkering with this. The soil, water, and seasonal adjustments for the courtyard’s plants were all managed by Ye Mo’s formation arrays.  

     Inside the siheyuan, the hall they frequented most for gatherings was also decorated in a traditional Chinese style, but with modern additions like sofas, throw pillows, and blankets designed to mimic classical aesthetics—  

     Comfortable, warmth, and a touch of laziness.

     As soon as Wang Xue entered the room, she threw herself into the lazy chair, grabbed a pillow and put it in her arms, as she teased with a mischievous grin: “Sister Jing, how could you be so naughty when you were a child?”

     Ye Mo chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “I still can be. Want to find out?”

     “Find out? No, no, no.” Watson shook his head in denial. He was the last to enter the room and wasn’t in a hurry to sit down. He smiled and asked everyone, “What would you all like to drink?”  

     Wang Xue: “Emei Snow Buds.”  

     Ji Li: “Tea.”  

     Ye Mo: “Du Kang?”  

    Watson glanced at Ye Mo, who had suddenly become mischievous, and refused, “No alcohol, not even Dukang.”

     With that, he began his tea-making performance.

     Both Watson and Wang Xue enjoyed brewing tea, yet the feeling they conveyed was entirely different. Following the same steps and performing with fluid grace, the former made you feel as if bathed in a spring breeze, while the latter was more about casual ease.

     As for Ye Mo, she was purely a realist when it came to details. Her tea tasted no different from one brewed with precise measurements, the flavor was certainly acceptable, but something was still missing. Wang Xue called it a “mechanical taste.”

     During the steamy tea-brewing session, Ye Mo took out the Stone of Destiny from her space and tossed it to Ji Li, who was across from her.

     Ji Li reached out to catch it, turning it over and over in his hands, but the Stone of Destiny showed no changes.

     He then tried all his dark magic spells on it. Transparent spirits drifted everywhere until the room’s temperature dropped to tens of degrees below zero, yet the Stone of Destiny remained unchanged.

     Wang Xue rested her chin on her hand and questioned, “Could it be that it only works for British people? Like Arthur, who inherited the Sword in the Stone, or the Clover Group, which is just starting to make a name for itself?”

     “Maybe? But what kind of energy is ‘chaos’?” Ye Mo had awakened so many abilities: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, even light and dark—but chaos? That one was new.  

     Unable to find the problem, the semi-artifacts Stone of Destiny, was ultimately just a useless rock, not even fit for forging materials.  

     Well, today was another day of unresolved mysteries.

     Oh, right, they also took out the sword of light and the magic cauldron. Unsurprisingly, the sword of light was was inherently incompatible with Ji Li, a natural counterforce, he couldn’t use this semi-divine artifact, but it could train and improve his ability to adapt to environments.

     On the first day of their formal team’s establishment, Ji Li brought up something first—a private message from the Non-Investigation Bureau on the forum regarding Chinese ghost undead.

     Wang Xue then asked, “Are there many lost soul in China now?”

     “With a large population, there are also many deaths, so naturally, there are many ghosts,” Ji Li replied. “That’s why China is building a new-era underworld for the 21st century. The reason you don’t see many spirits on the streets is because of this,” 

     “Cough! The Underworld?” Wang Xue nearly choked on her saliva. Fortunately, she was far from Watson, otherwise, she might have received a lethal attack test from the gentlest member of the group. “That kind of King of Hell’s palace-like Underworld? Will there be judges? Will there be hell? Do bad people go to hell when they die? Do good people go to heaven? Is there really reincarnation? Oh, right, Avalon also has a reincarnation passage…”

     Ji Li replied, “It’s definitely not the Underworld from unofficial historical legends, but there will be certain rules governing the dead, and this is also responsible for ordinary people.”

     “A living being’s essence mainly consists of three hun (ethereal souls) and seven po (corporeal souls). Hun refers to intangible consciousness, while po is tied to the physical body. When a person dies, only the hun remains.” 

     “The soul is divided into three parts: the Primary Hun (root soul), the Wisdom Hun (intellect soul), and the Qi Hun (energy soul).”  

     “The Primary Hun is the foundation of a soul. Without it, the other souls also hone. What people call ‘soul dispersion’ (hun fei po san) refers to the dissipation of the Primary Hun. Survivors who die in the main dungeon are considered to have their souls dispersed. The group’s fate is unknown, but in a real-world dungeon, only the po dies. We’ve already seen deceased survivors causing trouble on Earth.”

     “The Wisdom Hun holds a soul’s memories and intellect, including innate talent for abilities. The Qi Hun represents a soul’s strength, the classification of spirits and undead races like zombies depends on its level. The Qi Hun and Wisdom Hun reinforce each other.”  

     “For example, after most people die normally, meaning their souls aren’t scattered. If they lack strong memories, their Wisdom Hun will rapidly disappear to 0, and their Qi Hun weakens. leaving only the Primary Hun.  They have a very high chance of being attracted to newborns, which is reincarnation. Reincarnation does not carry memories from the previous life.”

     “Soul are weightless, the purer the Primary Hun, the lighter they become, so light that even psychic scans can’t detect them. They drift freely between heaven and earth. When a woman becomes pregnant, hundreds or even thousands of these pure Primary Hun are drawn from the surrounding area. The first one to find the new po slowly forms a complete three hun and seven po during pregnancy, thus successfully reincarnating.”

     “But if a soul carries lingering attachments, the stronger those attachments, the more resilient the Wisdom Hun becomes. As it gathers more dark spiritual energy, the moment of reincarnation is delayed again and again. And if, by rare chance, the deceased spirit also possesses an exceptional affinity for dark energy, one in ten thousandthey may even embark on the path of cultivation. These are the ghost cultivators.” 

     “For most ghosts lingering in this world aside from mid-to-high-level ghost cultivators—existence is far from peaceful. Dark energy forces them to relive their most tragic, fearful, and agonizing moments over and over. The torment of the soul is far worse than physical pain. Light-elemental ability users have the power to bless ordinary people and good souls, helping them overcome darkness or even attain rebirth.”

     “As for the souls of the wicked, their Wisdom Hun is often steeped in far more darkness than those of ordinary people, burdened with far more sin than virtue. They attract dark energy at a much higher rate. Even if their families hire light-ability users to intervene, these ghosts may never find liberation. Perhaps this is the true meaning of heaven’s reward and hell’s punishment

     Wang Xue clapped her hands in amazement: “Wow!”

     Ye Mo and Watson also said that they had learned a lot of new things, especially a new understanding of the world after death. They asked almost at the same time: “So why did the Supernatural Investigation Bureau come to you?”

     “Back in the day, the underworld’s Yama Kings were powerful ghost cultivators or even living cultivators who could discern the Wisdom Hun, including its virtues and sins. They determined which spirits were fit for reincarnation, which could hasten the process, which could be promoted to underworld enforcers (yincha), and which had to remain imprisoned until they atoned for their crimes, earning another chance at life.”

     Ye Mo accepted a cup of tea from Watson and paused mid-sip upon hearing this. Curious, she asked, “So the Supernatural Investigation Bureau wants to hire a living Yama?”

     In terms of ability, Ji Li is the strongest dark-type psychic on Earth, a member of the dark race, and a righteous person,  He’d be the perfect candidate for the job.  

     Ji Li replied, “Yes. But—”

     “I know this one!” Wang Xue shot her hand up like an eager student. “The Bureau was recruiting a Yama for China… but we already snagged him for our team first.”  

     The truth was, Ji Li really didn’t want the job. Sure, it came with underworld civil-service benefits, but it’d be relentlessly busy and drowning in negativity day after day was a fast track to corruption. That, more than anything, was why he’d never joined the Bureau.  

     In a way, Ye Mo and the others were his saving grace. Freeing him from having to compromise for resources while also providing him with a group of powerful and reliable companions.”

     “Not everyone can be Judge Bao,” Ji Li sighed. “These issues will inevitably come to light eventually. Spirits are directly tied to national stability, which is why the Supernatural Investigation Bureau has offered our team a paid commission. I’m here to ask, do we take the job?”

     Dark-ability users were already as rare as light and psychic-ability users. And even if someone had dark affinity, they’d need to be exceptionally strong to suppress the countless restless spirits.  

     Despite the Bureau’s public support for Ye Mo’s group in the media, the resentment brewing among the new underworld’s administrators behind the scenes could rival that of a black-tier ghost cultivator.  

     “This—”

     Neither Watson nor Wang Xue had expected their team’s first mission to be unrelated to the three major survivor dungeon. Wang Xue muttered to herself, “Building a new underworld? Feels like we’ve switched from infinite survival mode into a City-Building Sim.”

     Neither Watson nor Wang Xue possessed dark abilities. At best, they could manipulate ghosts through medicine or music. But that was hardly enough to manage billions of restless souls.  

     So they turned their gaze to the team’s core leader, a clear signal that the decision rested entirely in her hands, and they would simply offer their support 

     Ye Mo paused and asked, “Where is the underworld?”

     “The main underworld’s location hasn’t been finalized yet,” Ji Li replied. “It was originally planned for Xi’an City in Shaanxi Province, the geographical center of China. But Shaanxi has too many ancient tombs—some situated in extreme yin zones have awakened ancient spirits. The government is currently… struggling to educate them on socialist core values. Allocation has become a major issue, so construction of the main underworld has been temporarily suspended.”

     He continued, “Right now, there are over 30 branch underworlds across the country—not evenly distributed, with the highest concentration near territorial borders on land, sea, and air. The branch underworld for Beijing overlaps with parts of Hebei, Tianjin, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia. Its location is in the Yan Mountains, which also happens to be the closest one to us.”

     “Inform the Supernatural Investigation Bureau’s new underworld division that we’ll arrive at the Yan Mountains in one hour,” Ye Mo said, then glanced at Watson and Wang Xue. “Are you two coming along?” 

     Wang Xue: “Hell yes! Why wouldn’t I? I’m gonna help build the underworld brick by brick!”

     Watson cleared his throat into his fist. “I’ll go.” Who wouldn’t be curious about a modernized underworld?

     “Already notified them,” Ji Li gave an OK sign.  

     Although they had made plans for today, the four of them did not take any action. Instead, they remained seated, leisurely sipping their tea as they chatted about matters related to Maria’s shop.

     After all, this one hour is the preparation time for the Supernatural Investigation Bureau’s new underworld division to prepare. All they need to do to travel is teleport, which is simple and convenient.