Chapter 2182: Crossing the River?
As for his boat not being able to fit enough people, that wasn"t as important as dealing with those guys first.
When he saw all of the souls line up like obedient and adorable babies, Zu An thought to himself, These guys really only listen to power and might.
The only unfortunate part was that he was deducted twenty points of virtue. He wondered just how the underworld calculated such things. Fortunately, he had already earned a couple dozen virtue points before. Besides, the ones he had thrown into the river were all troublemakers to begin with, so the price to deal with them wasn’t too high. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had enough virtue to deduct from.
When the souls all lined up properly, Zu An began to collect the toll. At first, the souls cooperated, taking out the virtue coins to pay him.
But after He collected several dozen of them, the souls in the back immediately realized that something wasn’t right. And yet, they didn’t dare to really say anything after witnessing the power he showed. Another few dozen handed over the fare.
But Zu An didn’t stop and continued to collect coins. When he reached several hundred, the souls finally couldn"t take it. Someone asked quietly, “Aren’t you going to send the ones in the front out first?”
His earlier display of power really had been shocking. Even though they were already extremely dissatisfied, they still asked in a more moderate manner.
“Don’t worry. Since I"ve collected your fare, I"ll naturally be in charge of bringing you over,” Zu An replied. He continued to collect the fare.
“But...”
The unfortunate souls who had been dropped into the river were still fresh in their minds. Many souls opened their mouths, but in the end, they didn’t dare to say anything.
By the time Zu An collected thousands of coins, someone who was a bit braver finally couldn"t take it. “You keep collecting coins without sending a single person over. Will you be able to bring everyone over?”
Are you kidding me right now? There are so many people here! Even if he uses three days and three nights, he still won’t be able to send them all! And yet he keeps collecting the fee.
Even though they were still a bit fearful about what had just happened, they only had this amount of virtue. If it ended up being stolen from them and they still couldn"t cross the river, they would still suffer endlessly. Rather than that, they had to be a bit braver to find out the truth.
“Of course I can send all of you over.” Zu An knew that something bad could happen if this continued. As such, he said loudly, “Everyone, please don"t worry. Since I’ve collected your fares, I"ll definitely be able to send you over. This is the Naihe Oblivion River. The laws of the underworld prevent me from stealing your coins.
“The Naihe Oblivion River will testify that if I can"t send all of you over, I"ll have to compensate you double what you paid. Otherwise, let my soul be forever trapped in the Naihe Oblivion River without any chance of escape.”
The souls were immediately stunned when they heard how serious he was. After all, this was the underworld, and they were next to the Naihe Oblivion River. Vows were definitely effective.
The people here had all been sinners when they were alive, so they were used to making promises and not treating them as a big deal, often going back on them. But when they arrived in the underworld and pa.s.sed through the Mirror of Evil Stage, only then did they realize just how wrong they were. Every crossed promise was recorded, and an extra level of wrongdoing was even added.
Furthermore, a vow in the underworld was even more serious. It would be confirmed shortly after, with a corresponding consequence soon following.
Even though they didn’t believe that he could really bring them all across in a short amount of time, since he had already made a vow, wouldn’t being compensated double be good too? Taking ten thousand steps back, even if this guy couldn"t compensate them, watching a ferryman be forever trapped in the river was amusing to see too.
Some of the ferrymen who were engaged in the financial battle also heard the disturbance. They all sneered, thinking, Did this guy go completely mad for the sake of earning virtue coins?
There was only a short amount of time left, and there were so many souls. Forget about him alone, even if all of the Naihe Oblivion Ferrymen worked together, they wouldn’t be able to send the souls over within a single day.
This guy is doomed to fail. How would he possibly get his hands on so many coins? It seems he’s doomed to be trapped in the river forever.
He"s most likely doing this to win the compet.i.tion. Unfortunately, if he doesn’t manage to bring the souls across, these coins will only be in his hands temporarily, and won’t truly belong to him. In that case, there’s no way it"ll count as a part of this compet.i.tion.
This newbie really is laughable. He’s actually pulling such lowly tricks.
When he saw the reaction of the other ferrymen, Zu An thought to himself that if he didn’t have a Rage system, and had a ridicule-collecting system instead, he would be raking it in right now.
He didn’t waste any time and continued to collect coins. But when he collected ten thousand, he finally wasn"t able to continue.
Even though he had made a promise, there were so many souls that he clearly couldn"t send them all over. The rest didn’t want the few coins of virtue they had left to be stolen away. They knew that they would get double back if Zu An couldn"t fulfill his promise, but if this continued, he wouldn’t be able to pay up the losses! Even though seeing a ferryman fall into the river would be a great sight, when they thought about how they had to lose a coin of virtue for it, they still couldn"t bear to do it.
Zu An knew that it was about time as well. He was actually looking down on this slow rate of collecting coins too. As such, he scanned his eyes around and said seriously, “Please keep this in mind. It is only one coin right now, but if you want to cross the river in the future, it will be several times the price.”
The souls all avoided eye contact with him, but they sneered inwardly, thinking, This guy really knows how to act. Only an idiot would be fooled by you!
When he saw that there were still no more souls that were willing to pay, Zu An didn’t panic; instead, he moved over to the sh.o.r.e and said, “Those who have paid, stand a bit closer. Those who haven’t paid, stand a bit further back.”
The ones in the front swallowed... even though they were already souls and didn’t have saliva. But it hadn’t been long since they died, so they still retained some instincts from when they were alive. “Excuse me, sir; safety is most important. Please don’t overload the boat and cause it to turn over!”
The other souls also became worried.
Right, this guy collected so many ferry fares, so he’ll definitely do his best to cram his boat. It’ll be really bad if the boat ends up sinking as a result!
Even if it didn’t sink, it would still be really cramped. Wouldn’t that mean many of them would have to be close to the edge of the boat?
The water ghosts were still clamoring chaotically, and there could very well be some unfortunate ghosts that would be pulled down.
While everyone present was feeling dissatisfied and dissent was brewing, Zu An said coldly, “Who says we need to ride a boat?”
“If we don’t ride a boat...” The souls were about to ask nervously when they were all stunned. Their eyes opened completely wide as if they had seen something inconceivable.
The surging Naihe Oblivion Water suddenly spread apart to either side, revealing a wide path. The river water seemed to be blocked by some transparent barrier. ??ℯ?????ℴ?ℯ?.???
“Is... Is this still the Naihe Oblivion Water?” The souls were completely stupefied. Even though it hadn’t been long since they came to h.e.l.l, they had heard too many legends surrounding this river. This was a great river that even a feather would sink in. Only the Naihe Oblivion Ferrymen’s boats could travel across.
The Naihe Oblivion River, Yin Mountain, and the Six Paths of Reincarnation were all the most sacred landmarks of h.e.l.l. How could something this incredible suddenly be split in half?
There were quite a few souls who had been quite strong when they were alive. They knew it wasn’t too hard to cleave apart a river with a blade, but this Naihe Oblivion River wasn’t an ordinary river!
“What are you all standing around blankly for? Hurry and go across! Don’t waste time!” Zu An said with a snort.
He had just used the Crown of the Ocean Deity’s power. After all, he"d suddenly remembered that the power of the crown could control the seas. Even so, most great rivers were included too. When he first gave it a try, he"d discovered that the crown alone couldn"t do this. But he still had the Blue Mallard’s water affinity! When the two merged together, they were actually able to control the river!
This was also the solution he had managed to think of. As for the installment and lending, that was all to get the attention of the ferrymen. Only that way would they be too busy to pay attention to the souls, causing them to acc.u.mulate. At the same time, the ferrymen were so busy with their financial war that they wouldn’t be able to stop him for quite some time.