Chapter 61: The King of Hell’s Wedding (41)
The atmosphere in the Yin Law Division was heavy and oppressively still. All the destined officials stood with their heads lowered to one side, not daring to breathe too loudly. Cui Yu had remained seated at the front of the hall from beginning to end, and he had not spoken a single word.
The King of Hell raged and cursed for a long time, but it was as if he were punching cotton—completely powerless. Cui Yu simply ignored him.
After a long while, the King of Hell drew in a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the jealousy and resentment in his heart. “Hand over the Register of Life and Death, and I won’t make things difficult for you.”
“The Register of Life and Death is my magical artifact. I cannot casually hand it over to an outsider,” Cui Yu replied with the same sentence as before.
—Outsider.
Though the destined officials and ghost officials showed no reaction on their faces, inwardly they were all shaking their heads with quiet sighs.
Once upon a time, the King of Hell and Cui Yu had been like two dazzling treasures of the Heavenly Court—twin stars born of the union of sun and moon. Their bond had been so deep that others envied them. Now those years seemed covered in ash. It was almost hard to believe that such a time of brotherly harmony had ever truly existed.
Now the two of them had gone from being the closest of brothers to strangers—
No, not even strangers. They could be called enemies.
The King of Hell’s expression was equally unpleasant. The word “outsider” seemed to choke him before he finally spoke in fury. “You killed Yan Xiang back then. What, are you feeling guilty now?”
Cui Yu said coldly, “Yan Xiang was killed by Father.”
The King of Hell immediately sneered. “Who killed her no longer matters. I only want the Register of Life and Death. If you insist on detaining Yan Xiang’s remnant soul, don’t blame me for being rude to you!”
The atmosphere in the hall instantly grew even heavier.
Both Cui Yu and the King of Hell were the top figures in the Underworld. Now that these two great powers were in conflict, many could not help but recall the devastation when heavenly punishment had descended a thousand years ago.
That calamity had implicated countless Underworld officials.
If these two drew down heavenly punishment again…
The destined officials shuddered, their vision momentarily going dark.
Fortunately, although the King of Hell was seething with rage, Cui Yu still retained his rationality. Calm and methodical, he said, “I have told you many times already. When I was demoted to the Underworld, I examined the Register of Life and Death. Yan Xiang’s name was not in it.”
After a pause, Cui Yu looked down at the King of Hell and said, “Yan Xiang’s body and soul have already perished. Giving you the Register would be useless.”
The King of Hell refused to believe him. His expression shifted several times as he prepared to speak sarcastically. But as if Cui Yu already knew what he was about to say, he raised a hand and summoned the Register of Life and Death. With a flick of his sleeve—
A blinding halo streaked downward at incredible speed, stirring up a violent gust of wind. Everyone’s robes were lifted abruptly.
Seeing the light hurtling toward him, the King of Hell’s heart trembled. He instinctively took several steps back and raised his arm to shield his face. Yet a few seconds later, nothing happened in the hall.
The King of Hell slowly lowered his arm, his face pale and livid.
“…………”
The Register of Life and Death hovered only inches before his face, radiating brilliant light that illuminated every corner of the Yin Law Division hall. It had not smashed into him, but somehow that restraint enraged him even more, as if he had been cruelly humiliated.
Under normal circumstances, he would have already started cursing Cui Yu. But now Yan Xiang was what mattered most.
The King of Hell reached out and took the Register, flipping directly from the index to the section listing lesser immortals of the Heavenly Court. His fingers trembled; his entire body was shaking as he stared at the words on the page.
Flip—
Flip—
For a time, the only sound in the hall was the turning of pages.
Immortals of the Jade Lake—no Yan Xiang.
Immortals of the Southern Heavenly Gate—no Yanxiang.
Immortals of Chenyue Ridge—no Yan Xiang.
By this point, the King of Hell’s face had lost all color. As if unwilling to believe it, he even checked the borderlands of demon-immortals, and finally the ranks of wandering immortals.
There was no Yan Xiang anywhere.
How could this be?!
The King of Hell looked at the destined officials around him. Their gazes resembled those directed at someone making an unreasonable scene. He knew he must look ridiculous, yet he still refused to give up. This time, he flipped directly to the mortal world, searching for any trace of Yan Xiang.
After a long while, he slowly raised his head in a daze.
Cui Yu’s pale eyes held no emotion at all. Seated high above, he felt neither sorrow nor joy, like a true deity looking down upon all living beings. In contrast, the King of Hell felt like a clown jumping about on stage, and his resentment deepened.
“Did you tamper with it?”
“If you have grievances, take them out on me! Why vent your anger on Yan Xiang? She only wanted to live!”
“Where did you hide Yan Xiang’s remnant soul? Cui Yu—Father and Mother’s deaths, you can blame me. But you should never, ever have blamed Yan Xiang!”
The accusations came one after another.
In just a few words, it was as if Cui Yu had already been convicted. The destined officials exchanged glances, all harboring a trace of curiosity about this old history. Whispered discussions continued:
“Was that lesser incense-ash immortal truly killed by Chief Judge Cui back then?”
“It’s possible. Chief Judge Cui was always bitter about Moon Goddess’s death. I heard that on the day of that tragedy, Lord of Dawn had been preparing to take Yan Xiang as a concubine. In a fit of rage, Chief Judge Cui killing someone wouldn’t be surprising.”
“And after killing her, he even detained her remnant soul. That was a bit dishonorable…”
“……”
Cui Yu swept a cold glance across them, expressionless. The destined officials below immediately stopped whispering and bowed their heads.
—That look was terrifying!
As rumors in the Underworld claimed, Cui Yu disliked anyone discussing the aftermath of Lord of Dawn and Moon Goddess.
Just as the tension in the hall thickened to its breaking point, steady footsteps sounded from outside. Fatty’s anxious, hushed voice came first: “Hey! What are you going in there for?!”
Everyone turned their heads.
Before the person even entered, his voice arrived first.
A clear, bright male voice laced with mockery echoed through the hall. Each step he took struck the floor with a heavy thud—thud, thud, thud—like punctuation marking the end of every sentence he spoke:
“Lord of Dawn and Moon Goddess’s deaths really should be blamed on you. I’m honestly a little surprised you actually know that yourself. I thought you didn’t. Otherwise, how would you still have the nerve to stand here ranting like a shrew?”
As the words fell, the young man slowly stepped into the hall. His sleeves fluttered with the motion, like the most dazzling butterfly of early spring, eye-catching with every movement.
“…………”
The crowd looked at one another. A destined official whispered to the person beside him, “Who is that?”
“Chief Judge Cui’s destined person.”
Understanding dawned immediately.
He had come to stand up for Chief Judge Cui.
Only then did Cui Yu finally react. As he lifted his eyes, a faint flicker passed through his pupils. From the moment Jian Yuntai stepped into the hall, Cui Yu’s gaze had remained firmly fixed on him.
Under everyone’s gaze, Jian Yuntai looked at the King of Hell, whose face had turned pale and livid. He curved his lips into a faint, almost gentle smile—but the words he spoke were as venomous as poison.
“You just refuse to believe that Yan Xiang’s body and soul have completely perished. So you insist on inventing some excuse to comfort yourself with lies. Is it interesting to make things difficult for someone who has nothing to do with it?”
The King of Hell frowned tightly and said, “How can Cui Yu be considered unrelated? He is—”
Before he could finish, Jian Yuntai cut in sharply, “Yan Xiang was already dead. If you truly loved her, you wouldn’t be running around here picking fights just to move yourself to tears. Go pray to the gods. Go worship the Buddhas. You couldn’t even do that?”
“…………”
The King of Hell stood rigid for a long time. His chest heaved with surging anger as he hissed, “The gods and Buddhas demoted me to the Underworld. How could they possibly help me? They would rather laugh at my misfortune!”
“So when heavenly punishment descended back then, as one of the instigators and the King of Hell of the Underworld, you did absolutely nothing. You dumped the entire mess onto Chief Judge Cui. If Chief Judge Cui hadn’t gone to the Southern Heavenly Gate to beg the Buddhas for the Record of Soul Contracts—” Jian Yuntai’s gaze had already grown openly disdainful. His voice turned cold. “If you lacked responsibility, just admit you lacked responsibility. If you couldn’t swallow your pride, just admit you couldn’t swallow your pride. Stop running to blame Cui Yu every time something happens. Cui Yu just has a good temper. If it were me…”
He did not finish the rest of the sentence. He merely let out a soft scoff from his throat, his expression full of contempt.
Clang—
Someone accidentally knocked over a teacup on a desk. The lid fell to the floor and spun in place, clattering loudly. Aside from that sound, the entire hall felt as lifeless as a grave. Everyone clamped their mouths shut and stared intently at the floor.
“Damn, that mouth of his just keeps going,” He Qingzhou said. He had practically plastered himself against the palace doors, ears perked as he avidly listened in. “How did I never realize Jian Yuntai was this good at cursing people? He scolded the King of Hell into complete silence. That’s insane.”
Beside him, the ghost officials looked extremely distressed, nearly on the verge of a heart attack as they stared at the dozen or so people pressed flat against the palace doors in various awkward poses like a mural.
Fatty was among them. He chuckled and said, “Jian Dadan scolded you before. You don’t remember?”
“Huh? When?”
“In Ice Mountain Hell. He asked if you’d only managed to get into the Livestream Team by checking in everyday.”
“……”
He Qingzhou was stunned for a few seconds before realization dawned. “No wonder that sarcastic tone sounded so familiar.”
So he had been on the receiving end of that sarcasm before.
Thinking back on how he had felt at the time, He Qingzhou’s face twitched. For a moment, he actually felt a bit of sympathy for the King of Hell.
—Why provoke Jian Yuntai for no reason? You couldn’t out-argue him anyway. In the end, wouldn’t you just be left fuming by yourself?
While they were still eavesdropping at the doors, the doors suddenly creaked open inward. The players, who had been stacked together like a human tower, tumbled forward one after another into the hall.
The King of Hell looked at them as if they were already dead.
“…………”
The atmosphere outside the hall turned painfully awkward.
Just as the players were at a loss for what to do, the King of Hell snorted angrily and flicked his sleeve before striding away. After walking some distance, he finally stopped and asked the Ten Halls imp beside him, “Do you think Cui Yu would detain Yan Xiang’s remnant soul?”
“……”
The Ten Halls imp looked utterly terrified.
Why was he being asked a death-question like this?! He didn’t know anything. He didn’t want to know anything.
After stiffening for a while and seeing that the King of Hell was still staring at him, the Ten Halls imp could only steel himself and say, “My lord, in my opinion… Chief Judge Cui is noble in character. He is not that kind of person.”
The King of Hell frowned. “…Is that so?”
If Cui Yu had not detained Yan Xiang’s remnant soul, then Yan Xiang… could she truly have already been completely extinguished?
At that thought, the King of Hell’s face turned pale.
“N-no… impossible! How could that be?!”
After standing there for a long time, he asked again, “This morning you said Cui Yu had someone prepare a carriage, planning to go to Kong Cave tomorrow. Was that true?”
The Ten Halls imp replied, “It was true.”
A trace of gloom flickered in the King of Hell’s eyes. He turned back to glance in the direction of the Yin Law Division, his gaze as venomous as a snake.
Cui Yu must have intended to show his weakness to his destined person. Had the two of them already reached such a level of mutual trust?
Why?
Why could Cui Yu obtain happiness, while he himself could only spend the coming years longing for Yan Xiang day after day?
“Send someone to keep watch on Cui Yu. Have the men below prepare a ghost carriage in advance. The moment he sets off tomorrow, report to me immediately.”
The Ten Halls imp was startled and cautiously asked, “My lord, you intend to…?”
Before he could finish, the King of Hell had already strode away. More and more gloom and obsession gathered in his eyes. Just like Moon Goddess back then, Cui Yu’s temperament greatly resembled Lord of Dawn’s, while his appearance bore three parts resemblance to Moon Goddess. And he himself—he was the opposite.
He would only be more obsessive than Moon Goddess.
※※※
After lunch, the livestream viewers were still unable to calm down. They were bursting with excitement:
“Hahaha that was so satisfying! Did you see the King of Hell’s expression when he left? I can’t stop laughing. Jian Dadan’s words hit right at the heart every single time.”
“I bet the King of Hell wanted to kill Jian Yuntai on the spot, but with Cui Yu there he didn’t dare, hahahaha.”
“Jian Dadan and Cui Yu—one handled the fighting, the other handled the scolding. They completely subdued the King of Hell, hahaha…”
“And the destined officials below! They all looked terrified. When they left, the way they looked at Jian Dadan was like he was some kind of monster… After all, in all these years no one had ever scolded the King of Hell into speechless silence and directly chased him off in anger.”
“To be fair, Jian Dadan was right. The King of Hell had no sense of responsibility. Even if the Jade Emperor* himself showed up today, he’d still have no responsibility! When heavenly punishment descended, Cui Yu went to the Southern Heavenly Gate to beg for the Record of Soul Contracts. He had been demoted by the gods and Buddhas back then, yet he still went up to Heaven. He kept saying he loved Yan Xiang, but all day long he just made trouble for Cui Yu. If you really loved her, then go beg the gods and Buddhas!”
Note: Jade Emperor refers to the top god governs all other gods.
After lunch, they returned to the Chief Judge’s residence. Cui Yu was highly efficient. Sure enough, quite a few new little yellow booklets had been added to the ghost carriage.
Jian Yuntai casually picked one up and flipped through it, then snapped it shut with a loud smack.
Meeting Cui Yu’s puzzled gaze, Jian Yuntai said with a grave expression, “Tonight I’m going to write you several pages of lines. You’ll memorize all of them. Next time the King of Hell comes to scold you, you just recite what I wrote back at him. What is there to be afraid of?!”
“……”
Cui Yu had thought, judging from Jian Yuntai’s serious expression, that he was about to discuss something important. Hearing this, he lifted his fist lightly to his lips and let out a soft laugh.
Jian Yuntai grew even angrier. “Why are you still laughing?”
Cui Yu suppressed his smile, leaned slightly closer to Jian Yuntai, and said softly, “Don’t be mad anymore, alright?”
Jian Yuntai snapped, “I’m not mad!”
“Alright, alright. You’re not mad.” Cui Yu’s white hair fell loosely, brushing against the back of Jian Yuntai’s hand. Before the latter could even register the faint ticklish sensation, Cui Yu added, “But I don’t want you working so hard at night. If you write too much, your hand will hurt.”
Jian Yuntai stared at him in silence, then asked, “…Do you just not want to memorize it?”
Cui Yu replied, “I never forget anything I read.”
Jian Yuntai raised a brow. “Then there’s nothing to negotiate. I’ll write tonight, and you’ll memorize tonight. I’ll test you in the morning. If you stumble even a little or miss a single word, it won’t count.”
After noon was when traffic peaked. The viewers who had gone to catch up on sleep the night before opened the stream and were greeted by this scene, immediately howling:
“So sweet!!!!”
“Hehehe wife checking husband’s recitation—wife got satisfaction, husband got a head full of curse words. And me? I just got a floor full of dog food.”
“Hahahahaha Jian Dadan is amazing. I’m honestly a little tempted—I kind of want to learn how to curse from him.”
“No way!! Jian Dadan, curse all you want yourself, but don’t corrupt Cui Yu, that ethereal white-haired beauty, hahaha. I can’t imagine him opening his mouth to swear.”
After returning to the residence, Jian Yuntai grabbed a brush and wrote furiously, producing lines of characters that looked like a dog had crawled across the page.
…His handwriting wasn’t actually this ugly.
It was the brush’s fault. Definitely the brush’s fault.
He handed several sheets of paper to Cui Yu. Cui Yu lowered his head and studied them for the time it took a stick of incense to burn before finally looking up and saying, “How about tonight we start by practicing your handwriting instead?”
Jian Yuntai: “…………”
Cui Yu hurriedly added, “I’m not saying your writing is ugly. The strokes are so forceful they penetrate the paper. Very powerful, in fact. Look—the xuan paper is torn. That shows the momentum in your writing is overwhelming.”
The bullet comments laughed wildly:
“Hahahahaha Cui Yu can’t curse, but he sure can compliment with his eyes closed.”
“Of course wife’s writing is beautiful!”
“Facepalm, I was planning to secretly learn some trash-talking skills from Jian Dadan, but what is this handwriting… Is it the ink? Why are there just clumps of black blotches all over the paper?”
“Sis, don’t doubt yourself. The ink is fine. Jian Dadan is the problem. Next time let’s use a fountain pen, hahaha.”
And so, teaching Cui Yu how to curse the King of Hell was temporarily shelved.
Of course, they didn’t practice calligraphy either.
Jian Yuntai washed up early and went to bed, lying on the inner side with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep. He deliberately skipped dinner and slipped into his consciousness to take a look at the lotus pond.
Perhaps because he had come here many times already, it was becoming easier and easier to navigate.
As he drew closer—
There were still only two lotuses in the pond. The red lotus was plump and radiant. From afar, it looked like a noble young master dressed in red, standing lazily in a clear spring. When the breeze passed, “he” would lightly lift a hand and shift to lean on the other side.
The red lotus had fully bloomed.
When Jian Yuntai reached out to touch it, he could even catch a faint fragrance at the tip of his nose. It was hard to describe. If he had to, it was like the curtain after a grand banquet in a golden hall—tinged with the scent of fine wine, women’s perfume, and a medley of intertwined herbs. Just smelling it made one feel on the verge of intoxication.
The red lotus had matured.
A trace of joy surfaced in Jian Yuntai’s eyes. Raising this red lotus had been extremely difficult.
In the real world, he had eaten truckloads of compressed biscuits. Then in the instance, Cui Yu had fed him for nearly ten days straight—every meal filled with delicacies and fine wine.
Only then had it barely come to fruition.
And he had discovered something obvious.
Back in the real world, he hadn’t had enough funds to test different foods and compare the red lotus’s growth speed.
In the instance, however, comparison wasn’t difficult.
Eating meat accelerated the red lotus’s growth. Sweets and fruits worked as well. But grains were far less effective. In other words, the money Jian Yuntai had spent on compressed biscuits—eating them for over ten days—had been unnecessary.
He could have spent the same amount on meat, finished it in a few days, and the growth rate would have been roughly the same.
“Looks like I’ll need to buy more expensive food in the future.” Jian Yuntai reached out and poked the red lotus. As if in response, it shook, flicking droplets of water from its petals—
Splashing them all over the black lotus.
Only then did Jian Yuntai turn his gaze to the black lotus. The joy in his eyes vanished completely.
—The black lotus represented a dying personality.
His manager Liang Yan’s words seemed to echo in his ears. Now the black lotus looked wilted and dispirited. With just the lightest touch, its petals tilted and slipped crookedly into the pond.
Like withered vegetation, the black lotus held no vitality—only the heavy air of something nearing its end.
What did the black lotus need to consume?
Jian Yuntai frowned at it for a long while but couldn’t figure it out. If only he knew what had been inside the truck that was sent to the noble district back then, the problem would be solved.
Unfortunately, Liang Yan had said that to access those confidential archives, he would have to raise his status. Only after becoming a noble could he review those sealed documents.
……
……
Jian Yuntai was awakened by Cui Yu. The bowl of water between them had been moved aside, and Cui Yu’s eyes were filled with worry.
“Your body was very cold.”
Jian Yuntai let out an “Ah,” then said, “I’m hungry.”
Cui Yu immediately called for food to be prepared. Before long, ghost officials carried the dishes in. After the table had been set, Jian Yuntai silently picked up his chopsticks, a trace of worry lingering between his brows.
Cui Yu asked, “Are you worried about Sun Bin?”
Sun Bin had been arranged to stay in a guest room. His soul contract value had already dropped to zero—there was no longer any reason to protect him. Even if random ghosts disturbed him now, at worst he would just become even more foolish.
Jian Yuntai hadn’t even thought about Sun Bin once throughout the entire day, so that naturally wasn’t what he was worried about.
He shook his head. “I was thinking about the King of Hell.”
Cui Yu asked, “Why think about him?”
Jian Yuntai frowned. “When the King of Hell left the Yin Law Division today, his expression was strange.”
Cui Yu pondered for a moment. “That’s true.”
Although the King of Hell had stormed off after being cursed out during the day, before leaving he had glared at Cui Yu for a long time, his gaze vicious like a venomous snake. As the saying went, it wasn’t the righteous man holding a grudge you had to fear, but the petty one who kept you in mind.
In Jian Yuntai’s heart, the King of Hell was exactly that sort of petty person—and one who couldn’t tell right from wrong at that.
After thinking it over, Jian Yuntai still felt uneasy. “Did you memorize what I wrote?”
Cui Yu answered honestly, “No.”
“!!!” Jian Yuntai immediately sat up straight in shock. “Didn’t you say you never forget anything you read?!”
“…..” The premise of never forgetting was being able to read it.
Cui Yu parted his thin lips, but in the end he didn’t speak—he couldn’t bring himself to damage Jian Yuntai’s confidence.
He pressed his lips together in a faint smile and changed the subject. “You’re here. If he mocks me again in the future, you can speak to him on my behalf.”
Without thinking, Jian Yuntai replied at once, “I can’t stay by your side forever. I also have…” The day I leave the instance.
He nearly let it slip and immediately fell silent.
Cui Yu asked, “You also have what?”
Jian Yuntai frowned. “I mean, there will be times when I’m not by your side.”
Cui Yu gave a soft laugh. “How could that be?”
It had been meant as a few lighthearted words, but Jian Yuntai couldn’t laugh. He lowered his head and quietly picked at his food.
After a long while, Cui Yu pressed his lips together. His gaze flickered, as if he were somewhat uneasy—there was even a trace of barely concealed hope within it.
“In the future you imagine… would there be a place for me?”
“…………” Jian Yuntai looked up in astonishment.
The livestream chat refreshed rapidly:
“Damn, Cui Yu is really so attentive… It feels like he notices even the slightest change in Jian Dadan’s emotions.”
“That question made me want to cry. Jian Dadan feels like someone with very clear goals—he must have planned his future carefully. Cui Yu probably wasn’t in that plan before, and won’t be in it later either.”
“I was imagining our future, but in the future you imagined, I wasn’t even there qaq.”
“My CP is doomed to be BE, sob sob…”
“Sisters, you’re thinking too far ahead. I’m only worried about one thing—Jian Dadan might not want to follow Lin Fuxue’s path and could choose to cut off this possibility himself.”
“??? Cut off this possibility himself? You mean he might leave the instance before he develops feelings?”
“He won’t! He cursed the King of Hell for Cui Yu today—there’s no way he’d sever Cui Yu’s weakness!”
“Don’t forget Jian Dadan used to be from the Xiang’an Team. People from the Xiang’an Team all share one trait: they’re ruthless to others—and even more ruthless to themselves.”
As the viewers argued, they each clung to their own interpretations.
By the end, it felt like they were about to start fighting across the screen.
Seeing that Jian Yuntai hadn’t responded for a long time, Cui Yu’s face grew slightly pale, and he slowly lowered his eyes.
No one could see the expression in his gaze. They could only hear his voice growing drier and more strained.
“Tomorrow, when we go to Kong Cave, I want to show you my weakness. You… would you like to go?”
“…………”
The bedchamber fell silent for a long time—so long that all the viewers thought Jian Yuntai wouldn’t answer.
Yet under everyone’s anxious watch, Jian Yuntai finished the last bite of his food.
Clack—
He set the jade chopsticks down across the bowl.
The crisp sound rang out like a tolling golden bell, echoing sharply in everyone’s hearts. Under the viewers’ suffocating, tense gazes, Jian Yuntai calmly lifted his eyes.
“I’ll go.”
Cui Yu immediately let out a breath of relief. A smile gathered in his eyes, and he seemed truly happy with that answer.
The more he reacted that way, the more anxious the livestream viewers became. By the end, the public chat was in complete chaos:
“Is the blade finally going to fall tomorrow? Help, help! I’m so scared ahhhhh!!”
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