Li Lingrui’s eyes snapped open.
A five-colored paper banner hung half-loose on the iron gate of the prison cart, fluttering like a warning that couldn’t decide whether it was blessing or curse. Gold-stamped regular script, crisp as a verdict:
Right: Pray to the God, Ignite the Lantern
Left: Judgment, Rebirth
Center, four vertical lines: ASCEND EARLY TO THE IMMORTAL REALM
His gaze dropped.
Shackles bit his wrists. An iron chain dragged from his back, and the other end sat in a man’s hand.
That man wore a pitch-black official robe, high crown binding his hair, every inch of him carved from authority. A name placard on his chest made it worse.
Netherworld Warden, Yin Enforcer: Sisheng.
An ancient lambskin scroll unfurled in the air, becoming a pale wall of light that only Li Lingrui could see. Words burned into it:
【Nine Nether World, Boundless Earth】
【Sisheng keeps six wives. Overworked, underpowered. Bribed with Red Dust Duality Yin-Yang Scripture. SUCCESS.】
“…Awake?” Sisheng asked.
He was lazily rubbing the pages of the Red Dust Duality Yin-Yang Scripture between his fingers, like a connoisseur judging paper quality instead of committing corruption.
Li Lingrui lifted his shackled hands and hugged his own head in surrender. “My lord is wise beyond mortal measure!”
Sisheng snorted. “Plenty fear death. Few pay for exceptions.”
His finger paused on a line. “Fangze Realm, Kingdom of Wu. Li Lingrui. Lifespan not yet exhausted, died violently. Under Nether Law, you should enter reincarnation.”
Sisheng looked up, eyes cold and amused.
“But your gift… happened to suit my tastes.”
He opened his palm.
The iron chain unlatched itself.
The world lurched.
The prison cart, the road, the sky, all of it peeled away like rotten paint.
Li Lingrui stood on a black sea without ripples. Dark water stretched forever, swallowing light. Green lanterns floated on the surface, and inside each flame something wrinkled and snarling pressed a face against the glass, as if the dead were trying to remember how to scream.
In the distance, a city hung like a blade across the horizon.
Two characters blazed above its gate:
FENGDU.
Sisheng led him across the Bridge of Passing, footsteps steady, like he walked this nightmare every day because he did. At the city gate, he slapped a jade token onto a stone platform.
Blood-colored characters rose out of the rock:
【Return-to-Yang Quota: 1】
【Reason: Violent death, lifespan unspent】
【Guarantor: Yin Enforcer Sisheng】
Sisheng nodded, satisfied. “You can go back. But the Netherworld doesn’t run a charity.”
He leaned closer, voice turning pleasantly cruel.
“From now on, every time you die, the Netherworld can fish you out again. But pulling someone from the river costs money.”
His lips twitched. “And the price climbs fast.”
Li Lingrui’s mouth spasmed.
So… resurrection tokens. With tiered pricing. Great. Even Hell believed in inflation.
He forced his most earnest expression. “My lord commands the four seas. When I return to the living world, I will worship with green lamps and ancient—”
“Spare me,” Sisheng cut in, suddenly irritated. “Green lamps, bald monks, chanting nonsense. I hate that crowd.”
His eyes sharpened. “I ended up here because an old和尚 ambushed me.”
He raised a hand and tapped Li Lingrui’s forehead.
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The green lanterns on the black river went out.
Pain like a spike through the soul.
Li Lingrui felt himself unravel into light, feathering upward, ripped from the weight of death.
【Li Lingrui】
【Lifespan: 18】
【Cultivation Method: Red Dust Duality Yin-Yang Scripture (Complete) [1/1]】
【Note: Nether Sense (crawled back from a pile of corpses in the Underworld; attuned to all that is wicked)】
He shut his eyes.
The complete scripture rotated through his mind, line by line, as if carved into bone.
Before, what he’d practiced was a cheap copy, morning mist that vanished when the wind changed.
Now?
Now two vast serpents coiled inside his dantian, one yin, one yang, biting tail, forming a circle that pulsed with hungry rhythm. A new meridian had appeared in his body, running against the normal flow.
A meridian made for one thing.
To reverse the cauldron.
“Eh?” The voice that drifted to him was soft, almost lazy with surprise.
Yu Susu sat cross-legged in the center of the hall.
The place had been noisy before.
Now it was empty.
Empty except for the floor scattered with human-shaped dolls, each one frozen in a smile that didn’t belong to the living.
Li Lingrui’s expression tightened.
So the “senior sister” had turned the other newcomers into puppets.
Yu Susu’s voice floated like perfume over rot. “Junior brother… you really are special.”
She moved.
Too fast.
One blink she was across the room, the next she was in his arms, warm and fragrant like a poisonous flower. Her lips parted, close enough that breath became threat.
“You smell better than yesterday.”
Li Lingrui laughed inside.
Outwardly, he looked pale, unsteady, the perfect prey. “Senior sister… last night was exhausting. I…”
Yu Susu didn’t bother listening.
She surged closer, possessive, intent.
Li Lingrui let the moment lock.
Then he reversed the method.
The hall shuddered.
A flood of spiritual energy poured into his body as if a dam had broken. Yu Susu’s face twisted. Her body jerked violently, breath choking, foam at the edge of her mouth.
Li Lingrui heard a crisp crack inside himself.
A barrier snapping.
He broke through.
Entering the Dao.
One step, and mortals and cultivators became different species.
【Red Dust Duality Yin-Yang Scripture [0/0]】
He drew a slow breath, tasting the lingering sweetness of stolen power, and muttered under his breath, half impressed, half disturbed.
“This cheat… copies the method better than the original owner ever used it.”
When Li Lingrui emerged from the Red Dust Desire Sect’s branch tomb, someone was already waiting.
The old servant who had guided them here.
The same low-ranking attendant with a humble back and eyes that never missed anything.
“How is it you?” the old man blurted, shock breaking through his careful face.
By all logic, after devouring this batch of “offerings,” Yu Susu should have advanced to early Entering Dao. He’d come early to congratulate her. To bask in reflected glory.
Instead, a nobody from two days ago walked out alive.
A concealment art? A hidden bloodline? Some trick?
The old servant’s mind raced, then snapped into place with a smile so polite it felt like a knife turning.
A formal disciple’s waist token appeared in his hand and he passed it over. “Come with me.”
His name was Guo Yuan, a black-robed disciple assigned to handle the sect’s grunt work: errands, rules, introductions, disposal.
As they walked, Guo Yuan spoke like he was reciting a menu.
“Our demonic sect has many branches. The main veins include: Red Dust Desire, Limitless Heavenly Demon, Blood Sea Devil School, Heavenly Craft Extremis, Ten Thousand Beasts Abyss, and the Nether Noble Prefecture.”
He led Li Lingrui through peak after peak: Treasure Pavilion, Artifact Vault, Martial Hall, Discipline Court, Inheritance Tower.
Finally, they stopped before the Scripture Pavilion.
Guo Yuan tilted his chin. “Go in. By rule, every new disciple gets one technique from the library. Choose well. If you want to swap later, you’ll pay for it with contributions.”
Li Lingrui stepped inside.
Rows of lacquered shelves. Bound volumes in old wood colors. He read titles at a glance, his eyes moving like blades:
Life Gives Life, Death Gives Death.
Blood-Drinking Demon Strike.
A Hundred Rivers Into the Sea.
Beast-Taming Formula.
Skyhawk Art.
Then his gaze snagged on a dark red ancient book, like dried blood sealed into leather:
Red Dust Yin-Yang Ascension Scripture.
He pulled it down and flipped through.
His eyes brightened with every page.
A vicious dual-cultivation method, clearly of the same lineage as the scripture he already had. Cultivators refined qi from heaven and earth, but kidney essence was also a hidden treasury of the human body, born from the same source.
Train this method to completion, and you forge an iron kidney, a golden sun of essence within. As it rises, yang surges without end.
A cultivator of this art could fight… endlessly.
Without his cheat, Li Lingrui would never touch it. Red Dust Desire techniques advanced fast, but they were crooked paths, sharp and unstable.
But now, thinking of Sisheng’s amused gaze back in Fengdu…
Li Lingrui made a decision.
With a sweep of his sleeve, he stored the scripture into his token’s space and walked out.
Guo Yuan glanced at the copied technique name on the jade plaque and his expression turned… complicated.
“Junior brother,” he said slowly, voice thick with mockery and nostalgia, “you truly inherited Red Dust’s traditions. Your interest hasn’t faded at all.”
Li Lingrui’s mouth twitched. Explaining would only make it worse.
Guo Yuan’s grin widened.
Kids these days were fearless.
When Guo Yuan had first joined, he’d fallen into a Red Dust beauty’s trap and nearly ruined his path. Decades of bitter cultivation later, he’d only barely reached Entering Dao, stuck at the bottom of the demonic hierarchy.
This Li Lingrui… killed the temptress, then walked out looking like he’d developed a taste.
He’d probably gotten his hands on the complete Red Dust Duality Yin-Yang Scripture.
He was going to walk this road all the way into darkness.
Guo Yuan felt a phantom ache in his lower back and winced.
Old.
Weak.
Youth really was unfair.
After settling Li Lingrui into a cave dwelling, Guo Yuan clapped him on the shoulder, suddenly friendly.
“Junior Brother Li, we’re the same realm. We can treat each other as peers. In this grim sect, it’s good to have an extra ally. Recruitment has me busy, but when I have time, I’ll bring you an… opportunity.”
Li Lingrui put on a moved expression so sincere it could win awards. “Senior Brother Guo… you’re a good man. Thank you, truly.”
He smiled.
And in his mind, the Netherworld’s price tag quietly ticked upward, waiting for the next time he died.
