The reaper led the way, but this time, Hui walked abreast with her, fully aware of their destination. Back to Zhu Diyu’s court. We’ve been by twice in such short succession… does the reaper always visit this often, or is it only since I arrived that she’s been so active?

Hui straightened his robes, dusting them down self-consciously. “Elder Sister, remind me again. What are we reporting to Zhu Diyu about?”

She stared at him, dead-eyed. “Do you not remember?”

“No, no. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page,” Hui said, nodding.

“Si Wang summoned that resentment demon. We must let Zhu Diyu know that he’s active again, and that he’s found this new way to tamper with the natural passage of souls,” the reaper declared.

Yes, yes. Si Wang is the one tampering, and certainly not this small cultivator. Hui tucked his hands behind his back and peered at the reaper from the corner of his eyes. “Elder Sister, is it natural for resentment to build up like that?”

She shook her head. “All the more reason why we must inform Zhu Diyu of what has happened.”

“No, I don’t mean the demon. I mean… resentment, building up in the mortal world. Is it supposed to happen like that?” Hui asked, tilting his head.

The reaper sighed. “It’s something that has always happened since ancient times. Ghouls and ghosts are an unavoidable part of the Underworld’s operation. Although…”

“Although?”

“Recently, more resentment has been building up. We’re understaffed, with only one reaper, and with Heaven in disarray, the Underworld has become unstable… as you should well know,” the reaper said, shooting a look at Hui.

Hui swallowed. Have I been found out? Or rather, how has Elder Sister not noticed? Could it be that she knows, and she’s warning me to stop before it becomes a real problem?

I can’t. I can’t, Elder Sister! Stopping means giving up on my children. And I could never do that. Over my dead bod—you’ll have to drag me to hell—you…that… that is, it isn’t happening!

Smoothing his collar, Hui nodded. “I have noticed, Elder Sister. The realm is surprisingly shaky. I thought the Underworld would have a much stabler foundation.”

“It did, once. But as the Heavens suffer, so does the Underworld. The three realms are tied together, and no one of them can escape the others’ plight. More than anything, the Heavens must be rallied back into their proper shape.” The reaper scowled.

“But there’s nothing we in the Underworld can do,” Hui guessed.

She shook her head. “They ignore us. They ignore the mortal realm. The Heavens have vanished into themselves, and no one can communicate with them anymore.”

“Mmm, that’s true,” Hui said. Even Master only managed it once, with great difficulty. Although… given that it’s Master… I’m not sure he’d communicate, even if he could! He’d expect me to simply comprehend what the problem was, without any extraneous hints!

Hui coughed. “Going back to the resentment, though… is there any way for us to clear it away?”

“A long time ago… when the Heavens were functional, and the Underworld wasn’t crumbling, it was our, the reapers’, job to handle excess resentment. Now, though… we don’t have enough time to handle resentment. It’s all we can do to reap troublesome souls before they can sow resentment to try to stave off future problems.”

“Ah? But Elder Sister and I seem to have some free time,” Hui said.

“You are certainly free,” the reaper said, her voice acid.

Hui jolted. Er, is Elder Sister working while I rest? My apologies, I didn’t mean to step on a landmine!

She waved her hand. “But you’re recovering. Once you’re recovered, you’ll be out at all hours, like me.”

“Oh,” Hui said. Mental note: never recover! I need to train my children. I can’t afford for my job to be my life!

“In any case, even if I only worked your hours, I still wouldn’t have enough time to exorcise resentment from the world. Resentment requires one to comprehend the fundamental issues that caused the resentment, and either address them or otherwise calm the resentful souls. It can take days to resolve a single case of resentment. Once they ball together into something that can be turned into a demon like the one we saw, it’s nearly impossible to untangle all the resentment and resolve it.”

She spread her hands. “Like threads. One thread knotted can be unknotted. Two, three, four… twenty threads knotted together, and you’ll be there all day, unable to fully unwind the threads.”

“Ah… I understand,” Hui said. What Elder Sister’s saying is that it’s relatively easy to figure out what’s making one ghost angry. But once it’s two ghosts, or five, or ten… just like how ten people can all hate the same thing for different reasons, it becomes nearly impossible to assuage their resentment and put them to rest.

If our full-time job was dealing with resentment, I’m sure we could manage, but if it’s a part of our job…

The reaper glanced at him, then shrugged. “Sometimes mortal cultivators exorcise resentment, or resentful spirits on the verge of descending into deep-seated resentment. But it’s rare that mortals can exorcise enough to make up for the ever-building resentment that fills the realm.”

Hui nodded. That might also explain why I never encountered resentment in the Southern Sect Conference. Not only is it the smallest region, but its cardinal sect is also an exorcist sect. Although All-Heavens Sect certainly cultivated things other than exorcism, they likely served to keep resentment relatively rare in the Southern Sect Conference.

Hmm, I wonder. That demonic cultivator whose body I gained rot qi from… I wonder if I could sense resentment on her, if I returned now? Perhaps resentment is difficult to sense unless one is truly dead… or perhaps even a reaper. Clearly mortals can sense it, as the reaper indicated that sometimes mortals dispel it, but perhaps it’s something one must cultivate, not something one can simply walk by and naturally pick up on.

I should ask an All-Heavens life qi cultivator if they know about resentment. If anyone would, it would be one of them.

But I killed the leader of the life-qi-cultivating exorcism faction of All-Heavens. Which life qi cultivator is going to happily answer me? Especially since I only have death qi right now! So far, I’ve dealt with the ghouls, who don’t care, and Song Wei, who… who extra wouldn’t care, and a few Starbound Sect cultivators who are probably too low realm to be able to sense anything about my cultivation. At best, they might be able to get the impression of coldness or death… but nothing more than that.

And after all, I’m Martial Brother Lao Gongren to them. Why suspect me?

Wait, hold on. That’s it! I’ll just wear a disguise! Yes, yes. No one should have a problem with the innocent white lotus Song Wei asking about resentment! Excellent. If I end up at All-Heavens Sect again, I’ll do that for sure!

Hui nodded to himself, smiling a little.

The reaper shot him a suspicious glare. “What are you thinking about?”

“Ah! Nothing, Elder Sister,” Hui said, shaking his head.

“If you’re thinking about nothing, then why are you smiling like that?” she asked.

“Eh… is small cultivator not allowed to smile? My apologies, Elder Sister. I’ll be sure to keep a neutral face from now on,” Hui said.

The reaper rolled her eyes. “Naturally, you can smile. It’s just that your smile is suspicious.”

“Can Elder Sister please elaborate? How is my smile suspicious?” Hui asked, tilting his head.

Taking a deep breath, the reaper put a hand against her forehead. She took a slow breath in, and slowly let it out, then glared at Hui. “Stop talking. We’re almost there.”

Hui saluted sharply. “As Elder Sister wishes!” I almost forgot about Elder Sister’s terrifying feet! Small cultivator values his life… afterlife! I have no desire to be stepped upon!

They reached Zhu Diyu’s court. As usual, Zhu Diyu slumped in his throne, his eyes half shut, but unlike the usual slow progression of souls, hundreds of souls streamed past, hurtling through the proceedings and into the cycle of reincarnation.

Hui’s eyes widened. He darted his gaze toward the reaper. Is this okay?

The reaper didn’t react. Walking under the mass of flying souls, she walked toward Zhu Diyu.

I guess… I guess this is normal? Is this normal? Should it be normal? It doesn’t feel right… With one last glance at the souls, Hui followed the reaper toward Zhu Diyu’s throne.

Zhu Diyu yawned, sitting up slightly as they approached. A faint glimmer of interest shone in his eyes. He nodded. “For you to come to me like this… did something happen?”

“Er… before that, please forgive this small cultivator, but… is it normal for these souls to rush through like this?” Hui asked, unable to hold back his curiosity.

Zhu Diyu glanced up, as though he’d only just noticed the souls overhead. He nodded. “Most souls can be left to the realm’s automatic processes. I don’t need to personally intervene with the majority of souls. Only those with resentment, great virtuous or evil deeds, or a strong attachment to life must be personally processed by myself. You simply joined us during one of those relatively rare periods where I personally ran the entire proceedings.”

Realm? So the Underworld is a secret—ahem! Hui carefully schooled his face into a neutral expression. No, no. This world is composed of three realms. They’ve called the Underworld a realm before, as they should. There’s no need to get so excited. In any case, if I wanted to destroy the Underworld, I could, secret realm or not. It’s more impressive that it hasn’t crumbled under its own weight yet.

Should I bring that up to Zhu Diyu? It seems dangerous, but—

Internally, Hui shook his head. And lose my route to the mortal realm? No, no! Besides, I’m being careful. The Underworld is damaged, but it shouldn’t collapse on its own just yet, not even with me going through it. I’m being very careful and using existing holes, after all! No, no, this small cultivator would never do something so dangerous as damage the Underworld intentionally!

That, and I definitely don’t want to let Zhu Diyu know that I know what the outer structure of the Underworld looks like. That’ll raise a few questions, a few questions I don’t want to answer!

“Don’t drift off,” the reaper muttered, nudging Hui.

Hui jolted awake. He nodded thankfully at the reaper. A beat later, his eyes widened, just a little bit. He glanced at the reaper out of the corner of his eyes. Ah? Elder Sister bothered to wake me up… despite her cold interior, could it be? Does Elder Sister… perhaps… care about me, after all?

No, no, Elder Sister! This small cultivator is a married man! Ah, but if you insist, I suppose… I could ask Bai Xue and Li Xiang to allow me to open the harem once more…?

Zhu Diyu raised his eyebrows silently. A small smile played over his lips. Mamian never acted like this around the previous second reaper. Excellent! My matchmaking prowess is unparalleled!

The reaper narrowed her eyes, glancing from Hui to Zhu Diyu. She pursed her lips. I feel like a great deal of useless thoughts are being thought right now.