Chapter 393

Chapter 393

At the Basement entrance again, I grew extremely nervous.

The shadow of the black hole still haunted me.

When Seventh Master and I fled last time, we had not shut the heavy iron door.

Now the black hole was gone.

During our previous visit, the Basement had appeared as it did thirty years ago. In the present, it was even more chaotic and filled with garbage.

After entering, Jin Wuju studied the room while I put down my backpack and removed the drill and Climbing Pitons.

Perhaps hoping to win Seventh Master’s approval, Jin Wuju took the tools from me.

“I’ll do it. I used to work in interior renovation.”

I handed them over without ceremony.

The Climbing Pitons were a precaution.

If the black hole reappeared and we could not escape in time, at least the wall would offer something to hold.

The harsh, noisy sound of drilling soon filled the Basement.

Without wasting time, I found a stick and carefully searched through the garbage.

Many people must have visited during the past thirty years, and police had destroyed some items. Finding anything useful would depend on luck.

After searching nearly every pile, I finally found a clue.

It was a photograph of a strange painting.

“Come look!”

“I found something!”

Jin Wuju had just put the tools away and immediately ran over.

He suddenly glanced around. “Where is Seventh Master?”

I pointed outside. “Probably smoking.”

Then I shouted, “Seventh Master, come in.”

He soon entered, crouched beside me, and narrowed his eyes at the photograph.

It depicted an ancient painting with extremely bizarre content and style. It resembled a river, but the water was blood-red. Countless human bones floated on its bright red surface, along with many hands reaching from the water.

The more I studied those hands, the more they resembled the one that had taken Tan Wannian.

But it was only a painting, and its old-fashioned style distorted reality. We could not be certain they were the same.

A female ghost in red stood above the river. The crude artist had not rendered her in detail, leaving her face abstract.

The painter’s skill was poor, yet the entire image raised goosebumps.

Seventh Master finally spoke his first words of the night. “What is this…?”

I swallowed. “Could it depict the Eighteen Levels of Hell?”

If such a terrifying place truly existed, how was it different from Hell?

“The Eighteen Levels of Hell belong to Buddhism,” Jin Wuju explained. “Christianity also has Hell, but our native traditions do not. Daoism speaks of the Netherworld. It may be larger than the living world and contains many regions, including one called the Sin Realm.”

“What’s the Sin Realm?” I asked.

Jin Wuju thought before answering. “It is where the Underworld punishes souls. Some people commit crimes in the living world and evade its laws. After reaching the Underworld, if their evil outweighs their good, they are punished before reincarnation.”
“The place where they receive punishment is called the Sin Realm, or sometimes the Sin Prison. It resembles Buddhism’s Eighteen Levels of Hell.”

My eyes widened. “You think the painting depicts the Sin Realm?”

Jin Wuju nodded. “Possibly. I once heard that during Daoism’s early days, a Map of the Sin Realm circulated. It was considered an evil object because it could open a passage to the Sin Realm.”

The story sounded increasingly absurd. “Where did you hear this myth?”

Jin Wuju frowned. “I also thought the Map of the Sin Realm was fictional. But every version I heard included a female ghost. She was supposedly the only ghost ever to escape the Sin Realm.”

I pointed at the painting and the red-clothed female ghost. “You mean her?”

“Yes!” Jin Wuju grew excited. “The painting in this photograph must be the Map of the Sin Realm!”

I asked, “Where did it come from? Who painted it?”

Jin Wuju shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve heard many versions, but none are reliable. Some even claim the Ancestral Master Zhang Daoling painted it.”

“What interests me is who took this photograph. Tan Wannian?”

“The Map of the Sin Realm existed only in legend, and few people had even heard of it. How did Tan Wannian obtain it?”

Cold sweat broke over me as I remembered something. “You said the Map of the Sin Realm could open a passage to the Sin Realm… The black hole…”

Jin Wuju jolted and stared at me. “The black hole! The black hole is the passage! The Map of the Sin Realm is buried somewhere on this estate!”

All three of us stood almost simultaneously.

“I understand. The Map of the Sin Realm caused the Tan family Massacre Case!”

I continued, “It altered the magnetic field, and Tan Wannian must be trapped inside the Sin Realm!”

“Search!” Jin Wuju sounded excited. “The map must be buried somewhere. It may be under the flo-”

He suddenly turned, having glimpsed something from the corner of his eye.

His face took on the same expression Seventh Master and I had worn when we first saw the black hole.

“The… the… black hole!”

“Run!”

He scrambled toward the Basement stairs.

I did not dare look back and immediately ran as well.

When I reached the steps, I turned and saw the hole expanding even faster than before.

My eyes widened as I stared at the wall where we had installed the Climbing Pitons.

Seventh Master hung from one, gripping it desperately. He had not reached the stairs in time.

“Seventh Master!”

“Seventh Master!”

Jin Wuju and I shouted together.

Veins bulged across Seventh Master’s forehead as he stared at us in terror and despair.

“Don’t move! I’ll throw you the rope!”

I fumbled a climbing rope from my backpack and threw it toward him.

But before he could catch it, the Climbing Piton suddenly loosened.

We had no chance to rescue him!

Seventh Master screamed and fell vertically into the black hole before Jin Wuju and me.