Uchiha Hikaru slowly rose along the green smoke billowing from the Eight Trigrams Furnace.
By instinct, he felt that familiar force of rejection descend upon him once more.
The immense pressure made him feel as though he were about to be crushed apart.
"Damn it, this feels even stronger than the last rejection force!"
He gritted his teeth, yet felt uncomfortable all over.
Oppression, chaos, unease, and even traces of negative emotions.
Only then did Uchiha Hikaru realize something: the primordial mist rising from the Eight Trigrams Furnace did not merely allow the pure to pass into the Underworld while the wicked descended to be burned to ashes. It also cleansed the lingering resentment carried by the pure in their previous lives.
Now that he was forcibly breaking through from below, he had most likely collided with this karmic burden of negative emotions. These things should have simply descended into the Eight Trigrams Furnace and been burned away.
Just as Uchiha Hikaru was about to lose his grip, his vision suddenly brightened, and the whole world fell silent.
He slowly opened his eyes and found a giant before him, sporting a huge black beard and wearing a hat bearing the character for "Yama."
Compared to his own body, the giant was countless times larger. Uchiha Hikaru seemed to be no bigger than one of his fingers.
While Uchiha Hikaru sized him up, the giant was also studying Uchiha Hikaru.
"Who goes there? In life, you... No... This feeling, you're alive!"
His words were rather confused. King Yama had clearly noticed that Uchiha Hikaru was different from the wandering souls.
The next moment, he roared furiously, "How dare you! A living man actually dares trespass into the Underworld! Do you not know that this violates the laws of the world? I'll