“My Extreme Domain is different from the outside world, forming a world of its own, governing the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”

“The Ghost Gate is the entrance for all souls. When mortals die, their souls pass through the Ghost Gate and enter the Eight Directions Yama Halls. First, the First Hall distinguishes between good and evil, then the other halls cast evildoers into hell for punishment. Finally, those who have washed away their sins are qualified to join the good people in passing through the Eighth Wheel-Turning King Hall for reincarnation…”

“However, you are all wrongful death ghosts, directly led into the Wrongful Death City, so you temporarily don’t need to go to the Eight Directions Yama Halls…”

An aged voice spoke slowly.

An elderly man stood at the city gate, looking at several wrongful death ghosts just brought by the ghost officers, with a smile on his face, wanting to properly introduce them to the “Eight Directions Yama Halls.”

Who could have expected that in the gloomy sky above, a brilliant white stellar stream suddenly streaked across!

The entire Wrongful Death City was illuminated brightly!

In the Wrongful Death City, whether at the city gate, in the towers, or on the streets…

Countless wrongful death spirits, countless ghost officials, all looked up!

At this moment, the elderly man forgot all the words he was about to say next, only staring blankly at the sky, actually having the illusion of seeing daylight in the human world.

Too bright, so incompatible with the sandstorm-swept sky of the entire Extreme Domain…

So shocking!

The stellar stream seemed to come from beyond the heavens, appearing without warning.

It was like a line, like a dragon, coming from the direction of the Ghost Gate, passing diagonally over the Wrongful Death City, finally falling toward the distant gray-black mountain range.

But before it could reach that place, all the stellar stream’s flames seemed to lose momentum and disappeared without a trace.

The entire illuminated sky thus gradually dimmed again.

In the Wrongful Death City, there was an almost deathly silence.

The next moment, it was like an explosion, becoming completely noisy!

“Heavens, what was that just now?”

“What happened just now?”

“Am I seeing things?”

“There was actually a stellar stream in the sky!”

“What’s going on?”

…

The elderly man listened to these words around him, but his gaze still remained on the sky that had returned to normal.

Now it looked gloomy and dark again, as if the stellar stream had never appeared, as if it was just his illusion.

But at this moment, the nearly boiling discussion around him was crystal clear.

Not an illusion!

There really had been a stellar stream from beyond the heavens passing over the Wrongful Death City!

“Elder Ni, what… what was that exactly?”

A ghost official beside the old man was utterly dumbfounded, stuttering as he asked.

Elder Ni didn’t withdraw his gaze for a long time, slowly moving his eyes toward the direction the stellar stream had come from. The Ghost Gate was only thirty li from the Wrongful Death City…

He felt his throat tighten, and after a long while, he suddenly lifted his legs, actually abandoning the newly arrived ghosts and walking directly toward the city gate!

…

In the Wrongful Death City, everyone looked at each other: Elder Ni had served in the Song Emperor’s Hall for many years, but they had never seen him lose composure like this before. They feared…

Something truly momentous had happened.

At the same time, in the distant Ten Directions Yama Halls, the First Qin Guang King Hall.

A tall man sitting cross-legged on the ground, absorbing the thick earth’s yin essence, wore a high crown on his head and had an extremely heavy aura about him.

The moment the stellar stream passed by, his stern eyebrows suddenly moved, and he opened his long-closed eyes.

At the horizon, that stellar stream had only a small tail remaining.

“It’s an aura from beyond the domain…”

Something from outside had entered, but he didn’t know whether it was a person or something else.

The dignified man didn’t rise, only slowly closed his eyes again and instructed: “Cui Jue, go investigate this matter.”

“Yes.”

Below the hall, a red-robed man frowned and bowed to accept the order.

He answered cleanly and immediately headed toward the distant Ghost Gate—

Cui Jue knew very well that he wasn’t the only one going to investigate the Ghost Gate.

And as King Qin Guang was second only to one person in the entire Extreme Domain, he absolutely wouldn’t allow others to get ahead of him.

…

At this moment, the Ghost Gate had attracted the attention of the entire Extreme Domain.

However, probably no one would think that the stellar stream, besides bringing that ghost axe, had also brought some other “things.”

Eighteen li from the Wrongful Death City, forty-eight li from the Ghost Gate.

Under the gloomy yellow sky, on a stretch of gray wasteland.

The Ghost Gate at the end was so far away that it was just a desolate and fierce shadow, blurred at the boundary between heaven and earth.

On the ground grew gray-white withered grass, as if scorched by fire.

Originally a neat patch, but now there was a strange depression in one place, as if something had crashed down and flattened the grass.

Several rakshasa spirits flapped their dark blue wings, looking no different from large birds, constantly circling in the low sky around that depression, seeming to hesitate whether to swoop down for a feast.

You should know that when they went to the Human Realm Island, they fed on the corpses of the newly dead.

But now…

Could they really eat the one below?

Several rakshasa spirits were obviously confused.

On that flat ground lay a seemingly ordinary black long sword, and not far away lay a body that could barely be recognized as human.

Black hair, soaked with blood, spread over the dirty grass with an almost cruel luster.

Blood covered the clothes, and on the arms and shoulders, broken white bones could even be seen, with some strange black patterns on them.

No matter how you looked at it, it was a wretched corpse, but strangely…

Around this “corpse,” there was a faint blue spiritual light flickering, like a layer of flame wrapping it. Under the burning of this flame, the cracked flesh was slowly writhing and regrowing.

Even the broken bones were being pieced together by those black patterns, fitting together seamlessly to regrow.

The entire process was extremely slow and difficult, but it was indeed happening.

Though rakshasa spirits were among the least intelligent beings in the Extreme Domain, they were extremely sensitive to danger.

They tried to swoop down several times, but every time they approached that “delicacy,” the spiritual fire would flare up, immediately emitting a terrifying high temperature, as if protecting the body.

The withered grass around the body almost instantly turned to ash.

The rakshasa spirits were immediately frightened, flapping their wings and flying high again.

But they were reluctant to leave.

Having been hungry in the Extreme Domain for so long, not having gone to the Human Realm Island to hunt for too long, seeing this delicacy right before their eyes, who knew when that spiritual fire would extinguish?

Once it was extinguished, it would be their good chance to feed.

“Screech…”

They circled anxiously overhead, waiting, waiting…

The dim yellow sky was getting somewhat darker.

This was a sign of time passing.

After an unknown amount of time, the wounds on the body seemed to have healed, and the spiritual fire around it was gradually dimming.

The rakshasa spirits immediately became excited, waiting for the spiritual fire to completely extinguish.

However, from the direction of the distant Ghost Gate, there came footsteps, and also…

Arguing voices.

“It’s all your fault! What did you eat so much for? You ate such a big head but it’s still useless! If I had known, I wouldn’t have let you eat, saved the yin food to curry favor with Judge Chu, and we could have been promoted!”

“It’s clearly all your fault, you can’t read! So, so…”

“Blaming me again? Can you read? Huh?”

“I…”

“It’s all your fault anyway. Such a good opportunity, Judge Chu summoned us, and we didn’t grasp it…”

…

On the vast plain, a straight road led from the Ghost Gate.

At this moment, there were no other people on the road, just two ghost officials walking and arguing endlessly.

One had a big head with a small braid tied behind it and a pair of green eyes.

Because he was severely scolded, his dull face showed considerable grievance.

One had a small head, bald on top, with a pair of red eyes that rolled around, appearing shrewd and slick, completely different from the big head.

He was the one scolding the most fiercely.

At this moment, thinking of the missed opportunity today, he was even more distraught, wishing he could bang his head on the ground.

These two ghost officials were none other than the Big Head Ghost and Small Head Ghost who had nearly made a mistake with names due to illiteracy at the Ghost Gate earlier.

Hearing Small Head Ghost start complaining again, Big Head Ghost couldn’t help but advise: “We are just ordinary ghosts. Thanks to your bribing the judge, we could get positions as minor officials at the Ghost Gate. Now we can eat three meals a year, which is… enough…”

“Enough my ass!”

Small Head Ghost wanted to spit in his face!

“Look at that Zhang Tang, how long has he been dead? Isn’t it just because he has people offering paper money and incense in the human world, so he has endless money to spend in our underworld? If Judge Chu hadn’t taken his money, eaten his food, and drunk his wine, how could he have climbed to that position so quickly? And he’s above us!”

Big Head Ghost was somewhat dumbfounded listening to this rapid-fire speech, not reacting for a long time.

“But… but Zhang Tang’s promotion was because he could read, wasn’t it?”

“…”

Damn you!

Always bringing up the wrong topic!

Small Head Ghost was about to explode from anger at this brainless brother!

Judge Chu, that is, Judge Chu, was one of the judges in the First Qin Guang King Hall, recently in charge of managing the Ghost Gate.

Today a major incident occurred at the Ghost Gate—a big axe inexplicably flew over and stuck in the gate. As ghost officials who were present at the time, both Big Head Ghost and Small Head Ghost were summoned by Judge Chu to ask about the situation.

What a great opportunity that was!

Finally able to see Judge Chu.

As long as he could produce something that satisfied Judge Chu, he might be promoted and transferred away from that broken place at the Ghost Gate.

But unexpectedly…

The two brothers, pooling their resources, couldn’t come up with anything.

When Judge Chu summoned them, Big Head Ghost and Small Head Ghost went empty-handed.

Small Head Ghost didn’t even remember how he had answered Judge Chu’s questions, only vaguely remembering being asked how the axe had come and whether there were any suspicious people around…

“What a waste…”

Thinking of that scene, Small Head Ghost felt utterly hopeless, shaking his bald head as if he was about to knock it to the ground.

Big Head Ghost watched with his heart racing, not daring to say another word.

That newcomer Zhang Tang, everyone cheerfully called “Old Zhang,” but actually few people liked him, just because he could read, making him different from them.

In Big Head Ghost’s view, this guy was indeed unlikeable.

That deadpan face, standing at the Ghost Gate, made people’s hearts flutter.

But you couldn’t help that he was capable.

Compared to these two good-for-nothings, he could read and write, looked good, and even seemed to have some cultivation brought from the human world.

More importantly, he was a ghost who came from the Wrongful Death City!

What kind of place was the Wrongful Death City?

All wrongful death ghosts.

In the Book of Life and Death, if the Yama King decreed you should die at the third watch but you died at the first watch, or you died at the fifth watch, such ghosts could enter the Wrongful Death City.

Who didn’t know that anyone who died differently from what was prescribed in the Book of Life and Death had some peculiar or special aspects?

So, the Wrongful Death City was actually where abnormal beings originated in the Extreme Domain.

Zhang Tang, who came from the Wrongful Death City and had been an official in life, being transferred to work as a minor official was perfectly normal.

Though Judge Chu was greedy for a bit of food and drink, he wouldn’t be confused about such matters.

Sigh.

But he absolutely didn’t dare say this to Small Head Ghost again.

Big Head Ghost silently swallowed his words, racking his brains, and finally realized that at times like this, changing the subject was the most appropriate method.

So he happily asked: “Small Head, what do you think is the origin of that axe?”

“How would I know!”

Can’t even change the subject properly!

Small Head Ghost rolled his eyes, too lazy to respond, and strode forward.

Big Head Ghost still didn’t know where he had failed, only thinking that as long as Small Head Ghost didn’t talk about their failed promotion or the newcomer Zhang Tang, everything would be fine.

So he continued: “I don’t know either. But when I was leaving today, I think I saw Judge Cui, the one in red clothes, the one beside King Qin Guang… Hey, why aren’t you walking?”

“…”

Small Head Ghost, who had been walking forward, suddenly stopped and looked ahead.

Big Head Ghost, walking behind him, looked at him strangely, then followed his gaze and saw it too.

Above the wasteland ahead, several dark blue rakshasa spirits were circling, refusing to leave.

Below, the wild grass was quite dense, half a person’s height.

But at this moment, in the middle, right below the rakshasa spirits, the grass seemed to have been burned away by something, leaving only a patch of miserable white ash.

A person covered in blood lay in that patch of ash, but not a single wound could be seen on their body. The exposed skin was snow-white, even under this gloomy sky, it was quite dazzling.

Not far from her, a sword lay at the edge of the ash.