Absolute Destiny Game.

Chapter 550 The Calamity of Reincarnation
King Yama Qin Chuan sighed heavily, his imposing demeanor vanishing, replaced by deep weariness and worry. He said in a low voice, “To be honest, Immortal Venerable, my Netherworld Ghost City is now outwardly strong but inwardly weak, on the verge of collapse, like a candle flickering in the wind, vulnerable to being swallowed by the raging waves of the River Styx at any moment. While it maintains a semblance of dignity on the surface, it is riddled with holes inside. Our forces are stretched thin, and our resources are exhausted. Every enemy attack is like tearing another crack in a crumbling dam.”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jie was astonished. "How could this be? I observed that His Majesty's army was disciplined and imposing; the Senluo Ghost City was impregnable, and its passes were as strong as iron; the Wangchuan Terrace was even more heavily guarded, with ghost soldiers and generals all clad in armor and armed with weapons, arrayed like mountains, and a chilling aura rising to the sky. They were clearly a battle-hardened elite force. Such a powerful army and fortified city did not look like... about to fall at all?"

Throughout his journey, he had witnessed and heard that the military strength displayed by the Senluo Ghost City was absolutely formidable. Not to mention, the Yama Emperor before him was a level 98 "Realm King" archetype! His own strength was unfathomable, making him a top-tier powerhouse. His civil and military officials were generally at levels 50 or 60, a veritable cloud of fierce generals. What kind of enemy could force such a force and powerful figure to such a precarious state?

Based on Xiao Jie's understanding of the game's background, while the Underworld Emperor wielded considerable power, he only formed a stalemate with the King of Hell, essentially controlling a region, and didn't seem to possess absolute dominance. Ultimately, the King of Hell was the nominal rightful ruler of the Underworld, holding partial authority over reincarnation. In comparison, the Underworld Emperor resembled more of a powerful rebel alliance leader.

Yan Jun Qin Chuan shook his head bitterly, causing the tassels on his imperial crown to sway slightly, making a soft clinking sound. "What the Immortal Venerable sees is merely a facade that is being maintained with great effort. That is all in the past... I do indeed have tens of thousands of troops under my command, and more than 100,000 new troops being trained from the River Styx, totaling nearly 200,000 soldiers. But does the Immortal Venerable know how many ghosts the Underworld Emperor commands?"

"How many?"

"There will be millions of people."

"What!?" Xiao Jie was startled, thinking to himself, "Are you kidding me?"

"Your Majesty, you must know that the rise and fall of this Netherworld is always closely related to the mortal realm. Yin and Yang are connected and interdependent. Any major change in the mortal realm will be transmitted to the Netherworld like ripples, causing unpredictable upheavals..." After the King of Hell's detailed explanation, Xiao Jie finally understood the seriousness of the matter and the intricate roots behind it.

It turns out that the underworld and the mortal realm are interconnected and closely interdependent, sharing a yin-yang relationship. When a living person's lifespan is exhausted, their soul leaves the body and falls into the River Styx. After undergoing the cleansing and judgment of the cycle of reincarnation, they are eventually reborn as a human. In ancient times, this system operated for tens of thousands of years, and the so-called "order of yin and yang, and the cycle of life and death" maintained a dynamic balance in this way.

Throughout history, the number of souls in the River Styx has always been finite.

As the core ruler of this reincarnation system, Yama naturally possesses the right to rule the underworld and is empowered by great force. Therefore, for a long time, Yama's rule in the underworld was very stable, with ghost officials performing their duties and the souls of the dead reincarnating in an orderly manner.

However, the seeds of upheaval were sown ten thousand years ago. At that time, the land of Kyushu was not under a unified dynasty, but rather fragmented by countless small states and feudal lords, constantly waging war against each other. Later, a powerful ruler known as the "Dragon Emperor" rose up, and after decades of bloody warfare, finally unified the land. While this war of unification laid the foundation for the Kyushu's格局 (geju, a term encompassing overall structure, pattern, and structure), it also caused unprecedented carnage, reducing the population of Kyushu by nearly half in just a few decades!
Such a massive number of deaths meant that countless souls rushed into the River Styx. In an instant, the River Styx became overcrowded, and the number of ghosts surged, with the Sea of ​​Reincarnation at the end of the River Styx becoming a place where ghosts accumulated in great numbers.

This far exceeded the normal processing capacity of the reincarnation system. This led to a fatal consequence: reincarnation required newborns in the mortal realm to carry the soul. However, the population of the mortal realm had been reduced by half, and the number of newborns naturally plummeted as well. The number of deaths far exceeded that of the past, while the "slots" available for reincarnation were extremely limited, resulting in an astronomical number of lingering ghosts.

Among these ghosts are many who experienced the most brutal battlefields, possessed extremely strong malevolent energy, and were unruly; they were unwilling to wait hopelessly in the River Styx. Many of them were extraordinary individuals or cultivators in life, who, even in death, retained some of their former abilities or obsessions.

As a result, a large number of ghosts began to disrupt the cycle of reincarnation, break free from the River Styx, escape the established river channels and cities under the jurisdiction of Yama, and enter the vast, unknown, and dangerous wilderness of the Netherworld, forming many autonomous ghost settlements of varying sizes.

At this stage, although the situation was thorny, it was still under control. Yama ordered the formation of a special "Soul Hunting Team" to venture deep into the wilderness to hunt down these escaped wandering ghosts and evil spirits. Although they could not capture them all, they greatly prevented the situation from deteriorating further.

However, there are always some particularly powerful or lucky ghosts who, in the perilous yet opportune wilderness of the underworld, accidentally obtain ancient blessings, either by devouring their own kind and mutating, or by occupying the Yin Sha spiritual veins, and experience some unknown adventures. They gain power far exceeding that of ordinary ghosts, rise up one after another, and become "ghost kings" who control their own territories and command their own armies.

This situation continued to accumulate and ferment for nearly two thousand years. Around eight thousand years ago, an unimaginable, massive wave of death suddenly erupted in the mortal realm, affecting the entire Kyushu.

"Eight thousand years ago?" Xiao Jie suddenly realized, "Isn't that... the time when the extraterrestrial demons launched a massive invasion?"

"Your Majesty's judgment is indeed correct!" King Yan confirmed Xiao Jie's guess. "Although the main force of the extraterrestrial demons was intercepted and ultimately annihilated in Lonely Cloud State by the immortals, many powerful demons still broke through the blockade and invaded the mortal realm of the Nine Provinces. These extraterrestrial demons are incredibly powerful, often capable of massacring entire cities and destroying entire nations! Under their rampage, the Nine Provinces have suffered tens of millions of casualties in just a few decades! The land is filled with lamentations and devastation!"

The already overburdened reincarnation system suffered another devastating blow, nearly paralyzing it. The principle of yin and yang is interconnected; when yang declines, yin flourishes. The more deaths occur in the mortal realm, the larger the number of wandering, malevolent spirits lingering in the underworld, unable to reincarnate normally. If these spirits can be guided to reincarnation in time, they can become living again, entering the next cycle of reincarnation, thus dispelling their malevolent energy—this is the proper way to maintain the balance of yin and yang.

However, if they cannot be reincarnated for a long time, they will be immersed and distorted in the dark and malevolent environment of the underworld, gradually mutating and evolving into various powerful and aggressive "ghost races." The Asura race, Yaksha race, Shadow race, Bone Demon race, and so on, are all born in this way. They are born strong, bloodthirsty, and warlike, and they see order as a shackle.

Every major upheaval in the mortal realm sends tsunami-like shockwaves through the underworld, giving birth to more and stronger evil spirits and demons. These newly born ghosts and ghost kings naturally defy the laws of the underworld, constantly causing chaos, fighting among themselves, and even attacking the underworld's directly controlled territories. Their numbers grow like a snowball.

Five thousand years ago, the warlord factions in the Netherworld had become too powerful to control. Various ghost clans had divided up the rich lands of the Netherworld. The strongest ghost kings even elected a supreme ruler—the peerless, ferocious ghost who called himself the "Nether Emperor"! He not only united most of the rebellious forces in the Netherworld but also brazenly led the Netherworld army to invade the mortal realm! Their goal was simple yet terrifying: to transform all living beings in the mortal world into ghosts, completely erasing the boundary between Yin and Yang! In doing so, the Netherworld City and the entire cycle of reincarnation would collapse utterly, with no chance of recovery.

"Fortunately, at that time, the venerable immortals of Guyun Prefecture, understanding the greater good, joined hands with the orthodox lineage of the Underworld, working together from within and without. After a bitter battle, they finally defeated the Underworld Emperor and his main forces, resealed the Yin-Yang passage, and drove them back to the Netherworld." King Yama's tone was filled with gratitude for his former allies, but then turned to deep helplessness. "Unfortunately, the evil was not completely eradicated back then; we only severely damaged and forced them back, but failed to eliminate the scourge. The situation was only temporarily suppressed, not fundamentally resolved. As long as the number of ghosts and spirits remaining in the Netherworld far exceeds the number of available reincarnations, this vicious cycle will continue, getting worse and worse."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jie couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Isn't there a concept of 'Six Paths of Reincarnation'? The Path of Heaven, the Path of Humans, the Path of Animals, the Path of Hungry Ghosts, the Path of Hell, and the Path of Asuras. Can't we find a way to transfer these lingering ghosts to other paths, such as the Path of Animals, to consume them first?"

Yama's bitter smile deepened: "What the Immortal Venerable said is theoretically feasible. However, the cycle of reincarnation has its own profound laws and rules, which cannot be arbitrarily altered, otherwise, there will be a backlash. I have also... alas, I have also tried to transfer a large number of hopeless souls to the animal realm in batches. And the result? It did 'consume' a large number of ghosts in a short period of time. But these souls, carrying resentment and fragmented memories, were reborn as animals, which easily catalyzes many ferocious and violent 'monsters,' and even awakens their own kind of supernatural powers! Monsters eat people! As a result, the more monsters there are in the mortal realm, the faster and more many living people die, the fewer newborns are born, and the pressure on the underworld increases rather than decreases!"

He paused, then gave an example: "Does the Immortal Venerable know of 'Canglin Prefecture'? In ancient times, it was a fertile land of densely populated humans. However, due to a mistake I made during a forced mass reincarnation operation, the prefecture was overrun with demons. In just a hundred years, the entire human population of the prefecture was almost completely devoured by demons! In the end, it was the immortals of Guyun Prefecture who could not bear to watch and stepped in to convert the demons, guiding the remaining demons to awaken their intelligence and gradually transform into 'demon humans,' thus barely managing to quell and cover up the matter."

Xiao Jie was speechless. So the root cause of those half-human, half-demon inhabitants of Canglin Prefecture was actually a policy mistake made by Yama King back then when he was helpless?

"Three thousand years ago, another 'demon star' fell to earth, emitting eerie fluctuations that corrupted people's hearts and swayed their bestial instincts, further worsening the situation." King Yama continued recounting the bloody history of the past ten thousand years. "To this day, does the Immortal Venerable know how many people remain in the mortal realm of the Nine Provinces? According to the blurry reflection in the Mirror of Reincarnation, the number is less than a million! Ten thousand years ago, when the population of the Nine Provinces was at its peak, it numbered in the tens of millions!"

"With a population of one million... the number of newborns each year is pitifully small. But in the Netherworld, after tens of thousands of years of accumulation, the number of ghosts waiting for reincarnation has reached tens of millions! Among them, a considerable number have been waiting for thousands of years! The depth of their resentment is unimaginable." Yama's voice was filled with helplessness. "So many ghosts want to be reincarnated, but where are there so many newborns for them to be reborn! Therefore, every day a large number of ghosts leave the Sea of ​​Reincarnation to become the ghosts under the command of the Underworld Emperor. I say that his ghosts number in the millions, which is already a conservative estimate."

"Now, the 'Sea of ​​Reincarnation,' which symbolizes the core of the cycle of reincarnation, is already overburdened, with resentment accumulating inside and almost solidifying. Of the eighteen ghost cities that I originally ruled and maintained the order of the underworld, thirteen have been captured and occupied by various ghost kings! Now only five remain, and they are still being protected by my soldiers at the cost of their lives."

"Not long ago, the Underworld Emperor mobilized a large army to launch a full-scale attack on the most important frontline fortress, 'Ghost City.' The war has now been deadlocked for months, with the defending forces suffering heavy casualties and facing severe shortages of supplies. Judging from the current situation, the fall of Ghost City is probably only a matter of time. Not long ago, even the Forgotten River Terrace and this Netherworld Ghost City were subjected to probing attacks by enemy detachments! If Ghost City falls, the enemy's advance can directly target Netherworld Ghost City! At this rate, it will take at least a year, or at most two years, for my last five ghost cities to fall! At that time, the cycle of reincarnation will collapse, yin and yang will be reversed, and the three realms will be in turmoil!"

Xiao Jie listened in silence for a long time. Had the situation really gotten this serious? But this help… it seemed he couldn't offer any assistance at all!
While immortals are individually powerful and virtually immortal, they are not invincible. They excel in one-on-one combat or small-scale skirmishes. If they were truly drawn into a world-class war like the one between Yama and the Underworld Emperor, their individual contributions would be extremely limited. Their opponents are a force that even a level 98 Realm King couldn't withstand; what could a mere level 39 Loose Immortal possibly do?

Furthermore, the root of the current predicament lies in the imbalance of Yin and Yang, leading to a sharp decline in population. As long as the birth rate in the mortal realm doesn't increase, the number of ghosts in the underworld will only accumulate, and the enemies will only multiply, becoming an inexhaustible cycle! This is fundamentally an unsolvable vicious cycle!
Of course, theoretically, if one could rely on overwhelming force to physically exorcise all these rebellious ghost kings and pent-up evil spirits, it could at least bring decades or even centuries of peace, buying time for the mortal realm to recover its population. But such a task of "pacifying the underworld" is absolutely impossible for one person alone. Unless... unless all those lazy immortals of Lonely Cloud Prefecture mobilize, perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope.

But given Xiao Jie's understanding of those immortals, it was clearly impossible for him to leave his comfort zone and participate in a doomed and seemingly meaningless battle.

Originally, it was thought that the two sides were evenly matched and in a stalemate, but it turned out that Yan Jun's side was already on the edge of a cliff and the situation was so bad.

I absolutely cannot take on this job; it's a complete mess.

Of course, directly refusing wouldn't work. The other party had just agreed to help get their person out and was being so hospitable, praising them so highly; they clearly expected me to solve their problem.

(End of this chapter)