"We haven't hidden anything. It's just that you don't need to know all of this, Ethan Zhang. If there's anything else you want to understand, I'll answer you personally."
I stared blankly at the Emperor God. The three of them were the former rulers of Old Hell.
"Indeed, the three of us once governed the Three Circles of Hell—upper, middle, and lower."
As the Emperor God spoke, a vision suddenly appeared around me. Three distinct lights—gold at the top, white in the middle, and red below—shone through the darkness.
I swallowed hard and gradually saw it clearly: in the golden layer, blue sky, white clouds, birds singing, and flowers blooming—everything seemed bright and beautiful.
The white layer was full of jagged rocks and shrouded in mist. The whole world appeared gray and cold; everything looked frigid and lifeless.
And in the red layer, there was bubbling magma, raging fire, and snow-capped mountains locked in ice, swept by fierce blizzards.
"In the old Hell, the upper layer was for the truly virtuous—they would ascend to the Heavenly Path and reincarnate directly. The middle layer was for those whose lives were a mix of good and bad; most would enter the Animal Path, while the Human Path was determined by one's deeds. The lowest layer was reserved for those who committed countless evils, punished by hellfire and frost for their sins, eventually falling into the Hungry Ghost Path or Hell Path. Only the rarest souls were allowed into the Asura Path. Back then, we were merely the wardens—everything was governed by the laws, not by our will."
I swallowed again, looking at the Emperor God. Now I finally understood why, no matter how long I lived, I might never defeat them. They were just like the Ten Judges.
The structure of this world is also dictated by laws—the laws of humanity and all things. On this foundation, following the principle of survival of the fittest, the people here and everything else exist as they do.
"Tell me—why did Hell undergo a change of dynasty?"
I stared at the Emperor God in a daze. With a wave of his hand, the scene of Old Hell began to shift. Six enormous spheres, each glowing with a distinct color, appeared before my eyes.
I immediately recognized them—the Six Paths of Reincarnation.
"In the Living World, all life is born without limit—infinite, you could say. Power comes from the Divine Law. Reincarnation requires splitting that power, allowing it to transform among the Six Paths. When there are few people, the Divine Law continuously releases pure energy, and humans, insects, birds, beasts, flowers, and trees—all living things—come into being."
The Emperor God pointed to the highest sphere, which radiated a gentle, luminous glow—the Divine Law.
But all this energy needs time and space to be carried and transformed. That's why the worlds of yin and yang are kept separate, so conversion can happen. As their wardens, they never realized how vast this system truly was—far beyond their imagination. Laws alone couldn't keep it running.
Gradually, more and more humans and other life forms appeared, more and more souls filled the Six Paths, until it was nearly overloaded. A new problem emerged: souls queued for reincarnation, and every kind of spirit began to accumulate in Hell.
Many people waited thousands, even tens of thousands of years, unable to reincarnate. Yet the Divine Law kept pouring out power, far beyond the system's original limits.
At the time, the three of them tried to find a solution: let these souls settle in Hell. So, those three—along with countless ghosts—began gradually expanding Hell.
Eventually, they carved out eight new regions, known as the Eight Realms of Hell: Man, Wilderness, Purity, Border, Heat, Restraint, Reverence, and Encounter.
I swallowed hard. I'd heard from the ghostly monk and Hao Hong that they belonged to a third faction—not under the Underworld, nor the Ghost Lords. The Jialan Mountains belonged to Wilderness, and I'd heard that Hao Hong's group came from Man.
That female Blue Wraith seemed to know a lot about the ghost realm. It was thanks to her guidance that we found the gate to the Jialan Lotus Seat from the Ghost Tomb Desert.
To ease Hell's overcrowding, after the Eight Realms of Hell were formed, the pressure lessened. The three rulers returned memories, consciousness, and everything else to those souls waiting to reincarnate, letting them live in the eight provinces.
To reduce the burden on the Hell Path and Hungry Ghost Path, they appointed powerful Blue Wraiths in the eight provinces to govern the evil spirits—essentially handing over authority and letting them fend for themselves.
But reality far surpassed their expectations. No matter what they did, Hell was at its limit, overcrowded. The laws began to break down, and when the three rulers couldn't keep up, they had to appoint Hell's Registrars.
The chaos in Hell began then. Whenever those registrars were bribed, they'd move souls meant for the Hell Path into the Human Path.
Unprecedented chaos erupted in Hell. Some sentient beings even started wars. More and more evil spirits escaped from the Underworld to wreak havoc in the Living World.
At that time, the Emperor God, Sylvia Yan, and Phantom Sage blamed each other, none trusting the others. With no solution, the Emperor God set a precedent—he began a bloody purge of Hell, killing any ghost he found guilty without mercy.
Gradually, all-out war broke out in Old Hell—brutal and relentless. The three rulers were overwhelmed. Their registrars and the evil spirits fought endlessly, plunging the entire reincarnation system into chaos.
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In the Living World, some beings are born with their own consciousness, even able to absorb yang energy from humans to grow—monstrous anomalies.
The three rulers had no way out. They decided to use even more brutal sorcerers to deal with those who dared resist in Hell.
But just then, a monk arrived from the Jialan Mountains in Wilderness to Old Hell. The three rulers were astonished—this monk was untraceable, not part of the Six Paths, already transcended. His Dharma name was Ksitigarbha.
"At the time, that monk said Hell needed reform—iron laws, only iron laws could control everything. He gave us many suggestions, hoping for change."
As the Emperor God spoke, I was startled to see a trace of helplessness in his eyes.
By then, the three rulers refused to listen. They treated Ksitigarbha as an outcast and imprisoned him in the lowest layer of Hell, where tortured souls had no consciousness and could never reincarnate—enduring eternal suffering.
The rebellion in Hell continued. The Emperor God used every means to suppress it, but even the newly arrived souls were beyond his control—left to wander as lonely ghosts.
Ghosts have one trait: under the power of Hell, they are at the mercy of the wardens. But once freed from Hell's control, they regain consciousness.
Those awakened ghosts formed a new resistance, devouring weaker spirits to grow stronger.
Yet, from the lower layers of Hell, strange things happened—day and night, Buddhist chants echoed from below, and many tortured souls went to listen.
Sylvia Yan was the first to discover that those ghosts transformed into pure energy, entering a space no one had seen before—directly bypassing the Six Paths.
When Phantom Sage learned of this, he was furious and resolved to destroy Ksitigarbha. No matter what torture or attack he used, Ksitigarbha remained unshaken, chanting scriptures day after day.
Until one day, the lowest Hell was nearly empty of souls. But then, events took an unpredictable turn.
For reasons unknown, the Six Paths stopped functioning and began to spit out souls. The evil spirits who had lingered in the Hungry Ghost Path and Hell Path for thousands of years grew savage—the Six Paths seemed to lose all restraint.
Disaster descended fully upon Hell. All you could see was devouring, slaughter—a feast for the evil spirits. In the Living World, for years, every newborn died, all things withered, and the land was plagued by famine.
"The three of us stubbornly believed in survival of the fittest, thinking power could solve everything. But our outdated ways caused Hell's catastrophe."
Ksitigarbha could no longer stand by. He emerged from the lowest Hell and sought out the three rulers again, hoping to negotiate, but words could change nothing.
A long, drawn-out battle began. The Emperor God, Phantom Sage, and Sylvia Yan fought against Ksitigarbha, the Ten Judges, and Lady Meng.
Countless died in Hell, the Living World was devastated, and only then did the war end. Hell was shattered, countless ghosts left homeless, drifting and fighting on.
"I remember, Ksitigarbha once said to our faces: 'Hell will not be empty, I will not become a Buddha.' Heh, before our deaths, it seemed we finally understood what kind of conviction drove him to such ruthless action."