I subdue demons and monsters, and cultivate immortality in hell to become a saint.

The Great Evil Demon King was full of wicked schemes and was as cunning as a fox. He had long planned to send the Thousand-Eyed Demon Ghost to scout ahead. If the Thousand-Eyed Demon Ghost won, he could reap the benefits; if he lost, he could still weaken the spirit of the Underworld.

"So be it, I'll lead the charge! Do you think I'm afraid of you?"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon glanced at him coldly, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes.

He was also a powerful figure, and he saw through the Demon King's little schemes at a glance.

But he doesn't care.

As long as we can kill Zhong Jiu and raze the City God's Mansion of Xing Sha City, it's all worth it, even if we suffer some losses and expend some effort.

The City of Annihilation was his life's work, but it was destroyed by the Underworld. This hatred is irreconcilable!

As soon as he finished speaking, the Thousand-Eyed Demon leaped into the air, its ghostly aura instantly increasing tenfold. Dark clouds surged and gathered, enveloping the entire Jiangling Plain. The wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves resounded throughout the heavens and earth, and the cold wind swept past, carrying sand and gravel. In an instant, it seemed to have turned this plain into a living hell.

"You are the judge of Star Sand City?"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon's gaze was fixed on Zhong Jiu in front of the formation like a sharp sword, his tone full of killing intent.

Zhong Jiu was dressed in a black judge's robe with a jade belt around his waist. Lightning crackled around him. Even standing among hundreds of thousands of troops, he still exuded an extraordinary aura. All the generals subconsciously lagged behind him by half a step. His respect and status were immediately apparent.

"So what if it's me?"

Zhong Jiu spoke calmly, his tone nonchalant, "What? Your hideout got raided, so you've come here to die in person?"

As he spoke, a strange phenomenon suddenly appeared behind Zhong Jiu. Blood-red lightning surged and rolled across the sky, and crackling arcs of lightning darted around like snakes, with a terrifying pressure sweeping across the entire area.

"I've heard that you were previously just a minor city god in Guiling City, but later rose to the position of judge in Xingsha City by launching a surprise attack on my Jiemie City. Is this true?"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon had clearly done his homework, his tone full of sarcasm, intending to humiliate Zhong Jiu.

"Exactly."

Zhong Jiu looked at him with a half-smile, his eyes full of amusement, "Destroying your Silent City is a great achievement. I was promoted because of it. Speaking of which, I should thank the Ghost King properly."

These words were like a sharp knife, piercing the heart of the Thousand-Eyed Demon!

His thousand eyes widened instantly, each churning with different emotions: anger, resentment, grief, madness. A thousand gazes converged, enough to shatter the mind of an ordinary cultivator in an instant.

"Shameless scoundrel! Does he even deserve to be called a god?"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon trembled with rage, its ghostly energy surging wildly. Its finger, pointing at Zhong Jiu, shook violently. "You dare to attack my lair while I was away? You dare to be a righteous god of the underworld?"

"I have never offended you, the underworld, so why do you want to destroy my foundation?"

"If I do not avenge this, I swear I will not return as a ghost!"

The thought of the City of Annihilation filled the Thousand-Eyed Demon with such hatred that he almost lost his mind.

That city was the culmination of his centuries of hard work. He poured all the rare and precious materials and spiritual essences he had collected into it, even sacrificing his own cultivation to build the city's foundation.

Once the City of Annihilation is fully completed, he will be able to merge with the city and achieve a state of invulnerability to all laws and unbreakable by anything. At that time, not only Nanling Province, but even the entire Ghost Realm will have to give him some face!

But all of this was ruined by the judge of the underworld in front of him.

All my hard work has gone to waste, and all my life's desires have vanished. This hatred cannot be washed away, even if all the water in the Three Rivers and Five Lakes were poured out!

"Never provoked them?"

Zhong Jiu's eyes turned cold, and bolts of lightning shot from his divine gaze. His majestic voice, carrying heavenly might, resounded across the vast plains, each word like a thunderclap: "You have slaughtered countless lives, harmed millions of innocent people, and your hands are stained with blood. You deserve to die a thousand deaths!"

"You dare build a city of annihilation, using flesh and blood as its foundation and living souls as its slaves, burning mortal beings like lamp oil? Your actions are even more ruthless than those of the demons of hell!"

"You should be thankful you weren't in the city then, otherwise I would have had you ground to dust and cast into the eighteenth level of hell, where you would suffer eternal torment and never be reborn!"

When Zhong Jiu said this, his body was filled with murderous aura and lightning, clearly indicating that he was truly enraged.

Because the underworld has been silent for too long, demons and ghosts run rampant, treating human life as worthless, feeding on the living, and causing immense suffering to the world.

But these evildoers are completely unaware of the truth, and instead think that the underworld is meddling in their affairs. It's both laughable and hateful!

"They're just the lives of millions of ordinary people, like ants. Killing them is no big deal."

The Thousand-Eyed Demon sneered, his tone full of disdain, "In the end, it's just that you underworld officials are meddling in other people's business!"

"Well said!"

The Demon King's laughter boomed as he strode forward, his skeletal feet kicking up dust. "The Thousand-Eyed Demon has harmed millions of lives. You underworld officials could at least find a pretext to take him down. But what about me? I merely used the bones of 300,000 infants to cultivate my skills. I didn't indiscriminately kill anyone else. You dare to interfere in such a trivial matter?"

The eerie green flames in his eye sockets flickered more violently, his tone filled with arrogance and discontent: "Do you really think that the rules of this world are dictated by your underworld officials?"

"That's right!"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon immediately chimed in, "We demons have always acted as we pleased, and no one has ever dared to say a word before. Why should you, from the underworld, set rules just because you've come? Why should we live according to your wishes?"

"No one cared about you before because the underworld had not yet emerged."

Zhong Jiu slowly raised his hand, and with a flick of his judge's pen, the ink shimmered and two powerful characters, "Law and Standard," appeared out of thin air, hovering in mid-air, each character exuding divine might!

"Since you say I'm domineering, then I'll admit it!"

Zhong Jiu's voice was icy cold, carrying an undeniable authority: "From this day forward, within the territory of Nanling Province, all beings—human, demon, and ghost—must abide by the laws and regulations of my Underworld!"

"Those who obey me live! Those who defy me die!"

As soon as he finished speaking, lightning surged and flared behind Zhong Jiu, making him look like an enraged thunder god, his aura pressing down like a mountain.

Judge of the gods, today you will establish the rules of the underworld on this Jiangling Plain!

Demons and ghosts don't recognize it?

Then beat them until they admit defeat! Kill them until they're terrified!

Whether human, ghost, or demon, all must be treated with reverence, and the underworld is the last line of defense in this world.

Those who cross the line will only face death!

"What arrogance!"

The Thousand-Eyed Demon was furious. It took a step forward, and its ghostly energy surged wildly. Its already enormous body instantly grew dozens of times larger, transforming into a giant ghostly shadow hundreds of feet tall, stretching across the sky and earth.

His thousand eyes also enlarged, each the size of a head, flashing with an eerie blood-red light, dazzling the eyes and unsettling the mind.

"Thousand-Eyed Ghost Realm!"

The roar of the Thousand-Eyed Demon shook the void, causing the clouds to churn.

The next second, a thousand eyes simultaneously burst forth with dazzling blood light, and a blood mist instantly spread out, enveloping Zhong Jiu and the Yin army within several miles.

Zhong Jiu felt a blur before his eyes, and the surrounding scenery changed instantly. He had already fallen into the ghost realm of the Thousand-Eyed Demon.

This ghostly realm was chaotic and complex, with a thousand different illusions of life flashing before his eyes like a revolving lantern...

There is the rich and glorious life of wearing fine clothes and eating delicacies, the human suffering of being separated from one's wife and children, the lofty ambition to roam the world, and the mundane life of mediocrity.

Zhong Jiu's gaze remained calm as he swept over all the illusions like a fleeting glance. A cold smile curled at the corner of his lips: "No wonder it's called the Thousand-Eyed Demon. A thousand eyes, a thousand faces, a thousand aspects of life—it does have some tricks up its sleeve."

Zhong Jiu had already thoroughly investigated the origins of the Thousand-Eyed Demon.

This guy was originally just an ordinary little ghost with mediocre talent, who even had difficulty transforming into human form and had no chance of becoming a ghost king. However, he got lucky and accidentally entered an ancient terracotta figurine tomb.

In a certain place in western Nanling Province, there is an ancient custom where travelers make a clay figurine that resembles themselves before leaving home and bury it in a cemetery outside the city. Even if they die far from home and are separated by life and death, a wisp of their soul can remain in their hometown to fulfill their longing for home.

This was originally a heartwarming custom, but with the resurgence of supernatural phenomena, the terracotta figurine tomb underwent a strange transformation.

For thousands of years, countless terracotta figurines have been buried in the tombs, and the lingering souls and obsessions of countless wanderers have mixed together, turning the place into an extremely dangerous forbidden land.

After the Thousand-Eyed Demon stumbled into it, it slept for decades, during which it devoured the remnants of souls and obsessions in all the terracotta figurines, and read through the memories of countless people from their previous lives, as if it had personally experienced a thousand lives.

In the end, he merged these remnants of souls and obsessions into one, transforming them into a thousand eyes around his body, thus earning him the title of Thousand-Eyed Demon.

And this Thousand-Eyed Ghost Domain is his signature killing move.

Of the thousand illusions of life, there is always one that can stir up the desires and longings in people's hearts.

Once greed takes hold, one will be completely consumed by the ghost realm, one's soul devoured by the Thousand-Eyed Demon, left to be manipulated and shaped at will, utterly powerless to resist.

Who is Ke Zhongjiu?

The official judges of the underworld have had their souls tempered by the laws of the underworld, making them as solid as a rock and impervious to all evil.

These illusions were nothing more than trivial tricks in his eyes, not even stirring a ripple of emotion in him, let alone arousing his longing.

"These ghostly tricks might fool mortals, but to use them against me is like showing off one's limited skills before an expert—utterly laughable!"

Zhong Jiu let out a cold shout and drew a line in the air with his judge's pen.

A thick stream of black ink surged from the tip of the pen, instantly increasing a millionfold, rushing forward like a raging river. Wherever it passed, the ghostly illusions shattered inch by inch, emitting a piercing "sizzling" sound, as if ice and snow met the scorching sun and instantly melted away.