Chapter 1 — The Ancestor Turns the Underworld Upside Down

For three thousand years, I have governed the Underworld, judging the living and the dead and decreeing the cycles of reincarnation. Even the King of Hell himself must bow his head and address me as Great Ancestor when we meet. Yet, I never imagined there would come a day when someone would dare to scheme against me. My beloved granddaughter, An, needed to descend into the mortal realm to experience a human lifetime. I personally opened the Ledger of Reincarnation and granted her the Fate of Ninefold Fortune, a blessing that appears only once every three millennia. It was a destiny set for royalty: a life of ease, living to a hundred years without suffering or calamity.

But when I hurried to the Reincarnation Platform, I saw a strange girl wearing An's clothes, clutching her fate token, waiting to be reborn. Beside her stood my own son and daughter-in-law. They held her shoulders, calling her "daughter" repeatedly. I performed a quick divination, only to find that An's soul had been concealed; I could not track her whereabouts. The hourglass on the platform had already begun to pour. If this Ninefold Fortune destiny remained unclaimed within three hours, it would dissipate into nothingness. I gripped my Judge’s Pen tightly and roared toward the eighteen levels of hell:

"Search! Even if you have to turn the eighteen levels upside down and dig up the very bottom of the River of Oblivion, find An!"

Below the platform, a dense crowd knelt in silence. My son, Te Chen, my daughter-in-law, Lau Nghien, and several ghost officials bowed their heads, none daring to look at me. Te Chen crawled forward, his eyes bloodshot. "Mother, this is An. How could you possibly not recognize her?"

Lau Nghien pressed her forehead against the stone floor, her shoulders trembling. "Mother, you haven't seen her in three years; it is natural to be mistaken. The auspicious hour has arrived. Even if you are reluctant, you must let her go."

The girl on the platform bowed gracefully, her voice soft and sweet. "Grandmother, it is I, An."

I looked down at her. She bore an eight-part resemblance to An. She wore An's clothes and the silver bracelet that belonged to her. To any casual observer, she was identical. But I knew the truth. The space behind her left ear was pristine; there was no vermilion mole there. I had held An countless times. I knew the shape of that mole so well I could trace it with my eyes closed. I stepped back and withdrew the command token, halting the Reincarnation Platform.

"You are not An. The disguise spell on you is so amateurish—you dare to deceive me? Go back and practice for another three hundred years."

The girl froze, and the smile on her lips faded. Te Chen began to kowtow frantically, his forehead striking the blue tiles with heavy, hollow thuds. "Mother, she is An! I am her father; how could I be mistaken?"

Lau Nghien followed suit, her hair ornaments clattering to the ground.

"You have been blinded by illusions, but I am not senile!" I ignored them and opened the Ledger. I flipped through the pages until I reached the entry for Te An. It read: "Te An, born in the Year of the Fire Horse, descending to the mortal realm. The whereabouts of her soul..."

The section regarding her location was obscured by a dark, grey seal, thick and immovable. Someone had used a powerful charm to hide it. To pull such a stunt right under my nose required formidable power. I cast another divination, and my fingertips turned icy. The omen was chaotic, revealing nothing. The first layer of sand in the hourglass had already run out, leaving a thin pile at the bottom. Only three hours remained. The girl suddenly knelt, sobbing until her frame shook.

"Grandmother, why won't you acknowledge me?" She lifted her head, her face streaming with tears. "When I was five, I fell into the Reincarnation Pool. You dove in from the platform without hesitation to save me. When I turned ten, you secretly gave me a piece of candy from the Lady of Forgetfulness, telling me to hide it under my pillow and smell its sweetness to sleep. Have you forgotten all of this?"

Every detail was precise. The incident at five, the candy at ten—it was all accurate, even down to the smallest nuances. Besides An and myself, no third person should have known these things. My heart grew heavy. Someone had forcibly extracted An's memories. Such a procedure would cause immense damage to her soul. Te Chen, sensing victory, shouted, "Mother, look! She remembers! She is An! Why do you refuse to recognize her?"

He gripped my robes, desperate, as if fearing someone would snatch away something precious. I walked to the girl and crouched, staring directly into her eyes. She was less than a foot away. I could smell the faint, artificial aura of the disguise spell she wore.

"Tell me," I whispered, my voice calm yet chilling, like speaking to a child who had committed a grave error. "Who did this to you?"

The girl's pupils contracted. She wailed louder, collapsing to the ground, her voice sounding more fragile and pathetic than before. "Grandmother, I am An! Why are you torturing me like this?"

Te Chen lunged forward, clutching my other sleeve. His strength was enough to make me stumble. His face was flushed, his voice a desperate, manic howl. "Mother, are you too old and senile? She has told you everything—how can you still doubt her?"

*Too old and senile.* In three thousand years, this was the first time anyone had dared to speak to me this way. I straightened up, looking down at my son. His face was soaked in tears, his eyes bloodshot; he truly looked like a man in agony. "You say she is An. You raised her for sixteen years—tell me, what is behind her left ear?"

Te Chen blinked, stunned. "Left ear? What should be there?"

"Your daughter has a vermilion mole behind her left ear. Did you not know that?"

His face drained of all color. He turned slowly to look at the girl. His gaze fixed on the spot behind her ear, and his lips trembled. "Perhaps... it faded as she grew up..."

"That is impossible," I said, staring at him. "That was a grace I personally begged the Heavenly Sovereign to grant her; it is not a normal birthmark."

Te Chen’s hand slipped from my robe. He finally understood. When he was a child, he was frail and sickly, near death. I had sought that same blessing from the Heavenly Sovereign to save him, leaving a similar mark on his right palm. An shared that same mark. Te Chen’s fingers twitched, uncertain where to put them. Lau Nghien had also realized the truth, standing frozen in place.

"You remember now, don't you? Does nothing seem suspicious to you?" I pinned them with a gaze of steel.

Te Chen glanced at the girl on the platform. She looked back at him. Te Chen clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. "Mother, there is nothing suspicious. In this entire Underworld, who would dare impersonate your granddaughter?"

Lau Nghien nodded weakly. "Mother, please, don't overthink it. Just let An go to be reborn."

My heart sank further. Another layer of sand had run out. Only two remained. Suddenly, the ghost officials I had dispatched returned.

"Great Ancestor, there is no trace of Te An on the Bridge of Oblivion!"

"Great Ancestor, there is no trace of Te An on the ferry boats!"

"Great Ancestor, there is no trace of Te An in the Hall of the King of Hell!"

I frowned. The culprit was powerful enough to conceal a living soul—unless... I dared not finish the thought. A terrifying hypothesis formed in my mind. Unless An's soul had been torn apart. An incomplete soul would have a faint, fragmented aura, making it nearly impossible to find. But who would be so cruel to an innocent girl? I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes, pouring three thousand years of my cultivation into the depths of the River of Oblivion.

In the abyssal waters, countless soul fragments struggled. I found her. A trace of An's soul had been there. It was so faint it vanished the moment I touched it. But someone had dragged her from the bottom of the river—invisible hands pulling her toward the south, fast and brutal. Her aura had been shredded along the way, scattered in pieces. I followed the trail south. I saw a fragment near the gates of the City of Lost Souls. I saw it! An's soul had been torn to pieces!

"An!"

I was so consumed by fury that I spat out a mouthful of blood; my spiritual connection severed instantly. Everyone on the platform held their breath. They knew that when the Great Ancestor was pushed to this state, there would be blood. Te Chen was still kneeling, but he had stopped crying; a flicker of panic was plain in his eyes. Lau Nghien dared not speak, avoiding my gaze. The girl on the platform stopped crying and stood in silence, her hands interlaced, a strange, unreadable expression on her face.

"Who helped you?" I grabbed her by the collar and hoisted her up. "You won't talk? I can forcibly extract your memories!"

The girl panicked, struggling in vain. Te Chen clutched at my robe. "Mother, forced memory extraction is a forbidden technique! The Underworld has laws—only the most heinous criminals suffer such a fate. She is your granddaughter; you cannot do this!"

Lau Nghien nodded frantically. "Mother, you cannot use your status to be so cruel to a young girl. Think of your reputation!"

Horror welled in the girl's eyes. I saw it clearly now: she was a beneficiary, but not the mastermind. She lacked the capacity for this. I dropped her and wiped the blood from my lips.

"Fine. I will investigate this myself!" I snarled. "I will find whoever placed that spell on her, and I will drag them from the eighteenth level of hell and skin them alive!"

Te Chen and Lau Nghien turned pale but remained silent. The girl retreated, shaking so hard she nearly dropped the fate token. Te Chen stepped forward, shielding her. "Mother, the ghost officials have searched everywhere—why can you not face the truth? She is An. Stop being so stubborn."

"That you can mistake a stranger for your own daughter does not prove my stubbornness—it proves your stupidity!" My voice was icy. "You never liked An; I do not fault you for being blind to her. But if you dare obstruct me from finding her, do not expect me to show mercy. When I find the real An, I want to see how you explain this to her!"

I turned and walked away. From behind, I heard Lau Nghien’s shrill, panicked voice. "Mother, the hourglass is only half-full! If you wait any longer, the Ninefold Fortune destiny will vanish!"

I paused for a heartbeat, but I did not turn back.