Journey to the West: The Mountain Shaker

Chapter 18 Leaving Zhu 2

"Having seen Judge Li, do you have any documents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"

As soon as Judge Li entered the courtyard gate, a ghost immediately floated over and blocked his way.

Judge Li is the master of Jiuquan Prefecture, a powerful figure in the underworld. However, to meet Li Zhu, one must obtain approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is an ironclad rule, with two Impermanences and eight ghost soldiers watching over the process. Without the Ministry of Internal Affairs' document, no one can get through.

"Uh..." Li Pan realized he was too excited and had forgotten about this. He could only awkwardly cup his hands to Li Zhu and then take his leave.

"Judge Li, you're here to collect the documents, right? The one we borrowed from your residence last time?" Li Zhu, who had been sitting upright, spoke up, waving a bone plate in his hand and gesturing for another Impermanent Being to take it.

The impermanent man took it and pressed it to his forehead. He saw that it was indeed a document borrowed from Jiuquan Prefecture, so he handed it to Judge Li.

"A guest mentioned that I was passing by and thought I'd take a look. If you haven't finished reading it yet, you can continue..." Li Pan wanted to say something more, but Li Zhu waved his hand, indicating that he had already finished reading it and could take it.

Judge Li bowed and took his leave. After returning to his residence, he placed the bone plate on his forehead. It was a very ordinary summary of information from the official gazette.

After reading it carefully and thinking about it for a moment, he roughly understood the secret.

"So it was for Wang Yu'er," Li Pan said to the impermanent figure who had been guarding the room.

"Wang Yu'er?" This impermanent being had only been in the underworld for a short time was confused by the name.

Judge Li then told a story.

It turns out that Wang Yu'er is the Jade Pipa Spirit, one of the three demons of Xuanyuan Tomb.

After the Investiture of the Gods, Wang Yu'er was not included in the Investiture of the Gods list, and the underworld did not receive her soul; her whereabouts remain a mystery.

After leaving Zhu Jin in the underworld, besides studying various difficult problems, his only concern was Wang Yu'er.

Long ago, various storytelling performances about the Investiture of the Gods circulated in the underworld. There were few stories about Wang Yu'er; most only mentioned that she stirred up trouble in King Zhou's harem and harmed all living beings together with Daji and Hu Ximei.

Li Zhu was furious and went to each of the storytellers, demanding that they correct their mistakes.

It turned out that Wang Yu'er held the position of "Sezhang" in the imperial court.

"Sezhang" was an official position in the Music Bureau, responsible for managing musicians, but this term has clearly caused many people to misunderstand, thinking that she was someone who used her beauty to serve men.

According to Li Zhu, Wang Yu'er was of noble character, kind to all living beings, and apart from her obsession with music, she was practically a perfect person!

She was convicted by the Heavenly Court entirely because she was a demon and held an official position in the Zhou Dynasty.

Li Zhu was a remnant of the Investiture of the Gods, and given his identity as the person involved, coupled with his persistent efforts to find him one by one, the storyteller gradually changed his version of events.

Some stories downplay Wang Yu'er's presence, while others simply omit her altogether. Although the term "Three Demons of Xuanyuan Tomb" still exists, Wang Yu'er has gradually disappeared from storytelling.

This was the only interlude in Li Zhu's long life in the underworld.

Considering that Li Zhu's only hobby is playing the pipa, it goes without saying what place Wang Yu'er holds in his heart.

Therefore, upon receiving the bone plate from Li Zhu, Judge Li immediately recognized the key to its value.

The bone disc contained a message: Several dozen days ago, a mortal musician passed away and revealed a piece of information—a cultivator in his clan said that he had seen a jade pipa in the Illusionary Realm of the Great Void. Every full moon night, the pipa would transform into a female cultivator and play it for the cultivator. The woman was graceful and elegant, like a fairy from Mount Gusha…

In other words, Wang Yu'er is very likely in the Land of Illusion!

The Nine Realms Palace has a perk that all the souls in the underworld envy – based on their contribution, Nine Realms employees can periodically apply for a “One-Day Trip to the Void” reward – to spend a day as an insect, fish, bird, or beast in the Void Realm and enjoy the long-lost sunshine and rain!

"But Zhu is one of the top three people on the Ministry of Internal Affairs' surveillance list. If he wants to take a day trip to Taixu..." Wuchang frowned.

He didn't finish his sentence, but both of them understood that it was difficult!

Strictly speaking, the Realm of Illusion is not the mortal world, which is why the souls of the underworld are allowed to go in for a stroll. However, a super criminal like Li Zhu is definitely not among those allowed.

Judge Li chuckled, "How could I let such a person, who wants to join my household, pass by? As for difficulties, hehe, not at all. He wouldn't even come to my Li household!"

This impermanent being, of course, also surnamed Li, nodded upon hearing this: "Such a person is certainly not to be missed! Among the batch of mutated souls that have recently poured in, many are from the Li clan. You can apply to accept some of these souls and then request Li Zhu's assistance. The Imperial Household Department will certainly grant your request."

"That's all we can do." Li Pan nodded and was about to leave, but he stopped after taking only one step. Without turning back, he asked casually, "Was it the gatekeeper who received the visiting card?"

"Yes." Wuchang sighed. "He's stayed long enough. I'll let him enter the cycle of reincarnation now."

Li Pan nodded and hurried towards the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A month ago, a spatial rift suddenly appeared in the Great Wilderness World, and countless magical beasts poured in, killing countless people and infecting their souls, causing them to mutate.

Many souls, after undergoing mutation, became manic and uncontrollable, causing chaos in the underworld.

To settle these souls, the underworld is searching for help everywhere. Originally, the Nine Realms Palace did not want to get involved in such a thankless task, but in order to find an excuse to recruit Li Zhu, Judge Li could not care less.

He immediately went straight to the Underworld and found Judge Dong of the Internal Affairs Department. Judge Dong was anxious about this matter and was naturally delighted to have the Nine-Complete Prefecture help him. He gave the transfer order without hesitation.

Several hours later, Li Zhu moved into a house in the outer courtyard of Jiuquan Prefecture. Under the pretext of helping Jiuquan Prefecture investigate mutated souls, he collected a large amount of relevant information and began his busy work.

Meanwhile, the Underworld's Investigation Department has finally made progress in the case of the escaped soul codenamed "86759".

Hundreds of hellhounds were scattered among hundreds of millions of ghost rats, and it took more than four months to finally locate the ghost rat numbered 86759.

86759 was finally delivered to the Spring and Autumn Mirror. The Spring and Autumn Mirror detected a trace of abnormality in the Netherworld Rat's sea of ​​consciousness. This trace was faint and almost imperceptible, but the divine beast Di Ting still made a judgment - this trace was left by a wisp of divine consciousness.

Once confirmed, the Underworld used various magical artifacts to extract this trace, and then activated the Underworld's divine artifact—the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Soul-Chasing Rope—to trace the whereabouts of this trace.

The result was perplexing—the Soul-Chasing Rope revealed that this wisp of divine consciousness was still within the Ruins of Return! But it carried the aura of the mortal world!

Is this a case of a failed rebirth?

Or did he succeed and then die again?

However, there's no need to speculate anymore. The Soul-Chasing Rope indicates that this divine consciousness recently had an outburst, which occurred near a certain teahouse.

Soon, the "escape of a feathered bird from a teahouse" reported by the patrol officer a few days earlier was placed on the King of Hell's desk.

A formidable arrest team was quickly assembled: consisting of two judges, eight impermanent servants, four hellhounds, and hundreds of various subordinates, reporting directly to King Qin Guang.

Under the vague guidance of the Soul-Chasing Rope, the team quickly set off, heading north on a long journey to capture the fugitive.

This pursuit lasted for more than 15 months before the capture team finally caught a whiff of the spirit bird's scent.

At this time, 15 years had passed in the mortal world, and the year had reached 5836.

A lot happened in the past 15 years—Cai Fei's cultivation progressed, and he awakened two innate talents; while his eccentric parents were captured and taken to the Great Wilderness World, completely away from Cai Fei.

It turned out that the Great Wilderness Realm had suddenly encountered an anomaly and was unable to cope on its own, so it applied to the Heavenly Court for emergency assistance.

Given the critical situation and the uncertain future, the Heavenly Court launched an operation called "Thunderous Heavenly Punishment".

A million heavenly soldiers transformed into patrol officers, searching everywhere for the crimes of cultivators. As a notoriously wild and fierce place, Aolai received special attention from the Heavenly Court.

Thousands of Aolai cultivators were captured and thrown into the Great Wilderness to fight against the external demons.

Cai Fei's biological parents were both on the list. Chen Jinghai had committed eight major crimes, while Chu Shanyun was innocent. However, in order to stay with Chen Jinghai, she directly confronted the heavenly general and jumped into the net, which can be considered as fulfilling her name of "Once you have seen the ocean, other waters are nothing; once you have seen the clouds of Wushan, other clouds are nothing".

the other side.

The century-long ban on Aolai is coming to an end, and the day of its lifting is fast approaching.

At the age of eighteen, Cai Fei's life was about to take off!