Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Yin-Yang Path Three

If we insist on digging to the root of things, it’s hard to say whether in the realm of Yin and Yang, the chicken or the egg came first.

In fact, whether it’s the living or the dead, it’s all tangled up. In the Yin-Yang realm, it’s difficult to tell which one is the mother hen and which one is the fat egg.

The number of people who die in the Yang realm are pulled by the ghost messengers, like a large flow of waste flooding into the Yin realm. The Yin realm classifies and processes it, then refurbishes and recycles it, sending it back to the Yang realm.

At the same time, the Yin realm’s role is primarily to supervise the reincarnation process, which is the main verification point for the Yang realm.

Given the development speed of the Yang realm over the past few thousand years—culture, technology, and so on—the Yin and Yang realms would have generally been in equilibrium.

However, the Yin realm has no grievances, while the Yang realm has no eternity.

The Yin realm operates under strict laws, while the Yang realm is full of variables.

These variables were particularly evident in the hundred years leading up to the millennium.

Human development rapidly advanced, various disciplines developed at an astonishing pace, and the technological tree was illuminated one branch after another. In just a few decades, the accumulated results of development surpassed the total of all the previous thousands of years.

In the Yin realm’s usual evaluation, this can be considered as the Yang realm suffering from the bitterness of a thousand years of separation, resentment, and hatred, accumulating its merits.

However, these merits had a tremendous aftereffect, leaving the Yin realm, which was only sustained by "ghosts" and iron laws, staggering and struggling, unable to keep up with the Yang realm’s high-speed sprint.

Firstly, medical advancements caused the population to explode, and in the following decades, when people died, hidden dangers in the Yin realm would become quite evident.

Secondly, the outbreak of world-class wars, and the living finding new ways to cause chaos, while black technology harmed their own kind, led to a geometric explosion in the number of deaths. The Yin realm’s administrative system simply couldn’t handle it.

The internal turmoil in the Yin realm at the end of the 1980s, when the administrative system was "flustered and disordered," could be considered one of the [redacted] incidents.

The Reincarnation Pool, originally a life-bound artifact of the Wheel King, had been handled very well for thousands of years, with immense power, ranking with King Qin Guang as one of the two most powerful of the Ten Kings of Hell.

However, by the 20th century, the number of souls the Reincarnation Pool needed to process was simply too great, causing it to inevitably have some flaws.

During World War II, there was an error in the calculation of the lost souls in China, which resulted in two different sets of data when cross-checked with the Yang realm, causing the government to carry an unnecessary burden.

A second incident occurred during the baby boom.

The current leadership structure of the Yin realm is based on a system where the ten leaders follow a majority rule.

Such a system, over time, will inevitably have its dirty secrets.

Thus, the internal turmoil was nothing more than the result of long-term accumulated resentment and one accidental spark of conflict.Thus, the "flustered" and "outdated" administrative system of the Yin realm, riddled with boils and toxic tumors, exploded in a fiery eruption, directly dismantling the Wheel King’s influence, and leaving the poor King of Hell burdened with the sins of ten thousand wrongdoings. It was truly pitiful.

However, the Yin realm inherently has characteristics of stability, an aversion to change, and solid rules. After the Wheel King was removed and the "big problem" temporarily quelled, they didn’t reflect on the situation in time or adjust their structure to keep up with the Yang realm’s transformation. Instead, they continued to muddle through, making do as they always had.

But, the Wheel King, as one of the "old stubborn" representatives, went to the Yang realm to live as a human and embarked on a good journey.

What the other nine courts didn’t know, he knew very well.

After over twenty years of life in the Yang realm, he had avoided political turmoil, replenished his strength, and now, the Wheel King began to contact his old friends from the past through the city of Wángsǐ Chéng (the City of the Dead) in Fengdu.

As for why he started with Wángsǐ Chéng?

It’s simple. Because the King of Equal Judgment, who governs Wángsǐ Chéng, was, from the perspective of the celestial ghost figures, a direct subordinate of the Wheel King. The Wheel King was the actual controller of Fengdu. Of course, from an administrative point of view, each of the ten was capable of playing the role.

Thus, this led to the trial's judgment, which was muddled with a mix of "private goods."

It should be clarified that the representative for the Yin realm attending the imperial trial was the Wúcháng Ghost.

Bái Wúcháng was a confidant of the Wheel King.

So, only the silent and violent Hēi Wúcháng and the erratic and changeable Bái Wúcháng could directly represent the Yin realm and make demands, even influencing the outcome.

There are many intricate details that could be explained.

The students at the Spirit-Sealing Academy had been arguing about the trial’s outcome all day. In class, the professor spoke; after class, the students continued to discuss.

The other verdicts were easy to accept: the coordination funds, the compensation paid by the Ghost-Slaying Academy for the thunderstorm damages to the Fengdu Ghost City’s scenic area.

During the repairs, the Ghost-Slaying Academies from various universities would have to "show their unique skills" and display them in Fengdu to make up for the losses caused by the closure of the ghost city, which affected the tourism bureau of Yuzhou.

Moreover, they had to provide twenty years of voluntary labor, serving the Fengdu Cultural Relics Bureau. As long as they called for it, if any issues arose with the ancient strata, the ghost-slaying academies involved in the storm during the exam period would have to send people to Yuzhou to handle the matter.

This was all nothing.

It was just fieldwork, a chance to practice their skills.

After all, ghost slayers were never involved in peaceful or stable jobs.

But—"This... what the hell is this sorting of Yin realm data?"

"Completely nonsensical."

On the plane, An Xueru fastened her seatbelt, grumbling as she took a screenshot on her tablet.

Bai Linlang, sitting in the middle, also nodded. "Yeah, it's an inexplicable punishment."

"And of course, it was issued on the morning of July 14th. Now it's 8 PM, and damn it, even if we fly to Yuzhou now, I still wouldn’t feel at ease."

Mingyue, sitting in the aisle seat, curled her lip as she flipped through the menu of the flight, precisely mocking:

"Tsk, you guys think about it—tomorrow is the Zhongyuan Festival."

"Do the Yin-Yang Dao data generated tomorrow count as part of the Yin realm's data?"

"If this punishment had been delayed by one more day, we would have avoided a whole wave of Zhongyuan Festival labor."

The two roommates sneered in unison: "Heh, treacherous."

Bai Linlang rolled her eyes: "I don't want to go to Yuzhou. Damn it, I'm still having nightmares about the exam."

"It's all your fault, Mingyue. You had to fill in Fengdu."

"Look at this, we all got assigned to Yuzhou."

With that, she snatched the menu from Mingyue's hand and gave her a slap on the head.

"Hey!" Mingyue's cowlick got flattened. "Is it my fault?"

"Weren’t we all assigned to the southwest for batch 18?"

"There are only two internship sites in the southwest: Chang'an City and Fengdu. Chang'an Normal has a large campus, and there's so many students they can't even use them all. So for our internship, we’re definitely going to have to compete with Yuzhou University for space."

The two roommates rolled their eyes and didn’t speak.

After a while, the flight attendant began demonstrating the emergency procedures.

The plane took off, gradually climbing out of the city's polluted atmosphere and into the sea of stars.

The three girls, wearing animal eye masks, were sprawled in their seats, like Ge You (a Chinese actor known for his slumped posture).

And one dog.A mouse.

A duck.

Mingyue, the "dog," lifted her eye mask and looked at Bai Linlang's duck pattern. "I’m asking, did the trial records say... how much data we’re supposed to clean up at the university?"

"Did they give any time range, like 1900-1999, for example? Damn, Senior, the duck on your eye mask looks horrible."

"This is Donald Duck, retro style, you wouldn't understand."

Bai Linlang replied nonchalantly, then answered, "They didn’t give a specific range, it’s very vague."

An Xueru, by the window, shook her Mickey Mouse-patterned mask and sighed.

"If they really want to divide the data, let’s hope we don’t get the 20th century part."

"This past century, the human world has been too chaotic. If we have to analyze the data, we might as well be exhausted to the point of reincarnation."

They arrived at Yuzhou airport at 10 PM.

The students from the 18th and 17th batches of Fengling Academy waved goodbye, with the 17th batch heading directly to Chang'an City.

Li Xianzhou had arranged accommodations for the students, agreeing that tomorrow they would have a free day, and at 7 PM, there would be a group message about the Fengdu Zhongyuan Festival offerings. Everyone should pay attention.

The students agreed and returned to their hotel to "find their own business."

They slept until morning.

Mingyue sat up with a pillow, yawning, and wrapped herself into a little white, chubby silkworm:

"Good morning, Senior, you're fat."

The other two, still lying in bed, flipped through the materials sent by the counselor, and waved in unison, "Morning."

Mingyue picked up her bedside water cup and drank, mumbling, "You guys woke up so early..."

Bai Linlang, taking screenshots of the PDF, replied, "That’s because you woke up late."

"Forget it, you haven’t had a proper rest for half a month, so we didn’t wake you."

Mingyue paused in her drinking, her messy hair turned as she looked over. "How do you know I haven’t rested well these days?"Bai Linlang: "......"

Bai Linlang rolled her eyes, refusing to answer.

An Xueru, doing leg exercises on the bed, chuckled: "I don't know who’s been messing around with my feet, turning over and making pancakes all night and farting."

"Bengbeng."

Mingyue, who hadn’t swallowed her sip of water: "......"

"Poof!"

"Fart! I didn’t fart!" Mingyue said with her words muddled, "No... anyway, I didn’t!"

Her two roommates burst into laughter.

The three of them finished washing up and sat down to breakfast while discussing the Zhongyuan Festival arrangements.

"We can’t just go to Fengdu... This year’s internship spots are only in Yuzhou, not in Fengdu, which is even smaller..."

"Emmmm, maybe we can take the city bus around and take a look. Ah hahahaha, last time I thought Yuzhou was like a 4D magical city, so pretty!"

"Forget it, do you know how big the main city area of Yuzhou is? Mingyue, you fool."

"Ah, didn’t they say Yuzhou places great importance on the Zhongyuan Festival? They’re going to have a special undead train, right? We can hitch a ride."

"...... You’ve been watching too many horror movies."

"Anyway, we’re definitely going to pass by the Wangsi City. In the first half of the night, the ordinary spirits cross into the human world to visit their relatives, and in the second half, we have to stay on high alert at Wangsic City..."

"Heh, our Yin-Yang Dao isn’t bad, I was hoping to see a real-life Ghost Slayer in action."

An Xueru glanced at Mingyue, who was grinning foolishly: "What skill? Even if the old man Wang Yangming himself opened it, it’s only a little more than one meter wide."

Bai Linlang slapped her: "You don’t even think about it, how big was the classroom where we practiced back then?"

"Didn’t they say that the Yin-Yang Dao is three zhang and three feet?"

"Three zhang and three feet is—" Mingyue gestured with her hands and feet, "Ten meters!"

One hour later, the three of them had circled several areas on the PDF map.The residents of the Binjiang New District are younger, most of them have little foundation, and it wouldn’t be a key area for the souls of the Zhongyuan Festival to visit.

The population composition in the central core three districts has been stable for decades, always being the main focus of Yin-Yang Dao care during the Zhongyuan Festival.

Also, Yuzhou has the Liangjiangkou, which means that the region is flanked by two long rivers.

Souls migrate along the water, and Yin energy is also attracted to water.

Burning paper offerings along the riverbanks is an old custom in many places.

The two main river lines will definitely need to have a concentrated deployment of Ghost Slayers.

At 10 o'clock, the three girls went out and had a hotpot, their noses and eyes streaming from the spiciness.

After eating, they went shopping.

At 2 o'clock, the three of them decided to take the subway to the nearest section of the Yangtze River to Fengdu.

The "celebration" activities of the Zhongyuan Festival started at the moment the sun met twilight.

As the sun set, Mingyue looked at the long legs of the girls on the street, paying attention to Yuzhou’s public transport system. They passed by a campus of Yuzhou University, where a banner hung at the entrance celebrating the successful establishment of a database jointly between Weipu Company and a certain department of Yuzhou University.

Mingyue: "......"

Mingyue raised an eyebrow, her thoughts suddenly becoming clear: "Hey? If the underworld is reorganizing data, does that mean they’re going to set up a database to keep up with the times?"

"After all... it’s the age of intelligence."

Her two roommates were eating ice lollies:

"Are you dreaming? Is the Book of Life and Death just for show? This account book even has a divine position."

"Yeah, if they really want to set up an underworld database, there’s no doubt that our technology in the human world is better. How will the underworld maintain its priority then?"