Chapter 1

I am the Ghost King of the Nine Netherworlds. Ten thousand ghosts bow before me.

But my foolish best friend wanted to help me ascend to godhood, so she volunteered to descend into the mortal realm and be reborn, accumulating a lifetime of merit for my sake.

So I stole the Book of Life and Death from the King of Hell and personally wrote her fate:

In this life, she would be born with the phoenix destiny, as a princess of the Great Chu imperial clan, blessed with a smooth and worry-free life.

Once I had written her fate, no one in the Three Realms dared alter so much as a single word.

But today, her record of fate suddenly changed.

Her phoenix destiny had been rewritten: her corpse would be rendered into oil, her fortune stolen and given to someone else, and only a dying wisp of her soul would remain.

With one strike of my palm, I shattered the Yellow Springs Road, tore open the boundary between yin and yang, and possessed the Empress Dowager of Great Chu!

When I opened my eyes, palace attendants were carrying a baby girl and placing her in the Empress’s arms.

One glance was all it took to know that the girl had not the faintest trace of my best friend’s soul.

I beckoned. Three ghostly shadows seeped out from behind a pillar and knelt at my feet.

“Find whoever switched my friend. Let ten thousand ghosts devour his corpse!”

The ghosts shot away. My gaze settled on the Empress, who was happily holding the baby.

“Your child was switched. This one is a fake.”

As soon as I spoke, every attendant in Kunning Palace dropped to their knees, trembling.

Clutching the baby girl, the Empress went rigid.

“I saw the child come out of my womb with my own eyes. The maids and midwife were in the delivery room. So many people witnessed the birth. How could the baby have been switched?”

The midwife immediately kowtowed like a pestle pounding grain.

“Your Majesty, please see the truth! I delivered the child myself. The baby never left Your Majesty’s side for a moment!”

I didn’t even glance at her. My voice allowed no argument.

“If I say it isn’t so, then it isn’t so.”

This body had mortal eyes, but I was the Ghost King.

I could recognize my best friend’s soul even with my eyes closed.

The baby girl was clean of it. There wasn’t a trace of her.

It wasn’t her!

Just then, one of the ghostly shadows returned from scouting.

“Your Majesty, there’s an overwhelming smell of fresh infant blood near Kunning Palace’s washroom. It isn’t postpartum blood… It’s the blood of a living newborn!”

My pupils contracted. I strode out at once.

Matron Li, the head of the delivery room, threw herself in front of me and knelt.

“Your Majesty! The washroom is full of filthy blood from childbirth! Under our ancestral rules, such blood clashes with the noble and brings great ill fortune! The Empress Dowager’s phoenix body is precious; she mustn’t take such a risk!”

The other attendants fell to their knees, weeping and kowtowing.

The Empress panicked and tugged at my sleeve.

“Mother, please rest for a moment. We can send someone to investigate.”

I looked down at Matron Li’s hands blocking my path.

My friend’s life was hanging by a thread, and you dared stop me?

Before she could react, I drew a guard’s saber and brought it down!

A shriek split the night. Matron Li’s right hand was severed at the wrist!

The attendants were so frightened their souls nearly fled their bodies. Even the Empress let go of my sleeve and collapsed to the ground.

Expressionless, I tossed the saber back to the guard.

“Anyone else who dares block my way will lose more than a hand. They’ll lose their head.”

No one dared stop me again. I kicked the washroom door open.

The reek of blood hit me in the face. In the corner, there really was a bundle of swaddling cloth, carelessly shoved behind a wooden tub!

But when I crouched and tore it open, I found it empty.

The Empress stumbled in after me. Seeing the empty swaddling cloth, she actually let out a breath of relief.

“Mother, look. There’s nothing here. Perhaps there really was a mistake…”

“There was no mistake!”

The baby’s warmth still lingered in the cloth, but the child was gone.

Someone had taken my best friend away in the chaos!

Just as my anger was about to erupt, the second ghostly shadow returned with news.

“Your Majesty! The aura is moving! Someone carrying a living newborn is rushing out of the palace!”

I stood and issued an order without a moment’s hesitation.

“Someone has taken the child.”

I dropped the swaddling cloth. Ghostly energy churned in my palm.

“Order the Imperial Guards to seal the palace gates. If anyone is found carrying the child, execute them on the spot!”

The ghostly shadows shot out of Kunning Palace, skimming low over the ground.

“The child’s direction has changed! He realized the palace gates are sealed. The smell of blood is moving southwest, toward Orchid Fragrance Hall!”

Orchid Fragrance Hall was the residence of Consort Wei Changning.

I didn’t slow down.

Behind me came the sound of a soft sedan chair being carried. The Empress was following after all.

I didn’t look back.

She might waver, but the child was still her own flesh and blood. She couldn’t abandon her completely.

Lanruo Hall was dimly lit. The smell of medicine was so thick it seemed almost tangible.

The doors opened, and a maid helped a frail figure step out.

“The Empress Dowager has arrived in the middle of the night… This concubine had no idea something had happened…”

Consort Wei Changning was pale as paper and coughing without cease. She covered her lips with a handkerchief, her brows drawn with an air of illness.

The Empress immediately raised her voice.

“Someone switched my child! The culprit is in your residence!”

The maid was startled by the accusation and hurriedly replied, trembling,

“Her Ladyship has been gravely ill today. She hasn’t taken a single step outside her chambers!”

The ghostly shadow entered the Consort’s quarters, and I followed close behind.

Wei Changning timidly called out to me from behind. I acted as though I hadn’t heard.

The ghostly shadow drifted along the eastern wall, then suddenly stopped.

“There’s a hidden chamber behind this wall. The smell of newborn blood… It’s inside!”

My gaze locked onto the wall.

The green bricks were smooth. Nothing looked unusual, but a ghostly shadow would not deceive me.

If it did, its soul would scatter. It couldn’t afford that!

I immediately ordered, “Smash this wall. There’s a hidden room inside!”

The Imperial Guards rolled up their sleeves. Just as they were about to act, Wei Changning broke free of her maid’s support and spread both arms in front of the wall.

“This is my private room! There are only a few personal belongings inside. How could there be a hidden chamber?”

She lifted her pale face, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“I am innocent. I had nothing to do with what happened at Kunning Palace! Your Majesty, please see the truth!”

The maids behind her dropped to their knees, crying out in a chorus.

“Her Ladyship is innocent…”

I looked down at her.

“Whether you submit or not is of no concern to me.”

I turned to the commander of the Imperial Guards.

“Break it.”

“If she keeps blocking you, break her along with it.”

My tone was calm, without the slightest emotion.

The commander shuddered and hurriedly obeyed, lifting a heavy hammer.

Under the Consort’s pale gaze, he swung it hard into the wall.

With a crash, the wall cracked. At once, a thick, sweetish stench of blood surged out.

The moment the Empress entered the hall and smelled it, her face turned white.

“That smell…”

Her eyes reddened. A mother’s instinct was sharper than any evidence. There had been traces of the baby here!

She looked at me, and for once her gaze held less resistance.

“Is my child really in there?”

But after searching, the commander poured cold water over her hopes.

“Your Majesty, there is no newborn inside.”

How could that be?

I didn’t trust him. I stepped into the hidden chamber myself.

But all I found were bloodstained copies of Buddhist scriptures pasted across the walls, and incense sticks burned down to ash. There was no sign of a baby.

The Empress was startled, too.

“Consort Wei, what is all this?”

Wei Changning knelt on the ground and wiped her tears. Her voice was frail, but steady.

“Your Majesty, this is a hidden chamber I built to pray for His Majesty. I copied Buddhist scriptures with blood from my heart, praying day and night for His Majesty’s health…”

She slowly rolled up her sleeves.

Her thin arms were crisscrossed with shocking cuts. New wounds overlapped old ones, the flesh split open.

“My devotion is witnessed by heaven and earth.”

Looking at the blood-written scriptures and those wounds, the Empress wavered once more.

“Perhaps… she really is only praying?”

I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I had already guessed how the baby had disappeared.

My gaze fell on Wei Changning. I spoke coldly.

“Do you think those little tricks of yours can fool me?”

Wei Changning lifted her confused face.

“This concubine… doesn’t understand what the Empress Dowager means.”

I raised two fingers. My voice was like cracking ice.

“The baby disappeared from right under our eyes twice. It wasn’t because someone ran fast. Someone used the Five Ghosts’ Corpse-Moving Art.”

“Mortals cannot do it. Yin arts can.”

The hall fell silent.

The Empress trembled all over. Her face was deathly pale, and her fingers clutched her sleeve so tightly her knuckles turned blue.

The Consort didn’t move at all. She even nodded slightly, her voice gentle.

“Your Majesty, if someone truly used such an art, that would indeed be a grave crime. But… it has nothing to do with me.”

I looked at her.

“Whether it concerns you or not is for me to decide.”

“Seize the Consort!”

The Imperial Guards hesitated for only an instant. At the same time, the Ghost King’s pressure quietly descended as my eyes swept over them.

Two guards rushed forward and forced the Consort to her knees.

Wei Changning struggled, but couldn’t break free. A flicker of panic finally appeared on her face.

“Your Majesty! What are you going to do to me?”

I didn’t let her finish.

I drew a blade across her palm. As blood poured out, I slowly chanted the spell.

“Ghosts and gods, patrol the heavens!”

As soon as the words left my mouth, black mist covered the palace sky. The Five Ghosts’ Corpse-Moving Art and the art of borrowing a corpse to return a soul—every path of yin magic was sealed.

If I couldn’t outrun the art’s speed, then I wouldn’t chase it.

I would seal the whole sky and earth, leaving her nowhere to escape.

I turned to face everyone in the hall.

The ghostly shadow cried out in alarm.

“Your Majesty! Patrolling the heavens will consume a huge amount of merit. The merit she has accumulated over three hundred years may all be lost. The path to ascension will be severed!”

I opened my eyes.

“She accumulated merit for my sake. If I can’t even protect her, what use is merit to me?”

The ghost fell silent. Then the last shadow returned with news.

“Your Majesty, every passage of yin magic has been cut off. The newborn can no longer be moved. Her aura is at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, where the late emperor’s coffin is enshrined.”

Now that I knew the location, I strode toward the Imperial Ancestral Temple without hesitation.