I become a god in another world

Chapter 787 Solo Journey into Hell
Chapter 787

The people of Tongshan County were seething with anger.

They appear docile, allowing the officials of the Demon Suppression Bureau to control their lives—perhaps the people themselves are unaware of the deep resentment they harbor.

This resentment turned into an obsession, and after their deaths, the vengeful spirits revived, transforming into will-o'-the-wisps that burned Tongshan County to the ground.

But Zhang the Paper Doll also had a fire burning in his heart.

This fire, like a gentle, slow cooking, burned into his heart. He was unaware of it at first, but when his family was destroyed and his loved ones perished, it finally erupted into a fierce, venomous hatred that began to scorch his soul every day.

Therefore, he and Tongshan County hit it off immediately, and he was able to swallow this fire of resentment and hatred into his heart and coexist with it.

……

Even Zhang the Paper Doll couldn't figure out why.

For him, the death of his wife and daughter was a turning point in his life, but after the incident at home, he thought most about his youth.

He thought of his father and mother, and of the countless times each year the tax collectors went door to door to collect taxes.
I remember my mother's suppressed, painful moans before her death, and how her body was still warm at the end. To avoid being reported by the neighbors and having the police come to collect the "household tax," my father hurriedly took my mother, still warm, and hid her in a manure cart.
He recalled his mother being hastily buried.

Time has passed, but he still doesn't know where her grave is.
He recalled his father's life of hard work, never having a single good day. He was frugal with food and drink, and even a single misplaced penny could keep him up at night for days. Yet, this same man selfishly asked his son to give him a grand funeral before he died.

……

The past events kept swirling in his mind, turning into resentment and hatred, and into a unique courage that enabled him to bravely venture into hell.

"Just hell."

The paper figure Zhang muttered to himself, even smiling:
"Zhao Fusheng, you really underestimate me."

He was nonchalant, even humming a song softly:
"Nothing in this world can be more poisonous than the human heart, not even a vengeful ghost."

He had once been through hell.

A person who has nothing has nothing to fear.

He didn't believe in God, fate, heaven, or earth. He had no relatives or friends, and was all alone, destitute and miserable.

He didn't associate with anyone, nor did he complain to anyone; he had only one belief: he wanted to destroy this world.

"I actually want to destroy heaven and earth, instead of destroying vengeful spirits!"

As Zhang the Paper Doll thought about this, he suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment:
"How could I possibly want to destroy the world?!"

He was utterly puzzled.

If he weren't alone in the ghost realm, contemplating things calmly, he might not have been able to face his own heart.

"never mind."

He couldn't figure it out, so he stopped thinking about it.

The gates of hell behind us have closed, and ahead lies a vast sea of ​​blood.

This is the realm of ghosts, where a heavy aura of malevolence lingers in the hell, almost obscuring the path ahead.

In the midst of a ghostly realm where black and red intertwined, a single point of light suddenly appeared.

The appearance of light in the ghost realm is not a good thing.

Paper Man Zhang sneered, and then the eerie firelight drew near.

As he got closer, a feeling of irritability and unease welled up inside him.

'Bang, bang.'

'Bang, bang.'

'Bang, bang bang bang—bang bang bang bang bang bang bang—'

He thought his internal organs were all rotten and his body was already dead, but at this moment his heart was beating wildly, as if it sensed something coming.

Just then, a ghost boatman, piloting a small, pitch-black boat, broke through the thick fog and the blockade of the ghost sea, slowly approaching him.

The boatman was about sixty years old, with gray hair, a slightly hunched back, and a bright chest. There seemed to be a cluster of fire inside his neck, which illuminated his skin, making him look like a human-skin lantern.

Under the dim light, his features were lifelike, the last moment of his life frozen on his face, his features relaxed, with a smile on his face.

"..."

The paper figure felt a lump in its throat.

He knew where Zhang Chuanshi was.

For some inexplicable reason, Paper Man Zhang recalled a distant memory from more than fifty years ago.

That year, he was heartbroken: his third brother, Zang Xiongshan, was wrongly implicated in a serial murder case, which eventually involved the Demon Suppression Bureau, and he was thus taken to the capital.

Logically, Zang Xiongshan, being involved in this case, had no power or influence and should have died quietly.

But for some reason, his case unexpectedly revealed the background of the Zang family.

After much effort and inquiry, Zang Xiongwu learned that the impoverished Zang family ancestors might have also been ghost controllers.

The rumors were true!

There has been a long-standing rumor in the Zang family that a great figure was among their ancestors. However, by the time it came to Zang Xiongwu's generation, everyone thought it was nonsense. They would mention it in jest, but no one took it seriously.

Who knew it was actually true!

Zang Xiongshan was thus released from prison by chance, but the matter is still under investigation, so the Demon Suppression Division does not allow him to leave the capital.

He temporarily stayed at Zang Xiongwu's home, awaiting news.

When his good brother Luosha learned of this, he was furious and thought that the Zhenmo Division of Guanjiang County had gone too far. He took advantage of his drunkenness to avenge Zang Xiongshan.

Rakshasa confessed to the murder and was imprisoned.

Zang Xiongwu went to great lengths to try and save his life.

That day, he returned empty-handed. On his way home, he encountered Aunt Hu from next door and was met with her disdainful looks and sarcastic remarks—which fueled Zang Xiongwu's resentment.

But he wasn't strange in his early years. Back then, his life was full of hope: his wife was gentle, his daughter was lively, his son was obedient, and he had a good brother like Rakshasa who would risk his life to stand up for him.

He also has another business: a paper craft shop.

Although business wasn't booming, it was enough to support his family, and his wife was devoted to him.

Now that Zang Xiongshan has also arrived, the two brothers are working together, and their future is sure to be bright.

He has a bright future ahead of him, so why bother arguing with a short-sighted woman like Aunt Hu?
He had already suffered ridicule while working for the Rakshasa, and when he returned home to be trampled on by his neighbors, he felt a hidden resentment. But when he thought of his wife and children at home, he suppressed his gloom and smiled.

But the closer I got to home, the stronger a bad feeling became.

When he pushed open the farmhouse courtyard of the Zang family ancestral hall, he smelled a strong stench of blood and death.

The courtyard ground seemed to have turned into a sea of ​​blood, with a ship on the sea and a 'ghost' standing on the ship.

The 'ghost' was old and stared at him.

At that moment, he felt dizzy and dared not look the 'ghost' in the eye.

Zang Xiongwu was certain that he had never met this ghost, yet he felt a piercing pain in his heart.

But what pained him even more was the death of his wife and daughter.

The person who killed his wife and daughter was his third brother, Zang Xiongshan.

He had no idea how all of this happened, and by the time he came to his senses, the tragedy had already occurred.

……

Ma'am.

He later mastered ghosts and naturally knew that the "Third Brother" at that time was not a living person, but a vengeful ghost that looked similar to Zang Xiongshan.

He harbored resentment at that time.

The fire that had been hidden deep inside him could no longer be suppressed after the deaths of his wife and daughter.

In the past, he was a prey tightly bound by worldly conventions and ethics.

The existence of his wife, children, family, brothers, and friends is like an invisible thread that binds him to his current position, preventing him from making any mistakes, making him live a good life, work hard, and pay more taxes.

But when a family tragedy struck that day, the ropes binding him were suddenly cut.

Zang Xiongwu suddenly found himself becoming a person without any constraints.

He no longer needs to care about worldly ethics and morality.

He braved hell, seeking the protection of his ancestors—only to discover that the ancestor he once believed to control and suppress ghosts had become a terrifying monster. "How ridiculous."

He recalls what he saw and heard back then, and still finds it ironic.

He had mastered the art of controlling ghosts and possessed immense power. When he returned to his old ancestral hall in his hometown, the time was short, but his state of mind had already changed drastically.

……

Upon seeing the ghost ship and Zhang Chuanshi again, Paper Man Zhang's state of mind was completely different from that of years ago.

Later, he naturally learned the reason for the disaster that occurred at the Zang family's old ancestral hall.

That's how things are; fate has always been particularly unkind to him.

He couldn't even understand why, despite his hard work as an ordinary person, he had come this far and tried to defy fate, he was making more and more mistakes.
When he saw Zhang Chuanshi again, he was filled with anger and his violent temper immediately rose.

"That ghost deserves to die!"

He said coldly.

Zhang Chuanshi 'invited' him to board the ship, but he had his own agenda and boarded the ship with a cold smile.

Zhang Chuanshi reached out to ask him for the ferry fee. On a whim, he took out a piece of red thread and handed it to the boatman.

The red thread was immediately placed in the boatman's hand and bound him. The boatman was then subdued and dragged him into the cycle of reincarnation.

In the underworld, he encountered fierce ghosts, and he bound each one he met.

At first, he was angry and only wanted to do this.

Later, perhaps influenced by the ghost realm, he became distracted and acted only instinctively.

At the edge of the sea of ​​blood, an elderly woman sat down.

The woman was elderly, and for some reason, the sight of her squatting on the ground reminded Paper Man Zhang of his own mother.

"Old man—"

He, who was always ruthless, softened his tone and slowly stepped forward to call out.

"Guest, you must be tired from your journey. Why don't you sit down and rest for a while, have a bowl of soup, and then continue your way?" the woman said in a sinister voice.

These words startled the paper figure Zhang.

He has lived alone all these years, ruthless and cruel, witnessing the evil, bitterness, and sorrow of the world, his heart as cold as iron.

The kindness of the world could not soften his heart, nor could the pleas of the weak move him.

But at this moment, the old woman's words filled him with mixed feelings.

A bowl of steaming soup was handed to him, and he felt he absolutely had to drink it.

"I've heard that there's a bowl of Meng Po soup in the world that can dispel obsessions and change one's future."

Paper Doll Zhang muttered to himself:
"If I drink this soup, will all my past sins be wiped away?"

The 'sins' he was thinking of at this moment were not the numerous bloody cases and ghostly calamities he had committed over the years that had caused the deaths of countless people.

Instead, what appeared before his eyes was his mother's unseeing face; the complex look in his elderly son's eyes when they met at the old Zang family ancestral hall.

Then Zhang Chuanshi's gaze met his father's gaze before his death, and it transformed into a heavy resentment that was suppressed in the heart of the paper figure Zhang.

……

He drank the soup as if he were fleeing a disaster.

As the ghost soup entered her stomach, Meng Po turned her head, revealing her sinister face.

The ghost soup passed through his intestines, attempting to digest his resentful and malevolent aura.

But no.

His past sins were too heavy; even the Meng Po soup could not dispel his resentment.

His mother died tragically, and although he was already old enough to understand, he pretended to be deaf and dumb, helpless.

His mother's body was barely cold when he hastily buried her.

The deaths of his wife and daughters were all caused by him.

The son who was scolded by him for failing to protect his mother and sister when he was young eventually died many years later in the same ghostly calamity.

……

In an instant, memories surged, and the past flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

The usually gentle and affectionate Liu Wenqing, her anger blazing, asked him:
"Zang Xiongwu, why didn't you save our son?!"

These were the words she didn't say before she died.

"No no no."

As soon as this thought arose, Zang Xiongwu immediately retorted:
"My wife, Wenqing, is the most gentle and understanding person."

His family was struggling financially, he was heavily in debt, and sometimes he had to stand up for others, which made their already meager life even worse—but his wife never complained about life.

This reminded him of his mother.

She always had a smile on her face, believing that her husband did everything right.

She thought her neighbors were easy to get along with, her children were obedient and well-behaved, and Luocha was generous and righteous.

She only sees the good in human nature and does not criticize or berate others.

……

"But...but my son is dead, what am I going to do? She'll definitely hate me," the paper figure Zhang cried out in panic.
"When Wen Qingsheng gave birth to Chuanshi, she suffered a lot. After giving birth, she loved Chuanshi very much and held her in her arms, unwilling to let go."

She loved her son so much that if she knew she had neglected him and let him die at the hands of a vengeful ghost, she would be furious and hate herself.
"Since you hate me, I'll kill you first. You're nothing but a ghost!"

The moment the paper figure Zhang had a thought, its cowardice instantly transformed into a fierce aura.

Without hesitation, he reached out and grabbed Liu Wenqing, who was cursing incessantly. In the blink of an eye, a blood-red ghost thread had been wrapped around the woman's neck.

He threatened him menacingly:
"Behave yourself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the woman's voice, which had been cursing him, stopped abruptly.

When Liu Wenqing fell silent, his mother's face reappeared in his mind's eye:
“Xiongwu, I am in great pain. When people are buried, they have coffins, graves, and tombstones, and their descendants come to pay their respects. They are not anonymous after death.”

She said:
“I’ve treated you so well. I’ve held you in my arms since you were little, afraid you’d drop me. I’ve cherished you so much. How come you didn’t borrow money to give me a proper funeral after I died? Instead, you buried me before my body was even cold?”

The paper figure Zhang's fierce face revealed a hint of fear:
"Mother, don't blame me. I had no choice. Father told me to bury it. He said that when it gets light, the neighbors will be watching."

Mother, you know the laws of the Han Dynasty, where neighbors were subject to a system of collective punishment.

When someone dies, their household registration needs to be cancelled, and the officials need to write the decree, which costs a lot of money.

Who will pay? If the deceased's family doesn't pay, all the neighbors on the street will have to share the cost, and even the neighborhood head will be punished.

Mother, you've been sick for so many days and haven't been able to get out of bed. Everyone in the neighborhood is keeping an eye on our family.

Dad said that if we don't get the body out soon, we won't be able to leave. If someone reports us and traps us in our home, we won't be able to keep the house, and our whole family will end up on the streets.

"Don't blame me, don't blame me."

He repeatedly begged for mercy.

Mother said:
"No funeral will be held, Mother is so cold, and there are so many snakes, insects, and rats underground—"

"Stop talking, stop talking! If you say another word, I'll suppress you immediately!"

The paper figure Zhang was so terrified that his ferocious expression was fully revealed.

He took out a red thread and tied it around his mother's neck.

The mother's sorrowful face disappeared.

Then countless chaotic and disorderly images appeared.

Time reversed, and for a moment, the paper figure Zhang couldn't tell where he was.

Rakshasa appeared.

He suddenly smiled broadly and put his arm around his shoulder, but the next moment, blood flowed from his neck, his head fell to the ground, and he shouted that he was a dishonest villain.

(End of this chapter)