The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

If anyone had said this to Xu Xun at any other time, she would definitely have treated them as a retard. However, she could only think the monk was indeed amazing when she heard it now… She was then startled to her senses. One Finger Monastery’s abbot? Wasn’t that the monk Ma Yuan had been talking about?

At that instant, she finally understood why Ma Yuan was so insistent on returning home to drink a bowl of Laba Congee! How could the congee given by such an amazing monk be anything ordinary?

With this in mind, Xu Xun hurriedly got to her feet to check on Ma Yuan’s condition.

To her surprise, she saw two people on the wall, and they were none other than Ma Yuan and Tan Ming! Having survived their ordeal, they naturally had plenty to talk and cry about. Their praise for Fangzheng sounded incessantly.

Meanwhile in hell. Zheng Yuan was dragged by a ghost the entire way until they arrived before a huge door. On it were the huge words—Hell of Mirrors of Retribution!

“What’s this place? Where are you bringing me?” Zheng Yuan cried out.

The ghost chuckled. “Punk, you committed plenty of misdeeds in the mortal world and used various means to hide them. Later, they were exposed and you hid everywhere and concealed your identity. Did you think you were so skilled that no one could do a thing to you? Did you not know that the gods were watching? In this Hell of Mirrors of Retribution, no matter what powerful means you have, your past deeds will be revealed clearly for all to see. Only then will your future path be decided.”

With that said, the ghost threw Zheng Yuan through the door of the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution. It then laughed. “I forgot to mention. The Hell of Mirrors of Retribution is also a punishment. Enjoy yourself!”

Fangzheng grinned and mumbled. “How pitiful. The ones before you were directly sent to the corresponding hells to suffer punishment, but you have to make a detour to the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution first.”

Perhaps many people would imagine that the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution was just a part of a verification process, but Fangzheng knew very well that there were a few ways of entering hell.

One of them was to directly enter hell and suffer the corresponding hell’s punishment.

Another was to be judged by an official before being sentenced to the corresponding hell.

The last type was to be judged via the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution before being sentenced to the corresponding hell.

The latter two didn’t sound very different, but Fangzheng knew that the difference between them was huge.

Hell had eighteen levels, and many people imagined the eighteen levels to be equivalent to eighteen stories that went from a lower to a higher level, or vice-versa. However, that wasn’t the case!

The levels of hell weren’t simply differentiated by space and type of punishment, but also by time and type of punishment! Most important of all was time.

If one directly entered hell, the punishment they received was the lightest. Time inside and outside was the same. 365 days also made up a year, and the punishment period had its face value.

As for being placed in different levels of hell, it just meant different kinds of punishment. There was no difference in time.

However, to be judged by an official before entering hell was different. If that was the case, time was counted in a different manner. The first level had 3,750 years for every day in the mortal world! If the official’s hand trembled, and he sentenced you to ten days, don’t be too happy. That didn’t mean you would be staying in hell for ten days but 37,500 years!

The second level of hell’s calculation was twice that of the first level of hell⁠—7,000 years counted as a day!

It continued the same way beyond the third level. As for the final level of hell, the punishment length was twice that of the penultimate level.

If one was thrown into the eighteenth level of hell, it meant that a day’s length of punishment had exponentially increased all the way to that level! There was basically no reprieve at that point.

And the levels mentioned didn’t simply refer to the levels of hell, but to the levels of punishment! So if the official sentenced you to the eighteenth level of hell, he wouldn’t simply be throwing you to the eighteenth level’s Hell of Sawing, but he would be doing so for the time which corresponds to the eighteenth level. As for the punishment, it was determined based on the kind of sins committed.

Similarly, passing through the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution to enter the other hells had an effect on the time of the punishment. People that went through this course were even more pathetic. Just as the ghost said, the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution was also a hell of punishment. Entering this hell didn’t just mean that one would learn what one’s deserved punishment was. One would also have to enjoy the punishment feast from the fourth level’s Hell of Mirrors of Retribution! Only after the hell itself was satiated would the official punishment begin!

As such, people who were made to enter the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution from the very beginning to suffer punishment were extremely pitiful existences.

With this in mind, Fangzheng couldn’t help but press his palms together and silently say, “Nicely done!”

Fangzheng hadn’t had parents from a young age. He envied people with birth parents, but here was a person who was worse than an animal. He had committed a monstrous crime! This completely rubbed Fangzheng the wrong way as the pangs of fury in his heart were so strong they could burn up all the lakes and rivers in the world! So how could he show any pity to Zheng Yuan?

After Zheng Yuan entered the Hell of Mirrors of Retribution, all he saw was mirrors all around him. There were countless mirrors.

He stood in place as though he had fallen into a kaleidoscope. When the mirrors reflected him, the reflections were also reflected in the other mirrors. This repeated incessantly, forming a world of countless mirrors! Every world had another mirror reflecting him…

Standing there, Zheng Yuan couldn’t figure out his bearings or where he was.

“Is this hell? It’s just this and nothing more.” Zheng Yuan thought as he mumbled. “I thought there would be mountains of knives and fiery seas…”

Just as he said that, he heard a thud as the mirrors around him shattered.

Zheng Yuan was stunned as he laughed. “No way? Such poor quality? They shattered all at once? You call this hell?”

But when the glass fell to the ground, he could no longer laugh.

The glass that fell to the ground suddenly ignited and burned!

“Ah!” Zheng Yuan’s feet instantly became scorching hot as boils were produced before even they were burnt into a char. Following that, the smell of roasted flesh wafted right after the smell of charred flesh.

Zheng Yuan cried out in pain as he tumbled to the ground. But when he did, he realized that the ground had countless knives!

The knives began to rise up. He clearly saw that the entire world was made of knives. These knives rose into the air to become huge mountains of knives!

Below the mountain of knives was a fiery inferno…

At that instant, a thought flashed in Zheng Yuan’s mind. Mountains of knives and fiery seas?

He felt his hand hurt as his fingers were sliced off. He cried in pain as he fell down the mountain of knives, tumbling along the way as his flesh was sliced open, splattering blood all over. As his flesh was mangled, his limbs were sliced off.

By the time he arrived at the bottom of the mountain, Zheng Yuan had been reduced into a mangled mess of flesh.

Following that, an inferno swept over him and instantly reduced Zheng Yuan into a ball of fire. He cried out incessantly.

Zheng Yuan didn’t know how long the fire lasted. Perhaps a year or a decade, but he felt like he’d rather die than suffer for even a moment longer! Unfortunately, he just couldn’t die, and the pain increased multifold.

As Zheng Yuan was crying out in pain, the surroundings changed once more. The flames and mountains of knives flew up again and transformed back into mirrors.