Underworld Karma

Beneath the Nine Netherworlds lay the sacred ground of reincarnation.

This place was neither heaven, earth, human, god, nor ghost. It was the foundation of the three realms of the Primordial World, the endpoint and beginning of all things' reincarnation.

The boundless Blood Sea surged endlessly, filth churning through it as vengeful souls wailed. Naihe Bridge spanned the void, where ghostly shadows crowded thickly.

The Six Paths Reincarnation Disc turned slowly, emanating majestic power that determined the next lives of countless beings.

The Ten Halls stood in grim solemnity. Judges wielded their brushes, while Ox-Head and Horse-Face patrolled, maintaining the most basic order of this kingdom of the dead.

Yet since the Primordial World had opened, living beings had multiplied and wars had never ceased. Especially recently, as Tribulation Qi grew and slaughter gradually arose, the "burden" upon the Underworld had become increasingly heavy.

Nurtured by endless resentment and Karmic Force, the Blood Sea had grown ever more violent and turbulent, often battering the order of reincarnation.

Upon Naihe Bridge, souls awaiting reincarnation formed a long dragon-like line. Resentment intertwined, baleful energy soared into the heavens, and even the ghost officials responsible for guiding them could barely hold the situation together.

Within the Book of Life and Death beneath the Judge's Brush, the names of those newly wrongfully slain, violently slain, and miserably slain were recorded in dense profusion. Many were entangled in complex karma and crimson Karmic Force, making judgment extraordinarily difficult.

The entire Underworld resembled a precision machine operating beyond its limits.

Every gear groaned beneath an unbearable burden, and the air was steeped in a restless aura of oppression, chaos, and imminent collapse.

At the deepest reaches of the Underworld, at the core of the Reincarnation Disc, stood an ancient and magnificent palace filled with an aura of compassion and desolation—Pingxin Hall.

There was neither sun nor moon within the hall. Only the hazy clear radiance emitted by the turning Reincarnation Disc illuminated the figure of a woman seated upon a meditation cushion.

She wore a deep-black palace gown. Her face was breathtakingly beautiful, yet pale beyond measure, as though it held all the sorrow and silence in the world. Her eyes remained closed.

Around her flowed supreme Dao rhythms wholly fused with the entire Underworld and the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

She was Lady Pingxin—Lady Houtu—who had transformed herself into reincarnation and eternally guarded the Underworld, a Saint yet trapped here.

Though she could not leave the Underworld, because she was one with reincarnation, she possessed a special perception surpassing that of ordinary Saints toward the cycles of life and death, Karmic Force, and karma throughout the Primordial World.

In particular, slaughter, wrongful deaths, and entanglements of Karmic Force directly tied to the Underworld's order unfolded before her as if they were happening right before her "eyes."

At this moment, Lady Pingxin's face, silent as though unchanged for eternity, stirred almost imperceptibly.

Her eyes, closed for who knew how many eras, did not open. Yet an extremely faint thought, carrying a trace of surprise and inquiry, quietly spread from Pingxin Hall.

It swept across the entire Underworld, then followed the unseen threads of karma and Karmic Force toward the lands of the Primordial World, toward the East Sea, and toward Golden Turtle Island—the immortal island where ten thousand immortals paid court.

Within her "perception," countless rivers of Karmic Force, crimson, filthy, and endlessly tangled together—

were surging into the Underworld from all corners of the Primordial World, especially from directions closely tied to a certain vast sect, adding to reincarnation's burden.

Yet over this recent period, the "river water" flowing from one major source of that river of Karmic Force—

the direction of Jiejiao—seemed to have undergone an exceedingly subtle, yet undeniably real, change.

The river water was still crimson, still filled with negative Karmic Force born of slaughter, conflict, greed, anger, and more. This was inevitable given Jiejiao's doctrine of accepting all without distinction, its mixed disciples, and their tendency to act as they pleased.

But... amid that crimson murk, faint yet unusually tough and clear "trickles" seemed to have mixed in.

Wherever these "trickles" passed, they could slightly "purify" and "dilute" the most violent, disorderly, and unjust Karmic Force.

Lady Pingxin's "gaze" traced those strange "trickles" back to their source.

She "saw" the Eastern Sea Coast, where demonic beasts had slaughtered members of the Human Race, only to be stopped and killed by a group of Jiejiao disciples, who even rooted out the Chanjiao culprits behind the beasts' agitation.

An event that might originally have become a large-scale massacre, producing vast numbers of wrongfully dead vengeful souls and bloody karmic debts, had been smothered in the bud, leaving behind only the ordinary killing karma of battle.

She "saw" a public trial and severe punishment of traitors on Golden Turtle Island. It purged the infiltrators, cowed the petty schemers, and removed hidden dangers that might have sparked even greater internal strife,

producing further betrayal and hatred, transforming them instead into relatively "just" punitive Karmic Force. Punishment itself also generated Karmic Force, but its nature was different.

She "saw" many Jiejiao disciples consciously beginning to participate in humble "good deeds," such as aiding the weak, regulating earth veins, and cleansing filth. Because of this, they gained faint but genuine traces of Heavenly Dao Merit.

Though this Merit was slight, it clung to those disciples like sparks of fire and subtly affected the flow of Karmic Force around them.

The source of all these changes seemed to point vaguely toward one name—Xuan Chuan.

Not long ago, he had merely been an obscure Jiejiao disciple.

Yet now, with thunderous methods, he had reorganized the sect and implemented new rules. In the Shiji incident, he had even confronted Taiyi Golden Immortal directly, provoking an unseen clash between Tongtian and Yuanshi—the "variable."

"Jiejiao... Xuan Chuan..." A ripple so faint as to be negligible spread across the still lake of Lady Pingxin's heart.

The change she sensed was still a drop in the bucket, utterly insignificant against the boundless Karmic Force of the entire Primordial World and the Underworld's crushing burden.

It was like dropping a few beads of clear water into a roaring, muddy river, only for them to be swallowed in an instant.

But this was, after all, a "change." A faint change toward "order," "elimination," and "lightening the burden."

For the Underworld, this tightly wound clockwork machine that seemed ready to collapse at the next moment, any "loosening" that might relieve even a trace of pressure deserved a measure of her attention.

More importantly, this change had arisen within Jiejiao, which had always been regarded as a "major source of Karmic Force" and a "main force in the great tribulation."

What did that mean? It meant that the seemingly ironclad, predetermined "calamity" might... perhaps possess a sliver of possibility for "correction."

Lady Pingxin's thought lingered for a long time upon the faint, newly born karmic thread of "clear current" between the Underworld and Golden Turtle Island, as though examining, calculating, and weighing it.

In the end, she did nothing. She bestowed no blessing, sent no message, and did not even manifest the slightest phenomenon.

Only that gaze from the deepest reaches of the Nine Netherworlds, born from reincarnation itself—cold and silent, yet containing supreme compassion and intent to investigate—

passed like a wisp of breeze through endless darkness and layer upon layer of space. Above Golden Turtle Island, at the edge of the steadily growing cloud of fortune, it brushed past with extreme brevity and gentleness.

Then, as though it had never existed, it quietly withdrew, returning to the eternal silence of Pingxin Hall and the Reincarnation Disc's everlasting rotation.

On Golden Turtle Island, Xuan Chuan was sitting quietly within his cave abode, comprehending the mysteries of the connection between The One That Escaped and Jiejiao's fortune, when he suddenly felt something.

It was not a warning of danger, nor a sensation of opportunity, but an extremely subtle and indescribable feeling of being watched.

That gaze came neither from above—the Heavenly Dao or Saints—nor from beside him—his peers or great powers. It seemed to come from... below?

From the Nine Netherworlds? From that final destination of all living beings?

There was neither malice nor goodwill in the gaze. There was only vast, ancient, compassionate silence, and a trace of faint attention that was almost impossible to catch.

Xuan Chuan frowned slightly. His divine sense and The One That Escaped instantly swept over his entire body, yet he found nothing. The feeling had come swiftly and vanished even faster, as though it had merely been an illusion.

But he was certain it had not been an illusion.

"The Underworld... reincarnation... Lady Pingxin?" Understanding arose in Xuan Chuan's heart.

Of course. By reforming Jiejiao and reducing needless slaughter and Karmic Force, he had indirectly lightened the burden upon Underworld reincarnation. It was only natural that the Saint who had transformed herself into reincarnation

and eternally guarded the Underworld would sense it and cast a glance his way.

This was not direct assistance or acknowledgment. It was more like... a silent observation and assessment.

Xuan Chuan slowly exhaled, but his eyes became even clearer.

It seemed that what he was doing was not merely changing Jiejiao's fate. He was also, in subtle ways, prying at the entire structure of Karmic Force and reincarnation throughout the Primordial World.

Even if it was only an extremely tiny corner, it had already begun to draw the attention of truly supreme beings.

The road was indeed still long. Every step required caution, but also resolve.

He looked beyond the cave abode, as though his gaze could pierce through the earth and see the Reincarnation Disc beneath the Nine Netherworlds.

That place was the endpoint—or perhaps, in a certain sense... the beginning.