Just like in Ghoul King Chang Shan, Gu Zheng had taken over this place.
The only difference was that the Four Seas Ghost King was the leader here. Before he left, he made special arrangements to serve these people well and not neglect them. Only then did he leave in a hurry.
This was his headquarters, his lair, and he had run it for so long that he wouldn't run away even if someone told him to. Furthermore, he didn't want anything to happen here, which was why he had made such arrangements.
Other than the Ghoul King Palace, everything else in Yanhaven was the same as before. The ordinary ghosts in the city had no idea that a powerful expert had arrived, nor that their ghoul king had left.
Things were different in the city than in Ghoul King Chang Shan's territory. Although Ghoul King Chang Shan's territory was a mountain, it was much livelier than the city itself.
Gu Zheng was very interested, and decided to take a stroll around Yanhaven, where he bought quite a few things.
Other than the fact that the sky was always dark, and the food was different, it was no different from the cities in the mortal world. Most of the ghosts were people who had died in the mortal world.
Gu Zheng also noticed that there were quite a few old people in the city, most of whom were the ghosts of people who had died a natural death.
"If I remember correctly, a lot of people died in the mortal world. Why are there so few young people?"
Gu Zheng casually asked. Huang Xiaolei hurriedly stepped forward and replied with a flattering smile, "My lord, you're talking about the mortals who were killed during the Great War of the Witch-Demon Tribe, right? There were indeed many souls who went to the Underworld, but they were killed, so they carried resentment on them. Ghosts with resentment were not allowed to enter the city. Not only were they not allowed to enter the city, they were also not allowed to enter the residences of other ghosts!"
"Why is that?"
Gu Zheng asked, stopping in place.
"They're all ghosts who died unjustly. If their resentment isn't purged, they could turn into evil ghosts at any time. Evil ghosts can lose their minds, and harm other ghosts. That's why they're not allowed to enter the city. Only by cleansing themselves of their resentment can they enter the city!"
Huang Xiaolei quickly explained. Gu Zheng's brows furrowed, but they quickly smoothed out.
Wu You and the others had also died in vain, so there was bound to be resentment on their bodies. It seemed that they would not be able to enter the city either. However, with this characteristic, they could narrow down the search area and find them more easily.
"How do you cleanse the resentment of a wronged soul?" Gu Zheng asked again.
"There are many ways to cleanse the aura of resentment. Take the River of Forgetfulness outside the city for example. The river water can purify the soul and wash away the aura of resentment. If one's resentment isn't deep enough, they can use the River of Forgetfulness's water for three months and bathe in the River of Forgetfulness's water once every seven days. If one's resentment is deep enough, the River of Forgetfulness's water won't work and they will need to consume the Resentment Cleansing Fruit!"
"Resentment Cleansing Fruit?" Gu Zheng asked again.
"This is a special fruit of the Underworld. There are quite a few of them, and they are more effective than the River of Forgetfulness. They can wash away resentment better. Ordinary people who have died unjustly and don't have deep resentment can consume one Resentment Fruit a day for 30 days to wash away their resentment. Moreover, the Resentment Fruit tastes pretty good, but the price is slightly higher!"
"What if the resentment is very deep?"
Gu Zheng asked again. Wu You and the others were killed by Jin Xian and were lured out of the prefectural city. They were framed, so their resentment wouldn't be small. Moreover, they were immortal cultivators, so their resentment would definitely be greater than that of ordinary people.
Souls with deep resentment would be captured and sent to the Hell's Pagoda to be cleansed of their resentment. If the resentment wasn't too deep, they would be able to come out after a few years of purification in the first few floors. If the resentment couldn't be cleansed, then they would be sent to the eighteenth floor of the Hell's Pagoda.
"The Hell's Pagoda?"
Gu Zheng turned around and looked at Huang Xiaolei. Huang Xiaolei hurriedly took the initiative to explain, "The Hell's Pagoda was created when the Underworld was born. It doesn't belong to anyone and no one can control it. Only vengeful souls can enter the Hell's Pagoda. Ghosts without resentment can't enter the Hell's Pagoda. The deeper the resentment, the deeper you can go. Once you enter the eighteenth floor, it's equivalent to resentment that can't be washed away and can't come out!"
"Can't come out?"
"That's right. Since the day the Underworld was born, there have been countless vengeful souls sent to the Hell's Pagoda. There were vengeful souls in the first few floors who came out after being cleansed of their resentment. However, no one has ever come out from the eighteenth floor. There was once a vengeful soul who went from the seventeenth floor to the first floor and finally left the Hell's Pagoda. He said that the eighteenth floor of the Hell's Pagoda is very frightening. Every day, there are countless miserable resentment. The vengeful souls there bite each other, but no one can eat each other. They live in pain every day and can't be released!"
Huang Xiaolei looked around mysteriously and whispered, "I once heard an elder say that the Hell's Pagoda is a prison set up by the Heavenly Dao in the Underworld. The eighteenth floor is filled with evil and unpardonable criminals. After entering, they can't die or be destroyed. However, they have to endure pain every day and can't come out. It's too frightening!"
After Huang Xiaolei finished speaking, he seemed to be afraid and even patted his chest.
For a ghost to be afraid, it was indeed a bit comical.
"Those are all rumors. They can't be trusted!"
Gu Zheng smiled. He was thinking about the future of the Underworld. The future of the Underworld was ruled by a quasi-Holy Land, Ksitigarbha. Ksitigarbha once said, "Until hell is empty, I swear not to become a Buddha." However, although Ksitigarbha was a Bodhisattva, his strength was at the level of a quasi-sage. He was far from a Bodhisattva with the strength of a Daluo Jinxian.
Not to mention a Bodhisattva, even some true Buddhas were not as strong as Ksitigarbha.
For such an expert to rule the Underworld all year round and say such a thing, it was indeed very puzzling. Gu Zheng didn't think about it before, but now that Huang Xiaolei mentioned it, this Hell's Pagoda was indeed strange.
However, Gu Zheng's purpose in coming to the Underworld was not to explore the secrets of hell, but to find Wu You and the others' vengeful souls. The matter of the Hell's Pagoda was just a matter of listening.
After walking around the city for a day, Gu Zheng returned with a lot of Resentment Cleansing Fruits. There was a shop in the city that had them. After buying them, they would sell them outside the city.
Gu Zheng bought this purely out of curiosity. He wanted to see what was so special about this fruit. It could cleanse resentment and was even better than the water of the River of Forgetfulness. The River of Forgetfulness was the largest river in the Underworld. The Underworld was different from the Eldritch Wilderness. There were four continents in the Eldritch Wilderness. The Underworld was one place with no gaps.
Although the Underworld was not as big as the Eldritch Wilderness, it was bigger than a single continent. The River of Forgetfulness passed through the entire Underworld. One could imagine how long this river was.
"This is a good little thing!"
Gu Zheng tasted the fruit and his eyes immediately lit up. Although it was born and bred in the Underworld, there was a pure sweetness in the fruit. It was completely different from the Underworld that was full of Yin Qi. It was even incompatible.
No wonder this fruit could cleanse resentment. The purity of the fruit was as pure as the thoughts of the purest and most innocent child. Under this purity, resentment would be quickly assimilated.
"It seems that I can research another Food Cultivation!"
Gu Zheng muttered to himself. He had not succeeded in researching a Food Cultivation that could be eaten directly by ghosts. Gu Zheng thought of a second Food Cultivation, the Resentment Cleansing Food Cultivation.
The Resentment Cleansing Food Cultivation was cooked with the Resentment Cleansing Fruit as the main ingredient and other ingredients with pure power, such as the water of the River of Forgetfulness. If it was cooked successfully, one bowl of the Food Cultivation could cleanse the resentment of people with little resentment. Those with more resentment would need at most ten bowls.
If ten bowls could not cleanse the resentment, they could only be sent to the Hell Pagoda. Gu Zheng had no other choice.
Most importantly, according to Gu Zheng's estimation, a pot of this Food Cultivation only needed ten Resentment Cleansing Fruits as the main ingredient. A pot of the Food Cultivation could make ten bowls. In this way, it was equivalent to one Resentment Cleansing Fruit per bowl.
Gu Zheng could use one Resentment Cleansing Fruit to solve a problem that originally required thirty Resentment Cleansing Fruits. This was the extraordinary part of the Food Cultivation.
As for this saving, Gu Zheng did not care much. He was more concerned about the effect. With the increased effect of the Resentment Cleansing Fruit, those who had to be sent to the first few floors of the Hell Pagoda would not need to go in with this Food Cultivation. The Hell Pagoda only accepted people with resentment. Even the Daluo Jinxian could not enter by himself unless he had resentment.
Also, Gu Zheng was not researching this Food Cultivation for the benefit of the Underworld.
He was preparing it for Wu You and the others. Wu You and the others definitely had resentment on them. Gu Zheng did not know how much resentment there was. If he prepared it early, he could completely cleanse the resentment on them after finding them. This way, whether he brought them back or left them here, it would be of great benefit to them.
This research took five days. Five days later, Gu Zheng looked at the boiling pot of Food Cultivation with satisfaction. In theory, the Resentment Cleansing Fruit Cultivation was done.
As for whether it was a real success, he still needed to do an experiment. After all, the Food Cultivation he made had not been eaten by people with resentment. He did not know the effect yet.
"Have you found the people I asked you to find?"
Gu Zheng walked out of the room and asked a ghost cultivator with the strength of a Sky Immortal. That ghost cultivator hurriedly nodded and left quickly. Not long after, he came back with ten different people. These ten people were followed by more than twenty people. A few of them were Jin Xian.
These ten people were all ghosts, but the difference between them and normal ghosts was that their eyes were red.
The ten people had different degrees of red in their eyes. Some were very light, while some were very dark. They were all emitting light. These were the vengeful spirits that Gu Zheng asked them to find outside the city in advance to test his Food Cultivation.
The reason why Jin Xian followed them was because he was afraid that these vengeful spirits would suddenly turn into malicious ghosts.
Although vengeful spirits could not turn into malicious ghosts if they did not reach a certain level, it was not absolute. Some vengeful spirits did not have deep vengeful spirits and could turn into malicious ghosts. After turning into malicious ghosts, they would lose all their intelligence and their strength would suddenly increase. An ordinary vengeful spirit could reach the strength of a Sky Immortal.
More importantly, if one were to be scratched or bitten by a malicious ghost, there was a chance that they would be infected. There was no cure for that. That was why ghosts with resentment were not allowed to enter the city or other ghost gathering places. They would only be allowed to enter after their resentment had been resolved.
This way, even if a vengeful spirit turned into a malicious ghost, it would be outside and the impact on the city would be limited.
The ten ghosts stood there in order. Except for one who had some strength, the rest were ordinary people. The stronger the vengeful spirit, the stronger the malicious ghost. A vengeful spirit with the strength of a Sky Immortal could become a malicious ghost at the level of Jin Xian. It could even reach the late stage of Jin Xian. Therefore, no one dared to ignore this.
Gu Zheng took out a bowl of Food Cultivation and gave it to the vengeful spirit with the reddest eyes.
That vengeful spirit was very confused. He sniffed and could not help but swallow his saliva even though he had no saliva to swallow.
"Drink it!"
Huang Xiaolei brought the Food Cultivation over. That vengeful spirit hesitated for a moment but still drank all the Food Cultivation in the bowl quickly. He breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The Food Cultivation that Gu Zheng made was something that these ghosts could drink.
Gu Zheng looked at this vengeful spirit. The vengeful spirit looked around blankly. His reddened eyes gradually weakened and finally stopped when they were half gone.
"How did you die?"
This person's resentment was very strong. Gu Zheng asked casually, and the faces of the other ghost cultivators around him changed drastically. To a vengeful spirit, the last thing they should ask was how they died. This was because it would trigger their memories of death and increase their resentment.
That vengeful spirit lowered his head and seemed to be angry. After a while, he raised his head and said, "I was originally from a big family. My family had some money, but my brother purposely seduced his wife in order to fight for the family's wealth. The two of them worked together and murdered me!"
So this person was killed by his wife and brother. No wonder his resentment was so deep. These two could be said to be his closest relatives, but they worked together to kill him.
After he finished speaking, his eyes were still the same as before. They did not deepen, and there were no signs of him turning into a vengeful spirit. This surprised some of the people around him.
"Next!"
Gu Zheng asked Huang Xiaolei to deliver the Food Cultivation to them. The ten vengeful spirits quickly finished the Food Cultivation. Other than the first one, there was one whose resentment was not completely removed, but it was already very light. Gu Zheng estimated that according to the first one's situation, three bowls of Food Cultivation would be enough to remove all the resentment. For the other one, two bowls would be enough.
After the Food Cultivation was consumed, it could only be consumed three days later. Even for the first one, it would take less than ten days to completely remove the resentment.
Gu Zheng specially asked. For someone like him, even if he ate the Resentment Cleansing Fruit every day, it would still take a long time to remove all the resentment. In the meantime, there could not be any other accidents, such as discovering that someone close to him had been killed, or discovering that he had been wronged more than just a little.
No one could be sure of the exact time, but one month was definitely not enough. It could take three months, or even a year. If it was more serious, he would be sent to the Hell Pagoda.
This meant that Gu Zheng's Resentment Cleansing Fruit Cultivation was a complete success. The effects were especially good, and it could indeed cleanse the resentment of these vengeful spirits.
Other than these two, the resentment on the other eight vengeful spirits had been cleansed. They were very happy that their resentment had been cleansed. This meant that they would no longer be restricted in the future. They could enter the city whenever they wanted, and they could go anywhere they wanted.
This unexpected gain made them very happy.
They were all ordinary vengeful spirits. They were spirits that had died unjustly in the war. They did not have any power or wealth, and could only rely on themselves to cleanse their resentment with the water of the River of Forgetfulness. They could not even afford the Resentment Cleansing Fruit. Now that their resentment was suddenly gone, they could live normally in the Underworld. How could they not be happy?
The ten vengeful spirits were deeply grateful to Gu Zheng.
Gu Zheng did not mind this. Now that the Resentment Cleansing Fruit Cultivation was a success, he would have a greater chance of cleansing the resentment on them when he found Wu You and the others.
Ten days later, the Four Seas Ghost King returned, but Wang Shuo did not come.
However, the Four Seas Ghost King brought a message. Wang Shuo invited them to his place to talk. Gu Zheng had not revealed the Book of Life and Death before, so he could not attract Wang Shuo like he had attracted Wang San.
"Then let's go to his place!"
Looking at the Four Seas Ghost King, Gu Zheng said calmly. The Four Seas Ghost King's face was filled with bitterness. He had just made a trip, and now it seemed that he had to make another trip. He wanted to bring them along.
However, what happened next surprised the Four Seas Ghost King. Gu Zheng did not let him lead the way. He only asked for directions, and then they set off on their own.
The Four Seas Ghost King was just a Jin Xian, and his speed was very slow. Bringing him along would delay them. Gu Zheng only wanted to know where Wang Shuo was. It was fine as long as he knew the place. There was no need to bring him along.
The Four Seas Ghost King took more than half a month to travel back and forth. Gu Zheng and the other two only took three days to reach the place he had mentioned. It was a quiet place beside the River of Forgetfulness, and the environment was not bad.
Wang Shuo was here, and beside him was a man in black. He was covered in black clothes, and looked a little like Taotie. Taotie kept looking at him.
"Brother Wang San, two brothers from the Wilderness, welcome!"
Wang Shuo stood there, his slender body looking very good. If he was on Earth in the future, he would definitely be a handsome man who would make countless girls scream.
The Four Seas Ghost King had already explained the situation. He also knew that the three of them were coming, so he was not surprised.
"Brother Wang Shuo, it's an honor to meet you!"
Even though he had not recovered, Wang San was not afraid in front of Wang Shuo. He clasped his fists and greeted. No matter what, he was still a Daluo Jinxian.
"I heard that the three of you have something to discuss with me. May I know what it is?"
Wang Shuo was very polite. He did not act arrogantly just because he was a Daluo Jinxian. He even invited Gu Zheng and the other two to sit down and talk.
"I would like to borrow the power of Brother Wang Shuo!"
Wang Shuo went straight to the point. Gu Zheng did not hide it either. Wang Shuo's expression did not change, but Hu Feng, who was beside him, raised his head fiercely.
"May I ask why you want to borrow it?"
This Wang Shuo was very scheming. If it were anyone else, they would have turned hostile upon hearing that they wanted to borrow their power. To put it nicely, it was borrowing, but to put it bluntly, it was an order. Who could tolerate being ordered?
"Looking for someone!" Gu Zheng's answer was simple.
"Looking for someone?"
Wang Shuo lowered his head and pondered for a while. He then raised his head. "Brother, someone was killed in the Eldritch Wilderness. Has the soul entered the Underworld?"
"Yes, that's right!"
Wang Shuo was very smart. Gu Zheng and Tao were not ghosts, but physical bodies. They came specially from the Eldritch Wilderness to look for someone. They were definitely not looking for a living person, but a dead soul.
If a dead soul did not die, it would not enter the Underworld. From the looks of it, the dead person was quite important to Gu Zheng and the rest. Otherwise, they would not have come specially from the Eldritch Wilderness.
This surprised Wang Shuo.
He had lived for a long time, so he knew more. It was not easy to go from the Eldritch Wilderness to the Underworld. Even if you were a Daluo Jinxian, you could not enter the Underworld casually. You had to know about the passage between the two worlds, and you had to break through the void to enter the Underworld.
It was just a passageway, but it was not that simple.
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