“It’s all your fault! If you hadn’t discovered that demon was a living person back then, we wouldn’t have carried her back home; if we hadn’t carried her back home, we wouldn’t have been threatened by her; if we hadn’t been threatened by her, we wouldn’t have sought out Zhang Tang! Naturally, we wouldn’t have been targeted by him! We wouldn’t have had to hide in this godforsaken place for so many years, and we probably would have been promoted to judges long ago!”

Among the ruins where weeds grew wild, a pointed head poked out from the cracks of a collapsed wall.

Little Head Ghost’s slippery and shrewd pair of red eyes swept around, confirming whether the surroundings were safe. Even in this state, his mouth wasn’t idle, angrily chattering nonstop.

Big Head Ghost had a dull and honest face, his green eyes wooden, following behind Little Head Ghost. But the wall crack ahead was just that big, and his head was much larger than Little Head Ghost’s. Having no self-awareness whatsoever, just as he was about to poke his head out, there came a “clang” sound, and stars immediately appeared before his eyes.

His head had gotten stuck in the crack.

Seeing this scene, Little Head Ghost was so angry he trembled, almost screaming: “Ah, ah! Are you a pig? No, even pigs are smarter than you! I go wherever you go, can’t you even watch where you’re going!”

“I, I saw you go through…”

Big Head Ghost stammered, and even being slow, he sensed Little Head Ghost’s anger. He quietly defended himself, but under the red light that suddenly brightened in the other’s eyes, his voice gradually died away.

This was a seemingly very ordinary ruin. The two ghosts had crawled up from beneath the ruins earlier, and what was now trapping Big Head Ghost was a narrow crack on the ground.

Half his head was exposed outside, still connected to a small braid behind his big head.

This appearance looked exactly like a big-headed radish.

Little Head Ghost truly wanted to die, standing before the crack and sighing toward the sky: “Who made me encounter you and become your brother? Even dying is difficult!”

Though he said this, he still walked over and hugged Big Head Ghost’s head to pull him up.

While pulling, he also complained.

“How are we just so unlucky?”

“Originally thought we’d latched onto a golden thigh, but who knew it was a life-threatening female demon? We barely had time to escape…”

“Don’t know how many more years we’ll have to hide in this place.”

“Hey Big Head, when do you think that Zhang fellow will die?”

…

Big Head Ghost’s swollen face was all distorted from being pulled, but hearing these words, the doubts that had occupied his mind for years still surfaced.

He blinked and looked at Little Head Ghost.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally asked: “I don’t know when Judge Zhang will die, but Little Head, I don’t understand why we have to run. Wasn’t it fine staying in the City of Wrongful Death…”

“…”

For a moment, Little Head Ghost wanted to directly stuff Big Head Ghost’s head back into the ground. He gritted his teeth and endured, took a deep breath, seemingly wanting to control himself, but ultimately couldn’t control it and roared out of control.

“Are you an idiot?!”

“You’ve asked me this same question a hundred times in these eighty years, don’t you remember?”

“I’ve said it before!”

“That Zhang fellow is obviously no good! Just one look from him makes me shudder! That demon was picked up by us two, yet she could still enter the Cauldron Competition and cause such a big incident. We all know he was scheming behind the scenes! After such a big incident that even alarmed the Yama Lords of the Eight Directions Yama Halls, how could he not kill us to silence us?”

“What’s the point of having such a big head?!”

“You’re going to anger me to death!”

Being yelled at like this, Big Head Ghost finally remembered some things and barely managed to sort out Little Head Ghost’s logic, but the problem was…

His expression became confused again.

“But Judge Zhang hasn’t made a move yet. How do you know he definitely wants to kill us…”

“…”

Powerless.

Completely powerless.

Little Head Ghost felt his entire ghost life became dark the moment Big Head Ghost asked this question, unable to see a trace of light.

Judge Zhang hasn’t made a move yet, so how do you know he definitely wants to kill us…

Hasn’t made a move your mother!

By the time he makes a move, you’d already be dead! Is asking such questions really being mentally disabled?!

Deep breath.

Deep breath.

Inhale, exhale.

Little Head Ghost stood beside the crack, spending a lot of effort to calm himself down, forcibly suppressing the dangerous thought of “might as well kill this idiot brother and go solo,” and closed his mouth while desperately pulling Big Head Ghost outward.

Big Head Ghost actually couldn’t tell what kind of sentence he had said, but seeing Little Head Ghost’s expression, his survival instinct surged up, and almost out of intuition, he temporarily shut his mouth.

They had really been hiding in this Eighteenth Layer of Hell for too long.

The year the Cauldron Competition had a major incident, they had hoped to follow Jian Chou to better days, but who would have thought this demon would do such terrifying things and have such a terrifying identity!

Big Head Ghost and Little Head Ghost had actually never heard of Yashan.

But this didn’t prevent them from learning about the shock and intimidation that the two words “Yashan” brought to the entire extreme region from others’ expressions and discussions after the incident.

Speaking of luck, before they could think clearly about what to do, they were confusedly captured by domineering Ghost King clan ghost cultivators to be little followers, serving them and following them into the Eighteenth Layer of Hell to investigate the situation, thus also hearing some movements of the Eight Directions Yama Halls.

At that time, they knew they had to escape.

If they returned to the extreme region, Zhang Tang, who had emerged from the Cauldron Competition, had already gained Lord Qin Guang’s favor and become a judge of the First Yama Hall. Dealing with these two little ghosts would be as easy as lifting a finger!

So when the Ghost King clan ghost cultivators finished investigating the situation in the Eighteenth Layer of Hell and were about to return to the Eight Directions City to report, Little Head Ghost decisively fled with Big Head Ghost.

The disappearance of two little ghosts with minimal cultivation attracted no attention at all.

From then on, they hid in this area of ruins. For some unknown reason, though people came and went over the past eighty years, no one discovered them hiding here. As for Zhang Tang, whom Little Head Ghost worried about, he never appeared even once.

Eighty years of living in fear!

How heart-wrenching!

Little Head Ghost was clever but timid. When he discovered that no one could find them in this area of ruins, he refused to move from their hiding place no matter what, staying here for eighty years.

Only very occasionally would he sneak out to gather information.

Over eighty years, just five or six times. Each time he went out was like putting his head on the chopping block, thrilling and terrifying, with any disturbance capable of scaring him to death.

Today they crawled out from beneath the ruins mainly to get some air.

Because seven days ago, Little Head Ghost had risked his life to go out and gather information, actually discovering that there weren’t many evil spirits left in the Eighteenth Layer of Hell. Upon inquiry, he learned that Shijiu Zhou cultivators had reached Ghost Gate Pass, and the Eight Directions Yama Halls and Ten Great Ghost Clans were conscripting ghost soldiers!

So now, they dared to show their heads among these ruins.

Who would have thought that this idiot Big Head Ghost would get stuck in a crack before even coming out!

Little Head Ghost held his breath and exerted force, but Big Head Ghost’s head remained stuck. Even though his face turned red from strain, there was no sign of it coming out.

He gritted his teeth and complained: “Really, what’s the point of having such a big head…”

Big Head Ghost smiled woodenly, seeming somewhat embarrassed: “It seems like it was swollen by water when I died. Um, are we really going to hide in these ruins for life?”

“What else?” Little Head Ghost rolled his eyes without thinking, “I told you, that Zhang fellow is no good! If we show our heads, we’ll definitely die! You’re not staying here hiding, can you beat that Zhang fellow?”

“But, but…” Big Head Ghost stammered, “But didn’t you say the Yama Lords were recruiting ghost soldiers a few days ago? If we go…”

“Bah! Dream on!”

Before he could finish, Little Head Ghost directly interrupted him.

“Never mind whether they want two small fries like us, even if they did, we’d still have to go to the battlefield! That Zhang fellow is now a Grand Judge under Lord Qin Guang, you hear clearly, Grand Judge! We’d have to call him grandfather when we see him! If he discovered us, he could crush us with one little finger! Besides, even if he didn’t discover us, we’d still lose our heads on the battlefield. Think about it, that’s Shijiu Zhou! I heard there are even Yashan cultivators! Have you forgotten that demon who nearly destroyed our extreme region with one palm slap back then? Three heads and six arms, fierce god… eh, what are you looking at?”

While talking and desperately pulling the person out, Little Head Ghost suddenly froze, discovering that Big Head Ghost, whose head was half-stuck in the crack, wasn’t looking at him anymore but had placed his gaze on a very, very high place above his head.

Inexplicably, half his body suddenly went cold.

Looking down, he saw that at some point, a thick black shadow had fallen on the ground, covering his entire small body, so the remaining half of his body also went cold.

A laugh that was somewhat unfamiliar yet seemed deeply engraved in one’s soul rang out above his head: “Demon?”

Little Head Ghost’s mind went “boom.”

He stiffly turned around and creakingly raised his head up, finally seeing from the pair of shoes in front of him to the smiling face looking down at him from above.

Shadow covered the entire face, looking exactly like a great demon from a painting!

With a “thud,” his knees went soft. His upper body was still straight, but his lower half had already knelt standard and proper before Jian Chou. He also very cleverly grinned, revealing his terrifying eight sharp teeth, then immediately began knocking his head on the ground with “thud thud” sounds.

“Little Head Ghost pays respects to Great Venerable Jian Chou, welcome the Great Venerable’s return!”