Suddenly, Donghai Lin realized he was standing on a bridge. He looked around and saw over thousands of people were also present there, glancing around them nervously.
Then a fracas ensued as all the people came to realize that they were dead and in the underworld's land.
Donghai Lin was still under the influence of the intoxication of wine. He walked to the edge of the bridge, looked down, and saw that below the bridge was a vast yellow ocean, and he muttered, "Wow, this is the yellow spring. So beautiful….. Hah, it turns out the rumor about yellow spring is true after all."
At that moment, a flying boat appeared in the air just above them. There were five Daoists adorned in all black robes, standing on it as they glanced down at the souls below on the bridge.
"Ahem! Ahem!" A fatty among the bunch harrumphed, clearing his throat while drawing the attention of all the human souls on the bridge.
After everyone glanced up at him and the surrounding entered a state of tranquility, he continued. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not good at public speaking. So let's make this simple and straight…. First, you're all dead souls. Erst, as dead souls, you are all here in the Underworld. Second, the name of the bridge you're all standing atop is Naihe bridge."
He was interrupted when Donghai Lin jumped in as he muttered under his breath. "Naihe bridge, the bridge of forgetfulness!"
The fatty added with a smile. "Exactly!..... In order to reincarnate, you must pass this Naihe bridge, which is a trial. Many demons will vie for your attention along the way, depending on your karma when you are alive. Be careful, they will throw you down into the yellow spring…. Last but not least, you must reach Granny Meng Po's station and drink her Meng Po Soup. After that, you will be sent to reincarnate."
Another man announced, "As of now, you have 15 minutes to reach her house. If you either fail to reach or are thrown into the yellow spring, then forget about reincarnating. You are going to become the wandering ghost for eternity here. Wishing you all the best."
Just after that, most of the dead souls started running toward Granny Meng Po.
Only slightly one thousand dead souls remained.
Donghai Lin was the first one to move as he wobbled precariously in his drunken haze.
Others followed closely behind him, and soon all of them passed him, making him the last person pacing in some sort of tipsy state, shaking his body from time to time.
Just a few hundred meters into his journey, Donghai Lin spotted a giant black dog that periodically released flames from its eyes and mouth. It was glaring at them fiercely while sitting on the pole at the rim of the bridge.
Continuously sniffing the air, the dog could differentiate individuals who had committed serious sins during their lifetime from those who had not.
It did not react to anyone passing by, but when Donghai Lin's turn arrived, the giant dog growled, jumped down from the vertical pole, and blocked his path.
The giant dog was over six-time bigger than Donghai Lin. It crouched down on its forelimbs and started sniffing him all over his body.
"What're you doing, big doggy?... If you want to throw me into Yellow Spring, just do it already. Anyway, from the moment I have seen it, I have been having this feeling of swimming all across Mount Tai…. Don't you dare tell me it didn't exist here? If there is Naihe Bridge and the Yellow spring, of course, there will be Mount Tai." Donghai Lin hushed, bloviating to the dog. "Or just give me the way I need to get to Granny Meng Po in fifteen minutes."
But the giant dog keep, sniffling and wondered in its head, 'What's wrong with this human? After all these times of my service guarding here, all human souls only have two distinctive smells; a rotten smell from the sinners and just the human smell from the virtuous ones. But these fella has none of them instead what is this intoxicatingly sweet-scented eight smells. I can't help myself from moving away.'
"Hey, don't you hear me? Bad doggie…. Out of my way!" Donghai Lin said and pushed the dog with everything he got. But it didn't budge a bit. "Ha-yaahhh!" He yelled as he continued pushing it.
"What are you doing, human?" The black dog spoke in a human tongue.
On his face was a look of excitement as Donghai Lin halted what he was doing and said, "Interesting! A talking dog. Hahaha…."
"Hey, what's wrong with a dog talking?" the giant black dog retorted.
"Oops, I almost forgot I wasn't on the earth anymore," Donghai Lin bumped his head and further added, "where are my manners?... Hello, I'm Donghai Lin from the earth." He then clasped his hands to the dog.
"Donghai Lin, you can address me as the great Hēi Láng." The giant black dog replied.
"Ooh, the Great Hēi Láng, since you are so great, why do you serve in this place as subservience watchdogs for the underworld?" Donghai Lin asked slyly.
"It's because I'm bored and all alone. Everywhere I went in all the 10 planes, no one dared to even look at me in my eyes anymore.
Initially, I felt great about my might, but slowly I started feeling that they were avoiding me... When I'm depressed and felt agony from my loneliness, one day King Zhuanlun, the 10th Yama who was responsible for sending souls for reincarnation came to me and asked for my service in return he said he would guarantee that I would never feel bored again and he would also give me a cup of his Heavenly Floating Wine once a week." The black giant dog replied.
He then further added, "It was an attempting offer. So, I agreed to his proposal and have been seating in this place for over 1,000,000 years. He is right. Since then, I have never been bored."
Donghai Lin thought in his head, 'Yes, of course, who would get bored when they were to station in the Naihe bridge when every second they would be busy and their job was to throw human sinners into the Yellow spring? Hmm, apparently, this fool has been conned by the 10th Yama. What?!.... He's been here for over a million years…
Now, I feel sorry for this poor dog.'
A sudden idea struck him, and he muttered to himself. He replied, "Well, I know what to do…. Obviously, I must liberate him." ..... (Please stay tuned!)