Chapter 412: Co-existence

“The Fire and Metal elemental roots are within the 18 layers of hell”

“The Wood elemental root is at the side of the Grand Tie Wei Mountain”

“The Water elemental root is deep under the Forgetting River”

“The Earth elemental root is at the Shrine of Reincarnation. That’s where the Divinities of Huang Quan used to sort the beings of hell to where they should reincarnate”

“That place rests at the foot of the Grand Tie Wei Mountain, right under where the 7-colored spear currently is, so we can’t go there”

The weapons quickly told him.

After Gu Qing Shan used the power of the 7-colored spear to massacre the demons, the weapons have already recognized his abilities.

Now that he’s become the Devil King of hell, he was thinking of a way to resolve the problems of hell once and for all.

So the weapons were fully willing to cooperate with him.

“Is the Shrine of Reincarnation far from the Forgetting River?”

“It isn’t, it’s just right at the bank of the Forgetting River”

Hearing that, Gu Qing Shan was a bit concerned.

The Earth and Wood elemental roots were at the foot and side of the Grand Tie Wei Mountain respectively, under the rain of attacks from the 7-colored spear.

This is a bit hard.

“What is it? Do you need these things?” Shannu asked.

“That’s right, we need to first gather all 5 of the elemental roots”

“The 5 elemental roots can deal with the 7-colored spear?”

“With my method, it might be able to”

Shannu didn’t question further.

Every time that he claimed he had a way, he always had a way.

“The Fire and Metal elemental roots are in hell itself, so you only need to use the Devil King Warden Rod to find them” she said.

“I also know where the Water elemental root is in Forgetting River. In fact, I was actually using the Water elemental root before to recover my wounds, I can go get it now”

Gu Qing Shan spoke: “Then we’ll meet up at the Blood River Hell”

“Yes”

Taking the Six Paths Great Mountain sword in hand, Shannu flew off.

Thanks to [Living’s Wisdom], Shannu also knew the method to fly from Gu Qing Shan.

Gu Qing Shan held the Devil King Warden Rod tight and began to carefully sense around.

Almost immediately, he found the Metal elemental root and fire elemental root in the Skinning Hell and Frying Hell respectively.

Swinging the Devil King Warden Rod, Gu Qing Shan disappeared.

He reappeared inside hell.

The dead that were wandering around here all froze as they saw him.

Gu Qing Shan squatted down, looking at the golden flowing light in front of himself..

This was the Metal elemental root.

Truthfully speaking, this was also an exceptionally rare treasure.

But there was no such thing as Smithing in hell, there wasn’t even smithing tools.

Most of the treasures in Huang Quan are naturally formed through the years or manifestations of various Laws that form weapons.

So the dead just ignore the Metal elemental root.

Gu Qing Shan took the Metal elemental root away.

Following that, he came to the Frying Hell.

The fire elemental root lies deep in the Frying Hell.

This place was a large wok full of boiling oil about several hundred miles deep, specifically used to fry the dead alive.

Gu Qing Shan summoned a few ten thousand powerful dead and had them dive down to search at his command.

Very quickly, the Fire elemental root was found and brought to him.

“Thank you for your hard work” Gu Qing Shan put the Fire elemental root away and sincerely thanked them.

“Please no, it’s our honor to work for the Devil King”

“Not at all, not at all, we’ll listen to anything the Devil King orders”

“As the Devil King wills it”

The dead all carefully replied.

Gu Qing Shan nodded and left.

Seeing the crazy killer leave, all the dead in the Frying hell sighed in relief.

When Gu Qing Shan returned to the Blood River Hell, Shannu was already waiting for him.

“Here”

Shannu tossed a cluster of light emitting a chilling air to Gu Qing Shan.

Just like that, 3 out of 5 Elemental roots were collected.

The only ones left are the Earth and Wood elemental roots.

“Good, now for the tough part” Gu Qing Shan said.

“You mean the Shrine of Reincarnation?” Shannu asked.

“That’s right, since that place is directly at the foot of the Grand Tie Wei Mountain, the 7-colored spear can easily attack there as it wants to” Gu Qing Shan spoke.

“I’ve already taken a look” the Forgetting River Soul Separating Hook spoke, “only occasionally would a spear be shot down from above”

“Then the 7-colored spear is no longer attacking everywhere!” the small white bird yelled out.

“That isn’t the case, I’m guessing that because there isn’t anything left to kill on the surface of Huang Quan that it’s calmed down” Gu Qing Shan spoke.

The weapons went silent.

That’s right, no one can guarantee how the 7-colored spear would react if anyone tries to get close to the Shrine of Reincarnation.

All it really needs to do was fire off phantom spears…

Gu Qing Shan silently thought for a while before suddenly calling out: “Merit Accountant Machine, are you here?”

An aura of light appeared above his head, forming the number [0000].

[Would you like to ask something related to Merits?] the Merit Accountant Machine asked.

“I want to know how much Merit would be gained from saving the world of Huang Quan”

The Merit Accountant Machine’s voice became serious: [Saving the world of Huang Quan is the same as saving the world of Samsara itself, equivalent to saving the 6 worlds as well as all living beings in them. The Merit gained would be equivalent to all the sands in the Forgetting River if each grain of sand in the Forgetting River contains all the sand in the Forgetting River]

[The Merits gained would be so grand and so complicated that it would be immeasurable]

Gu Qing Shan asked further: “Then if the suffering beings of Huang Quan were to participate in this, will they also get this Merit?”

[Depending on individual participation, they would be able to get Merit accordingly]

“Very well, I understand, thank you”

[See you later]

The Merit Accountant Machine’s voice disappeared together with the glowing aura that reads [0000] above Gu Qing Shan’s head.

Gu Qing Shan thought for a bit more.

He then raised the Devil King Warden Rod and connected to all the dead of the 18 layers of hell.

Again, the dead felt the will of the Devil King.

They stopped their hands and stood still.

Gu Qing Shan cleared his throat and loudly asked: 「 Villains, listen well 」

Every dead in all 18 layers of hell listened carefully to his every word.

Gu Qing Shan began to speak to the entirety of hell.

「 There’s something I need your help with 」

「 Not only does this excuse you from suffering in hell, you will also be able to gain enough Merits to reincarnate to another world 」

「 Are you willing? 」

The dead were hesitant, only a few sparse voices replied.

“We are willing!”

“As the Devil King says”

“We’ll do as you decide, Devil King”

Their voices weren’t too excited, but they showed their attitude.

For now, we can’t anger this tyrant yet.

All the dead thought so.

Gu Qing Shan tapped the Devil King Warden Rod a bit, scaring the dead.

「 Alright 」he said.

「 I know you might be a bit unconvinced with my words, so to let you all know about this, Merit Accountant Machine, tell them for me 」

Gu Qing Shan then summoned the Merit Accountant Machine again.

「 I have a question, how much Merit must the dead accumulates in order to escape the sea of suffering and restart anew in another world? 」Gu Qing Shan asked.

The Merit Accountant Machine answered: [Any dead that enters hell would be at negative Merit, because they committed too many sins when they were alive]

[The more sins they committed, the lower the negative numbers]

[While suffering in hell, the negative numbers will slowly increase until it’s no longer negative, only when their Merit becomes either 0 or positive can the dead in hell reincarnate]

The Merit Accountant Machine very seriously explained this.

This was common sense as anyone who enters hell will hear this explanation at least once.

In fact, they were always checking the number above their heads to see how much longer will they have to suffer in hell until they can get out again.

Gu Qing Shan asked again: 「 Then now, I have something I want them to do 」

He asked about saving the world of Huang Quan again.

The Merit Accountant Machine answered again the exact same way.

Hearing that, the dead’s eyes all lit up.

The Merit Accountant Machine has never lied before.

This was real

If such a good thing was true, even without the Devil King’s threat, the dead would be more than willing to volunteer.

Every dead person craved and desired the moment where they wash away all their sins and escape from the suffering and torture of hell.

「 Very well, I’ve asked what I need to, you can go 」 Gu Qing Shan said.

The Merit Accountant Machine’s voice disappeared.

Gu Qing Shan once again faced the entirety of hell, asking: 「 Saving Huang Quan is something I’m very sure I’m able to do, if you are willing to participate, I guarantee your Merit will be enough for you to leave hell —-at least you can always check your own Merit counter to see if my words are true or not 」

「 So I ask again, are you willing to heed my command and do this? 」

This time, hundreds of billions of dead all shouted in a frenzy.

“I’m willing!”

“Of course I’m willing!”

“Yes Devil King! Yes Devil King!”

“To escape from suffering, who wouldn’t be willing!”

“Of course I’m willing, please give the others, sir Devil King!”

Gu Qing Shan swung the Devil King Warden Rod, signaling them to be quiet.

「 I’ll say this first, although you won’t really die, you’ll still have to be killed over and over doing this 」

「 Specifically, you’ll be killed by a very powerful Divine Armament many times over 」

He then explained about the 7-colored.

A dead instantly called out hurriedly: “It’s only instant death, the pain of dying once is nothing, so much better than suffering over and over again in hell, sir Devil King, please quickly tell us what to do!”

“That’s right, we’ve already died once, we’ve already suffered, what’s to fear about dying again!”

“If I can get enough Merit to reincarnate, I don’t mind dying a few times!”

“Give the orders sir!”

“We’ll obey your command, sir Devil King!”

More and more voices called out.

Until all 18 layers of hell were shouting in unison.

“Order us!”

“Order us!”

“Order us!”

Sensing this through the Devil King Warden Rod, Gu Qing Shan lightly nodded in satisfaction: 「 Very good, then we’ll begin 」

He temporarily cut off communication with the dead.

Watching the whole thing, Shannu was confused: “Gongzi, I don’t understand”

“What don’t you understand?” Gu Qing Shan was in a good mood, smiled and asked.

“Before when the Fiendkinds didn’t listen, you killed a hundred billion of Fiendkind souls, causing the Devouring Hell to be almost empty”

“I did”

“This time, if you had used their lives to threaten them, the 18 layers of hell will of course listen to your orders again, won’t they?”

“That is true”

“Then why did you have to waste so much effort to tell them clearly about this and give them Merit as well?”

Gu Qing Shan explained: “The dead from the 18 layers of hell have the undying characteristic, that’s why I thought of a plan to have them help me”

“After they complete what I ask them to, they’ll wash away their sins and reincarnate, I will also get what I want, this is a very fair deal”

Shannu understood what he wanted to say and asked: “You mean you were offering them an equivalent exchange?”

“Correct”

“You hold their lives in your hand, you could’ve just ordered them”

“This isn’t an order, it’s a deal”

“But you killed the Devouring Hell before”

“That’s because they didn’t feel remorseful and was still killing for fun, wanting to accrue more karma —–and I originally wanted to kill them”

Gu Qing Shan continued: “Later on when the three other hells agreed to return, I gave them a chance to repent”

“But just now you could’ve also —”

“These are two very different things” Gu Qing Shan cut her off and patiently explained: “Killing grass at the root is a principle, but equivalent exchange is also a principle, and a sword cultivator agrees to and follows both of these principles”

He rubbed the head of the Devil King Warden Rod, whispering: “Threatening their lives to oppress the weak might seem like the obvious thing to do for a lot of people, but a sword cultivator doesn’t agree to such a principle”

“It goes against my own principles”

As Shannu listened, her gaze slowly went away from Gu Qing Shan’s own.

So that is… it …

She suddenly curtsied and lowered her head.

“From now on, I vow to exist by gongzi’s side”