Under the clear guidance of Gua Tianshi, I finally realized the contradiction.

This Eastern Coastal City was destroyed in the aftermath of the clash between Impermanence and the Great Demon, wiping out nearly a million lives in an instant. So, where have all those souls gone?

Faced with the terrifying shockwave that swept everything away, ordinary people's souls couldn't bear it; it wouldn't be surprising if all their souls scattered. But even if millions of souls were scattered, one should still be able to observe and sense the sedimentation of soul components in the Living World. It's akin to how, even if a city were bombed with a thousand strategic nuclear weapons, one could at least sift through the rubble afterwards and find charred remains. The same logic applies to souls.

No, it's more than that...

This phenomenon of being "unable to observe soul sedimentation" hasn't occurred only in this city reduced to ruins; it's happening worldwide. It happens so frequently that it's become a common sight, making it difficult for people to notice quickly.

Since the closure of the Post-mortem World, more than a century has passed. In this long span of time, how many humans have been born and died in the Living World, and how many animals and plants have been born and died? In these over one hundred years, there have even been two world wars, and our country has undergone unimaginable turmoil.

So where have those extinguished souls settled? Given that the souls of the deceased can only wander and settle in the Living World, why hasn't the Living World turned into a ghostly realm after more than a century?

I recalled the keywords Gua Tianshi initially mentioned.

"Gravity..." I murmured.

"Yes, gravity," Gua Tianshi said. "Souls are different from matter in the conventional sense; they are the embodiment of consciousness and thought. Just as a normal person can't move objects with mere thought, souls generally cannot interact with matter. Some rural tales describe ghosts and people with out-of-body experiences walking through walls for this reason.

"Of course, if someone has cultivation or Mana, or possesses special abilities like that girl named Little Bowl, or if there are special conditions like some connection to the living body, then they can continue walking on the ground like the living... But a normal deceased soul cannot interact with matter in the usual way.

"That said, they are still influenced by gravity... So what happens next?"

"...They fall underground?" I ventured.

Since they cannot interact with matter, the ground naturally can't support them. Under the influence of gravity, a deceased soul would fall and fall, continuously, until it reaches the deepest part of this celestial body—the Earth's core.

What exactly is the state of Earth's core? Humanity has never directly observed it. According to scientists, the environment at the core has extremely terrifying high pressure and high temperature, composed of molten iron, nickel, silicon, and other substances of extremely high density, with temperatures reaching four to six thousand degrees, comparable to the solar surface.

In Buddhist lore, the deepest layer of hell, the Eternal Hell, lies underground at unfathomable depths, with endless fire and lava. Souls trapped there find no hope of liberation, destined to remain in this hell for eternity, bearing relentless, unending agonizing pain and burning.

—Could it be that the Eternal Hell truly exists, residing at this planet's core depths?

Gua Tianshi nodded.

"This is the final destination of all souls before the establishment of the Post-mortem World," he said. "Ever since the first life emerged on Earth, the core region has existed as the physical borderline with the Living World and simultaneously the origin of the planetary natural will.

"You once questioned Fa Zheng during your disclosure of the Naraku Gospel as to why the Naraku Gospel embodies both 'planetary natural will' and the potential identity of 'Naraku's Will.' The latter is merely the total will of the Post-mortem World in the natural ecosystem, not on the same level as the planet's will itself... The reason lies here.

"The planetary natural will did not spontaneously appear with the planet's formation but was produced by the Earth constantly absorbing the souls born and dying on its surface, amassing and compressing them at the core into a super soul, grander than anything."

"If you think that the mass of this soul is insufficient to become the soul of a planet, then you are underestimating it. Indeed, at any point in history, the ecosystem has always been minuscule compared to the planet itself, just a thin layer of 'microbes' clinging to the surface of a celestial body. Yet as the saying goes, 'Many a little makes a mickle, and constant dripping wears away the stone,' no matter how insignificant a force may seem, accumulate it over an immeasurably long period, and it will evolve to an unfathomable level.

"Earth's history of life's evolution spans billions of years, with countless souls accumulated and settled in the Earth Core, even Impermanence cannot fathom it. The various life explosions throughout history, including the Cambrian explosion, and five mass extinctions of species, long before humans appeared on the historical stage... even before the primitive mammals, ancestors of humans, ascended the historical stage, the planet's natural will had already gradually formed."

Fa Zheng's description reveals a length of time I had never conceived.

If so, the power of Naraku Gospel is probably far stronger than I initially estimated, by who knows how many tens of thousands of times.

"However, the emergence of the planet's natural will is not necessarily a good thing for the planet itself and the life on its surface," Fa Zheng continued, "Firstly, using the planet's interior to house the souls of the dead, after all, has its limits. No matter how huge Earth is, if the souls of the dead continue to settle inside unchecked, one day they will overflow to the surface, turning the world above into a ghostly realm.

"If that were to happen, it's not so serious; it would merely mean that the living must dwell amidst a sea of souls, at which point life would naturally evolve to adapt to such an environment. The issue, however, is that the planet's natural will thus formed is very likely not benevolent to life.

"In a narrow sense, Naraku's Will is the collective unconscious of humanity, its foundation having settled the souls of countless deceased humans. Because it is the embodiment of human history, it would instinctively protect its own race. But the broader Naraku's Will—the planet's natural will—is not. As the embodiment of the evolutionary history of life, the souls that have settled within the planet's natural will, the majority belong to species that went extinct in the ancient and distant past. 'This era's ecosystem' has an overwhelmingly small proportion within the planet's natural will.

"Do you understand? As an accumulation of Earth's ecosystem, it is not an embodiment of life, but an embodiment of death.

"The manifestations of the souls of the dead are mostly unresting spirits and ghastly apparitions seeking vengeance. This is because when life dies, it always harbors painful and despairing consciousness, thus tending to display frightful forms, and the planet's natural will is very likely to have a similar tendency.

"There even exists evidence to support this—due to the excessive accumulation of ancient death souls within the planet's interior, some have spread to parts of the mantle layer, thus forming undead entities separate from the planet's natural will. While these entities are far less voluminous than the planet's natural will and are constrained by gravity, typically wandering quietly within the mantle zone, there have been instances in ancient times where such entities accidentally drifted to the surface.

"Each one possesses an indescribable terrifying power, and more importantly, all bear unconditional malice towards life on the surface."

Hearing this, I recalled the peculiarities that emerged during my past battles with Ming Zhuo.

When I dragged Ming Zhuo into the mantle, he displayed great panic. It was not only because he was losing ground in the battle against me, but more due to an intense taboo of the mantle's environment itself.

He seemed aware of the presence of unnamable monsters deep underground and desperately wanted to stay away from there.

As I recalled, I summarized from my perspective: "So...the term 'planet's natural will' might be prone to misunderstandings, it seems more like a foreign entity hidden in the planet, a monster endlessly devouring souls."

Fa Zheng nodded and then said, "It might be that every life-bearing planet in this universe faces the same dilemma; for the planet, such monsters seem like a convenient hatchery, developing to a size that surpasses the planet itself's volume during the life evolution history. They may eventually shatter the planet itself like a bird or beast breaking through its eggshell and soar into cosmic space."

He paused briefly and continued, "—And the Post-mortem World was created precisely to prevent this despairing scenario."

A monster being born from the planet itself, destined to destroy the world upon birth? Although I do not doubt Fa Zheng's words, the scale of this description is too gigantic for me to know what to feel.

Even Impermanence seems insignificant compared to such monsters.

"As long as souls are not gathering in the Earth Core, but are transferred to another dimension, it is possible to prevent the world from being destroyed..." I understood the logic behind this approach, "Then...who exactly created the Post-mortem World, and how was it created?"

"The creator of the Post-mortem World declared complete extinction as far back as sixty-six million years ago. That is a super ancient civilization shrouded entirely in darkness, whether in terms of life forms or the reasons for its extinction. Even the precise time of its emergence and the ultimate evolutionary height of its civilization remain entirely unknown," Fa Zheng disclosed some astonishing information, "As for the method they used to create the Post-mortem World...though this is merely my personal speculation, they very likely used the divine seal."