“What exactly is going on?”

Seeing Jian Chou’s expression, Little Head Ghost knew that something they didn’t know about had definitely happened just now. Hearing her mention “Cui Jue,” his heart began to pound, somewhat confused.

But Jian Chou had already begun walking forward, only saying: “It was Cui Jue investigating my whereabouts, specifically targeting me. However, he didn’t discover me.”

After a pause in her voice, she asked instead: “Is there a time limit for going to the registry office?”

“No.”

Little Head Ghost instinctively answered Jian Chou’s question, his thoughts still on that Grand Judge Cui.

Cui Jue was now a formidable person—he had actually been investigating Jian Chou’s whereabouts just now?

Thinking this, Little Head Ghost immediately felt his hair stand on end.

He hunched his shoulders, looked around at the pitch-black buildings, and swallowed: “Then… then he won’t come again, will he?”

Jian Chou turned back to look at him with a smile, her face full of teasing: “If I said he wouldn’t come again, would you believe me?”

Little Head Ghost immediately shook his head like a rattle drum: “How could I possibly believe that!”

“Then that settles it.”

Jian Chou was quite open-minded. Knowing that these two little ghosts were timid and afraid of trouble, she didn’t mind their reaction at all, instead finding it somewhat amusing.

Poor Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost—after hearing Jian Chou’s indifferent remark, they felt chilled to the bone.

How could they have imagined that picking up a living person would mean boarding such a massive pirate ship?

Sigh.

It was too late to get off the boat now.

Seeing Jian Chou continue walking forward, the two exchanged glances and resignedly stepped forward to catch up.

After walking for about two more quarters of an hour, the buildings in the near distance, after becoming sparse for a while, became dense again.

However, the colors of the buildings here were different from the mostly brilliant colors at the city gate—they had returned to a heavy, profound black.

“This is the place.”

Seeing this area of buildings, Little Head Ghost pointed out a direction to Jian Chou.

Following his indication, Jian Chou looked up and saw a tall archway rising from the ground among the heavy buildings, making the surrounding structures appear much lower.

Eighteen skull carvings decorated the base of the archway, with scenes from the eighteen levels of hell carved on both sides, appearing fierce and terrifying.

At the top of the archway were three large characters—

Registry Office.

Two small ghosts stood guard beside the gate, wearing simple black robes similar to those of Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost, like bailiffs from human government offices.

Seeing Jian Chou, Big Head Ghost, and Little Head Ghost standing in front of the archway, one of the ghost officers with a protruding belly pointed his three-pronged fork at them: “Are you new ghosts here for registration?!”

In the silent night, the shrill voice immediately echoed throughout this area of buildings.

Both Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost were startled and hurriedly stepped out from behind Jian Chou.

Big Head Ghost was wooden, Little Head Ghost was slick.

Such matters involving dealing with people were always handled by Little Head Ghost.

So at this moment, Big Head Ghost naturally fell back two steps, staying beside Little Head Ghost, letting him speak with the guard ghost.

Little Head Ghost was small and short, not even half the height of this pot-bellied guard ghost. He respectfully cupped his hands, putting on the appearance of a fawning underling: “Exactly, exactly. The matter of receiving new ghosts in the City of Wrongful Death was recently transferred to the Reception Department’s responsibility. Today is the first time this humble one has brought a new ghost here. Look, it’s that one behind us.”

Speaking, Little Head Ghost pointed behind himself.

Jian Chou stood in place, having not moved at all, just curiously observing the guard ghost.

Tall as half an iron tower, he looked like he lived well normally, with a purple-red face, glaring with round eyes, and even his nose seemed to breathe along when he spoke.

At this moment, they turned their eyes to stare at Jian Chou together.

“How can even such a cripple enter the City of Wrongful Death now?”

Upon seeing Jian Chou, the tower-like ghost officer frowned with considerable contempt.

Jian Chou had originally intended to step forward and pay respects as well—after all, when under someone’s roof, one must bow one’s head.

Who would have thought this ghost officer would say such a thing?

This was truly unexpected.

“Cripple?”

She was somewhat puzzled, looking down at herself. Apart from looking like she’d been gnawed on, where was she crippled?

“With incomplete three souls and seven spirits, what else would you call it but crippled?”

Seeing Jian Chou’s confused expression, the ghost officer became even more disdainful and immediately lost interest in extorting anything.

“Fine, fine, the official is still inside. Hurry up and go in!”

“Thank you both, thank you both.”

Little Head Ghost was delighted to hear this and hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

But when he turned around and saw Jian Chou still standing there in a daze, he became anxious and wanted to ask “Great Lord Jian Chou, what are you standing there for?” Fortunately, he reacted in time, coughed, and scolded: “New ghost, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and get inside!”

This was truly playing the grandson before the master and the master before the grandson, switching between grandson and master with ease.

Impressive.

Jian Chou was amused inside. Though she found the attitude of these two guard ghosts unpleasant, she didn’t react much, cooperatively putting on a submissive appearance: “Yes, yes.”

Speaking, she walked forward.

Only then were Little Head Ghost and Big Head Ghost satisfied, still saying to the two guard ghosts: “This new ghost just arrived recently and is somewhat stupid. Don’t mind her.”

“Hurry up and go.”

The guard ghosts had no interest in cripples and impatiently urged them to leave.

Only then did Little Head Ghost bow and scrape with smiles, leading Big Head Ghost and Jian Chou past the archway to see the registry office ahead.

There were several steps in front of the main entrance, with two tall sculptures on either side, arranged similarly to human government offices.

From a distance, Jian Chou couldn’t clearly see the appearance of those statues, only vaguely feeling they looked like human figures. She couldn’t help asking: “Why is this registry office so similar to human government offices?”

“The Extreme Realm has almost completely severed contact with the cultivation world. For six hundred years, most ghost cultivators have come from the isolated human islands, so they’ve been greatly influenced by that side. These underworld structures are all modeled after human ones.”

Little Head Ghost had wondered about this before and had asked people, so he explained easily.

In the time it took to say these few words, they had already approached the main entrance.

Thus, Jian Chou finally clearly saw those two tall sculptures.

Although the entire registry office wasn’t as tall as the archway outside, the building itself was already one story higher than the outside. The height of these two statues, however, was almost the same as the outside archway!

Standing beneath these sculptures and looking up created an oppressive, suffocating feeling.

“This is Lord Qin Guang, the First Yama King of the Eight Directions City.”

Little Head Ghost wasn’t seeing this statue for the first time and was very clear about it. Seeing Jian Chou’s attention, he introduced it again.

Lord Qin Guang?

The most formidable one in the Eight Directions City?

Jian Chou couldn’t help but look up—

The entirely black stone statue, carved and polished from some unknown stone material, had an inner profound luster that flowed faintly, making the statue attract gazes from all directions.

It was indeed a human figure, holding an open large book in his left hand and an ancient, simple round mirror in his right hand, wearing a crown and imperial robes, with broad sleeves facing the wind. Beyond being tall and upright, it had a majestic bearing.

Long eyebrows swept across the stars, calm eyes contained mountains and rivers.

He even had a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, yet his authority was profound, looking down upon the world!

Upon seeing this, Jian Chou felt her heart tremble.

Not only because of Lord Qin Guang’s bearing and authority that seemed capable of commanding mountains and rivers, but also because of his posture holding objects in each hand and the crown on his head…

In the depths of her consciousness, it reminded her of what she had seen beneath a stage long ago.

That “self” who had reached out a hand toward her.

The imperial robes were different, the crown was different, but this posture carried a familiar feeling that made her scalp tingle.

Images from her memories flew out frantically.

Jian Chou stood in place looking, as if frozen, or perhaps awed by the statue’s imposing presence.

“Each Yama King has two sacred ancient treasures. Lord Qin Guang holds the Book of Life and Death in his left hand, and in his right hand is the Bitter Sea Sin Mirror that constantly reflects the Sin-Reflecting Platform.”

A trembling voice carried thick fear.

Little Head Ghost only thought Jian Chou was stunned like he had been when first seeing the statue, and didn’t think deeper.

He kept looking around, as if afraid his words might be offensive.

The Book of Life and Death governed the Six Paths of Reincarnation; the Bitter Sea Sin Mirror revealed the sins of all beings.

As the First Yama King, the two magical artifacts controlled by Lord Qin Guang were both born from the Extreme Realm, created by heaven and earth, representing the rules of operation, extremely powerful.

Such treasures born from heaven and earth were called Sacred Ancient Treasures.

Jian Chou finally came back to her senses somewhat. She blinked, her eyes carrying some obscure, difficult-to-interpret darkness, and slowly raised her empty palms.

Her empty hands held no axe, no sword.

Her voice was low like a murmur: “Do all the underworld departments have statues of the Yama Kings?”

“They all do. Each department is governed by whichever Yama King, so they erect that Yama King’s statue. I heard the one at the registry office is small—the ones in the Eight Directions City are truly huge!”

Little Head Ghost became excited once he started talking, speaking enthusiastically in front of Jian Chou.

The Eight Directions City was where the eight Yama Kings resided, hailed as the “heart” of the Extreme Realm—a colossal entity.

But what the ghost cultivators of the Extreme Realm most yearned for wasn’t the unreachable eight Yama Kings, but their statues.

In the entire Extreme Realm, only in the Eight Directions City could one see all eight Yama King statues simultaneously.

Legend had it that each statue was taller than the eighteen-story above-ground tower, with feet planted on their respective eighteen levels of hell and heads reaching the high nine-layered sky of the Extreme Realm—truly fearsome.

Even standing far from the Eight Directions City, they could be seen.

The eight statues were called the eight “Heaven-Reaching Statues,” representing the eight Yama Kings’ rule over the entire Extreme Realm.

For six hundred years, they had never fallen.

“Never fallen…”

Listening, Jian Chou couldn’t help but narrow her eyes slightly, letting that intense emotion in her eyes quietly disappear.

Little Head Ghost was already excited in his explanation. Seeing Jian Chou’s expression, he thought she was like him, so he asked: “Do you also want to go to the Eight Directions City to see the eight Yama Kings’ Heaven-Reaching Statues?”

Jian Chou slowly withdrew her gaze, nodded, and smiled faintly: “I do.”

“Haha, then in the future I’ll take you to broaden your horizons… no, no, no, that’s not right, it’s that… Great Lord Jian Chou, you take us to broaden our horizons, hehe.”

Little Head Ghost realized something was wrong halfway through speaking and quickly slapped his mouth to correct himself.

Jian Chou didn’t mind at all. She just took one last look at the tall statue of Lord Qin Guang, then turned and gracefully stepped up the stairs, walking step by step toward the entrance of the registry office.

Not just the Eight Directions City—

The vast universe was endless and infinite.

She would climb step by step, see view by view…

The long night of the City of Wrongful Death had only just passed its greater half.

Inside the registry office hall, an official in court robes had already received word from the archway ghost and knew new ghosts were coming. He now sat upright in the hall, his fat body embedded in the chair, with a register of wrongful death ghosts spread before him.

Hearing footsteps, with three figures walking in, the fat judge put on a stern face, slammed the jade table, and shouted: “New ghost, what is your surname and name? Report quickly!”

Jian Chou wasn’t frightened. Upon entering, she bowed respectfully.

Her heart was still as an ancient well, giving rise to a wonderful feeling. In this strange and unpredictable Extreme Realm, she was announcing her identity openly and honestly for the first time.

“This new ghost has no surname, named Jian Chou.”