24: Chapter 24: Brother and Sister Reunite in the Netherworld Palace

White Impermanence bowed slightly, closing the folding fan in his hand, and made a gesture of invitation toward the opened bronze palace doors.

"Your Highness, please enter the hall with this old minister."

Pei Duo took a deep breath, tightly clutching the warm black jade pendant in her small hand, and stepped over the threshold that was a hundred zhang high, carved with intricate cloud patterns.

One step inside, and life and death were separated.

The interior of the grand hall was not as dark and gloomy as imagined; instead, it was dazzlingly bright. The dome was studded with luminous pearls, resembling an inverted galaxy.

Ten thousand silent blue Jiao oil lamps floated in mid-air, their flames burning quietly, emitting a strange fragrance that calmed the spirit yet made the soul tremble.

Nine colossal pillars of golden silk nanmu wood propped up the firmament, and an ink-colored stone dragon coiled around each pillar.

The dragons were carved too realistically; their scales flared, their whiskers seemed to drift, and the nine massive dragon heads were all aimed squarely at the high platform in the center of the hall, as if they would come alive and devour people the next second.

Xu Mo and Lin Sa followed behind Pei Duo. As soon as they entered the door, their kneecaps began to shake uncontrollably.

Even with their heads lowered, the peripheral vision of the two could catch glimpses of the figures standing solemnly like a forest on both sides of the hall.

Civil officials on the left and military officials on the right, arrayed in neat lines.

Although their faces were indistinct, beneath the crimson and black official robes were gazes as tangible as substance.

Those gazes were cold, scrutinizing, carrying the indifference of a deity looking upon mortals, scraping across Xu Mo and Lin Sa like bone-scraping knives.

Xu Mo felt like a sheep stripped bare of its wool, thrown naked into a Tyrannosaurus Rex's lair.

Cold sweat instantly drenched his spine, dripping from his chin with a 'pat' onto the floor tiles, sounding like a thunderclap in the deathly silent hall.

He wanted to control it, but couldn't. It was the instinctual fear of death coded in his genes. The psychological defense he had finally built up on the outer plaza shattered into pieces at this moment.

This was the central hub of power in the Underworld? This was the dojo of that... that 'Majesty'?

At the far end of his sight were ninety-nine steps paved with white jade.

Upon the high platform rested a dragon throne, entirely dark black. Layers upon layers of black Jiao gauze curtains hung down, obstructing the view, allowing only a vague silhouette sitting within to be seen.

White Impermanence walked to the foot of the jade steps, adjusted his attire, and put away the butler-like smile on his face.

He clasped his hands in front of his chest, raising them above his head, his expression solemn, his voice like a great bell, shaking the entire hall:

"Your servant, White Impermanence, has fortunately not failed his mission and welcomes the Eldest Princess back to her place—!"

The sound wave rolled, rushing straight to the ceiling of the hall.

The civil and military officials on both sides bowed in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized, the sound of armor rubbing together like clashing metal.

"Thud!"

Xu Mo and Lin Sa could no longer hold on; their knees buckled, and they immediately knelt on the ground, their foreheads pressed tightly against the cold floor tiles, not daring to even breathe.

A deathly silence lasted for three seconds.

"Retire."

A voice penetrated the heavy gauze curtains.

There was no soul-shattering divine sound as expected, nor the majesty accompanied by reverberation.

It was the voice of a young man, clear and clean, and although he tried hard to suppress his emotions, a barely perceptible tremor lingered in the final syllable.

This voice...

Pei Duo, who had been so tense she was about to faint, suddenly lifted her head.

It was too familiar.

So familiar that it was the voice she had heard for twenty years, the voice of the person who would secretly cook instant noodles late at night and share half with her, who would roll up his sleeves to fight when she was bullied, and who smiled while patting her head before disappearing, saying, 'Brother is going to do something big.'

"Whoosh—"

The gauze curtains rose without wind, floating to both sides like a black tide.

The young man sitting on the dragon throne, wearing a twelve-tasseled Mian crown and a dark black imperial robe with golden patterns, finally revealed his face.

It was Pei Fei, who had been missing for two years.

But he was more than just Pei Fei.

Dark golden Netherworld laws flowed from his imperial robe, and the eyes behind the tassels were as deep as if they contained the Six Paths of Reincarnation. As he sat there, he was the very spine of this heaven and earth, the master of billions of departed souls.

Pei Fei looked at the girl below the platform and suddenly stood up.

"Boom—"

As he stood, the oppressive might that had nearly suffocated Xu Mo and Lin Sa receded completely like the tide.

This Underworld Son of Heaven, who commanded all ghosts and made the Western Gods lose all temper, now appeared somewhat flustered.

He subconsciously straightened his already neat cuffs, then touched the jade belt at his waist, as if feeling that this attire was too formal in front of his sister.

His gaze swept past the civil and military judges, past the ghost marshals and nether soldiers, and even directly ignored the two mortals kneeling on the ground.

His eyes, which were originally as cold as knives, were locked tightly onto the girl who looked exceptionally small. The ice in his eyes instantly melted, replaced by endless guilt, longing, and a touch of cautious tenderness.

This was the only soft spot he dared not touch during his long divine wars and endless slaughter.

"Brother..."

Pei Duo looked at the figure seated high above, her lips trembling, tears falling down like broken beads, 'pitter-patter.'

All the fear, all the grievances, all the despair about the 'certain-death instance' completely broke through the dam at this moment.

The terrifying high-ranking ghost officials surrounding them? They didn't matter.

The strict rules of the Underworld? To hell with them.

Pei Duo sniffled, and instead of performing the grand three bows and nine kowtows as White Impermanence had instructed on the way, she did something that made all the ghosts and gods gasp in cold air.

She lifted the hem of her skirt, gritted her teeth, and like an angry little cannonball, rushed with red eyes toward the ninety-nine steps of jade that symbolized supreme imperial power—steps that a mortal would die from touching!

"Tap, tap, tap!"

Crisp footsteps echoed on the imperial path, sounding so abrupt, yet so resolute.

Pei Duo ran unevenly, her breath ragged.

When she reached the last step, her legs were still weak, and her toe tripped on the jade step.

"Ah..."

Pei Duo cried out in alarm, losing her balance and lunging forward.

She did not fall onto the cold, hard floor tiles.

The man who had been standing high above rushed down almost instantaneously, catching her in his arms.

Pei Fei spread his arms and steadily pulled the figure rushing toward him into an embrace.

A familiar scent.

There was no sinister ghostly aura, only the faint smell of tobacco—the scent of her brother.

"Waaah... Pei Fei, you bastard!!"

Pei Duo clutched Pei Fei's imperial robe, whose cost was incalculable and whose very stitches contained the power of law, rubbing all her tears and snot onto it without any regard for appearance.

As she cried, she swung her little fists, pounding the chest of this Underworld Son of Heaven, 'Bang, bang, bang.'

"Do you know how terrifying that vampire was! I almost wet myself, do you know that!"

"The broken jade you gave me is filthy! It was covered in mud! Tens of millions of people in the livestream were laughing at me!"

"Why didn't you come home... Waaah... I thought you were dead... Mom and Dad thought you were dead too... You bastard!"

The hall fell silent.

The civil and military officials buried their heads even lower, wishing they could burrow into the cracks in the floor.

Was this something they were allowed to hear?

The current Eldest Princess was grabbing the collar of the Underworld Son of Heaven and calling him a bastard?

If this got out, where would the dignity of the Netherworld lie?