"I think you're the real monsters!" Xiruan shot back. "In broad daylight—no, in this vast world beneath the heavens—you're abducting people by force!"
"This is kidnapping! It's against the law!"
As she spoke, she raised her Chaos Baby Bottle.
"Watch me represent the moon—no, my daddy—and destroy you!"
"You're asking for death!"
Black and White Impermanence exchanged a glance and attacked at the same time.
White Impermanence's Soul Snatching Chain transformed into a white venomous snake, striking directly at the soul.
Black Impermanence's Crying Stick came down with the force of ten thousand mountains, aiming straight for the body.
The two worked together seamlessly, one attacking the spiritual and the other the physical. Even a Great Being at the Quasi-Saint level would have to avoid the brunt of their assault.
"Outnumber me?"
Xiruan pursed her little lips and tossed the Zhuxian Formation Diagram into the air.
"Come out! My four bodyguards!"
Buzz—!
The Zhuxian Formation Diagram unfurled instantly, turning into a blood-red world that enveloped everything within a hundred miles.
Four immortal swords, radiating a murderous aura, flew out of the diagram and hung suspended in the four directions.
They were none other than the Four Swords of Immortal Execution!
Terrifying sword qi filled the entire Yellow Spring Road in an instant.
Black and White Impermanence's attacks disintegrated the moment they touched it.
The two of them were struck as if by lightning. The invisible sword qi swept over them, and their ghostly bodies instantly turned translucent.
"This... This is... the Zhuxian Sword Formation?!"
White Impermanence stared at the four familiar swords, her voice trembling.
"Master Tongtian?! Weren't you... weren't you imprisoned in Zixiao Palace?!" Black Impermanence was so terrified that he nearly lost his soul.
As old ghosts who had lived through the Investiture of the Gods, how could they not recognize the fame of the Primeval World's number-one killing formation?
Back then, four Saints had joined forces and barely managed to break this sword formation.
And now, this killing formation had appeared in the Underworld!
Worse still, the one controlling it was a toddler who looked barely three and a half years old?!
"What pig immortals and ox immortals? I don't know what you're talking about." Xiruan had no idea what they meant.
She waved her little hand and directed the Four Swords of Immortal Execution.
"Get them! Tie up those two bad guys!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Four streaks of sword light flashed past.
In an instant, four razor-sharp streams of sword qi bound Black and White Impermanence tightly, leaving them unable to move.
The sword qi hovered at their throats. With a single thought from Xiruan, they would be reduced to nothing on the spot, with no chance of reincarnation.
"Please spare us, Great-Aunt! Have mercy, Holy Maiden!"
Black and White Impermanence gave in completely and hurriedly begged for mercy.
"Hmph! Now you're scared?" Xiruan walked up to them, raising her little chin proudly.
"Tell me, what happened to the ghost you just captured? Why did you take him?"
"R-reporting to the Holy Maiden," White Impermanence stammered. "That ghost was too attached to his past and refused to cross Naihe Bridge. We were only following the rules when we escorted him to the City of the Wrongly Dead..."
"The City of the Wrongly Dead?" Xiruan's eyes lit up at the name. "Are lots and lots of my daddy's company employees locked up there?"
"I... I don't know about that."
"You don't know?" Xiruan shoved the bottle toward him. "Then I'll keep hitting you until you do!"
"No, no!" Black Impermanence was so frightened he nearly wet himself. "Great-Aunt, the City of the Wrongly Dead is under the jurisdiction of His Highness King Qin Guang. Please... please go ask him. He'll know for sure!"
"King Qin Guang?" Xiruan nodded. "All right. Take me to him!"
"You two, lead the way!"
With the Four Swords of Immortal Execution escorting them so cordially, Black and White Impermanence didn't dare resist. They hung their heads and obediently led the way.
They couldn't stop grumbling inwardly.
What was this nonsense?
They'd only gone out to collect a soul. How had they managed to offend such a Little Ancestor?
Who on earth was this little menace?
Not only did she have the Zhuxian Sword Formation, but that baby bottle in her hand looked pretty sinister, too.
Most importantly, she kept claiming she was Master Tongtian's daughter.
Since when did Master Tongtian have a daughter?
Could it be that the Saint, stuck under house arrest with nothing to do, had made one himself? Had he... given birth?
Lost in their own thoughts, the two of them soon led Xiruan and Holy Mother Wudang to the end of Yellow Spring Road.
A massive stone bridge appeared ahead.
Below it flowed a surging river of blood-tinged yellow water. Countless resentful souls drifted and wailed in its currents, giving off a foul stench.
An old woman stood on the bridge, handing steaming bowls of soup to the ghosts crossing it.
"Senior, this is Naihe Bridge. The river beneath it is Wangchuan River, and that old woman is Meng Po."
Holy Mother Wudang quietly explained, "Those who drink her Meng Po Soup forget their past and enter the cycle of reincarnation anew."
"Oh, so she's the lunch lady from my daddy's company cafeteria." Xiruan nodded. "This soup doesn't smell very good."
She didn't want to forget her daddy, so there was no way she was drinking that stuff.
The group walked onto Naihe Bridge.
Meng Po glanced up at them but said nothing, lowering her head to keep ladling soup.
She seemed utterly indifferent to everything around her.
Beyond Naihe Bridge stood a massive city. Three large characters were written above its gates: Fengdu City.
They entered the city. Its streets crisscrossed beneath a shifting mass of ghostly figures, much like a city in the mortal realm—except everything here seemed gloomy and oppressive.
Led by Black and White Impermanence, they arrived at a magnificent palace.
The entire palace was pitch-black. A plaque above its entrance read "First Hall," and an ancient-looking mirror hung above it. Its dim light seemed capable of seeing into people's hearts.
"Great-Aunt, this is His Highness King Qin Guang's Yanluo Palace." White Impermanence pointed at the hall, speaking cautiously.
"Mm. You two can get lost now." Xiruan waved them away.
"Thank you, Great-Aunt! Thank you, Holy Maiden!"
Black and White Impermanence were as relieved as if they'd been pardoned. They turned into two streaks of blue smoke and vanished in an instant.
They had to hurry and report to the Ten Yama Kings and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva!
When the sky fell, the tall ones had to hold it up!
Xiruan surveyed Yanluo Palace and pursed her lips.
"The place is painted all black. It has no taste at all. No wonder this is such a crooked company."
She took a deep breath, then threw her head back and shouted at the top of her lungs into the hall:
"King of Hell! Your company is illegally holding employees! Get out here and pay their wages—!"
Her voice boomed like rolling thunder, instantly echoing throughout the First Hall before spreading toward the deeper halls.
Inside the hall,
King Qin Guang sat behind his desk, judging the ghosts brought in that day.
The Judge stood nearby, flipping through the Book of Life and Death, while Ox-Head and Horse-Face flanked him, imposing and formidable.
At that earth-shaking shout from outside, all the ghosts and deities froze.
King Qin Guang's hand jerked, nearly dropping the block in his hand.
"Who?!"
"Who's making a racket outside?!" he roared furiously.
This was Yanluo Palace, a place of authority where countless ghosts were judged and the cycle of reincarnation controlled.
And someone dared to shout so brazenly outside the hall?
And... demand that he pay wages?
What wages?!
"Guards! Drag that insolent fool in here!" King Qin Guang bellowed.
"Yes, sir!"
Ox-Head and Horse-Face immediately answered the order and charged outside with their steel forks.
They had barely reached the entrance when—
Bam—!
The two doors of Yanluo Palace, engraved with layers of sealing runes, were kicked open from the outside!
Wood chips flew everywhere.
A toddler with her hair tied into two upward-pointing buns, wearing a red bellyband and carrying a huge baby bottle, appeared in the doorway, backlit.
A fierce-looking female immortal followed behind her.
Ox-Head and Horse-Face stared at the tiny girl, dumbfounded.
That was the one who'd shouted just now?
And she'd kicked in the doors of Yanluo Palace?
"Are you two the boss's secretaries?" Xiruan asked Ox-Head and Horse-Face.
One had a bull's head and a human body.
The other had a horse's face and a human body.
What a pair.
"You audacious mon—"
Ox-Head had just started to scold her when—
Xiruan had already lost patience.
"Move! You're in the way!"
She swung the baby bottle, one blow after another.
Thud!
Thud!
Ox-Head and Horse-Face—two ghost commanders who'd thrown their weight around in the Underworld for countless years—were smashed against the wall with a single bottle each.
They were embedded so deeply that they couldn't even pull themselves out.
The whole hall fell into deathly silence.
King Qin Guang and the Judge stared blankly at the two human-shaped dents in the wall, then at the toddler walking into the hall.
They felt as though their entire worldview had been shaken to its core.
"W-who are you?" King Qin Guang asked, his voice trembling.
"I'll say it one more time."
Xiruan declared angrily, tossing the baby bottle onto the floor. The entire Yanluo Palace shook three times.
She planted her hands on her hips and gave King Qin Guang one last warning.
"I'm Xiruan, Tongtian's daughter, and I'm here to collect a debt!"
"Right now! Hand over all the employees from my daddy's company!"
"And calculate all the wages, bonuses, overtime pay, and emotional distress compensation they're owed for the time you held them!"
"If you're short by even one cent, I'll shut down this lousy company today!"
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