"Don't worry, there's nothing around. Besides, this is still the human world, what are you afraid of? Look at your phone, you've got full signal," I reassured Bingbing.
Zheng Bingbing actually took out her phone and looked: "Wow, you're right! I thought entering the City God's Temple meant we were in the underworld!"
"We're a long way from that, let's go," I said, taking her hand and walking towards the Bridge of Helplessness.
The kilometer-long path wasn't particularly long or short. The fog seemed a bit thicker today. When my energy sensing technique showed we were thirty meters from the bridge, I could faintly make out the tea stall at the bridgehead.
There was a Meng Po, a ghost with red energy, inside the stall, not outside. She was probably sleeping. I walked over and knocked on the table. A Meng Po with red energy emerged, rubbing her eyes. She looked to be in her early thirties, a slightly plump beauty. Assuming we were humans, or newly deceased ghosts, she frowned and asked, "How did you get in here? Where's your Yin Official who's supposed to be escorting you?"
I pulled the Soul Summoning Token from my waist: "We are the Yin Officials."
The Meng Po blinked, seeing our White Impermanence attire.
"Oh my!" The Meng Po instantly became alert. She quickly circled around the table, bowed to Bingbing and me, and asked where we were headed.
"Fengdu City," Bingbing blurted out.
Seeing the Meng Po's surprised reaction to those three words, I quickly smoothed things over, "Not Fengdu City, we're going to report to our superior. We don't know where she'll be."
"It's good you're not going to Fengdu City," the Meng Po said, "They're at war there recently, it's very chaotic!"
Bingbing wanted to ask more, but I tugged her sleeve, stopping her.
"Meng Po, we'll be going then. Farewell." I cupped my hands.
"Safe travels, honored officials!" The Meng Po bowed in return.
I took Bingbing's hand and we fumbled our way up the steep Bridge of Helplessness. The fog was truly thick today. Before, when standing on the bridge and looking down, I could faintly see the river water. Today, I couldn't see anything. Had it dried up?
After crossing the bridge, the fog was even denser. I activated my energy sensing technique. Unfortunately, a small train had just departed not long ago, about three hundred meters away. If Bingbing and I went all out, we could catch up. But I didn't know the terrain here, and I couldn't see where I was going, fearing danger. So, Bingbing and I sat on the bench at the station and waited patiently.
Bored, Bingbing was hesitant to speak. I took out a cigarette, placed it in my mouth, and flicked my lighter. It wouldn't light. I turned the flame to maximum, and only then did a tiny, rice-grain-sized flame appear. I quickly brought the cigarette tip to it and lit it. Looking at the liquid in the lighter, there was still more than half a tank, so it shouldn't have failed.
This proved one thing: the oxygen content in the air here was quite low. Yet, I felt no discomfort, no difficulty breathing. On the contrary, as I started to focus on my breathing, I realized my breathing rate had slowed to a minimum. If I didn't consciously try to breathe, my lungs wouldn't expand or contract.
I found it strange and turned to observe Bingbing's chest movements. Bingbing looked a bit shy, "Brother, what are you looking at? You were staring for a long time last night. Do you like small ones!"
"Don't talk. Close your eyes and don't think about anything," I said.
"Okay." Bingbing complied. I continued smoking and observing for a good two minutes. Bingbing didn't breathe once!
I then looked at the cigarette between my fingers. It hadn't shortened at all, still looking as if I had just lit it. Yet, I had clearly taken more than ten puffs. If this were the human world, at least half the cigarette would have burned away.
This meant that both sides of the Bridge of Helplessness, more accurately, both sides of the River of Forgetfulness, were the boundary between the Yin and Yang realms.
The "phenomena and essence" of the human world did not apply in the underworld. This was the first time I had noticed this peculiar phenomenon.
I don't understand relativity, but I believe in science. I felt that the physical bodies of Bingbing and I were no longer entirely the same as when we were in the human world. Otherwise, how could carbon-based mammals like us function normally in the underworld without needing to breathe?
If it couldn't be explained by science, it could only be understood through personal experience.
Experiential learning.