Volume 2: The Path That Can Be Told, Chapter 175: The Pool of Creation

At this moment, Wukong awoke from chaos. He felt a faint flicker in his left eye, which then dimmed again. He found it strange—this dream was even different from his encounter with the Red Boy. Instead, he seemed to be observing events that had taken place here tens of thousands of years ago. Could this flicker in his eye be related to it?
Though this speck existed in his left eye, he had only seen it once at first, and it never flickered again afterward. Today, it flickered without any warning, transporting him into this dreamlike realm.
He had tried to sense it before but had never noticed its presence. According to Dayu, the spiritual ape’s eyes contain stars—clearly, this was one of his characteristics. If the speck flickered again, did it mean he was one step closer to awakening?
Recalling the dream, Wukong was almost certain that Fengmeng was none other than the future Zhu Bajie, undoubtedly the Marshal Tianpeng in the heavenly court now!
Fengmeng, a disciple of the ancient Hou Yi, was hailed as the greatest archer after Hou Yi disappeared—clearly, he possessed extraordinary talent. Yet, after reincarnation, he ended up entangled with pigs. Now he understood why. How great was the influence of that boar’s soul attached to Fengmeng’s soul-summoning flag? As for the secrets of souls, perhaps only by entering the netherworld could one uncover the truth.
Wukong was not unfamiliar with the netherworld. He had been imprisoned there inexplicably years ago and still didn’t know who was behind it. Coming here today was a good chance to uncover the truth.
Using invisibility magic, he drifted into the cave like the wind.
He was in the Tenth Hall of the netherworld, the Hall of the Chakravartin. This hall lay outside the Dark Stones of the Netherworld, directly facing the world’s five impure regions. There were six bridges made of gold, silver, jade, wood, and other materials.
After enduring trials in various hells and cleansing their sins, the ghosts in these halls would have their three human and seven animal souls assessed by the Chakravartin to determine where they should be sent among the four great continents. Whether they would live long or die young, be rich or poor, their fates were decided, after which they were sent to be reborn.
After viewing this hall, Wukong continued on. Next was the Ninth Hall, the Hall of the Equal King. This hall contained many hells such as those of bone-breaking, body-scorching, and tendon-pulling. Even Wukong, though brave, felt terrified upon seeing them.
He passed through seven more halls, each filled with chains of copper snakes and iron dogs, places where bones were broken and skin was scraped off. Wukong kept breathing deeply as he moved forward, until he finally stopped at the First Hall, that of King Qin Guang.
King Qin Guang’s hall had nothing special, except for a mirror that made Wukong gaze at it for a long time.

This mirror was placed on a high platform and called the Mirror of Sins; naturally, the platform was named the Platform of the Mirror of Sins. On the platform hung a huge plaque with the seven characters “No good people in front of the Mirror of Sins.” Whenever a person’s lifespan came to an end, a minor demon would lead them to the Platform of the Mirror of Sins, where the mirror reflected that person’s life’s sins. The King of Qin Guang would then use a red brush to write down sentences corresponding to the sins committed, after which the demon officials would take the person to the appropriate hell to suffer punishment. Wukong observed dozens of people there and found not a single good person—some oppressed the weak, some harmed the innocent, some were ungrateful, some were unfilial, some were greedy and disloyal, some abused animals, some sowed discord… all with unforgivable sins. Wukong shook his head in sigh and left the Platform of the Mirror of Sins. He then went to the second hall, the hall of the King of Chu Jiang, which contained sixteen small hells, such as Black Cloud Sand, Feces and Urine Mud, Many Copper Axes, Chopping and Cutting, Ice, etc. Each hell had a vast pool of blood. Yet what filled these pools was not blood, but something emitting a strong aura of creation energy. Wukong, who was highly sensitive to creation energy, saw that this large pool covered several miles in circumference. He wondered where all this creation energy came from and why it had gathered here. Suddenly, a demon official brought a mortal’s spiritual essence bound by iron chains and threw the person into Black Cloud Sand without a word. As soon as the spiritual essence entered the black sand, it was like pouring cold water on scorching coals; accompanied by a scream of agony, a wisp of white smoke rose. With such limited creation energy, the spiritual essence instantly turned invisible, leaving only the three souls and seven spirits floating aimlessly in the air. Its life’s creation energy circled in the air before seemingly finding its destination and falling into the pool of blood. The demon official collected these three souls and seven spirits with a soul-summoning flag and headed to the Tenth Hall, where the King of the Turning Wheels resided. At that moment, a voice outside shouted, “The envoy of the Heavenly Court’s creation energy has arrived!” Huh? Could it be that all this creation energy was prepared for the Heavenly Court? An envoy from the Heavenly Court was no trivial figure, so naturally, the ten kings of hell went to greet them. In the King of Qin Guang’s hall, a heavenly general clad in black armor with a black veil covering his face stood behind more than a dozen armored soldiers. The general held an object that resembled neither a furnace nor a cauldron and said coldly to the King of Qin Guang, “By order of the Jade Emperor, I am here to collect the creation energy of these past hundred years.” The King of Qin Guang replied respectfully, “The ten kings of hell obey the order.” Three demon officials had already stepped forward to guide them; these three officials were in charge of merit, life and death, and blessings respectively.

That day, the heavenly general came to the Creation Pool in the Second Hall and placed the object resembling a furnace in its center. Wukong saw the creative energy in the pool surge like boiling water, with strands of it flowing into the furnace. Could this furnace really be the Creation Furnace? Wukong wondered, but he quickly dismissed the idea—such a precious artifact would surely not be guarded by an ordinary heavenly general; it was likely just an imitation.

After about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the heavenly general took away the furnace and headed to the Third Hall. He repeated this process in all eight halls, spending about a stick of incense in each. The amount of creative energy in the pools varied, with a few still containing quite a bit after he finished. Wukong realized that ordinary people couldn’t see the amount of creative energy, and that time limit was probably set by higher authorities.

The heavenly general remained cold and expressionless throughout, and the King of Qin Guang and the others had grown accustomed to this, as the heavens’ officials were often aloof. After completing his task, the heavenly general left with over a dozen heavenly soldiers, and only then did the Ten Kings of Hell breathe a sigh of relief.

The King of Hell said cautiously, “Last time, we were severely punished for insufficient creative energy. I wonder what will happen this time?” The King of Qin Guang replied, “Life and death are determined by heaven; whether there’s more or less creative energy isn’t something we can decide.” The King of Hell continued, “Over these past hundred years, the Ten Halls have been constantly busy with no time to rest. The number of deaths in the mortal world has increased by dozens of times compared to the previous century. Do you think—”

“What do you think?” asked the King of the Turning Wheel.

“I remember the heavenly envoy saying last time that the next century will keep your underworld extremely busy. Do you think the wars in the mortal world are orchestrated by the heavens?” asked the King of Hell.

“Stop talking nonsense and go back to work,” said the King of Qin Guang indifferently.

“Yes, elder brother!”

Wukong was shocked. Could the heavens interfere in mortal wars just to obtain creative energy? If so, it would be easy for them to send a deity to gain the trust of a king and spread slander. Poor innocent beings would suffer needlessly. Wukong’s hatred toward the heavens grew even stronger.

After the Ten Kings of Hell dispersed, Wukong continued wandering around the underworld. As he walked, he saw two heavenly enforcers chatting idly. Their conversation seemed interesting, so Wukong stopped to listen for a while.

One of the enforcers had been working in the underworld for a long time, while the other was new. The older enforcer asked, “Brother, be careful in your work here. The officials are strict and impose punishments at the slightest mistake.” The younger enforcer replied, “To be honest, the judge in charge of punishing evil was my fellow villager in life, so he arranged for me to become an enforcer. If anything goes wrong, he might be able to help me out a bit.”

The older enforcer shook his head. “If it weren’t for him, no one would care. Only Judge Cui might be able to do something.”

Wukong found it amusing; it turned out that human connections and power played a role even in the netherworld.