Chapter 1473: Netherworld (Part 1)

When Zhao Zhongyu saw the poisoned wine sent by Liu Cong’s envoy, he only felt a brief moment of grief and indignation.

After being captured, he was prepared for death.

In fact, several times during the quiet of the night, he wanted to kill himself; several times when he saw Liu Cong humiliate the emperor, he wanted to rush forward and assassinate Liu Cong to seek his own death...

At such times, his brother’s gloomy face and disdainful gaze would appear in his mind, as if saying, weak, incompetent, impulsive like a child. A death without value is worse than living in disgrace.

Zhao Zhongyu could only restrain his urge to die. The emperor was gentle in nature, even when Liu Cong forced him to wear servant’s cloth and pour wine for Xiongnu nobility, he had no heart for resistance. Zhao Zhongyu held the highest position among the captured court officials, if he were gone, the emperor and the remaining Jin ministers would have no way to survive.

Most importantly, the humiliation they endured would multiply for the Jin ministers, soldiers, and people they left behind.

He had to maintain some dignity for them in order to inspire the morale of the Jin ministers and soldiers behind him.

He couldn’t help Jin State and Zhao Hanzhang too much, he could only linger on, allowing the face of the Han people and soldiers not to be trampled too hard.

Therefore, when he saw the poisoned wine sent by the Xiongnu to him and the emperor, he was happy.

He knew the opportunity had come.

If the emperor dies, the court would be somewhat controlled by the Xiongnu, even if they establish a new Crown Prince, or even a new emperor.

Morale would still be affected.

Now the opportunity has come.

As long as the emperor dies, and dies heroically, with a touch of dignity, the soldiers and people of Jin State, even if just for the emperor’s vengeance, would rise up in resistance.

So Zhao Zhongyu was willing to add one more feather to this foundation, with his own death.

Therefore, Zhao Zhongyu personally fed the emperor the poisoned wine, and then drank all the remaining poisoned wine himself.

He endured the severe pain in his stomach, and finally even his heart was wracked with pain, but it was brief, seemingly only for a moment, and all the physical pain disappeared.

When Zhao Zhongyu opened his eyes again, he found himself in a very strange state; he was momentarily dazed, at one point thinking the fierce resistance and poisoned wine were just a dream.

But... everything before him was even more bizarre.

This seemed to be amidst chaos, and only after he opened his eyes did everything around him slowly become clear, this was when he realized he seemed to be in a desolate and empty place.

Just as this thought flashed by, figures began to appear, and soon wherever he looked, he saw people, and he was surrounded by people.

Only they were all blood-covered, he even saw several familiar faces, their expressions blank, their gazes sweeping past him, as if they didn’t see him standing right there.

Zhao Zhongyu was silent.

His silence was deafening.

He already understood, he was dead, all these people he saw were dead too, they were no longer people, but ghosts!

He instantly lost the desire to explore or speak, as if something in front was guiding him, even though it was the first time he came to this place, he knew the direction he had to go.

All the ghosts headed in the same direction, very soon, those behind him also quickly came to realize they were dead.

Then a wailing and cursing erupted from behind, even though they were dead, they still cursed Liu Cong, cursed the Xiongnu, cursed Wang Yan, cursed the various princes of the Sima family, even cursed Emperor Wu.

He didn’t know what the geography of the underworld was like, he rarely saw so many people when he was alive, but here in the underworld, wherever he looked were ghosts, closely packed ghosts, and as he moved forward, there were more and more ghosts. Several ghosts squeezed past him and even stepped on his foot.

Zhao Zhongyu lowered his head to look at his foot, he was also a ghost, being stepped on by ghosts didn’t hurt, but he still couldn’t accept it.

Thus his face was very dour.

The young ghost who stepped past him saw his dark face, then noticed the embroidered robe hanging on him, was instantly displeased, spat at him and said: "Oh, big official still thinks you’re in the realm of the living, let me tell you, this is the underworld, all the dead are the same, whether you’re high official or beggar, all the same."

He waved his fist and said: "Keep staring at me, I’ll hit you!"

Said and swung his fist towards Zhao Zhongyu’s face, just about to touch his face when Zhao Zhongyu’s body flashed with golden light, and the fist-holder started to wail holding his hand.

The surrounding ghosts were startled, finally had expressions on their faces, jumped three feet high away from that ghost, a group of ghosts probably still not used to the lightness of their souls, jumped too high, bumped into each other in mid-air.

Everyone saw smoke rising from the back of that ghost’s hand, then he started to blur.

Zhao Zhongyu also opened his eyes wide and watched.

Soon, a ghost messenger came to arrest people, swept a glance and knew what the situation was, the ghost messenger gave Zhao Zhongyu a careful look and his face relaxed slightly, "This person is worshipped by the people, has great prestige, great merit, and you dare to make trouble with him, isn’t that courting death?"

"Your soul is weak, go soak in the Ghost Pool first, when your soul recovers, then reincarnate, otherwise with this reincarnation, won’t be long before you die back again, the more you reincarnate, the weaker your soul, in the end will only be reincarnated into the animal realm."

Not only was that ghost surprised, Zhao Zhongyu was also very surprised by this remark, hurriedly asked: "Respected one, isn’t reincarnation into the six realms determined by the good and bad deeds in life? If people of great prestige have special privileges, then..."

Then the several princes of the Sima family, people like Wang Yan, wouldn’t they also be able to roam horizontally in the underworld?

They caused harm in the human realm, now even in the underworld, wouldn’t be punished?

The ghost messenger showed disdain but because of Zhao Zhongyu’s merits, answered with a softened voice, "The good and evil in the underworld is not the same as in the human realm, the measurement of prestige is also different from your human realm."

"For example, Wang Yan, in the human realm, doesn’t he have more prestige than you? But he has no one to worship him, doesn’t have your merit on him."

At this time, the colleague ghosts who fell behind Zhao Zhongyu also walked to this place, seeing Zhao Zhongyu, they held him and cried inconsolably.

Clearly they were all ghosts now, yet tears still fell in streams, unknown why ghosts weep.

"Chief of Staff, oh, you died so tragically~"

Zhao Zhongyu seeing a big hole broken in his chest, even now as a ghost, that hole wasn’t patched, couldn’t help but sigh: "Doctor Yan, you are more tragic than me~"

He died from drinking poisoned wine, it hurt for less than a quarter of an hour before he expired, seemed to have died more dignified than them.

Doctor Yan didn’t think so, he still tightly clutched Zhao Zhongyu’s sleeve, cried, "When the Chief of Staff died, our hearts also died, the Jin ministers already had no way to live, thus the lower officials came to follow Your Majesty and the Chief of Staff."

Doctor Yan said this, raised his tear-streaked face, looked around and asked, "Where is Your Majesty?"

Zhao Zhongyu: "Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, surely has a special place to go."

The ghost messenger gave a cold snort and said: "He left before you but only a while ago, as long as you are in the underworld, sooner or later you will meet."

Said and led them forward, on the road some ghosts tried to cut in line, were whipped away by the ghost messenger.

Soon, everyone knew the difference between having merit and not having merit.