Chapter 280: Chapter 24 Damn! Hell’s Bus!

[Hell], what kind of place was this? How could one describe it… It was an environment highly unsuitable for normal human habitation. This place was filled with lava, frost, and poisonous miasma… The temperature might have been scorching hot, yet just ten feet away, it was a land of ice and snow.

But there was more lava here compared to anything else, and one could smell the pervasive scent of sulfur… a scent akin to gunpowder, though unfortunately, the gunpowder in this world couldn’t ignite.

Otherwise, Yila would definitely have formed a machine gun troop, armed with heavy armor, sweeping across the world… But alas, that wasn’t possible.

*This kind of environment should make one very uncomfortable. Even if there were urgent matters, one would feel an even greater sense of urgency, eager to leave as soon as possible… This is what hell is supposed to be.*

But then…

“Ha… Achoo~ So warm.”

Satan Ye let out a comfortable yawn. She held Hilena’s hand, passing by the lava without a care, as if she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

Not just her, Hilena and Yila felt the same way. The former appeared to be relaxed, as if she had shed some burden off her shoulders… The latter was observing the surrounding skeletal pillars, seemingly deep in thought.

*How should one put it? Although Hell wasn’t a good place for many intelligent beings, for Satan Ye (Crimson Demon Dragon) and Hilena (Succubus), this place was truly their “home.”*

“What are those?”

Satan Ye asked this question.

Yila followed her finger and realized she was referring to those pillars made of eerie white bones… There were quite a few of these pillars scattered in the desolate Hell, with signs of carving and bonding.

“Decorations… That’s my guess.”

Yila looked at some pillars with bones of different colors and voiced his speculation: “Or perhaps they are signs. The bones of different colors might indicate different buildings.”

Though that was merely a guess.

“Oh? Mr. Yila, you don’t know?”

Satan Ye asked in surprise, implying… How rare it was for Yila not to know something.

Seeing Yila shake his head helplessly, Hilena patted Satan Ye’s head, saying, “Mr. Yila doesn’t know everything… We are all clueless about Hell.”

Hilena was right. Even Yila needed to have read about a place or been there in person to understand its situation. Hell was certainly outside that scope.

“Pale bone pillars.”

Yila said, studying the warm bone pillar under Satan Ye and Hilena’s gaze: “Embedded with red, blue, yellow, purple, cyan, and black bones… There are both similarities and differences between each pillar.”

*What did it really mean?*

“To be honest, I’m lost.”

Yila stated, without any sense of urgency. Hilena and Satan Ye also nodded nonchalantly, indicating that they too had lost their sense of direction…

“But if we follow the red marks on the pillars, we can return to our transmission array.”

Yila pointed to the red markings on the pillars behind them and said, “I’m currently trying to see where we would end up if we kept following those red marks.”

To this, neither of them had any objections. After a brief discussion, they decided to keep moving forward.

Just then…

“Clang~ Clang~ Clang~ Clang~”

Rhythmic sounds came from a distance, accompanied by a noise like the running of a giant beast. The three of them simultaneously stopped, waiting… as a giant cat ran over from the direction of the stone pillars in the distance.

“???”

Yes, it was a cat, a rather beautiful tabby cat, about the size of a small boat. It carried a building-like structure on its back, running steadily in this desolate land… in a very peculiar manner.

As it approached the three, its movements slowed, and it stopped beside the bone pillar in front of them… That was when Yila realized that what was on the cat’s back was not a “house” but a “carriage,” carrying many demons inside.

Furthermore, if Yila wasn’t mistaken, these demons were dressed in suits…

“Clang~ Clang~ Clang~”

Accompanied by crisp sounds, the carriage door opened, quickly lowering some steps to the ground… Then, under the trio’s surprised eyes, several demons disembarked.

After about four or five demons “got off,” the giant cat gave Yila and his companions a glance, confirmed they didn’t wish to get on, then lifted its body and started running again.

Yila distinctly noticed that the tip of the cat’s tail seemed to be painted red.

…

The demons who disembarked all carried fishing poles, chatting and laughing. They noticed Yila, Hilena, and Satan Ye standing there, but didn’t approach them. Instead, they headed directly towards the nearby Magma Lake.

The scene was so shocking that it practically knocked Yila out, and Hilena and Satan Ye were no better.

“Mr. Yila, what was that? Was that… Hell’s carriage?”

Smart and witty Satan Ye made a logical guess, saying, “That was definitely a carriage, but it seemed much more convenient than a regular carriage…”

Hilena nodded in agreement and said, “I suppose so? But how does such a carriage know where the demons want to go? Or do these demons ride together?”

Clearly, the people of this world had no concept of “public transport”…

“No, that big cat might have many of its kind. They determine their routes by the color of their tails and only run along the respective routes, stopping at stations where demons are waiting or want to disembark, allowing mid-journey boarding and alighting.”

Yila explained, pointing to the pillars: “Different colors correspond to different routes, letting demons wanting to go to various places possibly change routes once or twice to reach their destination.”

“For example, if we wanted to reach the end of the yellow route from here, we would just board here, get off at the pillar with both red and yellow bones, then wait for the cat car with the yellow tail to appear and take it to the end.”

Saying this, Yila’s eyes sparkled for some reason… *It seemed coming to Hell this time wasn’t a mistake!*

——————–

Satan Ye (exchanging glances): Hilena, you said earlier that Mr. Yila didn’t know everything, didn’t you? It seems like he knows everything…

Hilena (exchanging glances): I reserve my judgment, Demon King.