Chapter 227 - Pure Land of Bliss (1/2)

” Pure Land of Bliss?” Hearing this new word, Hao Ning turned back and looked at Zhou Yuan and Liu Shuai. Their expressions demonstrated that they had no idea about the word. So, Hao Ning asked, “what is that good thing?”

“Good thing?” Yan looked at Hao Ning, sneering. His sneer made Hao Ning scared. “So, please let me show you what this good thing is!”

He waved his hand, making all of them disappear from the platform. They came to the mortuary of a hospital.

“My God!” Seeing the place, Hao Ning trembled. His leg felt dumb. “What’s wrong with me recently? Why did I usually come to places like this?” He said to himself.

Yan pointed to the door of the mortuary, saying, “ghost hits the wall”. And then he sighed with relief, “now nobody can get in here.”

Looking at Yan, Hao Ning trembled again. Seeing that Yan used the magic words of “Ghost hits wall”. Hao Ning felt a little gloomy although he knew that this might be his common skills.

“Now, watch.” Yan said, waving his hand. He took out another black rope and used it to cut the neck of one dead body. A soul was pulled out of the body. Yan said before the soul said something, “sorry to bother you.”

Saying this, he picked up the “Pure Land of Bliss” and patted it into the soul. The soul stood still immediately.

“Do you guys have something,” Yan frowned, adding, “anything like a book?”

“Well, how about my phone?” Zhou Yuan took out of his phone, passing it to Yan.

“Good.” Yan held the phone, turned on the screen and put it in front of the soul. And then he jiggled it before him.

At this moment, the soul fixed his eyes on the phone like it was cursed by something.

“Now, give me this one.” Yan got another “Pure Land of Bliss” from Hao Ning’s hand, patting it into the soul. Now the soul became convulsive with its eyes staring at the screen. Nobody knew what it was watching. After that, many golden thin wires coming out of the soul’s body. At first glance, the wires were weak. They became brighter and brighter with increasing wires emerging. It became a golden ball floating in the air with the size the same as a fist.

“Done!!” Yan moved away from the phone. After that, the soul seemed miserable, struggling to watch the screen. Yan took out his Kusang Stick and used it to touch the soul. The soul stood still again immediately.

“What’s happening?” Hao Ning said. What Yan did reminded Hao Ning of something had happened before. But he lost himself at that time. “What’s this golden thing?”

“Hao Ning, look!” Liu Shuai cried, pointing to the soul. His face was trembling!

Hao Ning stared at the soul. The soul became older and older at a fast speed, turning older and smaller. In a short time, it turned into an old soul.

“Ok, now.” Yan waved to the soul. And then the soul disappeared. “I have to throw it back to the nether world for complicated processes before its reincarnation. Or the soul will disappear from the world.”

The golden ball was still floating in the air. Hao Ning looked at it and asked, “what’s this ball?”

“Belief.” Yan sighed. “It takes an ordinary person nearly 100 years to get the ball. I just used Pure Land of Bliss to make the soul become a ball in a short time.”

“The essence of thearchy!” Hao Ning, Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan cried at the same time, “the stone-gambling?”

“What’re you talking about?” Yan bewildered. “What essence or stone?”

Hao Ning did not respond to Yan’s question. He continued to say, “Yan, Pure Land of Bliss you just said. What’s it?”

“I just wanted to ask you this question!” Yan said, angrily. “Recently, we found that the number of souls in the nether world decreased sharply. And many souls, when they arrived at the nether world, were much older than normal time. It was weird. So, after coming back, I studied this. If we don’t stop the trend, the whole reincarnation system may collapse.”

“Reincarnation system?” Hao Ning wondered. “You mean something like the Lethe Water and the bridge to Hell? Why will they collapse?”

“The so-called Lethe Water and the bridge to Hell are produced from the realistic distort of people’s belief,” Yan shook his head. He wanted to explain more, but he stopped. “Forget it. You won’t understand it. You need to remember, if the soul for reincarnation is too old, and if it can’t be healed by the whole reincarnation system, we will be in trouble for a long time ” added he.

“How about the souls reincarnating in the other time-space? Will they be weak too?” Hao Ning realized the severity of the problem. He added, “which will lead to a big problem to the whole time-space of humankind?”

“What are you talking about? What is the time-space of humankind?” Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan never heard of them before from Hao Ning. Xiao Hong did not want to give details about the nether world. So, they all looked at Hao Ning with wide eyes, “what are you talking about?”

“I’ll explain to you later.” Hao Ning said, looking at Yan. “This is the reason why you came to me?” added he.

“Part of it.” Yan shook his head. “You are good enough as you can understand them already. But there is one more thing you neglected.”

“What?” Hao Ning wondered. “Is there a thing more severe than a weak soul?”

“Naturally, reincarnation is an approach used by a soul to heal itself.” Yan explained, adding, “you can understand it, right? To drink the Lethe Water is a way to purify a soul. However, we find that there is one thing that cannot be purified by the Lethe Water. That is Pure Land of Bliss you just saw.”

“Pure Land of Bliss?” Hao Ning reminded the strange transformation of the soul. It was because Yan put a blue thing called Pure Land of Bliss on the soul. That meant that the blue thing was the key element in the whole process. Thinking of this, Hao Ning asked, “You mean, the thing you just put in the soul cannot be purified by the Lethe Water?”

“You are right.” Yan nodded. “If that Yan from North-west brought this thing for us, we could not find out the key part of the problem. The Lethe Water cannot purify Pure Land of Bliss. That means that even if the soul has reincarnated, the soul will become old faster than the normal speed. If so, no matter which time-space a soul reincarnates into, the soul cannot grow old along with its body. The soul may die before the body.”

“And then what will happen?” Liu Shuai asked. He found that what Yan said has been out of his understanding although it was the scope of theology. “If a soul demise, what will happen then?”

“Pure Land of Bliss.” Yan shook his head. “They seemed that they are alive. They will attach themselves to the other body after the former dies. It seems that they are sucking the energy from the body they attached. For a long time, it will be disastrous for the souls in the time-space….”

“Wait a moment. ” Hao Ning did not catch up with what Yan said. He had a question when he was listening to Yan. He asked, “you just said that the Lethe Water cannot purify Pure Land of Bliss. However, after Zhou Yuan’s parents drank the Lethe Water and before you sent them for reincarnation, you got them from their souls and gave them to me. It proved that the Lethe Water could purify Pure Land of Bliss. Why did you say that the Lethe Water cannot purify Pure Land of Bliss?”

“My parents’ bodies?” Zhou Yuan asked before Yan answered the question. “Hao Ning, you mean these two Garden of Edens are deprived of my parents’ bodies?” asked Zhou Yuan.

“Err…” Hao Ning had no idea how to respond. It was a fact. If Zhou Yuan did not mention it, Hao Ning would not realize the severity of the problem. “What you said seemed right.”

“But my parents seemed…” Zhou Yuan wanted to say that his parents behaved normally during that process. But he thought it deeply and found out that they behaved not so normal. So, he asked in hesitation, “are there any signs if somebody is polluted by Pure Land of Bliss?”

“Which one I should answer first?” Hao Ning and Zhou Yuan, they both wanted to know the answer in the first place. Yan sighed and said, “answer Zhou Yuan first. If a soul is polluted by Pure Land of Bliss, he or she will be indulged in things. When he or she did the things, excessive belief will be produced. he or she will become capricious or surly and other abnormal behaviors. But that’s not sure.”

Listening to Yan, Zhou Yuan stopped asking. He recalled his parents’ behaviors while he was listening to Yan. The more he thought, the more he felt terrible.

“Plus, I did not notice that I gave these two to Hao Ning long before.” Yan said. “But as we are friends now, I reminded of it. The key part of the problem is not the Lethe Water, it is that Hao Ning fed the Lethe Water to your parents.”

“Yes, I remember it was. Zhou Yuan’s parents were reluctant to drink it. They told me they did not like the fruit taste of the Lethe Water. They wanted Tofu taste.” Hao Ning said. Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan looked at him with big eyes. They grumbled, “fruit taste of the Lethe Water?” Hao Ning did not answer them. He continued to say, “I was pissed off at that time. So, I picked up two cups of the Lethe Water and forced them to drink. But why you mention this?”

“It may relate to your pandora furnace.” Yan nodded, “but so far, I haven’t had the details. The soul we asked may have told us all he knew. I guess that your pandora furnace may have a special reflection with the Lethe Water Zhou Yuan’s parents drank. That may be the reason why we could get two Garden of Edens.”

“Can you call it the Soul Cutter?” Hao Ning looked at Yan. He continued to say, “those two things look like two small knives. Why do you call them Pandora Furnace? Don’t think that this knife is too small. It has great power. It can barter, hurt souls and tell causes and results from…”

Saying this, Hao Ning stopped his “science teaching” and looked at Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan. And then he said to himself, “is it possible that when I fed the Lethe Water to Zhou Yuan’s parents, the cause and result of something is disruptive. So, Pure Land of Bliss is out.”

“If so, it would be terrible.” Liu Shuai sighed. “That means Pure Land of Bliss is in their body already before.”

“How is it possible?” Hao Ning smiled. “His parents did not turn older than normal…”

“But their desires have been not under control at that time.” Zhou Yuan shook his head, saying. He was reluctant to believe that, but it was the only plausible explanation. He thought for a while and decided to tell them what he just thought. “In the first place, I thought that their desires grew stronger and stronger because I used my power to stimulate them through imagination. But now, I think it is a little weird. In my mom’s imagination, she grew higher and higher, being up to a level that is beyond our imagination. And her temper was bad. My causal sentence might irritate her. I was not allowed to argue against her idea at all. I even did not dare to interrupt her. If so, she would enrage. Her behavior did not seem like a normal person.”

“So, why your parents’ souls just got ill instead of aging?” Hao Ning wondered. “No reasonable explanation for this so far.”

“I guess it may be.” Zhou Yuan thought. “Maybe their desires are out of control. And I satisfied them with imagination. So, the imagination replaced the aging of their souls. But the replacement was valid only for a short time. So, they were ill finally. Anyway, this is my guess. I, actually, don’t know the whole story.”

“Ok.” Yan nodded. “What you said made sense. But these are guesses. As Hao Ning has the Pandora Furnace — or so-called the Soul Cutter, what on earth is that? What about your progress?”

“Progress… the Soul Cutter? Why?” Hao Ning asked. “Why did we need to make progress of it?”

“You!” Yan became angry. He lost his good temper when he met Hao Ning first time, starting to condemn, “what a mess in the nether world! But you are not worried about it at all. You did not pay attention to such an important tool. And then what are you doing recently?”

“Hey, are you crazy? I work every day. Will the nether world pay me if I don’t work?” Hao Ning was angry too. He was condemned for nothing. He continued to say, “hey, please note that I knew this thing just a few minutes ago too. The Soul Cutter, to me, is a weapon or I say a toy. Why should I make progress as I have no idea what happened?”

“Ok, stop.” Liu Shuai said. He stopped their spat. “Now we have some clues about it. We all are busy recently. Fortunately, we will study the Soul Cutter in the coming days. By the way, what should we do about the two Garden of Eden? Yan, you just patted them into the soul, and you threw the soul into the nether world. When are you going to give them back to us? If there are some relations between the Soul Cutter and Garden of Eden, we have to get them for our study.”

At this time, Yan realized that he was overreacted. Hao Ning really did not know what happened. So, Yan sighed and said, “Sorry for my behavior. There are some new approaches in the nether world to extract Pure Land of Bliss from souls. But it is a time-consuming task with low efficiency. I will do my best, and please you also do your best to find them. It was reported that there are nearly billions of souls becoming aging.”

“Over billions?” Hao Ning cried. “I heard it was millions of.”

“Well, Hao Ning. What you said millions of souls are just for game players.” Zhou Yuan reminded. Needless to say, they have known that the people Zhang Dalong said including Wang Shiming who played games without having a break probably bewitched by Pure Land of Bliss. Seeing Hao Ning was in the puzzle, Zhou Yuan said to him, “but there are still others. What about the stone-gambling, and Qili we met today? They have different behaviors. They don’t sleep and they prefer to work without rest. They are indulged in the work. There may be somebody else have the same behaviors we don’t know yet. If you stop him from his work, he may contend. They just want to do it without sleep or rest. For example.”

“For example, somebody always wants to take care of her patients!” Liu Shuai cried with horror. “Wen, my Wen must be in danger!”

After saying, Liu Shuai rushed out the mortuary, leaving the rest alone.

“Hey!” Hao Ning and Zhou Yuan looked at each other. Based on Liu Shuai’s description, Wen did not have a rest for several days last week, taking care of her patients. Wen in today behaved the same as usual. Was she related to this? And last week, Liu Shuai had a spat with her. She was irritated. Was her behavior the same as the description?

“Yan, let us study the Soul Cutter.” Hao Ning and Zhou Yuan said, rushing out to catch up with Liu Shuai. They turned back and said to Yan again at the door, “after you get Pure Land of Bliss, please inform me immediately… Of course, if you have solutions or new findings to it, please keep me informed. We need it urgently.”

“What happened to them? Why are they more impulsive than me?” Yan wondered, shaking his head and disappearing from the mortuary.

When Hao Ning caught up with Liu Shuai, Liu Shuai had been in the ward, hugging Wen. Looking at Wen, Hao Ning thought that she had transformed from a doctor into a patient that needed to be taken care of in a short time.

At that time, Liu Shuai with red eyes, Wen and one doctor were in the ward. The doctor told Hao Ning that Liu Shuai shouted at many doctors out of the room when they came in for seeing Wen.

“Mr. Liu.” The doctor said. The doctor was a girl too. She said to Liu Shuai with an apologetic voice, “we actually cared about her health. But she insisted to take care of patients. And there are more and more patients coming to see doctors recently. Our leaders and colleagues have talked with her many times. She always refuted us and told us that she was in good condition. And you see, the index about her health is normal…”

“Zhou Yuan.” Liu Shuai said. He did not respond to that doctor. “You come and check her condition.” added he.

“You are?” The doctor saw Zhou Yuan and thought that Zhou Yuan was not a doctor. She wanted to say something but stopped when she saw Liu Shuai’s expressions. She stepped back and made room for Zhou Yuan.

Zhou Yuan put his hand on Wen’s forehead. He closed his eyes. For a while, he opened his eyes and looked at Liu Shuai, saying with a sigh, “she is almost 60,000 years old now.”