Chapter 168: The Mastermind Behind It All

Yun Jiao couldn’t stand watching any longer. She stepped forward, swiftly inserted a few silver needles, then began examining the man’s limbs.

“Huh? Miss, what are you—” the Yama of the Realm of Spiritual Restoration started to ask, but before he could finish, Yun Jiao gave his dislocated arm a firm twist. Crack! It snapped neatly back into place.

He flinched instinctively, ready to cry out in pain—

—but froze mid-breath.

“It doesn’t hurt?” He stared at his arm in disbelief, rotating it slightly. Not only was the joint back in position, but there wasn’t even a trace of pain.

Yun Jiao continued calmly, realigning his other limbs one after another.

“This medical technique… is miraculous!” the Yama exclaimed, eyes wide with awe. His bones had been crushed and twisted by that man’s demonic spell—his limbs broken deliberately to prevent him from moving. He had resigned himself to months of agony before recovery, yet this young woman had healed him with a few flicks of her hand, without a single jolt of pain.

Yun Jiao gave him an odd look. “Anesthesia before surgery is normal, isn’t it?” she muttered under her breath. To her, numbing pain before treatment was basic common sense—this was just another method.

After setting his last limb, she drew the needles out and said evenly, “There. You should be able to move now. But the Soul-Pinning Spike is still in your body—so don’t—”

“—the royal city!”

Before she could finish, the Yama—now realizing he could move—burst into a mist of shadow and shot upward through the pit like an arrow, leaving her words unfinished.

The three of them stood frozen.

Yun Jiao: If he sees what’s above, will we survive?

The old man: Maybe we should just… not go up?

Yuan Jiang: But Xi Teng’s still missing!

After a silent exchange of looks, they sighed as one and climbed back onto the flying artifact, bracing themselves for the worst. Behind them, Ye Yuan remained utterly serene, still crunching on his biscuits.

Let’s hope the Yama isn’t the temperamental type…

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The Yama, however, wasn’t angry—he was stunned.

He hovered in midair, staring blankly at the scene before him. His mind went completely blank.

(⊙_⊙)

The once grand royal city of the ghost realm had vanished.

Half of it was now a gaping crater that plunged endlessly into darkness; the other half was a towering mountain of debris, jagged and chaotic, rising like a second sky.

It looked as if someone had taken the city and split it cleanly in two.

Only the faint outlines of familiar walls buried among the rubble hinted that this wasteland had once been his capital.

“Uh… Lord Yama,” the old man began nervously, trying to come up with something—anything—to say. “About the city, we can actually explai—”

But before he could finish, the Yama shut his eyes tightly, his expression twisted with pain and remorse. “I can’t believe it… He really did it. That wretched creature—he destroyed everything!”

“…”

Wait. Who was he talking about?

(⊙_⊙)

Yuan Jiang and the old man exchanged dumbfounded looks.

Yun Jiao, however, reacted instantly. She took a quick step forward, putting on a solemn expression. “Yes! Absolutely vile!” she said with conviction, even patting the Yama’s shoulder in sympathy. “My condolences, truly.”

Bai Yu: “…”

Yuan Jiang: “…”

…So much for dignity.

Was she really pinning this on some random villain?

(￣△￣；)

The Yama sighed deeply. “It’s my fault. I misjudged him. Had I known what he truly was…” His voice faltered, eyes full of guilt. Then he bowed slightly. “I owe you all my life. Had you not rescued me, my soul would have been devoured by now.”

Yuan Jiang took the chance to ask, “Lord Yama, what exactly happened here? Why are all the souls gone?”

The Yama clenched his fists. His expression darkened. “It was the Heaven-Devouring Beast.”

“What?!” Yuan Jiang’s eyes widened in disbelief. Yun Jiao and Bai Yu looked equally confused.

“What’s a Heaven-Devouring Beast?” Yun Jiao asked.

Yuan Jiang’s face hardened. “An ancient mythical creature,” he explained quickly. “Said to have the power to swallow the heavens and devour the earth. It feeds on souls. But such beasts went extinct during the Great War of Gods and Demons in the primordial age!”

“No,” the Yama said grimly, “I’m certain. It was a Heaven-Devouring Beast that consumed all the souls in this city.”

“But how could such a beast appear in the underworld?” Yuan Jiang frowned. “It has no intelligence. And the underworld is a dead realm—living things can’t survive here.”

“It was brought here,” the Yama said heavily. “A century ago, a wandering soul appeared in my domain. He claimed he remembered nothing of his past. The ghost judges brought him to the Mirror of Reincarnation, but his reflection revealed nothing—no trace of any former life. Believing him harmless, they sent him to me for judgment.”

His tone grew bitter. “Now I know… he must have concealed the heavenly will itself.”

Yuan Jiang nodded grimly. “He hid his fate. The mirror couldn’t see him.”

“Yes,” the Yama continued, “but I didn’t realize it back then. He appeared frail, his soul weak and unstable. I assumed he’d merely suffered a spiritual injury before death. Since no past record could be found, I made him an errand-runner—a lowly ghost officer. I had no idea he’d smuggled a Heaven-Devouring Beast cub into the underworld and spent a hundred years secretly feeding it with souls.”

The Yama’s fists trembled. “When I finally noticed something wrong and tried to investigate, he attacked me. Killed four of my ghost judges, and sealed me beneath the city with a Soul-Devouring Lock and a Soul-Pinning Spike.”

Yuan Jiang’s eyes widened. “He defeated you and four ghost judges combined?!”

“Yes.” The Yama’s voice was grim. “His power far surpassed ours. And the energy he wielded—” he paused, jaw tightening, “—was not yin energy. It was demonic qi.”

“What?!” All three of them exclaimed in shock.

“But you said he was a ghost!”

“He appeared to be,” the Yama said, equally baffled. “But his aura was undeniably that of a demon. That’s why we were caught off guard.”

The old man shook his head. “Impossible… a ghost that uses demonic energy?”

“No,” Yun Jiao said, her expression suddenly cold and sharp. “Not a ghost with demon energy. A demon with yin energy.”

The others froze for a moment—then realization dawned.

Of course. That explained everything. The Mirror of Reincarnation hadn’t shown his past because he’d never actually died. The Heaven-Devouring Beast was of demonic origin, and only a demon could have controlled it for a hundred years without detection.

“Lord Yama,” Yuan Jiang said quickly, “do you know what kind of demon he was?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” the Yama replied. “But I do know this—he was a spirit born from wood.”

A wood spirit demon.

Yuan Jiang’s eyes narrowed. “Then we’ll have to head to the Demon Realm. Quickly.” He turned to Yun Jiao. “The sooner we move, the better.”

“Agreed,” Yun Jiao said.

After confirming a few more details with the Yama and having him open the gate to the underworld, the group—along with their ever-calm, biscuit-munching Ancestor—stepped into the rift and vanished.

They moved fast, determination burning in their eyes.

So fast, in fact, that none of them noticed the faint, muffled echo from beneath the ruins—

“…uh, guys? You forgot me again…”

Poor Xi Teng sighed in silence.

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(End of Chapter)