Si Wang leaped into the air, dragging Hui after him. Hui hung limply in his grasp. A paralyzing force spread through his body from Si Wang’s hand on his neck, not that he bothered to fight it. I’ll just… give in. The faster we get this over with, the better. Plus, he doesn’t seem to want to fight me, which is always a bonus in my book! Let’s talk it out peacefully, not fight! At last, I’ve found someone who understands my principles!

“No one else will listen. The mortals can’t hear me. Mamian refuses to give me the time of day. An audience with Zhu Diyu…” Si Wang laughed. “Even if he let me stand before him, he wouldn’t do anything. He doesn’t care. He’s given up on regulating the Underworld.”

“Ah, well, Elder Brother has a point,” Hui allowed, nodding. Zhu Diyu doesn’t seem too concerned about the Underworld’s imminent collapse, and his wholesale allowance of souls through the Underworld into reincarnation… although he’s more attentive about it than he looks, there’s no way he’s properly vetting their entire lives. For that matter, he hasn’t even stopped me from blatantly entering and leaving the Underworld. At this point, there’s no way he doesn’t know. He's the Lord of the Underworld. He’s deliberately allowing me out.

But not allowing me to ascend to sixth realm. After all, every time I try, Elder Sister interrupts me. Once was happenstance, twice was coincidence, but putting together her rapid interruptions with Zhu Diyu giving me the cultivation manual, and the fact that she never interrupts me when I venture into the mortal realm… er, or at least, rarely interrupts me… I’ve begun to suspect that I’m not escaping Zhu Diyu, so much as dancing under his thumb to some incomprehensible plan.

Hmm… food for thought.

Si Wang’s jaw dropped. He stared at Hui.

Hui coughed. “Er… can I help Elder Brother?”

“You… you think… I have a point?” he said. He sniffed. Tears welled up in his eyes.

Licking his lips, Hui glanced at Si Wang. Is it worth tearing up over?

No, no. He’s been stuck as a reaper for goodness knows how long, unable to interact with the mortal realm. The Immortal realm’s denizens can probably see reapers, but they can’t enter the mortal realm, so that’s a moot point. Mamian hates him and won’t listen even if he speaks, and it’s not like he can casually enter the Underworld to interact with the clerks or Zhu Diyu. Ghosts can see him, I suspect, but from my few interactions with ghosts in the making, they’re all mad—or rather, should I say, deeply focused on their singular goals? This man… compared to the short time I spent locked in a cave in Starbound Sect, he’s spent an eternity in seclusion.

“Mmm. I’m willing to listen to Elder Brother,” Hui confirmed with a nod.

Si Wang brightened up. He lifted Hui up and held him by the waist, not the neck, though he still exerted a paralyzing force on Hui. “Wonderful! I have so much to talk about…”

Oh, shit! Did I just agree to chat with a madman about whatever’s on his mind after he’s been silenced for untold years? I’m going to go deaf before he finishes speaking! Oh no. Oh, no! Hui, what have you done now? A thousand years’ worth of manifestos… no, no, no! I’ve already spent enough time in my first life reading crackpot theories on the internet, so please spare me, Elder Brother!

Unaware of Hui’s internal struggles, Si Wang whistled as he carried him along, immensely pleased with himself. The world passed away beneath them. Soon, they came upon the mountain range that encircled the Eight Tiers Palace.

At that, Hui broke out of his thoughts. “Elder Brother, where are we going?”

“I’m merely showing you what Zhu Diyu has wrought by his inaction,” Si Wang stated pleasantly.

“Oh… er, is it the Palace?” Hui asked, a bit lost. Is Zhu Diyu meant to… step in and stop the progression of cultivators, or something? I mean, I’ve seen that before in my novels, but Zhu Diyu doesn’t seem the type, and anyways, in the Southern Sect Conference, no one has hit a firm ceiling. Everyone I’ve known has ascended smoothly to Heaven when the time came with no interference, nor are there any stories of blatantly blocked ascensions. Although it’s widely known that Heaven is in disarray, the Underworld is largely unmentioned. As far as anyone’s aware, the cycle of reincarnation is proceeding as it should.

Si Wang shook his head. “No.”

“Oh,” Hui said. It would’ve been nice if I could use the excuse of ‘taking over Zhu Diyu’s duties’ to blatantly interfere with an enemy sect like that, but… eh. In the first place, this small Hui isn’t suited to attacking one-sidedly like that. I’m a pacifist, a pacifist! Or rather, I prefer to avoid meaningless fights. And on the other side, that not being the answer also means I don’t have to worry about any of my friends back home getting interfered with by some reaper or Zhu Diyu himself.

“You’ll see,” Si Wang said, his voice lilting a bit at the end.

Hui bit his lip disbelievingly, shooting a glance at Si Wang from the corner of his eyes. Could Elder Brother stop using lines from supervillains? Small cultivator would feel much safer if you merely minded your words!

They descended, dropping toward one of the small clans on the outside of the major sects. All around them, cultivators darted forth in battle, completely unaware of the reaper and ex-reaper in their midst. Hui glanced around at them, then raised his hands and peered in the direction they fired their techniques. What are they attacking?

A small ball of white, pale limbs twined together. The hands tightened their grip on one another, presenting a tightly-wound defensive wall of flesh. Pressurized water slammed into it, drawing a bright-red line against the arms’ pale skin, but not a single limb fell away. As if annoyed by the attack, the arms loosened their holds on one another. The ball of limbs split in two, revealing a mouth lined in hands. Arms at the ball’s bottom poked out and pushed. It hurtled forward, open mouth swallowing up the leg of a male cultivator with a long beard.

The second the hands touched his leg, his leg turned as pale as the hands. It trembled, and the man himself spat blood. Unhesitatingly, he severed his leg.

Bare moments after his leg fell away, his shoe burst open, revealing a hand as pale and knobbly as any part of the resentment demon. The knee shook, then bent sideways, morphing into an elbow. Crawling away on its new fingers, the leg-turned-arm jumped into the resentment demon’s mouth and vanished, absorbed into the creature.

Hui licked his lips. Er… many apologies to all my Fellow Daoists. Small cultivator has made a great mistake!

“This… is better than what was happening,” Si Wang murmured, almost to himself, as if he’d forgotten Hui.

“Eh?” Hui asked, startled. How? How is this better? Explain it to me, Elder Brother!

Si Wang took a deep breath. “The Heavenly Dao is breaking down.”

“I know,” Hui said.

Sharp eyes cut into his. Si Wang stared him down. “But do you know?”

“Illuminate me, Elder Brother,” Hui requested humbly. If you’re going to tell me, I’ll listen. As long as it’s not a manifesto!

“The Heavenly Dao presides over the three realms. Karma falls under its purview, yes, and the proper method of cultivation… but so does much else. Cause and effect. The order of birth, life, and death. Past and present. The fundamental laws of our world… all are governed by the Heavenly Dao. So far, the Heavenly Dao has only shown the first of its death knells. If it fully breaks down…” Si Wang fell silent.

Hui’s eyes widened. Holy shit! All the way down to the fundamental laws of physics? That means stuff like entropy, heat exchange, the laws of motion… and no, wait, even before that, cause and effect, life and death, past and present? The entire three realms would fall apart. No—worse than that. We’d return to primal chaos, to a state before the Big Bang.

This… this is way above my pay grade! Master! Master, your poor disciple might be dead right now, but please help!

Si Wang gestured. “The people who died before their time was up, whose resentment forms these demons… they were not killed by anyone or anything, but by the erosion of the Heavenly Dao. As they were not supposed to die yet, the Underworld would not acknowledge them, and so their souls remained trapped in the mortal realm. Not knowing where to go, what to do, or even what they had done wrong, the souls began to gather resentment—not against something or someone, but against the world itself.

“Resentment with no outlet, no end goal, no purpose except to hate, gathering on the surface of the mortal world for years upon years… even the Sanzu would struggle to wash this clean.” Si Wang turned, gazing out over the battle. “And now, someone has set them free. Free to rampage and loose their resentment upon the world, thus hastening the overturn of karma as resentment with no purpose or goal clashes into the world, creating more purposeless resentment, and so the vicious cycle continues.”

Hui’s mouth dried up. Er… how is this better than how it was? And, um, I’d like to apologize for hastening the world’s destruction. Small cultivator didn’t mean it, I swear!

Si Wang turned and laughed at the sky. “No longer will Zhu Diyu be able to ignore the decay of the realms! Finally, he’ll be forced to act! With these demons openly rampaging, he can no longer turn a blind eye to the mortal realm! Now that the natural order has fallen apart to this level, there’s no—”

Oh, right. He’s a madman. I forgot. ‘Better’ is subjective, after all!

Hui coughed, interrupting his monologue. “Er, Elder Brother…”

“Yes?” Si Wang asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Er, not… not only is Zhu Diyu continuing to ignore the state of the mortal realm, but, er, those demons… weren’t caused by the natural decay of the Heavenly Dao,” Hui said, licking his lips nervously.

Si Wang stopped. He frowned. “Then what caused them?”

Hui coughed again. He looked aside demurely. “That is… ah, it might be… me?”