Chapter 24：Hell

In his deep slumber, Huai Shi felt himself falling.

He was in freefall, spiraling downwards into the darkness. It seemed like many people were falling with him. Most were screaming in horror, though there were others who plummeted emotionlessly. However, they soon disappeared.

He fell into a body of water, sinking into a deep pool, feeling as though his weightless body was being lifted. He was drifting in the darkness, going with the motion of the waves.

It was as if he were dead.

However, it was more so like he was on his way to death.

'Soon.'

There was a distant voice that spoke out to him.

However, death seemed to be endless, carrying him bit by bit into the darker depths, until the cold tides brought him to a muddy shore.

A rickety figure emerged from the darkness and looked down at him. It then bent over and pulled his leg. He was dragged into a grass hut on the mudflat.

It knocked on the door.

The door opened.

The smell of rotting bodies permeated the room.

In the hut, the only lights were on top of a blood-stained operating table. There was a wrinkled and white-haired old man wore a mask, fully concentrated on the corpse in front of him. He occasionally withdrew himself from the corpse to draw two strokes on the artwork on the table beside him.

Under the dimly lit oil lamp, the surrounding hooks were dripping with antiseptic liquid from the well-processed specimens.

The rickety figure pointed at Huai Shi. Then, with an outstretched hand, the figure asked the old man behind the door for something.

The old man glanced at the teenager on the ground with his turbid eyes, slowly shaking his head, "He's not fully dead yet, why are you selling me a living person for?"

"Almost, almost ..."

The rickety shadow made a weird sound. It sounded like a mix between a dog and a fox. "He's dying soon... there's elementium... there's elementium...''

"I can only give you half, leave him here if you like, drag him away otherwise." The old man folded his arms. He looked on coldly.

The shadow seemed to be enraged. Then, it screamed.

The old man was unbothered. He looked at it indifferently until the figure reached out in frustration, "Half, half ..."

An old copper coin was thrown into its hand.

"Leave me if you have nothing else, don't interrupt my work any further."

The old man looked at Huai Shi on the ground. He frowned and dragged him by one leg. He dragged him onto the operating table with great effort. He then swept away the already torn body of the corpse.

The sound of the closing door when the shadow left made Huai Shi's eyes tremble for a moment. He tried his hardest to move and scream only to cough up a portion of foamy bloody.

"Not dead yet?"

The old man opened his eyelids. He looked at his sclera with surprise. His frail hands pinched the bones of Huai Shi. Finally, he nodded in satisfaction, "A very standard structure. Although the strength is lacking, it could be used as a temporary spare part... Could possibly yield the best result."

He sighed.

Huai Shi's throat made a hoarse sound. All his efforts were of no use.

"Do you have something to say?"

The old man looked at his trembling pupils, with some traces of pity, "You are already dying, why don't you die quietly? I have seen a lot of people like you. Anyway, you have already crossed the border into hell, isn't dying logical? As of now, it's only that the elementium hasn't dissipated, what is there to complain about? "

He took out a potion and poured it into Huai Shi's foam-filled mouth. The intense spiciness and the weird sourness stimulated Huai Shi's throat. It left a scorching and molten coppery sensation in his throat, setting his insides aflame. It made him groan with intense pain.

"This is a potion bought from that idiot. It is used to make a mummy. It keeps the organs alive when a person dying. But don't even think about living, it just converts your remaining life force into energy before squeezing it out... so you can now say a few more words before you die. I can also work better in silence, how about you cooperate a little? "

The old man buried his head, "Remember, don't scream. I hate loud noises."

Huai Shi struggled to contain his pained voice. He twitched all over his body. As the old man said, he was able to make a faint voice as he was dying.

"... where, is this place?"

"In your words, the twelve-depth of hell. My corpse workshop, a place that sells some small objects to guests. After a while, you will become one of these small objects." The old man explained.

"How about a negotiation..." Huai Shi swallowed the pain. He gasped hard. "I quite desperately want to stay alive, please let me go."

"No, I have already bought your corpse, how can I let you live? Moreover, you won't be alive in a few minutes. You will die outside, and I will have to drag you back."

Under the dim light, the two eyeballs of the old man darted in different directions. A black eyeball stared at Huai Shi while a red eyeball stared intently at the place he dissected, "Look at your body. The elementium is empty, there is simply not much time left... Although your vitality is strong, it has already burned out like ashes. Could you die? You can still burn your remaining value... "

Huai Shi stared blankly at the ceiling that was smeared with dried blood, his pain was replaced by numbness. Even his voice became dry and hoarse.

"I can't die here ..."

"Why can't you?" The old man said in a serious tone, "Everyone can die actually."

Seemed to be caught on his chatty nature, he jabbered on.

"I have met many people who think they are very important and play the most special role in this world, but they all died and came here.

"After they died, the world continued to turn, the sun rose as usual, and reality did not stop simply because it lost them. Hence, they are wrong, they are no different from others."

He pointed out to the corpses one by one to explain to Huai Shi. "This man used to be a big shot; this man used to be the justice bringer who had slaughtered countless wicked men; this man used to be the teacher of a dictator, and the dictator had changed from a tyrannical person to a wise leader under the teachings of the teacher, this is the dictator he taught... but they all died.

"Since there is birth, death is inevitable. Even God is the same. For a hundred years, two hundred years, looking at the world, the vicissitudes of life... After a thousand years, even God would find this world boring.

"What are you compared to them?"

"But I still don't want to die."

Huai Shi blinked hard, not letting the uncontrollable tears blur his eyes. "Well, don't look at me as if I'm weak, in fact, I am quite a tough guy. Men's tears are worth a thousand in gold. I have already cried, will you let me go?"