113: Chapter 105: It only counts if she walks the path herself.

Exiting the first layer's exit, Diting was already squatting there obediently.

It didn't go up, but turned directly into a side path on the left. Pei Duo hadn't noticed this path when she arrived. The big white dog's tail hung low, its steps extremely steady, leading the way without looking back.

Pei Duo didn't make a sound and followed immediately.

Xu Mo pushed his glasses, his gaze quickly scanning the entrance. The texture of the rock walls here was completely different from the main path; it lacked the heavy sealing aura of hell, instead suppressing a more ancient, unfathomable power.

He subconsciously touched his frames, swallowed his analysis, and followed quickly.

Lin Sa walked last. Only after stepping into the side path did her hand, which had been tense and gripping her knife, finally relax completely.

The path wasn't long, only about twenty steps. But in this short distance, not only did the heat vanish completely, but those brain-splitting wails were also thoroughly blocked outside the stone walls.

Underfoot, the ground had changed to fine-textured bluish-black slate.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's stone chamber was ahead. The stone door was wide open, and the warm yellow glow of the Ever-burning Lamps spilled out, illuminating the end of the corridor.

The three entered and took their seats one after another.

On the low table, the three cups of tea were still steaming, their positions unchanged, as if time had been completely frozen.

Diting familiarly ducked into a corner and squatted, resting its large head on its front paws, its golden eyes open quietly, looking in its usual direction.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sat steadily in the main seat, turned the white jade prayer beads twice with his fingers, and stopped.

The stone chamber was deathly silent. Only the Ever-burning Lamps occasionally crackled with a few sparks, making a very faint "crackling" sound.

"The Fifteenth Layer," Pei Duo finally spoke, her voice half as hoarse as before entering, "the question asked of me in that cage."

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva didn't respond, just watched her quietly.

"You know the answer." Pei Duo looked into the old man's eyes; her tone wasn't a question.

She had measured these Eighteenth Layers of hell with her own feet, seen that cage door, heard that voice, and walked to the deepest part before returning. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva had followed her brother back then; what he saw was definitely more than what she did.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva gently placed the prayer beads on the table.

"When he walked down back then, this old monk didn't see the usual things on him that have been common for thousands of years."

"It wasn't pain, it wasn't fear." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva paused, seemingly searching for a precise word, "Nor was it that numbness of treating death as a release."

Xu Mo sat straight with his hands in his pockets, maintaining his top-student persona, but his ears were already perked up.

"During those seven days and nights, his steps remained as steady as when he first stepped in." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's gaze turned to the flickering flame, "This old monk followed him for a full seven days. For as many people as have entered this hell, there are as many different pairs of eyes. But someone like him, this old monk is seeing for the first time."

"What kind of look?" Pei Duo asked softly.

"He just kept walking forward," Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva said very slowly. "It didn't seem like he was undergoing some punishment, nor did it seem like he was bracing himself to complete some trial. He was purely walking, looking. He saw every horror and despair in here, layer by layer, clearly taking it all in, missing nothing."

"However, this old monk still noticed one thing."

The air in the stone chamber seemed to freeze for a moment.

"The Eleventh Layer."

Images of that layer flashed through Pei Duo's mind. The wails on that layer were fewer than elsewhere, not because the fierce ghosts were well-behaved, but because they had been imprisoned for too long—so long they didn't even have the strength to scream. Some for two hundred years, some longer, all a bunch of lunatics dried up by time.

"When he reached that layer, his pace slowed." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's tone was extremely flat.

"How much slower?"

"Half a step." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva raised his hand and made a very slight gesture in the air. "Just a small pause of half a step. Probably didn't even cross his mind."

"Then he resumed his original speed, just like before, and continued down."

The edge of the black jade pendant in Pei Duo's hand was digging hard into her palm, but she had no intention of letting go.

The wails of that layer crawled along the ground, like countless gagged dead people desperately trying to squeeze their voices into the bone marrow of passersby.

But when he walked in, his feet slowed by half a step. He didn't stop, didn't look back, just slowed by half a step.

"Later, he reached the deepest part and sat down before this old monk." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva continued to reminisce, "This old monk asked him, since there is a path, why not take it?"

"He didn't answer this old monk immediately."

"After a while, he asked in return, when the people who die here leave, does anyone outside know?"

"This old monk said no. Of those who have stepped in here since ancient times, not a single one has ever found an exit and made it out alive."

"After hearing this, he was silent for a while, then said one sentence—'Then I won't leave'."

Hearing this, Lin Sa silently lowered her head, and for once, moved her hand away from the hilt of her knife, placing it obediently on her knees.

Xu Mo stared at the cup of hot tea on the table. His usually fast-thinking brain completely stalled, his eyes full of disbelief.

Pei Duo lowered her head and flipped the jade pendant over. The cracks and old grime on it were as usual, feeling completely unremarkable to the touch, exactly the same as when she first took it out of the delivery box.

"Actually, this old monk asked him again later." Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's voice lowered a bit more. "I asked him, what exactly was he thinking during that half-step slowdown on the Eleventh Layer."

Pei Duo suddenly looked up.

"He said," Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva paused for a full three seconds, every word carrying immense weight, "'My younger sister probably won't come here'."

All the background noise in the stone chamber seemed to be sucked out at this moment. The lamp flames burned quietly, without even a trace of wind.

Diting's tail, which had been sweeping the floor, also froze, lying motionless in the corner.

Pei Duo sat in place, turning that sentence over and over in her mind.

—My younger sister won't come here.

So he slowed down by half a step, saw everything on that layer, and then sped up to continue deeper.

So he didn't hesitate to fold that life-saving return ticket twice and throw it into the lava like scrap paper.

So he would ask Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva if he could stay here as if asking an inn for a room. Then, over two years, he bloodily carved out a path, turning these Eighteenth Layers of purgatory into the territory he would guard.

The outside world says the Underworld Son of Heaven is decisive in killing and schemes against all the gods and buddhas. But the person who slowed down by half a step on the Eleventh Layer only had such a mundane thought in his heart from beginning to end.

"When he said that," Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva said slowly, "this old monk asked him. Since he calculated she wouldn't come, why leave an entrustment with me?"

Pei Duo's fingers suddenly stiffened.

"He was silent for a long time, and finally said—" Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sighed softly, "'I hope she never has to come. But I must have things ready... what if I calculated wrong?'"

What if I calculated wrong.

Pei Duo clenched her molars hard. Her brother had schemed against all the gods and buddhas, and it turned out the highest-level plan he laid out in this life was all for this.

He used every means to keep her from touching danger, yet in the deepest valley of hell, two years in advance, he had prepared the strongest trump card for her. He let Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva sit here and wait.

Waited for two full years, until today.

Xu Mo finally came to his senses. He took off his glasses, looked at the lenses for two seconds, didn't wipe them, and put them back on. He finally understood what "flawless calculation" truly meant.

Lin Sa turned her head unnaturally, shifting her gaze to the shadows in the corner.

Pei Duo gripped the jade pendant tightly, forcing herself not to make a sound.

She had always thought her brother was the kind of madman who would casually poke a hole in the sky and then walk away. Only today did she completely understand how much weight was hidden in that half-step slowdown.

The warmth of the slate floor crept up through the soles of her shoes.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva picked up the prayer beads and began turning them again. His tone was steady, as if concluding a story that spanned two years, or as if revealing another thunderclap.

"Before he left back then, he entrusted this old monk with one thing."

Swish!

Xu Mo and Lin Sa looked up almost simultaneously. Only Pei Duo still sat there, her body as if nailed down, unmoving.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva slowly stood up and walked toward the back of the stone chamber. There was a stone slab embedded in the rock wall, with no runes or formations on it, looking quite ordinary.

He pressed his palm against it and gave a gentle push.

With a very faint "click" of a mechanism, the stone slab slid open silently.

There was only one item sitting lonely in the hidden compartment. From her sitting angle, Pei Duo couldn't see what it was; she could only watch as Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva reached in and steadily brought it out.

The light from the Ever-burning Lamps instantly hit the object, outlining its heart-stopping silhouette.

The moment he saw that thing, Xu Mo felt like his CPU had completely fried.

Lin Sa instinctively reached for her knife, but her hand froze in mid-air, her usually cold eyes filled with ghost-like shock.

Pei Duo stared intently at the object in Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's hand. It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck her brain, and she couldn't find a single word in her vocabulary to describe the shock before her.

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva walked back slowly and stopped in front of her. He held the object flat in his palm and handed it directly to Pei Duo.

"He said," Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's voice was low like an ancient bell, "give this to her after she has measured these Eighteenth Layers of hell with her own feet."

"Not too early, and not too late."

"It must be that she finished walking it herself for this trump card to count."