Tu Tzuchun’s body lay on the rock, but his soul, floating from his corpse, drifted silently down to the bottom of Jigoku, the Inferno.
Between this world and the Inferno there is a dark, dark passage, and an icy-cold wind blows furiously in the sky all the year round. Carried on by this icy wind, Tu Tzuchun floated in the sky for a very long while, just as a dead leaf might float through the air, until he came in front of a magnificent palace. On a tablet outside this beautiful place was written: “Senlotien.”
Crowds of terrible and evil-looking devils were in front of this palace, and, as soon as they saw Tu Tzuchun they gathered thickly around him, and, carrying him, they took him to the foot of a throne where a king in a black robe, and wearing a golden crown was seated. As he sat there he glared angrily around him. It was evident that this was Yama, or Yemma, the king of Hades, of whom Tu Tzuchun had often been told. Tu Tzuchun knelt down before the king, fearing what would become of him.
“Why were you on the top of the mountain of Emeishan?”
Yama’s voice thundered from the throne, and Tu Tzuchun was about to make answer, when he remembered the caution of Tiehkuantzu: “Never speak one word!”
He therefore hung his head, and remained dumb. Yama became very angry, and rising on his feet, and raising his sceptre, he again roared like thunder:
“Do you know where you are? Answer this instant, or you shall feel the torture of the Inferno!”