“Old man, let me go! I have no grudge against you. Even if you want to become a vengeful ghost, you should go after those who harmed you. Why come after me?” Henry Clark shouted as he spoke, struggling to pry open the old man’s hand. But although the old man had seemed weak just moments ago, now he possessed inhuman strength. No matter how hard Henry Clark tried to break free, he couldn’t move at all. Just like that, Henry Clark was dragged by the old man toward the black vortex in the sky.

Henry Clark also saw the vortex above. Terrified, he struggled even harder. For some reason, he was filled with dread toward the world inside that vortex, as if once he entered, he would never be able to return to the living world. Maybe that was what people called the underworld...

“Let me go! Let go!” Henry Clark watched as the black vortex drew closer and closer. He fought desperately to break free, but no matter how he struggled, the old man’s grip remained unyielding, leaving him completely immobilized. In just a moment, the two of them were almost at the vortex...

“No!”

With a loud scream, Henry Clark was completely sucked into the vortex, and as his voice faded, he could no longer make a sound.

Chapter Two: The Terrifying Hell

In an indescribable haze, Henry Clark felt as if he had passed through the passage between life and death. He could sense everything, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even think. The sensation was enough to drive him mad. He had no idea how much time had passed when suddenly, a bright light appeared before his eyes. At last, he emerged from the vortex tunnel. With a loud smack, he crashed hard onto the ground, and along with him fell the old man who had been gripping his shoulder.

Taking advantage of the momentary loss of strength from the fall, Henry Clark finally broke free from the old man’s grasp. He sprang up from the ground in a flash. Just a few meters above him, the entrance to the black vortex was shrinking rapidly. Before he could react, the entire vortex vanished from sight, leaving behind hundreds of people lying on the ground, groaning in pain.

Henry Clark felt a sharp, unbearable pain in his shoulder. This pain was different from the usual stabbing pain of torn flesh; it was a continuous, soul-tearing agony that made him restless. Fortunately, the pain was gradually subsiding instead of persisting endlessly. Otherwise, he would have rather his soul be destroyed on the spot. Only then did he slowly look around to see where he actually was.

It was a desolate plain. Not a single blade of grass grew anywhere. The ground was a dark red, covered in cracked rocks and soil. As far as he could see, the barren plain stretched on endlessly. In the far distance on the other side, it was as if the ground suddenly disappeared—at the edge, there was only pitch-black emptiness. The scene was unimaginable, like the ancient legends of a flat earth with round heavens: when the ground reached its end, one would simply fall off.

Henry Clark looked up at the sky. The entire sky was a dull gray, with thick, hazy clouds that blocked out the sun completely. He even doubted whether this world had a sun at all. The surroundings looked so much like hell—a place of eternal darkness. Would there be a sun in such a place?

“What is this place?” Henry Clark muttered as he looked at the barren plain around him.

At this moment, Henry Clark was utterly bewildered. He had suddenly gone from the human world to this place. He didn’t think he had transmigrated like in the novels—no transmigration could be this bizarre, and certainly not with hundreds of people at once. These people were clearly the number of people who had died in Shanghai in a single day. Just as he had suspected, all the souls had been sent to another world, not accumulated in the real world. Otherwise, the earth would have long been overflowing with souls—how could there be only a few hundred in all of Shanghai?

“In other words, this is the underworld? Or maybe hell?” Henry Clark scanned the surroundings again. If his guess was right, this was indeed the afterlife where the dead should go. The number of souls here must be in the billions, or even more. After all, people die every moment, and if they keep accumulating, the souls here might outnumber the living population... But strangely, with so many souls gathered together, why was this world still so desolate?

Henry Clark was deeply puzzled, and a vague sense of terror lingered in his heart. That ominous feeling had been with him ever since he arrived, growing stronger and stronger. As he gazed into the distance, he saw a dozen or so black dots appear far away, rapidly approaching the crowd. As they raced forward, the ground behind them was churned up, showing just how fast they were moving.

The moment Henry Clark noticed those black dots, he focused all his attention on them. On this endless plain, only those black dots stood out. Gradually, he could make out what they were... Yes, they were more than a dozen giant black wolves, each several meters tall!