Chapter 363: Ghosts Overflowing the Underworld

In the graveyard, a white-clad female figure stood atop a tombstone, delivering an impassioned speech.

“Fellow spirits, we can no longer continue wandering aimlessly like this. The yang energy of the living world is terrifying for us. We must unite and seek help from the powerful beings of this world.”

“How can we seek help when we know nothing about this world?”

“The powerful can’t be trusted. Though I lost my memories after drinking Granny Meng’s Soup, I vaguely recall my previous life was ended by an unreasonable powerful being.”

“Even the mighty Underworld has abandoned us. Who else can help? Are you suggesting this world is mightier than the Underworld?”

Several ghosts argued, but most remained in their dazed state, letting their companions quarrel.

The confused spirits drifted aimlessly, passing through tombstones, trees, and abandoned houses. They didn’t belong to this world – nothing could obstruct them, nor could they interact with anything.

Suddenly, the ghosts sensed overwhelming yang energy nearby and fled in panic.

As spirits of extreme yin nature, yang energy was their bane. While small amounts couldn’t harm them, excessive exposure would neutralize their yin essence, causing them to dissipate.

This shouldn’t normally happen, but among the three approaching figures, two males clearly possessed formidable cultivation, carrying yang energy threatening to the ghosts.

The man in the center was particularly dangerous – merely approaching him risked dissolution by his yang energy.

He was practically the natural enemy of ghosts.

Only ascended spirit immortals could withstand yang energy, while they were merely ordinary ghosts awaiting reincarnation.

“That’s her!” Du Ping recognized the white-clad figure on the tombstone, recalling last night’s encounter.

Ji Kongkong and Du Ping attacked simultaneously, but as reported, their attacks passed through the ghost harmlessly.

Du Ping attempted to capture her with a mana-formed hand, only to find he couldn’t grasp anything substantial. The white-clad figure wasn’t restrained by his mana but by something else – he merely maintained a clutching gesture.

The ghost began sizzling with white vapor, screaming in agony.

Jiang Li quickly ordered Du Ping to release her.

“Your yang energy is too intense – you need to restrain it.” Jiang Li remembered teachings from Immortal Elder Changcun and Venerable Sumeru Buddha about ghosts fearing the yang energy of living beings.

Du Ping’s overwhelming yang energy had immobilized the white-clad ghost.

Ji Kongkong’s cultivation was insufficient, her yang energy too weak to threaten ghosts.

Previously, only Divine Transformation cultivators had encountered ghosts without solution. Jiang Li guessed only Unity Stage cultivators carried enough yang energy to affect them.

“Yang energy?” Du Ping and Ji Kongkong exchanged confused glances, neither knowing how to control it.

Having studied souls and yang energy manipulation, Jiang Li taught them the method.

While they learned, the ghosts tried escaping. Jiang Li snapped his fingers, dividing part of his yang energy to encircle the graveyard, trapping every ghost.

The two quickly mastered yang energy control.

The ghosts attempted their usual vanishing trick, but Jiang Li’s spiritual sense still detected them.

They’d only become invisible, not disappeared.

Finding themselves still trapped within Jiang Li’s yang energy barrier despite invisibility, the ghosts sighed and reappeared.

“Friends, why hurry back to the Underworld when you’ve just arrived in the living world?” Jiang Li stepped forward, skillfully tightening the yang energy circle to confine them around the white-clad figure.

“Return? We’d go back if we could,” one ghost muttered.

“You seem… familiar,” the white-clad ghost hesitated, studying Jiang Li as fragmented memories surfaced.

She vaguely recalled a statue of this man in her former home, worshipped day and night as a deity.

Du Ping now noticed the ghost appeared young – barely fifteen or sixteen – with an air of pitiable fragility.

Her tombstone read: “Qi Ming’s daughter Qi Gufang.”

In the Nine Provinces, taking the mother’s surname was common when the mother’s cultivation surpassed the father’s.

“You know me? I’m Jiang Li, Human Sovereign of the Nine Provinces.”

The ghost shook her head regretfully: “Apologies. After crossing Naihe Bridge and drinking Granny Meng’s Soup, my memories are faint. I can’t recall who you are.”

She pointed at the dazed, mumbling ghosts: “These all crossed the bridge and drank the soup, remembering nothing of past lives.”

“Perhaps because I had cultivation in my past life, I retain fragments of memory – but only fragments.”

She indicated the more active ghosts: “They likely had cultivation too.”

“Xiaofang, why tell him everything when we know nothing about him?” a ghost protested angrily.

His past life’s betrayal made him distrustful of everyone, constantly suspecting ill intent.

“He introduced himself – Jiang Li, Human Sovereign of the Nine Provinces,” the white-clad ghost replied with inexplicable trust in Jiang Li.

“Your name is Xiaofang?” Ji Kongkong asked, recalling recently hearing the name.

“Just a random name.”

“Oh.”

“How did you come to the living world? Is the Underworld malfunctioning?”

“Yes, the Underworld is overcrowded – no room left for ghosts.”

“What?” This shocked Jiang Li.

“We’ve all been dead over fifty years. I’m the newest, dead just fifty years, still waiting in the reincarnation queue.”

“But you crossed Naihe Bridge and drank Granny Meng’s Soup?” Ji Kongkong knew crossing the bridge severed past karma, while the soup erased all memories – procedures preceding reincarnation.

If still queuing, why undergo them so early?

“Those were the old rules. The Underworld changed them millennia ago.”

“Rumor says too many beings died across the myriad worlds, flooding the Underworld while living populations dwindled, with fewer newborns.”

“Reincarnating as beasts isn’t problematic – animal populations remain stable. But the human path has no vacancies.”

“After our merits are assessed, we’re supposed to reincarnate as humans.”

“But with no space in the living world, the Underworld makes us wait.”

“With more ghosts queuing for human rebirth and human hearts growing chaotic, the Underworld can’t manage properly. Having us cross the bridge and drink the soup first makes us easier to handle.”