The concept of "hell" widely exists in various myths, legends and religious beliefs. It is usually considered to be the place where the soul of a person suffers or rests in reincarnation after death.
Therefore, hell looks different in different mythology and religious systems, and it also has different names.
For example, ancient China.
In the ancient pre-Qin era, "Hell" was called "Youdu" by the ancients at that time.
When Gao You of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote annotations for "Huainanzi": "Yin Qi gathers, so it is called Youdu".
Cai Shen of the Southern Song Dynasty also wrote when he was annotating "Shangshu": "Everything is dark, so it is called Youdu".
"Huainanzi Tianwenxun" once said: In the past, Gonggong fought with Zhuanxu to be emperor. In anger, he touched the mountains of Buzhou, causing the pillars of heaven to break and the earth to be in ruins.
The sky tilts toward the northwest, so the sun, moon, and stars move away.
The earth is not full of the southeast, so the water and the dust return there.
The location of the gate of Youdu is exactly where the sun, moon and stars disappeared to the west after Buzhou Mountain broke off.
Since even the sun, moon, and thousands of stars can be swallowed up there, the ancients naturally believed that Youdu (Hell) was a place of absolute darkness.
Everything inside it should be black.
The mountains are black and the water is black.
It was so dark that everything seemed like a painting drawn with thick black ink on pitch-black rice paper.
It was so dark that even if people held torches high, it was still dark from top to bottom, left and right, and it was impossible to distinguish the outlines and shapes of all objects, as well as the time and space distance between objects.
In such a world of pure darkness, it is almost impossible to move.
But in this hard-to-live world, there are also various black species such as black birds, black snakes, black leopards, black tigers, black foxes, etc.
However, although Youdu has many species, it is not safe.
Because there is also a huge beast named "Tu Bo" with the body of an ox and the head of a tiger, three eyes and nine tails, and sharp horns and claws.
This evil beast kills all without being driven into a bloodthirsty madness, regardless of whether it is human, ghost or beast.
If we want to break the darkness in this realm, only the "dragon holding the candle" that can control day and night is born. That's why there is a sentence in "Tianwen" that "if the sun is not good, how can the candle dragon shine".
As for more detailed details, there are very few.
After all, "Youdu" is just a myth and legend created by ancient ancestors out of fear of death and memory of the deceased. It is not an interlocking science fiction and fantasy story work of later generations in pursuit of rigorous logic.
At the same time, in addition to the theory of "Youdu" in the pre-Qin Dynasty, there is also a concept similar to "hell" in later Taoism.
Or, it is obviously more appropriate to call it "underworld", which is more functionally focused on reincarnation and rest.
This Taoist original ‘underworld’ is the so-called ‘nine bases and thirty-six places’.
In this ‘underworld system’.
The vast land has nine levels in total, each level is called a first base, and each base is divided into four levels.
There are a total of forty-nine thirty-six floors, also known as the thirty-sixth floor.
These thirty-six lands will be governed by thirty-six ‘Emperors’.
However, this theory only appeared in a small number of Taoist classics and had limited influence on the ancient people at that time.
What the ancient people really accepted was the "underworld" that was first seen in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and was also created by Taoism - Quanquzhifu, Luofeng, the northern capital.
That is, Fengdu.
It is recorded in "Tao Zang" that Fengdu is located at the northernmost point of the northern end of heaven and earth, tens of thousands of miles away from China.
The place is shrouded by endless black air all year round, and the mountains are steep and endless. It is the result of the condensation and condensation of the heavy and turbid air in the world after eternity. It is the root of the death air in the world of mortals.
As for Fengdu County, which is known as a "ghost town" in modern society, it was called Fengdu County in ancient times. It was only given the name "Fengdu" in the early Ming Dynasty, which is completely different from the "Fengdu" in mythology.
There are two places, one in the south and one in the north, which cannot be reached with eight poles.
But why was it misidentified?
One is that the pronunciation is similar, and the other is that in ancient times, a Taoist named "Yin Changsheng" once practiced there.
Just because the Taoist priest's surname was Yin, he was inexplicably rumored to be the Yin Luo Emperor and the King of the Underworld.
Then his dojo naturally became Fengdu Hades.
But the real lord of Fengdu was actually Emperor Yan, who was severely defeated by the Yellow Emperor in the Battle of Banquan.
Yes, the Yellow Emperor became an immortal, and the Yan Emperor could only become a ghost.
It's a little miserable.
These are the 'Sheols' of the East, or some form of 'Hell'.
The hells in Western religious mythology have one thing in common, that is, they like to use vicious monsters to guard the entrance to Hades.
For example, in Egyptian mythology, Apep, the giant serpent of chaos who guards the passage of the Pharaoh's sun ship; and in Norse mythology, the skeleton Modgud and the blood-stained demon dog Garm who guard the Heim Glacier; and in the myth of Olympus,
Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell who lives on the banks of the River Styx and guards the gates of the underworld...etc.
As for the painful hell in front of Mu Cang, it is different from the "hell" in the myths and legends of "Earth".
In his super-distance mental vision, the scene presented by this hell is completely a pale maze that is vast and layered with complexity to the extreme.
Among them, in the labyrinth corridors with twists and turns and deep walls that are hundreds of meters high, there is the patter of blood all the time, and the wind howls every second, so that the air is filled with the strong and choking smell of blood.
Son.
As soon as these countless wisps of wind and countless drops of blood fall onto the corridor floor, they will be swallowed up by the large swaths of carved stone bricks full of traces of time and dark paintings, and will be instantly digested into nothingness with a subtle gurgling sound.
He looked deeper into the winding and dark corridor, where there seemed to be faintly weird laughter and cold eyes coming from every corner, which made people feel chilly.
But Mu Cang was not afraid, he smiled slightly and stepped on the floor tiles under his feet that looked like living creatures and walked forward quietly.
If the heavy and oppressive abyss-like atmosphere in the corridor were removed, the leisurely demeanor when he walked would make people feel like he was walking in an ordinary park.
Step - step - step -
The sound of footsteps was dull, and before it spread far, it was drowned out by millions of cries, wails, howls, and screams all around.
These screams and howls kept intertwining and echoing in the darkness, vaguely playing an extremely sad but extremely magnificent symphony.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The first movement tells the story of the confused and ignorant soul falling into hell; the second movement depicts the fearful and helpless soul being sent to the torture chamber by the monks;
The third movement describes the painful and desperate soul sinking into the darkness without being able to escape; the fourth movement illustrates that no matter what kind of soul, it can only wander and be trapped in the depths of the maze until the end of time.
Following the terrifying wailing sound that was filled with pain like a nightmare, Mu Cang turned his eyes to the wall and realized that countless desperate faces were actually built into the huge wall of this long maze corridor.
In the mottled cracks on the towering walls on the left and right, countless densely packed vein-like moss are growing and wriggling.
From bottom to top, these bloody mosses covered the twisted faces on the wall, like blood-red curtains.
Although these faces are extremely distorted and ugly at first glance, you can still tell that they are all human beings and the souls of human beings.
While they were shedding muddy blood and tears and wailing in agony, they were also constantly spewing out waves of thick painful emotions.
In fact, maintaining the existence and operation of the hell of pain in the original work requires massive amounts of pain.
At the same time, pain is also the nourishment and booster to expand the scale of the entire maze.
The dead souls who provide these pains are called cursers, who are the lowest level of the painful hell, and the monks of hell are born from them.
Of course, only the kind of curser whose desire and pain are extremely strong can be qualified to be selected by Leviathan and then transformed into a monk from hell.
Once transformed into a monk, he will forget all memories of the human period and become an evil being who fully believes in Leviathan.
It feels a bit like the ghosts in "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" who were transformed by Demon Slayer Tsuji Muzan using his own blood.
Of course, the ghost ancestor Wumei, who would die at the sight of light, is far from comparable to Leviathan, the Lord God of Hell.
Coincidentally, during the process of transforming into a monk, Leviathan also drains human blood and injects his own blood.
From then on, the monks will have the ability to control time and space, matter and energy, infinite strength, an immortal body that is not harmed by all weapons in the world, and the ability to summon all kinds of terrible weapons and horrific instruments of torture in hell.
At the same time, the Hell Monks also have morbid mental characteristics similar to the original demon Elis.
This characteristic is that they will feel the ultimate joy and pleasure when they are in pain, and they can also feel the pain they have caused to others.
That's why monks are keen on torturing humans to gain more pleasure.
Moreover, the monks who appear in the "Devil" series of movies are far from the whole story of painful hell.
They are not all in human form.
Just like the many Lemarchand's Mysteries that Leviathan has sprinkled into the world, not all of them look like a Rubik's Cube.
These mysterious boxes of different shapes will also summon monks of different shapes.
For example, the Lemarchand mystery box in the form of a carousel can summon monks in the form of insects; the mystery box in the form of a crystal ball can summon monks in the form of ice; and the mystery box in the form of a music box can even summon a half-person.
Mechanicus.
And the monk summoned by the magic square in Mu Cang's hand was naturally Spencer the Nailhead.
"It can produce such a strong power of pain, Spencer, I am very curious..."
Mu Cang slowly turned his head, chuckled and looked at Nail Head, who was walking half a step behind on the left with a respectful look on his face, "How many curses are there in the whole hell?"
The latter responded in a deep voice: "Master, the number of cursers in hell is too large to be estimated. It may be much larger than the total population of the human world."
"One human world?" Mu Cang raised his eyebrows, "Are there many more human worlds?"
"Yes." Spencer nodded, "The number of people in the world may be ten million."
"Ten million human worlds?" Mu Cang asked curiously, "Are the people living in these worlds...all human beings?"
"this……"
Spencer was stunned for a moment and said, "Master, apart from humans... are there other intelligent beings in the world?"
"Where are the aliens?" Mu Cang asked.
"What are aliens?"
Spencer shook his head and said, "Except for heaven, hell and earth, there is nothing else in this world."
"I see." Mu Cang nodded, "It seems that there are many secrets hidden behind this painful hell."
After opening the mystery box to summon Nailhead, he captured this twisted hellish being from the spiritual level with just one glance.
But this is the first time I have talked with the other party in detail.
I didn't expect that after just one detailed interview, I got such explosive information.
"Is it the earth that links ten million parallel time and spaces, or is it ten million secret realms similar to the earth...or a secret realm community?"
While thinking, Mu Cang, who was walking leisurely in the maze corridor, felt the torrent of pain floating around him, and his eyes suddenly shone brightly.
Buzz——
His spiritual distance vision suddenly 'expanded' to the extreme, and in an instant 'crossed' millions of walls, chambers, suspension bridges, shed bridges, covered bridges, halls, foyers, and gatehouses in all directions.
Courtyards, tunnels, ramps, spiral staircases, corridors... have reached the edge of this huge maze world.
Hua Hua Hua——
Time and space ripple.
The power of perception traveled to the outer void and then suddenly turned around, looking towards the hell of pain in the distance.
At this moment, Mu Cang determined its shape and size.
Standing in the void outside the boundary and looking towards hell, its shape is roughly like an octahedron connected by countless ancient walls and buildings that are strangely stacked.
Each side of this octahedron is approximately 200 million kilometers long.
This is more than one astronomical unit, enough to completely envelop the entire Sun-Earth system.
At the same time, there is a smaller gray-white eight-sided pointed cone suspended in the vast void outside the entire painful hell.
It is said to be small, but that is only relative.
The upper and lower ends of that 'small' pointed cone are extremely long and narrow, stretching for a distance of millions of kilometers.
In fact, this pointed cone is the main god of the painful hell, Leviathan.
It is suspended above the maze, and is always shooting out thousands of huge black light beams to the outside world, emitting chaotic information about pain and desire as majestic as the sea.
Mu Cang remembered that in the original work, humans illuminated by these dark lights would recall their most painful memories and awaken their greatest desires.
But if the desire and pain are not very great, and some are neither high nor low, then you can only become a curser and become the lowest level.
Only the souls of the dead who are both powerful and violent to the extreme are qualified to become monks and minions of Leviathan.
For example, the only female member of Hell F4, led by Nailhead, had a strong desire to speak when she was still a human, so after becoming a monk, her throat was slit by Leviathan.
Because the words spoken from the mouth are not true, only the sounds directly produced by the body are the truth.
There is also the fat member wearing sunglasses. His biggest desire during his lifetime was gluttony, so after becoming a monk, Leviathan cut open his abdomen and sewed his eyes shut.
This means that from now on, he no longer needs to be picky about food, nor does he need to consider whether to eat more or less.
From these shrouds covering the entire hell of pain, and thus diluted to almost broken pieces of information, Mu Cang quickly deduced the level of Leviathan's strength.
False god level, the same level as Anzel.
"This is going to be difficult."
Mu Cang rubbed his smooth chin and thought, "There is no problem in using this hateful demon body to deal with Sun-level beings, but it is not enough to deal with pseudo-god-level beings."
In fact, the entire time from the time he arrived at the Illusion Realm to cast his body to the successful practice of his clone, which was based on the Mori Support Technique, did not exceed two days.
To be able to reach the Sun Realm with the rank of Morning Star is already far beyond the norm. It is too difficult to fight against a false god, especially a false god with home field advantage, and the chance of winning is extremely low.
At this time, Mu Cang's 'eyes' looked through the layers of the maze, looking at the black light emitted by Leviathan suspended above the hell of pain, and suddenly an idea came to his mind.
