Volume 1 : Path through Purgatory
Chapter 8 : Famous throughout Diyu
7 whole days…. It had been a week since Zhang Gui had entered the Gate to the Naraka Hell.
Camping outside the Gate, waiting for the Old Monk Di to return, Ox-Head had never anticipated that it would take this long. He had already considered Zhang Gui a departed soul. No mortal soul had ever endured more than 4 days in the Naraka Hells. In fact since time immemorial, only a few mortals had ever been sentenced to the 18 Hells. Had it not been for the express orders of the Yama Kings to keep an eye on Monk Di, Ox-Head would have long returned to resume his duties as the prison warden.
Just as he was pondering about what might have caused this delay, the Gate of the Naraka Hells revved up to activity. The purple glow that had enveloped the altar during the opening of the Gate was back. A flash of blinding white light emerged as the doors of the gate were pushed open yet again. Right in front of the open gate, Monk Di materialized almost magically with a few glass shards in his hands. The glass shards were naturally the pieces of Zhang Gui’s soul. There must have been some hundred pieces of varying sizes. No bystander would ever mistake them for anything other than some glass shards. Their translucent character only served to reaffirm that assessment.
Then the doors of the gate shut themselves with a bang.
The Old Man still had the same ever present smile on his face as he greeted the nearby standing Ox-Head. He then threw the glass shards in his hands down at the altar. The purple glow which was yet to dissipate gathered around the glass shards.
And thus began the reconstruction of Zhang Gui’s soul. In mere minutes, the glass shards had melted and fused together reverting back to the original state of his soul.
Seeing the translucent arms in front of his eyes, moving around his arms and legs Zhang Gui could not believe it.
“ So kid, how was your experience being half step into extinction? I was really worried about you.”
A frosty glare was all Monk Di received in reply.
“This useless old man left me alone to deal with the snakes and now he says he was worried?” The more he saw that smudge smile the more frustrated he grew.
As for his experience being half step in extinction, he felt… absolutely nothing. The last thing he remembered was the excruciating pain of having his head ripped off as the cracks tore off the last pieces of his soul. In those last moments, he felt like someone had torn his head into two. He was not prepared for something like that. The incantation had inevitably faltered. Maybe it was like luck or maybe it was the japmala but somehow the fiery energies did not harm his primal essence in that split second.
“Never again, I must master the Carefree Bliss Sutra before the start of the next lunar month.”
The walk back to the prison cell was mostly uneventful however he did find the astonished, jaw dropped with eyes as big as buttons expression of Ox-Head amusing.
He just could not understand how Zhang Gui had preserved his essence.
Zhang Gui was now back in the prison cell but unlike the first time he was actually happy to be back in his cell. His body was lost- turned to ashes and only his soul remained,nevertheless, he had a content smile plastered on his face. He had survived the first hell. There was hope.
“You should take that smile off your face youngster. Just because you managed to protect yourself this once does not mean you will be able to do so again. There is also something else you have to worry about.”
Throwing cold water on his excitement, the monk pointed straight at Zhang Gui’s chest. He had decided to stay in the same cell as Zhang Gui.
As if on orders from his finger, a mark manifested itself on Zhang Gui’s chest. A dark heart wrapped around a pair of chains. It very much resembled a tattoo. And it even seemed to pulsate like a real heart , almost as if it was alive. The appearance of a translucent soul marked with this opaque grim looking tattoo was quite jarring.
“That is the second part of your punishment - the Heart Binding Curse. Did you forget about it?”
Zhang Gui truly had no idea when he was branded with this curse.
“It had to have been when he was knocked out. Those bastards were playing with my soul without consent.”
“Senior, what does this thing do? In all your divine wisdom, you must have a way to nullify it right ?”
Since this matter was concerned with his well being, he did not hesitate to suck up to the old man.
“Hehe, it is true I do have divine wisdom.” Stroking his chin, the old man tried to look like a scholar. “But in this case there is nothing I can do to help you. The Heart binding curse is a ownership token, it signifies that you are under the servitude of Diyu for repentance of your sins. The only advice I can give you is to petition to the Tenth Court for parole once some time has passed.”
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The old man's words dampened all the joy Zhang Gui had. He was virtually a slave and would continue to be till this brand was removed.
“Petition after some time? What is ‘some time’? This damned place has no measure of time to begin and to top it off you refuse to tell me how many times must I go through the lesser hells. How many more lunar months? How long is a reincarnation cycle? I don’t mind toiling for my sins but a man at least needs to know when he will be set free.”
The frustrations of many days imploded in mere seconds. All the resentment he had held within him was released. And yet, all the old monk did was smile. He truly never stopped smiling.
“You will find out when you need to. But since it angers you so much let me tell, a lunar month is not even a thousandth of a reincarnation cycle.”
“Not even a thousandth!”
The sad news just kept on piling on. He could not even calculate how many years he would have to spend toiling away in the lesser hells. To have to go through that mind tearing pain again and again and ...again. It was truly a fate worse than death. And if during any one of those times, he lost control of the Carefree Bliss Sutra even once, all his effort so far would crumble to ashes.
“Why worry about a future that is not reality yet? A soul is eternal. Does it matter if it takes you some more time to repent for your faults?”
“He’s right, there is nothing else I can do but bid my time.”
He could only relentlessly practice the buddhist sutra, everything else was out of his control.
……………
The path connecting the Gate to the Naraka Hells and the prison had never been so popular. Even the guards of the prison were now drawn towards the path. In an unprecedented move even the residents of Youdu, the capital of Diyu had travelled far to arrive in these outskirt areas. The Yama Courts were forced to dispatch a company of the Rakshas Army to maintain law and order around the stone road.They were all here to witness a miracle. It was a miracle centered around the slave that walked this path every lunar month.
“How many days do you reckon will he stay inside ?”
“It's hard to say but at a minimum, I think he will last for some 17 days.”
“17 days?! Are you insane? He will easily survive for 20 days. In the last few months, he has set a record of staying in for 19 days. I have already bet on him coming out on the 21st day. The odds are 3:1, I can’t wait to get rich.”
“This time he is in the eighth layer- The Mortar and Pestle Hell, even if he is the ‘Masochist Demon’, there has to be a limit to his resistance.”
“Huh? It seems you have just arrived here. The Masochist Demon has been through the Eight Hells eight times already, this is his ninth time in the Eighth Layer.”
Such conversations had become the staple of the fanatics gathered around the altar. A rich betting industry had developed around the ‘Masochistic Demon’.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Youndu capital city Ox-Head was making a report to a disgruntled Minister Wei. The more Minister Wei learned about the matter, the angrier he got. A criminal- even a slave at that- was being treated as a celebrity. The worst part was that he could not figure out how that rebel had managed to survive having his essence wiped by the lesser hells. He knew it definitely had something to do with that old ghost but why would he willingly help a random prisoner slave?- that was a question he could not answer.
The ‘Masochistic Demon’ himself was out in the eighth layer of the naraka hell, being crushed under a pestle. Trapped inside a mortar the size of a room, his soul was being pounded into paste. But his face sported a serene smile that could only be described as carefree. The horrors of the Naraka Hells had stopped being intimidating around the fifth time he went through them. It had nearly been six years since the start of his sentence.
He had realized that all of them were the same despite their varying appearances. Whether it was the Raging Inferno, Mirrors of Retribution, Pillars of Copper or any other layer of the Naraka Hell. Their inherent purpose was to cause severing of a soul’s primal essence and to inflict the pain associated with it.
With the Carefree Bliss Sutra in his hands, the Narak Hells did not pose much of a threat. This was not to say that this had been an easy task for him to accomplish,it was far from it in fact. Just mastering the sutra was an obstacle he had barely managed to overcome. As a soul neither did he have any need for food or water nor did he ever feel sleepy. All the time he had was utilized for the sake of avoiding that mind rending nightmare inflicted upon him at the end of every soul shattering. It had taken its sweet time, chanting a sutra while your mind was being broken was a nigh impossible endeavour but he had succeeded.
The Carefree Bliss Sutra had brought him a safe passage through the Naraka Hells but it had also brought him a detestable moniker- ‘Masochistic Demon’.It had all begun with Ox-head, he was far too gullible. The Old Monk had filled his head with the wrong ideas. The sutra instinctively caused one to develop a carefree smile and the soul was supposed to be in great suffering under the assault of the hells. Monk Di had used those two facts to create an image weaved from both truth and lies. He had loudly proclaimed Zhang Gui to be someone whose smile grows wider as the pain grows deeper. Ox-Head of course would never doubt the senior he respected so much. And thus began the rumors of the ‘Masochistic Demon’ plaguing the Naraka Hells.
Of course, he was not a masochist. He had simply grown dull to the sensation of pain. Even having his soul shattered felt like a daily chore at this point. If one felt pain all the time, wouldn’t they eventually stop feeling it.
If someone compared his current soul to the one that had crossed the Bridge of Karma, they would not believe the two to be the same soul. One was Heaven, the other was Earth. His soul seemed to have grown. Both in height and mass. The originally floating figure now had his legs firming touching the ground. Initially, he was unable to interact with anything corporeal. Now, his soul had grown more opaque almost resembling his fleshy body.
The only explanation that Zhang Gui could come up with this miraculous transformation had to do with the frequent shattering his soul had experienced in the lesser hells. Similar to how once a bone is broken, it just grows back stronger and sturdier.
This evolution had its own side effects. Since his soul had grown stronger, it took that much longer for the machinations of lesser hells to break it down. The longer it took for his soul to be destroyed the more pain he had to suffer and the more hide and seek he had to play. On the other hand, a more vigorous soul gave him the ability to master the Carefree Bliss Sutra with ease. He truly did not know if this development was for his benefit or detriment.
“ Ah, it is time to go back” As this thought echoed in his mind, the last of his soul was crushed away by the pestle hovering in the air.
A purple glow submerged the altar in its glow. As soon as the crowd noticed the change, a wave of clamor swept through it. Large swathes of the crowd wore disappointed faces while a few solitary figures here and there could not keep their happiness in control. It was truly a bizarre reception for someone returning from Hell.
“20 days…..He lasted for 20 days…. Why, why could he not stay one for just one more day? Just one day and I would have won a fortune.”
“ The Masochistic Demon does it again. Is he really going to remain unscathed for the next nine reincarnation cycles.”
The lamentations of the losers and the jubilation of the winners, all these sights entered the eyes of the reconstructed soul of Zhang Gui. But he remained indifferent, to them he was just a zoo animal, a slightly interesting slave. They held no empathy for him, in fact he was sure they did not even think of him as an equal being.
Another unintended consequence of the alteration of his soul was the development of betting circles centered around how long he could last inside each time. He had started from 7 days and reached all the way to 20.
Under the escort of the prison guards, Zhang Gui walked away towards the penitentiary leaving the crowd behind. Winning the bet was the cause for the ecstasy of most of the people in the crowd, however there was one silhouette in the back who was thrilled for an entirely different reason. His face could not be seen for it was hidden away under a hood. The hooded figure let out a few raspy chuckles.
“ Arararararara!! “
“ Look what I found.”