Volume 1 : Path through Purgatory

Chapter 10 : Darker than Black

“I didn't just come here to deliver bad news. I came here to deliver an opportunity to you. A way to escape your misfortune.A way to regain your freedom.”

Those words jolted Zhang Gui out of his stupor.

“ There is a way?”

“Yes, You simply have to make a deal with me”

“What?! Just who is this boy? What is he talking about? A deal?”

Not allowing Zhang Gui to interrupt him the boy continued,”It is quite simple actually. I will just take you away from Diyu. You will be safe as long as you don’t enter the Naraka Hells again.”

“We just have to make a deal. I will save you on a condition.”

To Zhang Gui this man sounded exactly like a swindler. Someone who spoke sweet words with no substance behind him. Did he want freedom? Of course he did. Did he wish he could run away from here? No doubt about it. But all of this seemed too convenient to be reality. This strange man had appeared out of nowhere and seemed to be an acquaintance of Monk Di. Plus he spoke of running away from Diyu as if it was a piece of cake.

The condition he spoke of was especially concerning.

“What kind of condition would you have me abide by, Senior?”

“Ha, you need not worry about that. Regardless, would any condition I raise be worse than your extinction? We will talk about that later. For now just give me your answer. Have you decided?”

He felt as if he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand if he refused the offer his essence would undoubtedly be wiped out, on the other hand accepting the offer would be like drinking poison to satiate his thirst.

There was no way this ‘condition’ this boy spoke of was anything good. But did he have a choice?

*Sigh*

“The things I do just to stay alive.”

It felt like he was making a contract with the devil.

“This junior will agree to your arrangement. But you must do me a favour first.”

Since he had already decided to drink the poison , he might as well gain some benefits in exchange.

The strange boy’s eyes lit up upon hearing Zhang Gui’s decision to agree to his terms. It was as if he was looking at a prized object he had won. With a push of his palm, he pushed open the locked prison door as if it was nothing. Ever since Zhang Gui had occupied that prison cell, he had tried to open that door using all the strength he could muster multiple times but the door showed no sign of budging.

“Let’s go”

As Zhang Gui followed behind the strange boy’s steps, he stared at his back with a hint of apprehension. There was another reason he had agreed to the deal. He had a feeling that had he tried to resist the offer, he would have been knocked out or ….worse. Having been knocked out numerous times since his arrival in Diyu, he had unexpectedly gained an intuition regarding it.

“Oh that’s right, you may refer to me as Mister Ji. Now let’s hear about your favour.”

……………

At the moment Zhang Gui and Mister Ji were walking around the hallways of the Qincheng Prison. The hallways were like a maze zig-zagging and intercepting at odd angles. Zhang Gui seemed to be meticulously searching for someone, checking every cell that came their way. The hooded boy on the other hand seemed disinterested in the entire activity to say that least. He was just casually following Zhang Gui.

“Where the hell is he being kept?”

Seeing another empty cell in front of his eyes filled Zhang Gui with frustration. It had already been a couple of hours since they had begun the search for Bo. Back during one of their talks, Ox-Head had told him about the whereabouts of the other souls implicated alongside him at the Bridge of Karma. Apparently, they had all been apprehended right after he was knocked out. Minister Wei had treated them as his accomplices in the ‘rebellion’. Most had been moved from the capital city to the Qincheng Prison to complete their sentences. A hundred years of solitary confinement and then they would be released back into the Yellow Springs to reincarnate.

Following behind Zhang Gui, the strange boy seemed to grumble under his hood. When Zhang Gui had first accepted his deal in exchange for a favour, he had expected it to be something extravagant or at least something absurd. But when he heard that the favour in question was regarding rescuing one more mortal soul and taking them along, he could not have been more relieved. Unfortunately, all that relief had long evaporated, leaving behind only a slight trace of annoyance.

“Halt! Who dares to barge…..”

Their luck in meeting guards clearly surpassed their luck in finding Bo. Fifteen guards had so far encountered them and because of Mister Ji, fifteen guards had fallen. Looking at their listless collapsed bodies, Zhang Gui was not even sure if they had died or simply lost consciousness. Mister Ji did not even have to move to defeat the guards, a simple glare from his red shining eyes seemed to do the trick.

“Perhaps if we follow the trail left behind by these idiots, we might find your Bo.”

And indeed he had been correct. After thrashing some fifty guards and following a rather convoluted path, they had reached their destination. Deep underground, accessible only after going through multiple checkpoints and gates- such a dark isolated place could only be called a dungeon.

An emaciated corpse-like figure could be seen laying down on the stone cold floor of an isolated prison cell. Zhang Gui would never be able to identify this ‘mummy’ as Bo had it not been for the deep scar left behind by Minister Wei’s attack on his forehead. His hazel coloured hair was long gone. His brown eyes were lifelessly staring at the ceiling.

“Bo?”

Being in solitary confinement had taken its toll on Bo. Not interacting with anyone, with barely any food or water in this dark dungeon with no sense of time had truly made for a harrowing experience. But hearing someone call out his name, that voice - it was like a drop of water in a desert. Weakly turning his head in response to that voice, Bo could faintly see the silhouette of a familiar figure.

Looking at Bo’s miserable state, Zhang Gui felt a tinge of heart ache. He had originally asked for a favour only as a negotiating tactic. It was something he had learned observing the big gamblers of Diyu. To begin with, he had never expected the Ji fellow to agree to the favour, after all he had no leverage with which to bargain.

But surprisingly Mister Ji had agreed without a second thought. This unexpected development had thrown him off his game. When he thought about what favour to ask for he was stumped. That is when he had thought of Bo. Someone to whom he owed a debt of gratitude. Their interaction had been brief to say the least, in fact all he knew about Bo was his name. But despite that, this man had leapt in front of him to save him from Minister Wei’s attack.

Besides, Zhang Gui felt responsible for Bo’s current state. Had that cursed Vitality Thunder not turned up inside his body, had he not shouted that stupid proclaimation - none of this would have happened. They would just have been normal souls well on their way into reincarnation.

“Take him along. Let us leave.” Mister Ji could barely conceal his delight.

“Finally we can stop wandering around this depressing hellhole.” His thoughts were as transparent as they could be.

With a snap of his fingers, air in front of them cracked apart revealing the black chasm within it.

But fortune and danger come hand in hand, before any of them could even step into the crevice, an angry roar interrupted their thoughts. Thundering footsteps seemed to echo over the ceiling of the dungeon. Suddenly, a section of the ceiling roof collapsed with a rumble.

“Ji Heian, do you think you can just come and go from my prison whenever you want?”

As the dust settled, Zhang Gui could make out a gallant figure standing on top of the rubble from the ceiling. The tall figure was covered from head to toe in shining silver armour holding a massive shield in one hand and a sword in another. Seeing the two curved horns poking out of his helm there was no doubt in Zhang Gui’s mind regarding the identity of this man. He was the warden of the Qincheng Penitentiary- Ox-Head Nanjiang!

His gaze seemed to linger on Zhang Gui for a while before moving onto Mister Ji.

“Since you have decided to make yourself a guest at my prison, I should properly entertain you.” His muffled voice resounded from his helm. He readied his sword as he said those. With the shield raised to cover most of his body and the sword pointed towards Mister Ji, it looked like it was only a matter of time before he charged forward.

Meanwhile, the dungeon had flooded with a flurry of guards. Surrounded on all four sides and yet not a trace of panic could be felt from the hooded figure.

“If the Yang General was here himself, I might have been threatened.If the Yama Kings stood in my way, I would have run away already. But with just you ?

Ox-Head, you seem to overestimate your abilities or perhaps you underestimate mine?”

On the one end was Ox-Head Nanjiang and an entire company of prison guards and on the other hand was a single hooded Mister Ji. The tension in the air was palpable.

“Attack!” With a rally cry, Ox-Head flashed forward with a few quick steps. The sword seemed like it could pierce through Ji Heian’s torso at any moment…. And yet it never did. With a swing of his sleeve, Ji Heian deflected the sword. Looking closely one could see a shadow coiled around his pale arm.

“Nether Shadow Claw!” He had spoken softly but in that moment, there was no one who could ignore that brash hoarse voice. It looked like the words also had an effect on the shadow. It wiggled away from his hand and transformed into a claw like shape with five sharp nails.

A lone swipe was all it took. The fierce clash ended in just a single strike. Rather than calling it a battle, it would be fair to call it one sided thrashing.

As the claw moved forward, the temperature seemed to drop. Frosty winds surged forth from it. It grew in size as it moved across the dungeon.

The poor guards never stood a chance. They were flung away just by the pressure of the claw. All those that stood in the path of the claw suffered, some had their limbs severed, some had their torsos torn apart. As for the one who took a direct hit from the claw, Ox-Head was not left in a good shape. Knelt over his knees, with his sword supporting him, he was coughing up copious amounts of blood through the gaps in his helm.

His shield lay decimated, now becoming a part of the rubble on the ground. But his armour had fulfilled its purpose. A inches deep claw shaped gash had indented a great part of the armour now but the thick and heavy chainmail had managed to protect its owner.

“I believe that should be enough to teach you a lesson. Remember, the only reason I have spared you today is because we do not wish for a war.”

With a contemptuous smirk hanging on his face, the boy - Ji Heian turned around and walked into the crevice created by the cracked air. Supporting Bo on his shoulder, Zhang Gui followed behind Mister Ji’s steps.

Right before stepping into the crevice, he glanced back at the figure of Ox-Head. What had started out as a chance encounter had blossomed into a peculiar friendship. Although Ox-Head had never read his book of Life and Death, he had probably already heard about more than half of it during Zhang Gui’s frequent alcohol induced rants. A trace of guilt crept its way up into his mind but he suppressed it back down.

*Sigh*

“The things I do just to stay alive.”

Opting not to think about it anymore, he turned away facing the dark world inside the crevice. The abyssal chasm in front of him was an opportunity. A way to overturn fate. A way to freedom. He had no idea where it led to but that did not matter anymore. No longer hesitating about it, he jumped straight in.

“Ah, it really is darker than black”