The rocky path toward the foundation of Yang Dynasty had left the Underworld with waves upon waves of departed souls. However, everyone was excited with the prospect of a better future. Even Horse-Face was joking with him, saying that they wouldn't be able to get yearly bonus now that there would be less killing in the upper realms.

It was supposed to be just another normal cycle of patrol, watching over souls as they lined up for reincarnation. Whenever they saw heroes of the old era, they would swoop down from the sky and exchanged greetings. Nothing out of the ordinary.

That was, until the Sun Sovereign, Wu Tianyou, blasted through the realm's boundary.

Riding his famed Exalted Golden Dragon, the renegade deity-level immortal ignored the Guardians' warning and broke his way in. The burden of karma exhuming from his living body was so strong that the Underworld itself was starting to collapse.

"Venerable Wu! We understand your feeling, but the rules of Heaven have to be observed at all cost! It's for the sake of all the realms! Please leave!"

Horse-Face's attempt at placating the cultivator ended with a thousand Revolving Sun Needles aimed at his vital points. Thankfully, Ox-Head managed to deflect them with his trident.

Since words could no longer be used, they could only fight.

As expected from one of the focal character of the previous era, Wu Tianyou's power was comparable to the other heroes. Even the mighty Guardians of the Underworld could only hold him for a few moves before they were forced to retreat further down the realm.

Because of that, Wu Tianyou's Revolving Sun Needles were spraying down into the Underworld, destroying the landscapes and further causing instability to the realm. The Blade Mountains crumbled down, the River of Flame boiled up and splashed out from its course, even the palace of King Yama itself began to crack.

The army of Hell was forced to move. Even though the burden would devastate the realm, it was still better than letting it destroyed by that insane degenerate.

When backup finally arrived, the Guardians were already exhausted. They had sustained too much damage from Revolving Sun Needles' soul-incinerating properties, preventing them from fighting any further. As they stood watch from the side while recuperating, Ox-Head took a glance at the chaos below.

Somehow, the wheel of reincarnation had broke down during the fight. The gigantic wheel, the representation of the flow of karma, had fallen into the pool of reincarnation below, destroying the boundaries and diluting the karmic water.

It was no longer the path to cleanse one's karma, it was now a poisonous lake that could shred apart unfortunate souls who had fallen in!

The Guardians should be helping the souls below, but they couldn't move at the moment. They were glad that the old heroes were assisting the staffs to evacuate other souls, bringing them as far away as possible from the edge.

On their side, the battle was growing even wilder than before.

Wu Tianyou's strength seemed to be endless. His techniques grew stronger. Other than the deadly Revolving Sun Needles, he could also summon dark-colored lightning as strong as the Heavenly Tribulation itself.

The Guardians never dreamed that a day would come when the army of Hell would be pushed back in their home turf.

"Blast it! How strong is his karma? Is he using up his entire soul just for that one attack?" Horse-Face groaned. They couldn't sit still any longer. Together with Ox-Head, they rejoined the fight, finally turning the balance back to an equilibrium.

At that moment, a stray Revolving Sun Needle flew down, threatening to hit Old Lady Meng. A soul rushed in to save her only to fall into the pool in her place. Soon after, another soul jumped in, as if trying to follow him.

"Don't. Get. In. My. Way!"

Wu Tianyou was oblivious to the commotion below. His eyes were blood-red, focusing only in his goal. His immortal soul moved his qi to form his strongest attack.

Above him, thousands upon thousands of Revolving Sun Needles were formed, rotating in the shape of a sphere so large it could compare to the actual sun.

"Don't let him finish that mystic art! Use everything that you have!"

With the General's shout, the army of Hell as well as the two Guardians decided to forgo any defensive maneuver and just went straight to attack him. Thousands of blades and arrows and flames and lightning were converging at one direction, all in order to stop the lone lunatic.

"Begone!"

They were just a beat too late. The spell had been completed.

The dark Underworld was briefly covered in blinding light as Wu Tianyou's Revolving Sun Needles rained death upon the entire realm. The lands were destroyed in droves, even some unfortunate souls who hadn't managed to find cover had been blasted into oblivion, forever removing them from the path of life.

It was only through the sacrifice of the army, who had used themselves as living shields, that a total tragedy could be avoided. At least some of the lands were safe from harm.

However, they were in no shape to continue fighting anymore. They could only hope to stall for time until more backup, if possible at all, could be mobilized.

Wu Tianyou himself hadn't managed to stop all of their previous attacks. His soul was damaged during the fight as well. And yet, he still refused to back down. He more and more resembled a vengeful spirit who would not stop until his soul was extinguished whole.

"The Guardians of Underworld... the Army of Hell... annoying, all of you... disappear from my sight!"

A surge of black lightning sliced through the dark sky, heading toward Horse-Face.

"Shi-"

At the last moment, he was pushed to the side by Ox-Head, who had taken the hit in place of his partner.

The lightning blasted a hole through his torso, cutting his body in two. His lower part disintegrated into dust, while his upper part fell down from the sky, plunging toward the swirling pool of reincarnation below.

"No! Niutou!"

His partner's voice sounded distant. He wondered which one would happen first: would his soul disintegrate from that attack, or would he got shredded into pieces by the raging karmic water?

He saw the cliff crumbling down as more souls lost their footings and fell down as well. Finally, he sunk into the murky water himself.

The feeling could only be described as more painful than the entire punishment from the Nine Layers of Hell combined.

He grasped through the darkness, stubbornly clinging to life. He saw several tiny dots of light, but on in particular shone brighter than the others, like the sun among the stars. Naturally, he was drawn into that light. Dragging his battered soul toward that light, he kept going while his consciousness grew more and more blurry.

In the end, he collapsed. Whether he succeeded to reach that light or not, he couldn't know.

---

"Then, I had somehow woken up in this state."

Kankuro ended his reminiscence.

The mood in the tea house was extremely heavy. The three former cultivators were deep in their own thoughts, each with their own memories of what had happened back there.

Suddenly, someone raised their voice, breaking the awkward silence.

"Excuse me, honored guests... would you like to order...?"

The four turned their head at the blonde-haired waitress at the same time, like a scene from a horror movie. That made the poor girl yelped in fright.

"A-a-aah... I-I'm sorry!"

She actually had been standing there since around the time that Kankuro had reached the middle part of his story, but she didn't dare to say anything since they looked so serious back then. She thought that if she interrupted midway, they would really kill her!

Though, she couldn't understand why they paying so much attention to the boy's rambling. Since she couldn't understand even a single word, from her standpoint, he was only spouting incoherent crap. Actually, it sounded more like he got a bout of stroke when talking...

"Ah, sorry, sorry, we're too engrossed in our discussion," the boy said in normal language, further confusing her.

'Eh, you can speak like a sane person? Then why didn't you do that from the start?!?'

"Five cups, please," Hikari lazily said while shooing the waitress.

"Amm... five cups it is! Coming right up!"

At that moment, the waitress sneaked a glance at Hikari, who was still nestled tightly in Daji's embrace.

'Oh wait, that girl didn't bring that puppy again this time? She was being embraced by a voluptuous beauty instead. That position... don't tell me that they're...?"

The teenage girl whose mind was beginning to wander toward the wrong direction quickly ran away while blushing uncontrollably.

"...Ahem. So, where were we?" Youen coughed, bringing the group's attention back from that short distraction.

"Ah, yeah. About the culprit from that time... it was definitely Venerable Wu, Wu Tianyou."

Kankuro sneaked a glance at Hikari. As expected, she frowned upon mention of that name.

"I already know," she sighed. "Daji had told me."

"I'm sorry... I don't know what happened after that..."

"It's impossible for a single person to win against the entire world," Youen harrumphed. "Don't forget about the Army of Heaven, as well as the innumerable virtuous immortals who would assist the fight if it got dragged a bit longer. Do you think with his selfish reasoning he could still win? Surely he had been taken care of at this moment."

"True..." Kankuro murmured.

However, at what cost? A few souls had perished during that fight. A few too many! Not to mention, the Underworld would take years of mortal realm to recover from that degree of damage.

"Well, that's the past. We better talk about our current situation instead."

Youen directed his gaze to Hikari.

"Venerable Yao, what are you planning to do now?"

The latter raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean, little Mei?"

"I meant what I'd said. We're in a different world, where the Laws of Heaven work differently. I've tried cultivating myself, but the most I could do is reaching Qi Condensation stage. I'm sure that you're already aware of it.

Honestly, the most logical answer to my question is to live according to this world's law. Thankfully, a form of energy known as chakra exists. We can still use our knowledge to some extent with that power. As long as we play it smart, we can live quite comfortably in this world. Forget about our past, and start a new leaf. What do you think?"

After all, wasn't that their initial plan when they re-entered reincarnation? They were merely changing the place. There shouldn't be any problem with it.

However, Hikari's expression said otherwise.

Even a dumb person could tell in a single glance. She was definitely not amused with his suggestion.

"I'm going back."

"Huh?"

Youen and Kankuro blinked at her.

"I'm going back to our world, to the Yang Dynasty. That was what I've planned from the time that I had woken up in this world, and that conviction will never change."

Because...

"I had made a promise. I would live in the Yang Dynasty in her place, to witness and watch over its grandeur as her eyes and ears. I'll never renege on that promise. I will definitely return!"

That was why he couldn't stay in this world forever.

That was why he would never stop trying to cultivate.

Even though his cultivation barely advanced, he'd never given up hope. He kept pressing on no matter, because he knew that once he stopped, it would be the end of the road.

"So, you'll stubbornly walk down that path, even if you know that it is futile?" Youen glared at her.

Her lips curved up into a proud smile.

"We are cultivators. We are people who challenged the Heaven, making what's impossible possible. If we can't do it the usual way, we'll find another! It's pointless to stop me. I'll keep going, even if I have to walk this path alone."

"Not alone," Daji said as she squeezed the girl's hand fondly. "I'll always stay by your side, no matter what choice that you'll make."

Youen kept glaring at the two for a few more seconds before he finally backed down.

"...Fine, I know this will happen..." he let out a tired sigh. "Big sister... you know, you're wasted on that pitiful excuse of a man. Even though he already has someone so devoted by his side, in the end all he's thinking about is that Ying'er..."

"Fufufu... I know. I'll have to punish him later~"

Hikari shuddered. Daji's last words didn't sound like a joke... what should she do to get out of this predicament?

"B-because, it's a promise! A man real won't break his promise! You know that, right?!"

"Who cares about what a real man would do. Big sister and I are women, big brother," Youen snorted.

"You're a man now!"

"Well you're not a man anymore, so you shouldn't care, right?"

"..."

This woman... still as snarky as ever...

Kankuro coughed, hard.

"Ahem... sorry to disrupt your lover's quarrel, but can we get back to the topic?"

"We're not in a lover's qua- you know what, nevermind..."

She didn't have the energy to retort, so she just gave up.

Just as she was about to say something, a voice echoed in her mind.

"Oi. This One is coming out."

"Venerable One? Wait, I'll tell them first. Little Mei, Ox-Head."

She motioned for them to come closer.

"Keep what you're going to see a secret, okay?"