One person above Qing Huang Ting

Chapter 875 Underworld Strategy
Lead-like clouds stretch for miles, obscuring the sun and moon. Thick fog and miasma blanket the land, making the soil heavy with black dust. Ten thousand ghosts wail, and the roar of waves never ceases.

Some of the departed souls, in a daze, followed the winding path, driven by several figures of varying colors, some black and some white, wielding whips, and wandered aimlessly toward the ever-flowing river.

The river, dark and bottomless, is over three thousand miles wide, yet across this vast expanse, there still stands a narrow stone bridge.

The stone bridge is strange, unlike normal bridges. It has no piers and is supported entirely by stone pillars on both banks. In addition, it is narrow and small. Compared with the big river, it is like a tree stump lying across the river, always giving the feeling of swaying and about to collapse.

The stone bridge looked as if it might fall into the abyss at any moment.

Beside the stone bridge is a rock that is five or six zhang high. The surface of the rock is as smooth as a bronze mirror, and it can reflect a human figure.

On the other side of the river, there was a vast flow of people—no, a ghost tide—as wide as the mighty Yangtze River.

Tens of thousands of souls, drawn by a wisp of forget-me-not fragrance, surged forward to the bridge, only to seem to crash into an invisible dam and stop at the stove by the bridge—the source of the forget-me-not fragrance.

The surging tide of ghosts could not get close to the stove, but one orderly group of dead souls could walk to the stove by the bridge, where the old woman was serving each soul a bowl of hot soup.

After drinking the hot soup, the souls of the dead would cross the bridge in a daze. There were black-robed figures holding books by the bridge. After verifying the contents of the books, they would mark the books with a red pen, and only then could the souls of the dead truly walk across the bridge.

Some souls manage to cross the bridge successfully, but others are swept off the stone bridge by a sudden surge of waves halfway across.

However, the waves seemed to possess their own intelligence; even though they affected other souls, they did not carry those souls across the river off the bridge.

The countless souls of the dead repeat these steps day after day, without ceasing, in an orderly fashion.

This is also the daily routine of the underworld. Meng Po, Hei Wuchang, and the judges each perform their duties to maintain order and balance in the underworld.

The River of Oblivion still flows ceaselessly, the Bridge of Helplessness connects the realms of Yin and Yang, and the Stone of Three Lives reflects past and present lives.

The underworld has been peaceful for over a thousand years, with no major events of great upheaval or chaos occurring for a long time. The last time there was chaos was a thousand years ago.

A messenger mistakenly took the wrong soul, dropping a huge bomb on the undisturbed underworld.

The judge was kicked, Yama was dragged, the Book of Life and Death was altered, and the order of Yin and Yang was disrupted.

Even today, a thousand years later, the judges of the underworld still remember that figure and still need to mend the aftermath of that farce.

That figure was just like the figure now flowing upstream from the Bridge of Helplessness.

? ? ? ?
The judge, who was checking the regulations for the reincarnation of souls in the Book of Life and Death, rubbed his eyes and looked up again in disbelief.

That familiar figure not only didn't disappear, but instead grew closer and closer.

The judge stood frozen, too stunned to move. He even misplaced the cinnabar on his pen, staining his hand, yet he remained motionless. Like a mortal seeing a black bear, he seemed to believe that feigning death would make the being on the other side let him go.

After Meng Po fed the next departed soul the Meng Po soup, washing away his past life, she discovered that the subsequent steps had stalled.

He then picked up a long, red-tasseled ladle and tapped it on the judge by the bridge, reminding him not to get distracted and not to slack off.

Meng Po holds a very transcendent position in the underworld, not subordinate to any Yama King. Some say that Meng Po was already standing by the Naihe Bridge when the underworld was first established, so some people suspect that she is the legendary Houtu Niangniang.

Given her status, she could certainly put pressure on a junior judge from the Judge's Hall.

The judge, scalded by the soup spoon, finally snapped out of his shock. His right hand dropped the judge's pen, and he shakily raised his finger, pointing towards the Bridge of Helplessness:
"Sun... Monkey King... The Great Sage is back!"

Meng Po suddenly looked up towards the Bridge of Helplessness and, sure enough, saw Sun Wukong carrying the Ruyi Jingu Bang (Golden Cudgel). Moreover, Sun Wukong wasn't the only one crossing the Bridge of Helplessness; the young judge, upon seeing Sun Wukong, was completely bewildered and failed to notice the equally extraordinary figures behind him.

Sun Xunyin, the chosen one who looks exactly like Sun Wukong, was formerly Marshal Tianpeng Zhu Bajie. He is also the disciple of the Great Sage National Teacher Wang Bodhisattva of Sizhou, Prince Xiao Zhang, and leads the Four Great Generals, as well as the Great God of the Three Altars Sea Gathering, Nezha.

There was also a great demon whom Meng Po did not recognize, with red hair, bull horns, and raging demonic flames. Behind the great demon was a group of demon soldiers, Rakshasa, who looked like demons.

The Celestial Gods did not come with Sun Wukong; only the Celestial Demon Lord Chonglou, along with demon generals and soldiers from the Demon Realm, came.

In the underworld, where yin energy and resentment abound, the more adaptable demon race is better suited for battle.

They felt right at home here.

Meng Po threw the soup ladle into the soup pot: "Why are you here again, you monkey? Don't you know what's important and understand the consequences of disrupting the order of the underworld?"

"You even brought a chosen one along. What's wrong? Do you want your descendants to follow in your footsteps?"

Meng Po kept nagging and complaining, as if what had come was not an army, but a group of children and grandchildren who came to eat and use her.

The junior judge stared at Meng Po in shock, not understanding where she got the courage to offend Sun Wukong, the current great enemy of Heaven.

Sun Wukong wasn't angry at all; instead, he laughed heartily: "Meng Po is still the same as always. I didn't come here this time to erase the Book of Life and Death."

"They've come to accept the fate of the underworld!"

Occupy the underworld and control the ghost realm.

This was the task Hu Xiuwu gave to Sun Wukong and the others after he came out of seclusion.

It was not about occupying the other four continents, nor about taking the opportunity to attack the Heavenly Court, but rather about taking advantage of the situation to seize the Underworld.

Only by occupying the underworld can Luo Fengtian formally connect to the Black Myth World and assimilate the ghost realm of the Black Myth World into Luo Fengtian, thus unifying the Yin-Yang order.

When Luo Fengtian entered the world of Black Mythology, Hu Xiuwu's side finally gained a true advantage in terms of terrain.

Hu Xiuwu could use his position as the Supreme Emperor of the North Pole of the Central Heaven to seize the position of the Great Emperor of Fengdu in the Northern Underworld. The Underworld and the starry sky would both be in Hu Xiuwu's hands.

He could then influence the judgment of Heaven, so that the Three Realms, which are ruled by the Heavenly Court, would not always be hostile to Hu Xiuwu and his fellow extraterrestrial visitors.

This is a very important matter, so the experienced and capable Sun Wukong led the team.

Although this was a very important matter, Hu Xiuwu did not come in person.

Firstly, we can't let him handle everything personally; otherwise, what use would we have for the immortals, swords, gods, demons, Nezha, and Prince Zhang?

Secondly, Hu Xiuwu's personal visit would be too grand and would inevitably arouse the suspicion of the Jade Emperor and Laozi, who would then surely try to obstruct him.

If Hu Xiuwu doesn't go, the Jade Emperor and Laozi will be wary of him. Even if they discover something amiss in the Underworld, they will only send troops to rescue it and won't take action themselves.

Soldiers against soldiers, against generals.

In other words, one must be wary of generals, and soldiers must contend with soldiers.